I abandon myself to You, O Living Presence, my strength.
You are my stronghold, my freedom,
Almighty One, the rock and foundation of my life,
Just One, tower of strength, the source of truth and light,
I call upon You, Heart of my heart, singing praises to your Name,
and fear no longer holds me.
The demons of darkness assailed me, the blindness of ignorance led me astray;
The shadows of fear paralyzed me, the anguish of loneliness confronted me.
In my distress I called out to You, O Gracious One; to You I cried for help.
You heard my voice, O Loving Presence, You harkened to my cry.
Then did You, O Divine Presence, show unto me a vision:
The foundations of the mountains trembled and quaked,
As if to slough off the ravages of destruction perpetrated by greedy hands.
On the wings of the wind, You did come, with darkness a covering around You,
a canopy of think clouds dark with water.
Out of the brightness before You there broke through the clouds hailstones,
coals of fire left from the mountain tops.
As your voice uttered in the heavens, thunder and lightning stormed the earth;
like arrows from a bow, the peoples scattered.
Yet there was no safe haven, no hiding place from fear.
Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world laid bare,
The earth gave a mighty shudder then settled down to hear in the Silence.
O Compassionate One, You reached from on high, You took me,
You drew me out of many waters.
You delivered me from the fears that bound me,
and from ignorance that blinded me;
for they threatened to overcome me, to separate me from You.
Then came upon me when I looked not to You;
yet you, O Merciful One, were ever present.
You brought me forth into the Light;
You released me from my fears, You delighted in me.
O Holy One, You see the intentions of my heart;
As I surrender to your love, I grow in peace and gratitude.
For to lose my life is to find my love for You, Life of my life!
The spirit of your Word is ever before me,
the Counselor ever present to guide me.
I pray for a clean heart, O Beloved, to be free from guilt.
May I walk with You justly, with mercy and in peace,
a mirror of your Love in the world.
Those who love truth will see you Light;
Those who walk in justice, will see your Mercy;
Those who live with integrity, will see You in all they meet;
But those whose path is crooked, who walk on the low road,
will live in the shadows of fear.
The humble are always close to You,
the haughty, too distracted to see, will one day fall.
Yes, You are the Light of my life; You shine through my darkness.
Yes, with You I can do all things; and my spirit soars like an eagle.
Your ways lead to wholeness, O Loving Presence; Your Word in me is life;
How tenderly You live in my heart!
For who is our Creator, but the source of Love!
And who is Life, except the Divine Presence!
You, who gird me with strength, and lead me in the way of Truth.
You make my feet like hind’s feet, and set me secure on the heights.
You teach me the way of justice, that I might speak out against oppression.
You give me a hunger for silence, that I might know the power of prayer,
and You support me in solitude.
You give me freedom to choose the journey road; I elect the narrow way.
For I pursued my fears and faced them and did not run back until I was free.
I saw each one through, so that they were not able to rise;
they were transformed by Love.
For You enabled me with strength to look deep within;
holding me when fears threatened to overwhelm me.
You brought forgiveness into the darkness,
and softened my hear to forgive my adversaries.
Though my fears rose up, as old friends being betrayed,
Love brought them down.
What had been weakness and weeds, now turned to strength and roses;
yes, my fears were redeemed by Love.
You delivered me from prejudice and intolerance;
You opened my heart to all nations;
people whom I had not known befriended me.
As soon as they behold the radiance of your Love, they came to my door;
strangers came desiring to hear your Word.
Yes, strangers came–and those who had separated themselves from Love,
they came seeking release from their fears.
The Most High lives; blessed be my Rock, and exalted be the Heart of my heart,
The Loving One, who helped me face my fears and opened my heart to the poor;
You delivered me out of the darkness of ignorance;
Yes, You did bring victory over my illusions,
You led me into harmony and wholeness.
For this I will extol You, O my Beloved, among the nations,
and sing praises to your Name.
Peace, gratitude, love, and assurance are gifts bestowed by Love.
May all peoples live in your Truth in the unity of peace forever. Amen.
Nan C. Merrill Psalms for Praying
Reflection:
This psalm is attributed to David. A similar song appears in 2 Samuel 22 as a song of David when God delivered him from the hands of his enemies and from Saul. The version in 2 Samuel is the older song. The psalmist made small changes and even scribal errors when copying the song (see notes from Robert Alter below to learn more about that).
The king lived according to God’s righteousness and embodied the vocation of leader. God’s law asks all of us to provide for our neighbors who need us. To show compassion and care for the vulnerable and to uplift the oppressed is the work of God and king or any leader with privilege and power. The words perfect and blameless (Hebrew taminm), used to describe God and king respectively, do not necessarily mean without fault but that they can be counted on for steadfast love to those who follow them. The king can be trusted to follow God’s laws and to protect, sustain, and care for his people.
May we all love and care for our neighbors especially those who need our help.
Check out other psalm reflections in the links below or find more of my writing published in Presbyterian Outlook or listen to my experiments in podcasting on the Period Pastor Podcast. Follow me @periodpastor
I began writing Psalm reflections during Lent of 2020. Shortly after, we decided to close the church building, work from home, and worship via zoom. Many churches use the Revised Common Lectionary (RLC) that rotates scripture on a three-year cycle (A, B, and C). Starting in Advent 2019, the church decided to worship with the texts from Year D, which is still not circulated as are years A, B, and C. Year D was created with the goal of including scriptures that were left out or not used as frequently as others. While we were using Psalms in year D, most other lectionary followers were using Year A. In Advent of 2020 we rejoined those who use the lectionary in year B. Advent of 2021 year C. When we returned to in person worship, we took the psalm reflections out of the order of worship. I continued to write them for the blog. Advent of 2022 year A. I left church work in July of 2023 but continued the practice of writing psalm reflections. Advent of 2023 year B. Advent of 2024 year C. I finished year C early, so I posted Psalm 119 and began work on missed psalms from Year D and others not in the lectionary. Advent of 2025 year A.
I use the Vanderbilt Divinity Library’s resource for lectionary readings and the PCUSA planning calendar to make text selections.
Year D Psalms that I haven’t come across in the other lectionary years, yet:
18, 144, 44, 110, 73, 75, 76, 28, 12, 61, 11, 88, 108, 64, 60, 10, 120
These are the psalms I haven’t found in any lectionary, yet:
5, 53, 64, 81, 131, 134, 135
Sources and notes:
“Psalm 18 is a sequel to Psalm 2, where the LORD ordains the anointed king as regent representative of the reign of God and promises him dominion over the nations. Psalm 18 is testimony by the anointed that the LORD has kept the promise in a time of direst need. Psalm 20 and 21 also witness to God’s support of the king.” Mays p. 90
“The organizing structure of the psalm is composed of the elements of a song of praise for deliverance. After introductory praise (vv. 1-3), the psalm gives a report of distress in the past (vv. 4-5) and of appeal to the LORD (v. 6) that was answered by God’s deliverance (vv. 16-19), for which the psalm praises the LORD (vv. 31-42). This basic structure has been elaborated by the other elements to make the psalm one of the very longest in the Psalter. A theophany description dramatizes the response of God (vv. 7-15); descriptions of the righteousness of the king (vv. 20-24) and the perfection of God (vv. 25-30) fill out the praise and thanks for salvation as a victory that established dominion over the nations (vv. 43-48). A vow to praise the LORD among the nations (vv. 49-50) concludes the long section of praise. this complexity is probably the result of several phases of elaboration being the psalm’s present form. Its ponderous character points to the importance of its subject; God’s salvation of the Davidic line as vindication of the reign of God was a crucial topic for the faith of the psalmists. It is important to search out the function and connection of the many parts that constitute the whole.” Mays pp. 90-91
“The enemy is given no historical or social identification in the song itself. What matters is that they are faces threatening the existence of one who calls the LORD “my God.” The psalm moves at a mythopoeic theological level; it unfolds a narrative plot and prospect that could interpret many historical occasions.” Mays p. 91
“The LORD heard from his heavenly palace-temple, to which the temple on Zion is an earthly correspondent, reached down from on high, and delivered him.” Mays p. 92
“In Psalm 18 the theophany is opened and close by descriptions of the cosmic effect of God’s coming down (vv. 7, 15) which enclose the portrayal of the appearance of(vv. 8-14). God is angry because the assault on his messiah is a revolt against his rule. The divine anger is portrayed in fire and smoke imagery, the divine appearance in thunderstorm imagery. We must b e clear that the referent of the images for Israel was not simply volcanoes and earthquakes and thunderstorms. The montage of images served to represent a transcendent and marvelous dimension of Israel’s experience of God’s response to human history. The genre is not at home in the thanksgiving psalm of an individual. Its presence here emphasizes that the individual who speaks this psalm bears in his existence and destiny the claim of God’s sovereignty history.” Mays p. 92
“God’s deliverance was evidence of his favor, his pleasure in the king. The claim is not a crass assertion of self-righteousness by the king but a confession that he had been true to the righteousness in which the divine choice to be king had set him. He had not created the righteousness but had lived within it and according to it. He had fulfilled the vocation given the king to embody the law of the divine king. The ideal is particularly important in the deuteronomic tradition (see Josh. 1;7; 23:6; Deut. 17: 19-20).” Mays p. 93
“The term “perfect” (Heb. tamim) means “whole, of a piece, integral.” Tamim marks the character of one who conduct is coherent, consistent, reliable. God is perfect because what God says is proven by what he does; he is the shield of those who take refuge in him, who hold to him and his ways (Prov. 30:5). The perfectness of the LORD is manifest by his dealing with human beings in a way that is coherent with the revelation of himself. The LORD is loyal to the loyal, delivers the lowly (‘ani) who trust in him, while he undoes the perverse and brings down the haughty. He is the light and strength of the king, who is himself tamim (“blameless, vv. 23, 25) in obedience and trust. It is important to understand that in the theology of this reflexive praise, obedience and trust are not separated but thought of as a single feature of human conduct in relation to God. Obedience is trust and trust is obedience, both one as a holding to the LORD in loyalty.” Mays p. 93
“… the king praises the LORD as the living God who does all these things (vv. 49-50). The song is based on a theology of “messiah-victor”… Mays p. 94
“God whose conduct corresponds to his character has made the messianic king able to act in a way that corresponds to his vocation.” Mays p. 94
“The portrayal of the king as actor against the enemies, instead of God, is quite unusual in the Old Testament.” Mays p. 94
“The messiah’s victory is believed to be the establishment of the reign of God in the world. Indeed, the opening couplet of the song of victory states the theme in a claim of exclusive deity for the LORD because the God of Israel is alone the Rock, the only God who saves his people and his king.” Mays p. 95
“It is impossible to find a definitive historical setting for this psalm…. This “mythic” character of the psalm makes it inherently prophetic. When there was no longer any king in Judah, the psalm would have been read as prophecy of a victory to come. ” Mays p. 95
“This song of praise for deliverance and victory has another location in the Old Testament. A slightly different version appears in the story of David at the conclusion of his career (II Samuel 22).” Mays p. 95
“Deliverance from all enemies is an eschatological hope of the people of God.” Mays p. 96
“The superscription of this psalm is extraordinarily long. Perhaps this reflect an editorial desire to fit this into the biography of David, from which in fact the entire psalm was borrowed. It is essentially the same poem as the one that appears as the twenty-second chapter of 2 Samuel. Still, there are many small differences between the two versions. …. The textual evidence suggests that the version in 2 Samuel 22 is the older one: Certain unusual forms have been regularized or glossed here, and there are also signs of some errors in scribal copying. Because David is represented in his narration as a poet, it is even conceivable, though in now way demonstrable and perhaps unlikely, the this particular psalm might have been composed by him.” Alter p. 52
“I am impassioned of You, LORD, my strength! This clause lacks a parallel verse to make it a line of poetry, and it is absent from teh text in 2 Samuel. The verb for “impassioned” (raham in the qal conjugation) is an Aramaic usage that appears only here in the Bible.” Alter p. 52
“The earth heaved and shuddered. The seismic imagery of this line begins a powerful anthropomorphic representation of God, drawing feely on pre-Israelite mythological poetry.” Alter p. 54
“He tilted the heavens. The heavens are imagined as a flat slab. God tilts them to begin His dowered course, and our eye is thus led downward here to God’s feet at the end of the line.” Alter p. 54
“He mounted a cherub and flew,/and He soared on the wings of the wind. The cherub is a fierce winged beast, the charger ridden by the sky god in Canaanite mythology (not the dimpled darling of Renaissance painting). The verb “soar” here is one point where the text of Psalms seems better than that of 2 Samuel, which has “was seen” –a word that differs by one consonant (resh instead of the similar-looking dalet). Alter p. 54
“water-massing. The translation follows 2 Samuel 22, which has hashrat-mayim, as against heshkat-mayim here (“darkness of water”). This appears too be an instance in which the copyist substituted a familiar term for a rare on that he may not have understood. The mistake would have been triggered by the graphic similarity between resh and kaf.” Alter p. 54
“Elyon. This is the designation of a Canaanite deity (“the Most High”) that has been co-opted by the monotheistic poet. It is preserved here in its Hebrew form in the translation to suggest the archaic effect of the original. hail and fiery coals. This recurrence of the phrase used at the end of the previous verse look suspiciously like an inadvertent scribal repetition. It is entirely absent from 2 Samuel 22.” Alter p. 55
“The channels of water were exposed. 2 Samuel 22 has “the channels of the sea” (a difference o fool on letter in the Hebrew), which makes strong sense as an image of the sea dried up or driven back by God’s fiery descent.” Alter p. 55
“I crushed them like dust in the wind. The wind image is a little odd, and some manuscripts of this psalm read, as does 2 Samuel 22, “like dust of the earth.”” Alter p. 58
“making great the rescues of His king. The version in 2 Samuel has “tower of rescues” (migdol yeshu’ot) instead of magdil yeshu’ot here. The image of a tower is more striking, and it picks up the fortress metaphors of the begining of the poem.” Alter p. 59
Alter, Robert. 2007. The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary New York: W. W. Norton & Company
WBC Allen, Leslie C. 1983. Word Biblical Commentary: Psalms 101-150. Vol. 21. Waco, TX: Word Books, Publisher.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. 1974. Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible. 8th ed. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Press.
Bourgeault, C. (2006). Chanting the psalms: A practical guide Audio Book. New Seeds.
Brueggemann, Walter. 2007. Praying the Psalms: Engaging Scripture and the Life of the Spirit. 2nd ed. Eugene, OR: Cascade.
Brueggemann, Walter. 2014. From Whom No Secrets Are Hid: Introducing the Psalms. Edited by Brent A. Strawn. 1st ed. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
Brueggemann, Walter. Davis Hanskins, Editor. 2022. Our Hearts Wait: Worshiping Through Praise and Lament in the Psalms Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville KY.
Brueggemann, Walter. (2002). Spirituality of the psalms. Augsburg Pub. House.
Brueggemann, Walter. (1984). The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary. Minneapolis: Augsburg.
Chilson, Richard, ed. You Shall Not Want: A Spiritual Journey Based on the Psalms. Ave Maria Press, 2009.
Chittister, Joan. (2011). Songs of the heart: reflections on the psalms. John Garratt Publishing.
Cudjoe-Wilkes, G., Wilkes, A. J., & Moss, O. (2022). Psalms for black lives: Reflections for the work of Liberation. Upper Room Books.
WBC Craigie, Peter C. 1983. Psalms 1-50–Word Biblical Commentary. Vol. 19. Waco, TX: Word Books.
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DAFLER, J. (2021). PSOBRIETY: A journey of recovery through the psalms. Louisville, KY: WESTMINSTER JOHN KNOX.
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Green, Barbara. 1997. Like a Tree Planted: An Exploration of Psalms and Parables Through Metaphor. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.
W Hopkins, Denise Dombkowski. WISDOM COMMENTARY: Psalms Bks. 2-3. Edited by Barbara E. Reid. Vol. 21. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2016.
NIB Keck, Leander E. 2015. The New Interpreters Bible Commentary. Vol. 3. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
Lewis, C. S. (2017). Reflections on the Psalms. Harper One, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers.
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McCann, J. C. (1993). A theological introduction to the book of Psalms: The Psalms as Torah. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
McCann, J. C., & Howell, J. C. 2001. Preaching the Psalms. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
Merrill, N. C. (2020). Psalms for praying an invitation to wholeness (10th Anniversary Edition ed.). London, England: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Miller, Patrick D. 1986. Interpreting the Psalms. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press.
Morgan, Michael. 2010. The Psalter for Christian Worship Revised Edition. Westminster John Knox Press.
Schlimm, Matthew Richard. 2018. 70 Hebrew Words Every Christian Should Know. Nashville, TN: Abington Press.
Spong, M. (Ed.). (2020). The words of her mouth: Psalms for the struggle. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press.
WBC Tate, Marvin E. 1990. Word Biblical Commentary: Psalms 51-100. Edited by David Allan. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker. Vol. 20. Waco, TX: Word.
Weems, Ann. 1995. Psalm of Lament. Westminster John Knox Pres
OTL Weiser, Artur. 1998. Old Testament Library: Psalms. Translated by Herbert Hartwell. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Manchester University Press.
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