2 Samuel 22
Butler22 1 AND David spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul: and he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine; 3 The God of my rock, in him will I trust; My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge; My saviour, thou savest me from violence. 4 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: So shall I be saved from mine enemies.
5. For the waves of death compassed me, The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. 6 The cords of Sheol were round about me: The snares of death came upon me. 7 In my distress I called upon the LORD, Yea, I called unto my God: And he heard my voice out of his temple, And my cry came into his ears. 8 Then the earth shook and trembled, The foundations of heaven moved And were shaken, because he was wroth. 9 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, And fire out of his mouth devoured: Coals were kindled by it.
10. He bowed the heavens also, and came down;
And thick darkness was under his feet.
11. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: Yea, he was seen upon the wings of the wind.
12. And he made darkness pavilions round about him, Gathering of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
13. At the brightness before him Coals of fire were kindled.
14. The LORD thundered from heaven, And the Most High uttered his voice.
15. And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; Lightning, and discomfited them.
16. Then the channels of the sea appeared, The foundations of the world were laid bare, By the rebuke of the LORD, At the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
17. He sent from on high, he took me; He drew me out of many waters;
18. He delivered me from my strong enemy, From them that hated me; for they were too mighty for me.
19. They came upon me in the day of my calamity: But the LORD was my stay.
20. He brought me forth also into a large place: He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
21. The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness: According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
22. For I have kept the ways of the LORD, And have not wickedly departed from my God.
23. For all his judgments were before me: And as for his statutes, I did not depart from them.
24. I was also perfect toward him, And I kept myself from mine iniquity.
25. Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness: According to my cleanness in his eyesight.
26. With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, With the perfect man thou wilt shew thyself perfect;
27. With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; And with the perverse thou wilt shew thyself froward.
28. And the afflicted people thou wilt save: 26
But thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest bring them down.
29. For thou art my lamp, O LORD: And the LORD will lighten my darkness.
30. For by thee I run upon a troop: By my God do I leap over a wall.
31. As for God, his way is perfect: The word of the LORD is tried; He is a shield unto all them that trust in him.
32. For who is God, save the LORD? And who is a rock, save our God?
33. God is my strong fortress: And he guideth the perfect in his way.
34. He maketh his feet like hinds’ feet: And setteth me upon my high places.
35. He teacheth my hands to war; So that mine arms do bend a bow of brass.
36. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation:
And thy gentleness hath made me great.
37. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, And my feet have not slipped.
38. I have pursued mine enemies, and destroyed them;
Neither did I turn again till they were consumed.
39. And I have consumed them, and smitten them through, that they cannot arise: Yea, they are fallen under my feet.
40. For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.
41. Thou hast also made mine enemies turn their backs unto me, That I might cut off them that hate me.
42. They looked, but there was none to save; Even unto the LORD, but he answered them not.
43. Then did I beat them small as the dust of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the streets, and did spread them abroad.
44. Thou also hast delivered me from the strivings of my people; Thou hast kept me to be the head of the nations:
A people whom I have not known shall serve me.
45. The strangers shall submit themselves unto me: As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me.
46. The strangers shall fade away,
And shall come trembling out of their close places. 47 The LORD liveth ; and blessed be my rock ; And exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation : 48 Even the God that executeth vengeance for me, And bringeth down peoples under me, 49 And that bringeth me forth from mine enemies :
Yea, thou liftest me up above them that rise up against me : Thou deliverest me from the violent man, 50 Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the nations, And will sing praises unto thy name. 51 Great deliverance giveth he to his king : And sheweth lovingkindness to his anointed, To David and to his seed, forevermore.
This chapter supplies an obvious link between the history of David and his authorship as the great Psalmist of Israel, from whom there emanated those sacred and devotional compositions which have proved the delight and exercise of the Church in all ages. We can see a reason for the trials of his checkered life and experience, in these the precious and abiding fruits of it. It is interesting thus to connect the Book of Psalms with the direct narrative of Scripture, and to behold another of the innumerable manifestations which can be appealed to for the genuineness of both. T. C.
This magnificent hymn is substantially identical with Ps. 18. It was written, as the title indicates, when David’s triumphs over his enemies at home and abroad were still recent. Its composition may with much probability be assigned to the period of peace described in ch. 7 : 1 ; but must be placed after Nathan’s visit, as verse 51 seems clearly to refer to the great promise made through him. The free and joyous tone of the Psalm, and its bold expressions of conscious integrity, also point to the earlier years of David’s reign rather than the later, overclouded as these were by the fatal consequences of his sin. . . . The culmination of David’s prosperity is celebrated in this Psalm, written probably in that period of peace in which he conceived the wish to build an house for Jehovah. It is the fitting expression of a heart overflowing with praise and thanksgiving, and is unrivalled for the magnificence of its poetry and the sublimity of its thought. A. F. K.
In all his life thus far we see a high poetic genius, translating into devout song his successive experiences as shepherd, warrior, outcast, statesman, and king. A natural artist in melody and song, an inspired creator of beauty in the sweetest or saddest forms of thought and expression, transferring every hallowed sentiment, every just, pure, lofty conception and aspiration, into strains of incomparable sublimity, this Master-Psalmist of Israel has wrought an imperishable work of cheer and help, of comfort and rejoicing, for all classes of God’s true worshippers in all ages of time. B.—There is the whole music of the human heart, when touched by the hand of the Maker, in all its tones that whisper or that swell, for every hope and fear, for every joy and pang, for every form of strength and languor, of disquietude and rest. There are developed all the innermost relations of the human soul to God, built upon the platform of a covenant of love and sonship that had its foundations in the Messiah. W. E. Gladstone.—The intimate communing with Him in prayer and praise, which is characteristic of the Psalms of David, marks a new advance in the relation of man to God. Now was laid the foundation of that Psalter in which for all succeeding time men have found the expression and the echo of their deepest thoughts and highest aspirations. Rich and varied as are the tones of the many voices which combine to form the Psalter, they are scarcely more rich and varied than the tones of the single voice of him who was its Founder ; passing as they do through every variation of jubilant praise and thanksgiving, unshaken trust in God, keenest suffering, bitter sorrow for sin, heartfelt repentance. A. F. K.
Analysis of the Psalm. (1) Introduction : the leading thought of the song, an adoring acknowledgment of what God had been and was to David (verses 2-4). (2) A narrative of the Divine interpositions on his behalf, embracing his dangers, his prayers, and the Divine deliverances in reply (verses 5-19). (3) The grounds of his protection and success (verses 20-30). (4) References to particular acts of God’s goodness in various parts of his life, interspersed with reflections on the Divine character, from all which the assurance is drawn that that goodness would be continued to him and his successors, and would secure through coming ages the welfare and extension of the kingdom. And here we observe what is so common in the Psalms : a gradual rising above the idea of a mere earthly kingdom ; the type passes into the antitype ; the kingdom of David melts, as in a dissolving view, into the kingdom of the Messiah ; thus a more elevated tone is given to the song, and the assurance is conveyed to every believer that as God protected David and his kingdom, so shall He protect and glorify the kingdom of His Son forever. W. G. B.
2,3. The imagery, by which David describes so emphatically all that Jehovah had been to him as a Deliverer from his enemies, is derived from the experiences of his war-like life, and particularly of his flight from Saul. The cliff where he had escaped from Saul, the stronghold in the wilderness of Judah or the fastnesses of Engedi, “the rocks of the wild goats,” were all emblems of Him who had been throughout his true Refuge and Deliverer.
3. The God of my rock = my strong God: but it is better to alter the vowel points and read as in the Psalm, “my God, my Rock.” The title Rock is frequently used to describe the strength, faithfulness, and unchangeableness of God. A. F. K.
The feeling that recognized God as the author of all his deliverances was intensely strong, as is indicated by the use of every expression that can be accumulated—“My rock, my portion, my deliverer; the God of my rock, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my high tower, my refuge, my Saviour.” He takes no credit to himself; gives no glory to his captains; does not ascribe his safety in any case to his skill, or to their bravery; but with admirable humility gives all the credit to God. In the intensity of the gaze which it fixed on Him who is invisible, the eye of faith lost sight, for the time, of the human instruments through whom much of the work was done. He who, in the depths of his penitence, saw but one injured Being, and said, “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned."—now, at the height of his prosperity, sees but one gracious Being, and exclaims, in the same spirit, “He only is my rock and my salvation.” It was a great attainment for a soldier, whose besetting sin is the love of glory, thus to overcome the desire for human applause, and give all the glory to God.
4. When David comes to express his dependence on God, he very specially sets Him before his mind as “worthy to be praised.” He calls to mind the gracious character of God,—not an austere God, reaping where He has not sown, and gathering where He has not strewed, but “the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth.” “This doctrine,” says Luther, “is in tribulation the most ennobling and truly golden. One cannot imagine what assistance such praise of God is in pressing danger. For as soon as you begin to praise God the sense of the evil will also begin to abate, the comfort of your heart will grow; and then God will be called on with confidence. Some who cry to the Lord are not heard, because they do not praise the Lord when they cry to Him, they have looked only to their own bitterness. But no one gets deliverance from evil by looking simply upon his evil and becoming alarmed at it; he can get deliverance only by rising above his evil, hanging it on God, and having respect to His goodness. Oh, hard counsel, doubtless, and a rare thing truly, in the midst of trouble to conceive of God as sweet, and worthy to be praised; and when He has removed Himself from us and is incomprehensible, even then to regard Him more intensely than we regard our misfortune that keeps us from Him! Only let one try it, and make the endeavor to praise God, though in little heart for it; he will soon experience an enlightenment.”
5,6. First, there is a vivid picture of his troubles. With Saul’s javelins flying at his head in the palace, or his best troops scouring the wilderness in search of him; with Syrian hosts bearing down on him like the waves of the sea, and a confederacy of nations conspiring to swallow him up, he might well speak of the waves of death and the cords of Hades. He evidently desires to describe the extremest peril and distress that can be conceived, a situation where the help of man is vain indeed. 7-13. Then, after a brief account of his calling upon God, comes a most animated description of God coming to his help. The description is ideal, but it gives a vivid view how the Divine energy is roused when any of God’s children are in distress. When the cry reached heaven that David was in trouble, the earthquake and the lightning and all the other messengers of heaven were sent out to his aid; nay, these were not enough; God Himself flew, riding on a cherub, yea, He did fly upon the wings of the wind. Faith saw God bestirring Himself for his deliverance, as if every agency of nature had been set in motion on his behalf. W. G. B.
9. Smoke arose in his nostril, and fire from his mouth did devour: hot coals came burning from him. The startling boldness of the language will be intelligible if the distinctive character of Hebrew symbolism is borne in mind. It is no “gross anthropomorphism,” for the Psalmist did not intend that the mind’s eye should clothe his figure in a concrete form. His aim is vividly to express the manifestation of the wrath of God, and he does so in figures which are intended to remain as purely mental conceptions, not to be realized as though God appeared in any visible shape. A. F. K.
14-16. His deliverance was conspicuous and complete. He saw God’s hand stretched out with remarkable distinctness. There could be no more doubt that it was God that rescued him from Saul than that it was He that snatched Israel from Pharaoh when literally “the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.” W. G. B.
20. He delivered me, because he delighted in me. The deliverance came not from common providence, but covenant love; he was herein treated as a favorite; so he perceived by the communications of Divine grace and comfort to his soul, with these deliverances, and the communion he had with God in them. H.—This was the ground of God’s deliverance, and it now becomes the leading thought of the Psalm. Compare Matt. 3:17, where the Greek word for “I am well pleased” is the same as that used in the Septuagint. The reference becomes doubly significant if it is borne in mind that the theocratic king was called God’s son. A. F. K.
21. According to my righteousness.** This is no vain-glorious boasting of his own merits, but a testimony to the faithfulness of Jehovah to guard and reward His faithful servants. David does not lay claim to a perfect righteousness, but to sincerity and single-heartedness in his devotion to God. Compare his own testimony (1 S. 26:23), God’s testimony (1 K. 14:8), and the testimony of history (1 K. 11:4; 15:5), to his essential integrity. Is not this conscious rectitude, this “princely heart of innocence,” a clear indication that the Psalm was written before his great fall? A. F. K.
It is impossible to read this Psalm without feeling that it is not pervaded by the spirit of the self-righteous man. It is pervaded by a profound sense of dependence on God, and of obligation to His mercy and love. Now that is the very opposite of the self-righteous spirit. We may surely find another way of accounting for such expressions used by David here. We may surely believe that all that was meant by him was to express the unswerving sincerity and earnestness with which he had endeavored to serve God, with which he had resisted every temptation to conscious unfaithfulness, with which he had resisted every allurement to idolatry on the one hand or to the neglect of the welfare of God’s nation on the other. And David correctly describes the prevailing features of his public endeavors. His public life was unquestionably marked by a sincere and commonly successful endeavor to follow the will of God. So if God is to prosper us, there must be an inner harmony between us and Him. If the habit of our life be opposed to God, the result can only be collision and rebuke. David was conscious of the inner harmony, and therefore he was able to rely on being supported and blessed. W. G. B.
26-28. He takes occasion here to lay down the established rules of God’s proceedings with the children of men: He will do good to those that are upright in their hearts. As we are found toward God, he will be found toward us. God’s mercy and grace will be the joy of those that are merciful and gracious; even the merciful need mercy, and they shall obtain it. God’s uprightness, his justice and faithfulness, will be the joy of those that are upright, just, and faithful, toward God and man. God’s purity and holiness will be the joy of those that are pure and holy, who therefore give thanks at the remembrance of it. And if any of these good people be officied people, he will save them, either out of their afflictions, or by and after them. On the other hand, those who turn aside to crooked ways, he will lead forth with the workers of iniquity, as he says in another psalm, With the froward he will wrestle; and those with whom God wrestles are sure to be foiled. Woe unto him that strives with his Maker! He will walk contrary to those that walk contrary to him, and be displeased with them. As for the haughty, his eyes are upon them, marking them out, as it were, to be brought down: for he resists the proud. H.
29-31. God’s faithfulness is here attested by the Psalmist’s experience. After celebrating God’s goodness in delivering him from all the dangers which threatened his life, David goes on to describe how God had made him victorious over all his enemies. A. F. K.
36. Thy gentleness hath made me great.** These words gather up into their brief utterance all the song of the great King David when he recounted his greatness, and reveal at once the secret of his greatness and the heart of his song. David knew God as few human souls have done. He knew Him as the Creator and the Judge, but when he comes to consider his own life, it is to the gentleness of God he turns. All the lights and shadows and depths and heights of his manifold spiritual life had this for their source, and only this: the gentleness of God. The gentleness of God is the secret spring of all the worth to which the great ones of God’s kingdom have ever reached. Above and underneath all virtues are the dews and fountain-springs of the gentleness of God. From verge to verge, over all the sea of redeemed life, rises the thankful, joyous, self-abasing song, “Lamb of God, slain for us, Thy gentleness hath made us great.” The work Christ came to accomplish was the bestowal of gentleness upon a world which had lost the very elements of it. The light which shines from the Cross is the gentleness of God. He passed into the shadow of death, and there, with the gentleness of a Divine mother, laid His hand on the hand, His heart on the heart, of the very race which crucified Him, that He might overcome their enmity and bring them back to God. This is still the greatness of Christ as a Saviour and His power over the hearts of men. He is strong to save because He is long-suffering, and merciful, and generous. A. Macleod.
The Divine gentleness makes paths easy that rougher treatment would have made intolerable. And who of us that looks back but must own our obligations to the gentleness of God, the tender, forbearing, nay loving, treatment He has bestowed on us, even in the midst of our great provocations? W. G. B.—Most true it is that God carries a strong hand with us. He covers up no principle, tempers the exactness of no law. There is no connivance in his methods, no concealment of truths disagreeable and piercing, no proposition of compromise or halving, in a way of settlement. His Providence moves strong. His terrors flame out on the background of a wrathful sky. He thunders marvellously with his voice. And so his very gentleness stands glorious and strong and sovereignly majestic round us. Were he only soft or kind, bending like a willow to our wicked state, there were little to move and affect us even in his goodness itself. But when we look on him as the Almighty Rock, the immovable Governor and Keeper of the worlds, girding himself in all terrible majesty when he must, to let us know that impunity in wrong is impossible, then it is that we behold him in the true meaning of his gentleness—how good! how firm! how adorably great! And yet while God is ever engaged to bring down our loftiness in evil and perversity, he is just as constantly engaged to make us loftier and stronger in everything desirable—in capacity, and power, and all personal majesty. We do not understand him, in fact, till we conceive it as a truth profoundly real and glorious, that he wants to make us great—great in will, great in the breadth and honest freedom of our intellect, great in courage, enthusiasm, self-respect, firmness, superiority to things and matters of condition; great in sacrifice and beneficence; great in sonship with Himself; great in being raised to such common counsel, and such intimate unity with him in his ends, that we do, in fact, reign with him. Bushnell.
44-46. In these verses the views of the Psalmist seem to sweep beyond the limits of an earthly kingdom. His eye seems to embrace the wide-spreading dominion of Messiah; at all events, he dwells on those features of his own kingdom that were typical of the all-embracing kingdom of the Gospel. It is interesting to mark the military aspect of the kingdom gliding into the missionary. Other psalms bring out more clearly this missionary element, exhibit David rejoicing in the widening limits of his kingdom, in the wider diffusion of the knowledge of the true God, and in the greater happiness and prosperity accruing to men. W. G. B.
50. The celebration of Jehovah’s faithfulness to His servant is not to be confined within the narrow limits of Israel. His praise is to be proclaimed among the heathen, who, as they are brought under the dominion of His people, may also be brought to the knowledge of Jehovah. Compare Ps. 96: 3, 10. This verse is quoted by Paul in Rom. 15: 9, to prove that the Old Testament anticipated the admission of the Gentiles to the blessings of salvation. A. F. K.
WAR WITH THE AMMONITES AND SYRIANS. FIRST VICTORY UNDER JOAB. SECOND BATTLE WITH SYRIANS AND VICTORY UNDER DAVID.