Deeper Commentary
2Sa 22:1 David spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that
Yahweh delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand
of Saul-
We naturally want to know when this time was, when David was
delivered from Saul and all his enemies. Abner's words in 2 Sam. 3:18 seem
relevant. He tries to persuade the elders of Israel to have David as king by
arguing that "For the Lord promised David, ‘By my servant David I will
rescue my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and from the hand
of all their enemies’". This may then be the moment at which David sung
this. We note how Nathan quotes these words back to David at the time of the
Bathsheba failure: "I anointed you king over Israel, and delivered you from
the hand of Saul". This would again associate these words of David with his
becoming king.
This is largely the material found in Ps. 18. The Psalm concludes with a reference to David as the anointed, so this could be a Psalm composed when Saul was slain and David was finally declared king, and his anointing came to fulfilment. It is a "song" but it has no strophes (unlike most of the Psalms), perhaps because it was intended for use at a procession.
Ps. 18:1 adds "I love You, Yahweh, my strength". This bald
statement "I love You" is intentionally startling, and is the only place
where we read this; usually we read the word of God's love to man. Here,
David simply tells God "I love You"
2Sa 22:2 and he said, Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,
even mine-
This is the language of rocky terrain,
the type where Saul chased David and God saved him multiple times.
David's description of how the cherubim acted in his life in 2 Sam. 22 is full of Angelic language:
v. 2 "My rock"- an Angel (Gen. 49:24)
v. 3 "My shield"- the Angel who made the promises to Abraham (Gen. 15:1)
v. 3 "My saviour"- as the Holy Spirit Angel was to Israel (Is. 63:8-10)
v. 7 "He did hear my voice out of His temple, and my cry did enter into His ears"- the language of Angelic limitation regarding the Angel who dwelt in the temple.
v. 9 "fire"- God makes His Angels a flame of fire (Ps. 104:3,4).
v. 10 "came down " - God manifest in the Angels, as at Sodom and Babel.
v. 11 "a cherub. . did fly. . wings of wind". Gabriel could "fly swiftly"; the Angels are made "spirits"- winds.
v. 12 "darkness. . thick clouds"- the Angel dwelt over the darkness of the Most Holy and in the pillar of cloud; cp. the scene during the Angelic manifestation at Sinai.
v. 15 "arrows. . . lightning"- Angel cherubim language
v. 16 "the blast of the breath (spirit) of His nostrils". God's spirit is manifested through Angels.
v. 17 "He sent from above, He took me"- the physical movement of the Angels from Heaven to earth to obey God's word
v. 25 "Before His eyes"- Angels
v. 37 "Thou hast enlarged my steps. . so that my feet did not slip"- the Angel keeping David from sinning?
23:1 "God of Jacob"- an Angel
23:3 "the rock of Israel" (an Angel) inspired David- which is the work of Angels.
2Sa 22:3 God, my rock, in Him I will take refuge; my shield, and the horn of
my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge. My saviour, You save me from
violence-
David sees that Yahweh will be a "high tower" or place of refuge at the
day of future judgment (Ps. 9:8,9, quoted about this in Acts 17:31). But
David feels God has been like this to him in this life (2 Sam. 22:3; Ps.
18:2; 46:7; 48:3; 59:9,16,17; 62:2; 94:22; 144:2). He therefore sees a
seamless experience in his relationship with God in this life, and at the
future day of judgment. God saves us right now and is a refuge for us in
countless life situations; and this is the guarantee that He will be
likewise at the last day.
Truly David is our example. David was very much involved in Israel his people. He saw himself as their representative. "The God of my rock is my shield... he is a shield to all them that trust in him" (2 Sam. 22:3,31). “I am in a great strait; let us fall now into the hand of the Lord” (2 Sam. 24:14) reflects this. When he sung Psalms, he invited them to come and sing along with him (Ps. 105:2; 107:22; 111:1). And many of these Psalms of praise seem to have their origin in his experience of forgiveness regarding Bathsheba.
2Sa 22:4 I will call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be
saved from my enemies-
David's focus of all his praises upon Yahweh was
what he wanted his people to follow (Ps. 22:3). The implication of
"worthy" could imply a contrast with other gods, as in Ps. 96:4 "He is to
be feared / praised above all gods". This would confirm the hints we have
that Saul was an idolater (see on Ps. 18:31; Ps. 12:8; 16:4), and that idolatry
was prevalent in Israel at the time.
2Sa 22:5 For the waves of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness
made me afraid-
Ps. 18:4 "the cords of death". David felt as if he had been a sacrifice bound to an
altar, as man drowning in water, and therefore about to be pulled into the grave (Ps.
18:5). The allusion
is to Isaac and his miraculous deliverance from such cords, thanks to the
ram in the thicket whom David is later to understand as representative of
the future Messianic saviour; for the Lord quotes David's "My God, why
have You forsaken me?" (Ps. 22:1) as the Aramaic sabachthani,
"entangled", the word used of the ram entangled in the thicket.
2Sa 22:6 The cords of Sheol were around me, the snares of death caught me-
See on :5. David felt he had come face to face with death, to the
point that his salvation was effectively a resurrection. The response to
this near death situation is described here, but it is hard to locate
such an incident in the historical records. Perhaps there was a particular
salvation from death at Saul's hands which isn't recorded, but David
alludes to it here.
"Caught me" is Ps. 18:5 "Came on me", or literally 'went before me'. The same word is used in Ps. 59:10: "My God will go before me with His grace". David was inside his house surrounded by his enemies (Ps. 59:1), and escaped through a window. As he planned the escape, he believed that God's grace would go before him. At the end of his life he appears to reflect upon this incident, glorying that although he was "compassed about" with the threat of death, seeing the house was surrounded by Saul's men intending to kill him; yet God's grace had somehow gone before David and prepared a way of escape (Ps. 18:5,18 s.w.).
The Ras Shamra texts speak of the insatiable appetite of Mot for dead
people- he eats them ceaselessly with both hands. There are frequent
parallels drawn between Mot / Mawet, and the grave: 2 Sam. 22:5,6; Is.
28:18; Hos. 13:14; Job 28:22; 30:23; Ps. 6:5; 18:5; 89:48; 116:3; Prov.
2:18; 5:5; 7:27. The point is that Mot / Mawet doesn't exist, it is simply
to be understood as the grave. For very often, language used about Mot in
the pagan literature is applied to God in order to show Mot's effective
non-existence. The significance of this point is that at times, the Bible
refers to pagan ideas about 'Satan' like figures in order to deconstruct
them, and show their effective non-existence in the light of the supremacy
of the one true God.
2Sa 22:7 In my distress I called on Yahweh. Yes, I called to my God. He
heard my voice out of His temple. My cry came into His ears-
David imagines his prayers as coming into the heavenly throne room,
and eliciting a response. His later obsession with building a physical
temple for God was a departure from how he had earlier perceived God's
temple- as being in Heaven, and accessible by faithful prayer.
2Sa 22:8 Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of heaven
quaked and were shaken, because He was angry-
It is hard to locate such an incident in the historical records.
Perhaps there was a particular salvation from death at Saul's hands which
isn't recorded, but David alludes to it here. Or perhaps the language here
is that of theophany and God manifestation; it may not literally describe
things which happened, but the hand of God in saving David was no less
than as if He had appeared as He did at Sinai. For the language of earth
shaking and quaking is that of the Sinai theophany and the deliverance
from Egypt.
1 Sam. 2:8; 2 Sam. 22:8 speak as if Heaven / the sky rests on the
mountains, from where earth seems to touch the heavens (Is. 13:5), with
the stars stretched out in the north (Job 26:7). This reflected the
geo-centric view held by people at the time. The point surely was that
however people understood creation to have happened, God had done it,
and in wisdom.
2Sa 22:9 Smoke went up out of His nostrils. Fire out of His mouth
devoured. Coals were kindled by it-
This sounds like the symbolic language of theophany and God
manifestation, rather than describing actually observed events in literal
terms. The allusion is clearly to what happened at the exodus and Sinai,
which David felt had been repeated for him in essence; as it is for all in
covenant relationship with the God who saves.
2Sa 22:10 He bowed the heavens also-
The same phrase used of Moses
stretching out his hands toward the heavens, and God responding by
delivering His people (Ex. 9:22,23; 10:21).
And came down. Thick darkness was
under His feet-
As Yahweh came down at Sinai (Ex. 19:11 s.w.). The idea is that as
God had miraculously intervened for the salvation of His people in
history, so David felt He had in his life; although there is no historical
record of such dramatic scenes as on Sinai and at the Red Sea. We likewise
experience His interventions; they aren't as dramatic as in history, but
none less dramatic in ultimate reality. This coming down in a saving
theophany was what David had in fact prayed for in Ps. 144:5. He asked for
a theophany to save him, no less that what happened at Sinai (s.w. Ex.
19:18-20), when again God had as it were made the mountains smoke by His
touch. We marvel at David's spiritual ambition, unafraid to ask for a
similar theophany to save him. And here he reflects at the end of his life
that this prayer was in fact answered. The relevance to the exiles is that
Yahweh was prepared to "bow" (s.w. "stretch out") the heavens and "come
down" to restore the exiles; but they chose not to make use of that huge
potential (s.w. Is. 40:22; 42:5; 64:1).
God Himself is spoken of as coming, descending etc. when He ‘preaches’
to humanity (e.g. Gen. 11:5; Ex. 19:20; Num. 11:25; 2 Sam. 22:10). In Jer.
39:16, the imprisoned Jeremiah is told to "go, tell Ebed-melech..." a word
from the Lord about him. Jeremiah couldn't have literally left prison to
do so- but the idea is that a person encountering the Lord's word has as
it were experienced the Lord 'going' to him or her. And in this sense the
message of the Lord Jesus (in its essence) could 'go' to persons without
Him physically going anywhere or even existing consciously at the time (1
Pet. 3:18-21).
2Sa 22:11 He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, He was seen on the wings of
the wind-
"Wind" and "spirit" are the same words in Hebrew. The
cherubim chariot are presented as God's vehicle of manifestation, and this
was language the exiles would've been familiar with through the visions of
Ezekiel. Yet this is not to say that David also had such a vision. Rather
did he perceive God's huge cherubic activity through the various
experiences of salvation and grace he had in his life. And this is the
same for us.
2Sa 22:12 He made darkness pavilions around Himself: gathering of waters,
and thick clouds of the skies-
All the scene at God's
manifestation on Sinai. The Old Testament describes Yahweh, the one true God, as riding through
the heavens on chariots to the help of His people Israel (Dt. 33:26; 2
Sam. 22:11; Ps. 18:10; 104:3; Is. 19:1; Hab. 3:8). But Baal was known as
the rkb 'rpt, the one who rides upon the clouds; and he is here
being deconstructed.
2Sa 22:13 At the brightness before Him, coals of fire were kindled-
The "coals of fire" speak of Divine judgment (Ps.
140:10), and were part of the cherubim vision (Ez. 1:13; 10:2). Hail and
thick clouds were the judgment threatened upon the Assyrians in Hezekiah's
time (Is. 28:2; 30:30). David's experience becomes developed as relevant
to the manifestation of God in salvation in other contexts.
2Sa 22:14 Yahweh thundered from heaven, the Most High uttered His voice-
Ps. 18:13 adds "hailstones and coals of fire", alluding to the
destruction of Sodom. And yet there is no recorded incident of God
consuming David's enemies like this. But he felt that God had indeed come
through for Him in no less powerful a way. And we can feel and experience
the same.
2Sa 22:15 He sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and confused
them-
This continues the thanksgiving that his prayer of Ps. 144:6 had been
answered. He had asked for a saving theophany of the magnitude of what was
seen at Sinai. Now at the end of his life, David was thankful
that this prayer had in fact been answered. David rejoices that Divine "arrows" were
sent to destroy his enemies (Ps. 7:13; 18:14; 45:5; 64:7; 144:6), in
fulfilment of God's promise to do so to the sinful within Israel (Dt.
32:23,42). But David had realized that those same arrows had been
fired by God into him in judgment for his sin (Ps. 38:2). This realization
was perhaps to help David understand that his rejoicing in Divine arrows
of judgment being fired at his enemies had not been mature; for he himself
had to realize that he was worthy of the same.
2Sa 22:16 Then the channels of the sea were exposed, the foundations of
the world were laid bare by the rebuke of Yahweh, by the blast of the
breath of His nostrils-
The opening word "then" is significant. As the channels of water were
laid bare at the exodus, so God had acted for David. As discussed above,
this section sounds like the symbolic language of theophany and God
manifestation, rather than describing actually observed events in literal
terms. The allusion is clearly to what happened at the exodus and Sinai;
the essence of what God did then was experienced by David, just as it can
be by us in our crises.
2Sa 22:17 He sent from on high and He took me, He drew me out of many
waters-
"Waters" are usually symbolic of armies or nations. David felt he had been
surrounded and faced with certain death, but had been as it were airlifted
to safety by God. The language here says that God has done this, but it is
parallel with David's prayer for this to happen in Ps. 144:7. This
triumphant song is therefore praise for the prayer of Ps. 144 being
answered. We cannot locate any particular historical incident of
fulfilment; perhaps it was too personal and wonderful to be recorded. Just
as a Christian man or woman might feel it inappropriate to record God's
most dramatic salvation of them when they write their autobiography.
2Sa 22:18 He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me-
That thanksgiving was because he had prayed for salvation from "those who
hate me" in Ps. 9:13 (s.w.). We have here a direct example of gratitude
for answered prayer. It seems Saul and his supporters were the initial
reference of the "strong enemy" (see on :1). These words are an allusion
to his prayer of Ps. 69:14. Now at the end of his life David reflects that
he has been delivered from those who hated him (s.w.). At the time, he
wept bitterly for Absalom's death; but now in maturity he realized that
this was in fact an answer to his prayers.
2Sa 22:19 They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahweh was my
support-
The phrase "day of calamity" is consistently used of a day of Divine
condemnation, especially of Judah at the hand of the Babylonians (Dt.
32:35; Job 21:30; Jer. 18:17; 46:21). Perhaps the Psalm was reworked as
comfort for the exiles, that they could be saved even out of the day of
their condemnation. And maybe David has the idea that he had been worthy
of Divine condemnation, and the judgment was being articulated at the
hands of his enemies- but by grace alone, God saved him from it.
2Sa 22:20 He also brought me out into a large place. He delivered me,
because He delighted in me-
"Delighted" is the same word as in Ps. 51:6 "Behold, You desire truth in the
inward parts".
This is the word here used by David at the end of his life of how God
desired or delighted in him. Perhaps this desire or delight was because of
the "truth" in David's heart in recognizing his sins and accepting God's
grace. He had left God to decide whether He delighted in him when he fled
Absalom (2 Sam. 15:26), and now he triumphs that God had done so, by grace
(2 Sam. 15:25).
When the Lord’s mockers jeered "If he desireth him" (RV), they were alluding to the LXX of Ps. 18:19 and 91:11. God cannot be tempted, otherwise He would have responded. 'If God likes Him', is what they were really implying.
Being brought out or escaping to freedom may be a reference to the night he escaped from his house with Michal's help.
2Sa 22:21 Yahweh rewarded me according to my righteousness. He rewarded me
according to the cleanness of my hands-
David was yet to learn that he himself was a sinner and no man apart
from the Lord has clean hands or total personal righteousness. Yet
David twice repeats this self righteousness. If this were written at the
end of his life, then he appears to have lost the intensity of contrition
for sin he had at the time of his repentance about Bathsheba. We too can
allow the passage of time to blunt our sense of wonder at God's grace to
us, and even reinterpret our sins as nothing major.
Verses 21-25 sound as if David is really commending himself. Possibly he was indeed too self congratulatory at this point. But his words clearly allude to the requirements for Israel's king in Dt. 17:18-20. If, as suggested on :1, he sung these words when he was first made king, he could be reflecting God's position that David was the king whom He had chosen in line with His requirements in Dt. 17:18-20: "When he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he must write for himself a copy of this law in a book... It shall be with him and he must read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them. Thus his heart will not be raised up above his brothers, and he will not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, so that he may prolong his days in his kingdom".
2Sa 22:22 For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, and have not wickedly
departed from my God-
If David at the end of his life could say that he was upright and had kept
himself from his iniquity (2 Sam. 22:21-24). He could only say this by a
clear understanding of the concept of imputed righteousness. Paul's claim
to have always lived in a pure conscience must be seen in the same way.
"Wickedly departed" is the word usually translated "condemn" (e.g. Ps. 37:33). Those who depart from God condemn themselves. This is a major Biblical theme; that the condemned are more self-condemned rather than condemned by God. "We make the answer now". But later David was to realize that he too had wickedly departed from God, and confession of that was vital for salvation (s.w. Ps. 106:6).
David felt preserved by God from Saul and his other enemies (1 Sam. 30:23; 2 Sam. 22:44), because he had preserved or obeyed [s.w.] God's ways (2 Sam. 22:22,24; Ps. 18:21,23); whereas Saul didn't obey / preserve them and was destroyed (1 Sam. 13:13,14; 1 Chron. 10:13). Hence Ps. 145:20: "Yahweh preserves all those who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy".
2Sa 22:23 For all His ordinances were before me. As for His statutes, I
did not depart from them-
Depart or "Put away" (Ps. 18:22) is the word used for how God departed
from Saul because he didn't keep God's statutes (1 Sam. 16:14; 18:12;
28:15). David is therefore comparing himself favourably with Saul; for
this is his triumph song after Saul has been slain (see on :1).
2Sa 22:24 I was also perfect towards Him-
A true seed of Abraham, who
were to walk with or before Yahweh blameless (s.w. Gen. 17:1).
I kept myself from my iniquity-
This
sounds like a boast in his iron willed self-control. He would never be
able to boast like this after the sin with Bathsheba. It is God by His
grace who keeps men from sinning (Gen. 20:6), and not the rigid
self-discipline of the deeply religious.
2Sa 22:25 Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to my cleanness in His eyesight-
David was yet to learn that he himself was a sinner and no man apart
from the Lord has clean hands or total personal righteousness. Yet
David twice repeats this self righteousness. In describing his feelings
after the Bathsheba experience, David comments that he was "as a man that
hears not [the taunts of others against him], and in whose mouth are no
rebukes" (Ps. 38:14). The pre-Bathsheba Psalms present David as a man who
was so easily hurt by the taunts of others, and whose mouth was indeed
full of rebuke of others. Ps. 18:23-26 has David describing his own
uprightness before God, and how God only shows His grace to the pure and
upright. How little did he understand grace! Worse still, he several times
bids God judge men according to their sins (Ps. 5:10). It is against this
background that we must understand the significance of David's statements
that after Bathsheba, after how God did
not deal with him according to his sin, there were no rebukes of
others now in his mouth. Realizing the extent of his personal sin and the
depth of God's grace led David to not only be less reproachful of others;
but also to be less hurt by their unkindness to him. And in these things
we surely have a great lesson to ourselves.
2Sa 22:26 With the merciful You will show Yourself to have bowed the neck;
with the perfect man You will show Yourself perfect-
We have here the
mixture of spirituality and yet arrogance which we can often detect in
ourselves. David recognizes his salvation has been through God's mercy;
but he sees himself as having earned this mercy by being "perfect". The
same word is used of Job, but he had to be taught that that status was a
case of having righteousness imputed to him by grace; and because David
was unwilling to really learn this, he had to be taught it through the
righteousness imputed to him after his sin with Bathsheba.
David especially recognized the humility of God. In 2 Sam. 22:26
he uses an unusual word to describe how God is "merciful" to His faithful
people. The word only occurs elsewhere in Prov. 25:10 concerning 'bowing
the neck' in shame or reverence. And this is what the Hebrew means: to bow
the neck. This, David recognized in his time of spiritual maturity, was
what God does in response to those who shew a truly spiritual attitude to
their brethren.
2Sa 22:27 With the purified You will show Yourself pure, with the crooked
You will show Yourself tortuous-
David sees himself as the pure, and Saul
as the crooked.
Throughout David’s Psalms in Ps. 1-72, he repeatedly asks for torture upon
the sinners and blessing upon himself as the righteous. He speaks of how
sinners should be “contemned” in the eyes of the righteous (Ps. 15:4), the
gatherings of sinners should be “hated” and sinners should not be
fellowshipped (Ps. 26:4-6; Ps. 31:6) and how God’s uprightness is shown to
the upright and His judgment to the judgmental (Ps. 18:25,26; Ps. 33:22).
He invites God’s judgment upon himself and others according to their and
his works (Ps. 28:4). Frequently he alludes to Saul as “the violent man”-
even though David committed his share of violence- and asks judgment upon
him (Ps. 18:48). Only those with clean hands and pure heart like himself
could have fellowship with God (Ps. 24:3,4). Psalm 37 doesn’t indicate any
desire to convert the sinners but rather an expectation of their judgment
and destruction. God and David laugh at the wicked because their day is
coming (Ps. 37:13). There’s no spirit of grace here at all- perhaps that’s
why Zech. 12:10 specifically says that the spirit of grace will have to be
poured out upon the house of David in the last days. This attitude changed
after the sin with Bathsheba, but still something of the old self
righteousness and judgmental attitudes are to be found in David in Psalms
written after that.
2Sa 22:28 You will save the afflicted people, but Your eyes are on the
proud, that You may bring them down-
Again David perceives Saul as proud, and Saul's
initial apparent humility must therefore be considered in this context.
Perhaps he became proud, or maybe he had always been that way, and only
appeared humble. But the word "people" may have been added when the Psalm
was used by the exiles, for salvation for "the afflicted people" was the
prophetic message to them (s.w. Is. 49:19).
2Sa 22:29 For You are my lamp, Yahweh. Yahweh will light up my darkness-
The phrase is only used of the lighting of the lamps in the
tabernacle (Ex. 25:37; Num. 8:2). I noted on Ps. 17:8 that David sees
himself as located on the mercy seat, in the Most Holy place.
2Sa 22:30 For by You, I run against a troop. By my God, I leap over a
wall-
Such victories were given to David against the Philistines; the
idea is as in GNB "You give me strength to attack my enemies and power to
overcome their defenses". "Troop" is the word used of the Amalekites whom
David overcame (1 Sam. 30:8,15). The leaping over a wall may refer to the
way that Zion was captured (2 Sam. 5:6-8).
2Sa 22:31 As for God, His way is perfect. The word of Yahweh is tested. He
is a shield to all those who take refuge in Him-
The word" specifically in view may be the prophetic word that David
would be king and thereby overcome all of Saul's machinations (see on Ps.
119:1).
2Sa 22:32 For who is God, besides Yahweh? Who is a rock, besides our God?-
David in his Psalms repeatedly alludes to the song of his ancestor
Hannah. He effectively quotes 1 Sam. 2:2 here; although I argue throughout
1 Sam. 2 that Hannah's was apparently lifted up with pride and the
vengeance of the underling who has overcome the oppressor. And there is
reason to think that David had elements of this weakness too.
David perceives his victory over Saul as the vindication of Yahweh above other gods. This would confirm the hints we have that Saul was an idolater (see on Ps. 12:8; 16:4).
2Sa 22:33 God is my strong fortress. He makes my way perfect-
A reference to his victory over Goliath without human armour, trusting
completely in God (see on :34,35).
2Sa 22:34 He makes His feet like hinds’ feet, and sets me on my high
places-
As in :35, this may be a reference to his victory over
Goliath, which he saw as the epitome of all his victories. For he ran
swiftly towards Goliath before releasing the stone which slew him.
2Sa 22:35 He teaches my hands to war, so that my arms bend a bow of brass-
Perhaps alluding to how it was David's dexterity of hand as a
slinger which gave the victory over Goliath. But he recognizes that this
was all of God. He is careful not to exalt as if his strength was his own.
This is another allusion to the song of Hannah (see on :32). Here, it is to "The bows of the mighty men are broken". Seeing children are as arrows (Ps. 127:4,5), the bow may refer to the womb, in Hannah's mind. And she is now wishing her barrenness upon her enemies who had once mocked her. This is hardly the right attitude, and yet David applies it to himself. And there is reason to think that David had elements of this weakness too. He thought it was acceptable to be like this because Hannah had been. And that is the problem with setting bad examples.
2Sa 22:36 You have also given me the shield of your salvation. Your
gentleness has made me great-
God’s gentleness, His humility / bowing down (Heb.) has made us great,
lifted us up (Ps. 18:35). And we respond to it by humbling
ourselves. Paul's take on "the shield of your salvation" is
that it means "the shield of faith" (Eph. 6:16). If we enquire 'Faith in
exactly what?', the answer is 'faith in salvation at the end of the day,
that God will finally save me'.
2Sa 22:37 You have enlarged my steps under me. My feet have not slipped-
David in his earlier Psalms exalts and boasts to God that his feet have
not slipped, indeed he was overly confident that his feet would never slip
/ "be moved" (Ps. 17:5; 21:7; 55:22; 62:2,6; 125:1). His more mature
reflection is that he had wrongly said "I shall never slip [AV "be
moved"]" (Ps. 30:6), and his feet had indeed slipped, not least over the
Bathsheba incident (Ps. 38:16; 94:18). Solomon didn't learn this lesson,
for he likewise assumed that the righteous would never be moved / slip
(Prov. 10:30), although he appears to accept that even a righteous man
like his father had indeed slipped (Prov. 25:26). And Solomon himself did
so, not learning the lesson from his father's mistaken assumption that the
righteous can never slip.
2Sa 22:38 I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them. I didn’t turn
again until they were consumed-
This is written after God had
subdued Saul and David's other enemies (:1). He is taking this as a
portent of future victory against all other enemies. But I will explain on
:40-43 that David did not use all the potential authority and power of
judgment which he was given.
2Sa 22:39 I have consumed them, and struck them through, so that they
can’t arise. Yes, they have fallen under my feet-
Ps. 18:38 changes the tenses: "I will strike them through, so that they will not be able to
rise. They shall fall under my feet". See on :38. This refers to the
potential power of judgment David felt he had been given, but this is not
to say he would use it.
2Sa 22:40 For You have armed me with strength for the battle. You have
subdued under me those who rose up against me-
David reflects how his victory in battle by God's strength meant that
all was subdued under him (s.w. Ps. 8:6), a Psalm about the victory over
Goliath). The victory in battle which he had in view was supremely that
over Goliath, his most major and applauded victory. To a far greater
extent, the victory of the Lord Jesus meant not simply the subjugation of
Israel beneath Him, but of all creation, including the natural creation.
2Sa 22:41 You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, so that I
might cut off those who hate me-
Those who hated David surely refer
to the house of Saul (:1). But David did not cut them off- even though he
was given the opportunity of doing so.
2Sa 22:42 They looked, but there was none to save; even to Yahweh, but He
didn’t answer them-
A reference to God refusing to answer Saul just
before he died (1 Sam. 28:6). The Lord Jesus was well aware of the connection
between God's refusal to answer prayer and His recognition of sin in the
person praying (2 Sam. 22:42 = Ps. 2:2-5). It is emphasized time and again
that God will not forsake those who love Him (e.g. Dt. 4:31; 31:6; 1 Sam.
12:22; 1 Kings 6:13; Ps. 94:14; Is. 41:17; 42:16). Every one of these
passages must have been well known to our Lord, the word made flesh. He
knew that God forsaking Israel was a punishment for their sin (Jud. 6:13;
2 Kings 21:14; Is. 2:6; Jer. 23:33). God would forsake Israel only if they
forsook Him (Dt. 31:16,17; 2 Chron. 15:2). We can therefore conclude that
His desperate “Why have You forsaken me?” was because He was so intensely
identified with our sins that in the crisis of the cross, He indeed felt
forsaken because of sin. He did not sin, but felt like a sinner; He
thereby knows how sinners feel.
2Sa 22:43 Then I beat them as small as the dust of the earth. I crushed
them as the mire of the streets, and spread them abroad-
I noted on :41 that David didn't
execute the judgments against the house of Saul which he could have done.
The language of being "crushed" or "cast out" and being driven by the wind is that of
Divine judgment. It could be that David intends us to understand that
although he was given the opportunity of judging them ["that I might cut
off...", :41], he didn't- he left it to God's judgment.
2Sa 22:44 You also have delivered me from the strivings of my people. You
have preserved me to be the head of the nations. A people whom I have not
known will serve me-
David expected in faith that now he was solidly established
as Israel's king, the surrounding Gentiles would come to serve him and his
God (see on :50).
"Let people serve you" was the blessing promised to Jacob in his moment of weakness, as he crouched before his father in fawning deception (Gen. 27:29). And yet David applies this promised blessing to himself (2 Sam. 22:44).
David felt preserved by God from Saul and his other enemies (1 Sam. 30:23; 2 Sam. 22:44), because he had preserved or obeyed [s.w.] God's ways (2 Sam. 22:22,24; Ps. 18:21,23); whereas Saul didn't obey / preserve them and was destroyed (1 Sam. 13:13,14; 1 Chron. 10:13). Hence Ps. 145:20: "Yahweh preserves all those who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy".
2Sa 22:45 The foreigners will submit themselves to me. As soon as they
hear of me, they will obey me-
David's vision was that his kingdom
would take the good news of Israel's God to the surrounding Gentiles (see
on :50). Some of them would submit to David and his God, whereas others
would not (:46).
2Sa 22:46 The foreigners will fade away, and will come trembling out of
their hiding places-
This may allude to how Saul's persecutors of
David included "foreigners" such as Cush (see on Ps. 7:1) and Doeg the
Edomite (1 Sam. 22:22).
2Sa 22:47 Yahweh lives! Blessed be my rock! Exalted be God, the rock of my
salvation-
David had earlier lamented that Saul "My enemy" (= Saul, 1
Sam. 18:29; 19:17) was "exalted over me" (Ps. 13:2 s.w.). The David who
had once triumphed over his enemy Goliath now felt that Saul was
triumphing over him. This, in the bigger Divine picture, may have been to
keep David from pride at the amazing victory and triumph. And he learned
the lesson. David was indeed to triumph / be exalted over Saul (:49), but he saw it is God triumphing / being exalted. His
praise Psalms are full of this word and idea- of the exaltation of God
(Ps. 57:5,11) and not himself.
2Sa 22:48 even the God who executes vengeance for me, who brings down
peoples under me-
An allusion to how David had restrained himself from
murdering Saul when he could have done, and instead had trusted in God to
execute vengeance. Here David reflects that God had indeed cast down the
peoples under him (2 Sam. 22:48; Ps. 18:47); by saying
this he considers that his prayer of Ps. 56:7 has been answered: "In anger
cast down the peoples, God". Perhaps when he prayed it, he just wanted
God's anger to be poured out immediately, the day of judgment to come
there and then, when the scales will be adjusted and men and nations cast
down or lifted up. But he reflects that in a sense that had happened in
his life, in that the peoples were cast down beneath him.
2Sa 22:49 who delivers from my enemies. Yes, You lift me up above those
who rise up against me. You deliver me from the violent man-
See on
:47. The violent
man was initially Saul (see on :1). The Hebrew word
hamas
[basically meaning 'physical violence arising from wicked plans'] is quite
common in Scripture, and the usages speak of how God is provoked by
hamas
to bring judgment upon the enemies of His people (Gen. 6:11-13; Mic. 6:12;
Zeph. 1:9) and also to intervene in order to save His people (Ps. 18:49;
Ps. 72:14). How amazingly appropriate that an organization actually called
hamas
has arisen in these last days to do violence to Israel! If Biblical
history means anything to us, clearly enough God's intervention in
appropriate judgment and salvation cannot be far off. Note how Hagar's
persecution of Sarah- typical of the Arab-Jew conflict- is described as
her
hamas
(Gen. 16:5).
2Sa 22:50 Therefore I will give thanks to You, Yahweh, among the nations.
I will sing praises to your name-
David was one of
the few in the Old Testament who had a sense of taking the good news of
Yahweh's covenant to the Gentiles. And he apparently did so through
exporting his musical productions to the surrounding peoples, who may well
have been able to understand David's Hebrew.
2Sa 22:51 He gives great deliverance to His king, and shows grace to His
anointed, to David and to his seed, for evermore-
The Psalm concludes with a reference to David as the anointed, so this
could be a Psalm composed when Saul was slain and David was finally
declared king, and his anointing came to fulfilment. But the reference to
eternal salvation for "his seed" could suggest it was composed after he
had received the promises of 2 Sam. 7.