CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES
2 Samuel 22:1. This Psalm, with a few unimportant variations, is identical with the eighteenth in the Psalter. Wordsworth suggests that the modifications which there appear, where the title has “to the chief musician,” may be accounted for from the circumstance that in the present chapter the song appears as used by David for his own private devotions; and in the Psalms 18, it exhibits the form in which he delivered it for the general liturgical use of the Hebrew Church. The genuineness of the Psalm is acknowledged by all critics, except Olshausen and Hupfield, but there is a difference of opinion as to the time when it was composed. Keil thinks it belongs to David’s later years. The “Biblical Commentary” refers it “to the early part of David’s reign, when he was recently established upon the throne;” and Erdmann says “the time of composition (the reference in 1 Timothy 22:51 to 2 Samuel 7 being unmistakeable) cannot be before the date when David, on the ground of the promise given him through Nathan, could be sure that his dominion, despite all opposition, was immovable, and that the throne of Israel would remain for ever with his house. The words of the title agree with the description of victories in 2 Samuel 22:29-46, and point to a time when David had established his kingdom by war, and forced heathen princes to do homage (comp. 2 Samuel 22:44-49). But as God’s victorious help against external enemies is celebrated in the second part of the song, and the joyous tone of exultation shows that David’s heart is taken up with the gloriousness of that help, it is a fair assumption that the song was written not after the toil of Absalom’s conspiracy and the succeeding events, but immediately after the victorious wars narrated in chaps. 8 and
10.” “Spake unto the Lord,” etc. “These expressions are borrowed from Exodus 15:1, and Deuteronomy 31:30. This is the more observable because the Psalm contains obvious allusions to the song of Moses in Deuteronomy.” (Alexander). “The hand of Saul.” “Not because Saul was the last of his enemies, but rather because he was first, both in power and importance.” (Alexander). “The poet’s imagination, in its contemplation of the two principal periods of war, moves backwards, presenting first the external wars, which were the nearest, and then the internal, with Saul and his house.” (Erdmann.)
2 Samuel 22:2. “My rock” Sela, my rock-cleft, a place for refuge; not the same word as that used in 2 Samuel 22:3. “First and frequently used by David, who had often found refuge on a sela in his persecution; indeed, it is only once used by any other writer (Isaiah 32:2) in the Old Testament, in a figurative sense, and there the metaphor is derived from the shadow and not from the height of the rock.” (Wordsworth.) “My deliverer.” “The explanation of the foregoing figures. Whilst David took refuge in rocks, he placed his hope of safety not in their naccessible character, but in God the Lord.” (Keil).
2 Samuel 22:3. “God of my rock.” Rather my rock-God. The word here rendered rock (tsur) indicates what is solid and immovable. “Horn.” “A term borrowed from animals which have their strength and defensive weapons in their horns.” (Kiel and others). “Not only a protection against attack (as a shield), but also a weapon of attack.” (Erdmann).
2 Samuel 22:4. “I will call.” “Shall be saved.” Not to be taken as future, but as “indefinite as to time, the English general present.” (Trans. of Lange’s Commentary). “Worthy to be praised.” Rather the praised one.
2 Samuel 22:6. “Hell.” Sheol, the under world, the place of departed spirits. “In the wide old English sense, a poetical equivalent to death.” (Alexander.) Prevented, rather encountered.
2 Samuel 22:7. Temple. Better, palace, “for Jehovah is here represented as a King enthroned in heaven.” (Erdmann.) The Hebrew word means both.
2 Samuel 22:8. “The earth shook,” etc. A few writers understand the following as a description of a real storm, and refer it to a battle with the Syrians when a storm occurred (2 Samuel 7:5), but most agree with Kiel that it is a poetical description of David’s deliverance which “had its type in the miraculous phenomenon which accompanied the descent of God upon Sinai, and which suggested, as in Judges 5:4-5, the idea of a terrible storm that the saving hand of God from heaven was so obviously manifested, that the deliverance experienced by him could be poetically described as a miraculous interposition on the part of God.”
2 Samuel 22:9. “Smoke,” etc. The figurative idea is that of snorting or violent breathing, which indicates the rising of wrath.” (Keil and others.) Tholuck sees in the picture thus far an image “to be referred to the rising of the storm-cloud, and the flashes of sheet-lightning which announces the storm.”
2 Samuel 22:10. “Bowed the heavens.” A picture of the low hanging storm-clouds, at whose approach the heaven seems to bend down to the earth.” (Erdmann.) “Came down.” “The scene here seems to be transferred from heaven to earth, where the Psalmist sees not only the Divine operation, but the personal presence of Jehovah.” (Alexander). Darkness, rather gloom. A poetical expression applied to thick clouds and vapours. (Alexander.)
2 Samuel 22:11. “A cherub,” “The cherubim of the Mosaic system were visible representations of the whole class of creatures superior to man. The singular form seems to be used here to convey the indefinite idea of a superhuman, yet created being. As earthly kings are carried by inferior animals, so the heavenly King is here described as being borne through the air in His descent by beings intermediate between Himself and man.” (Alexander.) “The poetical figure is borrowed from the fact that God was enthroned between the two cherubim upon the lid of the ark of the covenant, and above their outspread wings. As the idea of His ‘dwelling between the cherubim’ (2 Samuel 6:2, etc.) was founded upon this typical manifestation of the gracious presence of God in the Most Holy place, so here David thus depicts the descent of Jehovah, picturing the cherub as a throne upon which God appears in the clouds of heaven, though without imagining Him as riding upon a sphinx or driving in a chariot-throne. Such notions are precluded by the addition of the term, ‘did fly.’ ” (Keil.)
2 Samuel 22:12. “Pavilions,” i.e., tents or coverts. Alexander takes this as expressive of the brightness insupportable by mortal sight; Keil thinks that it represents Jehovah as hiding His face from man in wrath. “Dark waters.” Literally, water gatherings, or watery darkness. “A beautiful description of clouds charged with rain.” (Alexander.) “Thick clouds,” or cloud-thicket. “This second noun is used only in the plural, and seems properly to designate the whole body of vapours constituting the visible heavens or sky.” (Alexander.)
2 Samuel 22:13. “Through,” or out of, were kindled, rather burned.
2 Samuel 22:14. “Thundered.” “Uttered His voice.” The second clause is a poetical repetition of the first. (Alexander.)
2 Samuel 22:15. “Arrows.” “The lighthings of the last clause may be understood as explaining the arrows of the first.” (Alexander.) “Discomfited.” “The standing expression for the destruction of the foe accomplished by the miraculous interposition of God.” (Keil.)
2 Samuel 22:16. “The breakers of death” and the streams of evil, have, according to 2 Samuel 22:5, overwhelmed David. Under the image of water-waves he has thus depicted the dangers that have threatened his life. The Lord in revealing His anger against his enemies, saves him by laying bare the depths of the sea to which he had sunk, and uncovering the foundations of the earth by the storm-wind of His wrath. Thither descending from on high the Lord seized him and drew him forth from the waves as described in the following verses.” (Delitzsch and Erdmann.) Some writers also see here a reference to the early history of Moses. “The verb to draw,” says Dr. Jamieson, “naturally suggests it.” “Luther,” says Hengstenberg, “already called attention to this reference. It is the more important as Moses was a type of the Israelitish people; the waters an image of the hostile oppression to which he was exposed; and the event, a prophecy constantly fulfilling itself under different circumstances.”
2 Samuel 22:18. Here is a transition from the figurative to the literal.
2 Samuel 22:19. Prevented. (See on 2 Samuel 22:6). “Day of calamity.” Most writers think the time of Saul’s persecution is here specially intended.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 2 Samuel 22:1-19
DAVID’S SONG OF THANKSGIVING.—PART I
I. Deep gratitude in the heart will find its way to the lip. It seems altogether unnatural that any being should experience real and deep emotion without in some way making it manifest to others—we should as soon expect to see the cup filled above the brim without running over as to find a man with a heart overflowing with grateful love who gave no expression to his feeling. The one seems as great a contradiction of the laws of our soul-life as the other does of the physical world outside of us. True it is that speech is not the only index of what men feel, and there are often many words where there is little or no emotion, still there appears to be a divinely ordained connection between all deep stirring of the inner life—especially when it is of a joyous nature—and the utterance of it in speech, so that the experience of each man may be helpful to all, and individual joy be increased by the sympathy of others. It is so in the heavenly world, for there we are told the redeemed Church gives expression to its grateful love in songs of praise, and it was so with David. Even while surrounded with much to sadden him, he could not look back upon a life so filled with tokens of Divine favour without bursting forth into a song of thanksgiving, which, although addressed in the first instance to Jehovah, was doubtless intended also to be a testimony to his fellow-men.
II. The foundation of all joy in God is found in a conviction of His personal interest in the individual man. The key-note of this psalm, and, indeed, of the whole psalter, is a sense of personal relationship to an Almighty and Loving-Father; not simply a share in a general providence which extends to all, or even to a few, but of special interposition and guidance on behalf of one man as truly if he were the sole object of God’s care. There are many ascriptions of praise in the Bible to God as the God of nations and of all created beings, but there are many in which the writers confine themselves principally, and often entirely, to celebrating His goodness to them as individual men and women, and this not because they were selfish, entirely or chiefly occupied with their own concerns and thinking little of the needs of others. In this song David makes no mention of anybody but himself, and yet we know he had the welfare of his people very near his heart, and grieved deeply when his sin brought trouble upon them (see 2 Samuel 24:17). Nehemiah gave up his place in the king’s palace to devote himself to his people, yet he could not feel heart-satisfaction merely in the help God gave to him as one of a nation, but craved a special and individual remembrance also (see Nehemiah 5:19; Nehemiah 13:14; Nehemiah 13:22; Nehemiah 13:31). Nor is this feeling confined to Old Testament saints. Paul was, perhaps, the most self-forgetful man who has ever lived, yet, amidst all his praises for the riches of Christ’s mercy to the world, his gratitude is never deeper than when he speaks of the Saviour who “loved him and gave himself for him” (Galatians 2:20); and he never penned a more glowing ascription of praise to God than when he contemplated the abundant grace which had been manifested to himself personally (1 Timothy 1:12-17). The Bible does not require men to ignore their individuality, on the contrary Christ himself appeals to that Divinely-implanted self-love, which is so far removed from selfishness (Mark 8:36), that those who obey its instincts are never at rest unless they can persuade others to partake of the same blessedness. An unshaken confidence that God is his God in a personal and direct sense, is the only foundation for that rest and satisfaction of the spirit without which no obedience to God or service to man can ever be rendered.
III. No material similitude is too strong to express soul-experience. The ocean-depths are great, but they are not too great to set forth the deep agony into which a soul is sometimes plunged by remorse or by a sense of God’s displeasure. The waves of the sea are often rough, and buffet the weary swimmer until his bodily strength entirely fails him; but they are not rougher than the waves of adverse circumstances which often overwhelm his soul. God’s hand was seen very plainly when He drew Moses out of the water and made a way for Israel through the sea, but when David looked back on his eventful life he felt that Divine interposition was as plainly seen in the deliverances which he had experienced. Storm and fire and earthquake are wonderful manifestations of the power of God, but they are not so mighty nor so glorious as the omnipotence which rules in the world of spirit, and works all things there also according to the counsel of His own will. It is great to still the noise of the waves, but it is greater to keep in check the passions of evil men (Psalms 65:7) and more glorious to rule over the the countless myriads that people the globe than to ride upon the wings of the wind. Therefore no metaphor that David here uses can even adequately set forth what he desires to express, because nothing that belongs to the world of sense can perfectly represent the unseen and the spiritual.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
2 Samuel 22:1. God lets out His mercies to us for this rent of our praises, and is content we have the benefit of them, so Ho have the glory.—Trapp.
The mention of Saul in the title does not indicate that the Psalm was composed in David’s early life, but rather that, even though thirty years had gone since his persecution by the son of Kish, the deliverances which he then experienced had not faded from his memory, but still stood out before him as the greatest mercies which he had ever received. We are prone to forget past favors. The benefactors of our youth are not always remembered in our after years; and in the crowd and conflict of events in our later history we have too often little thought to spare, and few thanks to express, for our early mercies. We do not enough consider that, in mounting the ladder of life, it is often more difficult to set our foot on the first round than to take any single step thereafter; and, therefore, that those who aided us in the beginning have given us by far the most effectual assistance. But it was not so with David, for as he sits here looking back on his career, his first conflicts seem still his greatest; and much as he blessed God for after-kindness, he places high above all the other favors which he had received his deliverance out of the hand of Saul.—Dr. Taylor.
2 Samuel 22:2. In the chapter that immediately follows the names of David’s great captains are faithfully recorded and their exploits duly chronicled, but in his address to God there does not occur the name of a single human being.… In the intensity of the gaze which is fixed on him who is invisible, the eye of faith lost sight for a 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.—Blaikie.
2 Samuel 22:2-3. It pleased holy David more that God was his strength than that God gave him strength; that God was his deliverer than that he was delivered; that God was his fortress, buckler, horn, his high tower, than that he gave him the effect of all these. It pleases all the saints more that God is their salvation, whether temporal or eternal, than that he saves them; the saints look more at God than at all that is God’s.—Caryl.
This is no vain repetition, neither is it a straining after effect, like that of the young orator who piles epithet upon epithet, weakening only where he meant to strengthen; but it is an attempt to describe, from many sides, that which he felt could not be fully shown from any single standpoint. He means to say, that for every sort of peril in which he had been placed, God had been a protection appropriate thereto; as if he had said, “those whom God intends to succour and defend are not only safe against one kind of danger, but are, as it were, surrounded by impregnable ramparts on all sides; so that, should a thousand deaths be presented to their view, they ought not to be afraid even at this formidable array.” Nor is this many-sided description of God’s protection without its value to us; for though we may have proved his power to help us in one way, we are apt to fall into despair when some new danger threatens us, and therefore it is reassuring to have David’s testimony to the fact that those whom God shields are incased all round, and will have perfect protection in every emergency.—Dr. W. M. Taylor.
2 Samuel 22:4. When David called on God in danger, he very specially set Him before his mind as “worthy to be praised.” A very remarkable habit this, and the key to many of his spiritual triumphs. He first sets before his mind the gracious, encouraging, reassuring aspects of God’s character, then asks deliverance from his enemies.—Blaikie.
This doctrine is in tribulation the most ennobling and truly golden. One cannot believe what assistance such praise to 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 God will be called upon with confidence.—Luther.
2 Samuel 22:4-7. The cordial intercourse of prayer between the Old Testament saints and their covenant-God is the factual proof of the positive self-revelation of the personal, Iiving God, without whose initiative such over-springing of the chasm between the holy God and sinful man were impossible, and also the most striking refutation of the false view that the religion of the old covenant presents an absolute chasm between God and man. The real life communion between the heart that goes immediately to its God in prayer and the God who hears such prayer, is, on the one hand, in contrast to the extra testamental religion of the pre-Christian world, alone founded on God’s positive historical self-revelation to his people and the thereby established covenant relation between them, and, on the other hand, as sporadic anticipation of the life-communion with God established by the New Testament Mediator, it is a factual prophecy of the religious ethical life-communion (culminating in prayer) between man redeemed by Christ and His heavenly Father.—Erdmann.
2 Samuel 22:7. Prayer is that postern-gate which is left open even when the city is straitly beseiged by the enemy; it is that way upward from the pit of despair to which the spiritual miner flies at once when the floods from beneath break forth upon him. Observe that he calls, then he cries—prayer grows in vehemence as it proceeds. Note also that he first invokes his God under the name of Jehovah, and then advances to a more familiar name—“My God.” Thus, faith increases by exercise, and He who we first viewed as Lord may soon be our God in covenant.… Above the noise of the raging billows of death or the barking dogs of hell, the feeblest cry of a true believer will be heard in heaven. Far up within the bejewelled walls and through the gates of pearl the cry of the suffering suppliant was heard. Music of angels and harmony of seraphs availed not to drown or even impair the voice of that humble call. The King heard it in His palace of light unsufferable, and lent a willing ear to the cry of his beloved child.—Spurgeon.
If you listen even to David’s harp you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols, and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needlework and embroideries it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a light-some ground. Judge, therefore, of the pleasures of the heart by the pleasures of the eye. Certainly, virtue is like precious odours—most fragrant when they are crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.—Lord Bacon.
2 Samuel 22:12. Blessed is the darkness which encurtains my God. If I may not see Him, it is sweet to know that He is working in secret for my eternal good. Even fools can believe that God is abroad in the sunshine and in the calm, but faith is wise and discerns them in the terrible darkness and threatening storm.—Spurgeon.
2 Samuel 22:1; 2 Samuel 22:19. The means by which this deliverance was achieved were, as far as we know, those which we see in the books of Samuel—the turns and chances of Providence, his own extraordinary activity, the faithfulness of his followers, the unexpected increase of his friends. But the act of deliverance itself is described in language which belongs to the descent upon Mount Sinai and the passage of the Red Sea. It was the exodus, though of a single human soul, yet of a soul which reflected the whole nation. It was the giving of a second law, though through the living tablets of a heart deeper and vaster than the whole legislation of Moses. It was the beginning of a new dispensation.—Dean Stanley.
At the basis of the symbolism of nature lies the idea that certain peculiarities in the nature and action of God correspond with it. Thence God Himself is at times described as present and active in these phenomena of nature, not merely accompanied by them, and in bold but contemplative expressions the stirring up and expression of his wrath is represented as the kindling of His light—nature in all the turns of fiery and flaming figures.
… These natural phenomena, not so much in themselves as under certain circumstances and more particular forms, form partly the symbol, partly the means of a Theophany.—Dr. Moll.