And the afflicted people thou wilt save: but thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest bring them down.
The afflicted people thou wilt save - Thou hast shown me, by the course of my personal experience, that thou wilt plead the cause of these who are subjected to unmerited wrongs, and deliver all who cry for deliverance in circumstances of suffering and persecution, like me and my followers. But thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest bring them down - Thou wilt humble the pride and check the presumptuous career of those who, like my enemies, flattered themselves that 'their mountain was standing strong, and that they never would be greatly moved.' 'The particular qualities specified are only given as examples, and might have been exchanged for others without altering the general sense. The form of expression is extremely strong and bold, but scarcely liable to misapprehension even in the last clause of 2 Samuel 22:27. No one is in danger of imagining that God can act perversely even to the most perverse. But the same course of proceeding which would be perverse in itself, or toward a righteous person, when pursued toward a sinner, becomes a mere act of vindicating justice. The resemblance of the last clause of 2 Samuel 22:27 to Leviticus 26:23-24, makes 'it highly probable that the whole form of this singular dictum was suggested by that passage, the rather as this song abounds in allusions to the Pentateuch, and in imitations of it,' (Professor Alexander on 'Psalms 18:1-50:')
In the preceding section of the song he describes himself as the humble object, the passive recipient, of the divine goodness and mercy; in this one he appears not as the object only, but also as the instrument of God's benefits. The former portion of the song was occupied exclusively with the dangers and deliverances connected with the Sauline persecution. That on which we are about to enter embraces other instances of deliverance by which his life was marked. The one recorded only tokens of the divine favour personal to himself, the other points to prospective blessings awaiting both him and his posterity.