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Of the date when David wrote this psalm there can be little doubt. It was at the close of his first great series of victories, after Toi, the Hittite King of Hamath, had sent to him an embassy of congratulation (2Sa_8:9, 2Sa_8:10), referred to very triumphantly in verses 45, 46. But there is no trace in it of the sorrow and shame that clouded over his latter days; and no man whose conscience was stained with sins so dark as those of adultery and murder could have written words so strongly asserting his integrity and the cleanness of his hands as are found in 2Sa_23:21-25. The psalm belongs to David's happiest time, when he had won for Israel security and empire. It is written from first to last in a tone of jubilant exultation, caused, as we may well believe, by Nathan's acceptance of his purpose to build the temple, and by the solemn appointment of David as the theocratic king. If it were arranged according to time and matter, it would be placed immediately after 2Sa_8:1-18; as it is evidently David's thanksgiving for the benefits and blessings just promised to him and his seed.
But the scribes inserted it here, not so much because of its historical value, as because it is a national thanksgiving for the founding of that empire by which Israel became verily the theocratic people, and the type upon earth of the kingdom of the Messiah. The prophet who compiled the Books of Samuel rejoiced in David's victories, not because they gave Israel worldly dominion, but because they were a fulfilment of past prophecy, and a necessary part of the preparation for the religious position which Israel was to hold. Such as it had been under the judges, Israel would have been no fit home for the prophetic light. It could not have grown and developed, nor the race have become a Church fit to be the teacher of all mankind. And in this hymn the Church expresses her joy at the high office and extended usefulness to which God has seen fit to call her. The spiritual exposition of the psalm will naturally be sought in commentaries on the Book of Psalms. But such matters as its outward form, and the differences between the two texts, will not be out of place here.
2Sa_22:1
David spake. The introduction was probably written by the prophet who compiled the Books of Samuel. The scribe who collected the Book of Psalms would be a priest, and he has repeated it with one or two additions, the most important of which is that the psalm was written "by David the servant of Jehovah." This title; meaning the minister or vicegerent of Jehovah, is one so high that it would certainly not have been given to David in his lifetime; nor was it even until Moses was dead that he was honoured with this rank (Deu_34:5). But what was David's right to this title, which put him on a level with Moses? It was this: In adding to the sacrificial ritual enacted by Moses a daily service in the temple of sacred minstrelsy and songs, David was acting with higher powers than were ever exercised by any other person. For though, as we have seen, Samuel was the originator of these services in his schools, yet. there is a wide difference between private and public services; and David made his anthems part of the national liturgy. But it would only be when the halo of long use had gathered round his holy psalmody that David would be placed on in equality with Moses, and his authority a institute a new ritual for the nation be recognized.
2Sa_22:2-4
Jehovah is my Cliff and my Stronghold and my Deliverer:
The God of my rock, in whom I take refuge;
My Shield and the Horn of my salvation,
My Fastness and my Place of refuge:
My Saviour: thou savest me from violence.
I call upon Jehovah, the praised One,
And I am saved from my enemies."
The Syriac in 2Sa_22:2 inserts, "Fervently do I love thee, Jehovah my Strength;" but it probably only borrows the words from Psa_18:1. For we may well believe that it was at a later period of his life, after deeper and more heart searching trials, that David thus felt his love to Jehovah only strengthened and made more necessary to him by the loss of his earthly happiness. In Psa_18:3, The God of my rock is changed in Psa_18:2 into "My God my Rock" (Authorized Version, "strength")—probably an intentional alteration, as being far less rugged and startling than this bold metaphor of the Deity being his rock's God. In the original the words present each its distinct idea. Thus in Psa_18:2 the rock is a high cliff or precipice. It is the word sela, which gave its name to the crag city of Idumea. Fortress really means a rock, difficult of access, and forming a secure retreat. It is entirely a natural formation, and not a building. In Psa_18:3 rock is a vast mountainous mass (Job_18:4), and, as it suggests the ideas of grandeur and immovable might, it is often used for God's glory as being the Strength and Protection of his people. Next follow two ordinary metaphors, the shield for defence, and the horn for attack; after which David, who had so often sought safety among the cliffs and fastnesses of the mountains, returns to the same circle of thoughts, and calls God his High Tower, the word signifying, not a building, but a height, a lofty natural stronghold; and finally his Refuge, a place of safe retreat among the mountains. This and the rest of the verse are omitted in Psa_18:2. In Psa_18:4 the words are as literally translated above, and signify, "Whenever call, I am saved." In all times of difficulty, prayer brings immediate deliverance.
2Sa_22:5-7
"For the breakers of death surrounded me;
Torrents of wickedness [Hebrew, 'of Belial'] terrified me;
Cords of Sheol surrounded me;
Snares of death came suddenly upon me.
In my distress I cried unto Jehovah,
And to my God I cried.
And he heard my voice out of his palace,
And my cry was in his ears."
Instead of breakers—waves dashing violently on rocks—Psa_18:4 has "cords of death;" translated "sorrow" in the Authorized Version. But "cords of death" mean the fatal snares of the hunter, and are not in keeping with "torrents of wickedness." "Belial," literally, "worthlessness," is by many supposed, from the context to mean herd "destruction," that is, physical instead of moral wickedness. So in Nah_1:11 "a counsellor of Belial" means a ruinous, destructive counsellor. Sheol is the world of the departed, and is equivalent to "death." Cried is the same verb twice used. In Psa_18:6 it is altered, in the former part of the verse unto "I called"—a change probably suggested by the more fastidious taste of a later age. For temple we should translate palace, or heavenly temple. It is not the temple in Jerusalem, which was not yet built, but God's heavenly dwelling, that is meant. Instead of the terse ellipse, "And my cry in his ears," the full but heavy phrase, "My cry before him came into his ears," is substituted in Psa_18:6.
2Sa_22:8-10
"And the earth quaked and trembled;
The foundations of the heavens shook,
And quaked because he was wroth.
A smoke went up in his nostril,
And fire out of his mouth devoured;
Red hot cinders burned from him.
And he bowed the heavens and came down,
And darkness was under his feet."
In describing the manifestation of God for his deliverance, David bore in mind and repeated the description of God's descent to earth given in Exo_19:16, Exo_19:18. But the poetic vigour of David's imagination intensities the imagery, and makes it more grand and startling. Not merely is there the earthquake and the volcano and the storm cloud, but the dim form of the Almighty is present, with the smoke of just anger at unrighteousness ascending from his nostrils, and the lightnings flashing forth to execute his wrath. But David certainly intended that these metaphors should remain ideal; and it was quite unnecessary for the Targum carefully to eliminate all such expressions as seem to give the Almighty bureau shape. In so doing it merely changes poetry into prose. But even more dull and commonplace is the explanation given by some modern commentators, that all that is meant is that David was once saved by a thunderstorm from some danger or other. Really this glorious imagery, taken from all that is grandest on earth, is intended to magnify to us the spiritual conception of God's justice coming forth to visit the earth and do right and equity. In Exo_19:8 for "the foundations of the heavens," we find in Psa_18:7 "the foundations of the hills." The former is the grander metaphor, and signifies the mighty mountain ranges, like those of Lebanon, on which the skies seem to rest. The smoke signifies hailstorms and, perhaps, also the rain driven in wreaths along the ground by the wind. Red hot cinders burned from him describes the flashing lightnings that were shot forth like the coals from the refiner's furnace when heated to the full. It is to be regretted that the Revised Version retains the bathos of the old rendering, that God's fiery breath set coals on fire.
2Sa_22:11-13
"And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly;
And he was seen upon the wings of the wind.
And he made darkness booths round about him;
Gathering of waters, thickenings of clouds.
Out of the brightness before him
Coals of fire burned."
In 2Sa_6:2 Jehovah is described as sitting upon the cherubim; his presence there, called by the rabbins his Shechinah, that is, dwelling, being indicated by a cloud of light. In this psalm the cherub is his chariot, on which he rides forth to judgment. He was seen. There can be little doubt that the right reading is preserved in Psa_18:10, where we find a verb signifying the swooping down of a bird of prey upon its quarry (Deu_28:49; Jer_48:40). The two words differ only in the substitution of r for d, and these letters are so similar in Hebrew that they are constantly interchanged. Booths; made of branches of trees, and forming a temporary abode. So the dark storm clouds are gathered round the Almighty to veil his awful form from sight as he goes forth for judgment. Gathering of waters; probably the right reading, instead of which in the psalm we find "dark waters." The gathering of waters would describe the massing of the rain clouds. The difference here also consists only in one letter. Out of the brightness, which closely surrounds the Deity in the midst of the black mass of the tempest, the lightning flashes forth. This brightness is the Shechinah (see above), to which St. Paul also refers where he says that God's dwelling is in "the unapproachable light" (1Ti_6:16).
2Sa_22:14-16
"Jehovah thundered from heaven,
And the Most High uttered his voice.
And he sent forth arrows, and scattered them [the evil doers];
Lightning, and terrified them.
And the sea beds became visible,
The foundations of the world were laid bare,
At the rebuke of Jehovah,
By the breath of the wind of his nostril."
Terrified. The verb signifies" to strike with sodden terror and alarm" (see Exo_14:24; Jos_10:10). It describes here the panic caused by the lightning, and by the violent throes of nature, so powerfully described in 2Sa_22:16. Laid bare. This is the meaning of the word "discovered" in the Authorized Version. When the version was made, it was equivalent to "uncovered," but has now changed its signification.
2Sa_22:17-20
"He stretched forth his hand from on high; he took me,
He drew me out of many waters.
He delivered me from my strong enemy,
From them that hated me; for they were too mighty for me.
For they attacked me in the day of my misfortune.
But Jehovah became my Staff,
And he brought me forth into a wide place
He delivered me, because he had pleasure in me."
In the midst of this fearful convulsion of nature, while all around are stricken with panic, David sees a hand stretched out from above, ready to deliver him from the overwhelming flood of hatred and peril. Attacked me. The word does not signify "to prevent," or" anticipate," but "to assail" So in 2Sa_22:6, "The snares of death assailed me;" and in Isa_37:33, "The King of Assyria shall not attack this city with shield." It is the same verb in all these places. Staff; in the Authorized Version, "stay." But it means something to lean upon, and is rightly translated "staff" in Psa_23:4. A wide place; in opposition to the straits of affliction. He had pleasure in me. In 2Sa_15:26 this confidence is gone, and David doubts whether the favour of Jehovah had not been forfeited by him.
2Sa_22:21-25
"Jehovah hath requited me according to my righteousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
For I have kept the ways of Jehovah,
And sinned not so as to depart from my God.
For all his judgments have been kept in sight,
And from his statutes I have not departed.
I was also perfect towards him,
And was on my guard against my sin.
Therefore hath Jehovah recompensed me according to my righteousness,
According to my cleanness in his eyesight."
It is impossible to suppose that these verses could have been written after David's fall. For while be acknowledges in them a tendency to sin, he affirms that he had been on his guard against it, and that he had ever kept God's statutes present before his view. However complete may be the penitent's recovery, yet can he never again be "perfect," the word applied to an animal without blemish, and therefore fit for sacrifice. The crime remains a blemish, even though the intense sorrow for the sin may make it the means of even attaining to a higher stage of spirituality and devotion. In 2Sa_22:22 the words literally are, "I have not sinned away from God," sin necessarily removing the sinner away from that nearness to God which is the privilege of the saint.
2Sa_22:26-28
"With the pious man thou wilt show thyself pious;
With the perfect man thou wilt show thyself perfect;
With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure;
And with the crooked thou wilt show thyself perverse.
And the afflicted people thou wilt save;
And thine eyes are upon the haughty, to bring them down."
Having affirmed his integrity, and that God therefore had pleasure in him and rewarded him, David now asserts that this is the unfailing rule of God's dealings with men. The general current of their lives is so ordered as to be in harmony with their characters. It is not by luck or good fortune that prosperity attends the righteous, nor is it by chance that things go awry with the fraudulent, but it is by the law of God's providence. Pious. The Hebrew word means "pious" in the original sense of the word, which includes kindness to men as well as love to God. Perverse. In the Authorized Version "unsavoury." Really it is the same word as that used in Psa_18:26, and signifies "thou wilt make thyself twisted," only the form is archaic, as is the case with some other words here. Experience confirms the psalmist's verdict. For constantly a strange perversity of fortune and an untowardness of events are the lot of those whose hearts are crooked. Afflicted. The word in the original includes the idea of humility, and so leads naturally on to the thought of the abasement of the proud. In the psalm the somewhat harsh expression used here has been softened into the more easy phrase, "The haughty eyes thou wilt bring down."
2Sa_22:29-31
"For thou, Jehovah, art my Lamp;
And Jehovah will make my darkness light.
For by thee do I run upon a troop;
In my God I leap over a wall.
God—his way is perfect;
The word of Jehovah is purified.
He is a Shield to all that trust in him."
Lamp. The lamp burning in the house is the proof of life and activity present there; and thus the extinguishing of the lamp means ruin and desolation (Job_21:17). So David is called "the lamp of Israel" (2Sa_21:17), because the active life of the nation centred in him. In a still higher sense the life and being of his people centres in God, and without him the soul is waste and void, like the universe before God said, "Let there be light." I run. To the warrior in old time speed was as important as strength, and thus Homer constantly calls Achilles "fleet of foot." It was his fleetness which gave Asahel a high place among the mighties (2Sa_2:18), and to this quality David now refers. The troop signifies a light armed band of marauders, whom with God's aid David could overtake, and stop in their course of rapine. The wall means fortifications like those of Jerusalem (2Sa_5:7). Sieges were tedious affairs in old time, but David had captured that city with a rapidity so great that the metaphor in the text is most appropriate. Purified; or, refined. This does not mean that it is proved by experience and found true, but that it is absolutely good and perfect like refined gold (see Psa_12:6).
2Sa_22:32-34
"For who is God, save Jehovah?
And who is a rock, save our God?
God is my strong Fortress,
And he guideth the perfect in his way.
He maketh my feet like the hinds,
And upon my high places he cloth set me."
God; Hebrew, El; the Mighty One, used several times in this psalm. In the second clause the word is Elohim, the ordinary name of God. The psalmist's question is a strong assertion that Jehovah alone is God, and that he alone is a Rock of safety for his people. He guideth, etc. In Psa_18:32 "He maketh my way perfect," like his own. The phrase here is probably that which David wrote, as being less usual, and it signifies that God will direct the upright man in his good way. Hinds. David's feet are swift as hinds, an animal famous for its speed and sureness of foot. My high places. The tops of the mountains are the favourite resort of the antelope (2Sa_1:18); and so with David, the possession of such rocky citadels as Bozez and Seneh (1Sa_14:4) made him master of the whole country.
2Sa_22:35-37
"He teaeheth my hands to war;
And mine arms can bend a bow of bronze.
And thou hast given me thy saving shield;
And thy hearing of me hath made me great.
Thou hast enlarged my steps under me;
And my feet have not slipped."
Bow of bronze. In Job_20:24 we also read of bows made of this metal, or compound of metals, which was a far more ancient material for weapons than steel. The bending of such a bow was proof of great strength, and the last artifice of Penelope, to save herself from the suitors, was to promise her hand to the man who could bend Ulysses' bow. Thy hearing of me; in Psa_18:35, and Authorized Version and Revised Version here, "thy gentleness." The words in the Hebrew are very nearly alike, but the Septuagint notices the difference, and translates "hearing" in this place, but "chastisement" in the psalm. The Vulgate has "gentleness" or "mildness" here, and "discipline" in the psalm. The Syriac alone has "discipline" in both places. My feet; literally, ankle bones, the weakness of which causes men to totter.
2Sa_22:38-40
"I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them;
Neither did I turn again until I had consumed them.
And I have consumed them, and smitten them through, and they arose not;
Yea, they fell under my feet.
For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle;
Thou hast made them that rose against me to bow under me."
In the Psalms, for destroyed we find "overtaken," and the second "I have consumed them" is omitted. This exultation of David at the result of his wars is in accordance with the harsh treatment inflicted by him upon the vanquished. His enemies were God's enemies, whom he must consume. The "new commandment" of Christianity forbids and condemns this delight in conquest. Verses 41-43.—
"And mine enemies thou hast made to turn upon me their back,
Even those that hate me; and have utterly destroyed them.
They looked, but there was none to save,
Even to Jehovah, but he answered them not.
And I beat them small as the dust of the earth;
As the mire of the streets I stamped upon them, I trode them down."
Those that hate me. The sentence is to be completed from the previous clause, "my haters" and "my enemies" being equivalent. There are several small variations between the text here and in Psa_18:1-50; such as "they cried" for they looked; and "I emptied them out" for I stamped upon them, the difference in both cases consisting in a single letter.
2Sa_22:44-46
"And thou hast delivered me from the strivings of my people;
Thou hast protected me that I might be head of the nations.
A people whom! knew not have become my servants;
Children of strangers have submitted themselves to me;
At the hearing of the ear they obeyed me.
The children of the strangers faded away;
They fled trembling out of their fastnesses."
People, in the singular, means the Jewish people as opposed to the nations, that is, the heathen world. The strivings here referred to are the long dissensions which followed Ishbosheth's death, and delayed for many the appointment of David as king of Israel. He now feels that the watchful which had protected him during that dangerous period had a higher purpose than the union of the twelve tribes under one head. He was to be the founder also of that empire over the nations which symbolized the gift of the heathen world to Christ. And this empire had been extended to people previously unknown to David. Such might be the case with Hadarezer, King of Zobah, but it more especially referred to Toi, and the Hittite kingdom of Hamath (2Sa_8:9). It was not from force of arms, but from the hearing of the ear, that is, from the wide extended fame of David's conquests, that Toi sent ambassadors to offer allegiance and presents. They fled trembling. This is certainly the sense in Psa_18:45, where, however, there is a transposition of letters. Probably it is the sense here. But if we might go to the cognate languages for an explanation of a rare word, it would mean "came limping out of their fastnesses," as men worn out with fatigue and exhaustion.
2Sa_22:47-49
"Jehovah liveth; and blessed be my Rock,
And exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation,
Even the God that giveth me avengements,
And bringeth down peoples under me.
And bringeth me forth from my enemies.
Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me;
From the violent man thou deliverest me."
In Psa_18:46 we find simply "the God of my salvation." Perhaps there seemed to the compiler to be some confusion in calling Jehovah, first David's Rock, and then the God of his rock (but see note on Psa_18:3). Avengements, in the plural. In the Law the sanctions were chiefly temporal, and therefore the saints of old watched anxiously for, and were strengthened by observing, the constantly recurring proofs of God's righteous government of men. Peoples, in the plural; heathen nations. The violent man may especially be Saul, as is supposed in the title prefixed to this song in the Book of Psalms. There probably it is general, and includes all who were bitter in their hostility to David.
2Sa_22:50, 2Sa_22:51
"Therefore will I praise thee among the nations,
And to thy Name will I sing.
Great deliverance giveth he to his king,
And showeth grace to his messiah—
To David, and to his seed forever."
Great deliverance; literally, he maketh great the salvation of his king; that is, he rescueth him marvellously again and again. The K'ri substitutes tower, but it has no support either from the versions or from Psa_18:1-50; though admitted into the Authorized Version. The difference between the two words "making great" and "tower" is, in the Hebrew, trifling. To his messiah. This mercy was shown to David as the anointed theocratic king, whose rule was the symbol of that of Christ.
1. David composes a song at the end of all the deliverances which during his life God had wrought for him.
2. He describes God as being to him a Rock, a Fortress, a Shield, a High Tower, a Place of Refuge, and represents him as being actively his Deliverer and Saviour.
3. He, in looking on to the future, resolves to trust in him who had been so much to his life in the past, and expects to be saved from his enemies.
4. He, reviewing the past, feels that God is worthy of the praise expressed in this song. There is a. beautiful congruity in the place of this song being at the close of the most detailed and protracted narrative of personal history to be found in the Old Testament, and even in the entire Bible with the exception of that referring to Christ—seeing that that history was one of most strange vicissitudes, and full of dangers. The story of David's life is so necessarily occupied with events as they appeared to men and as they pertain to visible history, that this song is a true supplement, inasmuch as it brings into view the deep spiritual feelings that influenced him in the midst of those events, and so furnishes a key to the religious life of the great king. This song of deliverances reminds us of the song Moses when Israel triumphed over Pharaoh and his hosts at the Red Sea (Exo_15:1-27), of the song of the ransomed as they were to return to Zion with everlasting joy on their heads (Isa_35:10), and of the still more wonderful new song by the redeemed from all nations and kindreds of the earth (Rev_5:9-13; Rev_14:1-3). In these historic and prophetic instances we have illustrations of songs of deliverance ever rising from grateful hearts, establishing thus with the past and the future a community of religious experience which is at once a fruit and an evidence of the Divine redemption wrought out by our Saviour. Taking the experience of David as our guide, we may observe—
I. THE PERILS OF LIFE ARE SOMETIMES SO EXTREME AS TO INDUCE IMMENSE EFFORTS TO ESCAPE THEM. History tells us some of the perils of David's life, both when Saul pursued him with relentless cunning and cruelty, and when, as king, kindred, friend, and foe, and also the unseen powers of darkness, sought his ruin. The subsequent references in 2Sa_22:5, 2Sa_22:6 give his impression of the greatness of his distress; and the allusions to "rock," "high tower," and "fortress" remind us of the time when his extremity was such that he climbed the craggy cliff or hid himself in the inaccessible clefts of the rocks. No man was so near to death as was David, and no good man came nearer to moral and spiritual destruction than did he in the case of Bathsheba and Uriah. This is the common lot of men on earth, though some find their perils less than those of their fellows. In business affairs, in statesmanship, in special enterprises, in matters of health, in common intercourse with men, and in spiritual experience, there are seasons when it seems to be a question of a few hours whether we make wreck or escape. Then comes a strain, a demand on our fullest resources, corresponding to that on David when Saul sought his life, or when spiritual destruction was in the train of Bathsheba's unholy love.
II. NO HIGH CHARACTER RAISES US ABOVE LIABILITY TO THESE EXTREME PERILS. The world is infested with evil, and the best characters find that, as mortal, fallible men, they are liable to the exigencies of life, and as good men they are objects of attack by the powers of darkness. David was an honest, sincere, devout man, and specially dear to God when Saul hunted his life; and he was superior to many before the horrible temptation to depart from purity fell upon his soul. Character is a defence against some dangers, else were it of little worth; but danger to our calling, our enterprises, our health, our moral position—subtle and serious—cannot but be our earthly lot. Even our Lord knew the tempter's power in the bitterness of poverty; and he warned the best men around his Person to expect peril to earthly interests, and to watch lest at any time even their devouter hearts should be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life (Luk_21:34; cf. 16).
III. TRULY RELIGIOUS MEN WILL USE EVERY EFFORT TO ESCAPE THESE PERILS. In his reference to "rock," "refuge," and "fortress," David at once carries us back to the time when he used his utmost endeavours to escape from Saul by climbing the rocks and taking refuge among the fastnesses of the mountains (1Sa_22:1, 1Sa_22:5; 1Sa_23:14, 1Sa_23:15). David acted as though all depended on himself. The cave, the cliff, the gorge, the lofty peak, were sought to cover him as a "shield," or to raise him as on a "high tower." So far as the two men were concerned, it was a case of skill against skill, endurance against endurance. So, also, in the more spiritual conflicts of his life, he laboured hard to save himself from destruction. Prayer, meditation on the Divine Law, taking heed to his steps, going to the house of the Lord, were so many forms of personal exertion to escape the foes of his highest life. So is it with the followers of Christ. They strive daily to ward off the ills which threaten their temporal interests, and when peril becomes extreme, they stir up all their energies to maintain their head high above all impending evils; and what is true of temporal is true also of spiritual interests—they give all diligence to make their calling sure.
IV. THE VISIBLE MEANS OF SAFETY USED BY RELIGIOUS MEN ARE AN INDEX OF AN INVISIBLE RESOURCE. It is just here that we get at the heart of David's meaning. A spectator, observing how he set his skill against that of Saul, how he baffled the cruel persecutor by feats of daring among the caves and clefts of the rock, might conclude that success was decided by a mere balance of ingenuity and agility—the rock, the cave, were his defence. But no; he used these visible things, but all the time his soul was resting in the protection of God. There was a double exercise of energy—that which expressed itself in agility of movement among the mountain fastnesses, and that which expressed itself in calm trust in the care of God. God was his Rock, his Shield, his Fortress. As Elijah saw chariots of fire where others saw nothing but vacant air, so he saw the Eternal Rock, and in him made his refuge. The same double exercise of energy was at work in his strenuous efforts to maintain his piety. It was not prayer, use of the Divine Law, and watchfulness that he trusted in, but the ever present and faithful God. Herein is the characteristic of a truly godly man. An inner spiritual activity accompanies all the external forms. His soul goes out after the living God. He finds safety in the invisible Rock of Ages. God in Christ is his actual Hiding place.
V. THE BEST THINGS IN. NATURE ARE BUT SYMBOLS AND SHADOWS OF EXCELLENCE IN GOD. The rock and the high tower were the very best things nature afforded to David in his dreadful season of trial. Those wilds then answered indeed a noble purpose. But David saw in their protecting powers only a shadow of the real protecting power of which he was in need. All the saving virtues of the mountain fastnesses were to him the index of the boundless resources that lie in God. He is the Rock. Throughout Scripture there seems to be an effort to set forth, if possible, the reality and vastness and sufficiency of the treasures which are in God for us. Thus Christ is represented as being the chief and best of all things in nature—among stars, the Bright and Morning Star; among fruit bearing trees, the luxurious Vine; of members of the body, the Head. Nature can only indicate what wealth of resources we have in him. His riches are unsearchable (Eph_3:8).
VI. A REVIEW OF PAST SIGNAL DELIVERANCES ENCOURAGES CONFIDENCE IN RESPECT TO THE FUTURE. Reviewing the wonderful deliverances wrought for him, David says, "In him will I trust;" "I shall be saved from mine enemies." The conflict of life was not over. New dangers will arise, and other enemies will fill the ranks of the fallen. But experience of God's merciful help keeps the spirit calm, and every triumph in the past by his favour is a guarantee that he will be a very present Help in every time of need. How could David doubt the goodness and power of God after so rich an experience of his aid? If for no other reason than the confidence it inspires, an occasional deliberate review of what great things God has done for us is very desirable. Doubt and fear spring from too much attention to ourselves. Security lies in the covenant of God, and not in our own powers, and a remembrance of actual help received is a reading afresh of the many Divine ratifications of the covenant. The din and hurry of daily life are adverse to reflective habits. It is well to make positive efforts at certain stages of life to resist the hindrances to reflection, and allow to pass before the mind the varied instances in which God has rescued us from impending ruin, both temporal and spiritual.
VII. A RATIONAL BASIS FOR PRAISE IS LAID IN A CONSIDERATION OF GOD'S GREAT DELIVERANCES. It is not without solid reason that David says, "I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised." There are manifold reasons why praise should be rendered to God, but here the basis in view is that found by a consideration of the various acts of mercy he has shown. David's deliverance from Saul, from the treachery of Doeg and Ahithophel, from the sorrows and shame of the banishment from throne and city, and from the more fearful woes of backsliding, were indeed events never to be forgotten. They meant to him life, joy, honour, instead of death and disgrace. All that is valuable in life, in distinction, in personal holiness, and victory over spiritual evil, appealed to his generous nature to acknowledge in thankful form the great things which God had done. It is the wont of some agnostic writers to represent the requirement of praise to God as essentially immoral—as a low representation of God as selfishly egotistic. It might be enough to say that agnostics have no right to speak of essential morality, since on their principles there can be no such thing. But apart from that, it overlooks the real teaching of Scripture and the natural action of human hearts. Men are not condemned for not praising God, but for being lovers of sin in thought, feeling, and deed. Their condition necessarily involves a condemnation, as surely as an anarchical state involves, by its condition, its own destruction. Their not rendering acknowledgments to God for his mercies is only a symptom of the real evil, and not the actual cause of condemnation. A heart true to generous and pure instincts will always admire power blended with goodness, and be thankful for good placed within reach by that beneficent power. "Praise is comely."
VIII. THE DELIVERANCES WROUGHT FOR US BY GOD ARE ONLY PRELIMINARY BLESSINGS. All through these verses David speaks of deliverance, of being saved from certain evils, and God as a Deliverer, a Saviour. This, of course, is a negative good; it is doing something that he may not die, and not be lost. But it is only a superficial view to say that this was all that David was thinking of His present position as honoured king, ruling over a united nation, and blessed with a moral elevation superior to any other man then living, is the counterfoil to this negative aspect. There was no need to say in words what he now was. His life tells that side of the record of God's mercy and power. He refers to the deliverances as blessings preliminary to his positive elevation to honour and distinction. Being delivered from the hand of Saul, he was made king in succession; being saved from the banishment consequent on Absalom's rebellion, of course he was positively restored; being rescued from the sin of backsliding, of course he was reinstated in the Divine favour and holiness of life. This is the correct and New Testament view of the great deliverance, or salvation, wrought for us by Christ. We are delivered from the curse and guilt of sin; but that is the negative good, preliminary, necessary to the implied positive elevation to sonship and eternal holiness. He saves from condemnation, but does not leave us as merely liberated souls. He gives us therewith "power to become the sons of God." He makes us "kings and priests unto God." The positive aspect of salvation means elevation, progress, conformity of nature to the Divine will.
2Sa_22:5-19
1. David represents death, the grave, and ungodly men, under various figures, as causing him deep distress.
2. He states that, on crying unto God out of the greatness of his distress, his voice entered even into his ears.
3. He thus indicates, in strong figurative language, the tokens of God's attention to his cry.
(1) Some manifest signs of his displeasure against his foes (2Sa_22:8, 2Sa_22:9).
(2) A speedy and yet mysterious condescension to the need of his servant (2Sa_22:10, 2Sa_22:11).
(3) The blending of concealed purpose with distinct manifestations of the reality of his interposition (2Sa_22:12-14).
(4) The pressure of his agencies on David's enemies (2Sa_22:15).
(5) The thorough rending of all barriers by his mighty power so as to effect deliverance for his servant (2Sa_22:16-19). David represents his condition as one of isolated anguish—he is cut off from God and man, standing in a position of peril and suffering, from which there is no chance of escape. Doubtless there were several occasions in his checkered life when this was true; but he describes them in the terms more strictly appropriate to the time when, being pursued by Saul and his emissaries, he took refuge in mountains. Like one standing on a slight elevation when the floods are gathering around, he sees only, on every side, death as waves eager to sweep him away. The ungodly men with Saul rush on as a torrent from which there is no escape. The sorrows arising from the thought of all his youthful and patriotic aspirations being soon buried in a premature grave, and a once promising life being cut off as a worthless thing, gather irresistibly around his soul. Whichever way he turns, to the cliffs or the plain, to the ravine or the cave, he sees that death is there spreading out snares to catch him. Neither God nor man is nigh to rescue. Life's great and holy purposes are being crushed and blighted forever. No one cares for his soul. It was then, when destruction was inevitable, that, as a last desperate resort, he poured out his anguish before God and cried for help. The help came, and the fact and form of the interposition are the theme of his song. Here we notice—
I. PROVIDENCE PERMITS MEN TO COME INTO GREAT EXTREMITIES. David's life was especially providential. He was from his youth the child of Providence, and yet, for no other traceable reason than his patriotism and his goodness, he was persecuted by Saul, a jealous, suspicious king, even to the degree that life was despaired of. All the forces of society and of nature seemed to go against him, and meanwhile the God of his youth and early manhood was silent and apparently far away. Our only interpretation of the facts is that God allows his servants sometimes to be brought very low. He does not give them the immunity from pain and peril which their relative goodness and fidelity would seem to warrant. Yet this is not the result of mere arbitrariness or neglect. It is part of an educational purpose, and inseparable from a government of men free in their deeds of wrong. The latent qualities of the righteous and their powers for future use can often be best developed by means of adverse events which throw them more absolutely on God than under smooth and easy conditions they ever could be. We need not be surprised if we fall into manifold trials (1Pe_4:12).
II. THE EXTREMITIES OF LIFE DEVELOP THE FULL STRENGTH OF PRAYER. David had been accustomed, like all pious men, to pray, but now he cried unto God. There was a reserve store of prayer in him which now became developed. He realized as never before his need of God, his helplessness, apart from pure Divine interposition and aid, to accomplish the purpose for which he had been selected by Samuel. There was more faith in him than he had been aware of, and now it was brought into exercise. This was the first gain in the educational process. In the spiritual life, as in the physical and mental, our capacities become atrophied if not well used, and circumstances that draw them forth in unusual degree enrich us with a permanent legacy of increased power. There is a natural tendency to inertia, which the stress of our environment urges us to overcome. How great is the power placed in our hands by the privilege of prayer, who can tell? There are indications of its greatness in particular instances recorded in the Bible and known in modern life. It availeth much. It is the human agency by which the exercise of the Almighty Power has conditioned its own exercise. How seldom do we cry unto God as though we really wanted him and his aid!
III. THE INTERPOSITION OF GOD ON BEHALF OF HIS PEOPLE IS A REALITY IN LIFE. David contrasts in thought his position and that of his enemies. He was apparently left alone by God and man; they were prosperous, numerous, strong, and eager as rolling waves. Death was before and behind him, so that he could not move; they were free to act, and no one to put them in peril. But a change came; the cry of distress had entered into the very ear of God, and, as though there were a sudden change in the Divine relationship to human forces, rescue came. To David the interposition was as real as the previous peril and agony. It was not mere faint heartedness in Saul, not accidental diversion of his thoughts, not a simple refusal of his men to go further in pursuit of the victim of his malice; it was God who had somehow so acted on men and things as to bring about deliverance. The strong figures used by David in 2Sa_22:8-12 express the conviction that God had come to his help, not simply by the action of normal laws, but by the invisible contact of the eternal energy with those laws, wondrously subordinating them to a special design. The true believer still sees God in his great deliverances. The answer to prayer is a great reality. God can and does get at his suffering children. Men see not the invisible hand, but those who cry to God recognize it. The profoundest matters of life are objects of faith, and in faith, as in intention, there is a transcendent knowledge passing all demonstration and all communication.
IV. A REVIEW OF DIVINE INTERPOSITIONS BRINGS OUT TO THE EYE OF FAITH THEIR STRONG CHARACTERISTICS. David here reflects on the deliverances wrought for him in answer to earnest prayer, and their characteristics appear to him to be best represented by the bold and vigorous language in 2Sa_22:8-16. Among these we may notice:
1. A twofold revelation—to himself, as the God of power actually stooping to his help, and holding in his hand the most terrible and most subtle forces of nature; and to his enemies, as the great God causing his voice so to be heard in the course of things as to reveal his wrath and impress men with a sense of his greatness and majesty.
2. An assurance blended with uncertainty. The coming down and the Divine brightness brought assurance unmistakable; but the darkness and mystery of his movements indicated that his methods of working out a saving purpose were beyond human penetration.
3. Use of appropriate agencies for frustrating wicked purposes. The Divine "arrows" were so directed by unerring wisdom as to scatter those who hitherto were bent on pursuit.
4. Thoroughness in clearing away all natural obstacles to the perfecting of the deliverance. So thorough was the reserve to be that the swollen torrents and deep places were to be entirely made bare of water in order to render escape complete. We may look at our deliverances as from enemies human or fiendish, and we shall find that God does make himself known as our Friend, and causes our foes to feel his displeasure. We know that he helps, but we know not all his ways. He brings influences to bear on our foes, so that they are weakened, and what he does he does perfectly, clearing away whatever may hinder our safety. The same general truths will hold good if we look at our many deliverances from spiritual peril. He sets himself against evil, and comes to our sorrowing soul. He lets us know enough for our cheer, but does not throw full light on all his methods. He brings the mighty influences of his Word and Spirit to destroy the power of sin, and by the tremendous work of Christ clears away every obstacle to our full salvation.
GENERAL LESSONS.
1. When we come into great troubles let us take comfort that in this matter we are sharing in an experience which, in the case of some of the best of men, has developed a more earnest spirit of prayer.
2. The records of God's dealings with his saints shows that there is no distress too deep for him to reach and remedy.
3. There is no place on earth but that the voice of prayer is free to enter into God's holy temple and even to his ear.
4. Although for a season during the prosperity of those who persecute the pious it may seem as though they were exempt from displeasure, yet God is angry with them, and will in some significant way cause them to know it.
5. However desperate our case, we may rest assured that God is in possession of all the means of gaining access to our need, and of scattering whatever evils threaten us with ruin.
6. There are no powers, however deep seated and established, but that, if we trust in God, he will clear them out of the way, so that we may find a position of safety, and consequent elevation to honour and blessedness.
2Sa_22:20-30
1. David states that, in delivering him from his enemies, God recognized his uprightness and purity.
2. He affirms that, as a matter of fact, he had in his conduct endeavoured to live according to the will of God.
3. He declares the general truth that, in thus rescuing him the upright, and showing disfavour to the perverse persecutor, there was exemplified the principle of the usual Divine procedure.
4. He ascribes the successes of the past, not to himself, however upright, but to God, his Light in darkness and his Strength for deeds of daring. There is, in David's references to his own righteousness and purity, an appearance of what is now called, self-righteousness. He seems to violate the primary canons of Christian propriety and to establish a doctrine of merit. But this interpretation of his words is an utter misconception of his meaning, and proceeds from an ignorance of the historical circumstances he had in mind when penning the words. It is a wrong done to personal experiences of the Old Testament to approach their interpretation with certain prepossessions based on New Testament teaching with reference to our personal unworthiness before God on account of our essential sinfulness. David was not speaking of his state absolutely before God; he was not thinking of the question as to whether he or any one else was a sinner. His sole thought was of the distinct charges brought against him by such men as Doeg the Edomite, and believed by the foolish king Saul; and he was conscious that his being hunted by Saul was a grievous wrong, a treatment he did not deserve. He was the righteous man, for he loved Saul, showed him kindness, and. paid him honour; Saul and Doeg and others in the conspiracy were the unrighteous men, uttering falsehoods, using cruelty, and cherishing malice. God came as Judge between them, and by interposition showed his delight in what his servant had been and done in this particular matter, and his displeasure with Saul for his wicked conduct. He vindicates the gracious interposition of God on the ground that it is a righteous and glorious thing on the part of God to rescue those who suffer unrighteously, and to declare, by his rescue of them, his delight in them as compared with the men who cause their sufferings (cf. 1Sa_21:7; 1Sa_22:9-13, 1Sa_22:18-23; 1Sa_24:7-15; 1Sa_26:10-20). The vindication and illustration of God's righteousness in saving his people may be considered as follows.
I. THERE ARE SPECIAL INSTANCES IN WHICH IT MAY BE SAID THAT GOD SAVES THE RIGHTEOUS. In ordinary speech we say that God saves sinners. That is true in the sense that all men saved, whether temporally or spiritually, are, in their relation to him, sinful, or transgressors of the Law. But in relation to others and in relation to specific obligations which he may impose on them, they may be relatively righteous, and his saving them may be because they are so. Thus:
1. Those who are righteous in life, as compared with others, are saved from calamity and suffering. Noah was a righteous man, and therefore was spared, while the Flood carried away the wicked. Lot was a righteous man in comparison with the Sodomites, and therefore was delivered by Divine pressure put upon him from the destruction which befell the rest. Some of the better Churches in Asia were not doomed to the woe that was to come on others, because God "knew their works" (Rev_2:1-29; Rev_3:1-22.). The more holy and devoted to Christ we are, and the more minutely our lives are regulated by the laws of God as written in his Word and works, and in our own mental and physical nature, the more shall we be saved from woes that come upon others who violate laws physical, moral, and spiritual.
2. Those who suffer as being unrighteous, when all the time they are not so. This was the case of David, who was persecuted most bitterly by Saul on the ground that he hated his king and sought his life, when all the time he loved his king and guarded his life. It was as a righteous man in this particular that God saved him from distress. The same was true of Joseph in prison; of the Apostles Peter and Paul; yea, of our Saviour himself. And often still does God save his people from the reproach and sorrow brought on them by being represented as being other than they really are (Mat_5:11, Mat_5:12; 1Pe_4:14-17).
3. Those who conform to the gospel law of salvation. Before God all are sinners, and condemned by their own consciences as also by the broken Law. But Christ has made full atonement for sin, and now therefore God, in his sovereign grace, has laid down a new law for us to keep, based upon his acceptance of Christ's perfect work, namely, that we exercise faith in Christ as our atoning Saviour. We are not to try and keep the Decalogue as a condition of being accepted; we cannot attain to the righteousness of the moral Law. We are not to plead the value of repentance and a future life better than the past; all that is indefinite, uncertain. But we are simply to have faith in Christ as set forth in the gospel, that is all that God requires for our acceptance; that is the newly created law, the sum of all obligations in reference to obtaining justification before God. In other words, we are to attain to the "righteousness of faith," the righteousness which consists in fulfilling the obligation created by gospel grace, and then there is no condemnation: we walk then as freed sons in the glorious liberty of the children of God.
II. IN ALL THESE INSTANCES IT IS CONSONANT WITH GOD'S NATURE TO SAVE THE RIGHTEOUS. God's treatment of Noah and Lot, and of all who keep his truth in the midst of prevailing degeneracy, marks his distinction of character on the basis of goodness. It is the Divine nature to love the good and hate the evil tendencies of men. When the persecuted are delivered, there is a vindication of character and a repressing of wrong which cannot but accord with God's natural love of justice. When he graciously accepts us on the condition that we have fulfilled all that he requires under the gospel order, and in our justification recognizes the "righteousness of faith" (Rom_3:25-28; Rom_4:5, Rom_4:6, Rom_4:11, Rom_4:13), he, accepting that kind of righteousness, that fulfilment of all obligation, maintains the honour of the violated Law under which we had lived, and glorifies the sacrificial work of his beloved Son. There is therefore nothing arbitrary in the "law of faith."
III. THESE SPECIAL INSTANCES OF SALVATION ARE IN ACCORD WITH THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE OF GOD'S GOVERNMENT. David was quite warranted in saying that when God, in the matter of the deliverance from the persecutions of Saul, recompensed him according to his righteousness (2Sa_22:25), he was simply acting in harmony with his general kindness to the merciful and upright, and his stern and repressive ways of providence toward the perverse (2Sa_22:26, 2Sa_22:27). The actual laws revealed in the Decalogue, in the civil institutions of Moses, in the precepts of the New Testament, in the constitution of the physical and mental worlds, all go for the good and against the wicked, whatever be the form or degree of the goodness or wickedness. It may be that, for reasons not yet made clear, the wicked triumph for a while and the righteous cry out in agony, "O Lord, how long!" but God's government is vast, intricate, and stretching far into the future, and there are forces at work by which at last the righteous shall be exalted and the wicked abased (Psa_5:4-6, Psa_5:11, Psa_5:12; Psa_37:6, Psa_37:7, Psa_37:23-40).
IV. THOSE WHO ARE SAVED BY GOD ON THE GROUND OF RIGHTEOUSNESS LAY NO CLAIM TO MERIT. The object of David in this passage is not to proclaim his own deeds and claim a right to God's favour, but rather to set forth the righteousness and goodness of God in saving those who conform to his will. He had kept the ways, the statutes, and the judgments of God (2Sa_22:23, 2Sa_22:24) in respect to his behaviour toward Saul,—he could honestly say that; and he considers it a matter of praise and glory to God that he manifested his love of what is just in coming to the rescue of such a one. To have allowed Saul to triumph would have been a reflection on Divine justice. In all this, therefore, there is no reference to merit in the sight of God, any more than Noah felt that he merited God's favour. It was in neither ease a question of the desert of the entire life, but of the state of the life in relation to other men. So in our personal salvation through faith, there is no claim of merit. It is all of grace. The "law of faith" is the creation of grace, and the heart to conform to it is of grace. The light in which we see spiritual things, and in which we rejoice, is not our own. The Lord is our Lamp, and he lightens our darkness (2Sa_22:29). If we are able to break through troops of spiritual foes, and leap over walls (2Sa_22:30) that hem us in, it is not because of our strength; it is only by our God, who of his free mercy supplies all our need.
2Sa_22:31-51
The facts are:
1. David asserts the exclusive perfection of God.
2. He states that his strength and power are from God, and that God teaches him to move and act with advantage in times of war and difficulty.
3. He refers to the help received through the graciousness of God, and the fact that thereby he was able to subdue all his enemies.
4. He alludes to the subjugation of the people to himself as the consequence of Divine help, and looks on to further triumphs over strangers.
5. He recounts the fact of his deliverance, and makes the final reference to them a flesh reason for thanksgiving.
I. A KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IS MORE A QUESTION OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE THAN OF SPECULATION. Among the Hebrews there were grand traditional beliefs and conceptions which placed their pure monotheism far above the theistic faiths of other nations, and David in early years inherited these, and could give beautiful expression to them. But the traditional and even reasoned views which he had acquired were not his greatest treasure. A long life of communion, service, conflict, and patient trust had caused him to see that experience was the most important element in this matter of knowledge of God. No doubt it is possible to reason up to God. The logical outcome of the principle of causation is God, and the moral nature of man is only intelligible on the hypothesis of a supreme personal Ruler. It is not true that s