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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - 2 Samuel 23:3 - 23:3
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The Rock of Israel; he who is the strength, and defence, and protector of his people; which he here manifests by obliging and directing kings and rulers so to manage their power and authority. as may most conduce to their comfort and benefit.
Spake to me, by way of command; or, of me, by way of prediction and promise concerning me and my house, and the Messias who is to come out of my loins.
He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God: thus it is a precept or declaration of the duty of kings, and particularly of Solomon his son, (to whom as a dying man he gives this advice,) and of his successors the kings of God’s Israel, for whose instruction he gives this rule. And so here are the two principal parts of a king’s duty, answerable to the two tables of God’s law, justice towards men, and piety towards God, both which he is to maintain and promote among his people; to which if you add benignity and clemency, whereby a king renders his government not frightful and burdensome, but acceptable and amiable to his people, which possibly may be meant by the following similitudes, here is a complete character of an excellent prince or governor. Others make it a prophecy of Christ; and then the words are or may be thus rendered, There shall be a Ruler over men, (or rather, among men, as the Hebrew word properly signifies, to wit, the Messias, who, though he be the eternal and invisible God, yet shall visibly appear and rule among men,) a just or righteous one, (a title oft given to Christ, as Isa_53:11 Jer_23:5,6 33:15 Zec_9:9)
ruling in the fear of the Lord, making it his great business to advance the service, and worship, and glory of the Lord; or, as it is in the Hebrew, ruling the fear of the Lord, i.e. governing and ordering the worship of God, which is oft called the fear of God. And so this clause is added to prevent or remove scandals and offences which might be taken at the Messias when he should come, because of his changing and abrogating the ceremonial law; and to insinuate that he should have no less power in the governing of God’s house and worship than Moses had, and that he might make such laws as he thought meet. And if this be the meaning of the place, then as Jacob, being greatly afflicted with the troubles which he by the Spirit of prophecy foresaw were coming upon his posterity, comforts himself with the thoughts of that great and glorious salvation of God, which he also foresaw and waited for, Gen_49:18; so David, reflecting upon the great disorders, and miscarriages, and calamities which had already arisen in his house, and either wisely presaging or foreseeing by the Spirit of the Lord, 2Sa_23:2, that the same sins and miseries should be fall his posterity and successors, he supports and comforts himself with this consideration, that one of them should be a most excellent person, just, and pious, and merciful, and an unspeakable blessing to David himself, and to all his family and people, and to the whole world, even the great Messias, who was undoubtedly revealed to and expected by David, as appears by many passages of the Psalms, and by other scriptures.