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: 2 and he said, "Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine; 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 savior, you save me from violence. 4 I will call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised: So shall I be saved from my enemies. 5 For the waves of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. 6 The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death caught me. 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. 8 Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, because he was angry. 9 Smoke went up out of his nostrils. Fire out of his mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by it. 10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. 11 He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind. 12 He made darkness pavilions around himself: gathering of waters, and thick clouds of the skies. 13 At the brightness before him, coals of fire were kindled. 14 Yahweh thundered from heaven. The Most High uttered his voice. 15 He sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and confused them. 16 Then the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare by the rebuke of Yahweh, At the blast of the breath of his nostrils. 17 He sent from on high and he took me. He drew me out of many waters. 18 He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. 19 They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahweh was my support. 20 He also brought me out into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me. 21 Yahweh rewarded me according to my righteousness. He rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands. 22 For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, and have not wickedly departed from my God. 23 For all his ordinances were before me. As for his statutes, I did not depart from them. 24 I was also perfect toward him. I kept myself from my iniquity. 25 Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in his eyesight. 26 With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect. 27 With the pure you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd. 28 You will save the afflicted people, But your eyes are on the haughty, that you may bring them down. 29 For you are my lamp, Yahweh. Yahweh will light up my darkness. 30 For by you, I run against a troop. By my God, I leap over a wall. 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. 32 For who is God, besides Yahweh? Who is a rock, besides our God? 33 God is my strong fortress. He makes my way perfect. 34 He makes his feet like hinds' (feet), and sets me on my high places. 35 He teaches my hands to war, so that my arms bend a bow of brass. 36 You have also given me the shield of your salvation. Your gentleness has made me great. 37 You have enlarged my steps under me. My feet have not slipped. 38 I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them. I didn't turn again until they were consumed. 39 I have consumed them, and struck them through, so that they can't arise. Yes, they have fallen under my feet. 40 For you have armed me with strength for the battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me. 41 You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, that I might cut off those who hate me. 42 They looked, but there was none to save; even to Yahweh, but he didn't answer them. 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. 44 You also have delivered me from the strivings of my people. You have kept me to be the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known will serve me. 45 The foreigners will submit themselves to me. As soon as they hear of me, they will obey me. 46 The foreigners will fade away, and will come trembling out of their close places. 47 Yahweh lives! Blessed be my rock! Exalted be God, the rock of my salvation, 48 even the God who executes vengeance for me, who brings down peoples under me, 49 who brings me away from my enemies. Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me. You deliver me from the violent man. 50 Therefore I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations. Will sing praises to your name. 51 He gives great deliverance to his king, and shows loving kindness to his anointed, to David and to his seed, forevermore."
David's psalm of thanksgiving for God's powerful deliverance and manifold blessings, including prophetic declarations relative to the humiliation and exaltation of the Messiah, vv. 1-51.
INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 22
This chapter contains a song or psalm, the same with the eighteenth psalm, and which, according to Jarchi, was composed by David in his old age, and, as Kimchi says, at the end or close of his days; but Abarbinel is of opinion that it was written in his youthful time, in the midst of his troubles, and was sung by him as often as he had a deliverance from any; and which may account for the several variations in it from the eighteenth psalm, which, the same writer observes, are seventy four; and are not to be ascribed to the difference of copies, or neglect of copiers: and very probably, towards the close of his days, he revised it, and made it fit for general use, and sent it with the rest of his psalms to the chief musician; but the particular consideration of it, and of the differences in it from Psalm 18:1 are referred to the exposition of that book in its course.
David's psalm of thanksgiving.
David's Psalm of Thanksgiving for Victory over All His Enemies - 2 Samuel 22
In the following psalm of thanksgiving, David praises the Lord as his deliverer out of all dangers during his agitated life and conflicts with his foes (2-Samuel 22:2-4). In the first half he pictures his marvellous deliverance out of all the troubles which he passed through, especially in the time of Saul's persecutions, under the image of an extraordinary theophany (vv. 5-20), and unfolds the ground of this deliverance (2-Samuel 22:21-28). In the second half he proclaims the mighty help of the Lord, and his consequent victories over the foreign enemies of his government (vv. 29-46), and closes with renewed praise of God for all His glorious deeds (2-Samuel 22:47-51). The psalm is thus arranged in two leading divisions, with an introductory and concluding strophe. But we cannot discover any definite system of strophes in the further arrangement of the principal divisions, as the several groups of thoughts are not rounded off symmetrically.
The contents and form of this song of praise answer to the fact attested by the heading, that it was composed by David in the later years of his reign, when God had rescued him from all his foes, and helped his kingdom to victory over all the neighbouring heathen nations. The genuineness of the psalm is acknowledged to be indisputable by all the modern critics, except J. Olshausen and Hupfeld,
(Note: Even Hitzig observes (die Psalmen, i. p. 95): "There is no ground whatever for calling in question the Davidic authorship of the psalm, and therefore the statement made in the heading; and, in fact, there is all the more reason for adhering to it, because it is attested twice. The recurrence of the psalm as one of Davidic origin in 2 Samuel 22 is of some weight, since not the slightest suspicion attaches to any of the other songs of sayings attributed to David in the second book of Samuel (e.g., 2-Samuel 3:33-34; 2-Samuel 5:8; 2-Samuel 7:18-29; 2-Samuel 23:1-7). Moreover, the psalm is evidently ancient, and suited to the classical period of the language and its poetry. 2-Samuel 22:31 is quoted as early as Proverbs 30:5, and 2-Samuel 22:34 in Habakkuk 3:19. The psalm was also regarded as Davidic at a very early period, as the 'diaskeuast' of the second book of Samuel met with the heading, which attributes the psalm to David. No doubt this opinion might be founded upon 2-Samuel 22:51; and with perfect justice if it were: for if the psalm was not composed by David, it must have been composed in his name and spirit; and who could have been this contemporaneous and equal poet?" Again, after quoting several thoroughly Davidic signs, he says at p. 96: "It is very obvious with how little justice the words of 2-Samuel 22:51, relating to 2-Samuel 7:12-16, 2-Samuel 7:26, 2-Samuel 7:29, have been pronounced spurious. Besides, the psalm can no more have concluded with למשׁיחו (2-Samuel 22:51) than with 2-Samuel 22:50; and if David refers to himself by name at the commencement in 2-Samuel 23:1, and in the middle in 2-Samuel 7:20, why should he not do the same at the close?")
who, with hypercritical scepticism, dispute the Davidic origin of the psalm on subjective grounds of aesthetic taste. This psalm is found in the Psalter as Ps 18, though with many divergences in single words and clauses, which do not, however, essentially affect the meaning. Commentators are divided in opinion as to the relation in which the two different forms of the text stand to one another. The idea that the text of 2 Samuel. rests upon a careless copy and tradition must decidedly be rejected: for, on the one hand, by far the larger portion of the deviations in our text from that of the Psalter are not to be attributed to carelessness on the part of copyists, but are evidently alterations made with thoughtfulness and deliberation: e.g., the omission of the very first passage (2-Samuel 22:1), "I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength;" the change of צוּרי אלי (my God, my strength, or rock) into צוּרי אלהי (the God of my rock), as "the God of the rock" occurs again in 2-Samuel 22:47 of the text before us; or the substitution of ויּרא (He was seen, 2-Samuel 22:11) for ויּדא (He did fly), etc. On the other hand, the original reading has undoubtedly been retained in many passages of our text, whilst simpler and more common forms have been substituted in that of the Psalm; e.g., in v. 5, מות משׁבּרי instead of מות fo d חבלי; in v. 8, השּׁמים מוסדות (the foundations of the heavens) for הרים מוסדי (the foundations of the hills); in v. 12, השׁרת־מים for חשׁכת־מים; in v. 16, ים אפיקי for מים אפיקי; in v. 28, תּשׁפּיל על־רמים ועניך for תּשׁפּיל רמות וענים; in v. 33, דּרכּו תמים ויּתּר for דּרכּי תמים ויּתּן; and in v. 44, לראשׁ תּשׁמרני for לראשׁ תּשׂימני, and several others. In general, however, the text of the Psalm bears the stamp of poetical originality more than the text before us, and the latter indicates a desire to give greater clearness and simplicity to the poetical style. Consequently neither of the two texts that have come down to us contains the original text of the psalm of David unaltered; but the two recensions have been made quite independently of each other, one for the insertion of the psalm in the Psalter intended for liturgical use, and the other when it was incorporated into the history of David's reign, which formed the groundwork of our books of Samuel. The first revision may have been made by David himself when he arranged his Psalm for liturgical purposes; but the second was effected by the prophetic historian, whose object it was, when inserting David's psalm of praise in the history of his reign, not so much to give it with diplomatic literality, as to introduce it in a form that should be easily intelligible and true to the sense.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.