2 Samuel 22

Listen to this chapter

David sings a song of praise to the LORD, recounting God’s mighty deliverance from all his enemies, including Saul. He describes God as his rock, fortress, and deliverer, who intervened with cosmic power in his distress. David attributes his victories and establishment as king to God’s faithfulness and his own uprightness before the LORD.

David's Song of Deliverance 1–4

¶ And David spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul:

¶ And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;

The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.

I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

The Crisis and the Cry for Help 5–7

When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid;

The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me;

In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.

The Theophany: God's Powerful Intervention 8–20

Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth.

There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.

And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind.

And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.

Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled.

The LORD thundered from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice.

And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them.

And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

He sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of many waters;

He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.

They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.

He brought me forth also into a large place: he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

God Rewards David's Integrity 21–25

The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

For all his judgments were before me: and as for his statutes, I did not depart from them.

I was also upright before him, and have kept myself from mine iniquity.

Therefore the LORD hath recompensed me according to my righteousness; according to my cleanness in his eye sight.

The Principle of Divine Justice 26–30

With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright.

With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury.

And the afflicted people thou wilt save: but thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest bring them down.

For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.

For by thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall.

The Perfection of God and His Strength 31–46

As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

For who is God, save the LORD? and who is a rock, save our God?

God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect.

He maketh my feet like hinds' feet: and setteth me upon my high places.

He teacheth my hands to war; so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.

Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy gentleness hath made me great.

Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; so that my feet did not slip.

I have pursued mine enemies, and destroyed them; and turned not again until I had consumed them.

And I have consumed them, and wounded them, that they could not arise: yea, they are fallen under my feet.

For thou hast girded me with strength to battle: them that rose up against me hast thou subdued under me.

Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me.

They looked, but there was none to save; even unto the LORD, but he answered them not.

Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them abroad.

Thou also hast delivered me from the strivings of my people, thou hast kept me to be head of the heathen: a people which I knew not shall serve me.

Strangers shall submit themselves unto me: as soon as they hear, they shall be obedient unto me.

Strangers shall fade away, and they shall be afraid out of their close places.

Concluding Doxology and Covenant Promise 47–51

The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation.

It is God that avengeth me, and that bringeth down the people under me,

And that bringeth me forth from mine enemies: thou also hast lifted me up on high above them that rose up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man.

Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name.

He is the tower of salvation for his king: and sheweth mercy to his anointed, unto David, and to his seed for evermore.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for 2 Samuel 22

Verse 1

the words of this song — Great deliverances are marked by song: ‘Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD’ (Ex 15:1). David sings ‘in the day that the LORD had delivered him’ from his enemies and from Saul. The same song is Psalm 18, and ‘hand’ here is kaph, the open palm.

Verse 3

the horn of my salvation — The horn (qeren) stands for strength. Zacharias applies the figure to Christ: ‘And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David’ (Luke 1:69). ‘Shield’ (magen) and ‘trust’ (chasah) are the words that return in v.31.

Verse 5

the waves of death — ‘Waves’ is mishbar, breakers, the word rendered ‘billows’ in Jonah’s ‘all thy billows and thy waves passed over me’ (Jonah 2:3). ‘Floods of ungodly men’ joins streams (nachal) to beliyyaal, the word used of Sheba in 20:1. The next verse adds ‘The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me.’

Verse 7

out of his temple — Heikal is the word for the sanctuary at Shiloh where Eli sat (1 Sam 1:9) and for the LORD’s dwelling in heaven: ‘The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven’ (Ps 11:4). Solomon’s temple was not yet built (1 Kings 6). ‘Cry’ is shavah, a cry for help.

Verse 8

the earth shook and trembled — Verses 8–16 show the LORD coming down in answer to the cry of v.7. The shaking recalls his march from Seir in Deborah’s song: ‘the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped’ (Judg 5:4). ‘Wroth’ is charah, to burn, the word for kindled anger.

Verse 11

he rode upon a cherub — The LORD is the one ‘that dwellest between the cherubims’ (Ps 80:1); here the cherub carries him as he comes. ‘The wings of the wind’ returns in Ps 104:3, ‘who walketh upon the wings of the wind’. Kerub is the singular of the ‘cherubims’ of that psalm.

Verse 16

the channels of the sea — ‘Rebuking’ is gearah, from the root of the verb in Ps 106:9, ‘He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up’. ‘The blast of the breath of his nostrils’ echoes Moses’ song: ‘with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together’ (Ex 15:8). Tebel, ‘world’, is the inhabited earth.

Verse 17

he drew me out of many waters — ‘Drew out’ is mashah, found only three times in the Old Testament: here, Ps 18:16 and Ex 2:10, where Pharaoh’s daughter names Moses ‘Because I drew him out of the water’. The rescue comes from the LORD ‘from above’ (marom, the height).

Verse 20

a large place — Merchab, a wide open space, as in ‘I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place’ (Ps 118:5). ‘Delighted’ is chaphets, the verb of David’s words in his flight from Absalom, ‘But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee; behold, here am I’ (15:26).

Verse 21

according to my righteousness — Tsedaqah, with ‘cleanness’ (bor) of the hands. David grounds the claim in vv.22–24: ‘I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.’ It is the plea he made when he spared Saul: ‘The LORD render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness’ (1 Sam 26:23).

Verse 26

the merciful — Chasid, the man of covenant love (chesed), rendered ‘godly’ in Ps 32:6. The line is a principle of the LORD’s dealing: ‘Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy’ (Matt 5:7). ‘Upright’ renders tamam, the verb of the tamim (‘perfect’) that describes the LORD’s own way in v.31.

Verse 27

the pure — Barar, to cleanse, as in ‘Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God’ (Matt 5:8). The ‘froward’ are the iqqesh, the twisted: ‘They that are of a froward heart are abomination to the LORD’ (Prov 11:20). ‘Unsavoury’ renders pathal, which means to twist or wrestle: to the crooked he shows himself unyielding.

Verse 30

run through a troop — Gedud is a raiding band, the word of David’s question ‘Shall I pursue after this troop?’ (1 Sam 30:8). The running and the leaping (dalag) over a wall (shur) are both said to be ‘by thee’ and ‘by my God’: the strength is credited to the LORD.

Verse 31

the word of the LORD is tried — Tsaraph is to refine metal, as ‘silver tried in a furnace of earth’ (Ps 12:6). The line is repeated in Prov 30:5, ‘Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him’. ‘Buckler’ is magen, the ‘shield’ of v.3. ‘Perfect’ is tamim, whole, complete.

Verse 32

who is a rock, save our God? — Hannah’s song at the opening of Samuel made the same claim: ‘neither is there any rock like our God’ (1 Sam 2:2), and Moses said ‘their rock is not as our Rock’ (Deut 32:31). Tsur, ‘rock’, is the word of v.3 and v.47. ‘Save’ is biladey, ‘apart from’.

Verse 35

a bow of steel — Nechushah is the word for copper or bronze, the ‘brass’ of Lev 26:19, ‘your earth as brass’. The KJV renders it ‘steel’ here, in Ps 18:34 and in Job 20:24. The verse is a statement about training: ‘teacheth my hands to war’, as Ps 144:1 has it, ‘my hands to war, and my fingers to fight’.

Verse 44

the strivings of my people — Riyb, strife, like the tribes’ quarrel in 19:9, ‘at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel’, after Absalom. ‘Head of the heathen’ (goyim, nations) looks to David’s conquests, such as Edom’s garrisons (8:14). ‘A people which I knew not’ recalls Isa 55:5, ‘a nation that thou knowest not’, which follows ‘the sure mercies of David’ (55:3).

Verse 47

the rock of my salvation — Tsur yishi, the title Moses used when Jeshurun ‘lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation’ (Deut 32:15), and the cry given to David in Ps 89:26, ‘Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation’. ‘Salvation’ is yesha, the word of v.3.

Verse 50

among the heathen — Paul cites this verse among his proofs that the Gentiles are to glorify God: ‘For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name’ (Rom 15:9). ‘Give thanks’ is yadah, to confess or praise, and ‘sing praises’ is zamar, to make music; ‘heathen’ is goyim, the nations.

Verse 51

his anointed — Mashiach, the Hebrew behind ‘the Christ’ (John 1:41). ‘Unto David, and to his seed for evermore’ rests on 2 Sam 7:12–13, ‘I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever’. The angel’s word to Mary uses it of her son: ‘the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David… of his kingdom there shall be no end’ (Luke 1:32–33).