2 Samuel 22:48

22:1-51 David's psalm of thanksgiving. - This chapter is a psalm of praise; we find it afterwards nearly as Ps 18. They that trust God in the way of duty, shall find him a present help in their greatest dangers: David did so. Remarkable preservations should be particularly mentioned in our praises. We shall never be delivered from all enemies till we get to heaven. God will preserve all his people, 2Ti 4:18. Those who receive signal mercies from God, ought to give him the glory. In the day that God delivered David, he sang this song. While the mercy is fresh, and we are most affected with it, let the thank-offering be brought, to be kindled with the fire of that affection. All his joys and hopes close, as all our hopes should do, in the great Redeemer.

48 . avengeth me ] For the wrongs inflicted by Saul ( 1 Samuel 24:12 ); for the insults of Nabal ( 1 Samuel 25:39 ); for the opposition of those who refused to acknowledge him as king (ch. 2 Samuel 4:8 ). Vengeance is the prerogative of God ( Psalm 94:1 ), and the visible execution of it was anxiously looked for as His vindication of the righteousness and innocence of His servants. bringeth down the people under me ] The reference seems to be, as in 2 Samuel 22:44 , to his success in overcoming internal opposition to his rule. It is not the boast of a triumphant despot, but the thanksgiving of a ruler who recognised the vital importance of union for the prosperity of Israel, and the extreme difficulty of reconciling all the discordant elements in the nation, and knew that it was a task beyond his unaided powers. Cp. Psalm 144:2 . The Sept. reads “disciplineth.” 2 Samuel 22:48

32–37. The praise of Jehovah the giver of victory 32 . For who is a strong God ( El ) save Jehovah? and who is a rock, save our God ( Elôhîm )? Cp. ch. 2 Samuel 7:22 ; Deuteronomy 32:31 ; 1 Samuel 2:2 . El , the name which describes God as the Mighty One , is found in Samuel only in 1 Samuel 2:3 ; 2 Samuel 22:31-33 ; 2 Samuel 22:48 ; 2 Samuel 23:5 . For the combination of El and Elôhîm see Genesis 33:20 .

This song, which is found with scarcely any material variation as Psalm 18 , and with the words of this first verse for its title, belongs to the early part of David's reign when he was recently established upon the throne of all Israel, and when his final triumph over the house of Saul, and over the pagan nations 2 Samuel 22:44-46 , Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Ammonites, and Edomites, was still fresh 2 Samuel 21 . For a commentary on the separate verses the reader is referred to the commentary on Psalm 18 . The last words of David - i. e., his last Psalm, his last "words of song" 2 Samuel 22:1. The insertion of this Psalm, which is not in the Book of Psalms, was probably suggested by the insertion of the long Psalm in 2 Samuel 22. David the son of Jesse said ... - The original word for "said" is used between 200 and 300 times in the phrase, "saith the Lord," designating the word of God in the mouth of the prophet. It is only applied to the words of a man here, and in the strikingly similar passage Numbers 24:3-4, Numbers 24:15-16, and in Proverbs 30:1; and in all these places the words spoken are inspired words. The description of David is divided into four clauses, which correspond to and balance each other.

CHAPTER 22 2Sa 22:1-51. David's Psalm of Thanksgiving for God's Powerful Deliverance and Manifold Blessings. The song contained in this chapter is the same as the eighteenth Psalm, where the full commentary will be given [see on [278]Ps 18:1, &c.]. It may be sufficient simply to remark that Jewish writers have noticed a great number of very minute variations in the language of the song as recorded here, from that embodied in the Book of Psalms—which may be accounted for by the fact that this, the first copy of the poem, was carefully revised and altered by David afterwards, when it was set to the music of the tabernacle. This inspired ode was manifestly the effusion of a mind glowing with the highest fervor of piety and gratitude, and it is full of the noblest imagery that is to be found within the range even of sacred poetry. It is David's grand tribute of thanksgiving for deliverance from his numerous and powerful enemies, and establishing him in the power and glory of the kingdom.

47 Jehovah liveth, and blessed is my rock, And the God of my refuge of salvation is exalted. 48 The God who giveth me vengeance, And bringeth nations under me; 49 Who leadeth me out from mine enemies, And exalteth me above mine adversaries, Delivereth me from the man of violence. The formula חי־יהוה does not mean "let Jehovah live," for the word יחי would be used for that (vid., 2 Samuel 16:16; 1 Samuel 10:24), but is a declaration: "the Lord is living." The declaration itself is to be taken as praise of God, for "praising God is simply ascribing to Him the glorious perfections which belong to him; we have only to give Him what is His own" (Hengstenberg). The following clauses also contain simply declarations; this is evident from the word ירוּם, since the optative ירם would be used to denote a wish. The Lord is living or alive when He manifests His life in acts of omnipotence. In the last clause, the expression צוּר (rock) is intensified into ישׁעי צוּר אלהי (the God of my refuge, or rock, of salvation), i.e., the God who is my saving rock (cf. 2 Samuel 22:3). In the predicates of God in 2 Samuel 22:48, 2 Samuel 22:49, the saving acts depicted by David in vv. 5-20 and 29-46 are summed up briefly. Instead of מוריד, "He causes to go down under me," i.e., He subjects to me, we find in the psalm ויּדבּר, "He drives nations under me," and מפלטי instead of מוציאי; and lastly, instead of חמס אישׁ in the psalm, we have here חמסים אישׁ, as in Psalm 140:2.

But as we generally find, the Keri is an alteration for the worse, occasioned by the objection felt by the Masoretes, partly to the unusual circumstance that the singular form of the suffix is attached to תּחת, whereas it usually takes the suffixes in the plural form, and partly to the omission of the article from לשׁכות by the side of the demonstrative האלּה, which is defined by the article. But these two deviations from the ordinary rule do not warrant any alterations, as there are analogies in favour of both. תּחת has a singular suffix not only in תּחתּנּה (Genesis 2:21) and תּחתּני (2 Samuel 22:37, 2 Samuel 22:40, and 2 Samuel 22:48), instead of תּחתּי (Psalm 18:37, Psalm 18:40,Psalm 18:48), which may undoubtedly be explained on the ground that the direction whither is thought of (Ges. 103. 1, Anm. 3), but also in תּחתּם, which occurs more frequently than תּחתּיהם, and that without any difference in the meaning (compare, for example, Deuteronomy 2:12, Deuteronomy 2:21-23; Joshua 5:7; Job 34:24, and Job 40:12, with 1 Kings 20:24; 1 Chronicles 5:22; 2 Chronicles 12:10). And לשׁכות האלּה is analogous to הר in Zechariah 4:7, and many other combinations, in which the force of the definition (by means of the article) is only placed in the middle for the sake of convenience (vid., Ewald, ֗293a).

But as we generally find, the Keri is an alteration for the worse, occasioned by the objection felt by the Masoretes, partly to the unusual circumstance that the singular form of the suffix is attached to תּחת, whereas it usually takes the suffixes in the plural form, and partly to the omission of the article from לשׁכות by the side of the demonstrative האלּה, which is defined by the article. But these two deviations from the ordinary rule do not warrant any alterations, as there are analogies in favour of both. תּחת has a singular suffix not only in תּחתּנּה (Genesis 2:21) and תּחתּני (2 Samuel 22:37, 2 Samuel 22:40, and 2 Samuel 22:48), instead of תּחתּי (Psalm 18:37, Psalm 18:40,Psalm 18:48), which may undoubtedly be explained on the ground that the direction whither is thought of (Ges. 103. 1, Anm. 3), but also in תּחתּם, which occurs more frequently than תּחתּיהם, and that without any difference in the meaning (compare, for example, Deuteronomy 2:12, Deuteronomy 2:21-23; Joshua 5:7; Job 34:24, and Job 40:12, with 1 Kings 20:24; 1 Chronicles 5:22; 2 Chronicles 12:10). And לשׁכות האלּה is analogous to הר in Zechariah 4:7, and many other combinations, in which the force of the definition (by means of the article) is only placed in the middle for the sake of convenience (vid., Ewald, ֗293a).