2 Samuel 22:2 - Meaning and Application

Let us notice, in this song of praise, how David honors God and gives him the glory of his limitless excellence. There is no one like him, and nothing can be compared with him (2 Samuel 22:32). Who is God, except the Lord? All others who are worshiped as gods are false and pretenders. No one else can be trusted. Who is a rock, except our God? Other gods are powerless and dead, but the Lord lives (2 Samuel 22:47). They fail their worshipers when they are needed most. But God’s way is perfect (2 Samuel 22:31). People may begin with kindness, but they do not always finish well. They may make promises, but not carry them out. God, however, will complete his work, and his word has stood the test, so it can be trusted.

David also rejoices in his close relationship with this God, and he treats that relationship as the foundation of every blessing he received. He says, “He is my God.” As his God, David cries to him (2 Samuel 22:7) and holds fast to him (2 Samuel 22:22). If he is my God, then he is also my rock (2 Samuel 22:2), meaning my strength and power (2 Samuel 22:33). He is the rock under which I take shelter, like shade from a great rock in a dry land. He is also the rock on which I build my hope (2 Samuel 22:3). Whatever gives me strength and support, it is really the God of my rock who makes it so. He is even the God of the rock of my salvation (2 Samuel 22:47), because my saving strength comes from him and belongs to him.

David often hid in a rock (1 Samuel 24:2), but God was his chief hiding place. God is his fortress, where he is safe and knows himself to be safe. He is his high tower, or stronghold, where real trouble cannot reach him. He is the tower of salvation (2 Samuel 22:51), which can never be broken into, sealed off, or torn down. Salvation itself saves him. When he is in trouble, God is his deliverer. When he is attacked, God is his shield. When he is pursued, God is his refuge. When he is oppressed, God is his savior, who rescues him from those who want his ruin. He is even the horn of my salvation, that is, a strong power that protects me and pushes back my enemies. Christ is spoken of this way too, as the horn of salvation in the house of David (Luke 1:69). When I am burdened and ready to sink, the Lord is my stay (2 Samuel 22:19), the one who supports me. When I am in darkness and do not know the way, he is my lamp, O Lord, to guide me and drive away my darkness (2 Samuel 22:29). If we truly take the Lord as our God, he will be all this and much more to us, everything we need and everything we can desire.

David also shows how he uses his relationship with God. If God is mine, then in him will I trust (2 Samuel 22:3). That means, “I will give myself to his direction, and then depend on his power, wisdom, and goodness to lead me well.” On him will I call (2 Samuel 22:4), because he deserves praise. What we have found in God that is worthy of praise should lead us to pray to him and honor him. To him will I give thanks (2 Samuel 22:50), and I will do it openly. Even while he was among the nations, he was not afraid or ashamed to say that he owed everything to the God of Israel.

David also carefully remembers, and tells others, the great and kind things God did for him. Most of the song is taken up with this. He gives God the glory for both his rescues and his victories, showing the dangers he was saved from and the honor he was raised to. God sometimes brings his people into very hard troubles, so that he may get the glory for saving them and they may have the comfort of being saved by him. David says, You have saved me from violence (2 Samuel 22:3), from my enemies (2 Samuel 22:4), and from my strong enemy, meaning Saul, who would have been too strong for him if God had not helped him (2 Samuel 22:18). You have given me the shield of your salvation (2 Samuel 22:36).

To make God’s salvation stand out, David points out, first, that the danger was very great and threatening. Men rose up against him (2 Samuel 22:40, 49), men who hated him (2 Samuel 22:41), a violent man (2 Samuel 22:49), namely Saul, who was cruel in his plans and relentless in his chase. David describes this in vivid pictures (2 Samuel 22:5, 6). He was surrounded by death on every side, as if he were about to be swallowed up, and he saw no way out. The waves of death beat on him so fiercely, and the cords and traps of death held him so tightly, that he could not help himself, just as a person in a grave cannot help himself. The floods of Belial, that is, the flood of wickedness and wicked people, frightened him. He trembled to see not only the earth, but death and hell itself, rising against him.

Second, his rescue was an answer to prayer (2 Samuel 22:7). David gives us a good example here. When we are in trouble, we should cry to God with urgency, like children frightened and running to their parents. And we have strong reason to do so, because David found that God was ready to answer prayer from his temple in heaven, where he is always served and worshiped.

Third, God appeared for David in a special and extraordinary way against his enemies. The language comes from the Lord’s descent on Mount Sinai (2 Samuel 22:8, 9, and following). We do not read that in any of David’s battles God fought for him with thunder, as in Samuel’s time, or with hail, as in Joshua’s time, or with the stars fighting in their courses, as in Deborah’s time. But David uses these grand images for a reason. They show the glory of God seen in David’s rescue. God’s wisdom and power, his goodness and faithfulness, his justice and holiness, and his rule over every creature and every human plan, all shone clearly in David’s deliverance. To the eye of faith, this was as plain a display of God’s glory as a miracle would have been to the eye. These images also show God’s anger against David’s enemies. God had taken David’s side so fully that he showed himself as an enemy to all David’s enemies. His anger is pictured as smoke from his nostrils and fire from his mouth (2 Samuel 22:9), burning coals (2 Samuel 22:13), and arrows (2 Samuel 22:15). Who can understand the power and terror of his wrath? They also show the confusion and fear that seized David’s enemies, as if the earth had shaken and the very foundations of the world had been exposed (2 Samuel 22:8, 16). Who can stand before God when he is angry? And they show how ready God was to help David. He rode upon a cherub and flew (2 Samuel 22:11). God hurried to his rescue and came with timely help, even though he had seemed far away. Yet he was a God who hides himself (Isaiah 14:15), for he made darkness his covering (2 Samuel 22:12), to confuse his enemies and protect his people.

Fourth, David says that God showed his special favor and love to him in these rescues (2 Samuel 22:20): He delivered me because he delighted in me. This deliverance did not come only from common providence, God’s ordinary care over the world, but from covenant love, his pledged love to his people. David was treated like one who was especially favored. He knew this through the grace and comfort God gave his soul along with these deliverances, and through the fellowship he enjoyed with God in them. In this, David was also a picture of Christ, whom God upheld because he delighted in him (Isaiah 42:1, 2).

He also praises the great success God had given him. God had not only kept him safe, but had made him prosper. He had been blessed with freedom and room to grow. God had brought him into a broad place (2 Samuel 22:20), where he had room to thrive, and had made his steps steady and wide so he could move freely (2 Samuel 22:37).

God had also given him military skill, strength, and speed. Though he had been raised as a shepherd, he was well taught in the ways of war and fit for its hard work and dangers. Since God had called him to fight His battles, God also equipped him for that work. He made David skillful, strong, and brave, and also quick in action. “He teaches my hands to war” (2 Samuel 22:35). That skill was as useful as strength, because it says that a bow of bronze was broken by his arms, not so much by brute force as by skill. “You have armed me with strength for battle” (2 Samuel 22:40). He gives God the credit for all his courage and ability for service. “He makes my feet like the feet of deer” (2 Samuel 22:34), which was very helpful both in attack and in retreat.

God also gave him victory over his enemies, not only over Saul and Absalom, but over the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Syrians, and other nearby nations, whom he subdued and made subject to Israel. His great victories are described in 2 Samuel 22:38-43. They were quick victories. “I did not turn back until I had destroyed them” (2 Samuel 22:38). They were also complete victories. Israel’s enemies were wounded, destroyed, and crushed. They fell at his feet, were trampled down, and were unable to rise. Their necks were under his power. They cried out for help, both on earth and in heaven, but it was useless. There was no one to save them, and no one dared stand up for them. God did not answer them, because they were not on His side, and they did not cry to Him until they were at the end of their strength. Left alone like this, they became an easy prey to David’s righteous and victorious sword. He beat them as fine as the dust of the earth, blown away by the wind and trodden under every foot.

God also lifted him to honor and power. He had been anointed for this before his troubles began, and at last, after all his dangers and sufferings, he reached the goal. God made his way perfect (2 Samuel 22:33), giving him success in all he undertook, and set him on high places (2 Samuel 22:34), showing both safety and dignity. God’s gentleness, His grace and tender mercy, made him great (2 Samuel 22:36), giving him wealth, authority, and a name among the great men of the earth. He was kept to be the head of the nations (2 Samuel 22:44). His repeated deliverances showed that he was meant for something great, to rule over all Israel despite the people’s resistance, and even over distant nations that had not known him. So he was lifted up high, above those who rose against him, as high as the throne (2 Samuel 22:49).

David then reflects on his own integrity, which God had graciously approved and shown through those great rescues (2 Samuel 22:21-25). He especially means his honesty in relation to Saul, Ishbosheth, Absalom, and Sheba, and to those who tried to block his rise to the throne or pull him down from it. They falsely accused him and misrepresented him, but his conscience testified that he was not an ambitious or bloodthirsty man, as they claimed. He had never used crooked or unlawful means to secure his place or raise himself up. In his whole life, he had kept to the path of duty. For the most part, he had made religion his main work, so he could see God’s kindness to him as a reward for righteousness, not as something earned, but as grace. God had repaid him, not as though his righteousness deserved anything from God, but according to the righteousness that God was pleased with and looked on with favor.

His conscience bore witness for him in two main ways. First, he had made God’s word his rule and stayed close to it (2 Samuel 22:23). Wherever he went, God’s judgments were before him to guide him. Wherever he traveled, he carried his religion with him. Even when he was forced to leave his own country and was, as it were, sent among strangers, he did not leave God’s statutes behind, but kept in the Lord’s way and walked in it. Second, he had carefully stayed away from the side paths of sin. He had not wickedly turned away from his God. He could not claim that he had never made mistakes, but he had not abandoned God or given up His way. He could not free himself from sins of weakness, but God’s grace had kept him from bold, willful sin. Though he had sometimes stumbled, he had not deserted his God.

This showed that he was upright before God, or toward God, meaning he lived with God’s eye on him. He kept himself from his own iniquity, not only from the particular sin of killing Saul when he had the chance, but in a broader sense from sin itself. He watched himself carefully, feared sin, and paid attention to what he said and did. The matter of Uriah is an exception (1 Kings 15:5), just as there was an exception in Hezekiah’s character (2 Chronicles 32:31). Careful restraint from our own sin is one of the best signs of real integrity. And when our conscience tells us we have done this, it gives a joy that not only eases sorrow in hard times, but also deepens comfort in good times. David found more comfort in his victories over his own sin than in his defeat of Goliath and all the armies of the uncircumcised Philistines. The witness of his own heart to his uprightness was sweeter, though quieter, than the songs that said, “David has slain his ten thousands.” If a great man is a good man, his goodness will give him more joy than his greatness. When favor is shown to the upright, their uprightness makes it sweeter and doubles it.

David also looks ahead with comfort, certain of God’s further favor. As he looks back, so he looks forward, and he trusts that God has kindness stored up for all the saints, for himself, and for his family. God will do good to all who are upright in heart (2 Samuel 22:26-28). As God dealt with him according to his uprightness, so He will deal with others. David here lays down the fixed way God works with people. He will do good to those who are upright in heart. As we are toward God, so He will be toward us. God’s mercy and grace will be the joy of those who are merciful and gracious. Even the merciful need mercy, and they will receive it. God’s uprightness, His justice and faithfulness, will be the joy of those who are upright, just, and faithful toward both God and people. God’s purity and holiness will be the joy of those who are pure and holy, and they will thank Him when they remember it.

If any of these good people are afflicted, he will save them, either out of their troubles or through them and after them.

On the other hand, those who turn aside to crooked ways he will send out with the workers of evil, as he says in another psalm. With the stubborn, God will wrestle, and those who contend with God are sure to be defeated. Woe to anyone who fights with his Maker! God will act against those who act against him, and he will be displeased with those who oppose him. As for the proud, his eyes are on them, marking them out, as it were, for a fall, for he resists the proud.

David also looked ahead to himself. He saw that his victories and kingdom would grow even more (2 Samuel 22:45, 2 Samuel 22:46). Even the sons of the foreigner, that is, people from other nations who heard about his victories and saw the signs of God’s presence with him, would fear him and be forced to submit to him, even if only outwardly. The successes he had already received he treated as signs of more to come and as a way to receive more. Who would dare oppose the one whom so many had already been defeated by? In this way, the Son of David goes on conquering and to conquer (Revelation 6:2). His gospel, which has already won victories, will keep spreading and winning more.

And he looked ahead to his seed. God shows mercy to his Messiah (2 Samuel 22:51), not only to David himself, but to that seed of his forever. David himself was anointed by God. He was not a man who seized power for himself, but one who was rightly called to rule and fitted for it. So he had no doubt that God would show him mercy, the mercy promised in which God said he would not take his favor away from David or from his descendants (2 Samuel 7:15, 2 Samuel 7:16). David rested on that promise, with his eyes fixed on Christ, who is his seed forever. Christ’s throne and kingdom still continue, and they will last to the end, while David’s family line has long since ended. See (Psalm 89:28, Psalm 89:29). In this way, all David’s joys and hopes end where ours should also end, in the great Redeemer.