By Dan
& Brenda Cathcart
The video
version of this teaching is available at https://youtu.be/jxD9_A6LjiQ
The
scripture reading is 2 Samuel 22:1-51
This
haftarah portion falls during the Feast of Unleavened Bread following the Feast
of Passover. In this haftarah portion, 2 Samuel 22:1-51, David praises God for
delivering him from the hand of Saul and all his enemies.
2 Samuel 22:1 NKJV 1 Then David spoke to the
LORD the words of this song, on the day when the LORD had delivered him from
the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.
We don’t
know when in David’s lifetime that he wrote this Psalm, but this Psalm stands
out because it is not just recorded in the book of Psalms as Psalm Eighteen, it
is recorded in the narrative of David’s life. David wrote many Psalms
throughout his life; he is credited with writing seventy five of the one
hundred fifty Psalms recorded in the book of Psalms. So, why is this Psalm
recorded in the narrative? What can we learn from David who was far from
perfect yet described as a man after God’s own heart? And why was this passage
chosen to be read during the Feast of Unleavened Bread?
This record
of David’s praise to God is near the end of the book of Second Samuel. Although
the book’s title seems to indicate that Samuel wrote it, the death of Samuel is
recorded as having occurred in First Samuel chapter twenty five. The NKJV Study
Bible explains that Jewish tradition holds that the prophets Nathan and Gad
completed the book of First Samuel and wrote the book of Second Samuel.[i] These two prophets, Nathan
and Gad, were a constant presence in David’s life as he rose from exile to
become Israel’s greatest king.
Although we
don’t know specifically when David wrote this Psalm, the Jewish sage Abarbanel
believes it was early in David’s life. The Stone Edition Chumash writes:
Abarbanel, in his commentary to Samuel, is of
the opinion that David originally composed this song in his youth when he was
still enmeshed in his many problems and misfortunes. He created it to be an
all-inclusive psalm that would relate to every woe which could possibly occur
in his life.[ii]
If
Abarbanel is correct, the psalm is appropriately placed next to David’s last
words demonstrating David’s faith from the early part of his life until the
very end!
The book of
Second Samuel opens with the death of Saul and Jonathan. David wrote a
lamentation for their deaths. In his song, David points out that the shield of
Saul did not protect him. The Stone Edition Tanach translation of 2 Samuel 1:21
reads:
O mountains of Gilboa—let neither dew nor rain
be upon you, nor fields of bounty, for rejected there was the shield of the
mighty ones, the shield of Saul, as if unanointed with oil.[iii]
In
contrast, David opens his song of praise to God with the statement that God is
his shield that would always protect him from violence!
2 Samuel 22:2-3 NKJV 2 And he said: "The
LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; 3 The God of my strength, in
whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my
refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence.
From the
time David first faced an enemy, that of the giant Goliath, he affirmed his
faith that God was his deliver.
1 Samuel 17:36-37 NKJV 36 "Your servant
has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like
one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God." 37
Moreover David said, "The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion
and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this
Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with
you!"
God
consistently delivered David out of the hands of his enemies. However it was
not long after David came to the attention of Saul that Saul became jealous of
David’s popularity with the people of Israel. Although Saul sought to kill
David, God faithfully delivered David out of Saul’s hand. One such incident happened
shortly after David fled from Saul’s court. David had taken refuge among the
Ziphites, but his presence was betrayed to Saul. David and the men with him were
forced to flee into the wilderness of Maon. Saul and his men pursued David and
had nearly succeeded in surrounding him. However, news of the Philistines
attacking Israel diverted Saul and his men.
1 Samuel 23:27-28 NKJV 27 But a messenger came
to Saul, saying, "Hasten and come, for the Philistines have invaded the
land!" 28 Therefore Saul returned from pursuing David, and went against
the Philistines; so they called that place the Rock of Escape.
In this
psalm, David declares that when he calls on God, acknowledging that deliverance
only comes from God, then he will be saved from his enemies.
2 Samuel 22:4 (JPGreen)I call on Jehovah, the
one to be praised; and I shall be saved from my enemies.
The phrase
“to be praised” comes from the word “halal,” number 1984 in Strong’s
Concordance meaning to shine, to boast, rave, praise, or celebrate. This is
more than just a “good job” and a pat on the back! This is a boasting and
celebration of what God does and who He is. David goes on to put this into
practice by extoling God using the imagery of crossing the Red Sea.
2 Samuel 22:5-7 NKJV 5 'When the waves of death
surrounded me, The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. 6 The sorrows of Sheol
surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me. 7 In my distress I called
upon the LORD, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And
my cry entered His ears.
David
references God hearing from His temple, but if David wrote this psalm early in
his life, what temple is David referring to? The word “temple” is from the
Hebrew word “heykal,” number 1964 in Strong’s Concordance meaning a large
public building in the sense of having a large capacity. This word is first
used in the Bible in reference to the tabernacle in 1 Samuel 1:9 where the
priest Eli is described as sitting by a post near the “temple of the LORD.”
Since the temple had not yet been built, this public building would have been
the tabernacle. However, David is not referencing this tabernacle; David’s
description of God’s reaction to his plea places this public building on Mt.
Sinai.
2 Samuel 22:8-12 NKJV 8 "Then the earth
shook and trembled; The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, Because
He was angry. 9 Smoke went up from His nostrils, And devouring fire from His
mouth; Coals were kindled by it. 10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down
With darkness under His feet. 11 He rode upon a cherub, and flew; And He was
seen upon the wings of the wind. 12 He made darkness canopies around Him, Dark
waters and thick clouds of the skies.
David saw
himself in the Exodus story and in the events at Mt. Sinai. He saw himself as
being present when God brought the children of Israel across the Red Sea. He
saw himself as being present when God spoke from Mt. Sinai and tongues of fire
touched on all those present at the base of the mountain. He saw himself as
present when God took the people as His own people and called them a special
treasure.
David
continues with the imagery of the Red Sea and Mt. Sinai.
2 Samuel 22:13-16 NKJV 13 From the brightness
before Him Coals of fire were kindled. 14 "The LORD thundered from heaven,
And the Most High uttered His voice. 15 He sent out arrows and scattered them;
Lightning bolts, and He vanquished them. 16 Then the channels of the sea were
seen, The foundations of the world were uncovered, At the rebuke of the LORD,
At the blast of the breath of His nostrils.
These
verses, from verse eight to verse sixteen, form a chiasm, an inverted structure
that ends where it begins with both sides pointing to a central theme. In
verses eight and sixteen, there are wonders on the Earth. Moving in towards the
central theme, verses nine and ten correspond to verses thirteen through
fifteen about fire coming from heaven. Verses ten and twelve tell us God uses
the darkness. This brings us to our central theme in verse eleven that God is
swift to answer and bring help.
David
explains that God is swift to answer because God delights in him.
2 Samuel 22:20 NKJV 20 He also brought me out
into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.
The word
“delight” is the Hebrew word “chaphets,”
number 2654 in Strong’s Concordance meaning to incline to, to be pleased
with or delighted with. God is pleased with David. David elaborates.
2 Samuel 22:21-25 NKJV 21 "The LORD
rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my
hands He has recompensed me. 22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, And have
not wickedly departed from my God. 23 For all His judgments were before me; And
as for His statutes, I did not depart from them. 24 I was also blameless before
Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. 25 Therefore the LORD has recompensed
me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in His eyes.
We might
question David’s sanity here. How could David assert that he has kept the ways
of the LORD and is blameless before God? David seduced Bathsheba, the wife of
Uriah one of his most loyal generals. He, then, conspired to have Uriah
murdered! The prophet Nathan, who wrote the words of Second Samuel, was the one
who confronted David in his sin. How could David call himself righteous? And
why would Nathan include the words of this Psalm in the record of David’s life?
It was because David was confident of God’s mercy. He was confident God would
see him as clean!
2 Samuel 22:26-29 NKJV 26 "With the
merciful You will show Yourself merciful; With a blameless man You will show
Yourself blameless; 27 With the pure You will show Yourself pure; And with the
devious You will show Yourself shrewd. 28 You will save the humble people; But
Your eyes are on the haughty, that You may bring them down. 29 "For You are
my lamp, O LORD; The LORD shall enlighten my darkness.
David
acknowledges that in his own strength, he cannot be any of those things. He
cannot be righteous, blameless, pure or humble.
2 Samuel 22:32-37 NKJV 32 "For who is God,
except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God? 33 God is my strength and
power, And He makes my way perfect. 34 He makes my feet like the feet of deer,
And sets me on my high places. 35 He teaches my hands to make war, So that my
arms can bend a bow of bronze. 36 "You have also given me the shield of
Your salvation; Your gentleness has made me great. 37 You enlarged my path
under me; So my feet did not slip.
David says
that it is only God who enabled him to keep the way of the LORD, to walk in
those high places. Similarly, it is only God who can enable us to keep the way
of the LORD! Paul laments that, like us, he is unable to keep the way of the
LORD. Although his spirit desires the way of the LORD; his flesh is weak. But
Paul states he is not defeated; he is victorious in Messiah Yeshua.
Romans 8:1-2 NKJV 1 There is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the
flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
God was
pleased with David’s humble heart and his desire to allow God to light His
path. God was also pleased with Yeshua, His own son and a son of David. Yeshua
had taken Peter, James and John onto a high mountain where Yeshua was transfigured
before them; Yeshua’s face shone like the sun! Moses and Elijah appeared beside
him, and Peter desired to build tents for them.
Matthew 17:5 NKJV 5 While he was still
speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came
out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased. Hear Him!"
The words
of the remainder of David’s Psalm of praise could easily apply to Yeshua as
well as to David. David writes of his victories in battle and of God placing him
as the head of many nations!
2 Samuel 22:44-46 NKJV 44 "You have also
delivered me from the strivings of my people; You have kept me as the head of
the nations. A people I have not known shall serve me. 45 The foreigners submit
to me; As soon as they hear, they obey me. 46 The foreigners fade away, And
come frightened from their hideouts.
Unlike the
foreigners, David did not serve a God that was dead. He served a God that had
the power to act.
2 Samuel 22:47-50 NKJV 47 "The LORD lives!
Blessed be my Rock! Let God be exalted, The Rock of my salvation! 48 It is God
who avenges me, And subdues the peoples under me; 49 He delivers me from my
enemies. You also lift me up above those who rise against me; You have
delivered me from the violent man. 50 Therefore I will give thanks to You, O
LORD, among the Gentiles, And sing praises to Your name.
David
concludes his psalm with a look to the future, with a look at a coming king,
God’s anointed.
2 Samuel 22:51 NKJV 51 He is the tower of
salvation to His king, And shows mercy to His anointed, To David and his
descendants forevermore."
Peter
reminds us that we are following the messiah, the anointed one, a king in whom
God is well pleased!
2 Peter 1:16-18 NKJV 16 For we did not follow
cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For He received
from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the
Excellent Glory: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
18 And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the
holy mountain.
Nathan and
Gad recorded David’s last words after those of his psalm of praise. They
introduce David as God’s anointed and the sweet Psalmist of Israel.
2 Samuel 23:1 NKJV 1 Now these are the last
words of David. Thus says David the son of Jesse; Thus says the man raised up
on high, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel:
David
describes the ideal ruler of Israel who was coming!
2 Samuel 23:2-4 NKJV 2 "The Spirit of the
LORD spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue. 3 The God of Israel said, The
Rock of Israel spoke to me: 'He who rules over men must be just, Ruling in the
fear of God. 4 And he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun
rises, A morning without clouds, Like the tender grass springing out of the
earth, By clear shining after rain.'
David goes
on to recognize that his house doesn’t live up to that description! Those who
rebel against God would be burned with fire! But somehow God would bring about
this ideal ruler through David’s house because of God’s commitment to the
covenant He made with David.
2 Samuel 23:5 NKJV 5 "Although my house is
not so with God, Yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in
all things and secure. For this is all my salvation and all my desire; Will He
not make it increase?
As
mentioned earlier, David’s psalm of praise for God’s deliverance is included
near the end of the book of Second Samuel, but it is not at the end. The book
of Second Samuel ends with David’s disastrous decision to number the children
of Israel which led to the death of thousands of men. Once again, we see that
David was not blameless; His hands were not clean. This time, David is
confronted by the prophet Gad, the other author of the book of Second Samuel. Once
again, David acknowledges his sin.
2 Samuel 24:17 NKJV 17 Then David spoke to the
LORD when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, "Surely
I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done?
Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father's house."
The book of
Second Samuel began with the death of Saul and the end of Saul’s reign over
Israel. Saul’s kingship did not continue with his sons because he broke the
covenant God had made with him and did not repent. In contrast, the book of
Second Samuel ends with the continuation of the reign of David’s line even
though David had broken God’s commandments. Throughout the book of Second
Samuel, we see David continually turning back to God whenever he strayed. In
this last instance, he repented and prayed, not for mercy for himself, but
mercy for his people.
David’s
psalm of praise is included in the narrative of his life because he lived his
life by this psalm. He didn’t live it perfectly, but he lived it consistently.
This psalm was chosen as the reading for the Feast of Unleavened Bread because
David lived his life as if he, too, was brought out of Egypt by the hand of God
and taken into covenant with God at Mt. Sinai. David never doubted in the
goodness and mercy of God towards His people.
Yeshua, our
Passover sacrifice, was given for us that we could enter into covenant with God.
Paul testifies about the new covenant.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 NKJV 23 For I received
from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the
same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given
thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken
for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25 In the same manner He also took
the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood.
This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 26 For as often
as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He
comes.
Like David,
we will not be able to keep the covenant perfectly. But like Paul, we can trust
that when we walk according to the spirit and not according to the flesh, we
will have eternal life.
Romans 8:11 NKJV 11 But if the Spirit of Him
who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the
dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in
you.
If the
spirit of Messiah truly lives in us, we will have the humble spirit of David.
When we fall short, we will repent and turn back to God with all our hearts. We
will strive, as David did, from day to day to follow God’s path. Alongside of
David, we can testify that our God lives! Blessed be the Rock of our Salvation!
Study
Questions:
1. What qualifies Nathan and
Gad to be the biographers of David’s reign?
2. Who were some of David’s
enemies? What challenges did he face from his enemies?
3. In 2 Samuel 22:26-29, how
does David understand the concept of “measure for measure” as it applies to
God’s response to our actions?
4. David stated that God was
pleased with him in 2 Samuel 22:20. Compare this with Paul’s words about the
children of Israel in 1 Corinthians 10:5. In what way or ways was is God
pleased with us?
5. Many of David’s psalms are
prophetic. How can the words of this psalm, especially verses 37-51 refer to
Yeshua?
6. What new insight did you
gain by watching this video? How do you respond to this new insight? How will
you realign your life based on this new understanding?
© Moed
Ministries International. All rights Reserved.
[i]
NKJV Study Bible. Earl D. Radmacher, Th.D, Thomas Nelson. ©1997,
2007. Page 469.
[ii]
The Stone Edition Chumash. Rabbi Nosson Scherman and Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz. Mesorah
Publications, ltd. ©2007. Page 1226.
[iii]
The Stone Edition Tanach. Rabbi Nosson Scherman. Mesorah Publications, ltd. ©2007.
Page 725.
