2 Samuel 22:15-25

15 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy, with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
16 The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of breath from his nostrils.
17 “He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.
18 He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.
19 They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support.
20 He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.
21 “The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD; I am not guilty of turning from my God.
23 All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees.
24 I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin.
25 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness[a] in his sight.

2 Samuel 22:15-25 Meaning and Commentary

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 Ps 18:1-50 are referred to the exposition of that book in its course.

Cross References 19

  • 1. S Deuteronomy 32:23
  • 2. Psalms 6:1; Psalms 50:8,21; Psalms 106:9; Nahum 1:4
  • 3. S Exodus 14:21; Isaiah 30:33; Isaiah 40:24
  • 4. Psalms 144:7
  • 5. Exodus 2:10
  • 6. Luke 1:71
  • 7. Psalms 23:4
  • 8. Job 36:16; Psalms 31:8
  • 9. Psalms 118:5
  • 10. Psalms 22:8; Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:18
  • 11. S 2 Samuel 15:26
  • 12. S 1 Samuel 26:23
  • 13. Psalms 26:6
  • 14. Job 17:9; Job 22:30; Job 42:7-8; Psalms 24:4
  • 15. Genesis 18:19; Psalms 128:1; Proverbs 8:32
  • 16. Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Psalms 119:30-32
  • 17. Psalms 119:102
  • 18. S Genesis 6:9; Ephesians 1:4
  • 19. ver 21; S 1 Samuel 26:23

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Hebrew; Septuagint and Vulgate (see also Psalm 18:24) "to the cleanness of my hands"
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