2 Samuel 22:21-31

21 ADONAI rewarded me for my uprightness, he repaid me because my hands were clean.

22 "For I have kept the ways of ADONAI, I have not done evil by leaving my God;

23 for all his rulings were before me, I did not depart from his regulations.

24 I was pure-hearted toward him and kept myself from my sin.

25 "Hence ADONAI repaid me for my uprightness, according to my purity in his view.

26 With the merciful, you are merciful; with the champion of purity, you are pure;

27 with the honest, you are honest; but with the crooked you are cunning.

28 People afflicted, you save; but when your eyes are on the haughty, you humble them.

29 "For you, ADONAI, are my lamp; ADONAI lights up my darkness.

30 With you I can run through a whole troop of men, with my God I can leap a wall.

31 "As for God, his way is perfect, the word of ADONAI has been tested by fire; he shields all who take refuge in him.

2 Samuel 22:21-31 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.