The King’s Final Praise

David can praise God for his fidelity to Yahweh. This is good and right. David has exercised faithfulness to Yahweh. But we see, in turn, that at every turn the faithfulness of Yahweh stands out again and again. It is not the righteousness of David that is primarily in view but the righteousness of Yahweh. And it is the righteousness of God to which he clings. In this way, strangely, these verses point us to the gospel: only those who run to the Lord and Christ’s righteousness will be saved.

There is another word for this kind of people: the “afflicted”—those who know their desperate need for the Lord. And this is the term David uses in verse 28: Yahweh saves the “afflicted.” God saves people who are not proud, those who know how wicked and broken they actually are. God saves those who are absolutely and utterly dependent on the Lord. Or as the apostle James says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Jas 4:6).

Verses 32-34 remind us of the incomparable majesty of Yahweh. He is once again a “rock.” But the comparison is taken further to the form of a question: “For who is a god besides Yahweh? And who is a rock besides our God” (22:32, authors’ translation). In verse 32, David uses two names of God: Elohim and Yahweh. Yahweh is the covenant name of the Lord. To know Yahweh is to know the covenant Lord of the patriarchs, of Israel, and of David. Elohim is the name used in contexts when creation is mentioned. So David combines both names of God: Yahweh and Elohim. He is the God of creation and Lord of the covenant. No other being can claim the power of deity as can Yahweh. There is no other. David’s words here express the majesty and sheer otherness of Yahweh. There is no god but the true God, and He has a name: Yahweh-Elohim.

Verses 35-49 depict how Yahweh enables His messiah to vanquish all rivals. Yahweh strengthens and protects the messiah (vv. 35-36). He gives the messiah stability and stamina to pursue, overtake, and defeat enemies. The idea is that David’s enemies are on the run and now David just has to finish off the final skirmishes. As there was irony present in David’s “righteousness,” we can see there is a certain irony in David’s “victory” over enemies as well, in the light of 2 Samuel 19–21. Although David has defeated specific enemies, it appears that they keep cropping up again and again! And giants like Goliath seem to hang around (21:15-22). Nonetheless, the hero of the text is Yahweh, who strengthens His messiah to defeat all rivals and reign over all peoples (vv. 44-46). The Davidic messiah, then, is king over Israel, but David says something more: that the messiah is the king over all nations.

Second Samuel 22:50-51 and 23:1-7 present the reign of the messiah. Although Yahweh trains the messiah’s hands for war, the closing statement in the praise of 2 Samuel 22 is not that of a warrior. David closes his psalm with praise:

Therefore I will praise You, Lord, among the nations;

I will sing about Your name.

He is a tower of salvation for His king;

He shows loyalty to His anointed,

to David and his descendants forever. (22:50-51)

The final image of David is that of a worshiper. He is the leader who praises Yahweh and draws all other nations to sing the praises of Yahweh as well. The reign of the messiah, David instructs us, is not marked by war but praise. The personal way the psalm of praise began also now closes the song. David sings the praises of Yahweh’s name. There is power in the name of Yahweh. As David calls on the name of Yahweh, the true God delivers. As David appeals to Yahweh by name, Yahweh does wonders on David’s behalf. So David draws all nations to celebrate and revere the name of the God who is above all others: Yahweh! And Yahweh is revered because of the covenant kindness and loyalty Yahweh shows to the messiah (anointed) and his dynasty. This last statement in verse 51 confirms the Davidic covenant recorded in 2 Samuel 7. Yahweh will not abandon the dynasty of David. They may rebel and be wayward, but Yahweh will discipline them and bring them back. The Davidic messiah is the one through whom Yahweh will bless the world.

It is no wonder that 2 Samuel 23:1-7 follows on the beautiful affirmation of 22:51. In this psalm the Davidic covenant and the Davidic messiah stand central. In this psalm a number of interrelated topics proceed one to the next:

The Davidic messiah is imbued by the Holy Spirit to speak good words (v. 2).

The Davidic messiah will rule justly over his kingdom (v. 3).

The Davidic messiah’s just rule is like sun and rain, refreshing the kingdom (v. 4).

The Davidic messiah is bound to Yahweh’s everlasting covenant (v. 5).

The Davidic messiah’s enemies will be cast away forever (vv. 6-7).

David speaks more than he knows. In fact, his words are prophetic. Although he speaks words of praise about the favor of Yahweh on the Davidic house and the Davidic covenant, his words speak toward God’s continuing work with the family of David. David’s words are not just retrospective about what Yahweh has done with him in the past, David’s words anticipate the kind of rule his children should strive toward and their commitment to this Yahweh.

David’s words do apply to his own experience and his hopes for the coming Davidic kings. But the song pushes forward to the ultimate Davidic King, Jesus. We like the way Peter Leithart describes 23:1-7. We would apply his thought to the entirety of 1–2 Samuel:

The king described [in 2 Sam 23:1-7] applies to some degree to David, but the idea of the king as the rising sun is ultimately applied to the Messiah. 2 Samuel 23:1-7 is a full-length portrait of Jesus. He is the one who rules righteously and in the fear of the Lord, who brings the light of the new creation in His coming, who causes the land to flourish like a garden, and who takes up armor and spear against the thorns. But, as the next section makes clear, a righteous king also inspires imitation in his subordinates, and Jesus does the same, so that leaders of the church should aspire to approximate Him. All pastors and elders would do well to place 2 Samuel 23:1-7 on the doorposts of their houses, on their wrists, on the frontals of their foreheads. (Leithart, A Son to Me, 309)