2 Samuel 22:27
2Sa 22:25-28 25 Thus Jehovah repaid me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness before His eyes. 26 Towards the pious Thou showest thyself pious, Towards the perfectly innocent Thou showest thyself innocent. 27 Towards the genuine Thou showest thyself genuine, And towards the perverse Thou showest thyself crooked. 28 And afflicted people Thou helpest, And Thine eyes are against the haughty; them Thou humblest. The motive for deliverance, which was expounded in 2Sa 22:21-24, is summed up briefly in 2Sa 22:25; and then in 2Sa 22:26 and 2Sa 22:27 it is carried back to the general truth, that the conduct of God towards men is regulated according to the conduct of men towards God. The vav cons. in ויּשׁב expresses the logical consequence. כּברי is used instead of ידי כּבר in 2Sa 22:21, which is repeated in the psalm simply for the sake of variation. The truth that God treats every man in accordance with his conduct towards Him, is expounded in four parallel clauses, in which the conduct of God is expressed in verbs in the Hithpael, formed from the adjectives used to describe the conduct of men towards God. To the חסיד, the pious or devoted to God, He also shows himself pious; and innocent, blameless, to the תמים גּבּור, the man strong in innocence, who walks in perfect innocence. נבר, a Niphal participle, from בּרר, he who keeps himself pure, strives after purity of walk. תּתּבר, an anomalous contraction of תּתבּרר (Ps.), analogous to the formation of נבר for נברר. The form תּתּפּל for תּתפּתּל, to show one’s self perverse of crooked, is still more anomalous. God shows himself so towards the perverse, by giving him up to his perverseness (Rom 1:28). This general truth is applied in 2Sa 22:28 to the congregation of God, in the contrast which it presents of humble and haughty, and is expounded from the conduct of God, as displayed in the history of Israel, towards these two classes of men, into which the nation was divided. In the psalm, therefore, we find אתּה כּי, for which the simple ו is substituted here, because the verse does not contain any actual reason for what goes before. עני עם, afflicted people, is used to denote the pious and depressed in the nation; רמים, the high, i.e., the haughty, or godless rich and mighty in the nation. תּשׁפּיל is to be taken as a relative: whom Thou humblest (see Ewald, §332, b.; and for the thought, Isa 2:11). In the psalm the unusual mode of expression in the second clause is changed into the more common phrase, “Thou bringest down high, i.e., proud looks” (cf. Pro 6:17; Pro 21:4; Pro 30:13; Psa 131:1, etc.). 2Sa 22:29 commences the description of the help which David had already received from God in his conflict with the enemies of Israel, and which he would still receive. 29 For Thou art my lamp, O Jehovah! And Jehovah maketh my darkness bright. 30 For through Thee I run troops, And through my God I leap walls. 31 God - innocent is His way. The word of Jehovah is refined, A shield is He to all who trust in Him. The explanatory כּי, with which the new description of the divine mercy commences, refers to the thought implied in 2Sa 22:28, that David belonged to the “afflicted people,” whom the Lord always helps. As the Lord delivered him out of the danger of death, because He took pleasure in him, so He also gave him power over all his enemies. For He was his lamp, i.e., He had lifted him out of a condition of depression and contempt into one of glory and honour (see at 2Sa 21:17), and would still further enlighten his darkness, i.e., “would cause the light of His salvation to shine upon him and his tribe in all the darkness of their distress” (Hengstenberg). In the psalm the verse reads thus: “For Thou lightest (makest bright) my lamp (or candle), Jehovah my God enlighteneth my darkness;” the bold figure “Jehovah the lamp of David” being more literally explained. The figure is analogous to the one in Psa 27:1, “The Lord is my light;” whilst the form ניר is a later mode of writing נר.
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