Introduction
DAVID’S PSALM OF THANKSGIVING, 2 Samuel 22:1-51.
The grand and beautiful triumphal ode contained in this chapter is substantially the same as the eighteenth psalm. Both here and there it is referred to the same historical occasion, and was undoubtedly composed by David to celebrate his deliverances out of the hands of all his foes, and especially Saul not that Saul was the last of his enemies, but the most prominent of all, and therefore deserving special mention. It was probably composed about the time indicated in chap. vii, after the Lord had given him rest from all his foes, and revealed to him through Nathan the glorious future of his posterity. It was thus the product of a triumphal moment of his life the impassioned but divinely inspired outburst of a prophetic spirit which yearned to magnify Jehovah. In tone and spirit this psalm reminds us of the last song of Moses, in Deuteronomy 32:1-43. in each of these great psalms we discern a lofty soul that has reached a distinctive crisis in its history, and rests for the time as in a sublime repose of conscious acceptance and power with the Almighty.
The verbal differences between this text and that of the eighteenth psalm have been differently accounted for. Some have attributed them to the carelessness of transcribers; but they seem to have been too deliberately made to be thus explained. Others have supposed that both copies were taken from some old Hebrew anthology probably the Book of Jasher and that both were somewhat modified by the different compilers to suit particular purposes. But the most plausible supposition is, that in this chapter we have a true copy of the original, as first prepared by David, naturally and properly appended to the history on which it is based; and that the eighteenth psalm is a subsequent revision of it either by David himself or some later hand, and inserted in the Psalter for liturgical use. As in other cases where we have subjoined a new translation to the text, we base the following notes upon the revised translation.
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