2 Samuel 22:21-31

The Lord's Rewards. 2 Samuel 22:21-31

21

The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;

According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

22

For I have kept the ways of the Lord,

and have not wickedly departed from my God.

23

For all his judgments were before me:

and as for his statutes, I did not depart from them.

24

I Was also upright before him,

and have kept myself from mine iniquity.

25

Therefore the Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteousness;

according to my cleanness in his eyesight.

26

With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful,

and with the upright man thou will show thyself upright.

27

With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure;

and with the forward thou wilt show thyself unsavory.

28

And the afflicted people thou wilt save:

but thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest bring them down.

29

For thou art my lamp, O Lord:

and the Lord will lighten my darkness.

30

For by thee I have run through a troop:

by my God have I leaped over a wall.

31

As for God, his way is perfect;

the word of the Lord is tried:

he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

The third part of David's psalm was a lengthy affirmation of his righteousness. It is this particular section of the psalm which makes some of the critics believe it was written before he had sinned with Bathsheba. David knew his sin had been forgiven, however, and as far as he was concerned, it was forgotten. He did not need to make mention of the adverse circumstances of his life at a time when he was speaking of the blessings he had received. The song could have been written late in his life, even after his sin with Bathsheba. Over all, David had kept the ways of the Lord (2 Samuel 22:22). He had not wickedly departed from God in the same way in which Saul had openly disobeyed God to such an extent that finally God had abandoned him. David had followed God's judgments and statutes. He gave evidence of being acquainted with the Law, and such evidence pointed to the fact that the Pentateuch had been written before the days of David. When David was giving his final instructions to Solomon, he told him to walk in the commandments, statutes, and ordinances of God, as they were written in the Law of Moses (1 Kings 2:3).

David was called a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22), and David knew that it was because he had done his best to follow God that God had recompensed him according to his righteousness (2 Samuel 22:25). This was according to the very nature of God, a full description of which David gave as he considered his own life. God would be merciful to the merciful; He would be upright to the upright; He would be pure to the pure (2 Samuel 22:26-27 a). God would be against the unsavory and plead the cause of the afflicted people so that they might be saved from their enemies, watching the proud and haughty in order that He might trip them up and break them down to destruction (2 Samuel 22:27 b, 2 Samuel 22:28). David called God his candle or lamp; and in times of darkness or distress, God had been the light along his way (2 Samuel 22:29).

David never grew tired of singing the praises of God, and in the next section of his psalm he praised God as the source of his strength. It was by God's help that he had broken down many troops of armed resistance, even escaping, as it were, by leaping over walls. David knew that as long as he walked in God's way, he was going the right way; and it was the word of the Lord which he had proved in the very fires of adversity. David would rather have the Lord with him than to have the armor of men. He proved this when he gave Saul's armor back to him and went forth to meet Goliath, in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel (1 Samuel 17:45). David's feet had been made swift by the Lord (2 Samuel 22:34), and his hands had been nimble and strong because of the knowledge that God was with him. God had been his very armor (2 Samuel 22:36), and his girdle (2 Samuel 22:41). His faith was like that of the apostle Paul, who described the Christian's armor in great detail (Ephesians 6:13-18). Equipped with the spirit of the Lord, David had been able to enlarge his steps (2 Samuel 22:37), pursue his enemies (2 Samuel 22:38), consume his foes (2 Samuel 22:39), and beat them as small as the dust of the earth (2 Samuel 22:43). Even enemies from within his own kingdom had not brought David's downfall, and he had spread his dominion east and west and north and south.