II Samuel 22:32

32 For who is God save Jehovah, And who a rock save our God? 33 This God is my strong fortress, And leads the innocent his way. 34 He makes my feet like the hinds, And setteth me upon my high places; 35 He teacheth my hands to fight, And my arms span brazen bows. There is no true God who can help, except or by the side of Jehovah (cf. Deu 32:31; Sa1 2:2). צוּר, as in Sa2 22:2. This God is "my strong fortress:" for this figure, comp. Psa 31:5 and Psa 27:1. חיל, strength, might, is construed with מעוּזי, by free subordination: "my fortress, a strong one," like עז מחסי (Psa 71:7; cf. Ewald, 291, b.). יתּר for יתר, from תּוּר (vid., Ges. 72; Olshausen, Gram. p. 579), in the sense of leading or taking round, as in Pro 12:26. God leads the innocent his way, i.e., He is his leader and guide therein. The Keri דּרכּי rests upon a misunderstanding. There is an important difference in the reading of this verse in Ps 18, viz., "The God who girdeth me with strength, and makes my way innocent." The last clause is certainly an alteration which simplifies the meaning, and so is also the first clause, the thought of which occurs again, word for word, in Sa2 22:40, with the addition of למּלחמה. איּלה or איּלת, the hind, or female stag, is a figure of speech denoting swiftness in running. "Like the hinds:" a condensed simile for "like the hinds' feet," such as we frequently meet with in Hebrew (vid., Ges. 144, Anm.). The reference is to swiftness in pursuit of the foe (vid., Sa2 2:18; Ch1 12:8). רגליו, his feet, for רגלי (my feet) in the psalm, may be accounted for from the fact, that David had spoken of himself in the third person as the innocent one. "My high places" were not the high places of the enemy, that became his by virtue of conquest, but the high places of his own land, which…

This chapter is a psalm, a psalm of praise; we find it afterwards inserted among David's psalms (Ps. 18) with some little variation. We have it here as it was first composed for his own closed and his own harp; but there we have it as it was afterwards delivered to the chief musician for the service of the church, a second edition with some amendments; for, though it was calculated primarily for David's case, yet it might indifferently serve the devotion of others, in giving thanks for their deliverances; or it was intended that his people should thus join with him in his thanksgivings, because, being a public person, his deliverances were to be accounted public blessings and called for public acknowledgments. The inspired historian, having largely related David's deliverances in this and the foregoing book, and one particularly in the close of the foregoing chapter, thought fit to record this sacred poem as a memorial of all that had been before related. Some think that David penned this psalm when he was old, upon a general review of the mercies of his life and the many wonderful preservations God had blessed him with, from first to last. We should in our praises, look as far back as we can, and not suffer time to wear out the sense of God's favours. Others think that he penned it when he was young, upon occasion of some of his first deliverances, and kept it by him for his use afterwards, and that, upon every new deliverance, his practice was to sing this song. But the book of Psalms shows that he varied as there was occasion, and confined not himself to one form. Here is, I. The title of the psalm (Sa2 22:1). II. The psalm itself, in which, with a very warm devotion and very great fluency and copiousness of expression, 1. He gives glory to God. 2. He takes comfort i…

22:32 See Isa 43:11; 44:6, 8; 45:5, 21.