Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man
thou wilt shew thyself upright.
With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou
wilt shew thyself froward.
For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high
looks.
For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my
darkness.
For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped
over a wall.
_As for_ God, his way _is_ perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he
_is_ a buckler to all those that trust in him.
For who _is_ God save the LORD? or who _is_ a rock save our God?
_It is_ God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.
He maketh my feet like hinds’ _feet_ and setteth me upon my high
places.
He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine
arms.
Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right
hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great.
Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.
I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them; neither did I turn
again till they were consumed.
I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen
under my feet.
For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast
subdued under me those that rose up against me.
Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might
destroy them that hate me.
They cried, but _there was_ none to save _them_: _even_
unto the LORD, but he answered them not.
Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast
them out as the dirt in the streets.
Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; _and_ thou
hast made me the head of the heathen: a people _whom_ I have not known
shall serve me.
As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall
submit themselves unto me.
The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close
places.
The LORD liveth; and blessed _be_ my rock; and let the God of my
salvation be exalted.
_It is_ God that avengeth me, and subdueth the people unto me.
He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above
those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent
man.
Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and
sing praises unto thy name.
Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his
anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.
This is a Psalm of thanksgiving, in which David gives thanks to God
(as the title of the Psalm shows) because of his deliverance from all
his enemies. And this Psalm I should divide into four parts, for David
had combatted with four kinds of enemies—King Saul, the neighbouring
nations, his son Absalom, and his seditious subjects.
At the beginning of the Psalm, in the first six verses, David
describes the greatness of his perils, his distresses and his straits
in the midst of so many and great afflictions, out of which the Lord
delivered him, “The sorrows of hell (saith he) compassed me about,
&c.”
Then in the seventh verse, after the manner of the prophets, he
alludes in his song of praise to the deliverance out of Egypt, and to
those mighty works at Mount Sinai and in the Red Sea; intimating, that
as God then powerfully delivered his people from the midst of death,
so, he also more than once had been delivered by the powerful arm and
the high hand of God, again, as it were from the hand of Pharaoh, and
from the midst of surrounding death.
And then again, when he says verses 16, and 17, “He delivered me from
my strong enemies and from them that were mightier than I,” he alludes
to King Saul, who had persecuted him with hostile hatred and
bitterness for the word of God’s sake, because he was chosen from on
high to be King and to be his successor.
At verse 28, he celebrates the goodness of God who stands by the
humble and those who are despised by the world and defends them
against the proud and the mighty: as he did in giving David the
victory over Goliah, the Philistines, the Amalekites, and other
nations.
At verse 34, he intimates something respecting his third and domestic
adversary his son Absalom, who, on that account, was by far the more
dreadful and atrocious enemy.
Then at verse 42, he gives thanks to God who so wonderfully stood by
him against the crafty counsels and snares of the seditious, of which
kind was Siba and, in the time of Absalom almost the whole of Israel.
For this most excellent and most godly king had many national and
domestic enemies, and seditious citizens; so much so, that, as he
himself here says, many gentile nations were far more kind and
obedient to him than his own people.
Therefore any afflicted one, especially if in magisterial office, may
use this Psalm in giving thanks to God for his deliverance out of
various perils and distresses which fall upon those who govern the
state, or who are set over the Church.
And if any one wishes to understand the Psalm allegorically, David
signifies here Christ; Saul signifies the Jews; the nations that
persecuted David, the tyrants of the world who set themselves against
the Gospel; Absalom, heretics who proceed out from us but are not of
us; the seditious subjects, outside-show-Christians who sound forth
Christ with their mouth, but in their heart are far from him: from all
which this afflicted David, that is, Christ and those who are
Christians, are at length delivered.
This Psalm belongs to the second precept of the Decalogue, and to the
first petition of the Lord’s Prayer.