'For Thou hast girded me with strength to battle: them that, rose up
against me hast Thou subdued under me. 41. Thou hast also given me the
necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me. 42. They
looked, but there was none to save; even unto the Lord, but He answered
them not. 43. Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth, I
did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them abroad.
44. Thou also hast delivered me from the strivings of my people, Thou
hast kept me to be head of the heathen: a people which I knew not shall
serve me. 45. Strangers shall submit themselves unto me: as soon as
they hear, they shall be obedient unto me. 46. Strangers shall fade
away, and they shall be afraid out of their close places. 47. The Lord
liveth; and blessed be my rock; and exalted be the God of the rock of
my salvation. 48. It is God that avengeth me, and that bringeth down
the people under me, 49. And that bringeth me forth from mine enemies:
Thou also hast lifted me up on high above them that rose up against me:
Thou hast delivered me from the violent man. 50. Therefore I will give
thanks unto Thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and I will sing praises
unto Thy name. 51. He is the tower of salvation for His king; and
sheweth mercy to His anointed, unto David, and to his seed for
evermore.'--2 SAMUEL xxii. 40-51.
The Davidic authorship of this great hymn has been admitted even by
critics who are in general too slow to recognise it. One of these says
that 'there is no Israelite king to whom the expressions in the psalm
apply so closely as to David.' The favourite alternative theory that
the speaker is the personified nation is hard to accept. The voice of
individual trust and of personal experience sounds clear in the glowing
words. Two editions of the hymn are preserved for us,--in Psalm xviii.
and 2 Samuel. Slight variations exist in the two copies, which may
probably be merely accidental. Nothing important depends on them. The
text begins with the closing words of a description of God's arming the
singer for his victories, and goes on to paint the tumult of battle and
the rout of the foe (verses 40-43); then follows triumphant expectation
of future wider victories (verses 44-46); and that leads up to the
closing burst of grateful praise (verses 47-51).
I. We are not to forget that what is described in verses 40-43 is a
literal fight, with real swords against very real enemies. We may draw
lessons of encouragement from it for our conflict with spiritual
wickednesses, but we must not lose sight of the bloody combat with
flesh and blood which the singer had waged. He felt that God had braced
his armour on him, had given him the impenetrable 'shield' which he
wore on his arm, and had strengthened his arms to bend the 'bow of
steel.' We see him in swift pursuit, pressing hard on the flying foe,
crushing them with his fierce charge, trampling them under foot. 'I did
beat them small as the dust of the earth.' His blows fell like those of
a great pestle, pulverising some substance in a mortar. 'I did stamp
them as the mire of the streets,'--a vivid picture of trampling down
the prostrate wretches, for which Psalm xviii. gives the less
picturesque variant, 'did cast them out.' In their despair the
fugitives shriek aloud for God's help, and the Psalmist has a stern joy
in knowing their cries to be unheard.
Now, such delight in an enemy's despair and destruction, such
gratification at the vanity of his prayers, are far away from being
Christian sentiments, and the gulf is not wholly bridged by the
consideration that David felt himself to be God's Anointed, and enmity
to him to be, consequently, treason against God. His feelings were most
natural and entirely consistent with the stage of revelation in which
he lived. They were capable of being purified into that triumph in the
victory of good and the ruin of evil without which there is no vigorous
sympathy with Christ's conflict. They kindle, by their splendid energy
and condensed rapidity, an answering glow even in readers so far away
from the scene as we are. But still they do belong to a lower level of
feeling, and result from a less full revelation than belongs to
Christianity. The light of battle which blazes in them is not the fire
which Jesus longed to kindle on earth.
But we may well take a pattern from the stern soldier's recognition
that all his victory was due to God alone. The strength that he put
forth was God's gift. It was God who subdued the insurgents, not David.
The panic which made the foe take to flight was infused into them by
God. No name but Jehovah's was to be carved on the trophy reared on the
battlefield. The human victor was but the instrument of the divine
Conqueror. Such lowly reference of all our power and success to Him
will save us from overweening self-adulation, and is the surest way to
retain the power which He gives, and which is lost most surely when we
take the credit of it to ourselves.
II. The enemies thus far have been from among his own subjects, but in
verses 44-46 a transition is made to victory over 'strangers'; that is,
foreign nations. The triumph over 'the strivings of my people' heartens
the singer to expect that he will be' head of the nations.' The other
version of the hymn (Psalm xviii.) reads simply '_the_ people.'
The picture of hasty surrender 'as soon as they hear of me' is graphic.
His very name conquers. 'The strangers shall submit themselves unto me'
is literally 'shall lie,' or yield feigned obedience. They 'fade away'
as if withered by the hot wind of the desert. 'They shall come limping'
(as the word here used signifies), as if wounded in the fight, for
which Psalm xviii. reads 'trembling.'
Now this vision of extended conquests, based as it is on past smaller
victories, carries valuable lessons. David here lays hold of the great
promises to his house of a wide dominion, and expects the beginnings of
their fulfilment to himself. And he _did_ extend his conquests beyond
the territory of Israel. But we may take the hope as an instance in a
particular direction of what should be the issue of all experience of
God's mercies. 'To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more
abundant.' Smaller victories will be followed by greater. Our reception
of God's favouring help should widen our anticipations. Our gratitude
to Him should be 'a lively sense of favours to come.' Progressive
victory should be the experience of every believer.
We may see, too, dimly apparent through the large hope of the
Psalmist-King, the prophecy of the worldwide victories of his Son, in
whom the great promises of a dominion 'from sea to sea, and from the
river unto the ends of the earth,' are fulfilled.
III. Verses 46-51 make a noble close to a noble hymn, in which the
singer's strong wing never flags, nor the rush of thought and feeling
ever slackens. In it, even more absolutely than in the rest of the
psalm, his victory is all ascribed to Jehovah. He alone acts, David
simply receives. To have learned by experience that' He lives,' and is
'my Rock,' and to gather all the feelings excited by the retrospect of
a long life into 'Blessed be my Rock,' is to have reaped and garnered
the richest harvest which earth can yield. So at last sings the man
whose early years had been full of struggles and privations. A morning
of tempest has cleared into sunny evening calm, as it will with us all
if the tempest blows us into our true shelter.
This psalm begins with a rapturous heaping together of the precious
names of God, as the singer has had them revealed to him by experience.
Foremost among these stands that one, 'my Rock,' which is caught up
again in this closing burst of thanksgiving. That great Rock towers
unchangeable above fleeting things. The river runs past its base, the
woods nestling at its feet bud, and shed their pride of foliage, but it
stands the same. David had many a time hid in 'the clefts of the rocks'
in his years of wandering, and the figure is eloquent on his lips.
These closing strains gather together once more the main points of the
previous verses, his deliverance from domestic foes, and his conquests
over external enemies. These are wholly God's work. True thankfulness
delights to repeat its acknowledgments. God does not weary of giving,
we should not weary of praising the Giver and His gifts. We renew our
enjoyment of our long-past mercies by reiterating our thankfulness for
them. They do not die as long as gratitude keeps their remembrance
green.
But the Psalmist's experience impels him to a vow (verse 50). He will
give thanks to God among the nations. God's mercies bind, and, if
rightly felt, will joyfully impel, the receiver to spread His name as
far as his voice can reach. Love is sometimes silent, but gratitude
must speak. The most unmusical voice is tuned to melody by God's great
blessings received and appreciated, and they need never want a theme
who can tell what the Lord has done for their souls. 'Then shall... the
tongue of the dumb sing.' A dumb Christian is a monstrosity. We are
'the secretaries of His praise,' and have been saved ourselves that we
may declare His goodness.
Verse 51 has been supposed by some to be a liturgical addition, on the
ground that, if David were the author, he would not be likely to name
himself thus. But there does not seem to be anything unnatural in his
mentioning himself by name in such a connection, and the reference to
his dynasty, based as it is on Nathan's promise, is most fitting. The
last thought about his mercies which the humble gratitude of the
Psalmist utters is that they were not given to him for any good in
himself, nor to be selfishly enjoyed, but that they were bestowed on
him because of the place that he filled in the divine purposes, and
belonged to 'his seed' as truly as to himself. So lowly had his
prosperity made him. So truly had he sunk himself in his office, and in
the great things that God meant to do through him and his house. We
know better than David did what these were, and how the promise on
which he rested his hopes of the duration of his house is fulfilled in
his Son, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and who bears God's
name to all the nations.