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Bible Study OurHope Emblem October 01, 2017
2 Samuel 22-23

22 - David's Psalm of Deliverance (Psalm 18)

1 And David spoke the words of this song to the Lord in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 2 He said,
"the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; 3 my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; my savior, You save me from violence.
4 "I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. 5 For the waves of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me; 6 the cords of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me.
7 "In my distress I called upon the Lord, yes, I cried to my God; and from His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for help came into His ears. 8 Then the earth shook and quaked, the foundations of heaven were trembling and were shaken, because He was angry. 9 Smoke went up out of His nostrils, fire from His mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it. 10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down with thick darkness under His feet. 11 And He rode on a cherub and flew; and He appeared on the wings of the wind. 12 And He made darkness canopies around Him, a mass of waters, thick clouds of the sky. 13 From the brightness before Him coals of fire were kindled. 14 The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice. 15 And He sent out arrows, and scattered them, lightning, and routed them. 16 Then the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were laid bare by the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.
17 "He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. 18 He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me. 19 They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. 20 He also brought me forth into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.
21 "The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He has 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 my iniquity. 25 Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness before His eyes.

This song is a large chiasm with the previous set of verses containing its core and focus. A chiasm is formed by sections within sections where the start and end of a section are marked by common words. The point of a chiasm is to highlight a central or clarifying idea or theme.

Chiasms are common throughout the Bible and are not only in songs. If you are reading a passage and you think the author repeats himself a lot, you are probably reading a chiasm.

This chiasm gives us a big problem, however. How is David's claim that he did not depart from God's judgements or statutes a central theme or clarifying idea? Is it even true?

The generally accepted interpretation is that this song was written before the "Bathsheba incident." The events described in the song could all be said be events from not later than his early years as king.

There is good reason to think that interpretation isn't correct. The law given by God is commonly broken down into three parts, as we see in this verse.

Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess (Deuteronomy 6:1)

The word "commandment" refers to the Ten Commandments; "statutes" are enacted laws and "judgments" are judicial decisions. Notice what is missing from David's list - commandments. In the Bathsheba incident David trampled on not less than 4 of those.

So, instead of saying "I was wonderful therefore God rewarded me" David may be saying "I was only righteous in a little and yet I was rewarded". Notice how he says he was rewarded "according to my righteousness" which means he was rewarded in proportion to his righteousness. He could have had greater reward and less punishment. So the message to us in the chiasm would be that even though we fail, God's reward is more than we would expect.

26 "With the kind You show Yourself kind, with the blameless You show Yourself blameless; 27 with the pure You show Yourself pure, And with the perverted You show Yourself astute. 28 And You save an afflicted people; but Your eyes are on the haughty whom You abase. 29 For You are my lamp, O Lord; and the Lord illumines my darkness. 30 For by You I can run upon a troop; by my God I can leap over a wall.
31 "As for God, His way is blameless; the word of the Lord is tested; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him. 32 For who is God, besides the Lord? And who is a rock, besides our God? 33 God is my strong fortress; and He sets the blameless in His way. 34 He makes my feet like hinds' feet, and sets me on my high places. 35 He trains my hands for battle, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 36 You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, and Your help makes me great. 37 You enlarge my steps under me, and my feet have not slipped.
38 "I pursued my enemies and destroyed them, and I did not turn back until they were consumed. 39 And I have devoured them and shattered them, so that they did not rise; and they fell under my feet. 40 For You have girded me with strength for battle; you have subdued under me those who rose up against me. 41 You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, and I destroyed those who hated me. 42 They looked, but there was none to save; even to the Lord, but He did not answer them. 43 Then I pulverized them as the dust of the earth; I crushed and stamped them as the mire of the streets.
44 "You have also delivered me from the contentions of my people; you have kept me as head of the nations; a people whom I have not known serve me. 45 Foreigners pretend obedience to me; as soon as they hear, they obey me. 46 Foreigners lose heart, and come trembling out of their fortresses.
47 "The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock; and exalted be God, the rock of my salvation, 48 the God who executes vengeance for me, and brings down peoples under me, 49 who also brings me out from my enemies; you even lift me above those who rise up against me; You rescue me from the violent man [Saul]. 50 Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the nations, and I will sing praises to Your name.
51 "He [gives] a [great] deliverance to His king, and shows lovingkindness to His anointed [Messiah], to David and his descendants forever."

23 - David's Last Song

1 Now these are the last words of David.
David the son of Jesse declares, the man who was raised on high declares, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel,
2 "The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue. 3 The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, 'He who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God, 4 is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through sunshine after rain.'
5 "Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured; for all my salvation and all my desire, will He not indeed make it grow? 6 But the worthless, every one of them will be thrust away like thorns, because they cannot be taken in hand; 7 but the man who touches them must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear, and they will be completely burned with fire in their place."

Contrast this song with the previous song. What differences do you notice? With this being the last song David wrote and the previous song being one of the first and maybe the first, it seems like there should be some differences worth noting.

His Mighty Men

In this section, David gives a shout-out to his greatest warriors. He lists and ranks the members of a group of "thirty".

8 These are the names of the mighty men whom David had:
  1. Josheb-basshebeth a Tahchemonite, chief of the captains, he was called Adino the Eznite, because of eight hundred slain by him at one time; 9 and after him was
  2. Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there to battle and the men of Israel had withdrawn. 10 He arose and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary and clung to the sword, and the Lord brought about a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to strip the slain.11 Now after him was
  3. Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered into a troop where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines. 12 But he took his stand in the midst of the plot, defended it and struck the Philistines; and the Lord brought about a great victory.
13 Then three of the thirty chief men went down and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adullam, while the troop of the Philistines was camping in the valley of Rephaim. 14 David was then in the stronghold, while the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. 15 David had a craving and said, "Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate!" 16 So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, and drew water from the well of Bethlehem which was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless he would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord; 17 and he said, "Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives?" Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did.

These three are the captains of the group. Their exploits of might and bravery are worthy of special mention.

Next is a group of chiefs.

  1. 18 Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the thirty. And he swung his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name as well as the three. 19 He was most honored of the thirty, therefore he became their commander; however, he did not attain to the three.
  2. 20 Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, killed the two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day. 21 He killed an Egyptian, an impressive man. Now the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but he went down to him with a club and snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. 22 These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and had a name as well as the three mighty men. 23 He was honored among the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David appointed him over his guard.
  3. ?

Next are the "thirty" soldiers of the group. It appears the name "the thirty" comes from them.

  1. 24 Asahel the brother of Joab was among the thirty;
  2. Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem,
  3. 25 Shammah the Harodite,
  4. Elika the Harodite,
  5. 26 Helez the Paltite,
  6. Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite,
  7. 27 Abiezer the Anathothite,
  8. Mebunnai the Hushathite,
  9. 28 Zalmon the Ahohite,
  10. Maharai the Netophathite,
  11. 29 Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite,
  12. Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the sons of Benjamin,
  13. 30 Benaiah a Pirathonite,
  14. Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash,
  15. 31 Abi-albon the Arbathite,
  16. Azmaveth the Barhumite,
  17. 32 Eliahba the Shaalbonite,
  18. the sons of Jashen, Jonathan,
  19. 33 Shammah the Hararite,
  20. Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite,
  21. 34 Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maacathite,
  22. Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,
  23. 35 Hezro the Carmelite,
  24. Paarai the Arbite,
  25. 36 Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah,
  26. Bani the Gadite,
  27. 37 Zelek the Ammonite,
  28. Naharai the Beerothite, armor bearers of Joab the son of Zeruiah,
  29. 38 Ira the Ithrite,
  30. Gareb the Ithrite,
  31. 39 Uriah the Hittite;
thirty-seven in all.

There is a problem here, possibly two. There are 31 in this list, not thirty. Also, the total is 36 not 37.

There are many ideas about what is going on here. It makes the most sense to me that Asahel should be listed among the chiefs. That gives the proper number of 30 soldiers. Also, Joab was their commander. That would give a total of 37. He is not mentioned in the list of mighty men. This could be because he had fallen out of favor with David.

There is another possibility I like. As above, Asahel would be listed among the chiefs to give the proper number of 30 soldiers. The big difference is in the total count. In the Hebrew text it is written "thirty and seven" instead of "37". It's possible that seven isn't meant as a literal number but as its gematria meaning "complete and perfect."


1 http://www.chiasmusxchange.com/2015/05/08/2-samuel-22/