Useful Bible Studies > 2 Samuel Commentary > chapter 22
God had rescued David from all of his enemies. David did not believe that he (David) had defeated them himself. David’s enemies were powerful – in fact, they were much stronger than David was. However, in his weak state, David depended on God, and God did not disappoint him. So now David wanted to give God all the honour for what he (God) had done. David was not a proud man; he did not claim the honour for any of his successes. All the honour belonged to God, and David wanted everyone to know that fact.
Many people are afraid to give God the honour when he answers their prayer. In other words, they prayed and he acted powerfully – but they are still not sure that God did it. They say that it might have happened anyway; or, they think that it probably happened by some natural means, without an act of God. Really however, they are allowing doubts to fill their minds. God is powerful; and he acts in answer to his people’s prayers (James 5:16-18). So, we must be careful to be grateful to him for all that he does (Luke 17:11-19).
We have referred to David’s descriptions of how God acted to save him (22:5-16) as word-pictures. However, it is not clear to us that David would have considered these descriptions as word-pictures. David was a holy man, a prophet (Acts 2:29-30), and he was very aware of events in the spirit world. What he described was reality. God really did come to save him from his enemies. Some of the things that he described did not, perhaps, happen in the physical world. However, there is a reality beyond our physical world – and the results of it are often very clear, even in our world.
Next part: A wide place (2 Samuel 22:20)
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