David begins a beautiful expression of the faithfulness he has found in God in 2 Samuel 22 and says in 2 Samuel 22:4 I call upon Yahweh who is praiseworthy, and I am saved from those who hate me. David has faced enemies from the outside and subdued them. David has also faced rebellion on the inside and the challenge of confronting evil to remove the evil-doer from the land. David has also faced the challenge of bloodguilt where reparations were required. These things are not easy for us but we can in Isaiah 1:17 Learn to do good! Seek justice! Rescue the oppressed! Defend the orphan! Plead for the widow! and it is still true that when we call, he answers as in 2 Samuel 22:7 In my distress I called upon Yahweh, and to my God I called. He heard my voice from his temple, and my cry for help was to his ears.
A Man of Wickedness Was Found
2 Samuel 20:1–3
Take the Servants of Your Lord and Pursue After Him
Listen to the Words of Your Servant
2 Samuel 2:14-26
There are times when people are disenfranchised as the Berites were in 2 Samuel 20:14. And there is always someone that will tell them what they want to hear so they will follow them as Sheba did in 2 Samuel 2:1. Their rebellion, their bad attitude, their actions affect the people around them as happened in
2 Samuel 20:15 And they came and besieged him in Abel Beth Maacah. They threw up a siege ramp against the city, and they stood against the ramparts. And all the army who were with Joab were battering to cause the wall to fall.
Most of the people reacted as most people do when an evil person is around, they try to stay out of their way. So, there was not a man in the city that stood against Sheba. But there was a woman, “a wise woman” in 2 Samuel 20:16 who spoke out seeking protection for the people of her city in
2 Samuel 20:19 I am one of the faithful representatives of Israel. You are seeking to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why do you want to swallow the inheritance of Yahweh?”
This woman went to the people of the city and they stood together in 2 Samuel 20:22 and as she had told Joab in 2 Samuel 20:21 “Look, his head is being thrown down to you over the wall.”
They might have waited and let Joab and his army take Sheba, but at the cost of much collateral damage. Instead, they removed the evil (see Deuteronomy 17:6-7) and they were all spared their own lives and their city around them.
Is it any different today? Who will testify against the gangs, the cartels, the evil in the street for fear of their own lives? And no, I am not talking about vigilante justice, these we have read about acted on the authority of the community and executed justice for the safety of their people.
The Bloodguilt
God Was Entreated for the Land
2 Samuel 21:8–14
Saul had broken a covenant with the Gibeonites (see Joshua 9:15), even worse than that, Saul committed what today we would call genocide in 2 Samuel 21:2 “but Saul tried to wipe them out in his zeal for the Israelites and Judah”. As David had inquired of the Lord, about the protracted famine in the land, he found that there was this bloodguilt in 2 Samuel 20:1. This concept of bloodguilt was not new to them in
Deuteronomy 19:10 Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land that Yahweh your God is giving to you as an inheritance and thereby bloodguilt would be on you.
The penalty for shedding innocent blood was death and “The famine was, in the wise and just retribution of Providence, made a national punishment, since the Hebrews either assisted in the massacre, or did not interpose to prevent it; since they neither endeavored to repair the wrong, nor expressed any horror of it;”1
but now it is raised to David’s attention as leader and king and he must make restitution. Those of Saul’s descendants pay the price with their lives and in
2 Samuel 21:14 “They did all that the king had commanded, and afterward God was entreated for the land”.
Do Not Quench the Lamp of Israel
Yahweh is My Rock
2 Samuel 22:1–10
David expresses his emotions, his faith, his experience as he has lived his life for God. This wasn’t written as he fled from Saul’s spear or in the cave of Adullam where David was hiding from Saul’s army or any number of times when he was in a battle with others and his life in the balance.
David says, “I take refuge … I call … and am saved” in 2 Samuel 22:3-4, “I called upon Yahweh … He heard my voice” in 2 Samuel 22:7-8.
And what was it that he was saved from? in
2 Samuel 22:5–6 For the breaker waves of death engulfed me; the currents of chaos overwhelmed me. 6 The ropes of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.
These are the descriptions from a man who had been to war. Few of us will ever experience the “breaker waves of death” or being completely overcome by opposing force, “chaos overwhelmed” where confusion is all around with complete disorientation, “ropes of sheol” so constrained and trapped that there is not any place to move, and “the snares of death” that prevent any hope of escape.
David did not write it then, but he writes it now “on the day Yahweh delivered him”. It is written in celebration of the goodness and faithfulness of God to deliver and we can also say, as David did in
2 Samuel 22:2 And he said: “Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer.
Study Verses
- 2 Samuel 2:14-26 Listen to the Words of Your Servant
- 2 Samuel 21:8–14 God Was Entreated for the Land
- 2 Samuel 22:1–10 Yahweh is My Rock
Today’s Reading
- 2 Samuel 20:1-26
- 2 Samuel 21:1-22
- 2 Samuel 22:1-10
References
- 1. Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 1, p. 209). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.