2 Samuel 22:29

For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(29) Thou art my lamp.—Comp. Psalm 27:1. The psalm changes the figure, “thou wilt light my candle (margin, lamp).” With this comp. Psalm 132:17; 1Kings 11:36; 1Kings 15:4.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

22:1-51 David's psalm of thanksgiving. - This chapter is a psalm of praise; we find it afterwards nearly as Ps 18. They that trust God in the way of duty, shall find him a present help in their greatest dangers: David did so. Remarkable preservations should be particularly mentioned in our praises. We shall never be delivered from all enemies till we get to heaven. God will preserve all his people, 2Ti 4:18. Those who receive signal mercies from God, ought to give him the glory. In the day that God delivered David, he sang this song. While the mercy is fresh, and we are most affected with it, let the thank-offering be brought, to be kindled with the fire of that affection. All his joys and hopes close, as all our hopes should do, in the great Redeemer.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This song, which is found with scarcely any material variation as Psalm 18, and with the words of this first verse for its title, belongs to the early part of David's reign when he was recently established upon the throne of all Israel, and when his final triumph over the house of Saul, and over the pagan nations 2 Samuel 22:44-46, Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Ammonites, and Edomites, was still fresh 2 Samuel 21. For a commentary on the separate verses the reader is referred to the commentary on Psalm 18.

The last words of David - i. e., his last Psalm, his last "words of song" 2 Samuel 22:1. The insertion of this Psalm, which is not in the Book of Psalms, was probably suggested by the insertion of the long Psalm in 2 Samuel 22.

David the son of Jesse said ... - The original word for "said" is used between 200 and 300 times in the phrase, "saith the Lord," designating the word of God in the mouth of the prophet. It is only applied to the words of a man here, and in the strikingly similar passage Numbers 24:3-4, Numbers 24:15-16, and in Proverbs 30:1; and in all these places the words spoken are inspired words. The description of David is divided into four clauses, which correspond to and balance each other.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 22

2Sa 22:1-51. David's Psalm of Thanksgiving for God's Powerful Deliverance and Manifold Blessings.

The song contained in this chapter is the same as the eighteenth Psalm, where the full commentary will be given [see on [278]Ps 18:1, &c.]. It may be sufficient simply to remark that Jewish writers have noticed a great number of very minute variations in the language of the song as recorded here, from that embodied in the Book of Psalms—which may be accounted for by the fact that this, the first copy of the poem, was carefully revised and altered by David afterwards, when it was set to the music of the tabernacle. This inspired ode was manifestly the effusion of a mind glowing with the highest fervor of piety and gratitude, and it is full of the noblest imagery that is to be found within the range even of sacred poetry. It is David's grand tribute of thanksgiving for deliverance from his numerous and powerful enemies, and establishing him in the power and glory of the kingdom.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For thou art my lamp, O Lord: and the Lord will lighten my darkness. See Gill on Psalm 18:28.

Geneva Study Bible

For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

29. For thou, &c.] For connects this verse closely with 2 Samuel 22:29, as the confirmation out of his own experience of the principles there enunciated.

my lamp] Illuminating all his life with the light of prosperity, as the lamp illuminates the house. Dominus illuminatio mea was David’s motto. Cp. Psalm 27:1; Psalm 132:17. With the different application of the figure in Psalm 18:28, “Thou wilt light my lamp,” cp. 1 Kings 11:36; 1 Kings 15:4.

29–31. God’s faithfulness attested by the Psalmist’s experience

After celebrating God’s goodness in delivering him from all the dangers which threatened his life, David goes on to describe how God had made him victorious over all his enemies.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 29-31. -

"For thou, Jehovah, art my Lamp;
And Jehovah will make my darkness light.
For by thee do I run upon a troop;
In my God I leap over a wall.
God - his way is perfect;
The word of Jehovah is purified.
He is a Shield to all that trust in him." Lamp. The lamp burning in the house is the proof of life and activity present there; and thus the extinguishing of the lamp means ruin and desolation (Job 21:17). So David is called "the lamp of Israel" (2 Samuel 21:17), because the active life of the nation centred in him. In a still higher sense the life and being of his people centres in God, and without him the soul is waste and void, like the universe before God said, "Let there be light." I run. To the warrior in old time speed was as important as strength, and thus Homer constantly calls Achilles "fleet of foot." It was his fleetness which gave Asahel a high place among the mighties (2 Samuel 2:18), and to this quality David now refers. The troop signifies a light armed band of marauders, whom with God's aid David could overtake, and stop in their course of rapine. The wall means fortifications like those of Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:7). Sieges were tedious affairs in old time, but David had captured that city with a rapidity so great that the metaphor in the text is most appropriate. Purified; or, refined. This does not mean that it is proved by experience and found true, but that it is absolutely good and perfect like refined gold (see Psalm 12:6). 2 Samuel 22:29

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

2 Samuel 22:29 commences the description of the help which David had already received from God in his conflict with the enemies of Israel, and which he would still receive.

29 For Thou art my lamp, O Jehovah!

And Jehovah maketh my darkness bright.

30 For through Thee I run troops,

And through my God I leap walls.

31 God - innocent is His way.

The word of Jehovah is refined,

A shield is He to all who trust in Him.

The explanatory כּי, with which the new description of the divine mercy commences, refers to the thought implied in 2 Samuel 22:28, that David belonged to the "afflicted people," whom the Lord always helps. As the Lord delivered him out of the danger of death, because He took pleasure in him, so He also gave him power over all his enemies. For He was his lamp, i.e., He had lifted him out of a condition of depression and contempt into one of glory and honour (see at 2 Samuel 21:17), and would still further enlighten his darkness, i.e., "would cause the light of His salvation to shine upon him and his tribe in all the darkness of their distress" (Hengstenberg). In the psalm the verse reads thus: "For Thou lightest (makest bright) my lamp (or candle), Jehovah my God enlighteneth my darkness;" the bold figure "Jehovah the lamp of David" being more literally explained. The figure is analogous to the one in Psalm 27:1, "The Lord is my light;" whilst the form ניר is a later mode of writing נר.