The God of my rock; in him will I:trust: he is my shield,

and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour;

thou savest me from violence. See Gill on Psalm 18:2.

3 The God of Israel saith,

The Rock of Israel speaketh to me:

A Ruler over men, just,

A Ruler in the fear of God.

4 And as light of the morning, when the sun rises,

As morning without clouds:

From shining out of rain (springeth) green out of the earth.

5 For is not my house thus with God?

For He hath made me an everlasting covenant,

Provided with all, and attested;

For all my salvation and all good pleasure,

Should He then not cause it to grow?

As the prophets generally preface their saying with "thus saith the Lord," so David commences his prophetic saying with "the God of Israel saith," for the purpose of describing it most emphatically as the word of God. He designates God "the God" and "The Rock" (as in 2 Samuel 22:3) of Israel, to indicate that the contents of his prophecy relate to the salvation of the people of Israel, and are guaranteed by the unchangeableness of God. The saying which follows bears the impress of a divine oracle even in its enigmatical brevity. The verbs are wanting in the different sentences of 2 Samuel 23:3 and 2 Samuel 23:4. "A ruler over men," sc., "will arise," or there will be. בּאדם does not mean "among men," but "over men;" for בּ is to be taken as with the verb משׁל, as denoting the object ruled over (cf. Genesis 3:16; Genesis 4:7, etc.). האדם does not mean certain men, but the human race, humanity. This ruler is "just" in the fullest sense of the word, as in the passages founded upon this, viz., Jeremiah 23:5; Zechariah 9:9, and Psalm 72:2. The justice of the ruler is founded in his "fear of God." אלהים יראת is governed freely by מושׁל. (On the fact itself, see Isaiah 11:2-3.) The meaning is, "A ruler over the human race will arise, a just ruler, and will exercise his dominion in the spirit of the fear of God."

The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.

Margin trust

See Scofield Note: "Ps 2:12".

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.