6 The cords of Sheol have surrounded me, Before me have been the snares of death.
Compassed me have cords of death, And straits of Sheol have found me, Distress and sorrow I find.
And if prisoners in fetters They are captured with cords of affliction,
The proud hid a snare for me -- and cords, They spread a net by the side of the path, Snares they have set for me. Selah.
His own iniquities do capture the wicked, And with the ropes of his sin he is holden.
The fear of Jehovah `is' a fountain of life, To turn aside from snares of death.
And he saith: I called, because of my distress, to Jehovah, And He doth answer me, From the belly of sheol I have cried, Thou hast heard my voice.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 2 Samuel 22
Commentary on 2 Samuel 22 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 22
This chapter is a psalm, a psalm of praise; we find it afterwards inserted among David's psalms (Ps. 18) with some little variation. We have it here as it was first composed for his own closet and his own harp; but there we have it as it was afterwards delivered to the chief musician for the service of the church, a second edition with some amendments; for, though it was calculated primarily for David's case, yet it might indifferently serve the devotion of others, in giving thanks for their deliverances; or it was intended that his people should thus join with him in his thanksgivings, because, being a public person, his deliverances were to be accounted public blessings and called for public acknowledgments. The inspired historian, having largely related David's deliverances in this and the foregoing book, and one particularly in the close of the foregoing chapter, thought fit to record this sacred poem as a memorial of all that had been before related. Some think that David penned this psalm when he was old, upon a general review of the mercies of his life and the many wonderful preservations God had blessed him with, from first to last. We should in our praises, look as far back as we can, and not suffer time to wear out the sense of God's favours. Others think that he penned it when he was young, upon occasion of some of his first deliverances, and kept it by him for his use afterwards, and that, upon every new deliverance, his practice was to sing this song. But the book of Psalms shows that he varied as there was occasion, and confined not himself to one form. Here is,
2Sa 22:1
Observe here,
2Sa 22:2-51
Let us observe, in this song of praise,