Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 22:22
For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 25. The integrity of David’s life and its reward
22. For I have kept, &c.] He goes on to substantiate the assertion of the preceding verse.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. [See comments on Ps 18:21].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
David’s Means of Victory, vs. 22-37
This part of David’s song contains many things relative to his praise for the Lord’s deliverance. Outstanding in interest, however, are the several things he says enabled him to obtain the victory. The first he
mentions is in verse 22; he had kept the ways of the Lord. He had done this by not indulging in wickedness and by keeping the statues and judgments set forth in the law of the Lord. This claim of David is an indication the psalm may belong to the early career of David, since he was guilty of the affair with Bathsheba and Uriah in his later career.
David also predicates his victory on his righteousness and cleanness in God’s sight. As already discussed David did not pretend to righteousness by his good works. He knew what it took to satisfy God, a heart cleansed by the Lord and a broken and contrite heart of repentance to obtain it (see Psa 51:10; Psa 51:17, etc.) David found that God responds with the mercy for the merciful, uprightness for the upright, purity for the pure, and with the froward unsavoriness. He saves the afflicted and brings down the haughty.
David overcame by means of the strength the Lord provided him. The Lord was the light to dispel his darkness; He gave him strength to break through the troop who opposed him; He put agility in his feet to leap over the wall of opposition like the hind, or female deer. Because God’s way is perfect, those in His way will always succeed. He is their buckler (a shield for hand-to-hand fighting) and the larger shield of their salvation.
David turns to rhetorical questions and answers them himself. They are to be seriously contemplated by the singer. “Who is God, save the Lord?” “Who is a rock, save our God?” Then he concludes that it is the gentleness of this great God, with terrible wrath and power against His enemies, which has made him great, which has enlarged his way under his feet, so that he cannot slip. David believed the believer is secure in the Lord (cf. 1Ti 1:12).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
22. Ways of Jehovah The ways of truth and duty which Jehovah has marked out. To attend to these ways is to walk in them.
Not wickedly departed Foully apostatised. He does not mean that he had never sinned, but that he had never wilfully rejected and turned away from the divine service.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
I have kept: Num 16:15, 1Sa 12:3, Job 23:10-12, 2Co 1:12
the ways: Gen 18:19, Psa 119:1, Psa 128:1, Pro 8:32
have not: Psa 36:3, Psa 125:5, Zep 1:6, Joh 15:10, Heb 10:38, Heb 10:39
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
22:22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not {m} wickedly departed from my God.
(m) I attempted nothing without his commandment.