◄ 2 Samuel 22:21 ►
The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness; He has repaid me according to the cleanness of my hands.
Sermons
Abundant Cause for ThanksgivingChristian Endeavour Times2 Samuel 22:1-51
David's Song of PraiseB. Dale 2 Samuel 22:1-51
Psalm SingingA. Whyte, D. D.2 Samuel 22:1-51
The Song of ThanksgivingW. G. Blaikie, D. D.2 Samuel 22:1-51
God Rewarding the RighteousG. Wood 2 Samuel 22:21-25














Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
God Rewarding The Righteous
2 Samuel 22:21-25
G. Wood
He delivered me because he delighted in me, the psalmist had just said. The reasons of the Divine delight in him, and his consequent deliverance, are given in these verses. They at first startle us, as inconsistent with the humility which is part of the character of a godly man, and as peculiarly unsuitable in the mouth of one who had been guilty of adultery and murder. The latter part of the difficulty is removed if, as is most probable, the psalm belongs to the earlier period of David's reign, before his commission of those grievous sins. As to the former, we should hardly find the Apostle Paul writing in this strain; but rather referring all his successes to the exceeding grace of God (see 1 Corinthians 15:9, 10). His consciousness of sin in general, and of his special guilt on account of his persecution of Christians, prevented everything that savoured of boasting, at least before God. But even he, in appealing to men, did not shrink from reciting his excellences and devoted labours (see 2 Corinthians 1:12; 2 Corinthians 6:3-10; 2 Corinthians 11:5-31), though ready to call himself a "fool" for recounting them. And, after all, the truth that God does reward the righteous according to their righteousness is as much a doctrine of the New Testament as of the Old; and there are occasions when Christians may fittingly recognize and declare that the favour God is showing them is according to their righteousness; although the deeper consciousness of sin, and of entire dependence on the mercy of God, which is awakened by the revelations of the gospel, makes the Christian more reluctant to mention his virtues as a reason for the kindness of God to him. As the meritorious ground of such kindness, David would have been as far as St. Paul from regarding them. Notice -

I. THE PSALMIST'S CHARACTER. This he describes by various words and phrases, which only in part differ from each other.

1. Righteousness. Uprightness, rectitude, moral and spiritual goodness in general.

2. Cleanness of hands. Hands free from the stain of innocent blood, of "filthy lucre," etc.

3. Observance of God's ways. The ways he prescribes of thought, feeling, speech, and action. These are inquired after and followed by the good man.

4. Adherence to God. "Have not wickedly departed from my God" - from his presence, worship, the ways he prescribes, and in which he is to be found. Some degree of turning from God at times, every one who knows himself will be conscious of; but "wickedly" to depart from him, to do so consciously, deliberately, persistently, this is apostasy, the very opposite of godliness and righteousness. The Christian will esteem the slightest deviation from God as wicked; but he justly recalls his perseverance in the habits of piety and holiness, in spite of all temptations, with thankfulness.

5. Mindfulness of his Word, and persevering obedience to it. God's Word is "his statutes," what he has determined and appointed, and "his judgments," what he declares and prescribes as just and right. These the psalmist "kept before" him, and from them he "did not depart." And his attention and obedience to them were universal - they extended to "all" of them. One necessary quality of a true obedience. "Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments" (Psalm 119:6).

6. Uprightness before God. With regard both to him and to men.

7. Avoidance of the besetting sin. "I have kept myself from mine iniquity." There is a particular sin to which each is specially prone. To keep one's self from that, by watchfulness, prayer, and resolute resistance, is special evidence of genuine piety.

8. Purity of life in general. "My cleanness," and that "in his eyesight," a very different thing from being pure in the eyes of men. Includes purity of heart as well as conduct, such as is so true and genuine as to bear the Divine inspection.

II. THE PSALMIST'S RECOMPENSE. In his preservation and deliverance from so many perils and enemies, he recognized the Divine reward of his righteousness, the Divine reply to the calumnies of his enemies, the Divine attestation of his innocence.

1. There is a real righteousness in the character of godly men. By this they are essentially distinguished from others. It is not a mere difference of taste.

2. The Divine recompense of such righteousness is certain. On account of:

(1) The character of God. "The righteous Lord loveth righteousness" (Psalm 11:7).

(2) His relation to the righteous. As their Father, etc.

(3) His promises.

(4) His almighty power. He is able to do all that is suitable to his nature, and that he has bound himself to do by his Word.

3. Those who receive such recompense should recognize and acknowledge it. The righteous do continually receive recompense for their righteousness; rewards, both spiritual, material, and social. But sometimes the happy results of their piety are very manifest, and then they should be specially noticed.

(1) To the glory of God. Praising him and inciting others to praise him.

(2) For encouragement of themselves and their brethren. Increasing their faith, and strengthening their determination to continue in their chosen course, and their assurance of ultimate, complete recognition and reward. For the whole reward is not yet. "Great is your reward in heaven" (Matthew 5:12); but on earth the "guerdon" may be

"Many a sorrow, many a labour,
Many a tear." Finally, in the Lord Jesus Christ we have the perfect Example of righteousness and its recompense; how it may be tried, and how sure is its reward. In him, too, we behold the Source of righteousness for us, and the Pledge of its ultimate triumph. - G.W.

Biblical Illustrator
The Lord is my Rock and my Fortress.
2 Samuel 22:2, 3
God our Rock
H. W. Beecher.
A great mountain lifts itself up, with perpendicular face, over against some quiet valley; and when summer thunders with great storms, the cliff echoes the thunder, and rolls it forth a second time, with majesty increased; and we think that, to be sublime, storms should awaken mountain echoes, and that then cause and effect are worthy of each other. But so, too, an oriole, or a song-sparrow, singing before it, hears its own little song sung back again. A little child, lost and crying in the valley, hears the great cliff weeping just as it weeps; and, in sooth, the mountains repeats whatever is sounded, from the sublimest notes of the tempest to the sweetest bird-whisper or child-weeping; and it is just as easy to do the little as the great, and more beautiful. Now God is our rock, and from His heart is inflected every experience, every feeling of joy or grief that any human soul utters or knows.

(H. W. Beecher.)

People
David, Saul
Places
Gath
Topics
Clean, Cleanness, Gives, Hands, Recompensed, Recompenseth, Return, Reward, Rewarded, Righteousness
Outline
1. David's psalm of thanksgiving for God's deliverance and blessings

Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Samuel 22:21

     5156   hand

2 Samuel 22:2-51

     8609   prayer, as praise and thanksgiving

2 Samuel 22:21-25

     8201   blamelessness

Library
David's Hymn of victory
'For Thou hast girded me with strength to battle: them that, rose up against me hast Thou subdued under me. 41. Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me. 42. They looked, but there was none to save; even unto the Lord, but He answered them not. 43. Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them abroad. 44. Thou also hast delivered me from the strivings of my people, Thou hast …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Mosaic Cosmogony.
ON the revival of science in the 16th century, some of the earliest conclusions at which philosophers arrived were found to be at variance with popular and long-established belief. The Ptolemaic system of astronomy, which had then full possession of the minds of men, contemplated the whole visible universe from the earth as the immovable centre of things. Copernicus changed the point of view, and placing the beholder in the sun, at once reduced the earth to an inconspicuous globule, a merely subordinate …
Frederick Temple—Essays and Reviews: The Education of the World

The First Commandment
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' Exod 20: 3. Why is the commandment in the second person singular, Thou? Why does not God say, You shall have no other gods? Because the commandment concerns every one, and God would have each one take it as spoken to him by name. Though we are forward to take privileges to ourselves, yet we are apt to shift off duties from ourselves to others; therefore the commandment is in the second person, Thou and Thou, that every one may know that it is spoken to him, …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

In the Present Crusade against the Bible and the Faith of Christian Men...
IN the present crusade against the Bible and the Faith of Christian men, the task of destroying confidence in the first chapter of Genesis has been undertaken by Mr. C. W. Goodwin, M.A. He requires us to "regard it as the speculation of some Hebrew Descartes or Newton, promulgated in all good faith as the best and most probable account that could be then given of God's Universe." (p. 252.) Mr. Goodwin remarks with scorn, that "we are asked to believe that a vision of Creation was presented to him …
John William Burgon—Inspiration and Interpretation

A Discourse of Mercifulness
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Matthew 5:7 These verses, like the stairs of Solomon's temple, cause our ascent to the holy of holies. We are now mounting up a step higher. Blessed are the merciful . . '. There was never more need to preach of mercifulness than in these unmerciful times wherein we live. It is reported in the life of Chrysostom that he preached much on this subject of mercifulness, and for his much pressing Christians to mercy, he was called of many, the alms-preacher, …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

The Ark among the Flags
'And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. 2. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. 3. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. 4. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. 5. And the daughter of Pharaoh came …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Christ's Prophetic Office
'The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet,' &c. Deut 18:85. Having spoken of the person of Christ, we are next to speak of the offices of Christ. These are Prophetic, Priestly, and Regal. 'The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet.' Enunciatur hic locus de Christo. It is spoken of Christ.' There are several names given to Christ as a Prophet. He is called the Counsellor' in Isa 9:9. In uno Christo Angelus foederis completur [The Messenger of the Covenant appears in Christ alone]. …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Samuel
Alike from the literary and the historical point of view, the book[1] of Samuel stands midway between the book of Judges and the book of Kings. As we have already seen, the Deuteronomic book of Judges in all probability ran into Samuel and ended in ch. xii.; while the story of David, begun in Samuel, embraces the first two chapters of the first book of Kings. The book of Samuel is not very happily named, as much of it is devoted to Saul and the greater part to David; yet it is not altogether inappropriate, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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