We’ve been studying the life of David a long time. We started this sermon series in 2024, about eight months ago. The first sermon was about 1st Samuel chapter 1, verse 1, through chapter 2, verse 11. You can read the first post in that series here, or look it up in your Bible.
That sermon was about the birth of Samuel, the great prophet who would go on to anoint David as king. Remember the situation of Samuel’s birth? His mother, Hannah, was unable to become pregnant, so she prayed to God, and God gave her Samuel. Then in chapter 2, Hannah prays a poetic prayer of praise and thanks to God. In a Bible, what do you notice about the format of 1 Samuel chapter 2, verses 1–11? Do you see how your Bible likely formats it as a poem? This is called Hannah’s Song, and you can read about it in the post here.
What I’m getting at is that the book of Samuel, which is two scrolls that we call 1st and 2nd Samuel, began with a song. Now fast forward to the passage we’re talking about today, 2 Samuel chapter 22, nearing the end of David’s life, and what do we find? The book of Samuel includes a song near its conclusion.
Before we jump to that concluding song, you might be curious…are there any other songs in the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel? Yes, there is one. Right smack in the middle. In 2 Samuel 1, after King Saul and his son Jonathan, David’s best friend, are killed in battle. This is a major turning point in the story, right? Saul and Jonathan’s death means that David’s years running away from Saul are over and the path is mostly clear for David to become king. In that moment, David expresses a psalm of lament (read about it here) about how the mighty have fallen.
So what we are talking about today is matched by the beginning and the middle of the account. That is almost certainly on purpose. What will David sing as he looks back on his very drama-filled life? Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 22, page 259 in your pew Bibles.
When you turn there, you will notice a reference is listed under the title. That title is “David’s Song of Praise,” and it was added by the editorial team who translated the New International Version. If you have a different translation, you might have a slightly different title to chapter 22. Those titles are not in the original text. The editorial team of the NIV Bible has also added a reference below the title, and that reference is Psalm 18. What the editorial team is telling us that 2 Samuel chapter 22 is repeated as Psalm 18 in the book of Psalms. It’s a two for one deal.
If you do a verse-by-verse comparison of 2 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18, you will see some slight differences between the two. Why? Different translators and different Hebrew manuscript traditions, are likeliest possibilities. But what is far more outstanding is that the two passages have so much word for word matching.
We are going to spend our time of 2 Samuel 22. We begin tomorrow!
Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 