Bird's-eye view
This section of David's song of deliverance is a profound statement on the responsive nature of God's character in His dealings with men. David, looking back over a life of conflict and rescue, articulates a foundational principle of divine justice: God mirrors back to us the character we present to Him. This is not to say that God's essential nature changes, but rather that His interaction with us is tailored to our own moral and spiritual posture. To the faithful, He shows Himself faithful. To the blameless, He is blameless. But to the devious, He shows Himself shrewd and unconquerable. This principle culminates in the great reversal that is central to the gospel economy: God saves the humble and afflicted, but He actively opposes the proud, bringing them down from their self-made heights. This is the lex talionis, the law of retribution, applied not just to external actions but to the very disposition of the heart. God deals with us in our own currency.
David is not claiming a sinless perfection that earns God's favor. Rather, he is speaking of his fundamental orientation, his covenantal integrity. In the main, despite his grievous sins for which he repented, David's life was characterized by a dependent faith and a desire for God's ways. God honored that. This passage is therefore a celebration of God's covenant faithfulness and a sober warning to all who would approach Him with duplicity or pride. God is not mocked; a man reaps what he sows, and the kind of face you show to God is the kind of face God will show to you.
Outline
- 1. The Responsive Justice of God (2 Sam 22:26-28)
- a. The Principle of Reciprocity (2 Sam 22:26-27)
- i. Kindness for the Kind (v. 26a)
- ii. Blamelessness for the Blameless (v. 26b)
- iii. Purity for the Pure (v. 27a)
- iv. Astuteness for the Crooked (v. 27b)
- b. The Great Reversal (2 Sam 22:28)
- i. Salvation for the Afflicted (v. 28a)
- ii. Humbling for the Haughty (v. 28b)
Context In 2 Samuel
Chapter 22 is one of the final sections of 2 Samuel, serving as a poetic capstone to the life of David. This song, which is nearly identical to Psalm 18, is David's comprehensive testimony to God's faithfulness in delivering him from all his enemies, chief among them King Saul. It is placed here, near the end of the narrative, not necessarily in chronological order, but as a thematic summary of David's entire reign. After recounting the turmoil, the battles, and the political intrigue, this song rises as a great doxology. The verses immediately preceding our text (vv. 21-25) establish the basis for God's deliverance in David's righteousness and cleanness of hands. Our passage then explains the principle behind this divine action. It is the theological engine that drives the whole song. The chapter, and indeed the book, demonstrates how God raised up His anointed king, David, a man after His own heart, and preserved him against all foes, thus securing the messianic line through which the ultimate Son of David would come.
Key Issues
- The Principle of Lex Talionis (Divine Reciprocity)
- The Nature of David's "Blamelessness"
- God's Relationship to the Proud and Humble
- The Immutability of God's Character
- Old Testament Righteousness and the Gospel
God Gives As Good As He Gets
There is a principle embedded in the fabric of God's moral universe that we often try to evade, and it is this: God treats you the way you treat Him. This is not the gospel, but it is the essential backdrop against which the gospel shines so brightly. David, a man well acquainted with both integrity and profound sin, understood this dynamic. He is not describing a moody or changeable God. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But the unchangeable God has ordained that His dealings with His creatures will be conditioned by their approach to Him. He is a rock, and you can either build your house on Him or you can run your ship into Him. The rock doesn't change, but your experience of it certainly does.
David is laying out the rules of engagement. If you come to God with a loyal heart, you will find Him to be unswervingly loyal. If you come with a pure heart, you will experience His perfect purity. But if you try to play games with God, if you approach Him with a twisted and devious heart, you will find that He is infinitely more shrewd than you are. You cannot outwit God. You cannot manipulate Him. He will take your own crookedness and use it to tie you into knots. This is the law of spiritual gravity, and it is always in effect.
Verse by Verse Commentary
26 With the kind You show Yourself kind, With the blameless You show Yourself blameless;
The first two lines establish the positive side of this divine reciprocity. The word for "kind" is hasid, which is related to hesed, God's covenant love and loyalty. To the man who is loyal to the covenant, God shows Himself loyal in return. He keeps His promises to those who walk in His ways. This is not a transactional relationship where we earn God's favor, but a covenantal one where our faithfulness is the fruit of His grace, and He is pleased to respond to that fruit with further blessing. Similarly, with the "blameless" man, God shows Himself blameless. The term "blameless" here does not mean sinless perfection, which no man apart from Christ can claim. It means integrity, wholeness, a heart that is not divided. It describes a man whose life direction is oriented toward God. To such a man, God reveals His own perfect integrity. There is no shadow of turning with Him.
27 With the pure You show Yourself pure, And with the crooked You show Yourself astute.
The pattern continues. To the pure, God shows Himself pure. When we approach God with clean hands and a pure heart, seeking to remove the filth from our lives, we experience His holiness not as a consuming fire of judgment, but as a refining, cleansing fire of fellowship. But then the tables turn dramatically. With the "crooked," God shows Himself "astute." The word for crooked means twisted or devious. It describes the man who is full of schemes and angles, who tries to manipulate God and man. To this man, God shows Himself shrewd, cunning, or even "tortuous." God will out-play the player. He will take the crooked path the sinner has chosen and show that it leads directly into a trap of God's own design. Think of Jacob the trickster, who spent years being tricked by his uncle Laban. Think of Haman, who built a gallows for Mordecai and was hanged on it himself. God is not the author of sin, but He is the master of turning a sinner's own wicked devices back upon his own head.
28 And You save an afflicted people; But Your eyes are on the haughty whom You bring down.
This verse provides the ultimate summary of the principle. It all boils down to the fundamental divide between the humble and the proud. God saves an "afflicted" people. This refers to the lowly, the humble, those who know they are in need of rescue. It is the poor in spirit whom Jesus says are blessed, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Humility is the posture that invites salvation. But God's disposition toward the "haughty" is the polar opposite. His eyes are on them. This is not a look of benevolent oversight; this is the look of a sniper acquiring his target. As David says elsewhere, God knows the proud from afar. He sets Himself in opposition to them. And the purpose of this focused attention is to "bring them down." Pride is the ultimate crookedness, the supreme declaration of self-sufficiency, and God is committed to its demolition. Every knee will bow, either in humble adoration or in shattered humiliation.
Application
The principle David lays out here is a spiritual diagnostic tool. How does God seem to you? Does He seem distant, severe, and hard to please? Perhaps it is because we are approaching Him with a crooked heart, trying to manage our own righteousness and keep a few secret sins in our back pocket. Does He seem kind, faithful, and pure? That is how He reveals Himself to those who approach Him with the simple, dependent faith of a child.
This passage forces us to ask what kind of face we are showing to God. We cannot bifurcate our lives, presenting a pious front on Sunday while living a crooked life Monday through Saturday, and then expect to experience God's kindness. He will meet us with the very astuteness we are trying to employ. He will deal with us in our own chosen currency.
Ultimately, this principle drives us to the foot of the cross. For who among us can claim to be perfectly kind, blameless, and pure? We have all been crooked. We have all been haughty. And so we all deserve to be met with God's astute opposition and to be brought down. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ was the truly blameless and pure man. He was the afflicted one, the humble servant, and God saved Him, raising Him from the dead. On the cross, He took our crookedness and pride upon Himself, and He faced the astute judgment of God that we deserved. In return, He gives us His purity and His humility. When we are clothed in Christ, God no longer sees our crookedness, but rather the perfect integrity of His Son. And because He is clothed in Christ, the Christian can now seek, by the power of the Spirit, to be kind, to be blameless, and to be pure, knowing that as he does, he will experience the responsive kindness, blamelessness, and purity of his Heavenly Father.