God has delivered David from his enemies. He has preserved David from the enduring threat of Saul. And now David rejoices in song. It is a preview of the glorious Psalms to come. In fact, the words of 2 Samuel 22, David's canticle of thanksgiving, is seen again in Psalm 17. But here, right after the last of Saul's descendants are put to death, is a proper placement, as David's reign, nearing an end, finally enters a period of peace, and you can feel the depths of David's gratitude, expressed in the gloriously poetic language of this Psalm.
Again, David's reign, and his part in the story of God's Creation, is coming to an end soon. 2 Samuel 22:7 reads, "In my distress, I will call upon the Lord, and I will cry to my God: and he will hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry shall come to his ears." "Out of his temple." Here David alludes to the Temple he has been inspired to build, which at this point is still in the planning stages, but will come to represent a time of glory and prosperity for the Jewish people. A new era has begun.
But most importantly is what is ultimately prefigured in this Psalm, for David sings, "Thou wilt keep me to be the head of the Gentiles: the people which I know not, shall serve me" (2 Samuel 22:44). The Temple will indeed symbolize the pinnacle of God's Glory manifested among his chosen people. But in verse 44, David looks even further into the future, of a time when even the Gentiles will come into the fold and serve the Lord. This did not come into complete fruition in David's lifetime, so we can view this as a glimpse, a prefiguring of Jesus Christ (whom David often prefigures), Whose Church becomes the mystical temple for all his people, Jew and Gentile alike.
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