He is / the one / making firm / my feet / like the hinds’ feet, And he makes me / stand upon / high places. He is the one / training my hands / for battle, So that / my arms / can depress / the bow of bronze. Yhwh is now seen as David’s military trainer. There is something here reminiscent of the Spirit that would descend upon the judges, that would immediately enliven and strengthen them. They would become, at that moment, something like a ‘hero’ in other tales—except for the fact that most other heroes were, by nature, partakers of divine nature (usually, by birth), whereas here, the Spirit of Yhwh descends (and can re-ascend). David is very aware of this enliving power. The emphases here is on strength. David is being made into almost some Achilles: a massively powerful warrior. Of course, with the first half of the psalm as a backdrop, the power that is seen as emboldening David is horrendous and volcanic. It is important to realize that, for the Israelite, when the thought of David, they thought of a man whose anointing was so total and absolute that he came to embody the terrible wrath of Yhwh that we have already seen described. David was made immensely powerful and no king stood in comparison with him, because no god stood in comparison with the god who was ‘training him for battle’. It would not be too much to claim that, for the Jew, David would have conquered even Achilles. It is interesting that David here lapses into a third-person address. No longer is it, “you make stand…you train my hands.” Rather, it is “he makes me stand…he trains my hands.” IT almost sounds as if, at this point David is addressing people around him, rather than Yhwh directly. And you gave me / your shield / of deliverance, And your right hand / supported me, and your help / made me great. You lengthened / my stride / beneath me, so that / my ankles / have not slipped. All of the images thus far have been ones of pursuit and preparation for battle: strong fee, trained hands, shield of deliverance, lengthened stride. This is Adam in all his original splendor. This part of the psalm is therefore reminiscent of the first movement of Yhwh after hearing David’s prayer: he prepares for battle. If this is seen as a type of recapitulation of the first part of the psalm, we are to sense behind this ‘preparation’a billowing and infuriated Yhwh, one who has become volcanic in his anger towards David’s oppressors. I pursued / my enemies / and I overtook them, and I did not return / until they / were finished. This is the beginning of battle; David is now attacking. The context of this psalm is the emergence of the Kingdom of God, through his messiah, David. Like Genesis, this psalm narrates the powerful emergence and establishment of order over the entire land of Canaan as well as the establishment of a monarchy that was to, in potentiality, be a worldwide dominion. As we have said before, David is, then, a type of Adam—a beginning and a king of ‘creation’. Here we find David’s amazing empowerment to be established in unwavering fidelity to Yhwh’s commands—for this reason…an aspect of David’s emergence was his deliverance from Saul. Saul had been similarly ‘empowered’as David is now. He lost that anointing however when he overtook his enemies but spared the king, Agag, and the ‘choicest of his flock’ (he says, for ‘sacrifice’).However apparently minor this infraction was, he did not do what Yhwh (and Samuel) had commanded him. Here, David shows himself the true king: “I did not return until they were finished”. “I wounded them / so they were not able / to rise; they fell / beneath my feet. And you girded me / with might / for the battle; you made my opponents / bow down / beneath me. And my enemies / you have given me / their neck; and those / who hate me -- / I have / exterminated them.” Here the actual drama of battle is enacted and it involves both death, wounded and utter submission (given their neck). David is described as ‘girded with might’, something he has already claimed in the ‘third person’ (“The god, who girded me with might and made perfect my way.”). There is the danger in reading this that we develop the impression of David ‘treading on ants’. However, we must remember how David described these men in the first half of the psalm: Death, Sheol, the torrents of Belial, ‘my powerful foe’, those who ‘were too strong for me’. David very clearly regards these men as of such power that they are representatives of the most powerful enemies known (Death, Sheol, Belial). David knows that these men are ‘giants’ compared to him (Goliaths we might say) and that they are much too powerful for him. Again, it is for this reason that the first half of the psalm is so important: it highlights not only the astonishing forces aligned against David and Yhwh’s Kingdom, but the fact that Yhwh’s strength, even in comparison to them, is unmatched. The utter destruction David’s wreaks here is, in this light, truly remarkable. They cried / for help / but there was / no deliverer; even upon Yhwh / but he did not / answer them. At first glance, the first line is not that remarkable, until we remember that the only other time someone ‘cried out’ was David’s prayer to Yhwh. These lines then represent the opposite of David’s prayer. His was not only heard but it seemed to overtake Yhwh. These men ‘cry out’, presumably to other gods, and then to Yhwh, but they are met with deadening silence. Likewise, the entire psalm has been focused on the word ‘deliverance’; here, David’s enemies cry out for deliverance but there is no one to help them. Yhwh’s attention is zeroed in, exclusively and utterly, on David. He cannot be distracted from his loyalty to him. Like Abraham, an enemy of David is an enemy of Yhwh. And I pulverized them / as dust / wafted by wind; as mud / of the streets / I poured / them out. There seems to be here a direct reference to Ps. 2 (or, Ps. 2 is referring to this psalm). There, Yhwh hands his anointed a ‘rod of iron’ and tells him he “shall break them (the nations) with an iron rod; like a potter’s vessel you shall pulverize them.” This is immediately followed by the meek submission of the nations to his anointed. The exact same logic is followed here: after David ‘pulverizes’ the nations, those remaining come to him to ‘serve’ him. There also may be a type of reference back to Ps. 1 and the fact that the wicked are like ‘chaff blown by the wind’. The imagery is slightly different here: they are made into dust (rather than chaff) but the effect of the judgment issued by David is the same—they are ‘blown away’ by the slightest breeze. The fact that they are ‘dust’ may be significant in that it is ‘to dust’ that man returns at death. The imagery of mud being poured out is poignant: David has become not only a conqueror who establishes ‘right order’,he is also a cleanser. They are but ‘mud’ that David removes from the land, purifying it of their wickedness. The juxtaposition of ‘dust’ and ‘mud’ seems pertinent as there has been that continuous play of opposites throughout the psalm (fire/water, smoke/cloud, hail/coals). Incidentally, in either Jeremiah or Ezekiel there is also this image of the ‘mud of the streets’ as a symbol of incredible fifth and desecration. You have / delivered me / from contentions / of people; you have / made me / head of / the nations. For the firs time we are told that the psalmist is the ‘head of the nations’, implying a type of kingship over not only Israel but ‘the world’. The verbs used to describe Yhwh’s actions are important: ‘delivered me’ / “made me’. David was delivered in order to be made. He was ‘redeemed’ in order to be ‘commissioned’. The amazing displays of power, the equipping and training for battle, the empowering: all of it has been an effort to raise David increasingly higher over the nations. As he has been lifted up the other nations have been ‘put down’. The proper order of the Kingdom of God is being established in and through David’s being ‘delivered’ and ‘made’. This will be a transition in the psalm: the boundaries will now be expanded to include ‘the peoples’. The psalm has now become nationalistic and kingdom oriented. A people / I knew not / served me; on the ear / hearing / they became / obedient to me. This is the beginning of David’s ‘inheritance’. In Ps. 2, Yhwh describes the effect of his anointing of David as bequeathing to him the nations as his inheritance. Here, we see that ‘fist installment’. And, it is marked by subservience and obedience.
Yhwh / is alive / and blessed be / my rock! And may / the God / of my deliverance / be exalted, the God who / is giving me / vengeance, and who / has subdued peoples / beneath me, the one delivering me / from my enemies. This concluding section is one of praise as David, in ascension and in enthronement, looks out over the beginning growth of the Kingdom. It has taken root and is spreading. The language used here of ‘subduing’is perhaps reminiscent of Yhwh’s command to Adam to ‘subdue’ the earth. Here, David ascribes to Yhwh the victory of ‘subduing’ the rebellious people under his (and Yhwh’s) rule. The world has, in a way, begun again. Indeed / you have raise me / higher than / my opponents; you have / delivered me / from the violent man. Therefore I will / praise you / among the nations / O Yhwh, and I will / sing the praise / of your name. As we have said before, David is redeemed/delivered in order to rule and be the ruler of Yhwh’s kingdom. In this way, the Most High establishes David as the most high over the nations. He is the king above all kings. From that vantage, David will not only praise Yhwh within Israel Israel Jerusalem
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