(29) As the Lord liveth, that hath redeemed my soul.--A characteristic adjuration of David, found also in 2Samuel 4:9; but now peculiarly appropriate in the old man, who was so near the haven of rest, after all the storms of life. "O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer," is the climax of his address to God, as the Creator of all things and the ruler of all men, in Psalm 19:14.

Verse 29. - And the king sware [see on ver., 51] and said, As the Lord liveth [or "by the life of Jehovah." Cf. "by the life of Pharaoh" (Genesis 42:15). This was the common form of oath. See, e.g., 1 Kings 2:24; Judges 8:19; Ruth 3:13; 1 Samuel 14:39; 1 Samuel 19:6; 1 Samuel 20:24; 1 Samuel 29:6; and especially Jeremiah 4:2; Jeremiah 5:2; Hosea 4:15. It is characteristic of David to introduce into the formula some such clause as the following], that hath redeemed my soul [i.e., life] out of all distress. Same expression as in 2 Samuel 4:9. Similar expressions are found in Psalm 25:22, and Psalm 34:22. The repeated deliverance out of straits and danger - "out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul" - was one of the most remarkable features of David's life, and it is no wonder that he repeatedly commemorates it, converting every adjuration into an act of thanksgiving. Similarly, Jacob (Genesis 48:16.)

1:11-31 Observe Nathan's address to Bathsheba. Let me give thee counsel how to save thy own life, and the life of thy son. Such as this is the counsel Christ's ministers give us in his name, to give all diligence, not only that no man take our crown, Re 3:11, but that we save our lives, even the lives of our souls. David made a solemn declaration of his firm cleaving to his former resolution, that Solomon should be his successor. Even the recollection of the distresses from which the Lord redeemed him, increased his comfort, inspired his hopes, and animated him to his duty, under the decays of nature and the approach of death.And the king sware,.... To his former oath, he added another for greater confirmation:

and said, as the Lord liveth; which was the proper form of an oath, which ought to be taken by the living God; and as what would lay him under the greater obligation to observe it, he adds,

that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress; saved his life when in the most imminent danger; delivered him out of the hand of Goliath, and from the Philistines and other enemies, in his wars with them; and from Saul and his persecuting rage and fury, and from the rebellion of his son Absalom, and the insurrection of Sheba.