Psalm 60

Psalms 60:1-3

The Hebrew title, which this page's text does not show, reads To the chief Musician upon Shushaneduth, Michtam of David, to teach, when he strove with Aramnaharaim and with Aramzobah, when Joab returned and smote of Edom in the valley of salt twelve thousand, tying the psalm to the two-front campaign of 2 Sam 8, fighting north against the Arameans while Joab's expedition south cost twelve thousand slain. The opening cry answers a real reversal in confidence rather than a lost war, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased, the land itself made to tremble and broken open. Verse 3 names what that reversal felt like to live through, hard things shown to the people and the wine of astonishment poured out, a drink that leaves the drinker reeling rather than comforted.

Psalms 60:4-5

Even inside the complaint the standard is already raised, a banner given to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth, a rallying point held for the truth rather than for show. The rallying cry turns straight into a specific plea, that thy beloved may be delivered, save with thy right hand, and hear me, the nation's cause pressed into the same words a single believer would use for himself. Henry finds the pivot exactly here, prayer for the whole people overtaking complaint about the whole people.

Psalms 60:6-8

Verse 6 opens a divine oracle, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth, God claiming the land on both sides of Jordan in his own voice, and the roll call that follows names Israel's own tribes, Gilead, Manasseh, Ephraim, Judah, before it turns to name the neighboring nations, Moab a washpot, Edom a place to cast a shoe, Philistia told to triumph in bitter irony. This same oracle reappears almost word for word at 108:6-13, a Davidic passage the compilers of the Psalter's fifth book thought fit to sing again. The claim rests on an inherited promise rather than present possession, which is why the question that follows in verses 9 and 10 can still be asked after the oracle has already answered it.

Psalms 60:9-10

The question sounds like doubt set right against the confident oracle just given, and verse 10 names the doubt directly, the same God who once did not go out with the armies is the God now being asked to lead the way into Edom. Older readers take the tension as the psalm's own honesty rather than a contradiction to smooth over, the promise held in one hand and the present setback still in the other. Gill reads the strong city as one of Edom's rock strongholds, the natural target once the oracle has already claimed the ground.

Psalms 60:11-12

The psalm's last word abandons the arithmetic of standing forces and turns the whole hope onto God, for vain is the help of man, no half measure, the strong city cannot be a matter of Israel's numbers against Edom's. Through God we shall do valiantly is not a promise of an easy fight, valiantly still assumes real resistance to be trodden down, courage offered rather than certainty. Spurgeon reads the closing pair as the whole psalm's argument compressed, a people who prayed for a banner and for deliverance leaving with nothing but confidence in the one who gave both.