Psalms 60:11
in Psalms 60Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Give us help against the adversary; For vain is the help of man.
KJV
Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.
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This verse in Psalms 60
Commentary
14 notes on this verseTherefore, let the church of God be saluted and let it be taught to say what we were just saying: "Give us help from trouble; for the help of people is worthless." So, perhaps, the meaning of the psalm does not at all permit us to allege weakness, if indeed affliction is a patron of help and not an occasion of infirmity.
This site's exposition
Give us aid against the enemy
on Psalms 60:11-12
Verse 11 asks for aid and gives the reason, the help of man is worthless. Verse 12 puts the valor on the people and the trampling on God. Psalm 108:12 and 13 close with the same two lines.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
Thou therefore, O God, that will not march forth in our powers, "Give to us aid from tribulation, and vain is the safety of man." Go now they that salt have not, and desire safety temporal for their friends, which is empty oldness. "Give to us aid:" from thence whence You were supposed to forsake, thence succour.
Thou therefore, O God, that will not march forth in our powers, "Give to us aid from tribulation, and vain is the safety of man." Go now they that salt have not, and desire safety temporal for their friends, which is empty oldness. "Give to us aid:" from thence whence You were supposed to forsake, thence succour.
The first thing they must do is examine their own hearts, to see whether they are asking in faith. Any who ask in faith receive for their own good, and sometimes do not receive for their own good. When he does not cure the body, he wants to cure the soul. So trust him, and believe that since he has called you to an eternal kingdom, whatever he wishes is to your advantage. After all, what is this thing that you long for as though it mattered so enormously? Eternal life is what he has promised you, to reign with the angels is what he has promised you, rest without end is what he has promised you. And what, in comparison, is it that he does not give here and now? Isn't it true that "the health of human beings is vain"? Isn't it absolutely certain that all those who do get cured will eventually die? And when death comes, all those past events vanish like smoke. But when that other life that he has promised us comes, it will of course have no end. By denying you something here and now, he is equipping you for that life, he is preparing you for it, he is training you for it.
So, as I said, the creature baptized the Creator, the lamp the sun, and by doing so John the Baptist did not push himself forward but submitted himself. I mean, he said to the one who came to him, "Are you coming to me to be baptized? It is I who ought to be baptized by you." A great confession, and a sound profession of humility by the lamp. If this had pushed itself forward against the sun, the wind of pride would very soon have blown it out. So this is what the Lord foresaw, what the Lord taught by his baptism. Such a great one wished to be baptized by such a small one; to explain it in a word, the Savior by one needing to be saved. John, I mean, had perhaps remembered, great though he was, some sickness or other of his. Why else, after all did he say, "It is I who ought to be baptized by you"? Certainly the Lord's baptism means salvation, because "salvation is from the Lord." "For vain is the salvation coming from people." So why, "It is I who ought to be baptized by you," if he had no need of any sort of cure? But in the Lord's own very humility there is a marvelous medicine; one was baptizing, the other healing.
Would a man who was only a man say this of himself? For if a person says this, he blasphemes, and "God does not hear sinners." But indeed Christ says that God hears him. He is therefore neither sinner nor mere man. It has also …
7 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers1 voice
A commentator
Fulgentius of RuspeBOOK TO VICTOR AGAINST THE SERMON OF FASTIDIOS THE ARIAN 3:3 · Written before 533.
proposed
For the Spirit of the Lord did not say, he who does the truth, that his works be clearly seen as done in the Holy Spirit but "as done in God," which we say are done not in the Father alone, or in the Son …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Give us help from trouble,.... To have trouble is the common lot of all men, but especially of the people of God. They have some troubles which others have not, arising from indwelling sin, Satan's temptations, and the hidings of God's face; and as for outward troubles, they have generally the greatest share of them, which are certain to them by the appointment of God, and the legacy of Christ; though they are needful and for their good, and lie in their way to heaven.
The hope with which they support themselves in this prayer has two things in it:-- 1. A diffidence of themselves and all their creature-confidences: Vain is the help of man. Then only we are qualified to receive help from God when we are brought to own the insufficiency of all creatures to do that for us which we expect him to do.
They may likewise furnish us with matter both for prayer and praise, for both must be laid before God with suitable affections and emotions. If one point be gained, yet in another we are still striving: the Edomites are vanquished, but the Syrians are not; therefore let not him that girds on the harness boast as if he had put it off.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
Give us help from trouble. Help us to overcome the disasters of civil strife and foreign invasion; save us from further incursions from without and division within. Do thou, O Lord, work this deliverance, for vain is the help of man. We have painfully learned the utter impotence of armies, kings, and nations without thine help. Our banners trailed in the mire have proven our weakness without thee, but yonder standard borne aloft before us shall witness to our valour now that thou hast come to our rescue.
Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man - We have done all we can do, and have trusted too much in ourselves; now, Lord, undertake for us.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Give us help from trouble - From the troubles which have now come upon us and overwhelmed us. For vain is the help of man - Margin, salvation. The idea is, that they would look in vain to man to assist them in their present difficulties. They must depend on God alone. What is here said of temporal troubles is true as absolutely in the matter of salvation. When we are burdened with the consciousness of guilt, and trembling under the apprehension of the wrath to come, it is not man that can aid us. Our help is in God alone. Man can neither guide, comfort, pardon, nor save; and in vain should we look to any man, or to all people, for aid. We must look to God alone: to God as the only one who can remove guilt from the soul; who can give peace to the troubled heart; who can deliver us - from condemnation and ruin.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Who will bring me to a fortified city then to a fortified city, to conquer the city of Rome; if You will not help me against the fortress of Edom, who will bring me and who will lead me upon them?
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Moab is my washbasin I will use them as a copper pot prepared for washing therein.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הָֽבָה־ | havah- | give ! | H3051 → | 34 times |
| לָּ֣נוּ | lanu | to us | ||
| עֶזְרָ֣ת | ʾezrat | help | H5833 → | 26 times |
| מִצָּ֑ר | mitzar | from [the] foe | H6862 → | 109 times |
| וְ֝שָׁ֗וְא | veshav' | and [is] worthlessness | H7723 → | 53 times |
| תְּשׁוּעַ֥ת | teshuat | [the] deliverance of | H8668 → | 34 times |
| אָדָם׃ | ʾadam | humankind | H120 → | 551 times |
הָֽבָה־give !
havah-H3051 →34 times
לָּ֣נוּto us
lanu
עֶזְרָ֣תhelp
ʾezratH5833 →26 times
מִצָּ֑רfrom [the] foe
mitzarH6862 →109 times
וְ֝שָׁ֗וְאand [is] worthlessness
veshav'H7723 →53 times
תְּשׁוּעַ֥ת[the] deliverance of
teshuatH8668 →34 times
אָדָם׃humankind
ʾadamH120 →551 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 146:3Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.
it leads to
- Isaiah 2:22
Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 118:8–9
It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 31:3
But the Egyptians are men, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the LORD stretches out His hand, the helper will stumble, and the one he helps will fall; both will perish…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 17:5–6
This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes the flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.
- Psalms 108:12
Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless.
- Isaiah 2:22
Through
Isaiah 30:7Egypt’s help is futile and empty; therefore I have called her Rahab Who Sits Still.
it leads to
- Lamentations 3:26
It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
- Isaiah 7:4
and say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Do not be afraid or disheartened over these two smoldering stubs of firewood—over the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of…
- Lamentations 3:26
Through
Psalms 108:12Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 17:5–8
This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes the flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.
- Jeremiah 17:5–8
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Psalms
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 60; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 61A.5; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 292:4; Basil of Caesarea, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 20:1; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 3; Fulgentius of Ruspe, BOOK TO VICTOR AGAINST THE SERMON OF FASTIDIOS THE ARIAN 3:3; Gaius Marius Victorinus, AGAINST ARIUS IA 2.1.B.7; John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of Psalms; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.