Psalms 60

Psalms 601. To the Chief Musician. On the Lily of Testimony. A Mystery. By David. To be Learnt. The lily is probably, in this case, as in Psalms 45:1, an emblem of beauty or loveliness. The testimony is a name given to the Law, as God’s testimony against sin., See above, on Psalms 19:7, and compare 2 Kings 11:12, where the term is applied absolutely to the Law, considered as a book or writing.

This enigmatical inscription, therefore, may be understood as representing the theme or subject of the psalm to be the beauty of the law, or something lovely in it, with reference most pro- bably to the gracious promise cited from it. At the same time, there seems to be an allusion to the precept in Deuteronomy 31:19, “Now therefore write ye this song for you, and TEACH it the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a WITNESS for me against the children of Israel.” To this verse there seems to be a double allusion in the one before us; first in the word testimony, which is a cognate form to that translated witness, and then in the concluding words, to teach, where the verb is the same with that in Deuteronomy. The title before us, therefore, seems to say, this song is like the song of Moses, which was to be taught to the people, as a witness or testimony against them, in case of unbelief or disobedience. To teach then means to be taught or to be learned by heart, committed to memory. Compare 2 Samuel 1:18, where the English version incorrectly supplies (use of) the bow, instead of (song of) the bow, meaning the elegy on Saul and Jonathan which immediately follows, so called, according to an ancient custom, from the mention of Jonathan’s favourite weapon in 2 Samuel 1:22. See above, on Psalms 9:1.

From this enigmatical allusion, and the disguised form under which the truth is here revealed, the psalm is justly represented as a Michtam, mystery, or secret. See above, on the titles of the four preceding psalms.

The body of the psalm, apart from the additional title or historical inscription in Psalms 60:2, may be divided into three equal stanzas or strophes, each consisting of four verses. In the first, the Psalmist takes occasion from God’s seeming desertion’ of his people, to recall his former interventions in their favour, Psalms 60:1-4. In the second, he pleads an express promise, as a ground of present hope, Psalms 60:5-8. In the third, he expresses his confidence of safety and success, in the proposed expedition against Edom, Psalms 60:9-12. Throughout the psalm the ideal speaker is Israel, considered as the chosen people.

2. When, he conquered Aram, Naharaim and Aram Zobah, and Joab returned and smote Edom, in the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand men. The common version of the first verb (strove with) seems too weak, as a victory is clearly presupposed, and the idea of contention is conveyed by a cognate form of the same verb. The name Aram corresponds to Syria in its widest and vaguest sense, and is joined with other names to designate particular parts of that large country. It even includes Mesopotamia, which is a term of physical rather than political geography, and denotes the space between the Tigris and Euphrates, corresponding to Aram-Naharaim, or Syria of the Two Rivers, in the verse before us. The king of this country was tributary to the king of Aram Zobah, as appears from the account of David’s second Aramean war (2 Samuel 10:16; 2 Samuel 10:19).

It was after the return of the victorious army from this war, that Joab marched against Edom and achieved the victory here ascribed to him, as the leader of the army, but in 1 Chronicles 18:12, to his brother Abishai, who probably commanded under him, as he did in a subsequent campaign (2 Samuel 10:10), and in 2 Samuel 8:13, to David himself as the sovereign whom they both represented. The Valley of Salt has been identified by modern travellers with a valley south of the Dead Sea, on the ancient confines of Israel and Edom. See Robinson’s Palestine, vol. ii. p. 483. The number killed on this occasion is stated in 2 Samuel 8:13, and 1 Chronicles 18:12, at eighteen thousand. But this diversity might easily arise from different modes of computation, and seems at least to shew that the writer of the verse before us did not blindly copy the historical books, while the smaller number which he gives evinces his exemption from all disposition to embellish or exaggerate.

3. (Psalms 60:1). O God, thou hast cast us off; thou hast broken us; thou hast been angry; thou wilt restore to us (thy favour or our previous prosperity). Clear as the marks of thy displeasure have been, we still confidently look for thy returning favour. This may refer to disasters experienced in the former part of the campaign. Cast us off, with abhorrence and contempt, as in Psalms 18:2; Psalms 44:9; Psalms 44:23, Broken us, or made a breach in us, which appears to be a military figure, and a favourite with David in real life. See 2 Samuel 5:20; 2 Samuel 6:8, and compare Judges 21:15, Job 16:14; Job 30:14. The last verb means to restore, as in Psalms 19:7; Psalms 23:3, but in application to a different object. Compare Isaiah 58:12.

4. (Psalms 60:2). Thou hast made the earth quake, thou hast riven it; heal its breaches, far it moves. The idea of social disaster and calamity is here expressed by the figure of an earthquake and its natural effects, to which God is besought to put an end by the removal of the cause.

5. (Psalms 60:3). Thou hast made thy people see (what is) hard; thou hast made us drink wine of staggering (or reeling). The meaning of the first clause is, that God had made them experience hardship. See a similar expression in Psalms 71:20. Wine of staggering, wine that causes men to reel or stagger, here used as a figure for confusion, weakness, and distress. The same image reappears in Psalms 75:8, Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:22, Jeremiah 25:15; Jeremiah 49:12. See above, on Psalms 11:6.

6. (Psalms 60:4). Thou hast given to those fearing thee a banner to be lifted because of (thy) truth. Selah. In the sight of thy discomfited and downcast people, thou hast set up a signal, as a rallying point, and an assurance of the truth of thy engagements. The word translated banner means anything elevated as a signal, being derived from the following verb, which, in the form here used, means properly to raise itself, in Zechariah 9:16. The word for truth is not the one commonly so rendered, but has the same meaning in Proverbs 22:21, and in the Aramaic dialects.

See Daniel 2:47; Daniel 4:34. Because of, literally from before or from the face of, an expression indicating, as the cause of the effect described, the truth or veracity of God himself. The translation of the last clause in the ancient versions and some modern ones, to flee from before the bow, gives an unauthorised meaning both to the verb and noun.

7. (Psalms 60:5). In order that thy beloved ones may be delivered, save (with) thy right hand and hear (or answer) us. This is a prayer naturally prompted by the previous experience of God’s favour, as recorded in the foregoing verse. Thy beloved, an epithet applied to Benjamin in Deuteronomy 33:12, and forming a part of Solomon’s additional name Jedidiah, 2 Samuel 12:25. See also Psalms 45:1. The common version of the last words (hear me) rests upon the marginal reading or Keri.

8. (Psalms 60:6). God hath spoken in his holiness; I will triumph; I will divide. Shechem, and the Valley of Succoth I will measure. As a further ground for his petition, the Psalmist, speaking in the name of Israel, appeals to the promise of Jehovah, that his people should possess the entire land of Canaan. The reference is not to any insulated promise, but to that pervading the whole Law. There God had spoken, uttered his promise, in his holiness, i.e. as a holy God, and as such incapable of failing to perform it.

See the similar expressions in A4mo_4:2. Some understand what follows as the words which God had spoken; but as Psalms 60:9 is confessedly the language of the people or their representative, and as no intermediate point of transition can be well assumed, it seems better to explain these also as the words of David or of Israel. “God hath spoken in his holiness (and therefore) I will triumph.” Because he has promised me victorious possession of the land, I exult in confident anticipation of it. This idea of triumphant occupation is expressed in terms appropriate to the times of the original conquest, when the land was measured and distributed among the tribes. See Joshua 13:7; Joshua 18:5. The two great divisions of the country, east and west of Jordan, are denoted by Shechem and Succoth, the places where Jacob pitched his tent on his return from exile, as if to claim the Land of Promise as his heritage. See Genesis 33:17; Genesis 33:19.

9. (Psalms 60:7). To me (belongs) Gilead and to me Manasseh, and Ephraim the strength of my head, Judah my lawgiver. The idea still is that the whole of Canaan rightfully belongs to Israel. The form of expression is analogous to that in the preceding verse, but with a beautiful variation. As the two great divisions of the country, east and west of Jordan, are there represented by detached points, Shechem and Succoth, so here by the names of extensive districts, Judah and Ephraim, the two largest territories on the west, Bashan and Gilead on the east, the latter called by its own name, the former by that of the tribe which occupied the greater part of it. See Deuteronomy 3:12-13.

The last clause does due honour to the military strength of Ephraim (Genesis 48:19, Deuteronomy 33:17), but asserts the civil supremacy of Judah (Genesis 49:10). The phrase translated strength of my head might seem to mean my chief strength; but that would require the terms to be inverted, head of my strength. Compare Genesis 49:3. It rather means the protection of my head, as strength of my life in Psalms 27:1 means that which protects my life, the head being mentioned as the vital part peculiarly exposed. Compare Psalms 68:21; Psalms 110:6. Some suppose the figure to be that of a helmet, which is too specific.

In the last clause there is obvious allusion to the prophecy in Genesis 49:10. Lawgiver has its proper sense of ruler, sovereign. That of rod or sceptre, which some give it, rests upon a doubtful explanation of Num 21:18.

10. (Psalms 60:8). Moab (is) my wash pot; at Edom will I throw my shoe; at me, Philistia, shout aloud! The three hostile powers, with which Israel was most frequently at war, are here put together, as the objects of a contemptuous address. Moab is likened to the humblest household utensil, the vessel in which slaves were wont to wash their master’s feet. Edom is likened to the slave himself, to whom or at whom the master throws his shoe when about to bathe his feet. Compare Matthew 3:11, Acts 13:25.

This is much better suited to the context than the allusion, which some assume, to the practice mentioned in Rth 4:7, where the removal of the shoe is a symbol of renunciation, and could not be here used to express the opposite idea of seizure or triumphant occupation. Shout aloud, or make a noise, is by some explained as an expression of triumph, and the whole clause treated as ironical. Others understand it of the acclamation or shout of welcome and applause by which subjects recognise and hail their sovereign. See above, on Psalms 2:11, where the exhortation to rejoice with trembling is, by the same interpreters, explained in the same manner. In either case, the clause implies superiority in him who speaks, and willing or compulsory subjection on the part of those whom he addresses.

11. (Psalms 60:9). Who will bring me (to) the fenced city? Who has led me up to Edom? In reliance on God’s promise, and in the possession of the hope and courage just expressed, his people are ready to go forward, and only waiting, as it were, for some one to conduct them into the enemy’s country, nay, into his very citadel. The fenced city, literally, city of defence, or fortification, a phrase already used in Psalms 31:21, is Petra, the famous capital of Idumea, hewn in the rock, and almost perfectly impregnable. See Robinson’s Palestine, vol. ii. pp. 573-580.

The past tense in the last clause represents the question as already answered. Up to, even to, as far as, implying not mere motion or direction, but actual arrival.12. (Psalms 60:10). (Is it) not thou, O God, (who) hast cast us off and will not go orth with our hosts? A simpler construction of the first clause would be, hast thou not cast us off? But it seems better to explain the verse as an indirect answer to the question in the one preceding. Who has brought us into Edom, if not he who had rejected us? The terms are borrowed from Psalms 44:9, which seems to have been written in the midst of the distress here spoken of as past. “Wilt not thou, of whom we lately were compelled to say, thou hast forsaken us and wilt not go forth with our hosts?” Compare 2 Samuel 5:24.

13. (Psalms 60:11). Give us help from trouble (or from the enemy); and (the rather because) vain (is) the salvation of man, i.e. the deliverance which man affords. The causal particle, for, because, which seems necessary to connect the clauses, is implied but not expressed in Hebrew. The second noun may either mean distress, as in Psalms 4:1; Psalms 18:6, or one who gives distress, a persecuting or oppressing enemy, as in Psalms 3:1; Psalms 13:4; Psalms 27:2; Psalms 27:12; Psalms 44:5; Psalms 44:7; Psalms 44:10. Either sense would be appropriate, but the latter is strongly recommended by its occurrence in the next verse.

14. (Psalms 60:12). In God we will make (i.e. gain or gather) strength, and he will tread down (or trample on) our adversaries (persecutors or oppressors). The prayer is followed by the confident anticipation of the answer. In God, i.e. in union with him, in possession of him. See above, on Psalms 18:29. The common version of the next phrase (shall do valiantly) is vague and dubious, being .inadmissible in several of the cases where the phrase occurs, whereas they all admit of the translation make or gather strength, in reference to the acquisition or recovery of force by those who had before been in a state of weakness.

See below, on Psalms 108:13; Psalms 118:15-16, and compare Ezekiel 28:4, Rth 4:11, Deuteronomy 8:17-18, Numbers 24:18, to the last of which places there is obvious allusion here, as relating to the very same enemies. Treading or trampling, as an emblem of violent subjection, occurs above in a contemporaneous passage, Psalms 44:5. The last eight verses reappear as a part of Ps. 108, in the exposition of which the points of difference and the general relation of the passages will be considered.