To the chief musician on shushan-eduth, a miktam of David, to teach; when he fought against Aram-naharaim and Aram-zobah, when Joab returned and struck down twelve thousand men of Edom in the valley of salt
60:Title David’s campaigns against the armies of Aram (Syria) are recorded in 2 Samuel chapters 8 and 10. The battle against the Edomites is recorded in 1 Chron 18:12, where it is said that Abishai, Joab’s brother, killed 18,000 Edomites. Joab was the commanding general and killed 12,000 in his own engagement with the enemy. Joab and Abishai sometimes divided a battlefield between them (2 Sam 10:9-11). Shushan-eduth probably indicated the tune to be used in singing this psalm. It means “Lily of the Covenant”. Miktam was probably a literary or musical term.⚜
60
📚O God, you have cast us off. You have scattered us.
You have been displeased.
Oh, turn to us again.
2 📚You have caused the earth
to tremble.
You have broken it.
Heal its broken places,
for it shakes.
3 📚You have showed your people
hardness.
You have made us drink the wine 📖
of trembling.
60:1-3 The title suggests victory, but these verses speak of defeat. David may be speaking of a defeat in the midst of his victories which is not recorded in the historical books. It is possible that when he and his army were away fighting the Syrians, the Edomites invaded Israel. Or he may be referring, as some think, to conditions which prevailed at the time of Saul his predecessor. From the language David uses we judge the defeat was very severe, the conditions quite desperate. Observe that David traces their trouble to its source – God.⚜
4 📚You have given a banner 📖
to those who fear you,
that it may be displayed because
of the truth. Selah
5 📚Save with your right hand
and hear me,
that your beloved may be delivered.
60:4-5 David’s tone now becomes more hopeful and remains so throughout the rest of the psalm.⚜
6 📚God has spoken in his holiness:
“I will rejoice. I will divide Shechem,
and measure out the valley
of Succoth.
7 📚Gilead is mine,
and Manasseh is mine,
and Ephraim is the helmet
for my head.
Judah is my lawgiver 📖.
60:7 Gilead and Manasseh were places in the land Israel occupied east of the Jordan River. Ephraim was a tribe with great military strength (Gen 48:19; Deut 33:17).⚜
8 📚Moab is my wash pot.
On Edom I will cast my sandal.
Philistia, shout in triumph because
of me”.
60:6-8 Some scholars would put a full stop at the end of the first sentence in v 6, and attribute the words which follow to David speaking of himself. But it seems more likely that God Himself is speaking down to the end of v 8.⚜
60:8 Moab and Edom were two nations near Israel conquered by David and reduced to servitude. They became like servants to pour water on the hands of God’s servants, or clean his shoes. Philistia, on Israel’s western border, would also acknowledge its master in David and in David’s God.⚜
9 📚Who will bring me into
the strong city?
Who will lead me into Edom?
10 📚Will not you, O God,
you who have cast us off?
And you, O God, who
did not go out with our armies?
60:9-10 Is this a moment of doubt because of a past defeat? Past defeats can be a blow at hope and faith for the future, if we let them.⚜
11 📚Give us help from trouble,
for vain is
the help of man.
12 📚Through God we will do
valiantly,
for it is he who will
trample 📖 down our enemies.
60:11-12 David overcomes the temptation to discouragement and prays on until confidence returns. He is sure that only God can give him the victory – not his general Joab, not the armies of Israel, not his own courage and skill (Ps 118:8; 146:3; Isa 2:22; Jer 17:5; 1 Cor 15:57).⚜