Psalm 60 comments

 

Psalm 60:1 ¶  «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.» O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again. 2  Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh. 3  Thou hast shewed thy people hard things: thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. 4  Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. 5  That thy beloved may be delivered; save with thy right hand, and hear me.

 

John Gill reported that famed Rabbi Aben Ezra thought that Shushaneduth was a known tune that this Psalm would have been sung to although he admitted that others thought it was a musical instrument, long forgotten. The Michtam, he wrote, was a “Golden Psalm of David.”

 

It is hard to contrast this victory with victories in cross-reference like…

 

2Samuel 8:13  And David gat him a name when he returned from smiting of the Syrians in the valley of salt, being eighteen thousand men.

 

…because, as ancient Rabbis said, there were several battles and multiple events of slaughter of different numbers.

 

David’s lament here refers to the difficulties Israel was facing with its neighbors and enemies and the constant warfare that would make David a warrior-king.

 

We can see also here a prophecy of the Jews in their several dispersals or disaporas. Specifically, though, we can see this as what happened in the 2,000 years after the Jews rejecting of Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah and Saviour.

 

John 19:15  But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

Matthew 27:25  Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

 

Scattered and persecuted, even hunted like animals by their enemies who were the tools of Satan, with their suffering permitting the survival of the nascent Christian church, God’s beloved, also a reference to Christ Himself.

 

1Thessalonians 2:16  Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

 

Note Paul’s lamentation for the people of his birth nation.

 

Romans 9:1 ¶  I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, 2  That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 3  For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 4  Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; 5  Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

 

Now see the use of beloved.

 

Mark 1:11  And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

 

Romans 1:7  To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Ephesians 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

 

John then uses the word beloved as an address to the Christians he is talking to over half a dozen times. But for David in context this is a plea for deliverance and victory. This is about a war for survival much like modern-day Israel has faced several times and even, at this writing, is embroiled in with a vicious enemy.

 

Psalm 60:6 ¶  God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth. 7  Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver; 8  Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia, triumph thou because of me. 9  Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom? 10  Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off? and thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies? 11  Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. 12  Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

 

Here David exalts in the victories he believes will come through God’s help and by His will and at the same time delivers a prophecy of a triumphant Christ. This is repeated in Psalm 108.

 

See also 2Samuel 8:2  And he smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive. And so the Moabites became David’s servants, and brought gifts.

 

Note Christ’s victory in Revelation as He takes control of what’s left of the kingdoms of the world.

 

Revelation 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

 

In the context it is God that is proclaiming what He will do and it is David who is, while lamenting that God might not have helped them as the struggle is great, confident that God will use Israel to accomplish His ends.

 

God will use nations to accomplish His ends as He uses people to do so, even those who are His enemies, even those who don’t believe He exists. What a blessing it is to believe, trust in, and obey God and be used for His purposes as opposed to moving blindly doing His will and then spending eternity in destruction. Do we have confidence, do we pray even, that God will use us to accomplish His will?