Psalm 60 commentary

PSALM 60 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
For the director of music. To the tune of “The Lily
of the Covenant.” A miktam[b] of David. For
teaching. When he fought Aram aharaim[c] and
Aram Zobah,[d] and when Joab returned and
struck down twelve thousand Edomites in the
Valley of Salt.
I TRODUCTIO
SPURGEO , "TITLE. Here is a lengthy title, but it helps us much to expound the
Psalm. To the Chief Musician upon Shushaneduth, or the Lily of Testimony. The
forty-fifth was on the lilies, and represented the kingly warrior in his beauty going
forth to war; here we see him dividing the spoil and bearing testimony to the glory
of God. Tunes have strange names apparently, but this results from the fact that we
do not know what was in the composer's mind, else they might seem to be touchingly
appropriate; perhaps the music or the musical instruments have more to do with
this title than the Psalm itself. Yet in war songs, roses and lilies are often mentioned,
and one remembers Macaulay's Song of the Hugenots, though perhaps we err in
mentioning so carnal a verse--
" ow by the lips of those ye love, fair gentlemen of France,
Charge for the golden lilies now, upon them with the lance."
Michtam of David, to teach. David obeyed the precept to teach the children of
Israel; he recorded the Lord's mighty acts that they might be rehearsed in the ears
of generations to come. Golden secrets are to be told on the house tops; these things
were not done in a corner and ought not to be buried in silence. We ought gladly to
learn what inspiration so beautifully teaches. When he strove with Aramnaharaim
and with Aramzobah. The combined Aramean tribes sought to overcome Israel, but
were signally defeated. When Joab returned. He had been engaged in another
region, and the enemies of Israel took advantage of his absence, but on his return

with Abishai the fortunes of war were changed. And smote of Edom in the valley of
salt twelve thousand. More than this appear to have fallen according to 1 Chronicles
18:12, but this commemorates one memorable part of the conflict. Terrible must
have been the battle, but decisive indeed were the results, and the power of the
enemy was utterly broken. Well did the Lord deserve a song from his servant.
DIVISIO S. Properly the song may be said to consist of three parts: the
complaining verses, Psalms 60:1-3; the happy, Psalms 60:4-8; the prayerful, Psalms
60:9-12. We have divided it as the sense appeared to change.
ELLICOTT, "This psalm is composite; certainly two (Psalms 60:1-12), probably
three, independent pieces (Psalms 60:1-12) compose it.
Psalms 60:5-12 appear again at Psalms 108. The fact that the compiler of that psalm
began his adaptation with Psalms 60:5, and not where the ancient original piece
begins (Psalms 60:6), as well as the trifling variations, show that this psalm was in
its present state when the later arrangement was made. Most scholars agree in
thinking that the oracular verses, 6-8, are Davidic, or belong to a period as old as
David’s; and the inscription no doubt refers us to the series of events which this part
of the poem reflects.
There is nothing to guide conjecture as to the time when the ancient oracular
promise of victory was embodied in a poem, which evidently reflects a period of
national depression, either from some crushing defeat by a foreign enemy, or from
civil strife, in which the pious part of the community had suffered. The poetical
form is necessarily irregular.
Title.—See title, Psalms 4, 16
Upon Shushan-eduth (comp. Psalms 80, and Psalms 45, title)—i.e., upon a lily of
testimony; which has been variously explained to mean, “Upon lily-shaped bells,”
“A harp with six strings,” &c. After the analogy of other titles, it is better to take it
as the beginning of some hymn, to the tune of which this psalm was to be sung.
To teach.—This recalls 2 Samuel 1:18 : “To teach the sons of Judah the [song of the]
bow.” This psalm, like the elegy over Saul and Jonathan, was possibly used to kindle
the martial ardour of youthful Israel.
When he strove with . . .—The allusion to “Aram-naharaim”—i.e., Aram of the two
rivers—and “Aram-zobah” are to be explained by the events narrated in 2 Samuel
8, 10. The English rendering of 2 Samuel 8:13 reads as if Syrians, and not Edomites,
were then slain in the valley of salt; but the Hebrew seems rather to be, “And David
gat him a name in the valley of salt [eighteen thousand], when he returned from
smiting the Syrians.” This still leaves a discrepancy in the numbers; but it may be
noticed that the mode of the introduction of the number in the history looks
suspiciously like a gloss which may have been made from memory and afterwards
crept into the text.

PETT, "Heading (Psalms 60:1 a).
‘For the Chief Musician; set to Shushan Eduth. Michtam of David, to teach, when
he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and Joab returned, and
smote twelve thousand men of Edom in the Valley of Salt.’
This Psalm is dedicated to the Chief Musician to the tune of Shushan Eduth, ‘the
Lily of Testimony’. Compare for this the similar tune for Psalms 80 (shushannim
eduth - ‘lilies of testimony’). It is a Michtam, a cry for cover and protection, and was
for the purpose of teaching. Possibly the aim was that it should be learned by heart.
The background to the Psalm was when David had invaded Syria (Aram) to the
north (2 Samuel 8:3-8), defeating the kings of Zobah and Damascus. Seemingly the
Edomites to the south, with the assistance of the Syrians, had taken advantage of the
opportunity to invade Southern Judah. It was at this point that the Psalm was
written, when Judah was in despair at this sudden and unexpected invasion by their
enemies, a despair shared by David as he learned news of what was going on.
Subsequently he sent Joab and Abishai to deal with this invasion with the result that
a Syrian-Edomite alliance in the South was driven back, inflicting heavy casualties
(2 Samuel 8:13-14).
The opening of the Psalm is explained by this reverse which David initially suffered,
of which he received news while he was fighting in the north. It may well be that
while he was conducting his successful campaign in the north, the Edomites,
encouraged by a contingent of Syrians, had invaded southern Judah. ews of this
having reached David he penned this Psalm, in which he calls on God, recognising
that the reverse that Israel have suffered reveals that God is angry with them
(otherwise He would surely have protected them). Declaring His certainty of victory
because YHWH has raised His banner on His people’s behalf, he ends the Psalm by
calling on God for His assistance.
He would then in practise proceed to deal with the invaders by despatching Joab
with a powerful force, and it was Joab’s brother, Abishai, who would spearhead the
attack which slaughtered 6,000 Syrians and 12,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt (1
Chronicles 18:12), and follow it up by subjugating Edom, thus gaining great renown
for David (“getting him a name”). Israel were no longer the underdogs in the area as
they had been in the past before the rise of David.
otice the emphasis on the distinctiveness of His people. They are the ones who ‘fear
Him’, that is, reverence Him and respond to Him, whilst He is the One Who ‘loves
them and sees them as His own (Psalms 60:4-5). It is because of this that He raises
up His standard on their behalf, and exultantly declares His control over the whole
area, over Ephraim (Israel), Judah and the surrounding nations.
The Psalm may be divided into three parts:

1) David’s Distress On Learning Of The Disastrous Invasion Of Southern
Judah By The Combined Syrian-Edomite Forces And His Confidence In The Face
Of It (Psalms 60:1-4).
2) David Calls On God To Save Them By His Mighty Right Hand So That The
People Whom He Loves Might Be Delivered, And Declares The Certainty Of
YHWH’s Victory Because The Surrounding ations Are Subject To Him (Psalms
60:5-8).
3) David Declares His Assurance That Although God Has Appeared For A
While To Have Abandoned His People, He Will ow Arise And Enable Them To
Gain The Victory (Psalms 60:9-12).
David’s Distress On Learning Of The Disastrous Invasion Of Southern Judah By
The Combined Syrian-Edomite Forces And His Confidence In The Face Of It
(Psalms 60:1-4).
Recognising that the invasion of Judah by the Syrian-Edomite alliance is a sign of
God’s displeasure with Israel, he describes what has happened to southern Judah as
being like a severe earthquake, which has caused them to tremble and stagger
around. But he is nevertheless confident that God has now given them a banner
which can be displayed because they are His true people.
1 You have rejected us, God, and burst upon us;
you have been angry—now restore us!
BAR ES, "O God, thou hast cast us off - The word used here means properly to
be foul, rancid, offensive; and then, to treat anything as if it were foul or rancid; to repel,
to spurn, to cast away. See the notes at Psa_43:2. It is strong language, meaning that
God had seemed to treat them as if they were loathsome or offensive to him. The
allusion, according to the view taken in the introduction to the psalm, is to some defeat
or disaster which had occurred after the conquests in the East, or during the absence of
the armies of David in the East 2 Sam. 8; 1 Chr. 18; probably to the fact that the
Edomites had taken occasion to invade the southern part of Palestine, and that the
forces employed to expel them had been unsuccessful.
Thou hast scattered us - Margin, broken. So the Hebrew. The word is applied to

the forces of war which are broken and scattered by defeat, 2Sa_5:20.
Thou hast been displeased - The word used here means “to breathe”; to breathe
hard; and then, to be angry. See the notes at Psa_2:12. God had treated them as if he was
displeased or angry. He had suffered them to be defeated.
O turn thyself to us again - Return to our armies, and give us success. This might
be rendered, “Thou wilt turn to us;” that is, thou wilt favor us - expressing a confident
belief that God would do this, as in Psa_60:12. It is more in accordance, however, with
the usual structure of the Psalms to regard this as a prayer. Many of the psalms begin
with a prayer, and end with the expression of a confident assurance that the prayer has
been, or would certainly be heard.
CLARKE, "O God, thou hast cast us off - Instead of being our general in the
battle, thou hast left us to ourselves; and then there was only the arm of flesh against the
arm of flesh, numbers and physical power were left to decide the contest. We have been
scattered, our ranks have been broken before the enemy, and thou hast caused the whole
land to tremble at our bad success; the people are become divided and seditious. “Thou
hast made the land to tremble, even the breaches of it, for it shaketh, it is all in
commotion,” Psa_60:2.
GILL, "O God, thou hast cast us off,.... What is said in this verse, and Psa_60:2, are
by some applied to times past; to the distress of the people Israel by their neighbours in
the times of the judges; to their being smitten by the Philistines, in the times of Eli and
Samuel; and to the victory they obtained over them, when Saul and his sons were slain;
and to the civil wars between the house of Saul and David; but rather the whole belongs
to future times, which David, by a prophetic spirit, was led to on the occasion of the
victory obtained, when before this the nation had been in bad circumstances. This refers
to the casting off of the Jews as a church and nation, when they had rejected the Messiah
and killed him, persecuted his apostles, and despised his Gospel; of which see Rom_
11:15;
thou hast scattered us; as they were by the Romans among the various nations of the
world, and among whom they are dispersed to this day; or "thou hast broken us" (k), as
in Psa_80:12; not only the walls of their city were broken by the battering rams of the
Romans, but their commonwealth, their civil state, were broke to pieces by them. Jarchi
applies this to the Romans; his note is this;
"when Edom fell by his hand (David's), he foresaw, by the Holy Ghost, that the Romans
would rule over Israel, and decree hard decrees concerning them;''
thou hast been displeased; not only with their immorality and profaneness, with
their hypocrisy and insincerity, with their will worship and superstition, and the
observance of the traditions of their elders; but also with their rejection of the Messiah,
and contempt of his Gospel and ordinances;
O turn thyself to us again; which prayer will be made by them, when they shall
become sensible of their sins, and of their state and condition, and shall turn unto the

Lord; and when he will turn himself to them, and turn away iniquity from them, and all
Israel shall be saved, Rom_11:25; or "thou wilt return unto us" (l); who before were cast
off, broken, and he was displeased with; or others to us.
HE RY 1-3, "The title gives us an account, 1. Of the general design of the psalm. It is
Michtam - David's jewel, and it is to teach. The Levites must teach it to the people, and
by it teach them both to trust in God and to triumph in him; we must, in it, teach
ourselves and one another. In a day of public rejoicing we have need to be taught to
direct our joy to God and to terminate it in him, to give none of that praise to the
instruments of our deliverance which is due to him only, and to encourage our hopes
with our joys. 2. Of the particular occasion of it. It was at a time, (1.) When he was at war
with the Syrians, and still had a conflict with them, both those of Mesopotamia and
those of Zobah. (2.) When he had gained a great victory over the Edomites, by his forces,
under the command of Joab, who had left 12,000 of the enemy dead upon the spot.
David has an eye to both these concerns in this psalm: he is in care about his strife with
the Assyrians, and in reference to that he prays; he is rejoicing in his success against the
Edomites, and in reference to that he triumphs with a holy confidence in God that he
would complete the victory. We have our cares at the same time that we have our joys,
and they may serve for a balance to each other, that neither may exceed. 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.
In these verses, which begin the psalm, we have,
I. A melancholy memorial of the many disgraces and disappointments which God had,
for some years past, put the people under. During the reign of Saul, especially in the
latter end of it, and during David's struggle with the house of Saul, while he reigned over
Judah only, the affairs of the kingdom were much perplexed, and the neighbouring
nations were vexatious to them. 1. He complains of hard things which they had seen
(that is, which they had suffered), while the Philistines and other ill-disposed neighbours
took all advantages against them, Psa_60:3. God sometimes shows even his own people
hard things in this world, that they may not take up their rest in it, but may dwell at ease
in him only. 2. He owns God's displeasure to be the cause of all the hardships they had
undergone: “Thou hast been displeased by us, displeased against us (Psa_60:1), and in
thy displeasure hast cast us off and scattered us, hast put us out of thy protection, else
our enemies could not have prevailed thus against us. They would never have picked us
up and made a prey of us if thou hadst not broken the staff of bands (Zec_11:14) by
which we were united, and so scattered us.” Whatever our trouble is, and whoever are
the instruments of it, we must own the hand of God, his righteous hand, in it. 3. He
laments the ill effects and consequences of the miscarriages of the late years. The whole
nation was in a convulsion: Thou hast made the earth (or the land) to tremble, Psa_
60:2. The generality of the people had dreadful apprehensions of the issue of these
things. The good people themselves were in a consternation: “Thou hast made us to
drink the wine of astonishment (Psa_60:3); we were like men intoxicated, and at our
wits' end, not knowing how to reconcile these dispensations with God's promises and his
relation to his people; we are amazed, can do nothing, nor know we what to do.” Now
this is mentioned here to teach, that is, for the instruction of the people. When God is
turning his hand in our favour, it is good to remember our former calamities, (1.) That

we may retain the good impressions they made upon us, and may have them revived.
Our souls must still have the affliction and the misery in remembrance, that they may be
humbled within us, Lam_3:19, Lam_3:20. (2.) That God's goodness to us, in relieving us
and raising us up, may be more magnified; for it is as life from the dead, so strange, so
refreshing. Our calamities serve as foils to our joys. (3.) That we may not be secure, but
may always rejoice with trembling, as those that know not how soon we may be returned
into the furnace again, which we were lately taken out of as the silver is when it is not
thoroughly refined.
JAMISO 1-3, "Psa_60:1-12. Shushan-eduth - Lily of testimony. The lily is an
emblem of beauty (see on Psa_45:1, title). As a description of the Psalm, those terms
combined may denote a beautiful poem, witnessing - that is, for God’s faithfulness as
evinced in the victories referred to in the history cited. Aram-naharaim - Syria of the
two rivers, or Mesopotamia beyond the river (Euphrates) (2Sa_10:16). Aram-zobah -
Syria of Zobah (2Sa_10:6), to whose king the king of the former was tributary. The war
with Edom, by Joab and Abishai (2Ch_18:12, 2Ch_18:25), occurred about the same
time. Probably, while doubts and fears alternately prevailed respecting the issue of these
wars, the writer composed this Psalm, in which he depicts, in the language of God’s
people, their sorrows under former disasters, offers prayer in present straits, and
rejoices in confident hope of triumph by God’s aid.
allude to disasters.
cast ... off — in scorn (Psa_43:2; Psa_44:9).
scattered — broken our strength (compare 2Sa_5:20).
Oh, turn thyself — or, “restore to us” (prosperity). The figures of physical, denote
great civil, commotions (Psa_46:2, Psa_46:3).
CALVI , "1.O God! thou hast cast us off. With the view of exciting both himself
and others to a more serious consideration of the goodness of God, which they
presently experienced, he begins the psalm with prayer; and a comparison is
instituted, designed to show that the government of Saul had been under the divine
reprobation. He complains of the sad confusions into which the nation had been
thrown, and prays that God would return to it in mercy, and re-establish its affairs.
Some have thought that David here adverts to his own distressed condition: this is
not probable. I grant that, before coming to the throne, he underwent severe
afflictions; but in this place he evidently speaks of the whole people as well as
himself. The calamities which he describes are such as extended to the whole
kingdom; and I have not the least doubt, therefore, that he is to be considered as
drawing a comparison which might illustrate the favor of God, as it had been shown
so remarkably, from the first, to his own government. With this view, he deplores
the long-continued and heavy disasters which had fallen upon the people of God
under Saul’s administration. It is particularly noticeable, that though he had found
his own countrymen his worst and bitterest foes, now that he sat upon the throne, he
forgets all the injuries which they had done him, and, mindful only of the situation
which he occupied, associates himself with the rest of them in his addresses to God.

The scattered condition of the nation is what he insists upon as the main calamity.
In consequence of the dispersion of Saul’s forces, the country lay completely
exposed to the incursions of enemies; not a man was safe in his own house, and no
relief remained but in flight or banishment. He next describes the confusions which
reigned by a metaphor, representing the country as opened, or cleft asunder; not
that there had been a literal earthquake, but that the kingdom, in its rent and
shattered condition, presented that calamitous aspect which generally follows upon
an earthquake. The affairs of Saul ceased to prosper from the time that he forsook
God; and when he perished at last, he left the nation in a state little short of ruin.
The greatest apprehension must have been felt throughout it; it was become the
scorn of its enemies, and was ready to submit to any yoke, however degrading,
which promised tolerable conditions. Such is the manner in which David intimates
that the divine favor had been alienated by Saul, pointing, when he says that God
was displeased, at the radical source of all the evils which prevailed; and he prays
that the same physician who had broken would heal.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 1. Before the days of Saul, Israel had been brought very low;
during his government it had suffered from internal strife, and his reign was closed
by an overwhelming disaster at Gibeon. David found himself the possessor of a
tottering throne, troubled with the double evil of factions at home, and invasion
from abroad. He traced at once the evil to its true source, and began at the
fountainhead. His were the politics of piety, which after all are the wisest and most
profound. He knew that the displeasure of the Lord had brought calamity upon the
nation, and to the removal of that displeasure he set himself by earnest prayer.
O God, thou hast cast us off. Thou hast treated us as foul and offensive things, to be
put away; as mean and beggarly persons, to be shunned with contempt; as useless
dead boughs, to be torn away from the tree, which they disfigure. To be cast off by
God is the worst calamity that can befall a man or a people; but the worst form of it
is when the person is not aware of it and is indifferent to it. When the divine
desertion causes mourning and repentance, it will be but partial and temporary.
When a cast off soul sighs for its God it is indeed not cast off at all.
Thou has scattered us. David clearly sees the fruits of the divine anger, he traces the
flight of Israel's warriors, the breaking of her power, the division in her body
politic, to the hand of God. Whoever might be the secondary agent of these
disasters, he beholds the Lord's hand as the prime moving cause, and pleads with
the Lord concerning the matter. Israel was like a city with a breach made in its wall,
because her God was wroth with her. These first two verses, with their depressing
confession, must be regarded as greatly enhancing the power of the faith which in
the after verses rejoices in better days, through the Lord's gracious return unto his
people.
Thou hast been displeased. This is the secret of our miseries. Had we pleased thee,
thou wouldst have pleased us; but as we have walked contrary to thee, thou hast
walked contrary to us.
O turn thyself to us again. Forgive the sin and smile once more. Turn us to thee,
turn thou to us. Aforetime thy face was towards thy people, be pleased to look on us
again with thy favour and grace. Some read it, "Thou wilt turn to us again, "and it
makes but slight difference which way we take it, for a true hearted prayer brings a

blessing so soon that it is no presumption to consider it already obtained. There was
more need for God to turn to his people than for Judah's troops to be brave, or Joab
and the commanders wise. God with us is better than strong battalions; God
displeased is more terrible than all the Edomites that ever marched into the valley of
salt, or all the devils that ever opposed the church. If the Lord turn to us, what care
we for Aramnaharaim or Aramzobah, or death, or hell? but if he withdraw his
presence we tremble at the fall of a leaf.
EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS
Title. There are some difficulties attendant upon the title of this Psalm, when it is
compared with the contents. We naturally expect after such as inscription, joy,
congratulation, and praise for victory; but the psalmist breaks out into lamentations
and bitter complaints: his strains are, however, changed, when he has proceeded as
far as verse three, where he begins to feel confidence, and to employ the language of
exultation and triumph. The best means of removing this discrepancy seems to be by
remarking, that this Psalm was written after some of the battles of which mention is
made in the title, but that the author does not restrict himself to those events
without taking a wider range, so as to embrace the afflictive conditions both of
Israel and Judah during the latter part of Saul's life, and the former years of
David's reign. In the concluding years of Saul, the Philistines obtained a superiority
over him, and finally destroyed him with his army. Subsequently to these events the
whole land was in a very disturbed and agitated condition, arising out of the
contentions between the partisans of Saul's family, and those who were attached to
David. The nations which inhabited the regions adjacent to the land of Canaan were
at all times inimical to the Jews, and seized every opportunity of attacking and
injuring them. But when David had succeeded in uniting the whole nation under his
authority, he proceeded to avenge the injuries and insults that had been inflicted
upon his countrymen by the Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, and Syrians; and God
was pleased to give him signal success in his undertakings. He appears, therefore, to
have combined all these transactions, and made them the subject of this Psalm.
William Walford.
Title. Shushaneduth. The lilies of the testimony -- means, that this Psalm has for its
chief subject something very lovely and cheering in the law; namely, the words of
promise quoted in the beginning of verse six, according to which the land of Canaan
belonged to the Israelites, upon which is thus established the confidence expressed
in Psalms 60:6-8, with respect to their right of property over the land, and their
possession of it. This promise, not to cite many other passages, which occur in the
Five Books of Moses, and even so early as the patriarchs, is contained in Genesis
49:1-33, and Deuteronomy 33:1-29. It is evident of what value and importance this
promise was, and particularly the remembrance of it at this time. T. C. Barth's
"Bible Manual, "1865.
Title. The only other eduth or "testimony" in the Psalter, Psalms 80:1-19, makes
mention by name of the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, and is a
witness against those tribes for forsaking the Shepherd of Israel who had brought
them up out of the land of Egypt. Joseph Francis Thrupp, M.A., in "An
Introduction to the Study and Use of the Psalms, "1860.
Title. Aramnaharaim. 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 aharaim, 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).
Joseph Addison Alexander.
Title. When he strove with Aramnaharaim and with Aramzobah. An insult offered
to David's ambassadors by Hanun, king of the Ammonites, led to a serious war.
Hanun obtained mercenaries from Syria to reinforce his army, Joab and Abishai his
brother, David's generals, gave them battle. Joab, opposed to the Syrians, gained the
first success, and the Ammonites, seeing their allies routed, took to flight into their
town. But this defeat provoked a great coalition, embracing all the people between
the Jordan and the Euphrates. David, however, fearlessly marched against them at
the head of his army; he vanquished all his enemies, and made himself master of the
small Aramaean kingdoms of Damascus, Zobah, and Hamath, and subjugated the
Eastern Idumaeans, who met their final defeat in the Valley of Salt. Francois
Lenormant and E. Chevallier, in "A Manual of the Ancient History of the East,
"1869.
Title. Joab returned and smote of Edom in the valley of salt twelve thousand,
compared with 2 Samuel 8:13, "David gat him a name when he returned from
smiting of the Syrians in the valley of salt, being eighteen thousand men, "and 1
Chronicles 18:12, where this very service was performed by Abishai. Answer. It is
one thing to attribute the victory for the honour of the king that was the cause. But
the mentioning of these chief generals, by whom the service was performed, is
another. David, under God, must have the honour of the work, for the increase of
his name, being set for the typing out of Christ, who must have all the glory of the
day, whatever conquest he gets by instruments of that service here, who likewise are
typed out in David's worthies, of whom Joab and Abishai were chief. By these he
obtained that great victory over Hadadezer. In returning from which service Joab
found his brother Abishai engaged in the valley of salt against eighteen thousand
Edomites or Syrians (all one), whose valour the Almighty looked on, as he attributes
the whole slaughter to him, because first attempting it. Joab, it seems, took this in
his return from the former slaughter, and fell in for the assistance of his brother
Abishai (for that was their usual course: though they divided their armies, they did
not divide their hearts). But if the enemies were too strong, one would help the
other. 1 Chronicles 19:12. And of this eighteen thousand attributed to David and
Abishai before, Joab slew twelve thousand of them; the memory of which service is
here embalmed with a Psalm; first showing the extremes they were in, doubtful at
first they should not get the victory. Secondly, applying it to the kingdom of Christ.
Lastly, ascribing all the honour of the conquest to God; saying, through God this
valiant service was done; it was he that trod down our enemies; and will do (last
verse). William Streat, in "The Dividing of the Hoof, "1654.
Title. The Valley of Salt. The ridge of Usdum exhibits more distinctly its peculiar
formation; the main body of the mountain being a solid mass of rock salt... We could
at first hardly believe our eyes, until we had several times approached the
precipices, and broken off pieces to satisfy ourselves, both by the touch and taste.
The salt, where thus exposed, is everywhere more or less furrowed by the rains. As

we advanced, large lumps and masses broken off from above, lay like rocks along
the shore, or were fallen down as debris. The very stones beneath our feet were
wholly salt... The position of this mountain at the south end of the sea, enables us
also to ascertain the place of The Valley of Salt mentioned in Scripture, where the
Hebrews under David, and again under Amaziah, gained decisive victories over
Edom. This valley could have been no other than the Ghor south of the Dead Sea,
adjacent to the mountain of salt; it separates indeed the ancient territories of Judah
and Edom. Edward Robinson's "Biblical Researches in Palestine, "1867.
Title. The historic record mentions eighteen thousand slain, and here but twelve
thousand. The greater of course includes the less. The discrepancy may be explained
by supposing that the title contains the numbers slain by one division of the army,
or that the twelve thousand were slain in the battle, and the residue in the flight. Or
an error may have crept into the text. Every scholar admits that there is sometimes
serious difficulty in settling the numbers of the Old Testament. In this place Calvin
has two and twenty thousand, the common version twelve thousand, while the
original is two ten thousand, which taken in one way would mean twenty thousand,
i.e., two tens of thousands. Hammond refers the number slain to different battles,
and so avoids the difficulty. William S. Plumer.
Ver. 1. O God, thou hast cast us off. The word here used means properly to be foul,
rancid, offensive; and then, to treat anything as if it were foul or rancid; to repel, to
spurn, to cast away. It is strong language, meaning that God had seemed to treat
them as if they were loathsome of offensive to him. Albert Barnes.
CO STABLE, "In the battle with the Arameans, Israel"s enemy overcame her
temporarily. David viewed this defeat as punishment from the Lord. He called out
in prayer for national restoration. Since God had allowed the defeat, He was the
One who could reverse it.
ELLICOTT, "(1) Hast scattered us.—Literally, hast broken us. A word used of a
wall or fence, Psalms 80:12, but in 2 Samuel 5:20 applied to the rout of an army, an
event which gave its name to the locality, “plain of breaches.” So in English:
“And seeing me, with a great voice he cried,
They are broken, they are broken.”—
TE YSO : Elaine.
On the other hand, the two succeeding verses seem to refer to a political convulsion
rather than a military defeat, and it has been conjectured that the breach between
the two kingdoms is here indicated. (See the use of perez=breach, in Judges 21:15.)
TRAPP, "Psalms 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.

Upon Shushan-eduth] An instrument so called, or to the tune of some song so called.
The words signify the lily of the testimony; or, of kingly ornament; whereof many
make manifold constructions, but they are all conjectural.
Michtam of David, to teach] The Hebrews have a proverb, Lilmod lelammed, Men
must, therefore, learn that they may teach. David here imparteth what he had
learned of God’s goodness; and would teach others, especially when they go to war,
as 3:2, 2 Samuel 1:18, to call upon God, and to lean upon his promises; as himself
had done with singular success.
When he strove with Aram-naharaim] Cum rixaretur, contenderet. Mesopotamia,
called here Aram-naharaim, lay between those two famous rivers, Euphrates and
Tigris; and so seemeth to have been a part of that earthly paradise, Genesis 2:10-14,
whereof since Adam’s fall and oah’s flood, cecidit rosa, mansit spina, saith one, the
rose is gone, the thorn only remaineth. A country fruitful beyond belief, as
Herodotus hath it; but inhabited by such as here joined with the Ammonites and
other enemies of the Church; and were, therefore, sought by David, and at length
vanquished. See 1 Chronicles 19:1-19.
And with Aram-zobah] Or, Coelesyria, whereof Damascus was the metropolis.
When Joab returned] sc. From the slaughter of the Syrians.
And smote of Edom] That is, of the Edomites, who had set upon Israel in the south,
when Joab with the army was fighting against the Syrians in the east. Joab,
therefore, at his return took them to do; and slew twelve thousand, after that
Abishai had first slain six thousand of them, all which eighteen thousand are said to
have been slain by David, as being Rex et Radix victoriae, saith Kimchi, the king
and root of the victory, 2 Samuel 8:13.
In the valley of Salt] Where Abraham had once fought with the four victorious
kings, Genesis 14:9; Genesis 14:14-15, and afterwards Amaziah with the Edomites.
likewise slaying ten thousand, 2 Kings 14:7, In the midst of these conflicts and
bustles David is thought to have written this psalm, together with Psalms 44:1-26,
Psalms 108:1-13
Ver. 1. O God, thou hast cast us off] Some gather from this sad complaint that
David was sometimes worsted in these wars, though it be not particularly so
recorded in the Scriptures (Aben Ezra). Dubia est martis alea, Kοινος ενυαλιος, 2

Samuel 11:25; the best cause hath not always the best success, 20:21; 20:25. Others
think that the psalmist here complaineth of the sad condition of the Israelites after
that Saul was slain in Mount Gilboa, and the Philistines tyrannized at their
pleasure, 1 Samuel 21:7. Whereupon also followed these civil dissensions and
seditions, while some of the tribes set up Ishbosheth, and others went after David.
These miseries he here mentioneth the rather that God’s goodness in the present
settlement of the kingdom might the better appear. Hence most interpreters read the
words in the preterpluperfect, Thou hadst cast us off, thou hadst scattered us, &c.;
but now it is well with us for the present, and better yet it will be.
WHEDO , "1. Thou hast cast us off—The first three verses are a complaint but
feebly relieved by prayer. Sorrow, disappointment, and astonishment prevail.
Faith seems staggered. Compare Psalms 44:9-26. The resemblance of Psalms 60:1 to
Psalms 44:9, shows that the latter is borrowed from the former.
Thou hast scattered us—Thou hast broken us down. The word denotes a forcible
breaking down, or breaking through; a rending of what was trusted in as safe and
firm. Hence they were totally baffled and humbled. The language throughout is
highly impassioned.
COKE, "Verse 1
Psalms 60.
David complaining to God of former judgment, now, upon better hope, prayeth for
deliverance: comforting himself in God's promises, he requesteth that help whereon
he trusteth.
To the chief Musician upon Shushan-eduth, Michtam of David, to teach; when he
strove with Aram-naharaim, and with Aram-zobah, when Joab returned, and smote
of Edom, in the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand.
Title. ‫על‬ ‫שׁושׁן‬ ‫עדות‬ al shushan eduth. Upon Shushan-eduth, &c.] See on Psalms 22.
Houbigant renders it, Upon the hexachord of the testimony. Others render it, Upon
the lily of the testimony; Michtam, or golden psalm of David. We here subjoin some
further remarks on the titles of the Psalms by the author of the Observations.
D'Herbelot, says he, observes, that "the works of seven of the most excellent Arab
poets who flourished before the times of Mohammedanism, were called Al
Moallacat, because they were successively fixed by way of honour to the gate of the
temple of Mecca; and also Al-Modhahebat; which signifies gilded or golden, because
they were written in letters of gold upon Egyptian paper:" and in a following page
the same writer informs us, that the Arabs, when they would praise any one's
poems, were wont to say, "These are the golden verses of such or such a one;" which
he seems to suppose was derived from the writing of these poems in letters of gold.
ow, might not the present psalm, and those five others which are distinguished by
the same epithet, be called golden, on account of their having been, on some
occasion or other, written in letters of gold, and hung up in the sanctuary, or

elsewhere? ot (it may be) on account of their being judged to have a superior
excellence to the other hymns of this collection, absolutely speaking, but on account
of their being suited to some particular circumstances which might occasion their
being treated with this distinction. Hezekiah, we know, went up to the house of the
Lord, and spread the letter of Sennacherib before him there; Isaiah 37:14 hung it
up, it may be, before the Lord. What Hezekiah did with a paper of threatening,
other princes might do with these psalms of encouragement and hope. Some have
imagined that they were called golden psalms merely on account of their
distinguished excellence. That distinguished excellence, however, doth not appear;
and what is more, the ancient Jews, it is certain, had a different way of marking this
out: as, The song of songs, which is Solomon's; not the golden song of Solomon.
Ainsworth supposes the word ‫מכתם‬ michtam to signify a golden jewel. That the
affixing such a title to a psalm would have been agreeable enough to the eastern
taste anciently, we may believe, from what appears in these modern times.
D'Herbelot has actually mentioned a book intitled bracelets of gold, containing an
account of all that history had mentioned relating to a month sacred among the
Arabs. I cannot, however, easily admit that this is the true meaning of the word
michtam, because there are several psalms which have this word prefixed to them;
whereas, if it signified a jewel of gold, it would have been intended, if we may judge
by modern titles of eastern books, to have distinguished one psalm from all the rest.
To which may be added, that some of these psalms have another name given them;
the 56th being called the dove dumb in distant places; and the present, the lily of the
testimony. I will only farther add, that this writing in letters of gold still continues in
the east. Maillet, speaking of the royal Mohammedan library in Egypt, which was so
famous, and was afterwards destroyed by Saladine, says, "The greatest part of there
books were written in letters of gold, such as the Turks and Arabs, even of our time,
made use of in the titles of their books." And a little after, speaking of the ignorance
of the modern Egyptians, as to the burnishing of gold, so that their gilding has
nothing of the ancient splendour, he adds, "It is true, to make up this defect, they
have preserved the art of making gold liquid, and fit for ink. I have seen some of
their books written with this gold, which were extremely beautiful." See
Observations, p. 318.
When he strove with Adram-naharaim— That is Syria of the rivers, or that part of
it which is called Mesopotamia, as lying between the two rivers Tigris and
Euphrates. The Syrians, both here and in other places, were called Aram, because
they were the descendants of Aram, the son of Shem, Genesis 10:22. Aram-Zobah is
that part of Syria which was called Zobah. 2 Samuel 8:5. As David's victory over
Idumea was different from that over the Syrians, the next clause should be rendered
literally, And Joab returned.
This conquest of Joab's is to be looked upon as distinct from that of Abishai,
mentioned 2 Samuel 8:13 and 1 Chronicles 18:12. After Abishai had slain eighteen
thousand of the Idumeans, Joab fell upon them again; and, as the title of this psalm
particularly informs us, smote in the same place twelve thousand more, and
afterwards destroyed them entirely. See 1 Kings 11:15-16. The Valley of Salt, is in
Idumaea, near the Black Sea.

Psalms 60:1. Thou hast scattered us— See 1 Samuel 1:7. Mudge renders these
words, Thou hast made a breach upon us.
COFFMA , "Verse 1
PSALM 60
A PSALM FOLLOWI G A MILITARY DEFEAT
SUPERSCRIPTIO : FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIA ; SET TO SHUSHA
EDUTH.
MICHTAM OF DAVID; TO TEACH; WHE HE STROVE WITH ARAM-
AHARAIM; A D JOAB RETUR ED; A D SMOTE OF EDOM I THE
VALLEY OF SALT TWELVE THOUSA D.
Shushan Eduth. This is usually translated, "The Lily of the Testimony,"[1] which
was the name of the tune or melody to which the singers fitted the words of this
psalm. Psalms 45; Psalms 69; and Psalms 80 were also set to this tune.
Michtam of David. "Michtam" is thought to mean that this was a "Golden Psalm";
but some have supposed that it could have been another musical instruction for the
singers. David, of course, is here indicated as the author. "There is nothing that
stands in the way of accepting this claim of Davidic authorship."[2] "The Psalm
itself has every characteristic of the Davidic style, namely, liveliness, rapid
transitions, terse yet comprehensive language, strong metaphors, intense feeling and
hopefulness."[3]
Regarding the occasion, Dummelow has this:
"The Psalm is clearly written after a lost battle, not after a victory. It has been
suggested that while David was engaged in the north of Palestine subjugating
Damascus and the Syrians, the Edomites in the south, saw their opportunity and
attacked Israel, inflicting a serious military defeat."[4]
The superscription barely mentions this defeat, preferring rather to emphasize the
retaliation of Israel in which a great victory was won over Edom, a victory
accredited to Joab here, in which some 12,000 Edomites were killed. Of course, some
writers have complained that the Bible has no full account of any such defeat of
Israel, even dating to question the accuracy of the superscription on that basis. To
us this is amusing. That type of critical mind would question the results of the Battle
of San Jacinto because Santa Ana did not go back to Mexico and erect a monument
celebrating that battle! Great defeats are seldom memorialized by the defeated. For
this reason, the very abbreviated account in 2 Samuel 8; 1 Chronicles 18, etc., which
relate the results of the Davidic wars, devoted no space at all to a description of the
defeat which prompted this psalm.
Another unjustified criticism is that which seems offended by the fact that Joab in

this superscription is accredited with the ensuing victory over Edom, whereas "In
Chronicles the victory is ascribed to Joab's brother Abishai, and in 2 Samuel 8 to
David."[5] This is easily explained since David the king was commander-in-chief;
Joab was the ranking General of the Armies; and his brother Abishai was entrusted
with the campaign in the Valley of Salt. It was correct to ascribe victory to each of
these.
Could it be an error to describe President Bush, or Secretary of Defense Cheney, or
General orman Schwarzkopf, any one of the three, or all three, as victors in the
recent war with Iraq?
The organization of the psalm suggested by Rawlinson is: (1) God is pleaded with
(Psalms 60:1-5); (2) God is reminded of the promises he has made to Israel (Psalms
60:6-8); (3) God is pleaded with in the very strongest terms to give help to Israel
(Psalms 60:9-11); and (4) God is praised and extolled as Israel's Helper who will
give them final and complete victory (Psalms 60:12).
GOD IS PLEADED WITH
Psalms 60:1-5
"O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast broken us down;
Thou hast been angry; oh restore us again.
Thou hast made the land to tremble; thou hast rent it:
Heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.
Thou hast showed thy people hard things:
Thou hast made us to drink the wine of staggering.
Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee,
That it may be displayed because of the truth.
(Selah That thy beloved may be delivered,
Save with thy right hand, and answer us."
"Thou hast cast us off ... broken us down ... been angry" (Psalms 60:1). "This psalm
conveys the sense of national humiliation resulting from a wholly unseen military
reverse."[6] otice also that God's anger with Israel is also mentioned. This was no
doubt due to the sins and rebellions of the Chosen People, the same being
characteristic of that nation throughout its history.

"Thou hast made the land to tremble ... rent it... it shaketh" (Psalms 60:2).
Was this a real earthquake, or is the military defeat merely compared to an
earthquake? We believe it is probably the latter, but earthquakes were by no means
uncommon occurrences in Israel.
"The wine of staggering" (Psalms 60:3). This does not mean that God had actually
given Israel such a deadly potion, but that God's providence had allowed it. The
metaphor of drugged wine is used in describing the sins of the Great Harlot in
Revelation; and here it is a metaphor of the stunning effect of that surprising
military defeat. "The nation had been rendered unable to function."[7]
Psalms 60:4 is not easily translated; and one possible meaning is that, "Israel had
indeed raised the God-given banner; but it proved to be not so much a rallying point
as a signal for dispersion."[8]
"That thy beloved may be delivered" (Psalms 60:5). This recalls the tremendous fact
of God's loving Israel, thus injecting a strong feeling of encouragement and hope
into the passage.
"Save with thy right hand, and answer us" (Psalms 60:5). This double cry for God's
help emphasizes the great lesson of the psalm, namely, that no matter how
discouraging and difficult any given situation may appear to be, the answer is
always, inevitably, and certainly, "Take it to the Lord in prayer."
EBC, "THIS psalm has evidently a definite historical background. Israel has been
worsted in fight, but still continues its campaign against Edom. Meditating on God’s
promises, the psalmist anticipates victory, which will cover defeat and perfect
partial successes, and seeks to breathe his own spirit of confidence into the ranks of
his countrymen. But the circumstances answering to those required by the psalm
are hard to find. The date assigned by the superscription cannot be called
satisfactory; for David’s war there referred to [2 Samuel 8:1-18] had no such
stunning defeats as are here lamented. The Divine Oracle of which the substance is
given in the central part of the psalm, affords but dubious indications of date. At
first sight it seems to imply the union of all the tribes in one kingdom, and therefore
to favour the Davidic authorship. But it may be a question whether the united Israel
of the Oracle is fact or prophecy. To one school of commentators, the mention of
Ephraim in conjunction with Judah is token that the psalm is prior to the great
revolt; to another, it is proof positive that the date is after the destruction of the
northern kingdom. The Maccabean date is favoured by Olshausen, Hitzig, and
Cheyne among moderns; but, apart from other objections, the reappearance of
Psalms 60:5-12 in Psalms 108:1-13, implies that this piece of Hebrew psalmody was
already venerable when a later compiler wove part of it into that psalm. On the
whole, the Davidic authorship is possible, though clogged with the difficulty already
mentioned. But the safest conclusion seems to be Baethgen’s modest one, which
contrasts strongly with the confident assertions of some other critics-namely, that
assured certainty in dating the psalm "is no longer possible."

It falls into three parts of four verses each, of which the first (Psalms 60:1-4) is
complaint of defeat and prayer for help; the second (Psalms 60:5-8), a Divine Oracle
assuring victory; and the third (Psalms 60:9-12), the flash of fresh hope kindled by
that God’s word.
The first part blends complaint and prayer in the first pair of verses, in each of
which there is, first, a description of the desperate state of Israel, and then a cry for
help. The nation is broken, as a wall is broken down, or as an army whose ordered
ranks are shattered and scattered. Some crushing defeat is meant, which in Psalms
60:2 is further described as an earthquake. The land trembles, and then gapes in
hideous clefts, and houses become gaunt ruins. The state is disorganised as in
consequence of defeat. It is an unpoetical mixture of fact and figure to see in the
"rending" of the land allusion to the separation of the kingdoms, especially as that
was not the result of defeat.
There is almost a tone of wonder in the designation of Israel as "Thy people," so
sadly does the fate meted out to them contrast with their name. Stranger still and
more anomalous is it, that, as Psalms 60:3 b laments, God’s own hand has
commended such a chalice to their lips as should fill them with infatuation. The
construction "wine of reeling," is grammatically impossible, and the best
explanation of the phrase regards the nouns as in apposition-"wine which is
reeling," or "reeling as wine." The meaning is that God not only sent the disaster
which had shaken the nation like an earthquake, but had sent, too, the
presumptuous self-confidence which had led to it.
PETT, "Psalms 60:1
‘O God you have cast us off, you have broken us down,
You have been angry, oh restore us again.’
He first calls on God for restoration for Israel, recognising that the reason why they
have been cast off and broken down is because God has been angry with them.
Were it not so He would surely not have allowed this to happen. Thus all he can do
is pray for God to forgive them and restore them.
The rise of David to power, and his subsequent victories, may well have made the
people of Israel complacent. They may well have settled down and grown cold
towards YHWH, and slack in obedience to the covenant requirements. As a
consequence moral behaviour may have sunk to a low level, with violence, corrupt
business practises and deceit having become prominent. This would then explain
why God had allowed them to suffer this reverse in order to wake them up to their
failings.
It is a reminder to us that when we suffer reverses it may well be because God is
chastening us because of our failings, with a view to our restoration.
Similar language was later used by the Moabite king in the Moabite inscription,

when he cried to the Moabite god Chemosh suggesting that the defeat of Moabite
cities by Omri, king of Israel, had been “because Chemosh was angry with his
land”. But he would not have seen it as signifying that Chemosh was concerned with
their moral state. The gods of foreign nations had no such concerns. Rahter he
would see it as indicating that Chemosh was angry because he was not receiving the
respect that he ‘deserved’.
K&D 1-5, "This first strophe contains complaint and prayer; and establishes the
prayer by the greatness of the need and Israel's relationship to God. The sense in which
‫נוּ‬ ָ ְ‫צ‬ ַ‫ר‬ ְ is intended becomes clear from 2Sa_5:20, where David uses this word of the
defeat of the Philistines, and explains it figuratively. The word signifies to break through
what has hitherto been a compact mass, to burst, blast, scatter, disperse. The prayer is
first of all timidly uttered in ‫נוּ‬ ָ‫ל‬ ‫ב‬ ֵ‫ּוב‬‫שׁ‬ ְ in the form of a wish; then in ‫ה‬ ָ‫פ‬ ְ‫ר‬ (Psa_60:4) and
‫ה‬ ָ‫יע‬ ִ‫ּושׁ‬‫ה‬ (Psa_60:7) it waxes more and more eloquent. ְ‫ל‬ ‫ב‬ ֵ‫ּוב‬‫שׁ‬ here signifies to grant
restoration (like ְ‫ל‬ ַ‫יח‬ִ‫נ‬ ֵ‫,ה‬ to give rest; Psa_23:3; Isa_58:12). The word also signifies to
make a turn, to turn one's self away, in which sense, however, it cannot be construed
with ְ‫.ל‬ On ָ ְ‫מ‬ ַ‫צ‬ ְ Dunash has already compared Arab. fᑑm, rumpere, scindere, and Mose
ha-Darshan the Targumic ‫ם‬ ֵ ִ = ‫ע‬ ַ‫ר‬ ָ‫,פ‬ Jer_22:14. The deep wounds which the Edomites
had inflicted upon the country, are after all a wrathful visitation of God Himself - reeling
or intoxicating wine, or as ‫ה‬ ָ‫ל‬ ֵ‫ע‬ ְ‫ר‬ ַ ‫ן‬ִ‫י‬ַ‫י‬ (not ‫ין‬ֵ‫,)י‬ properly conceived of, is: wine which is sheer
intoxication (an apposition instead of the genitive attraction, vid., on Isa_30:20), is
reached out by Him to His people. The figure of the intoxicating cup has passed over
from the Psalms of David and of Asaph to the prophets (e.g., Isa_51:17, Isa_51:21). A
kindred thought is expressed in the proverb: Quem Deus perdere vult, eum dementat.
All the preterites as far as ‫נוּ‬ ָ‫ית‬ ִ‫ק‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ ִ‫ה‬ (Psa_60:5) glance back plaintively at that which has
been suffered.
But Psa_60:6 cannot be thus intended; for to explain with Ewald and Hitzig, following
the lxx, “Thou hast set up a banner for those who reverence Thee, not for victory, but for
flight,” is inadmissible, notwithstanding the fact that ‫ת‬ ֶ‫שׁ‬ ֶ‫ק‬ ‫י‬ֵ‫נ‬ ְ ִ‫מ‬ nuwc is a customary
phrase and the inscribed ‫ד‬ ֵ ַ‫ל‬ ְ‫ל‬ is favourable to the mention of the bow. For (1) The
words, beginning with ָ ַ‫ת‬ָ‫,נ‬ do not sound like an utterance of something worthy of
complaint - in this case it ought at least to have been expressed by ‫ס‬ ֵ‫ּוס‬‫נ‬ ְ‫ת‬ ִ‫ה‬ ְ‫ל‬ ְ‫ך‬ ַ‫ע‬ (only for
flight, not for victory); (2) it is more than improbable that the bow, instead of being
called ‫ת‬ ֶ‫שׁ‬ ֶ‫ק‬ (feminine of the Arabic masculine kaus), is here, according to an incorrect
Aramaic form of writing, called ‫ט‬ ֶ‫ּשׁ‬‫ק‬, whereas this word in its primary form ְ‫ט‬ ְ‫ּשׁ‬‫ק‬ (Pro_
22:21) corresponds to the Aramaic ‫א‬ ָ‫ט‬ ְ‫קוּשׁ‬ not in the signification “a bow,” but (as it is also
intended in the Targum of our passage) in the signification “truth” (Arabic ᐡisᑛ of strict
unswerving justice, root ‫,קש‬ to be hard, strong, firm; just as, vice versa, the word ᑑidᐡ,
coming from a synonymous root, is equivalent to “truth”). We therefore take the perfect
predication, like Psa_60:4, as the foundation of the prayer which follows: Thou hast
given those who fear Thee a banner to muster themselves (sich aufpanieren), i.e., to
raise themselves as around a standard or like a standard, on account of the truth - help

then, in order that Thy beloved ones may be delivered, with Thy right hand, and answer
me. This rendering, in accordance with which Psa_60:6 expresses the good cause of
Israel in opposition to its enemies, is also favoured by the heightened effect of the music,
which comes in here, as Sela prescribes. The reflexive ‫התנוסס‬ here therefore signifies not,
as Hithpal. of ‫,נוּס‬ “to betake one's self to flight,” but “to raise one's self” - a signification
on behalf of which we cannot appeal to Zec_9:16, where ‫ּות‬‫ס‬ ֲ‫ּוס‬‫נ‬ ְ‫ת‬ ִ‫מ‬ is apparently equivalent
to ‫ּות‬‫צ‬ ֲ‫ּוצ‬‫נ‬ ְ‫ת‬ ִ‫מ‬ “sparkling,” but which here results from the juxtaposition with ‫ס‬ֵ‫נ‬ (cf. ‫ה‬ ָ‫ס‬ְ‫,נ‬
Psa_4:7), inasmuch as ‫ס‬ֵ‫נ‬ itself, like Arab. naᑑᑑun, is so called from ‫ס‬ ַ‫ס‬ָ‫,נ‬ Arab. naᑑᑑ, to set
up, raise, whether it be that the Hithpo. falls back upon the Kal of the verb or that it is
intended as a denominative (to raise one's self as a banner, sich aufpanieren).
(Note: This expression wel illustrates the power of the German language in coining
words, so that the language critically dealt with may be exactly reproduced to the
German mind. The meaning will at once be clear when we inform our readers that
Panier is a banner of standard; the reflexive denominative, therefore, in imitation of
the Hebrew, sich aufpanieren signifies to “up-standard one's self,” to raise one's self
up after the manner of a standard, which being “done into English” may mean to
rally (as around a standard). We have done our best above faithfully to convey the
meaning of the German text, and we leave our readers to infer from this illustration
the difficulties with which translators have not unfrequently to contend. - Tr.])
It is undeniable that not merely in later (e.g., Neh_5:15), but also even in older Hebrew,
‫י‬ֵ‫נ‬ ְ ִ‫מ‬ denotes the reason and motive (e.g., Deu_28:20). Moreover Ps 44 is like a
commentary on this ‫ט‬ ֶ‫ּשׁ‬‫ק‬ ‫י‬ֵ‫נ‬ ְ ִ‫,מ‬ in which the consciousness of the people of the covenant
revelation briefly and comprehensively expresses itself concerning their vocation in the
world. Israel looks upon its battle against the heathen, as now against Edom, as a rising
for the truth in accordance with its mission. By reason of the fact and of the
consciousness which are expressed in Psa_60:6, arises the prayer in Psa_60:7, that
Jahve would interpose to help and to rescue His own people from the power of the
enemy. ָ‫ך‬ְ‫ֽינ‬ ִ‫מ‬ְ‫י‬ is instrumental (vid., on Psa_3:5). It is to be read ‫י‬ִ‫נ‬ֵ‫נ‬ ֲ‫ע‬ according to the Kerî,
as in Psa_108:7, instead of ‫נוּ‬ֵ‫נ‬ ֲ‫;ע‬ so that here the king of Israel is speaking, who, as he
prays, stands in the place of his people.
BI 1-12, "O God, Thou hast cast us off; Thou hast scattered us.
A psalm of defeat
In our own language we possess many fine songs of patriotism. It would be impossible to
overestimate the value of such a song as “Scots wha hae” as a means of keeping alive
patriotic sentiments in the breasts of the people. What a treasure it would be if we had a
dozen other incidents from the great epochs of our history embalmed in equally
immortal verse and sung at every fireside. The Hebrews had their history thus set to
music; and the poetical commentary on their national fortunes reaches down to the very
bottom of their meaning, for it reads them in the light of eternal truth.
I. A patriot’s depression (Psa_60:1-5). The enemy had invaded the country, and there
was sufficient force to withstand them. So great was the panic that the inhabitants were
like drunken men, unable to comprehend the extent of their calamity and unable to
stand up against it (Psa_60:3). But the worst was that it was a triumph of the heathen

over the people of the true God, to whom a banner had been given to display because of
the truth (Psa_60:4). The humblest Christian has received a banner to display because
of the truth. We are working for a cause which is old as eternity and lofty as heaven. Our
personal success or defeat is nothing; but the victory of the truth is everything. This
great verse was given out by Ebenezer Erskine beneath the castle walls of Stirling when
he and his congregation were turned out of the Church of Scotland; and it has been
connected with other great historical scenes in the history of the Church.
II. The promise recalled (Psa_60:6-8). At this point a change comes over the spirit of
the writer. Prayer has brought him to himself. We are either to suppose that, in reply to
an inquiry addressed to God, perhaps through the Urim and Thummim, he receives an
oracle on the situation, or that, his memory being quickened by a sudden inspiration, he
recalls an ancient oracle, given in some similar crisis, in which God promises to His
anointed king the complete possession of the Holy Land and also the subjection of the
neighbouring peoples. The oracle is quoted after the psalmist has expressed his joy at
recalling it. God promises to divide Shechem, as at the Conquest under Joshua He
divided the different parts of the land to the various tribes, and to mete out the valley of
Succoth. Why these two places are specially mentioned, it is impossible now to say. They
may have been strongholds of the enemy. Then (verse 7) Gilead and Manasseh, which
stand for the part of the country beyond the Jordan, are claimed by God as His. And of
Ephraim and Judah, which represent the division west of the Jordan, it is said that the
one shall be His helmet (“the strength of mine head”) and the other His sceptre (not
“lawgiver”). As the Holy Land is represented by these well-known parts, the hostile
nations, which are to be subjugated, are represented by Israel’s three well-known foes—
Moab, Edom, and Philistia. And, as the positions which Ephraim and Judah were to
occupy are depicted by saying that they are to fulfil the honourable offices of helmet and
sceptre to God, the fate of the hostile nations is similarly depicted by representing them
as fulfilling to Him the basest offices (verse 8). Moab is to be the vessel in which He
washes His feet when coming home from a journey, and Edom the slave to whom, in so
doing, He flings the dusty sandals which He has taken off; while Philistia is to grace his
triumph. In this way the psalmist rallied his spirit in an hour of disaster. And, in fighting
the Lord’s battles, we can similarly fall back on the promise recorded in the second
psalm, that the heathen shall be given to Christ and the uttermost parts of the earth for
His possession. The humblest Christian can fall back on the promise that none shall
pluck him out of Christ’s hand, and that the good work which God has begun shall be
perfected.
III. The return of hope (verses 9-12). At verse 9 he turns to face the crisis which in the
first part of the psalm he had bewailed. He sees the difficulty of the situation. Edom is a
strong enemy, and its capital, Petra, a “strong city.” “The entrance to it,” says a traveller,
“is by a narrow gorge lined by lofty precipices, nearly two miles in length. At some places
the overhanging rocks approach so near to each other that only two horsemen can
proceed abreast.” Who, asks the psalmist, is to bring me thither? And the answer is,
None but God. For a time He had deserted them, perhaps because they had been
trusting to themselves or to their past victories. They needed to be humbled and to learn
the lesson that “vain is the help of man” (verse 11). But defeat had taught them this
lesson; and now they are trusting only in their God. When God’s servants have reached
this state of mind, nothing can stand before them. And so this psalm, which began in
panic and tears, ends with the trumpet note of hope (verse 12). (J. Stalker.)

2 You have shaken the land and torn it open;
mend its fractures, for it is quaking.
BAR ES, "Thou hast made the earth to tremble - This refers, doubtless, to
some calamity that might be compared with an earthquake - some disaster,
discomfiture, or defeat that had shaken their hopes, as a city is shaken by an earthquake.
Such comparisons are common in the Scriptures.
Thou hast broken it - As if it were broken up, or convulsed.
Heal the breaches thereof - That is, Appear for thy people, and repair their
disasters, as if after an earthquake thou shouldst appear and fill up the rents which it
had made. The prayer is that he would place things in their former condition of
prosperity and success.
For it shaketh - It is convulsed or agitated. That is, there is still commotion. Things
are unsettled and disturbed. The prayer is, that there might be stability or continued
success.
GILL, "Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it,.... As is
frequently done by an earthquake; which, whatever natural causes there may be of it, is
always to be ascribed to God. The ancient Heathens (m) were of opinion that all
earthquakes were of God. This respects not the whole earth, but the land of Israel only;
and so the Targum,
"thou hast moved the land of Israel, thou hast shaken and rent it;''
and it does not design a natural earthquake in it, but a figurative one; a shaking and
rending of their civil and church state; see Heb_12:26;
heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh; which will be done in the latter day,
when they shall return into their own land, and be restored as at the beginning, Isa_
30:30.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 2. Thou hast made the earth to tremble. Things were as
unsettled as though the solid earth had been made to quake; nothing was stable; the
priests had been murdered by Saul, the worst men had been put in office, the
military power had been broken by the Philistines, and the civil authority had
grown despicable through insurrections and intestine contests.
Thou hast broken it. As the earth cracks, and opens itself in rifts during violent
earthquakes, so was the kingdom rent with strife and calamity.

Heal the breaches thereof. As a house in time of earthquake is shaken, and the walls
begin to crack, and gape with threatening fissures, so was it with the kingdom.
For it shaketh. It tottered to a fall; if not soon propped up and repaired it would
come down in complete ruin. So far gone was Israel, that only God's interposition
could preserve it from utter destruction. How often have we seen churches in this
condition, and how suitable is the prayer before us, in which the extremity of the
need is used as an argument for help. The like may be said of our personal religion,
it is sometimes so tried, that like a house shaken by earthquake it is ready to come
down with a crash, and none but the Lord himself can repair its breaches, and save
us from utter destruction.
Ver. 2. Heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh. They pray that this may be done
with the utmost speed, because there was a danger in delay, for the kingdom was
already pressed down with a heavy calamity, and on the brink of ruin, which is
signified by the word hjm whose origin is in a very strong and tremulous inclination
to one side, properly from the application of a lever, and is applied to those who are
leaning so far to one side that they are just on the point of falling; figuratively,
therefore, it expresses a most perilous condition, in which one is on the edge of
destruction. Hermann Venema.
Ver. 2. Heal the breaches thereof. Even Israel is subject to breaches. So it was with
the literal typical Israel, David's kingdom; so it may be with spiritual mystical
Israel, the kingdom of Christ, the church of God upon earth. There are breaches
from without, and breaches from within. I will invert the order. From without, by
open persecution; from within, by intestine and homebred divisions. Of both these
the church of God in all ages hath had sufficient experience. Look we upon the
primitive times, during the infancy of the church, however the soundest and most
entire church that ever was, yet how was it broken! Broken, as by foreign
persecutions, so by homebred divisions. Both these ways was the church during the
apostles' time broken, distressed by enemies from without who persecuted it. John
Brinsley (1600-1665), in "The Healing of Israel's Breaches."
Ver. 2. It shaketh. That is, presaging nothing but ruin and downfall, unless it be
speedily underpropped, and the breaches thereof made up and healed. Thus did
David look upon Israel's disease, and hereupon it was that he was so deeply affected
with it, so earnestly desiring the cure of it. The reference, as interpreters conceive, is
to those homebred divisions, those civil wars betwixt the two houses of Saul and
David, after the death of Saul: then did the "earth, "the land, that land of Israel (as
the Chaldee explains it), quake and tremble, being broken, riven (as the word in the
original signifieth): even as the earth sometimes by earthquakes is riven, and torn
asunder with prodigious chasms, openings, or gapings: so was that kingdom divided
in those civil commotions, the nobles and commons taking parts and siding, some
with David, some with Ishbosheth. John Brinsley.
TRAPP, "Psalms 60:2 Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it:
heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.
Ver. 2. Thou hast made the earth to tremble] By sundry fearful and dismal fractions

and concussions in our state.
Thou hast broken it] In allusion to earthquakes.
Heal the breaches thereof] Remedy the disorders, and cure the diseases, like a good
physician. The Greeks call a king αναξ αβ ακος, Medela from his healing office; God
is Jehovah, the physician, the Sun of righteousness hath healing under his wings.
For it shaketh] utat ac mox ruitura videtur it will surely down if not timely shored
up.
COKE, "Psalms 60:2. Thou hast made the earth to tremble— The land. By this
figurative expression the Scripture frequently denotes extraordinary troubles and
calamities: Compare Isaiah 23:13; Isaiah 29:6. And such were the dreadful
commotions and miserable divisions among David's people.
PETT, "Psalms 60:2
‘You have made the land to tremble, you have torn it in two,
Heal its breaches, for it shakes.’
He pictures the land as having been devastated, almost as though a severe
earthquake had struck it (compare Isaiah 24:18-20). Through the invasion God has
made them tremble, and rent them apart, and devastated their towns, and shaken
them, and he prays that He will therefore now put right the damage that has been
done, and heal the breaches that have been made. He is not just sending Joab to deal
with the situation, but calling on God to play His essential part.
We too, when we recognise that God has dealt with us in this way, should also call
on God for His forgiveness and healing, looking to Him for restoration.
3 You have shown your people desperate times;
you have given us wine that makes us stagger.

BAR ES, "Thou hast showed thy people hard things - Thou hast caused them
to see reverses, disappointments, and trials. This refers, according to the supposition in
the Introduction to the psalm, to some calamitous events which had occurred. The
probability seems to be that the Edomites may have spread desolation over the land.
Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment - The word rendered
“astonishment” - ‫תרעלה‬ tar‛êlâh - occurs only here and in Isa_51:17, Isa_51:22 - in both
of which verses in Isaiah it is rendered trembling. It means properly reeling,
drunkenness; and the idea here is, that it was as if he had given them a cup - that is, an
intoxicating drink - which had caused them to reel as a drunken man; or, in other words,
their efforts had been unsuccessful. Compare Psa_11:6, note; Isa_51:17, note.
CLARKE, "Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment - We reel
as drunken men; we are giddy, like those who have drank too much wine; but our
giddiness has been occasioned by the astonishment and dismay that have taken place in
consequence of the prevalence of our enemies, and the unsettled state of the land. It has
been remarked that the three first verses of this Psalm do not agree with the rest, and it
also appears that the three first verses of Psa_85:1-13 : do not agree with the rest of that
Psalm. But let them change places, and the three first verses of this be set instead of the
three first verses of Psa lxxxv., and let those be placed here instead of these and then the
whole of each Psalm will be consistent. This was first suggested by Bishop Hare, and the
supposition seems to be well founded. Some imagine that the whole of the Psalm refers
to the distracted state of the land after the death of Saul till the time that David was
anointed king over all Israel, at Hebron; others, to the disastrous war with the Syrians.
See before.
GILL, "Thou hast showed thy people hard things,.... As to have their city and
temple burial, multitudes of them slain, and the rest carried captive, and put into the
hands of cruel lords and hard masters, and made a proverb, a taunt, and a curse, in all
places; and all this done to a people that were the Lord's by profession, who called
themselves so, though now a "loammi", Hos_1:9; and these were hard things to flesh
and blood, yet no other than what they deserved;
thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment; or "of trembling" (n), Isa_
51:17; that is, to endure such troubles as made them tremble, and astonished and
stupefied them; took away their senses, and made them unfit for anything, being smitten
with madness, blindness, and astonishment of heart, as is threatened them, Deu_28:28;
see Rom_11:7.
JAMISO , "drink ... wine of astonishment — literally, “of staggering” - that is,
made us weak (compare Psa_75:8; Isa_51:17, Isa_51:22).

CALVI , "3.Thou hast showed thy people hard things He says, first, that the nation
had been dealt with severely, and then adds a figure which may additionally
represent the grievousness of its calamities, speaking of it as drunk with the wine of
stupor or astonishment. Even the Hebraist interpreters are not agreed among
themselves as to the meaning of ‫,תרעלה‬ tarelah, which I have rendered astonishment.
Several of them translate it poison. But it is evident that the Psalmist alludes to some
kind of poisoned drink, which deprives a person of his senses, insinuating that the
Jews were stupified by their calamities. (383) He would place, in short, before their
eyes the curse of God, which had pressed upon the government of Saul, and induce
them to abandon their obstinate attempts to maintain the interests of a throne which
lay under the divine reprobation.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 3. Thou hast showed thy people hard things. Hardships had
been heaped upon them, and the psalmist traces these rigorous providences to their
fountainhead. othing had happened by chance, but all had come by divine design
and with a purpose, yet for all that things had gone hard with Israel. The psalmist
claims that they were still the Lord's own people, though in the first verse he had
said, "thou hast cast us off." The language of complaint is usually confused, and
faith in time of trouble ere long contradicts the desponding statements of the flesh.
Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. Our afflictions have made us
like men drunken with some potent and bitter wine; we are in amazement,
confusion, delirium; our steps reel, and we stagger as those about to fall. The great
physician gives his patients potent potions to purge out their abounding and deep
seated diseases. Astonishing evils bring with them astonishing results. The grapes of
the vineyard of sin produce a wine which fills the most hardened with anguish when
justice compels them to quaff the cup. There is a fire water of anguish of soul which
even to the righteous makes a cup of trembling, which causes them to be exceeding
sorrowful almost unto death. When grief becomes so habitual as to be our drink,
and to take the place of our joys, becoming our only wine, then are we in an evil case
indeed.
Ver. 3. Thou hast showed thy people hard things. God will be sure to plough his own
ground, whatsoever becometh of the waste; and to weed his own garden, though the
rest of the world should be let alone to grow wild. John Trapp.
Ver. 3. Thou hast given us to drink infatuation, or bewilderment, as men drink
wine. So Hupfeld explains the constructions, referring to Psalms 80:5, "Thou hast
made them feed upon weeping like bread; "1 Kings 22:27, "Feed him with affliction
as bread, and with affliction as water" uxl mymw; Isaiah 30:20. But the apposition
is capable of being explained in another way, for the second noun may in fact be a
predicate further defining the first: "Thou hast given us wine to drink which is (not
wine, but) bewilderment." J. J. Stewart Perowne.
Ver. 3. The wine of astonishment. "Intoxicating wine." Hebrew, "Wine of
staggering, "that is, which causeth staggering, or, in other words, intoxicating. Some
render, "wine of stupor, "or stupefying. Symmachus, "wine of agitation, "and this
sense I have adopted which is also that of the Syriac. Benjamin Boothroyd.
ELLICOTT, "(3) Hard things—i.e., a hard fate.

Wine of astonishment.—Literally, either wine of reeling—i.e., an intoxicating
draught—or wine as reeling—i.e., bewilderment like wine, or wine, which is not
wine, but bewilderment, according as we take the construction.
In any case the figure is the same which meets us often in Hebrew poetry (comp.
Psalms 75:8-9; Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:22; Jeremiah 25:15, &c) expressing that
infatuation which the heathen proverb so well describes:—
“Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat.”
TRAPP, "Psalms 60:3 Thou hast shewed thy people hard things: thou hast made us
to drink the wine of astonishment.
Ver. 3. Thou hast showed thy people hard things] God will be sure to plough his
own ground, whatsoever becometh of the waste; and to weed his own garden,
though the rest of the world should be let alone to grow wild.
Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment] Vinum vacillationis, we are
intoxicated with our afflictions, according to that, Deuteronomy 28:28;
Deuteronomy 28:34, we are drunk with them, or rather mad, and put quite besides
all faith and hope in a manner, Fuimus obstupefacti tanquam venefica potione.
WHEDO , "3. Wine of astonishment—Literally, wine of reeling, or drunkenness,
called the “cup of trembling,” Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:22. This unexpected judgment
had deprived them of strength, as one who reeled and staggered from intoxication.
COKE, "Psalms 60:3. The wine of astonishment— i.e. "Thou hast so dispirited us,
as if thou hadst given us a myrrhate drought." So Dr. Hammond interprets the wine
of astonishment. See on Psalms 11:6 and Zechariah 12:2. Dr. Delaney is of opinion,
that though it is contrary to the title of the present psalm, yet it was composed upon
occasion of David's being crowned by all Israel at Hebron, and there sung, and with
those variations which we find at the 108th psalm, after the taking of Jerusalem.
This I am sure of, and this only I will venture to pronounce, that this golden
memorial of David suits this occasion, and no other that I know of. It was written
when the Israelites were dispersed, and driven out of their dwellings by their
enemies. Thou hast scattered us, Psalms 60:1—When they were in terror, and
divided amongst themselves: Thou hast made the earth to tremble, and divided it.—
This was exactly the condition in which Israel was, from the death of Saul. The
Israelite cities contiguous to the Philistines were deserted by their inhabitants after
the battle of Gilboa; and soon after, the kingdom was divided under David and
Ishbosheth. David now beseeches God to heal the divisions of his people: Heal the
breaches thereof; for it shaketh: and that was done when they all joined to make
David their king at Hebron. God had now given them a centre of union, to which
they might resort, as the forces of a broken army to their standard. Thou hast given

a banner, &c. Psalms 60:4. David was the only centre of union that people ever had;
and God now made him their captain and ruler, to manifest the truth of those
promises long since made to him. David here sings in the rapture of a man who had
just recovered his right, Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine.—Gilead and
Manasseh were just before in the possession of Ishbosheth: no king of Israel but
David was ever dispossessed of them and recovered them again. Life of David, book
2: chap. 5.
PETT, "Psalms 60:3
‘You have shown your people hard things,
You have made us drink the wine of staggering.’
But it is not only the land that has been devastated, but also the people. The people
have also experienced hard things, and have been made by God to drink strong wine
that has made them drunk, in other words, to experience His indignation in a way
that has made them stagger. “Drinking the wine of staggering” is a regular picture
of the effect on people of God’s revealed anger (Psalms 75:8; Jeremiah 25:15 ff.;
Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:22). When our foundations are being shaken it may well be
that God has a purpose in shaking our foundations.
4 But for those who fear you, you have raised a
banner
to be unfurled against the bow.[e]
BAR ES, "Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee - The word
rendered “banner” - ‫נס‬ nês - means properly anything elevated or lifted up, and hence, a
standard, a flag, a sign, or a signal. It may refer to a standard reared on lofty mountains
or high places during an invasion of a country, to point out to the people a place of
rendezvous or a rallying place Isa_5:26; Isa_11:12; Isa_18:3; or it may refer to a
standard or ensign borne by an army; or it may refer to the flag of a ship, Eze_27:7; Isa_
33:23. Here it doubtless refers to the flag, the banner, the standard of an army; and the
idea is that God had committed such a standard to his people that they might go forth as
soldiers in his cause. They were enlisted in his service, and were fighting his battles.

That it may be displayed because of the truth - In the cause of truth; or, in the
defense of justice and right. It was not to be displayed for vain parade or ostentation; it
was not to be unfolded in an unrighteous or unjust cause; it was not to be waved for the
mere purpose of carrying desolation, or of securing victory; it was that a righteous cause
might be vindicated, and that the honor of God might be promoted. This was the reason
which the psalmist now urges why (God should interpose and repair their disasters -
that it was his cause, and that they were appointed to maintain and defend it. What was
true then of the people of God, is true of the church now. God has given to his church a
banner or a standard that it may wage a war of justice, righteousness, and truth; that it
may be employed in resisting and overcoming his enemies; that it may carry the
weapons of truth and right against all injustice, falsehood, error, oppression, and wrong;
that it may ever be found on the side of humanity and benevolence - of virtue,
temperance, liberty, and equality; and that it may bear the great principles of the true
religion to every territory of the enemy, until the whole world shall be subdued to God.
CLARKE, "Thou hast given a banner - ‫נס‬ nes, a sign, something that was capable
of being fixed on a pole.
That it may be displayed - ‫להתנוסס‬ lehithnoses, that it may be unfurled.
Because of the truth - ‫קשט‬ ‫מפני‬ mippeney koshet, from the face of truth; which has
been thus paraphrased: If we have displayed the ensign of Israel, and gone forth against
these our enemies, who have now made such a terrible breach among us, (Psa_60:1-3),
it was because of thy truth - the promises of victory which we supposed would attend us
at all times.
Mr. Mudge, thus: “Thou givest to them that fear thee a signal to be displayed before
the truth. That thy favored ones may be delivered, clothe thy right arm with victory, and
answer us. God speaketh in his sanctuary, I will exult; I shall portion out Shechem, and
measure the valley of Succoth.” The fourth verse seems to mean that God had appointed
for the consolation of his people a certain signal of favor, with which therefore he prays
him to answer them. This, accordingly, he does. God speaketh in his sanctuary, called
rybd debir or oracle for that very reason. What he desires then, as he stands imploring
the mercy of God before the oracle, is, that he may see the usual signal of favor proceed
from it; a voice, perhaps joined with some luminous emanations, whence the phrase of
the light of God’s countenance. The expression in the sixth verse seems to be proverbial,
and means, “I shall divide the spoils of my enemies with as much ease as the sons of
Jacob portioned out Shechem, and measured out for their tents the valley of Succoth.”
Mr. Harmer gives a very ingenious illustration of the giving the banner. “Albertus
Aquensis informs us that when Jerusalem was taken in 1099 by the crusaders, about
three hundred Saracens got on the roof of a very high building, and earnestly begged for
quarter; but could not be induced by any promises of safety to come down, till they had
received the banner of Tanered, one of the crusade generals, as a pledge of life. The event
showed the faithlessness of these zealots, they put the whole to the sword. But the
Saracens surrendering themselves upon the delivering of a standard to them, proves in
how strong a light they looked upon the giving a banner, since it induced them to trust it,
when they would not trust any promises. Perhaps the delivery of a banner was anciently
esteemed in like manner an obligation to protect; and the psalmist might here consider
it in this light when he says, Thou hast shown thy people hard things; but thou hast

given a banner to them that fear thee. Though thou didst for a time give up thy Israel
into the hands of their enemies, thou hast now given them an assurance of thy having
received them under thy protection. Thus God gave them a banner or standard that it
might be displayed, or lifted up; or rather, that they may lift up a banner to themselves,
or encourage themselves with the confident persuasion that they are under the
protection of God: because of the truth - the word of promise, which is an assurance of
protection - like the giving me and my people a banner, the surest of pledges.” -
Harmer’s Observations. See at the end of the chapter.
GILL, "Thou hast given a banner,.... The word ‫נס‬ is, by Jarchi, taken to signify
"temptation" or "trial" (o); and he interprets it of many troubles which they had, that
they might be tried by them, whether they would stand in the fear of God, and so
considers these words as a continuation of the account of the distresses of the people of
Israel; but they are rather to be considered as declaring a peculiar blessing and favour
bestowed upon some among them, who are here described, when the rest were involved
in the greatest calamities, signified by a "banner" or "ensign" given them; by which is
meant, not so much David literally, and the victory he obtained over the Syrians and
Edomites, of which the banner displayed might be a token; but the Messiah, who is said
to be given for a banner, or set up as an ensign for the people, Isa_11:10; for the
gathering of them to him, to prepare them for war, and animate them to fight the good
fight of faith, and oppose every enemy; to direct where they should stand to be on duty,
where they should go, and whom they should follow; and is expressive of the victory over
sin, Satan, and the world, they have through him: and this is given
to them that fear thee; who have the grace of fear put into their hearts; who fear the
Lord and his goodness, and serve him with reverence and godly fear; who worship him
both inwardly and outwardly, in spirit and in truth, whether among Jews or Gentiles,
though the former may be chiefly intended; such as old Simeon, Anna the prophetess,
and others, to whom Christ was made known; and especially the apostles of Christ, and
those to whom their ministry became useful; whose business it was to display this
banner, set up this ensign, and hold out this flag; as it follows:
that it may be displayed because of the truth; not because of the truth of
Abraham, as the Targum; nor because of the truth, sincerity, and uprightness, of those
that fear the Lord; but because of his own truth and faithfulness in the performance of
his promises made concerning the displaying of this banner; or the sending of his son
into the world, and the preaching of his Gospel in it; see Rom_15:8.
Selah; on this word; see Gill on Psa_3:2.
HE RY, " A thankful notice of the encouragement God had given them to hope that,
though things had been long bad, they would now begin to mend (Psa_60:4): “Thou
hast given a banner to those that fear thee (for, as bad as the times are, there is a
remnant among us that desire to fear thy name, for whom thou hast a tender concern),
that it may be displayed by thee, because of the truth of thy promise which thou wilt
perform, and to be displayed by them, in defense of truth and equity,” Psa_45:4. This
banner was David's government, the establishment and enlargement of it over all Israel.

The pious Israelites, who feared God and had a regard to the divine designation of David
to the throne, took his elevation as a token for good, and like the lifting up of a banner to
them, 1. It united them, as soldiers are gathered together to their colours. Those that
were scattered (Psa_60:1), divided among themselves, and so weakened and exposed,
coalesced in him when he was fixed upon the throne. 2. It animated them, and put life
and courage into them, as the soldiers are animated by the sight of their banner. 3. It
struck a terror upon their enemies, to whom they could now hang out a flag of defiance.
Christ, the Son of David, is given for an ensign of the people (Isa_11:10), for a banner to
those that fear God; in him, as the centre of their unity, they are gathered together in
one; to him they seek, in him they glory and take courage. His love is the banner over
them; in his name and strength they wage war with the powers of darkness, and under
him the church becomes terrible as an army with banners.
JAMISO , "Yet to God’s banner they will rally, and pray that, led and sustained by
His power (right hand, Psa_17:7; Psa_20:6), they may be safe.
CALVI , "4Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee. Some interpreters
would change the past tense, and read the words as if they formed a continuation of
the prayers which precede — O that thou wouldst give a banner to them that fear
thee! (386) But it is better to suppose that David diverges to the language of
congratulation, and, by pointing to the change which had taken place, calls attention
to the evident appearances of the divine favor. He returns thanks to God, in the
name of all the people, for having raised a standard which might at once cheer their
hearts, and unite their divided numbers. (387) It is a poor and meagre interpretation
which some have attached to the words, before the truth, that God showed favor to
the Jews because he had found them true-hearted, and sound in his cause. Those in
the higher ranks had, as is well known, proved eminently disloyal; the common
people had, along with their king, broken their divine allegiance: from the highest to
the lowest in the kingdom all had conspired to overthrow the gracious purpose of
God. It is evident, then, that David refers to the truth of God as having emerged in a
signal manner, now that the Church began to be restored. This was an event which
had not been expected. Indeed, who did not imagine, in the desperate circumstances,
that God’s promises had altogether failed? But when David mounted the throne, his
truth, which had been so long obscured, again shone forth. The advantage which
ensued extended to the whole nation; but David intimates that God had a special
respect to his own people, whose deliverance, however few they might be in number,
he particularly contemplated.
He next proceeds to address God again in prayer; although, I may observe in
passing, the words which follow, that thy beloved may be delivered, are read by
some in connection with the preceding verse. I am myself inclined to adopt that
construction; for David would seem to magnify the illustration which had been
given of the divine favor, by adverting to the change which had taken place, (388)
God having inspirited his people so far as to display a banner; where, formerly, they
were reduced to a state of extremity, from which it seemed impossible to escape

without a miracle. In the previous verse he calls them fearers of the Lord, and now
his beloved; implying that, when God rewards such as fear and worship him, it is
always with a respect to his own free love. And prayer is subjoined: for however
great may be the favors which God has bestowed upon us, modesty and humility
will teach us always to pray that he would perfect what his goodness has begun.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 4. Here the strain takes a turn. The Lord has called back to
himself his servants, and commissioned them for his service, presenting them with a
standard to be used in his wars.
Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee. Their afflictions had led them to
exhibit holy fear, and then being fitted for the Lord's favour, he gave them an
ensign, which would be both a rallying point for their hosts, a proof that he had sent
them to fight, and a guarantee of victory. The bravest men are usually intrusted
with the banner, and it is certain that those who fear God must have less fear of man
than any others. The Lord has given us the standard of the gospel, let us live to
uphold it, and if needful die to defend it. Our right to contend for God, and our
reason for expecting success, are found in the fact that the faith has been once
committed to the saints, and that by the Lord himself.
That it may be displayed because of the truth. Banners are for the breeze, the sun,
the battle. Israel might well come forth boldly, for a sacred standard was borne aloft
before them. To publish the gospel is a sacred duty, to be ashamed of it a deadly sin.
The truth of God was involved in the triumph of David's armies, he had promised
them victory; and so in the proclamation of the gospel we need feel no hesitancy, for
as surely as God is true he will give success to his own word. For the truth's sake,
and because the true God is on our side, let us in these modern days of warfare
emulate the warriors of Israel, and unfurl our banners to the breeze with confident
joy. Dark signs of present or coming ill must not dishearten us; if the Lord had
meant to destroy us he would not have given us the gospel; the very fact that he has
revealed himself in Christ Jesus involves the certainty of victory. Magna est veritas
et praevalebit.
Hard things thou hast upon us laid,
And made us drink most bitter wine;
But still thy banner we have displayed,
And borne aloft thy truth divine.
Our courage fails not, though the night
o earthly lamp avails to break,
For thou wilt soon arise in might,
And of our captors captives make.
Selah. There is so much in the fact of a banner being given to the hosts of Israel, so
much of hope, of duty, of comfort, that a pause is fitly introduced. The sense justifies
it, and the more joyful strain of the music necessitates it.
Ver. 4. Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee. Perhaps the delivery of a
banner was anciently esteemed an obligation to protect, and that the psalmist might
consider it in this light, when, upon a victory over the Syrians and Edomites, after
the public affairs of Israel had been in a bad state, he says, Thou hast shewed thy

people hard things, etc. Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee. Though
thou didst for a time give up thine Israel into the hands of their enemies, thou hast
now given them an assurance of thy having received them under thy protection.
Thomas Harmer (1715-1788), in "Observations on Divers Passages of Scripture."
Ver. 4. Thou hast given a banner, etc. Thou hast given us by the recent victory, after
our prostrate condition, a banner of triumph to lift up (so the Hebrew), because of
thy faithfulness to thy promise. Truth here answers to God's holiness (Psalms 60:6).
So long as soldiers see their banner uplifted, they flock round it with confidence. But
when it is prostrate their spirits and hopes fall. The banner is a pledge of safety, and
a rallying point to those who fight under it. A. R. Faussett.
Ver. 4. Thou hast given a banner, etc. The psalmist compares the salvation which
the Lord bestows upon his people to a highly excellent banner, which serves as a
signal, to one lying prostrate in his misery, to rise up, with an allusion perhaps to
umbers 21:8. "And the Lord said to Moses, Make thee a serpent, and set it upon a
standard pole; and it happened that every one who was bitten, and looked at it,
lived." At any rate, that passage in which the serpent is a symbol of the healing
power of God, may serve to illustrate the passage before us. Compare heal its
breaches. E. W. Hengstenberg.
Ver. 4. A banner, which is a sign or instrument: --
1. Of union. This people, who were lately divided and under several banners, thou
hast now gathered together and united under one banner; to wit, under my
government.
2. Of battle. Thou hast given us an army and power to oppose our enemies. We had
our banner to set against theirs.
3. Of triumph. We have not lost our banner but gained theirs, and brought it away
in triumph. Compare Psalms 20:5. Matthew Poole.
TRAPP, "Psalms 60:4 Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may
be displayed because of the truth. Selah.
Ver. 4. Thou hast given a banner] All the forementioned had formerly befallen
them, but now it began to be better, the scene to be altered, banners erected, and
displayed in token of victory, and for a singular sign of God s favour, in that
juncture of time and deplored condition of theirs.
Because of the truth. Selah] Heb. From the face of the truth, that is, with reference
to thy promises, which thou failest not to fulfil.
WHEDO , "4. Banner—The Hebrew word ‫,נס‬ (nes,) which occurs only here in the
psalms, denotes the military signal which was attached to a long pole and set upon
conspicuous places, as city walls or high hills, as a war-signal to rally the people to
arms; see Isaiah 5:26 ; Isaiah 18:3; Jeremiah 4:6; Jeremiah 4:21; Jeremiah 51:12;
Jeremiah 51:27. It differs from ‫,דגל‬ (degel,) the military standard for each of the
four divisions of the twelve tribes, umbers 2; and from ‫,אות‬ (oth,) the ensign for a
single tribe. umbers 2:2 . Isaiah repeatedly uses it as a signal for assembling the

exiles for their return to Jerusalem. Isaiah 11:10; Isaiah 11:12; Isaiah 69:22; Isaiah
62:10-11. In the text it may mean a military signal for a war muster, as the root verb
dagal is used, Psalms 20:5; or a token of victory and protection, which would be
exactly the oriental proverbial sense, as, Song of Solomon 2:4, “his banner, (degel,)
over me was love.”
Displayed—It is better to follow our English version, and take ‫,התנוסס‬ (hithnoses,) as
a peculiar conjugation (Hithpoel) of ‫,נסס‬ (nasas,) to elevate, lift up. It cannot be
derived from ‫,נוס‬ (noos,) to flee, and make sense or agree with the context, for this
second strophe, Psalms 60:4-8, opening with the triumphal strain, “Thou hast given
a banner,” etc., is one of hope, victory, and exultation, not of retreat and dismay.
There is here a total change in the tone and spirit of the psalm from the complaint,
Psalms 60:1-3 .
Because of the truth—The Septuagint (followed by the Vulgate and Syriac, with
some modern critics) reads: “Thou hast given a token to them that fear thee, to flee
from before the bow.” But this takes ‫,קשׁת‬ (kohshet,) truth, the same as ‫,קשׁת‬
(kehsheth,) bow, which requires an exchange of the final radicals, with a new vowel
pointing. This, however, is not necessary. The word, as it stands in the text, has its
ground form in Proverbs 22:21, where it means truth, as also its corresponding
Chaldee, ( ‫),קשׁושׂ‬ Daniel 2:47 ; Daniel 4:27, with the same meaning. This also
requires that ‫,מפני‬ (mipnee,) literally from the face of, before, be understood as
indicating the reason or motive in the sense of because of, in consideration of, as in
Deuteronomy 28:20 ; ehemiah 4:9; ehemiah 5:15, and in twelve other places.
This makes Zechariah 9:16, a parallel passage. It also makes sense, which the other
does not; for the idea of giving a banner that they might fly before the archers is
absurd. By this interpretation, which is simply that of the English text, the spirit of
the context is preserved, as already noticed; by the other, it is completely destroyed.
“Truth,” here, must be understood in the sense of fidelity to the purpose and
covenant of God to David touching his kingdom, which the allied nations had
conspired to overthrow.
COKE, "Psalms 60:4. Thou hast given a banner to them that feared thee— That is,
"Though the Philistines and other nations have long been too hard for us, by reason
of our divisions; yet now thou hast made me to be king, that under my banner, or
ensign, the people may unanimously fight against their enemies." Because of the
truth, signifies, "According to thy faithful promise given me, to be king over them."
Mudge renders this and the following verses thus, Thou givest to them that fear thee
a signal to be displayed before the truth. Psalms 60:5. That thy favoured ones may
be delivered, clothe thy right arm with victory, and answer us. Psalms 60:6. God
speaketh in his sanctuary. I will exult: I shall portion out Shechem, and measure the
valley of Succoth. The fourth verse, he says, seems to mean that God had appointed
for the consolation of his people a certain signal of favour, with which therefore he
prays him to answer them. This accordingly he does. God speaketh in his sanctuary;
called ‫דביר‬ debir, or oracle, for that very reason. What he desires then, as he stands
imploring the mercy of God before the oracle, is, that he may see the usual signal of

favour proceed from it: a voice perhaps, joined with some luminous emanation;
whence the phrase of the light of God's countenance. The expression in the 6th verse
seems to be proverbial, and means, "I shall divide the spoils of my enemies with as
much ease as the sons of Jacob portioned but Shechem, and measured out for their
tents the valley of Succoth." The satisfaction that Benhadad received touching the
safety of his life, 1 Kings 20:31-32 appears to have been by words; but it seems that
the modern eastern people have looked upon the giving them a banner, as a more
sure pledge of protection. Thus Albert Aquensis informs us, that when Jerusalem
was taken in 1099, about three hundred Saracens got upon the roof of a very lofty
building, and earnestly begged for quarter; but could not be induced by any
promises of safety to come down, till they had received the banner of Tancred, one
of the chiefs of the Croisade army, as a pledge of life. It did not indeed avail them, as
that historian observes; for their behaviour occasioned such indignation that they
were, to a man, destroyed. The event shewed the faithlessness of these zealots, whom
no solemnities could bind; but the Saracens surrendering themselves upon the
delivery of a standard to them, proves in how strong a light they looked upon the
giving a banner, since it induced them to trust it when they would not trust any
promises. Perhaps the delivery of a banner was anciently esteemed in like manner
an obligation to protect, and that the Psalmist might here consider it in this light;
when, upon a victory gained over the Syrians and Edomites, after the public affairs
of Israel had been in a very low estate, he says, Thou hast shewed thy people hard
things, &c.—Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee. "Though thou didst
for a time give up thine Israel into the hands of their enemies, thou hast now given
them an assurance of thy having received them under thy protection." When the
Psalmist is represented as saying, Thou hast given a banner,—that it may be
displayed, it may be questioned whether it is rightly translated, since it is most
probable that they used anciently only a spear, properly ornamented, to distinguish
it from a common one; as the same Albert tells us, that a very long spear covered all
over with silver, (to which another writer of those Croisade wars adds, a ball of gold
at the top,) was the standard of the Egyptian princes at that time, and carried before
their armies. Thou hast given a banner,—an ensign or standard, to them that fear
thee, that it may be lifted up, may perhaps be a better version; or rather, that they
may lift up a banner to themselves, or encourage themselves with the confident
persuasion that they are under the protection of God; because of the truth, thy word
of promise, which is an assurance of protection, like the giving me and my people a
banner; the surest of pledges. See the Observations, p. 360.
SIMEO , "GOD’S BA ER OVER HIS PEOPLE
Psalms 60:4. Thou hast given a banner to them that feared thee, that it may be
displayed because of the truth.
THIS psalm, in the title of it, is called “Michtam,” a golden psalm; and it well
deserves the name. It was written by David after he had come to the full possession
of the kingdom, which, during the reign of Saul [ ote: 1 Samuel 31:7.], and during

the seven years’ division of the tribes under Ishbosheth [ ote: 2 Samuel 5:4-5.], had
been reduced to a very low condition: “God had shewed his people hard things, and
made them to drink the wine of astonishment.” But the union of all Israel under
David, and the victories they had already gained over their powerful and oppressive
adversaries the Philistines, were tokens of God’s returning favour to them, and a
pledge to them that all his promised blessings should in due season be poured out
upon them. It should seem as if the more pious part of the people had been
discouraged by the long continuance of this adversity; and had begun almost to
despair of ever seeing their hopes realized, respecting the extension and stability of
their national power. But David tells them, that, in his advancement to the kingdom,
and in their recent successes, “God had given them a banner,” and had unfurled it,
as it were, before their eyes, as a signal of his presence in the midst of them, and as a
pledge of victory over all their enemies.
What God did for them as a pledge of temporal advancement, he has done for his
people in all ages, to assure them of success in their spiritual warfare.
To illustrate this, I will shew,
I. What banners God has given us—
The Church has a warfare to maintain: and, if, human prowess alone were
considered, it is a warfare which would afford not the smallest prospect of success.
But God has given to us a banner,
1. In the elevation of his Son—
[David was an eminent type of Christ, and especially in the advancement of his
kingdom: for Christ was appointed “to sit upon the throne of David for ever and
ever.” Was David’s elevation then a banner? so also is that of Christ, who is now
seated at the right hand of God, above all the principalities and powers whether of
earth or hell. Believer, survey thy Lord. Remember him in the manger, in the
garden, on the cross, and in the grave. From a view of him in those scenes thou
wouldst be ready to say, There is no hope. But behold him risen, ascended, glorified,
and in full possession of his kingdom: and then say, What a change awaits you after
your present conflicts [ ote: Ephesians 1:19-20.]. His triumphs are a pledge of
yours: “because he liveth, you shall live also:” and “as he has overcome and is set
down with his Father upon his throne,” so shall you, in your victories and in your
triumphs, resemble him [ ote: Luke 22:29-30. Revelation 3:21.].]
2. In the records of his word—
[Behold, what “a cloud of witnesses” present themselves to your view! Read the
catalogue of worthies, as recorded by God himself. Are your trials heavier than
theirs [ ote: Hebrews 11:33-38.]? Or is the power that was sufficient for them
withheld from you? Will not faith bring Omnipotence to your support, even as it did
for them? They are set before you expressly for your encouragement, that you,

seeing how they have succeeded, may be stirred up “to run your race with patience,
looking unto Jesus as the author and finisher of your faith,” even as he was of theirs
[ ote: Hebrews 12:1-2.]. Are you weak? so were they. Are your enemies numerous
and mighty? so were theirs, Did they prevail through the grace of Christ? that same
“grace shall be sufficient for you:” for He is the same gracious and Almighty Friend
as ever: time has made no change in him: “his hand is not shortened, that it cannot
save; nor is his ear heavy, that he cannot hear [ ote: Isaiah 59:1.]:” as “he was
mighty in them, so will he also be in you:” and “his strength shall be perfected in
your weakness,” even as it was in theirs [ ote: 2 Corinthians 12:9.].]
3. In the experience of his saints—
[You have found a change in your views, desires, pursuits: tell me, Whence has this
change proceeded? Must you not say, “He that hath wrought me to the self-same
thing is God [ ote: 2 Corinthians 5:5.]?” If you will look within, you will find that
you have rather resisted the change than helped it forward. “Your carnal mind has
been enmity against God:” and it would have been so still, if God, by the light of his
word, and the influences of his Spirit, had not subdued it to himself. If, then, the
heart of stone has been taken away, and a heart of flesh been given to you, that is
itself “a banner” erected in your heart, a token of God’s presence, an earnest of his
power, and a pledge of yet richer mercies in reserve: for, “if it have pleased him to
make you of the number of his people, he will not forsake you [ ote: 1 Samuel
12:22.];” and you may “be confident of this very thing, that he who hath begun a
good work within you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ [ ote:
Philippians 1:6.].”]
Let us consider,
II. For what end they are displayed unto us—
As the banner given to Israel in the time of David was to confirm their faith in his
promises, and to assure them of God’s faithfulness, so are the banners which God
has given to us bestowed,
1. To confirm our confidence in him—
[We ought to “know in whom we have believed,” and to feel assured that he is both
“able and willing to keep that which we have committed to him [ ote: 2 Timothy
1:12.].” We should never forget who it is that is engaged for us. We should never
forget that in God we have a wisdom that cannot be circumvented, and apower that
cannot be withstood. In him, too, we have a faithfulness that is altogether inviolate
and incapable of change. What, then, have we to fear? The serpent, no doubt, is
subtle, and the devices of Satan are very deep; but can he elude the eye of our
heavenly Protector, or by any means defeat His purpose? Our enemies too, both
within and without, are mighty: but what have we to fear, who have a Protector that
is Almighty? “If God be for us, who can be against us [ ote: Romans 8:31.]?” Let
our enemies be ever so numerous, we may safely affirm that “they who be with us,

are more than they who be with them [ ote: 2 Kings 6:16-17.];” and if we have no
more than a lamp and a trumpet against an armed host, we shall in Jehovah’s name
prevail against them all [ ote: Judges 7:15-22.]. A stone out of the brook shall
suffice us to destroy our mightiest adversary; yea, his own sword shall serve us for
the instrument whereby to complete our triumph [ ote: 1 Samuel 17:49-51.].]
2. To assure us of victory over all our enemies—
[Amongst men, a banner is only a signal to enlist them for the combat: but with God
it is a pledge of victory. See how David regarded it: “In the Lord put I my trust:
how say ye then to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? for, lo, the wicked
bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily
shoot at him that is perfect; and, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the
righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple: the Lord’s throne is in heaven [ ote:
Psalms 11:1-4.]:” and, whilst he is there, you need not attempt to alarm me: I know
my security, and defy the efforts of all my enemies. It was this consideration that
enabled Paul also to hurl defiance at his enemies, and to assure himself of victory, as
much as if it had been already gained [ ote: Romans 8:33-39.] — — — And we also,
in dependence on our God, may dismiss every fear, and anticipate, as already ours,
the glory and felicity that await us [ ote: 2 Corinthians 5:1-4. 2 Timothy 4:8.].]
Application—
What now can I say more but this?
1. Fear God—
[You will observe, that this is the description of the persons to whom his banner was
given: and for them is the same privilege reserved in every age. Let not any
undervalue this grace; for, in truth, it is that which as assuredly interests us in the
divine favour as love itself. Of course, it is a filial fear of which we speak: and he
who possesses that, may divest himself of every other fear; “Who art thou, that thou
shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die, or of the son of man, that shall be as
grass, and forgettest the Lord thy Maker [ ote: Isaiah 51:12-13.]?” Beloved
Brethren, “sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself in your hearts, and let him be your
fear, and let him be your dread [ ote: Isaiah 8:12-13.].”]
2. Trust in God—
[Excellent was that resolution of the Psalmist, “In the name of our God we will set
up our banners [ ote: Psalms 20:5.].” It is not possible for our confidence to be too
strong, provided only it be humble. There are, I confess, two different kinds of
confidence, which yet I consider as dangerous in the extreme: one of them is
founded upon systematic notions of divine truth, without any mixture of holy fear;
and the other arises from some dream or vision, or enthusiastic conceit, about the
word coming to their mind in a peculiar way. Against both of these I would guard
you with all my might. The only confidence that is pleasing to God is that which is

softened with fear, and tempered with contrition. Let that be in exercise to the
utmost possible extent, and then you may adopt the entire language of this psalm: “I
will rejoice; I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth. Gilead is
mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is
my lawgiver: Moab is my wash-pot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia,
triumph thou because of me.” The plain import of all which is concentrated in the
concluding verse, “Through God I shall do valiantly: for He it is that shall tread
down my enemies.” Only trust in God; and then, in every place where you go, you
may behold an altar with this inscription: “Jehovah- issi, The Lord is my banner
[ ote: Exodus 17:15.].” Yea, the very graces which you exercise shall be in you a
pledge, that God will fulfil and perfect in you the good work he has begun.]
EBC, "Psalms 60:4 has received two opposite interpretations, being taken by some
as a prolongation of the tone of lament over disaster, and by others as
commemoration of God’s help. The latter meaning violently interrupts the
continuity of thought. "The only natural view is that which sees" in Psalms 60:4 "a
continuation of the description of calamity" in Psalms 60:3 (Cheyne, in loc.). Taking
this view, we render the second clause as above. The word translated "that they may
flee" may indeed mean to lift themselves up, in the sense of gathering round a
standard, but the remainder of the clause cannot be taken as meaning "because of
the truth," since the preposition here used never means "because of." It is best
taken here as from before. The word variously rendered bow and truth is difficult.
It occurs again in Proverbs 22:21, and is there parallel with "truth" or faithfulness
in fulfilling Divine promises. But that meaning would be inappropriate here, and
would require the preceding preposition to be taken in the impossible sense already
noted. It seems better, therefore, to follow the LXX and other old versions, in
regarding the word as a slightly varied mode of spelling the ordinary word for a
bow (the final dental letter being exchanged for a cognate dental). The resulting
meaning is deeply coloured by sad irony. "Thou hast indeed given a banner-but it
was a signal for flight rather than for gathering round." Such seems the best view of
this difficult verse; but it is not free from objection. "Those who fear Thee" is not a
fitting designation for persons who were thus scattered in flight by God even if it is
taken as simply a synonym for the nation. We have to make choice between two
incongruities. If we adopt the favourite view, that the verse continues the
description of calamity, the name given to the sufferers is strange. If we take the
other, that it describes God’s gracious rallying of the fugitives, we are confronted
with a violent interruption of the tone of feeling in this first part of the psalm.
Perowne accepts the rendering from before the bow, but takes the verb in the sense
of mustering round, so making the banner to be a rallying point and the giving of it
a Divine mercy.
PETT, "Psalms 60:4
‘You have given a banner to those who fear you,
That it may be displayed because of the truth. [Selah.’
But God has not totally deserted His people, for to them, as the people who fear

Him, He has ‘given a banner’ (raised His standard), a sign of His approval and
support. It is a call for the people to rally behind it. It may be that this was a literal
banner proclaiming the ame of YHWH, which Israel bore into battle. Or I could
have been a metaphorical one, indicating an assurance of YHWH’s support for His
people and guaranteeing victory (see Psalms 60:6-8). Its purpose is twofold. Firstly
in order to call His people to stand firm for the truth, and secondly in order that it
might be displayed or set up as a proof to all the nations, that Israel are truly His
people who bring His truth to the world, something evidenced by their victory.
Indeed, as we learn elsewhere, YHWH IS their banner (Exodus 17:15).
‘Selah.’ At this point there is a pregnant pause in the music in order to draw
attention to the wonder of it.
5 Save us and help us with your right hand,
that those you love may be delivered.
BAR ES, "That thy beloved may be delivered - The word beloved is in the
plural number, and might be rendered beloved ones. It refers not merely to David as his
servant and friend, but to those associated with him. The reference is to the calamities
and dangers then existing, to which allusion has been made above. The prayer is, that
the enemy might be driven back, and the land delivered from their invasion.
Save with thy right hand - The right hand is that by which the sword is handled,
the spear hurled, the arrow drawn on the bow. The prayer is, that God would put forth
his power and deliver his people.
And hear me - literally, Answer me. The answer which he desired was that God
would lead his armies successfully into Edom, Psa_60:8-9.
GILL, "That thy beloved may be delivered,.... Some think that these words express
the effect or end of the banner being displayed; but because of the word "Selah" at the
end of Psa_60:4, which makes so full a stop; rather they are to be considered in
construction with the following clause. By the Lord's "beloved" ones are meant, not so
much the people of Israel, who were loved and chosen by the Lord above all people on
the face of the earth, as the elect of God, both among Jews and Gentiles, who are the
chosen of God, and precious, and are loved of him with a free, sovereign, everlasting,

and unchangeable love: these are the beloved of Father, Son, and Spirit; who, falling into
a state of condemnation and death in Adam, and being under the power of sin, and
involved in the guilt and faith of it; and being fallen into the hands of many enemies, sin,
Satan, and the world; stood in need of deliverance out of all this, which they could not
work out of themselves, nor any creature for them; wherefore, that they might be
delivered, the following request is made;
save with thy right hand; from sin, the cause of damnation; from the law, which
threatens with condemnation and death; from Satan, that would devour and destroy;
and from all their enemies; from wrath to come, from hell and the second death; or from
going down to the pit of corruption. The persons for whom this petition is put up are not
only David himself, but all the beloved ones; and these God has appointed unto
salvation; Christ is the Saviour of them, and to them salvation is applied in due time by
the Spirit, and in a little while they will be in the full possession of it: and this is wrought
out by the "right hand" of the Lord; either by his mighty power, the saving strength of
his right hand, who is mighty to save; or by his Son, the man of his right hand, made
strong for himself, who able to save to the uttermost; and by whom God has determined
to save, and does save all his people; or the words may be rendered, "save thy right hand,
thy Benjamins" (p) who are as near and dear to thee as thy right hand, being his
mystical self, to whom salvation is brought by him, Isa_63:1;
and hear me; in so doing, he suggests he would hear and answer him his prayers
would be ended and accomplished; this being the sum of them, his own salvation, and
the salvation of the Lord's beloved ones. The "Cetib", or writing of this clause, is, "hear
us"; the "Keri", or reading of it, "hear me".
HE RY, " A humble petition for seasonable mercy. 1. That God would be reconciled
to them, though he had been displeased with them. In his displeasure their calamities
began, and therefore in his favour their prosperity must begin: O turn thyself to us
again! (Psa_60:1) smile upon us, and take part with us; be at peace with us, and in that
peace we shall have peace. Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia - A God at peace with us
spreads peace over all the scene. 2. That they might be reconciled to one another,
though they had been broken and wretchedly divided among themselves: “Heal the
breaches of our land (Psa_60:2), not only the breaches made upon us by our enemies,
but the breaches made among ourselves by our unhappy divisions.” Those are breaches
which the folly and corruption of man makes, and which nothing but the wisdom and
grace of God can make up and repair, by pouring out a spirit of love and peace, by which
only a shaken shattered kingdom is set to rights and saved from ruin. 3. That thus they
might be preserved out of the hands of their enemies (Psa_60:5): “That thy beloved may
be delivered, and not made a prey of, save with thy right hand, with thy own power and
by such instruments as thou art pleased to make the men of thy right hand, and hear
me.” Those that fear God are his beloved; they are dear to him as the apple of his eye.
They are often in distress, but they shall be delivered. God's own right hand shall save
them; for those that have his heart have his hand. Save them, and hear me. Note, God's
praying people may take the general deliverances of the church as answers to their
payers in particular. If we improve what interest we have at the throne of grace for
blessings for the public, and those blessings be bestowed, besides the share we have with
others in the benefit of them we may each of us say, with peculiar satisfaction, “God has
therein heard me, and answered me.”

JAMISO , "hear me — or, “hear us.”
SPURGEO , "Ver. 5. That thy beloved may be delivered. David was the Lord's
beloved, his name signifies "dear, or beloved, "and there was in Israel a remnant
according to the election of grace, who were the beloved of the Lord; for their sakes
the Lord wrought great marvels, and he had an eye to them in all his mighty acts.
God's beloved are the inner seed, for whose sake he preserves the entire nation,
which acts as a husk to the vital part. This is the main design of providence, That
thy beloved may be delivered; if it were not for their sakes he would neither give a
banner nor send victory to it.
Save with thy right hand, and hear me. Save at once, before the prayer is over; the
case is desperate unless there be immediate salvation. Tarry not, O Lord, till I have
done pleading: save first and hear afterwards. The salvation must be a right royal
and eminent one, such as only the omnipotent hand of God linked with his
dexterous wisdom can achieve. Urgent distress puts men upon pressing and bold
petitions such as this. We may by faith ask for and expect that our extremity will be
God's opportunity; special and memorable deliverances will be wrought out when
dire calamities appear to be imminent. Here is one suppliant for many, even as in
the case of our Lord's intercession for his saints. He, the Lord's David, pleads for
the rest of the beloved, beloved and accepted in him the Chief Beloved; he seeks
salvation as though it were for himself, but his eye is ever upon all those who are one
with him in the Father's love. When divine interposition is necessary for the rescue
of the elect it must occur, for the first and greatest necessity of providence is the
honour of God, and the salvation of his chosen. This is fixed fate, the centre of the
immutable decree, the inmost thought of the unchangeable Jehovah.
ELLICOTT, "(5) From this verse onward the psalm appears again, with some
variations noticed there, in Psalms 108:6-13.
(6, 7, 8) These three verses, forming the centre of the poem, are, plainly by their
style, of different age and authorship from the beginning. Possibly, indeed, they
formed an original poem by themselves, an ancient oracular saying descriptive of
the relations of Israel to the tribes bordering on her territory, and were then
employed by the compilers of this psalm and Psalms 108, to rouse the drooping
spirits of the race in some less fortunate time. (See Introduction.) The speaker is
God Himself, who, according to a familiar prophetic figure, appears in the
character of a warrior, the captain of Israel, proclaiming the triumphs won through
His might by their arms. (Comp. Isaiah 63:1-6.) Here, however, the picture is rather
playful than terrible—rather ironic than majestic. The conqueror is returning, as in
the passage of Isaiah referred to above, from the battle, but he is not painted
“glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength.” The fury of the
fight, the carnage, the bloodstained garments are all implied, not described. Instead
of answering a challenge, as in Isaiah, by a description of the fight, here the

champion simply proclaims the result of his victory as he proceeds to disarm and
prepare for the bath—figures expressing the utmost contempt for the foe so easily
subdued.
TRAPP, "Psalms 60:5 That thy beloved may be delivered; save [with] thy right
hand, and hear me.
Ver. 5. That thy beloved may be delivered] Heb. thy darlings, those that fear thee,
Psalms 60:4, for, for their sakes it is that God doth good to a people; to all others he
seemeth to say, as Elisha once did to Jehoram, that wicked king of Israel, What have
I to do with thee? &c. Were it not that I regarded such and such people, I would not
look toward thee, nor see thee, 2 Kings 3:13-14.
Save with thy right hand] Heb. Save thy right hand, which seemeth to be afflicted
together with us; because the enemies say, he cannot save us; thus Kimchi
expoundeth it.
EBC, "The second part (Psalms 60:5-8) begins with a verse which Delitzsch and
others regard as really connected, notwithstanding the Selah at the end Psalms 60:4,
with the preceding. But it is quite intelligible as independent, and is in its place as
the introduction to the Divine Oracle which follows and makes the kernel of the
psalm. There is beautiful strength of confidence in the psalmist’s regarding the
beaten, scattered people as still God’s "darlings." He appeals to Him to answer, in
order that a result so accordant with God’s heart as the deliverance of His beloved
ones may be secured. And the prayer has no sooner passed his lips than he hears the
thunderous response, "God has spoken in His holiness." That infinite elevation of
His nature above creatures is the pledge of the fulfilment of His word.
The following verses contain the substance of the Oracle; but it is too daring to
suppose that they reproduce its words; for "I will exult" can scarcely be reverently
put into the mouth of God. The substance of the whole is a twofold promise-of a
united Israel, and a submissive heathendom. Shechem on the west and Succoth on
the east of Jordan, Gilead and Manasseh on the east, and Ephraim and Judah on
the west, are the possession of the speaker, whether he is king or representative of
the nation. o trace of a separation of the kingdoms is here. Ephraim, the strongest
tribe of the northern kingdom, is the "strength of my head," the helmet, or perhaps
with allusion to the horns of an animal as symbols of offensive weapons. Judah is
the ruling tribe, the commander’s baton, or possibly "lawgiver," as in Genesis 49:1-
33. Israel thus compact together may count on conquests over hereditary foes.
Their defeat is foretold in contemptuous images. The basin for washing the feet was
"a vessel unto dishonour"; and, in Israel’s great house, no higher function for his
ancestral enemy, when conquered, would be found. The meaning of casting the shoe
upon or over Edom is doubtful. It may be a symbol for taking possession of
property, though that lacks confirmation; or Edom may be regarded as the
household slave to whom the master’s shoes are thrown when taken off; or, better,

in accordance with the preceding reference to Moab, Edom may be regarded as part
of the master’s house or furniture. The one was the basin for his feet; the other, the
corner where he kept his sandals.
PETT, "Verses 5-8
David Calls On God To Save Them By His Mighty Right Hand So That The People
Whom He Loves Might Be Delivered, And Declares The Certainty Of YHWH’s
Victory Because The Surrounding ations Are Subject To Him (Psalms 60:5-8).
David calls on God to personally save the people on whom He has set His love, and
expresses his confidence that He will intervene, and this because God has exultantly
declared His sovereignty over the area. It is all under His control and He will do
with it as He will. Israel (Ephraim) is His helmet, and Judah His sceptre, the
outward evidence of His rule, whilst the surrounding nations, Moab, Edom and
Philistia are in inferior positions.
Psalms 60:5
‘That your beloved ones may be delivered,
Save with your right hand, and answer us.’
In order that His beloved ones, the ones on whom He has set His love, might be
delivered, he calls on God to save by means of His mighty right hand, answering His
people (or answering David) as they call on Him.
We might ask, ‘if they are His beloved ones why has He allowed them to suffer these
reverses?’ And the reply will be, ‘Whom YHWH loves He reproves and chastens,
even as a father the son in whom he delights’ (Proverbs 3:12). David is aware of this
and is confident that after rebuke will come blessing.
‘Answer us’ is the kethib (original reading), ‘answer me’ is the qere (suggested
adjustment), the latter being a correction and alternative reading in the MT.
6 God has spoken from his sanctuary:
“In triumph I will parcel out Shechem
and measure off the Valley of Sukkoth.

BAR ES, "God hath spoken in his holiness - That is, as a holy God; a God who
is true; a God whose promises are always fulfilled. The idea is, that the holiness of God
was the public pledge or assurance that what he had promised he would certainly
perform. God had made promises in regard to the land of Canaan or Palestine, as a
country to be put into the possession of Abraham and his posterity. Gen_12:7; Gen_
13:15; Gen_17:8; Psa_105:8-11. The original promise of the gift of that land, made to
Abraham under the general name of Canaan Gen_12:7, embraced the whole territory
from the river (that divided the land from Egypt) to the Euphrates: “Unto thy seed,
addressed to Abraham, have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great
river, the river Euphrates,” Gen_15:18. This would embrace the country of Edom, as well
as the other countries which are specified in the psalm. The natural and proper
boundary of the land on the east, therefore, according to the promise, was the river
Euphrates; on the west, Egypt and the Mediterranean sea; on the south, the outer limit
of Edom. It was the object of David to carry out what was implied in this promise, and to
secure the possession of all that had been thus granted to the Hebrews as the
descendants of Abraham. Hence, he had been engaged in carrying his conquests to the
east, with a view to make the Euphrates the eastern border or boundary of the land:
“David smote also Hadarezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went to recover his
border at the river Euphrates,” 2Sa_8:3. Compare 1Ch_18:3. In the prosecution of the
same purpose he was anxious also to subdue Edom, that the entire territory thus
promised to Abraham might be put in possession of the Hebrews, and that he might
transmit the kingdom in the fullness of the original grant to his posterity. It is to this
promise made to Abraham that he doubtless refers in the passage before us.
I will rejoice - I, David, will exult or rejoice in the prospect of success. I will find my
happiness, or my confidence in what I now undertake, in the promise which God has
made. The meaning is, that since God had made this promise, he would certainly
triumph.
I will divide Shechem - That is, I will divide up the whole land according to the
promise. The language here is taken from that which was employed when the country of
Canaan was conquered by Joshua, and when it was divided among the tribes: “Be strong
and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land
which I sware unto their fathers to give them,” Jos_1:6. Compare Jos_13:6-7; Jos_14:5;
Jos_18:10; Jos_19:51; Jos_23:4; Psa_78:55; Act_13:19. David here applies the same
language to Shechem, “and the valley of Succoth,” as portions of the land, meaning that
he would accomplish the original purpose in regard to the land by placing it in
possession of the people of God. Shechem or Sichem was a city within the limits of the
tribe of Ephraim, between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, called by the Romans
Neapolis, and now Nablus. It is about two hours, or eight miles, south of Samaria. It
seems to be mentioned here as being the spot where the law of Moses was read to the
people of Israel, and especially the blessings and curses recorded in Deut. 27; Deut. 28,
which Moses commanded to be read to the different tribes on the above-named
mountains, Deu_27:11-13. This was actually done, Jos_8:33. Shechem, therefore, as
lying between these mountains, and as being the place where the great mass of the
people were assembled to hear what was read, became a central place, a representative
spot of the whole land, and to say that that was conquered or subdued, was to speak of
that which implied a victory over the land. David speaks of having secured this, as
significant of the fact that the central point of influence and power had been brought
under subjection, and as in fact implying that the land was subdued. The importance of
that place, and the allusion to it here, will justify a more extended reference to it, which I

copy from “The Land and the Book,” by Dr. Thomson, vol. ii. p. 203, 204.
“Nablus is a queer old place. The streets are narrow, and vaulted over; and in the
winter time it is difficult to pass along many of them on account of brooks which rush
over the pavement with deafening roar. In this respect, I know no city with which to
compare it except Brusa; and, like that city, it has mulberry, orange, pomegranate, and
other trees, mingled in with the houses, whose odoriferous flowers lead the air with
delicious perfume during the months of April and May. Here the billbul delights to sit
and sing, and thousands of other birds unite to swell the chorus. The inhabitants
maintain that theirs is the most musical vale in Palestine, and my experience does not
enable me to contradict them.
“Imagine that the lofty range of mountains running north and south was cleft open to
its base by some tremendous convulsion of nature, at right angles to its own line of
extension, and the broad fissure thus made is the vale of Nablus, as it appears to one
coming up the plain of Mukhna from Jerusalem. Mount Ebal is on the north, Gerizim on
the south, and the city between. Near the eastern end, the vale is not more than sixty
rods wide; and just there, I suppose, the tribes assembled to hear the ‘blessings and the
curses’ read by the Levites. We have them in extenso in Deut. 27 and Deut. 28; and in
Josh. 8 we are informed that it was actually done, and how. Simeon, and Levi, and
Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin, stood on Gerizim; and Reuben, Gad,
Asher, Zebulon, Dan, and Naphtali, on Ebal; while all Israel, and their elders, and
officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priests
which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord; the whole nation of Israel, with the
women and little ones, were there. And Joshua read all the words of the law, the
blessings and the cursings; there was not a word of all that Moses commanded which
Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel. This was, beyond question or
comparison, the most august assembly the sun has ever shone upon; and I never stand
in the narrow plain, with Ebal and Gerizim rising on either hand to the sky, without
involuntarily recalling and reproducing the scene. I have shouted to hear the echo, and
then fancied how it must have been when the loud-voiced Levites proclaimed from the
naked cliffs of Ebal, ‘Cursed be the man that maketh any graven image, an abomination
unto Jehovah.’ And then the tremendous amen! tenfold louder, from the mighty
congregation, rising, and swelling, and re-echoing from Ebal to Gerizim, and from
Gerizim to Ebal. amen! even so let him be accursed. No, there never was an assembly to
compare with this.”
And mete out the valley of Succoth - Measure out; that is, measure or survey for
the purpose of “dividing” it, or assigning it to the conquerors, to the people of God,
according to the promise. There is the same allusion here, as in the former clause, to the
dividing of the land in the time of Joshua. Succoth, in the division of the land by Joshua,
fell to the tribe of Gad; Jos_13:27. It was on the east side of the river Jordan, and is now
called Sakut. It is first mentioned in Gen_33:17, in the account of the journey which
Jacob took on returning from the East to the land of Canaan. At this place he paused in
his journey, and made booths for his cattle; and hence, the name Succoth, or booths.
Why this place is referred to here by David, as representing his conquests, cannot now
be ascertained. It seems most probable that it was because it was a place east of the
Jordan, as Shechem was west of the Jordan, and that the two might, therefore, represent
the conquest of the whole country. Succoth, too, though not more prominent than many
other places, and though in itself of no special importance, was well known as among the
places mentioned in history. It is possible, also, though no such fact is mentioned, that
there may have been some transaction of special importance there in connection with
David’s conquests in the East, which was well understood at the time, and which

justified this special reference to it.
CLARKE, "God hath spoken - Judah shall not only be re-established in
Jerusalem, but shall possess Samaria, where Shechem is, and the country beyond
Jordan, in which is situated the valley of Succoth. Dividing and meting out signify
possession.
GILL, "God hath spoken in his holiness,.... Or "in his holy place" (q); in heaven,
the habitation of his holiness and of his glory; or "in the house of the sanctuary", as the
Targum: in the tabernacle, in the holy place by Urim and Thummim; and in the most
holy place by his sacred oracle, from between the mercy seat: or "by his Holy Ones", as
the Arabic version; by his holy prophets, Samuel and Nathan, by whom he spoke to
David concerning the kingdom; and by his Holy Spirit dictating this psalm, and the rest
unto him; and by his Son, his Holy One, by whom he has spoken in these last times unto
his people, to which this psalm has reference: or it may be understood of the perfection
of his holiness in which he has spoken, and by which he has swore; not only to David
literally, concerning the extent of his dominion, the perpetuity and stability of it; but to
David's son and antitype, the Messiah, concerning his seed, possession, and inheritance,
Psa_89:19;
I will rejoice; at the holiness of the Lord, which is matter of joy to the saints, especially
as the is displayed and glorified in salvation by Christ, Psa_97:12; and at what he said in
his holiness to David, concerning his temporal kingdom, and the duration of it; because
he knew that what he said he would perform; and at what was spoken to him by the
Messiah, in council and covenant, concerning his seeing his seed, and prolonging his
days; which was the joy set before him, which carried him through his sorrows and
sufferings, Heb_12:2; wherefore he believed his kingdom should be enlarged, both
among Jews and Gentiles, as follows;
I will divide Shechem; a city in Mount Ephraim, Jos_20:7; and so was in the hands
of Ishbosheth the son of Saul; as the valley of Succoth, Gilead, Ephraim, and Manasseh,
after mentioned, and all the tribes of Israel, were, but Judah, 2Sa_2:4; but, because of
God's promise, David believed that they would be all in his possession; signified by
dividing, as a land is divided for an inheritance when conquered, Jos_13:7; or this is said
in allusion to the dividing of spoils in a conquered place; and so the Targum,
"I will divide the prey with the children of Joseph, that dwell in Shechem;''
and as Shechem was the same with Sychar, near to which our Lord met with the
Samaritan woman, and converted her, and many others of that place, then might he be
said to divide the spoils there, Joh_4:5;
and mete out the valley of Succoth; with a measuring line, so taking possession of
it, 2Sa_8:2; Succoth was near to Shechem, Gen_33:17; and was in the tribe of Gad, and
in a valley, Jos_13:27; there was a Succoth in the plain of Jordan, 1Ki_7:46; it signifies
booths, tents, or tabernacles, and may mystically signify the churches of Christ, wherein
he dwells and exercises his dominion.

HE RY, "David is here rejoicing in hope and praying in hope; such are the triumphs
of the saints, not so much upon the account of what they have in possession as of what
they have in prospect (Psa_60:6): “God has spoken in his holiness (that is, he has given
me his word of promise, has sworn by his holiness, and he will not lie unto David, Psa_
89:35), therefore I will rejoice, and please myself with the hopes of the performance of
the promise, which was intended for more than a pleasing promise,” Note, God's word of
promise, being a firm foundation of hope, is a full fountain of joy to all believers.
JAMISO 6-[10, "God hath spoken in — or, “by.”
his holiness — (Psa_89:35; Amo_4:2), on the pledge of His attributes (Psa_22:3;
Psa_30:4). Taking courage from God’s promise to give them possession (Exo_23:31;
Deu_11:24) (and perhaps renewed to him by special revelation), with triumphant joy he
describes the conquest as already made.
Shechem, and ... Succoth — as widely separated points, and -
CALVI , "6.God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice. Hitherto he has
adverted to the proofs which had come under their own observation, and from
which they might easily see that God had manifested his favor in a manner new, and
for many years unprecedented. He had raised the nation from a state of deep
distress to prosperity, and had changed the aspect of affairs so far, that one victory
was following another in rapid succession. But now he calls their attention to a point
of still greater importance, the divine promise — the fact that God had previously
declared all this with his own mouth. However numerous and striking may be the
practical demonstrations we receive of the favor of God, we can never recognize
them, except in connection with his previously revealed promise. What follows,
although spoken by David as of himself individually, may be considered as the
language adopted by the people generally, of whom he was the political head.
Accordingly, he enjoins them, provided they were not satisfied with the sensible
proofs of divine favor, to reflect upon the oracle by which he had been made king in
terms the most distinct and remarkable. (389) He says that God had spoken in his
holiness, not by his Holy Spirit, as some, with an over-refinement of interpretation,
have rendered it, nor by his holy place, the sanctuary; (390) for we read of no
response having been given from it to the prophet Samuel. It is best to retain the
term holiness, as he adverts to the fact of the truth of the oracle having been
confirmed, and the constancy and efficacy of the promise having been placed
beyond all doubt by numerous proof, of a practical kind. As no room had been left
for question upon the point, he employs this epithet to put honor upon the words
which had been spoken by Samuel. He immediately adds, that this word of God was
the chief ground upon which he placed his trust. It might be true that he had gained
many victories, and that these had tended to encourage his heart; but he intimates,
that no testimony which he had received of this kind gave him so much satisfaction

as the word. This accords with the general experience of the Lord’s people. Cheered,
as they unquestionably are, by every expression of the divine goodness, still faith
must ever be considered as holding the highest place — as being that which
dissipates their worst sorrows, and quickens them even when dead to a happiness
which is not of this world. or does David mean that he merely rejoiced himself. He
includes, in general, all who feared the Lord in that Kingdom. And now he proceeds
to give the sum of the oracle, which it is observable that he does in such a way as to
show, in the very narration of it, how firmly he believed in its truth: for he speaks of
it as something which admitted of no doubt whatsoever, and boasts that he would do
what God had promised. I will divide Shechem, he says, and mete out the valley of
Succoth (391) The parts which he names are those that were more late of coming
into his possession, and which would appear to have been yet in the hands of Saul’s
son, when this psalm was written. A severe struggle being necessary for their
acquisition, he asserts that, though late of being subdued, they would certainly be
brought under his subjection in due time, as God had condescended to engage this
by his word. So with Gilead and Manasseh (392) As Ephraim was the most populous
of all the tribes, he appropriately terms it the strength of his head, that is, of his
dominions. (393) To procure the greater credit to the oracle, by showing that it
derived a sanction from antiquity, he adds, that Judeah would be his lawgiver, or
chief; which was equivalent to saying, that the posterity of Abraham could never
prosper unless, in agreeableness to the prediction of the patriarch Jacob, they were
brought under the government of Judah, or of one who was sprung from that tribe.
He evidently alludes to what is narrated by Moses, (Genesis 49:10,) “The scepter
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh
come.” The same word is there used, ‫,מחוקק‬ Mechokek, or legislator. It followed,
that no government could stand which was not resident in the tribe of Judah, this
being the decree and the good pleasure of God. The words are more appropriate in
the mouth of the people than of David; and, as already remarked, he does not speak
in his own name, but in that of the Church at large.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 6. God hath spoken in his holiness. Faith is never happier than
when it can fall back upon the promise of God. She sets this over against all
discouraging circumstances; let outward providences say what they will, the voice of
a faithful God drowns every sound of tear. God had promised Israel victory, and
David the kingdom; the holiness of God secured the fulfilment of his own covenant,
and therefore the king spake confidently. The goodly land had been secured to the
tribes by the promise made to Abraham, and that divine grant was an abundantly
sufficient warrant for the belief that Israel's arms would be successful in battle.
Believer make good use of this, and banish doubts while promises remain.
I will rejoice, or "I will triumph." Faith regards the promise not as fiction but fact,
and therefore drinks in joy from it, and grasps victory by it. "God hath spoken; I
will rejoice:" here is a fit motto for every soldier of the cross.
I will divide Shechem. As a victor David would allot the conquered territory to those
to whom God had given it by lot. Shechem was an important portion of the country,
which as yet had not yielded to his government; but he saw that by Jehovah's help it
would be, and indeed was all his own. Faith divides the spoil, she is sure of what

God has promised, and enters at once into possession.
And mete out the valley of Succoth. As the east so the west of Jordan should be
allotted to the proper persons. Enemies should be expelled, and the landmarks of
peaceful ownership set up. Where Jacob had pitched his tent, there his rightful heirs
should till the soil. When God has spoken, his divine shall, our I will, becomes no
idle boast, but the fit echo of the Lord's decree. Believer, up and take possession of
covenant mercies. Divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth. Let not
Canaanitish doubts and legalisms keep thee out of the inheritance of grace. Live up
to thy privileges, take the good which God provides thee.
Ver. 6. God hath spoken in his holiness. That is, by Samuel he hath promised, as he
is an holy God, and true of his word, that I should be king of all Israel, and now he
hath performed it. (2 Samuel
5.) Yet Calvin speaks of it as not yet performed; but the course of the history makes
it plain that David was now king over the parts of which he here speaketh. I will
divide Shechem, as subjects to me as Joshua having the land under him, divided it
amongst his people: so David being king over all the parts of the land, divides to his
followers such portions as belonged unto them by inheritance, from which happily
some of them had been expelled by the time of Ishbosheth his reign; or some families
in the time of those wars might be utterly wasted away, and so the king having free
power to dispose of their lands, might give them amongst his men, and take part to
himself. John Mayer.
Ver. 6. God hath spoken in his holiness. That is, he hath given out his word from
heaven, the habitation of his holiness and of his glory; or, he hath spoken it
certainly, there is nothing but holiness in his word (and that is the strength of
words). David having received this word stands assured, that as Shechem and
Succoth, Gilead and Manasseh, Ephraim and Judah would willingly submit to him
and yield obedience; so, also, that Moab, Edom, and Philistia, who were his
professed enemies, should be subdued to him. He expected to conquer and triumph
over them, to put them to the basest offices, as his vassals, because God had decreed
and spoken it in his holiness. God hath spoken the word, saith he, therefore is shall
be done, yea, it is done; and therefore David cried, All's mine, Gilead in mine,
Manasseh is mine, Moab and Edom are mine, as soon as God had spoken the word.
Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 6. I will divide Shechem. It is as much as if he should say, I will not look to have
my share measured out by others, but I will divide it, and measure myself, and will
be the right owner and possessor thereof. Thomas Wilcocks.
Ver. 6. I will divide Shechem, etc. Of Shechem and the Valley of Succoth, or booths,
so called from Jacob's making booths, and feeding his cattle there. (See Genesis
33:17-18.) By these are meant Samaria; and David's dividing or meting them out, is
a phrase to express his dominion over them, in being part of the regal power to
distribute his province into cities and regions, and place judges and magistrates over
them. To these the addition of Gilead (which contained the whole region of Bashan,
etc., on the other side of Jordan), and then the mention of Manasseh and Ephraim,
are designed, as by so many parts, to denote the kingdom of Israel, or the ten tribes;
and their being his, and the strength of his head, notes him to be the Lord over
them, and to make use of their strength in his wars, for the defending or enlarging

his dominions. And then Judeah yqqwxm is my lawgiver; as it refers to Jacob's
prophecy of the sceptre and lawgiver not departing from Judah, denoting that to be
the royal tribe; so by it is signified the kingdom of Judah (under which Benjamin is
comprehended), that David is possessed of that also. Henry Hammond.
Ver. 6. Succoth. If the preceding views are correct, we may rest in the result, that
the present SÃ¢kÃ»t represents the name and site of the ancient Succoth...We
passed obliquely along the northern slope of the same broad swell, where the
ground was covered only by a thick crop of thistles. On our right was a region of
lower ground to which we gradually descended; full of grass, wild oats, and thistles,
with an occasional thornbush. The soil was like that of an Ohio bottom. The grass,
intermingled with tall daisies, and the wild oats reached to the horses backs; while
the thistles sometimes overtopped the rider's heads. All was now dry; and in some
places it was difficult to make our way through the exuberant growth. At last we
came to the cause of this fertility, a fine brook winding along the bottom. We
crossed it, and passed up again obliquely over another like swell, covered as before
only with thistles. Here was an ancient oil vat, very large and of a single stone; it was
evidently brought hither, and indicates the former growth of the olive in these parts.
We struck the same stream again at its source, called Ain el Beida, a large and fine
fountain, surrounded with gardens of cucumbers, and watering an extensive tract.
We were here on the edge of the higher portion of the GhÃ´r, where low ridges and
swells project out from the foot of the western mountains, and form a rolling plain
or plateau, which is well watered, arable and very extensively cultivated for wheat.
The tract further east, which we had now crossed, may be said to extend to the high
bank of the lower Jordan valley. It is less elevated, is more generally level, though
crossed by low swells between the water courses, and has little tillage. The
inhabitants of TÃ»bÃ¢s are divided into three hostile parties; and they carry their
divisions into their agriculture in the GhÃ´r. One party sows at Ain el Beida, where
we now were; another around Ain MakhÃ»z, more in the north; and the third at
Ridghah, SÃ¢kÃ»t, and further south. The people of TeyÃ¢sÃ®r also sow on the
south of MÃ¢lih; the water of which is used for irrigation. The whole tract north of
Wady MÃ¢lih was said to be farmed from the government by one of the Sheiks of
the JenÃ¢r family, who live at Jeba and in its neighbourhood. By him it is again let
to the different villages. Robinson's "Biblical Researches in Palestine."
Ver. 6-7. The chief and principal places where the seditious party had their
residence and abode, were those which the psalmist mentions in the sixth and
seventh verses, namely, Shechem, a city in the tribe of Ephraim; Succoth, a city in
the tribe of Gad; Gilead and Manasseh, the utmost borders of the land of Canaan
beyond Jordan. These were some of the chief places, which sided with Ishbosheth
whilst he lived, as you may see, 2 Samuel 2:1-32; and, as it seemeth, they still cleaved
to the house of Saul after he was dead, not acknowledging David for their king.
John Brinsley.
CO STABLE, "David quoted a prophecy that he had received assuring Israel"s
military success. God had said He would give Shechem and the valley of Succoth to
Israel. Shechem is the site west of the Jordan where God first promised Canaan to
Abraham and his descendants ( Genesis 12). It was also where Jacob lived after he
returned to Canaan from Paddan-aram and Laban"s oppression ( Genesis 33:18-

20). Succoth was the place east of the Jordan where Jacob settled after God
delivered him from Esau, when Jacob returned from Paddan-aram ( Genesis 33:17).
Both places had associations with past victories over Arameans and the fulfillment
of God"s promises concerning the land. Used together, these places represent
victory on both sides of the Jordan.
ELLICOTT, "(6) In his holiness . . .—The LXX. and Vulg. have “in his sanctuary”
which suits the utterance of an oracle.
I will rejoice . . .—Rather, I will raise a shout of triumph.
I will divide Shechem . . .—Rather, I may divide, &c, implying unquestioned right of
ownership. Shechem and Succoth appear to be named as a rude indication of the
whole breadth of the country, from west to east. The fact that Dr. Robinson and
Vandervelde have identified one Succoth on the right bank of Jordan, does not at all
weaken the evidence for the existence of another on the east of that river. See
Genesis 33:17; Judges 8:5 seq.; Joshua 13:17 (where çmek is used for valley, as
here).
TRAPP, "Psalms 60:6 God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide
Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.
Ver. 6. God hath spoken in his holiness] He hath assured me all these following
places; therefore I looked upon them long since as already mine, and now I am
master of them.
I will rejoice] As having peaceable possession of all; though I have come hardly by
it. ow I see that whatsoever God by his servant Samuel assured me of, was true,
and to be trusted; albeit I sometimes doubted of it, Psalms 116:11, 1 Samuel 27:1.
I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth] Which places, though
they longest held out against me under Ishbosheth, yet now that they are come in,
they shall have civil usage under me, and be better dealt with than those outland
enemies, Moab, Edom, &c., now brought under my subjection.
WHEDO , "6. God… spoken—Hitherto David has spoken, figuratively, of a
“banner displayed on account of the truth;” now, he speaks plainly of the divine
oracle as the ground of his faith. “God hath spoken;” an allusion to Jacob’s
prophecy, Genesis 49:10; Samuel’s message, 1 Samuel 16:13; and to athan’s, 2
Samuel 7:4-17. Delitzsch says, it is possible, also, that at this moment “David
received an oracle from the high priest by means of the Urim and Thummim which
assured him of the unity of his kingdom and the sovereignty over the bordering
nations.”
Shechem… Succoth—The former an open plain west of Jordan, and the latter a

valley east of Jordan in the tribe of Gad, which has not been well identified by
modern discovery, but was probably about the latitude of Shechem. These are
alluded to as patriarchal stations when Jacob, on his return from “Padan Aram,”
was searching a central location for the settlement of the Hebrew family, and are
here used poetically for the total promised territory east and west of Jordan.
Compare Genesis 33:17-18; Joshua 13:27; Judges 8:4-5. The dividing and meting
out simply indicate absolute title and sovereignty. umbers 26:55-56; 2 Samuel 8:2
COFFMA , "Verse 6
GOD'S PROMISES RECALLED I PRAYER
"God hath spoken in his holiness: I will exult;
I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.
Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine;
Ephraim also is the defense of my head;
Judah is my sceptre.
Moab is my washpot;
Upon Edom will I cast my shoe:
Philistia, shout thou because of me."
"God hath spoken ... I will exult" (Psalms 60:6). What this says is that, "I will exult
in the promises God has made to Israel." The difficulty is that no specific promises
recorded in the Old Testament say exactly what is here stated. Perhaps the accurate
explanation is that given by Rawlinson: "This is a reference to the general aspect of
the assurances given in the Pentateuch in regard to Israel's possession of the land of
Canaan and to their victory over hostile neighbors."[9] God's assurances to Jacob
and to Israel, especially through Moses, speak of their possession of Canaan and
victory over all opposition. The argument here, then, is simply this: `If these
assurances from the Holy Scriptures are to be depended upon, Israel cannot now be
in actual danger of being subjugated by Edom.'
"Shechem ... and Succoth" (Psalms 60:6). This evidently refers to God's promise of
giving Canaan to Israel. "Shechem" is a principal city west of Jordan, and "the
Valley of Succoth" is a prominent sector of Canaan east of the Jordan.
"Gilead ... Manasseh ... Ephraim" (Psalms 60:7). "Gilead" was identified with the
land east of the Jordan river, and Ephraim was a powerful tribe dominating the
land west of the Jordan. "Manasseh" held lands on both sides of Jordan; and it
seems from these proper names in these verses that the psalmist was stressing God's
promise to give Israel all of Canaan.

Moreover the mention of Judah as "God's sceptre" was for the purpose of recalling
the ancient word that "Jacob have I loved; and Esau (Edom) have I hated." (Judah
was a son of Jacob). Such thoughts would indeed have been encouraging to Israel
following a military set-back in which Edom had won a battle.
"Moab ... Edom ... Philistia" (Psalms 60:8). o such promises of God thus to deal
with these nations can be found in the Old Testament.; and, therefore, we conclude
that these words are a paraphrase of what the psalmist believed to be God's love of
Israel and his opposition to these three nations mentioned.
Certainly, Moab, Edom, and Philistia were relegated by God Himself to a status
below that of Israel, even though none of the prophets used exactly the same
terminology that here describes it. What the psalmist says here is that, "God has
willed these nations to be in a subordinate role, servile to God's people: Moab for
bathing their feet, Edom the lackey to whom the sandals are thrown, and Philistia to
provide the theme of a victory song!"[10]
One of the great lessons of this psalm is that the fact of recalling and repeating the
sacred promises of God is a legitimate and effective device in prayer.
PETT, "Psalms 60:6
‘God has spoken in his holiness,
‘God has spoken in His holiness.’ ‘In His holiness’ expresses the uniqueness of what
God is. He is the wholly righteous One Who is always true to His word, and the One
Who is distinctive in His ‘otherness’, above, beyond and distinctive from His
creation. He is ‘the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity Whose ame is Holy’
(Isaiah 57:15). And it is as such that He has spoken (made His solemn declaration),
thus guaranteeing the end result.
Psalms 60:6-8
“I will exult,
I will divide Shechem,
And mete out the valley of Succoth.
Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine,
Ephraim also is the defence of my head,
Judah is my sceptre.’
Moab is my washpot,
On Edom will I cast my shoe,
Philistia, shout you because of me.”
What God has spoken is now made plain. It may be that we are to see this as God
raising His standard on behalf of His people (Psalms 60:4), or alternatively as God’s
promise to David. But in either case it depicts God as arising victoriously, and
exultantly carrying out His purpose and revealing His sovereignty. The whole area
is under His control.

Shechem and Succoth were the two places which Jacob had first reached on
entering the land after his sojourn in Paddan Aram (Genesis 33:17-18). Shechem
was west of the Jordan, and Succoth east of Jordan. They may thus have been seen
as representing the north of Israel on both sides of the Jordan over which God now
claims to exercise His authority and control. The thought may be included here that
God is fulfilling His promises to Jacob.
Gilead and Manasseh may be seen as representing the whole swathe of land east of
the Jordan (Gilead is a flexible term often indicating a large part of the land east of
Jordan). Although Manasseh was also well represented west of the Jordan, a large
part of the land east of Jordan was territory belonging to the tribe of Manasseh. It is
being emphasised that they belong to God.
Ephraim was the popular name for the central highlands and related territory, and
was the name of the most powerful tribe in Israel. It would eventually became
synonymous with northern Israel (a somewhat restricted Israel), but at this stage it
was simply the largest and strongest tribe. This is portrayed as God’s battle helmet.
Judah, of course, represented the southern part of the kingdom, the part which had
first yielded to David’s rule (2 Samuel 3:2-5). It is represented as God’s sceptre, for
it was through Judah that kingship was to be established (Genesis 49:10-12).
Thus the whole of the land over which David ruled is intended to be covered here
(geography at that time was vague). The descriptions of Ephraim and Judah as His
battle helmet and sceptre indicate how personal is God’s activity on their behalf. It
is through Ephraim and Judah that He achieves His warlike success and
sovereignty.
Moab, Edom and Philistia, Israel’s nearest neighbours, are portrayed as very much
subservient to Israel. Moab is His washpot. That is, it is in Moab that He washes His
feet. On Edom He casts His shoe. They are His slaves who are given his shoes to
clean ready for Him to wear. Alternately some see the casting of a shoe as a claim to
sovereignty. Philistia shout because of Him. The idea is that they proclaim His
lordship, and possibly even that they run before His chariot clearing the way for
Him.
Thus David is assured that the whole area is subject to God’s control, so that he
need not fear that Edom will be successful in their attempts to take over southern
Judah.
K&D 6-8, "A divine utterance, promising him victory, which he has heard, is
expanded in this second strophe. By reason of this he knows himself to be in the free and
inalienable possession of the land, and in opposition to the neighbouring nations, Moab,
Edom, and Philistia, to be the victorious lord to whom they must bow. The grand word
of promise in 2Sa_7:9. is certainly sufficient in itself to make this feeling of certainty
intelligible, and perhaps Psa_60:8-10 are only a pictorial reproduction of that utterance;
but it is also possible that at the time when Edom threatened the abandoned bordering

kingdom, David received an oracle from the high priest by means of the Urim and
Thummim, which assured him of the undiminished and continued possession of the
Holy Land and the sovereignty over the bordering nations. That which God speaks “in
His holiness” is a declaration or a promise for the sure fulfilment and inviolability of
which He pledges His holiness; it is therefore equal to an oath “by His holiness” (Psa_
89:36; Amo_4:2). The oracle does not follow in a direct form, for it is not God who
speaks (as Olshausen thinks), to whom the expression ‫ה‬ָ‫ּז‬‫ל‬ ֱ‫ֽע‬ ֶ‫א‬ is unbecoming, nor is it the
people (as De Wette and Hengstenberg), but the king, since what follows refers not only
to the districts named, but also to their inhabitants. ‫י‬ ִⅴ might have stood before ‫,אעלזה‬ but
without it the mode of expression more nearly resembles the Latin me exultaturum esse
(cf. Psa_49:12). Shechem in the centre of the region on this side the Jordan, and the
valley of Succoth in the heart of the region on the other side, from the beginning; for
there is not only a [Arab.] sâkût (the name both of the eminence and of the district) on
the west side of the Jordan south of Beisân (Scythopolis), but there must also have been
another on the other side of the Jordan (Gen_33:17., Jdg_8:4.) which has not as yet
been successfully traced. It lay in the vicinity of Jabbok (ez-Zerka), about in the same
latitude with Shechem (Sichem), south-east of Scythopolis, where Estori ha-Parchi
contends that he had found traces of it not far from the left bank of the Jordan. Jos_
13:27 gives some information concerning the ‫ק‬ ֶ‫מ‬ ֵ‫ע‬ (valley) of Succoth. The town and the
valley belonged to the tribe of Gad. Gilead, side by side with Manasseh, Psa_60:9,
comprehends the districts belonging to the tribes of Gad and Reuben. As far as Psa_
60:9, therefore, free dominion in the cis-and trans-Jordanic country is promised to
David. The proudest predicates are justly given to Ephraim and Judah, the two chief
tribes; the former, the most numerous and powerful, is David's helmet (the protection of
his head), and Judah his staff of command (‫ק‬ ֵ‫ּק‬‫ח‬ ְ‫,מ‬ the command-giving = staff of
command, as in Gen_49:10; Num_21:18); for Judah, by virtue of the ancient promise, is
the royal tribe of the people who are called to the dominion of the world. This
designation of Judah as the king's staff or sceptre and the marshal's baton shows that it
is the king who is speaking, and not the people. To him, the king, who has the promise,
are Joab, Edom, and Philistia subject, and will continue so. Joab the boastful serves him
as a wash-basin;
(Note: A royal attendant, the tasht-dâr, cup-or wash-basin-bearer, carried the
wash-basin for the Persian king both when in battle and on a journey (vid., Spiegel,
Avesta ii. LXIX). Moab, says the Psalmist, not merely waits upon him with the wash-
basin, but himself serves as such to him.)
Edom the crafty and malicious is forcibly taken possession of by him and obliged to
submit; and Philistia the warlike is obliged to cry aloud concerning him, the irresistible
ruler. ‫ץ‬ ַ‫ח‬ ַ‫ר‬ ‫יר‬ ִ‫ס‬ is a wash-pot or basin in distinction from a seething-pot, which is also
called ‫יר‬ ִ‫.ס‬ The throwing of a shoe over a territory is a sign of taking forcible possession,
just as the taking off of the shoe (‫ה‬ ָ‫יצ‬ ִ‫ל‬ ֲ‫)ח‬ is a sign of the renunciation of one's claim or
right: the shoe is in both instances the symbol of legal possession.
(Note: The sandal or the shoe, I as an object of Arab. wt'ʖ, of treading down,
oppressing, signifies metaphorically, (1) a man that is weak and incapable of
defending himself against oppression, since one says, ma kuntu na‛lan, I am no shoe,

i.e., no man that one can tread under his feet; (2) a wife (quae subjicitur), since one
says, g'alaa‛ na‛lahu, he has taken off his shoe, i.e., cast off his wife (cf. Lane under
Arab. ᐓiᏽa'â', which even signifies a shoe and a wife). II As an instrument of Arab. wᑛ‛,
tropically of the act of oppressing and of reducing to submission, the Arab. wa‛l
serves as a symbol of subjugation to the dominion of another. Rosenmüller (Das alte
und neue Morgenland, No. 483) shows that the Abyssinian kings, at least, cast a
shoe upon anything as a sign of taking forcible possession. Even supposing this
usage is based upon the above passage of the Psalms, it proves, however, that a
people thinking and speaking after the Oriental type associated this meaning with
the casting of a shoe upon anything. - Fleischer. Cf. Wetzstein's Excursus at the end
of this volume.)
The rendering of the last line, with Hitzig and Hengstenberg: “exult concerning me, O
Philistia,” i.e., hail me, though compelled to do so, as king, is forbidden by the ‫י‬ ַ‫ל‬ ָ‫,ע‬
instead of which we must have looked for ‫י‬ ִ‫.ל‬ The verb ַ‫רוּע‬ certainly has the general
signification “to break out into a loud cry,” and like the Hiph. (e.g., Isa_15:4) the
Hithpal. can also be used of a loud outcry at violence.
7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine;
Ephraim is my helmet,
Judah is my scepter.
BAR ES, "Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine - That is, My dominion or
authority is extended over these regions - Gilead, Manasseh, Ephraim, and Judah. The
idea here is substantially the same as in the former verse, that his dominion extended
over the country on both sides of the Jordan; or that in the direction of east and west it
embraced all that had been promised - “from the great sea to the river Euphrates.” In
verse 6, this idea is expressed by selecting two spots or towns as representatives of the
whole country - Shechem on the west, and Succoth on the east; in this verse, the same
idea is expressed by a reference to the two regions so situated - Gilead and Manasseh on
the east, and Ephraim and Judah on the west. Gilead was on the east of the river Jordan,
properly embracing the mountainous region south of the river Jabbok, Gen. 31:21-48;
Son_4:1. The word has sometimes, however, a wider signification, including the whole
mountainous tract between the rivers Arnon and Bashan, and thus including the region
occupied by the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh, Num_32:26, Num_32:29, Num_

32:39. Hence, in this place, it is put for the region occupied by the tribes of Reuben and
Gad. “Manasseh” refers to the district or region occupied by the half tribe of Manasseh,
on the east of the Jordan. These two portions - Gilead and Manasseh - or, Reuben, Gad,
and Manasseh - would, therefore, embrace the whole of the land of promise, north and
south, on the east of the Jordan. The limits of these regions to the east were properly the
banks of the Euphrates; that is, the original promise would embrace this. David had
gone to carry the boundaries of his country to those assigned limits 2Sa_8:3, and he now
says that he had completed that undertaking.
Ephraim also - Ephraim and Judah were the principal tribes on the west of the
Jordan, and they would well represent that part of Canaan. The idea is, that the whole of
the promised land, east and west, was now under his control. There needed only the
territory of Edom, on the south, to complete the conquest, and place the whole of the
promised land under his dominion, Psa_60:8-9.
Is the strength of my head - This means that Ephraim constituted his chief
strength, or was that on which he mainly relied. It was that which protected him, as the
helmet does the head; that on which his very life in battle depended. This honor is given
to the tribe of Ephraim because it was one of the largest tribes, and because it was
situated in the very center of the land.
Judah is my lawgiver - This means that the tribe of Judah, by its position, its
numbers, and the prominence given to it in the prophecies Gen_49:8-12, actually gave
law to the nation. Its influence was felt in all the institutions of the land. The controlling
influence went out from that tribe in the time of David; and its authority in this respect
was recognized, perhaps partly in anticipation of what it had been said would be its
importance in future times: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver
from between his feet until Shiloh come.” Gen_49:10.
CLARKE, "Gilead is mine - This country was also beyond Jordan, and Manasseh
and Ephraim are put for the tribes that formed the kingdom of Israel. All these, after the
return from the captivity, formed but one people, the Jews and Israelites being united.
The strength of mine head - It shall be the principal support of the new-found
kingdom, when all distinctions shall be buried.
Judah is my lawgiver - This tribe was chief of all those who returned from the
captivity; and Zerubbabel, who was their leader, was chief of that tribe, and of the family
of David. As this part of the Psalm appears to relate to the return of the captives from
Babylon, and their repossession of their own land, the psalmist may refer, not only to the
promises of their restoration, but also to the principal person under whose
superintendence they returned.
GILL, "Psalms 60:7
Gilead is mine,.... This is particularly mentioned, because over this Abner made
Ishbosheth king, 2Sa_2:9; and is the place to which the Jews shall be brought in the
latter day, when converted, Zec_10:10; It was a country that abounded with pastures fit
for feeding cattle, Num_32:1, and may point out those green pastures where Christ
makes his flocks to lie down and rest;

and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head: these two
were also under Saul's son when David first came to the throne, but afterwards became
his, as was promised him, and he believed, 2Sa_2:9. And the concord and harmony of
the people of God among themselves, and under David their Prince, the King Messiah,
are signified and Ephraim being one in the hand of the by the ceasing of the envy of the
one, and of the vexation of the other, Eze_37:19; Ephraim was more numerous and
populous than Manasseh, and abounded with mighty men, which are the strength of a
prince, and therefore called here the strength of his head;
Judah is my lawgiver; manifestly referring to Gen_49:10; which furnished out
persons fit to be counsellors in enacting laws, and proper to be employed in the
execution of them. The great Lawgiver is Christ himself, who came of this tribe, Isa_
33:22; All this is expressive of dominion over the whole land of Judea, Ephraim, and
Manasseh, with the places mentioned with them; the house of Joseph being, as Aben
Ezra observes, in the north part of it, and Judah in the south. Next mention is made of
the subjection of the Gentiles, and dominion over them.
HE RY, "David here rejoices; and it is in prospect of two things: -
1. The perfecting of this revolution in his own kingdom. God having spoken in his
holiness that David shall be king, he doubts not but the kingdom is all his own, as sure as
if it were already in his hand: I will divide Shechem (a pleasant city in Mount Ephraim)
and mete out the valley of Succoth, as my own. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine,
and both are entirely reduced, Psa_60:7. Ephraim would furnish him with soldiers for
his life-guards and his standing forces; Judah would furnish him with able judges for his
courts of justice; and thus Ephraim would be the strength of his head and Judah his
lawgiver. Thus may an active believer triumph in the promises, and take the comfort of
all the good contained in them; for they are all yea and amen in Christ. “God has spoken
in his holiness, and then pardon is mine, peace mine, grace mine, Christ mine, heaven
mine, God himself mine.” All is yours, for you are Christ's, 1Co_3:22, 1Co_3:23.
JAMISO , "Gilead ... and Manasseh — as large districts, east and west of Jordan,
represent the whole land.
divide ... and mete out — means to have entire control over.
Ephraim — denotes the military (Deu_33:17); and -
Judah — (the lawgiver, Gen_49:10), the civil power. Foreign nations are then
presented as subdued.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 7. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine. He claims the whole
land on account of the promise. Two other great divisions of the country he
mentions, evidently delighting to survey the goodly land which the Lord had given
him. All things are ours, whether things present or things to come; no mean portion
belongs to the believer, and let him not think meanly of it. o enemy shall withhold
from true faith what God has given her, for grace makes her mighty to wrest it from
the foe. Life is mine, death is mine, for Christ is mine.
Ephraim also is the strength of mine head. All the military power of the valiant tribe

was at the command of David, and he praises God for it. God will bow to the
accomplishment of his purposes all the valour of men; the church may cry, "the
prowess of armies is mine, " God will overrule all their achievements for the
progress of his cause.
Judeah is my lawgiver. There the civil power was concentrated: the king being of
that tribe sent forth his laws out of her midst. We know no lawgiver, but the King
who came out of Judah. To all the claims of Rome, Or Oxford, or the councils of
men, we pay no attention; we are free from all other ecclesiastical rule, but that of
Christ: but we yield joyful obedience to him: Judeah is my lawgiver. Amid
distractions it is a great thing to have good and sound legislation, it was a balm for
Israel's wounds, it is our joy in the Church of Christ.
Ver. 6-7. See Psalms on "Psalms 60:6" for further information.
Ver. 7. Gilead is mine and Manasseh is mine. That is to say, I will possess myself of
them and rule over them; not as a conqueror over slaves, but as a lord over subjects,
as a father over children, owning and acknowledging them as mine. They are my
inheritance, and shall be my people, my subjects. John Brinsley.
Ver. 7. Ephraim also is the strength of mine head. The strong and warlike tribe of
Ephraim being to the state what the helmet is to the warriors in battle; or, perhaps
the allusion is to De 33:17: "His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his
horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the nations." J. J.
Stewart Perowne.
Ver. 7. Judah is (or shall be) my lawgiver, i.e., all his subjects should be brought
under one Head, one governor, who should give them laws, according to which they
should be ordered or governed, which power and authority belonged to the tribe of
Judeah, according to that prophecy of Jacob (Genesis 49:10), to which the psalmist
here alludes. o way, no means to bring the people unto unity, to bring them into
one body, but by bringing them under on head, one law giver, by whose laws they
may be regulated and governed. ow in the church, and in matters of religion, this
one Head is Christ, even that Lion of the tribe of Judah, as he is called (Revelation
5:5). He is the Law giver of his church, and let him so be. This will be found one,
aye, and the only means to breed an holy and religious unity, and bring home
straying, wandering sheep. John Brinsley.
Ver. 7. o government could stand which was not resident in Judah. John Calvin.
CO STABLE, "Gilead was Israel"s promised territory east of the Jordan River.
The tribal territory of Manasseh straddled the Jordan. Ephraim, west of the
Jordan, was one of Israel"s strongest and most secure tribes. It lay in central
western Canaan and was similar to a helmet in that it provided defense. God had
promised Judah the right to rule the other tribes ( Genesis 49:10), which the scepter
symbolized.
ELLICOTT, "(7) Gilead and Manasseh on the east of Jordan, and Ephraim and
Judah on the west, are employed to denote the whole dominion.
Strength of mine head . . .—i.e., the helmet, or possibly with reminiscence of the

patriarchal blessing on Joseph, Deuteronomy 33:17.
Lawgiver.—In Hebrew a participle of verb meaning to cut or engrave, and is
applied as here to the lawmaker (comp. Deuteronomy 33:21), or to the staff or
sceptre which was the emblem of law, Genesis 49:10, umbers 21:18. The LXX. and
Vulg. have “my king.”
TRAPP, "Psalms 60:7 Gilead [is] mine, and Manasseh [is] mine; Ephraim also [is]
the strength of mine head; Judah [is] my lawgiver;
Ver. 7. Gilead is mine and Manasseh] These countries on the other side of Jordan
the Syrians haply had gotten, and now David had recovered them.
Ephraim also is the strength of my head] Because a populous and potent tribe.
Junius thinks David here alludeth to that of Moses in his blessing of this tribe,
Deuteronomy 33:17; as in the next words to that of Jacob, Genesis 49:10.
Judeah is my lawgiver] There, viz. at Jerusalem, sitteth the Synedrion, umbers
11:16, and there is my sovereign court of justice, Psalms 122:5, and of that tribe,
Christ, the great lawgiver of his Church, shall spring.
WHEDO , "7. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine—As Shechem and Succoth,
Psalms 60:6, geographically represented the total territory of Israel, so Gilead and
Manasseh (east) are only a more literal and minute repetition of the same idea,
politically considered, of the territory east of Jordan, while Ephraim and Judah
represented the west.
Ephraim… is the strength of mine head—My helmet, the defensive armour for the
head, denoting how vital a part of the nation’s defence Ephraim was. Moses
compared Ephraim and Manasseh to the strength of the neck and horns of the
buffalo. Deuteronomy 33:17.
Judah is my lawgiver—A direct allusion to the blessing of Jacob, Genesis 49:10.
Thus far David describes the continued unity and integrity of his kingdom, which
his recent disasters had threatened, but which faith in the oracle of God had now
reassured Ephraim and Manasseh were the jealous and disappointed tribes. See
note on Psalms 78. Saul’s son had already sought to dismember the kingdom by
their means. 2 Samuel 2:8-11; 2 Samuel 3:2. The moment David’s career of victory
was checked he feared the loss of his foreign conquests, followed by the revival of
the old internal feuds. Faith has already triumphed over the latter, and he now
proceeds to express his exultation over the bordering nations.
COKE, "Verse 7-8
Psalms 60:7-8. Gilead is mine, &c.— He exultingly surveys his strength. Gilead and
Manasseh comprehended the whole country beyond Jordan, as did Ephraim and

Judah on this side; of which Ephraim, containing the main body of tribes, is here
said to be the strength of his head; i.e. the guard of his person: [Achish told David
that he would make him the keeper of his head.] The main bulk of the strength lay
in Ephraim. Judah was his minister, or secretary of state, as that was the reigning
tribe. Moab is my wash-pot, signifies, "the Moabites shall be subject to me." The
wash-pot here is a mean piece of household-stuff for the use of the feet, (as the
Syriac interprets it) the lowest part of the body, and so it is a fit title for the
Moabites; as we may gather from 2 Samuel 8:2 where it is said, 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 the Moabites
became David's servants, and brought him gifts. The next phrase, Over Edom will I
cast out my shoe, signifies, "I will trample upon the Edomites, and make them my
slaves." (Compare 2 Samuel 8:14.) Or, I will reach out my shoe to them, as a master
does to his meanest servants, to be untied and taken off by him, Matthew 3:11.
Philstia, triumph thou because of me, may signify, "Let the Philistines also add to
my triumph, by meeting me as their conquering lord." Houbigant renders it,
Against the Philistines I will be united. See Psalms 108:9. Mudge is of opinion, that,
as Ephraim and Judah are mentioned as affording a supply of certain things to
David; so we are to understand the same of Moab, Edom, and Philistia; the two
former fulfilling the meaner offices, while Philistia is spoken of as his supporter:
Philistia, be thou my sidesman or supporter. But the common interpretation
appears to be the best; and the verses, disrobed of metaphor, may be thus
understood: "Gilead and Manasseh have submitted to me; Ephraim furnishes me
with valiant men; and Judah with men of prudence and wisdom. I will reduce the
Moabites to servitude: I will triumph over the Edomites, and make them my slaves;
and the Philistines shall add to my triumph." See the Essay for a new Translation.
8 Moab is my washbasin,
on Edom I toss my sandal;
over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
BAR ES, "Moab is my washpot - Moab was a region of country on the east of the
Dead Sea, extending as far north as the river Arnon. See the notes at Isa_15:1-9. The

words rendered wash-pot mean properly a pot or basin for washing, a wash-basin; and
the expression is used here as one of contempt, as if he would use it as the meanest
vessel is used. It implies that Moab was already subdued, and that the author of the
psalm could make any use of it he pleased. It also implies that Moab was not regarded as
adding much to his strength, or to the value of his dominions; but that, compared with
other portions of his kingdom, it was of as little value as a wash-basin compared with the
more valuable vessels in a house.
Over Edom will I cast out my shoe - Edom or Idumea was the country which still
remained unsubdued. This David was anxious to possess, though the conquest had been
delayed and prevented by the adverse circumstances to which allusion has already been
made in the notes at the psalm. On the situation of Idumea, see the notes at Isa. 34. It
was a region whose possession was necessary to complete the acquisition of territory
that properly pertained to the promised land; and David was now intent on acquiring it.
He here expresses the utmost confidence that he would succeed in this, notwithstanding
the adverse events which had occurred. It is supposed that there is allusion in the
expression “I will cast out my shoe,” to the custom, when transferring a possession, of
throwing down a shoe on the ground as a symbol of occupancy. Compare Rth_4:7. In the
middle ages this was expressed by throwing down a glove; in the time of Columbus, by
solemnly taking possession and setting up a cross; in other times, by erecting a standard,
or by building a fort. Compare Rosenmuller, Das alte und neue Morgenland, No. 483.
The idea is, that he would take possession of it, or would make it his own.
Philistia, triumph thou because of me - On the situation of Philistia, see the
notes at Isa_11:14. In the margin this is, “triumph thou over me, by an irony.” It may be
regarded as irony, or as a taunt, meaning that Philistia was no longer now in a situation
to triumph over him; or it may be understood as referring to the exultation and shouting
which would ensue on the reception of its sovereign. The former seems to be the most
probable interpretation, as the language is undoubtedly intended to denote absolute
subjection, and not the voluntary reception of a king. The language in the entire passage
is that of triumph over foes.
CLARKE, "
Moab is my washpot - The Moabites shall be reduced to the meanest slavery.
Over Edom will I cast out my shoe - I will make a complete conquest of Idumea,
and subject the Edomites to the meanest offices, as well as the Moabites.
Philistia, triumph thou because of me - John Hyrcanus subdued the Idumeans,
and caused them to receive circumcision, and profess the Jewish religion. The words
here seem to predict their entire subjugation.
In an essay for a new translation of the Bible, there is what appears to me a correct
paraphrase of the seventh and eighth verses: “Gilead and Manasseh have submitted unto
me; Ephraim furnishes me with valiant men, and Judah with men of prudence and
wisdom. I will reduce the Moabites to servitude; I will triumph over the Edomites, and
make them my slaves; and the Philistines shall add to my triumph.”
GILL, "Moab is my washpot,.... To wash hands and feet in: and so the Syriac
version, "and Moab the washing of my feet"; a vessel for low and mean service, and so
denotes the servile subjection of the Moabites to David; see 2Sa_8:2; and as the words

may be rendered, "the pot of my washing" (r). Great numbers of the Moabites might be
at this time servants to the Israelites, and to David and his court particularly; and might
be employed, as the Gibeonites were, to be drawers of water, to fill their pots, in which
they washed their hands and feet, and their bathing vessels, in which they bathed
themselves: Aben Ezra explains it,
"I wilt wash their land as a pot;''
and so may not only signify the very great subjection of the Gentiles, even the chief
among them, to Christ and his church, Isa_49:23; but as Moab was begotten and born in
uncleanness, and his posterity an unclean generation, it may design the washing,
cleansing, sanctifying, and justifying of the Gentiles in the name of Christ, and by his
Spirit, 1Co_6:11;
over Edom will I cast out my shoe; as a token of possessing their land, Rth_4:7; so
some; or of subduing them; putting the feet on which the shoe is upon the necks of
them, Jos_10:24. So Kimchi interprets it,
"the treading of my foot;''
to which the Targum agrees, paraphrasing it thus;
"upon the joint of the neck of the mighty men of Edom I have cast my shoe.''
It may allude to a custom (s) in confirming a bargain, or taking possession, to pluck off
the shoe in token of it, ‫נעלי‬ may be rendered "my glove"; as it is by the Targum on Rth_
4:7; for, as the shoe encloses and binds the foot, so the glove the hand: and the allusion
may be thought to be to a custom used by kings, when they sat down before any strong
city to besiege it, to throw in a glove into the city; signifying they would never depart
from the city until they had took it. Hence the custom, which still continues, of sending a
glove to a person challenged to fight. And indeed the custom of casting a shoe was used
by the emperor of the Abyssines, as a sign of dominion (t). Take the phrase in every
light, it signifies victory and power; that he should be in Edom as at home, and there
pluck off his shoe, and cast it upon him; either to carry it after him, as some think, which
was the work of a servant, to which the Baptist alludes, Mat_3:11; or rather to clean it for
him; for as Moab was his washpot, to wash his hands and feet, in Edom was his shoe
cleaner, to wipe off and remove the dirt and dust that was upon them (u); all which
denotes great subjection: and this was fulfilled in David, 2Sa_8:14; and may refer to the
spread of the Gospel in the Gentile world, and the power accompanying that to the
subduing of many sinners in it, carried thither by those whose feet were shod with the
preparation of the Gospel of peace;
Philistia, triumph thou because of me: some take this to be an ironic expression,
like that in Ecc_11:9; so R. Moses in Aben Ezra, and also Kimchi. Triumph now as thou
usedst to do, or if thou canst: but rather they are seriously spoken, seeing they had
reason to rejoice and be glad, because they had changed hands and masters for the
better, being subject to David, 2Sa_8:1, with this compare Psa_108:9, and may very well
be applied to the Gentiles, subdued and conquered by Christ, who triumph in him; and
because delivered out of the hands of sin, Satan, and the world, through his victorious
arms.

HE RY 8-10, " The conquering of the neighbouring nations, which had been
vexatious to Israel, were still dangerous, and opposed the throne of David, Psa_60:8.
Moab shall be enslaved, and put to the meanest drudgery. The Moabites became David's
servants, 2Sa_8:2. Edom shall be made a dunghill to throw old shoes upon; at least
David shall take possession of it as his own, which was signified by drawing off his shoe
over it, Rth_4:7. As for the Philistines, let them, if they dare, triumph over him as they
had done; he will soon force them to change their note. Rather let those that know their
own interest triumph because of him; for it would be the greatest kindness imaginable to
them to be brought into subjection to David and communion with Israel. But the war is
not yet brought to an end; there is a strong city, Rabbah (perhaps) of the children of
Ammon, which yet holds out; Edom is not yet subdued. Now, (1.) David is here
enquiring for help to carry on the ark: “Who will bring me into the strong city? What
allies, what auxiliaries, can I depend upon, to make me master of the enemies' country
and their strongholds?” Those that have begun a good work cannot but desire to make a
thorough work of it, and to bring it to perfection. (2.) He is expecting it from God only:
“Wilt not thou, O God? For thou hast spoken in thy holiness; and wilt not thou be as
good as thy word?” He takes notice of the frowns of Providence they had been under:
Thou hadst, in appearance, cast us off; thou didst not go forth with our armies. When
they were defeated and met with disappointments, they owned it was because they
wanted (that is, because they had forfeited) the gracious presence of God with them; yet
they do not therefore fly off from him, but rather take so much the faster hold of him;
and the less he has done for them of late the more they hoped he would do. At the same
time that they own God's justice in what was past they hope in his mercy for what was to
come: “Though thou hadst cast us off, yet thou wilt not contend for ever, thou wilt not
always chide; though thou hadst cast us off, yet thou hast begun to show mercy; and wilt
thou not perfect what thou hast begun?” The Son of David, in his sufferings, seemed to
be cast off by his Father when he cried out, Why hast thou forsaken me? and yet even
then he obtained a glorious victory over the powers of darkness and their strong city, a
victory which will undoubtedly be completed at last; for he has gone forth conquering
and to conquer. The Israel of God, his spiritual Israel, are likewise, through him, more
than conquerors. Though sometimes they may be tempted to think that God has cast
them off, and may be foiled in particular conflicts, yet God will bring them into the
strong city at last. Vincimur in praelio, sed non in bello - We are foiled in a battle, but
not in the whole war. A lively faith in the promise will assure us, not only that the God of
peace shall tread Satan under our feet shortly, but that it is our Father's good pleasure
to give us the kingdom.
JAMISO , "Moab — is a my washpot - the most ordinary vessel.
over — or, “at”
Edom — (as a slave) he casts his shoe.
Philistia, triumph, etc. — or, rather, “shout.”
for me — acknowledges subjection (compare Psa_108:9, “over Philistia will I
triumph”).

CALVI , "8Moab is my wash-pot In proceeding to speak of foreigners, he observes
a wide distinction between them and his own countrymen. The posterity of
Abraham he would govern as brethren, and not as slaves; but it was allowable for
him to exercise greater severities upon the profane and the uncircumcised, in order
to their being brought under forcible subjection. In this he affords no precedent to
conquerors who would inflict lawless oppression upon nations taken in war; for
they want the divine warrant and commission which David had, invested as he was
not only with the authority of a king, but with the character of an avenger of the
Church, especially of its more implacable enemies, such as had thrown off every
feeling of humanity, and persisted in harassing a people descended from the same
stock with themselves. He remarks, in contempt of the Moabites, that they would be
a vessel in which he should wash his feet, the washing of the feet being, as is well
known, a customary practice in Eastern nations. (394) With the same view he speaks
of casting his shoe over Edom. This is expressive of reproach, and intimates, that as
it had once insulted over the chosen people of God, so now it should be reduced to
servitude. (395) What follows concerning Palestina is ambiguous. By some the words
are taken ironically, as if David would deride the vain boastings of the Philistines,
who were constantly assaulting him with all the petulance which they could
command. (396) And the Hebrew verb ‫,רוע‬ ruang, though it means in general to
shout with triumph, signifies also to make a tumult, as soldiers when they rush to
battle. Others, without supposing any ironical allusion, take the words as they stand,
and interpret them as meaning servile plaudits; that much and obstinately as they
hated his dominion, they would be forced to hail and applaud him as conqueror.
Thus in Psalms 18:44, it is said, “The sons of the strangers shall feign submission to
me.” (397)
SPURGEO , "Ver. 8. Having looked at home with satisfaction, the hero king now
looks abroad with exultation.
Moab, so injurious to me in former years, is my washpot. The basin into which the
water falls when it is poured from an ewer upon my feet. A mere pot to hold the
dirty water after my feet have been washed in it. Once she defiled Israel, according
to the counsel of Balaam, the son of Beor; but she shall no longer be able to
perpetrate such baseness; she shall be a washpot for those whom she sought to
pollute. The wicked as we see in them the evil, the fruit, and the punishment of sin,
shall help on the purification of the saints. This is contrary to their will, and to the
nature of things, but faith finds honey in the lion, and a washpot in filthy Moab.
David treats his foes as but insignificant and inconsiderable; a whole nation he
counts but as a footbath for his kingdom.
Over Edom will I cast out my shoe. As a man when bathing throws his shoes on one
side, so would he obtain his dominion over haughty Esau's descendants as easily as a
man casts a shoe. Perhaps he would throw his shoe as nowadays men throw their
glove, as a challenge to them to dare dispute his sway. He did not need draw a sword
to smite his now crippled and utterly despondent adversary, for if he dared revolt he
would only need to throw his slipper at him, and he would tremble. Easily are we
victors when Omnipotence leads the way. The day shall come when the church shall
with equal ease subdue China and Ethiopia to the sceptre of the Son of David. Every

believer also may by faith triumph over all difficulties, and reign with him who hath
made us kings and priests. "They overcame through the blood of the Lamb, "shall
yet be said of all who rest in the power of Jesus.
Philistia, triumph thou because of me. Be so subdued as to rejoice in my victories
over my other foes. Or does he mean, I who smote thy champion have at length so
subdued thee that thou shalt never be able to rejoice over Israel again; but if thou
must needs triumph it must be with me, and not against me; or rather is it a
taunting defiance, a piece of irony? O proud Philistia, where are thy vaunts? Where
now thy haughty looks, and promised conquests? Thus dare we defy the last enemy,
"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" So utterly hopeless is
the cause of hell when the Lord comes forth to the battle, that even the weakest
daughter of Zion may shake her head at the enemy, and laugh him to scorn. O the
glorifying of faith! There is not a grain of vain glory in it, but yet her holy boastings
none can hinder. When the Lord speaks the promise, we will not be slow to rejoice
and glory in it.
Ver. 8. Moab is my washpot. Implying that Moab should be reduced to slavery, it
being the business of a slave to present the hand washing basin to his master. With
the Greeks, plunein tina, to wash down any one, was a slang term, signifying to
ridicule, abuse, or beat; hence we have the word washpot applied to the subject of
such treatment. "You do not appear to be in your right senses, who make a washpot
of me in the presence of many men." Aristophanes. Thomas S. Millington, in "The
Testimony of the Heathen to the Truths of Holy Writ, "1863.
Ver. 8. (second clause). When, keeping in view the idea of washing the feet, a person
throws his shoes, which he has taken off, to any one to be taken away or to be
cleaned--kylvh with le and also with la, 1 Kings 19:19, is "to throw to any one" --
the individual to whom it belongs to perform such an office must be a slave of the
lowest kind. E. W. Hengstenberg.
Ver. 8. Over Edom will I cast out my shoe, which notes either contempt of them, as
if he had said, O look upon them as worthy only to scrape and make clean my shoes.
Or secondly, conquest over them --I will walk through Edom and subdue it. Joseph
Caryl.
Ver. 8. Over Edom will I cast out my shoe. By extension, immission, or projection of
the shoe, either upon the necks of people, or over their countries, is meant nothing
else but to overcome, subdue, bring under power, possess, and subject to vileness
such men and such countries. The very vulgar acceptation of the word possession, in
the grammatical sense, imports as much; for the etymology of possessio is no more
but pedum positio. This manner of speaking hath also allusion to the positive law
recorded in De 25:6-10; for the letter of the law is, that is the kinsman would not
marry the brother's widow and raise up seed unto his brother; the widow loosing
his shoe, and spitting in his face, he lost the claim and interest of such possessions as
belonged to the woman in right of her husband. And the house of such a man was
called domus discalceati, that is to say, "The house of him that hath his shoe
loosed." The practice also of this law we find recorded in the book of Ruth, in the
case of Elimelech's land, between Boaz and the kinsman, about the widow Ruth,
who had her interest by right of her husband in the said land. Moreover, the
frequent use of this phrase meeting us very often in the book of God, makes this to

be the meaning of the words, as clear as the day. This king elsewhere singing his
trophies, saith, "They are fallen under my feet." "Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he
shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon." But the
people must "not meddle with Mount Seir; for God would not give them thereof so
much as a foot's breadth; "yet ever the place whereon the soles of their feet should
tread, from the wilderness of Lebanon and from the river Euphrates unto the
utmost sea, should be theirs. Psalms 18:38 De 1:36 2:5. William Loe, in "A Sermon
before the King at Theobalds, "entitled, "The King's Shoe, made and ordained to
trample on, and to tread down enemies, "1623.
Ver. 8. Over Edom will I cast out my shoe. Turnus, having slain Palias, --
"Bestrode the corpse, and pressed it with his foot." Virgil.
Ver. 8. Of the Philistines he says, Over Philistia it is mine to boast; for so I would
translate, and not, as is usual, Philistia, triumph thou over me, which does not yield
a consistent meaning. Hermann Venema.
Ver. 8. (last clause). Let not our adversaries triumph over our breaches. "Rejoice
not against me, O mine enemy." Or, if they will, let them triumph: Triumph thou, O
Philistia, because of me, or over me. John Brinsley.
Ver. 8-10. Moab in the East, Edom in the South, and Philistia in the West (the orth
is not mentioned, because the banner of David had already been victorious there.)
Augustus F. Tholuck.
CO STABLE, "Moab would serve God as a washbasin; namely, it would be
reduced to the status of a servant. God"s people would experience purification there
as they fought this neighbor. God would throw His shoe toward Edom as a man
threw his shoe toward his servant when he came home. Evidently this was
commonly done in the ancient ear East. The Edomites, like the Moabites, were
God"s servants, not His sons in the same sense that the Israelites were. The IV"s
translation, "Over Philistia I shout in triumph," pictures God announcing David"s
victory over the Arameans to this enemy.
ELLICOTT, "(8) Moab is my washpot—i.e., probably the footbath, a figure
expressing great contempt, which receives illustration from the story told of Amasis
(Herod. ii. 172) and the golden footpan, which he had broken to pieces and made
into an image of one of the gods—from base use made divine—as allegorical of his
own transformation from a private person to a king. Others explain, from analogy
of Arabic proverbs, that the conqueror would as it were wash his face white, i.e.,
acquire renown in Moab.
Possibly the comparison of Moab to a bath was suggested by its proximity to the
Dead Sea, which might be said to be at the foot of Israel.
Over Edom . . .—The most natural explanation of this figure is that Edom is
disgraced to the character of the slave to whom the conqueror tosses his sandals
(na’al is collective), that they may be cleaned. (Comp. Matthew 3:11). The symbolic
action of Ruth 4:7 had a different meaning, the transfer of a right of ownership, and
so cannot be employed in illustration.

Of the “shoe,” as a figure of what is vilest and most common, Dr. J. G. Wetzstein
quotes many Arabic proverbs. A covering for the feet would naturally draw to it
such associations. (Comp. the use of footstool repeatedly in the Psalms, and
Shakespeare’s use of foot,
“What my foot my tutor!”—Tempest.)
But the custom which Israel brought from Egypt (Exodus 3:3), of dropping the
sandals outside the door of a temple, and even of an ordinary house, must have
served still more to fasten on that article of dress, ideas of vileness and profanation.
Philistia, triumph thou because of me . . .—This cannot be the meaning intended by
the clause, since it is quite out of keeping with the context, and in Psalms 108 we
have the very opposite, “over Philistia will I triumph.” We must therefore change
this reading so as to get, over Philistia is my triumph, or render the text as it stands,
from analogy with Isaiah 15:4 : Upon (i.e., because of) me, Philistia, raise a
mournful wail.
The LXX. and Vulg. indicate this meaning while translating the proper name, “the
foreigners have been subdued to me.”
TRAPP, "Psalms 60:8 Moab [is] my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe:
Philistia, triumph thou because of me.
Ver. 8. Moab is my wash pot] A pot wherein to wash my feet, a vessel of dishonour,
such as at my pleasure I will break in pieces, Psalms 2:9; and such as I reserve of
them alive, shall be my scullions and underlings, glad to do my drudgery. on vas
coquendi carnes, sed lavandi pedes (Kimchi).
Over Edom I will cast out my shoe] i.e. Walk through their country as a conqueror;
or, I will tread them under my feet; or, I will throw my shoe at the heads of them,
and make them to take it up; or, I will make no more of subduing them, than of
casting my shoe over them. Exutos mihi calceos et in ipsorum caput proiectos
attollere iubebo (Beza).
Philistia, triumph thou because of me] i.e. Cry me up for thy king; Si velis, et videas
quid in extremum eveniet, saith Kimchi. Or, triumph thou over me (by an irony) as
thou lately didst over Saul and his sons in Mount Gilboa; and as since that time thou
camest forth to seek me, but wentest home again by weeping cross.
WHEDO , "8. Washpot—A vessel for common washing, as distinct from a seething
pot, or a sacred vessel. Some suppose it the same as Herodotus mentions as (book ii,
c. 172) used for “spitting and washing feet.” The term is expressive of great
contempt and degradation.

Cast out my shoe—Rather, cast upon, or cast at, my shoe. The throwing the shoe at
one, or striking him with it, was a sign of servile submission and contempt. The
language is highly oriental, and must be explained in conformity with the usages
and proverbialisms of the country. Wetzstein, however, thinks the most natural
interpretation to be, “Moab is the vessel in which I wash my face and hands clean;
that is, the country and people in which I acquire to myself (by its conquest)
splendour and renown, and Edom I degrade to the place whither I throw my cast-
off shoes; that is, I cause Edom to endure the most humiliating treatment, that of a
helot” or slave. But the history of 2 Samuel 8:2, suggests a degradation of Moab not
less than that of Edom. The figure is not to be compared with Ruth 4:7, which was a
civil transaction denoting legal transfer.
Philistia, triumph… because of me— ot an irony. The word for “triumph” means
simply to cry aloud, but whether for victory or from alarm and distress the
connexion must determine. In Hiphil it is used in both senses. For distress, the wail
of the captive, see Judges 7:21; Isaiah 15:4; Micah 4:9. “The Hithpael may also be
used of a loud outcry of violence.”—Delitzsch. Translate: Philistia, wail [as a
captive] because of me. The preposition admits this sense, and the connexion and
history require it. See note on Psalms 108:9
9 Who will bring me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
BAR ES, "Who will bring me into the strong city? - The strong city - the
fenced, the fortified city - referred to here is doubtless the capital of Idumea. This was
the celebrated city Petra, situated in the rocks, and so difficult to be taken by an enemy.
For a description of it, see the notes at Isa_16:1. It was this city, as the capital of the land
of Edom, which David was now so anxious to secure; and he asks, therefore, with
interest, who among his captains, his mighty men, would undertake the task of
conducting his armies there.
Who will lead me into Edom? - Into the capital, and thence into the whole land to
subdue it. This was done under the combined command of Joab and Abishai his brother.
See the notes at the title to the psalm.

CLARKE, "
Who will bring me into the strong city? - If this part of the Psalm, from the sixth
to the twelfth verse, refer to the return of the captives from Babylon, as I think probable;
then the strong city may mean either Petra, the capital of Idumea; Bozra, in Arabia, near
the mountains of Gilead; Rabba, the capital of the Ammonites; or Tyre, according to the
Chaldee, the capital of Phoenicia; or Jerusalem itself, which, although dismantled, had
long been one of the strongest cities of the east. Or it may imply, Who shall give me the
dominion over the countries already mentioned? who will lead me into Edom? who will
give me the dominion over that people?
GILL, "Who will bring me into the strong city?.... Which some understand of
Rabbah of the Ammonites, which Joab besieged, and sent to David to come and take it in
person, 2Sa_12:26. The Targum interprets it of Tyre, which was a strong fortified city,
Eze_26:4. It rather seems to be the same with Edom, or the metropolis of the Edomites;
since it follows:
who will lead me into Edom? which was situated in the clefts of the rock, and on the
height of the hill, Jer_49:16; but is mystically to be understood of the city of Rome, the
great and mighty city, as it is often called in the book of the Revelation, Rev_11:8; whose
destruction is certain, being predicted; and after which there have been desires raised in
the hearts of God's people in all ages; and particularly just before the time God will put it
into the hearts of the kings of the earth to burn it with fire; who are here represented by
David, as desirous of entering into it in triumph to destroy it, Rev_17:16.
JAMISO , "He feels assured that, though once angry, God is now ready to favor His
people.
who will lead me — or, who has led me, as if the work were now begun.
CALVI , "9Who will bring me into the fortified city? Anticipating an objection
which might be alleged, he proceeds to state that he looked to God for the
accomplishment of what remained to be done in the capture of the fortified places of
his enemies, and the consolidation of his victories. It might be said, that as a
considerable number continued to resist his claims, the confident terms which he
had used were premature. God, however, had pledged his word that every nation
which set itself in opposition to him would be brought under his power, and in the
face of remaining difficulties and dangers he advances with certainty of success. By
the fortified city, (399) some understand Rabbah, the capital of the Moabites.
Others, with more probability, consider that the singular is used for the plural
number, and that David alludes in general to the different cities under protection of
which his enemies were determined to stand out. He declares, that the same God
who had crowned his arms with victory in the open field would lead him on to the
siege of these cities. With a view to prove his legitimate call to the government, he

amplifies a second time the marks of the divine favor which it had received, by
contrasting it with that which preceded. “The God,” he says, “who had formerly
cast us off, and abandoned us to unsuccessful warfare, will now lay open before me
the gates of hostile cities, and enable me to break through all their fortifications.”
SPURGEO , "Ver. 9. As yet the interior fortresses of Edom had not been subdued.
Their invading bands had been slain in the valley of salt, and David intended to
push his conquests even to Petra the city of the rock, deemed to be impregnable.
Who will bring me into the strong city? It was all but inaccessible, and hence the
question of David. When we have achieved great success it must be a stimulus to
greater efforts, but it must not become a reason for self confidence. We must look to
the strong for strength as much at the close of a campaign as at its beginning.
Who will lead me into Edom? High up among the stars stood the city of stone, but
God could lead his servant up to it. o heights of grace are too elevated for us, the
Lord being our leader, but we must beware of high things attempted in self reliance.
EXCELSIOR is well enough as a cry, but we must look to the highest of all for
guidance. Joab could not bring David into Edom. The veterans of the valley of salt
could not force the passage, yet was it to be attempted, and David looked to the Lord
for help. Heathen nations are yet to be subdued. The city of the seven hills must yet
hear the gospel. Who will give the church the power to accomplish this? The answer
is not far to seek.
Ver. 9. Who will lead me into Edom? The entrance to Petra is by a narrow gorge,
lined by lofty precipices, formed by the channel of a rivulet. This defile is nearly two
miles in length. At some places the overhanging rocks approach so near to each
other that only two horsemen can proceed abreast. Dr. Tweedie, in "Ruined Cities
of the East, "1859.
Ver. 9. The believer, when he promises to himself great things, must neither be
senseless of the difficulties of opposition which he is to meet with, nor of his own
inability to overcome difficulties; but being sensible of both, must look to God for
assistance and furniture to overcome; for when David considered the strength of the
fenced royal cities of the enemy, he saith, Who will bring me into the strong city?
who will lead me into Edom? Wilt not thou, O God? David Dickson.
CO STABLE, "Verse 9-10
David was confident in view of God"s promises to subdue Israel"s enemies and give
her the Promised Land. He would lead the Israelites to ultimate victory, even though
He had allowed them to suffer immediate defeat.
ELLICOTT, "(9) Who will . . .—i.e., how can this ancient Divine oracle be fulfilled
now in present circumstances? This is the poet’s question. He may be a king himself
eager for triumph, or more probably Israel personified. (See the plural in Psalms
60:10-12.) Edom is the particular foe in view, and as the difficulties of the
undertaking present themselves, misgivings arise and the assurance gained from the

triumphs of olden time turns into prayer, half plaintive, half confident, that the
Divine favour and power may be once more on the side of the chosen people.
The strong city.—As in the Hebrew the article is wanting, any strongly fortified city
might be intended, were it not for the parallelism. Here it must stand for Selah or
Petra, the capital of Edom. For its impregnable position (see ote Obadiah 1:3). The
question, “Who will lead me into Petra?” is explained by the fact that there are only
two possible approaches to the city, each a long narrow tortuous defile, and that the
place itself is so buried in its ravines that it cannot be seen from any spot in its
neighbourhood far or near.
TRAPP, "Psalms 60:9 Who will bring me [into] the strong city? who will lead me
into Edom?
Ver. 9. Who will bring me into the strong city?] Into Rabbah of the Ammonites,
which at length he got, 2 Samuel 12:29-31, and now wisheth for. Kimchi readeth it
in the perfect tense, Who has led me into the strong cities? who has brought me into
Edom? Hast not thou, O God? &c.
WHEDO , "9. Strong city—That is, Selah, the rock, afterwards called Petra, the
capital of Edom. It was situated in the eastern mountains of the Arabah, about fifty
miles south, bearing east, from the Dead Sea, and about seventy miles from the head
of the Gulf of Akaba. It was captured by David and by Amaziah. In 2 Kings 14:7,
and Isaiah 16:1, it is translated “Selah” in our English Bible, and in 2 Chronicles
25:12, “the Rock.” Three hundred years before Christ it became the great transit
point of commerce between the East and the West across the Arabian Desert, and
was renowned for its wealth and strength.
Who will bring me into the strong city—Selah was situated in a hollow of the
mountains, two thousand feet above the Arabah valley, surrounded east and west by
high cliffs, with no military roads on the west, and approached on the east by
caravans only through a narrow, though famous, ravine, the Sik. It was deemed
impregnable.
Who will lead me—Who has led me unto Edom? The change of tense, in the
Hebrew, would more naturally explain itself by remembering God had directed the
army of Israel to the border of Edom by an oracle from the priest; and the
interrogatory form, on which the prayer and faith of David are founded, is suitable
to an unfinished act. They now stood in the border of Edom, checked and baffled,
but hopeful. The strong city, the key to the whole kingdom, lies beyond them, and
the argument of the prayer is, that as God had already led them into Edom, so he
would bring them into the capital or strong city. See more in introductory note to
Psalms 108.
EBC, "The third part (Psalms 60:9-12) is taken by some commentators to breathe
the same spirit as the first part. Cheyne, for instance, speaks of it as a "relapse into
despondency," whilst others more truly hear in it the tones of rekindled trust. In

Psalms 60:9 there is a remarkable change of tense from "Who, will bring?" in the
first clause, to "Who has guided?" in the second. This is best explained by the
supposition that some victory over Edom, had preceded the psalm, which is
regarded by the singer as a guarantee of success in his assault of "the fenced city,"
probably Petra. There is no need to supplement Psalms 60:10, so as to read, "Wilt
not Thou, O God, which," etc. The psalmist recurs to his earlier lament, not as if he
thought that it still held true, but just because it does not. It explained the reason of
past disasters; and, being now reversed by the Divine Oracle, becomes the basis of
the prayer which follows. It is as if he had said, "We were defeated because Thou
didst cast us off. ow help as Thou hast promised and we shall do deeds of valour."
It is impossible to suppose that the result of the Divine answer, which makes the
very heart of the psalm, should be a hopeless repetition of the initial despondency.
Rather glad faith acknowledges past weakness and traces past failures to self-caused
abandonment by a loving God, who let His people be worsted that they might learn
who was their strength, and ever goes forth with those who go. forth to war with the
consciousness that all help but His is vain, and with the hope that in Him even their
weakness shall do deeds of prowess. "Hast not Thou cast us off?" may be the
utterance of despair; but it may also be that of assured confidence and the basis of a
prayer that will be answered by God’s present help.
COKE, "Verse 9
Psalms 60:9. Who will bring me, &c.— Dr. Delaney observes, that David, having
promised himself, in a prophetic rapture, the dominion over Moab and Edom,
considered himself as that rod which should rise out of Israel, and smite the corners
of Moab, and make Edom a possession, umbers 24:17. And what king but David
subdued the haughty Philistines, conquered Moab first, and Edom after? And when
could this prophesy be written, but in the beginning of his reign; when the
Philistines were triumphant, and before he had made any of these conquests? It
appears from this verse, that David expected to be brought by God into a strong
city, before he was brought into Edom by him. Jerusalem is the only city so
characterised, which David took before his war with Edom. He concludes with
imploring the divine aid; with a resolution, that, on this presumption, he and his
people would act valiantly; and accordingly they marched directly against
Jerusalem, and took it by storm. Some, from the title of this psalm, imagine the
strong city here mentioned to be Rabbah of the Ammonites. See 2 Samuel 12:26.
REFLECTIO S.—1st, We have here,
1. The deplorable state of the affairs of the Jewish nation during the ill
administration of Saul, and the struggles of Ishbosheth. Probably, this description
looked forward also, as prophetical of that state, when, for their rejection of God's
anointed, his wrath should be kindled, more terribly convulsions destroy their
whole polity and government, and, scattered into all lands, they should bear the
marks of God's heavy hand; an astonishment to others, a terror to themselves.
2. In the midst of their distresses, a banner is displayed for the faithful Israelites, in
David promised to be their king and captain, and now exalted to the throne; under

whom enlisted, union within prepared them for victory without: animated by his
presence, and bold under such a leader, they lifted up their hostile banners, defied
and vanquished their foes. Christ, the captain of our salvation, may also be here
designed; his banner of love spread abroad, invites poor sinners to his standard;
under him enlisted, spiritual strength and courage animate their souls, and they go
forth conquering and to conquer: and to him shall the dispersed of Israel be
gathered at last, and, turning to the Lord, see a period of their miseries. ote; (1.)
The deeper our distresses, the more are the power and grace of our God magnified
in our deliverance. (2.) We should ever remember the state in which Jesus found us,
and the misery from which he drew us, as an engagement to be faithful, and fight
manfully under his banners.
3. He prays earnestly for God's help and healing. O turn thyself to us again, cease
from thy displeasure, and visit us with thy salvation; heal the breaches, for thou
alone canst heal them; and as the danger is imminent, it shaketh, let thy mercy to
the land be speedy, that thy beloved may be delivered from the hands of all their
enemies; for, having no power of themselves, they look to thee; save with thy right
hand and hear me,—their advocate. ote; (1.) Sin has made a deadly breach in our
souls, which nothing but the grace of God can repair. (2.) They who turn to God in
prayer, may expect his return to them in mercy. (3.) They who fear God are beloved
by him, and his right hand will save them.
2nd, David appears triumphing in the divine promises; God hath sworn; he believes,
and in consequence rejoices.
1. All foes within and without shall yield to him. Israel, in their several tribes who
had joined Ishbosheth, shall return to him. Conquest without would follow union
within. ote; (1.) When a believer can say, Christ is mine, then all other blessings
necessarily follow. (2.) When God pleases, he can make our bitterest foes our
warmest friends. (3.) ational union is a great blessing from God.
2. He answers a difficulty which might be suggested from the strength of the
enemy's fortresses. Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into
Edom? God is the strength of his confidence. Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast
us off? yes, assuredly: now thou art returned in mercy, we shall be victorious; and
thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies before, shalt make us now
more than conquerors. Therefore give us help from trouble, in answer to our fervent
prayers; for vain is the help of man, we acknowledge it; and, renouncing every
human confidence, desire alone to repose ourselves on thee. And thus we are
confident, that through God we shall do valiantly, and put all our enemies under
our feet, for he it is who shall tread down our enemies, on whom we depend, and to
whom we will ascribe the praise of all our success. ote; (1.) Difficulties will often
stand in the believer's way, but faith will overcome them all. (2.) When to sense we
seem as cast off, we must not quit our hold of the promise, but trust, and wait to see
the salvation of God. (3.) When our dangers are greatest, our prayers and cries
should be most earnest. (4.) The less we expect to receive from the creature, the
surer we are to avoid disappointment. (5.) If we are enabled to do valiantly against

our spiritual enemies, let us remember from whom cometh our strength, and lay at
his feet the crown which his own grace has obtained for us.
COFFMA , "Verse 9
PLEADI G WITH GOD TO HELP
"Who will bring me into the strong city?
Who hath led me unto Edom?
Hast not thou, O God, cast us off?.
And thou goest not forth, O God, with our hosts.
Give us help against the adversary;
For vain is the help of man."
"Who will bring me into the strong city" (Psalms 60:9)? The `strong city' here is
Petra, the almost impregnable capital of Edom. o city of antiquity was ever any
better fortified and protected than was Petra. The city occupied a canyon bounded
by solid stone walls on both sides, into which residences, offices, and temples had
been constructed by carving them out of the solid stone.
"Hast not thou, O God, cast us off?.
And thou goest not forth, O God, with our hosts."
(Psalms 60:10, ASV)SIZE>
We do not like to find fault with the ASV, but in this verse, we are constrained to
believe that the King James Version is superior.
"Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off?
and thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies?"
(Psalms 60:10, KJV).SIZE>
The Douay Version of the Old Testament also corresponds with the KJV here; and
to us this rendition is far more appropriate than the American Standard Version or
the RSV, both of which, it appears to this writer, provide negative elements in the
prayer. Psalms 60:10, as it stands either in RSV or American Standard Version is
nothing but a complaint.
Through the use of the past tenses (as in KJV), the meaning then becomes, "God, we
know that you will take us into the strong city, despite the fact that you allowed us
to be defeated."

"Give us help against the adversary" (Psalms 60:11). The psalmist again appeals
mightily to God for help against the enemy.
"For vain is the help of man" (Psalms 60:11). "Seldom has the help that man can
provide in emergencies been more aptly expressed than it is in this verse - `For vain
is the help of man.'"[11]
PETT, "Verses 9-12
David Declares His Assurance That Although God Has Appeared For A While To
Have Abandoned His People, He Will ow Arise And Enable Them To Gain The
Victory (Psalms 60:9-12).
David now questions who it is who has caused him to venture against Edom, and
who it is who will give Israel victory over them (lead them into Edom’s strong city,
Petra)? Surely it cannot be God for God appears to have cast them off and not to be
going forth with them. But his point is that they could be satisfied with nothing less
than God’s help. Indeed, man’s help would be useless. And he ends on the assurance
that God will indeed act and enable Israel to triumph.
It is a reminder to us that however hopeless the circumstances, and however dark
things might appear to be, in the end those who are God’s can be sure that He will
intervene on their behalf, even though outwardly He might not appear to be in a
hurry.
Psalms 60:9
‘Who will bring me into the strong city?
Who has led me to Edom?’
By now Joab would have been on his way with his strong relieving force, and David
puts to God the question as to who will bring him (his invading forces) into Edom’s
strong city, Petra, an almost inaccessible fortress in the wilderness (see Obadiah
1:3). Indeed, he questions as to who it is who has “led him to Edom”, that is, caused
him to attempt what he is undertaking. Outwardly, he says, it would not appear to
be God. He is attempting by this to bring home to God his own helplessness if God
will not help him. But, of course, in his heart David’s hope was that God was indeed
with him, even if at first it might appear not to be so.
K&D 9-12, "The third strophe reverts to prayer; but the prayer now breathes more
freely with a self-conscious courage for the strife. The fortified city (‫ּור‬‫צ‬ ָ‫מ‬ ‫יר‬ ִ‫)ע‬ is not
Rabbath Ammon; but, as becomes evident from the parallel member of the verse and
2Ki_14:7, the Idumaean chief city of Sela' (‫ע‬ ַ‫ל‬ ֶ‫)ס‬ or Petra (vid., Knobel on Gen_36:42, cf.
Psa_31:22; 2Ch_8:5; 2Ch_11:5 together with Psa_14:5). The wish: who will conduct me
= Oh that one would conduct me (Ges. §136, 1)! expresses a martial desire, joyful at the
prospect of victory; concerning ‫י‬ִ‫נ‬ ַ‫ח‬ָ‫נ‬ ‫י‬ ִ‫,מ‬ quis perduxerit me, vid., on Psa_11:3. What
follows is not now to be rendered: Not Thou (who but Thou), Elohim, who...(Hitzig) - for
in order to have been understood thus and not as in Psa_60:3, Psa_44:10, the poet

could not have omitted ‫ר‬ ֶ‫שׁ‬ ֲ‫א‬ - on the contrary, the interrogatory ‫ּא‬‫ל‬ ֲ‫ה‬ is the foundation on
which the supplicatory ‫ה‬ ָ‫ב‬ ָ‫ה‬ is raised. The king of Israel is hard pressed in the battle, but
he knows that victory comes from above, from the God who has hitherto in anger
refused it to His people, inasmuch as He has given power to Edom to break through the
defensive forces of Israel (vid., Psa_44:10). ‫ת‬ ָ‫ר‬ְ‫ז‬ ֶ‫ע‬ (not ‫ת‬ ַ‫ר‬ְ‫ז‬ ֶ‫ע‬ = ‫ה‬ ַ‫ר‬ְ‫ז‬ ֶ‫)ע‬ is, as in Psa_108:13,
equivalent to ‫ה‬ ָ‫ת‬ ָ‫ר‬ְ‫ז‬ ֶ‫.ע‬ The view that it is equal to ‫י‬ ִ‫ת‬ ָ‫ר‬ְ‫ז‬ ֶ‫,ע‬ the suffix being cast away, is not
confirmed in this instance, vid., on Psa_16:6, cf. Psa_3:3. How vain is human succour,
has been seen only very recently in the case of the kings of Zobah and Ammon, who have
succumbed in spite of their confederates. Israel prays for its victorious power from
above, and also obtains it thence, as is most confidently expressed in v. 14. ‫ל‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫ח‬ ‫ה‬ ָ‫שׂ‬ ָ‫,ע‬ to do
valiantly, to show valour, is equivalent to: to be victorious, as in Psa_118:16. In God does
Israel conquer, and God, who is in Israel, will by means of Israel tread down Edom in
accordance with its deserts.
10 Is it not you, God, you who have now rejected
us
and no longer go out with our armies?
BAR ES, "Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst east us off? - See the notes at
Psa_60:1. The meaning is, that although God had seemed to reject and forsake them,
they had no other resource, and the appeal might be still made to him. The psalmist
hoped that he would again be favorable to his people, and would not forsake them
altogether. It is still true that although God may seem to forsake us, that although he
may leave us for a time to discouragement and darkness, yet we have no other resource
but himself; it is still true that we may hope in his mercy, and plead for his return.
And thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies? - Who didst suffer
us to be defeated. See the notes at Psa_60:2-3.
CLARKE, "Wilt not thou, O God - It is God alone from whom we can expect our
enlargement. He who has cast us off, and has abandoned us in battle; it is that very God
alone from whom we expect complete enlargement, the repossession of our own land,

and the subduction of the surrounding nations; and we expect this, because he has
graciously promised these mercies.
GILL, "Psalms 60:10
Wilt not thou, O God?.... This is an answer to the question, and is made by putting
another, which tacitly contains in it an affirmation that God would do it. He has foretold
the destruction of the Romish antichrist; he has said it shall be: he is faithful to his
purposes, predictions, and promises; he is able to effect it; strong is the Lord that
judgeth Babylon, Rev_18:10; He will put it into the hearts of the kings of the earth to
hate her; he will encourage them to reward her double; he will give her blood to drink,
because she is worthy; her destruction will be according to his righteous judgment, and
will be irretrievable; he will call upon all his people to rejoice at it, whose shoutings on
this occasion will be like those of persons that enter into a conquered city in triumph;
which hadst cast us off; who seemed in former times to have cast off his people,
when they were killed all the day long; accounted as sheep for the slaughter; were slain
in great numbers in the Low Countries; burnt here in England; massacred in France and
Ireland: especially God seemed to have cast off his people, and to have had no regard to
his interest, when antichrist so prevailed, that all the world wondered after the beast;
and thou, O God, which didst not go forth with our armies: but suffered the
antichristian beast to make war with the saints, and to overcome and kill them; and
which was the case in many pitched battles with the Waldenses and Albigenses before
the Reformation, and with the Protestants in Germany since. But this will not be always
the case; he whose name is the Word of God, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, will
fight with the antichristian powers, and overcome them, and make his people more than
conquerors over them; and his having formerly seemed to have cast them off, and not
going forth with their armies, will serve as a foil to set off the glorious and complete
victory that will at last be obtained.
JAMISO , "Wilt not thou? — or, “Is it not Thou?”
SPURGEO , "Ver. 10. Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off? Yes, the
chastising God is our only hope. He loves us still. For a small moment doth he
forsake, but with great mercy does he gather his people. Strong to smite, he is also
strong to save. He who proved to us our need of him by showing us what poor
creatures we are without him, will now reveal the glory of his help by conducting
great enterprises to a noble issue.
And thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies? The self same God art
thou, and to thee faith cleaves. Though thou slay us, we will trust in thee, and look
for thy merciful help.

TRAPP, "Psalms 60:10 [Wilt] not thou, O God, [which] hadst cast us off? and
[thou], O God, [which] didst not go out with our armies?
Ver. 10. Wilt not thou, O God?] Or, hast not thou, &c. The glory of all victories is to
be given to God in solidum. Strong cities are nothing, when he will have them
subdued, and sacked.
Which hadst cast us off] See Psalms 44:9. The Church’s prosperity, like checker
work, is intermingled with adversity.
PETT, "Psalms 60:10
‘Have not you, O God, cast us off?
And you do not go forth, O God, with our hosts.’
The initial success of Edomite/Syrian forces against the defenders of southern Judah
(defenders who would be somewhat sparse because the majority of them would be
with David in Syria proper) suggested that God had cast Israel off. For could not
God save by many or by few? Thus Edom’s success could only indicate that God
was not going forth with the defenders, something which was not only disastrous for
Judah, but also, in the eyes of the nations, a sign of God’s weakness.
11 Give us aid against the enemy,
for human help is worthless.
BAR ES, "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.
CLARKE, "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.
GILL, "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. But perhaps here is particularly meant the
time of trouble, which will be a little before the destruction of antichrist; which will be
great, and none like it; will be the time of Jacob's trouble, though he shall be saved out of
it, Jer_30:7. This will be the time of the slaying of the witnesses, the hour of temptation,
that will try the inhabitants of the Christian world; and when the saints, as they do in all
their times of trouble, will seek to the Lord for help, in whom it is, and who has
promised it, and gives it seasonably, and which is owing wholly to his own grace and
goodness; and therefore it is asked that he would "give" it;
for vain is the help of man: or "the salvation of man" (w); man himself is a vain
thing; vanity itself, yea, lighter than vanity; even man at his best state, and the greatest
among men; and therefore it is a vain thing to expect help and salvation from men, for
indeed there is none in them; only in the Lord God is the salvation of his people, both
temporal and spiritual.
HE RY 11-12, " He prays in hope. His prayer is, Give us help from trouble, Psa_
60:11. Even in the day of their triumph they see themselves in trouble, because still in
war, which is troublesome even to the prevailing side. None therefore can delight in war
but those that love to fish in troubled waters. The help from trouble they pray for is
preservation from those they were at war with. Though now they were conquerors, yet
(so uncertain are the issues of war), unless God gave them help in the next engagement,
they might be defeated; therefore, Lord, send us help from the sanctuary. Help from
trouble is rest from war, which they prayed for, as those that contended for equity, not
for victory. Sic quaerimus pacem - Thus we seek for peace. 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. 2. A confidence in God, and in his power and
promise (Psa_60:12): “Through God we shall do valiantly, and so we shall do
victoriously; for he it is, and he only, that shall tread down our enemies, and shall have
the praise of doing it.” Note, (1.) Our confidence in God must be so far from superseding
that it must encourage and quicken our endeavours in the way of our duty. Though it is
God that performs all things for us, yet there is something to be done by us. (2.) Hope in

God is the best principle of true courage. Those that do their duty under his conduct may
afford to do it valiantly; for what need those fear who have God on their side? (3.) It is
only through God, and by the influence of his grace, that we do valiantly; it is he that
puts strength into us, and inspires us, who of ourselves are weak and timorous, with
courage and resolution. (4.) Though we do ever so valiantly, the success must be
attributed entirely to him; for he it is that shall tread down our enemies, and not we
ourselves. All our victories, as well as our valour, are from him, and therefore at his feet
all our crown must be cast.
JAMISO , "Hence he closes with a prayer for success, and an assurance of a hearing.
CALVI , "11Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. Again he
reverts to the exercise of prayer, or rather is led to it naturally by the very
confidence of hope, which we have seen that he entertained. He expresses his
conviction, that should God extend his help, it would be sufficient of itself, although
no assistance should be received from any other quarter. Literally it reads, Give us
help from trouble, and vain is the help of man “O God,” as if he had said, “when
pleased to put forth thy might, thou needest none to help thee; and when, therefore,
once assured of an interest in thy favor, there is no reason why we should desire the
aid of man. All other resources of a worldly nature vanish before the brightness of
thy power.” The copulative in the verse, however, has been generally resolved into
the causal particle, and I have not scrupled to follow the common practice. It were
well if the sentiment expressed were effectually engraven upon our hearts. Why is it
almost universally the case with men that they are either staggered in their
resolution, or buoy themselves up with confidences, vain, because not derived from
God, but just because they have no apprehension of that salvation which he can
extend, which is of itself sufficient, and without which, any earthly succor is entirely
ineffectual? In contrasting the help of God with that of man, he employs language
not strictly correct, for, in reality, there is no such thing as a power in man to deliver
at all. But, in our ignorance, we conceive as if there were various kinds of help in the
world, and he uses the word in accommodation to our false ideas. God, in
accomplishing our preservation, may use the agency of man, but he reserves it to
himself, as his peculiar prerogative, to deliver, and will not suffer them to rob him of
his glory. The deliverance which comes to us in this manner through human agency
must properly be ascribed to God. All that David meant to assert is, that such
confidences as are not derived from God are worthless and vain. And to confirm
this position, he declares in the last verse of the psalm, that as, on the one hand, we
can do nothing without him, so, on the other, we can do all things by his help. Two
things are implied in the expression, through God we shall do valiantly; (400) first,
that if God withdraw his favor, any supposed strength which is in man will soon
fail; and, on the other hand, that those whose sufficiency is derived from God only
are armed with courage to overcome every difficulty. To show that it is no mere half
credit which he gives God, he adds, in words which ascribe the whole work to him,
that it is he who shall tread down our enemies Thus, even in our controversy with
creatures like ourselves, we are not at liberty to share the honor of success with

God; and must it not be accounted greater sacrilege still when men set free will in
opposition to divine grace, and speak of their concurring equally with God in the
matter of procuring eternal salvation? Those who arrogate the least fraction of
strength to themselves apart from God, only ruin themselves through their own
pride.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 11. 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. How sweetly will this verse suit
the tried people of God as a frequent ejaculation. We know how true it is.
Ver. 11. For vain is the help of man. As they had lately experimented in Saul, a king
of their own choosing, but not able to save them from those proud Philistines. John
Trapp.
Ver. 11. So long as sight and reason find footing in matters, there is no place for
faith and hope; the abundance of human helps puts not grace to proof, but the
strength of faith is in the absence of them all. A man is stronger when he goeth on
his feet alone, than when he standeth by a grip in his infancy, or leaneth on a staff in
his old age: the two feet of faith and hope serve us best when we are fixed on the
Rock of Sion alone. William Struther.
TRAPP, "Psalms 60:11 Give us help from trouble: for vain [is] the help of man.
Ver. 11. Give us help from trouble] Give it us whensoever we need it; as hitherto
thou very graciously hast done.
For vain is the help of man] As they had lately experimented in Saul, a king of their
own choosing, but not able to save them from those proud Philistines. o more
could the Romans the Britons, oppressed by their northern enemies. They sent
Aetius, the Roman praefect of Gaul, and thus complained to him: The barbarous
enemy beateth us to the sea, the sea beateth us back to the enemy; between these two
kinds of deaths we are either murdered or drowned (Dan. Chron.). But their
implorations prevailed not; for Aetius at that time had enough to do to keep his own
head, and Valentinian, the empire. The saint’s comfort is, that where human help
faileth Divine beginneth, as Philo told his countrymen, when rejected by Caius the
emperor.
PETT, "Psalms 60:11
‘Give us help against the adversary,
For vain is the help of man.’

He thus urges God now to alter His position and give them help against their
adversary, for he recognises that that help is vital. If he is to have certainty of
victory he must have God’s support.
12 With God we will gain the victory,
and he will trample down our enemies.
BAR ES, "Through God - By the help of God.
We shall do valiantly - literally, we shall make strength. That is, we shall gain or
gather strength; we shall go forth with spirit and with courage to the war. This expresses
the confident assurance that they would secure the aid of God, and that under him they
would achieve the victory.
For he it is that shall tread down our enemies - He will himself tread or
trample them down; that is, he will enable us to do it. The psalm, therefore, though
begun in despondency and sadness, closes, as the Psalms often do, with confident hope;
with the assurance of the favor of God; and with the firm belief that the object sought in
the psalm would be obtained. The history shows that the prayer was answered; that the
armies of David were successful; that Edom was subdued; and that thus the territories of
the Hebrew people had, in fact, in the time of David, the boundaries promised to
Abraham.
CLARKE, "Through God we shall do valiantly - Through thee alone shall we do
valiantly; thou alone canst tread down our enemies; and to thee alone we look for
conquest.
The author to whom Harmer refers in the note on the fourth verse, is one of the
writers in a work entitled Gesta dei per Francos, fol. Hanoviae, 1611, 2 vols. And the
places quoted by Harmer may be found in vol. i., p. 282; and as the passage is singular,
and a good use has been made of it for the illustration of a difficult passage, I shall lay
the words of the original before the reader: “Proxima ab hinc die sabbati clarescente,
quidam Sarracenorum spe vitae in summitatem tecti domus praecelsae Solomonis ab
armis elapsi, circiter trecenti, confugerant. Qui multa prece pro vita flagitantes, in
mortis articulo positi, nullius fiducia aut promissione audebant descendere, quousque
vexillum Tankradi in signum protectionis vivendi susceperunt. Sed minime misellis

profuit. Nam plurimis super hoc indignantibus, et Christianis furore commotis, ne unus
quidem illorum evasit.”
It is very properly added by Albertus, that the noble spirit of Tancred was filled with
indignation at this most horrible breach of faith; and he was about to take a summary
revenge on the instigators and perpetrators of this unprincipled butchery, when the
chiefs interposed, and not only maintained the expediency of the massacre that had
already been committed, but the necessity of putting all the inhabitants to the sword. On
this the savage fiends, called Christians, flew to arms, and made a universal slaughter of
all that remained of the inhabitants. They drew out the prisoners, chopped off their
heads, stabbed all they met with in the streets, and-but I can translate no farther; it is
too horrible. I shall give my author’s words, who was an ecclesiastic, and wrote down the
account from eye-witnesses: “Concilio hoc accepto, (the determination of the chiefs to
put all to the sword), tertio die post victoriam egressa est sententia a majoribus: et ecce
universi arma rapiunt, et miserabili caede in omne vulgus Gentilium, quod adhuc erat
residuum, exsurgunt, alios producentes e vinculis et decollantes: alios per vicos et
plateas civitatis inventos trucidantes, quibus antea causa pecuniae, aut humana
pietate pepercerunt. Puellas vero, mulieres, matronas nobiles, et faetas cum puellis
tenellis detruncabant, aut lapidibus obruebant, in nullis aliquam considerantes
aetatem. E contra, puellae, mulieres, matronae, metu momentaneae mortis
angustiatae et horrore gravissimae necis concussae Christianos in jugulum utriusque
sexus debacchantes ac saevientes, medios pro liberanda vita amplexabantur, quaedam
pedibus eorum advolvebantur, de vita et salute sua illos nimium miserando fletu et
ejulatu solicitantes. Pueri vero quinquennes aut triennes matrum patrumque crudelem
casum intuentes, una miserum clamorem et fletum multiplicabant. Sed frustra haec
pietatis et misericordiae signa fiebant: nam Christiani sic neci totum laxaverunt
animum, ut non lugens masculus aut faemina, nedum infans unius anni vivens,
manum percussoris evaderet. Unde plateae totius civitatis Jerusalem corporibus
extinctis virorum et mulierum, lacerisque membris infantium, adeo stratae et opertae
fuisse referuntur, ut non solum in vicis, soliis et palatiis, sed etiam in locis desertae
solitudinis copia occisorum reperiretur innumerabilis.’GestA Dei Vol. I., p. 283.
This is one specimen of the spirit of the crusaders, and is it any wonder that God did
not shine on such villanous measures! No wonder that the Mohammedans have so long
hated the name of Christian, when they had no other specimen of Christianity than what
the conduct of these ferocious brutes exhibited; and these were called Gesta Dei, the
transactions of God!
There are many difficulties in this Psalm; whether they are in general removed by the
preceding notes, the reader must judge. The following analysis is constructed on the
supposition that the Psalm speaks of the distracted state of the kingdom from the fatal
battle of Gilboa, in which Saul fell, to the death of Ishbosheth, when the whole kingdom
was united under David.
GILL, "Through God we shall do valiantly,.... Or, "through the Word of the Lord",
as the Targum; Christ, whose name is the Word of God, appearing at the head of his
armies, in a vesture dipped in blood, and with a sharp sword proceeding out of his
mouth, will inspire his people to fight valiantly under him; and who, in his name and
strength, will get the victory over all their enemies, the beast, false prophets, and kings of
the earth, and all under them; see Rev_19:11;

for he it is that shall tread down our enemies; as mire in the street, or as grapes
in a winepress; even kings, captains, mighty men, and all the antichristian nations and
states; the beast, false prophet, and Satan himself, Rev_19:15; and so there will be an
end of all the enemies of Christ and his people; after which they will spend an endless
eternity together, in joy, peace, and pleasure. The victory is wholly ascribed to God the
Word; it is not they that shall do valiantly, that shall tread down their enemies; but he by
whom they shall do valiantly shall do it; even the mighty ‫,הוא‬ "He", to whom was
promised, in Eden's garden, the bruising the head of the serpent, and all enemies, Gen_
3:15; and who has the same name here as the
HE RY, "A confidence in God, and in his power and promise (Psa_60:12): “Through
God we shall do valiantly, and so we shall do victoriously; for he it is, and he only, that
shall tread down our enemies, and shall have the praise of doing it.” Note, (1.) Our
confidence in God must be so far from superseding that it must encourage and quicken
our endeavours in the way of our duty. Though it is God that performs all things for us,
yet there is something to be done by us. (2.) Hope in God is the best principle of true
courage. Those that do their duty under his conduct may afford to do it valiantly; for
what need those fear who have God on their side? (3.) It is only through God, and by the
influence of his grace, that we do valiantly; it is he that puts strength into us, and
inspires us, who of ourselves are weak and timorous, with courage and resolution. (4.)
Though we do ever so valiantly, the success must be attributed entirely to him; for he it
is that shall tread down our enemies, and not we ourselves. All our victories, as well as
our valour, are from him, and therefore at his feet all our crown must be cast.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 12. Through God we shall do valiantly. From God all power
proceeds, and all we do well is done by divine operation; but still we, as soldiers of
the great king, are to fight, and to fight valiantly too. Divine working is not an
argument for human inaction, but rather is it the best excitement for courageous
effort. Helped in the past, we shall also be helped in the future, and being assured of
this we resolve to play the man.
For he it is that shall tread down our enemies. From him shall the might proceed, to
him shall the honour be given. Like straw on the threshing floor beneath the feet of
the oxen shall we tread upon our abject foes, but it shall rather be his foot which
presses them down than ours; his hand shall go out against them so as to put them
down and keep them in subjection. In the case of Christians there is much
encouragement for a resolve similar to that of the first clause.
We shall do valiantly, we will not be ashamed of our colours, afraid of our foes, or
fearful of our cause. The Lord is with us, omnipotence sustains us, and we will not
hesitate, we dare not be cowards. O that our King, the true David, were come to
claim the earth, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the
nations.
Ver. 12. Through God we shall do, etc. In war these two must be joined, and indeed
in all actions: HE, we; God and man.
1. "We shall do valiantly, "for God helps not remiss, or cowardly, or negligent men.
2. And yet, that being done, the work is his: "He shall tread down; "the blow and

the overthrow are not to be attributed to us, but to him. Adam Clarke.
TRAPP, "Psalms 60:12 Through God we shall do valiantly: for he [it is that] shall
tread down our enemies.
Ver. 12. Through God we shall do valiantly] Faciemus militiam, some render it, and
it is true of the spiritual warfare also; we shall be more than conquerors, even
triumphers, 2 Corinthians 2:14. Meminisse oportet ista nunc esse ad spirituales
Ecclesiae hastes potius quam adversus armatas terra capias referenda, saith Beza, in
his argument and use of this psalm.
He it is that shall tread down our enemies] Corporal and spiritual; this is a part of
Christ’s kingly office, to the which he will not be wanting. Psalmus hic est de Messia
imperante, sicut David, saith Kimchi, out of Derash Rabboth. This psalm is
concerning Messiah reigning, as David did.
COFFMA , "Verse 12
CO FIDE CE I GOD
"Through God we shall do valiantly;
For he it is that will tread down our enemies."
These glorying words of confidence do not belong immediately after a complaint
that God had deserted their armies and had cast Israel off. To us this is more than
sufficient reason for returning to the KJV for Psalms 60:10.
" o miracle is expected. Let God look upon us favorably; let his light shine into our
hearts; and `With God, we shall do valiantly.'"[12]
"He will tread down our enemies" (Psalms 60:12). Thus the psalm ends with a
prophecy of total victory for Israel. This prophecy was indeed fulfilled, according to
2 Samuel 8:14; 1 Chronicles 18:13.
ISBET, "‘GOD IS OUR REFUGE A D OUR STRE GTH’
‘Through God we shall do valiantly.’
Psalms 60:12
This is a national psalm to be taught to the people (Deuteronomy 31:19). As 44 was
sung by the sons of Korah when the Edomites were taking advantage of David’s
absence to invade the land, so this psalm was composed after victory had been
assured. Shushaneduth means the lily of testimony, and may refer to the name of the
tune to which this psalm was set. Aram is Syrians: the Syrians which dwelt between
the two floods, Euphrates and Tigris, had become confederate with the Syrians of
Zobah (2 Samuel 10:6; 2 Samuel 10:8; 2 Samuel 10:16; 2 Samuel 10:19). For the
whole story, see 2 Samuel 8.

I. The first stanza tells of disaster.—Cast-off and broken-down, the land trembling
and rent, the people learning hard lessons, and reeling in the weakness of drunken
men. The measure to which it was set is said in the margin to mean ‘Lily of
Testimony,’ whilst the object is described in the inscription, ‘Michtam of David to
teach.’ It is good to hold up the mirror, to ascertain what and where we are. The
time spent in diagnosing the disease is far from being lost. Let us learn what we are,
that we magnify the grace that has raised us from our low estate, and made us to sit
with princes.
II. But through it all God yearns over His beloved, and waits to save with His right
hand.
III. o sooner is the prayer uttered than the answer is at hand.—God speaks in his
holiness.
God is here described as the Holy One, separated from all created and finite beings,
and therefore above all deceit and vacillation. He had promised to give His people
the land which He promised to their forefathers, and David rejoices in the assurance
that it must be so. Already he claims his inheritance to the full, and though it was
not actually in his possession, he exults in the certainty that it is already his.
The recent invasion of the Edomites had opened the eyes of the chosen people, and
especially of their king, to the high value of those ancient promises that had
guaranteed to them the possession and enjoyment of the whole land: and the psalm
proceeds to name several particular places, objects, and tribes, which really describe
and cover their inheritance to its full extent. Shechem stands for the Western, and
Succoth for the Eastern sides of the Jordan.
Illustration
‘The composition of the psalm has been placed correctly in the time before the battle
in the valley of salt rather than afterwards, because it is necessary to suppose that
the Edomites had fallen upon the land, laying it waste from the south when David
had marched against his powerful enemies in the north and victoriously forced them
back, but sent off his general Joab against the Edomites. To this laying waste the
land, the lamentation which begins the psalm refers (2 Samuel 8:1-3). There is then
a reference to Divine incitement (2 Samuel 8:4) which introduces the prayer for
Divine help (2 Samuel 8:5), which passes over into the appropriation of a Divine
oracle promising victory (2 Samuel 8:6-8). Upon this is based the renewed petition,
intensified by its inconsistency with the present situation (2 Samuel 8:9-10) into
pressing supplication for Divine assistance (2 Samuel 8:11-12).’
PETT, "Psalms 60:12
‘Through God we will do valiantly,

For he it is who will tread down our adversaries.’
The final verse of the Psalm demonstrates that he is satisfied that his prayers have
‘moved God’. He is sure now that God will be with his forces so that through Him
they will do valiantly, and by Him they will tread down their adversaries. Victory is
now assured, a victory that in fact resulted in the decimation of the forces of
Syria/Edom and the conquest of Edom (2 Samuel 8:13-14).
For us it is a reminder that if we are suffering defeats in our spiritual lives, we must
first of all examine ourselves and heed God’s chastening. And once we have done
this, and repented and put things right, we can know that He will arise on our
behalf, once again giving us victory. Indeed, to depend on anyone else would be
futile.

Psalm 60 commentary

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Psalm 60 commentary