Psalm 60:5

In the KJV the psalm’s title is counted as part of verse 1. “To the chief Musician” uses nâtsach, a word for one who is eminent and oversees others, and it marks the psalm for the leader of the singing in public worship. “Upon Shushaneduth” (Shûwshan ʻÊdûwth) names a tune or musical direction, usually rendered “Lily of the Testimony” or “Lily of Instruction”. The lily may be the name of a melody or of an instrument shaped like one, and the testimony points to a song that bears witness and teaches. Other psalms carry musical notes of the same kind, such as Psalm 45.

“Michtam” (miktâm) means an engraving, and so a poem. It is often called a “golden psalm”, a song to be kept and pondered. This one is “of David” (Dâvid), and it was written “to teach” (lâmad, a verb that first meant to goad and so came to mean to train or teach). The history that follows is part of what it teaches.

David “strove” (nâtsâh) with Aramnaharaim, ʼĂram Nahărayim, “Aram of the two rivers”, the land of Mesopotamia between the Euphrates and the Tigris, and with Aramzobah, ʼĂram Tsôwbâh, the Aramean kingdom of Zobah in Syria. Then Joab (Yôwʼâb) “returned, and smote” (nâkâh, the ordinary verb for striking a blow) Edom (ʼĔdôm) “in the valley of salt”. The word for valley, gayʼ, means a gorge or valley, and melach, salt, here forms the place name Valley of Salt, a site of battles with the Edomites. It most likely lay in the Arabah south of the Dead Sea, on the approach to Edom. The number twelve thousand is built in Hebrew from shᵉnayim, two, ʻâsâr, the “ten” of every number from eleven to nineteen, and ʼeleph, thousand.

These wars are told in 2 Samuel 8 and 1 Chronicles 18, in the years when David’s kingdom was made secure on its borders. In the Psalter this psalm stands in Book Two (Psalms 42–72), after Psalm 59, another prayer of David against his enemies, and before Psalm 61, a prayer of trust from the end of the earth.

The prayer begins by naming God, ʼĕlôhîym. The word is plural in form, and when it names the true God it is a plural of majesty, usually with a singular verb. Then come three bold complaints, each with God as the one acting.

“Thou hast cast us off” is zânach, to push aside, reject or cast away. The people feel discarded, as if God had withdrawn his protecting hand and left them open to their enemies. “Thou hast scattered us” is pârats, to break out or break through, the word for a breach in a wall. Here it pictures the ranks of an army broken apart and scattered after defeat. “Thou hast been displeased” is ʼânaph, to breathe hard and so to be angry. By tracing their loss to God’s anger, the people own that the fault may lie with them, which is how lament in Scripture often speaks. A whole nation speaks the same way in Psalm 44, another prayer after defeat.

“O turn thyself to us again” uses shûwb, to turn back or return. It is the same verb as “returned” in the title, where Joab comes back from battle. Here the people ask God to turn back toward them, for his favour and his presence to come back to his people. The verb is also used of anger that turns away and subsides, which is what they long for. The prophets speak of the same turning. Ephraim prays to be turned back to the LORD (Jeremiah 31:18), the LORD calls his people to return to him so that he will return to them (Zechariah 1:3), and Lamentations ends with the prayer that God would turn his people to himself and renew their days (Lamentations 5:21). Moses had already promised that when scattered Israel returned to the LORD, he would turn their captivity and gather them again (Deuteronomy 30:1–3).

So in one verse the people say that God has rejected them and ask him to come back. They acknowledge him even in this, as Proverbs tells us to acknowledge him in all our ways (Proverbs 3:6), and the honest complaint and the plea belong together.

Verse 2 pictures the defeat as an earthquake. The earth here is the land of Israel, its people and its settled order. “To tremble” is râʻash, to quake or heave like the ground, often through fear. “Thou hast broken it” is pâtsam, to rend, the word for ground split open by an earthquake. In Israel a steady land pictured God’s favour, and a land that shook pictured his judgment, as when God says he will shake all nations (Haggai 2:7). Behind it stand the covenant curses for disobedience (Deuteronomy 28:15–68).

“Heal the breaches thereof” turns at once to prayer. The verb for heal, râphâʼ, first meant to mend, as by stitching, and so to cure. The breaches, sheber, are breakings, injuries or ruin. The word fits cracks in a city wall that leave it open to attack, and rifts within a people. The prayer asks God to make his people whole in every way. It asks for their defences to be repaired and their enemies overcome, for divisions among them to be mended, for the spiritual brokenness behind God’s displeasure to be healed, and for peace and plenty to replace upheaval.

“For it shaketh” gives the reason. The verb is môwṭ, to totter, shake or slip, a different word from the one for “tremble” at the start of the verse. The land is still tottering as they pray. God answers prayers like this one. He promises to heal the land of a people who humble themselves, pray and turn from their wicked ways (2 Chronicles 7:14). Isaiah speaks of God’s people being called the repairer of the breach (Isaiah 58:12), and Jeremiah records God’s promise to restore health to Zion and heal her wounds when others called her an outcast (Jeremiah 30:17).

“Thou hast shewed thy people hard things” uses râʼâh, the common verb for seeing, here in the sense of making someone see and so live through something. The hard things are qâsheh, severe, harsh and heavy to bear: the defeat and all that came with it. In Israel a lost battle was a sign of God’s displeasure, as when Israel fled before the men of Ai.

“Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment” describes what the defeat did to them. The word for astonishment, tarʻêlâh, means reeling or trembling. Wine of this kind leaves a man staggering, unable to keep his balance or think clearly, and the people are so stunned by what has happened that they can barely understand it or respond. Verses 1 and 2 describe what happened to the nation, and this verse describes how it felt from inside.

The prophets use the same picture of a cup from God’s hand. Isaiah calls Jerusalem to awake, she who has drunk the cup of the LORD’s fury, the cup of trembling (Isaiah 51:17). God gives Jeremiah the wine cup of his fury to make the nations drink until they stagger (Jeremiah 25:15–16). Revelation speaks of the wine of the wrath of God (Revelation 14:10). Lamentations, too, remembers affliction and the wormwood and the gall (Lamentations 3:19–20), and Psalm 44:9–16 tells of a people made a reproach and a byword among the nations.

Verse 4 brings hope into the lament. “Thou hast given a banner” uses nêç, a flag, a sail, a pole with an emblem, a signal or standard. In war a banner was the rallying point for the troops, the sign of their commander’s presence and authority, and it could call men to arms or mark a victory. God gives this banner. After the victory over Amalek, Moses built an altar and called it Jehovahnissi, “The LORD my banner” (Exodus 17:15). A psalm of David speaks of setting up banners in the name of our God (Psalm 20:5), and Isaiah foretells the root of Jesse standing as an ensign for the peoples (Isaiah 11:10).

The banner is for “them that fear thee”. The word is yârêʼ, an adjective meaning fearing or reverent, said of those who fear God. It describes reverent awe toward the holy God who keeps his covenant, and it leads to humble trust and obedience. Proverbs calls the fear of the LORD the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7) and the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10).

“That it may be displayed because of the truth” means the banner is raised openly for all to see. Truth here is qôsheṭ, from a root meaning to balance, and it means equity, reality, truth. The banner is raised on the ground of God’s truth, his faithfulness to his word and his covenant, while the circumstances of the moment say otherwise. Raised in plain view, it heartens God’s people and tells the surrounding nations who their God is.

“Selah” (çelâh) means a pause. It appears often in the Psalms and in Habakkuk, and it is a musical or liturgical direction, most likely a pause or an interlude in the singing. Here it gives the hearer time to take in the promise of the banner before the prayer goes on.

People ask how God gives a banner to his people today. He gives his Word as the standard of truth, his Spirit who dwells in believers, and his presence. Above all he gives the cross of Christ, the power of God to those who are saved (1 Corinthians 1:18). The lives of believers display that banner when they shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life (Philippians 2:15–16).

Verse 5 gives the reason for the banner: “That thy beloved may be delivered.” The word for beloved, yᵉdîyd, means loved, dear. Here it names Israel, the people God chose and set his love on (Deuteronomy 7:6–8). The psalmist builds his plea on that love. A people who felt cast off in verse 1 are still called God’s beloved in verse 5. All who are joined to Christ by faith share that name today (Romans 9:25, 1 John 3:1).

“Delivered” is châlats, to draw off or pull out, and so to rescue. God’s beloved are to be drawn out of danger. “Save” is yâshaʻ, a verb that first meant to be open, wide or free, and so to be safe, and in this form to set free and to help. “Salvation belongeth unto the LORD,” as David says in Psalm 3:8.

“With thy right hand” uses yâmîyn, the right hand or side, the stronger and more skilled hand. God’s right hand stands for his power to act and to win, as in the song Israel sang at the sea, “Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power” (Exodus 15:6). The rescue the psalmist asks for comes from God’s strength alone.

“And hear me” turns the prayer personal. The verb ʻânâh means to heed and so to answer. The psalmist trusts that God listens and acts, as David says elsewhere that his cry came before God (Psalm 18:6), and as another psalm says, the LORD hears the righteous when they cry and delivers them out of all their troubles (Psalm 34:17).

Israel’s cry of being cast off finds its deepest echo on the cross, where Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). There the Son bore God’s displeasure against sin as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). In Gethsemane he prayed that the cup might pass from him, yet submitted to the Father’s will (Matthew 26:39), and he drank it when God made him to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). He gives his people a different cup, the new testament in his blood (Luke 22:20), and the Spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba, Father (Romans 8:15).

The breaches of verse 2 are a small picture of a creation that groans (Romans 8:22). Christ heals the breach between God and man and between people. He has broken down the middle wall of partition and made those who were far off one in himself (Ephesians 2:13–16), and he died to gather into one the scattered children of God (John 11:52). He made peace through the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:20), and his people receive a kingdom which cannot be moved (Hebrews 12:28). At the last God will wipe away all tears and make all things new (Revelation 21:4–5).

The banner of verse 4 is seen most clearly in the cross. Jesus, who is the truth (John 14:6), said that when he was lifted up from the earth he would draw all men to himself (John 12:32), and Paul would glory in nothing save the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14).

Jesus is the beloved Son, so named by the Father at his baptism (Matthew 3:17) and at his transfiguration (Matthew 17:5), and through him all God’s beloved are delivered. He has been exalted to the right hand of God (Acts 2:33), where he intercedes for us (Romans 8:34). God has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his Son (Colossians 1:13–14), and Jesus promises that what we ask in his name he will do (John 14:13–14).

Psalm 60 gives God’s people words for the day when things have gone badly and they can see God’s hand in it. The people say everything to him, the rejection, the broken land and the reeling cup, because he is the one who can turn it. Their honesty and their trust stand side by side in the same verses, and when the ground shakes under us, we can pray “heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh” and mean both halves of it.

The psalm also shows who God is. He rules even over the defeats of his people, and he has already raised a banner for those who fear him, grounded in his truth. He calls his people his beloved while they are still in the valley, and he saves with his right hand. In Christ the cup of verse 3 has been drunk for us, the scattered are being gathered, and the one at God’s right hand intercedes for us, so the prayer “hear me” goes to a Father who hears.