Psalm 60:6

The psalm’s title calls it “Michtam of David”, a term often linked with a “golden psalm” or a psalm of instruction, and ties it to David’s wars: “when he strove with Aramnaharaim and with Aramzobah, when Joab returned, and smote of Edom in the valley of salt twelve thousand.” Those were campaigns against the Aramean kingdoms of Syria and against Edom, and the valley of salt likely lay south of the Dead Sea. The first verses (Psalm 60:1–3) describe a nation that feels rejected by God, its army defeated and its land shaken. Psalm 60:4 brings the first glimmer of hope, a banner God has given to those who fear him, a rallying point in battle, and verse 5 prays for deliverance. Then verse 6 brings God’s answer. This movement from lament to confidence, carried by a word from God, comes again and again in the Psalms, because God’s word reshapes how his people see their trouble.

“Hath spoken” is dâbar, the ordinary verb to speak, mention or tell, whose root sense Strong’s gives as to arrange. Here it is God’s own declaration, definite and with authority behind it. “In his holiness” renders qôdesh, a word for what is sacred or set apart, and in the abstract for holiness itself. The Hebrew phrase, bəqodshō, can be taken as “by his holy nature”, “from his holy sanctuary” or “by his holy oath”, and each of these comes to the same place. This word proceeds from who God is, and it carries the weight of a sworn promise. “God is not a man, that he should lie” (Numbers 23:19), and through Malachi he says, “For I am the LORD, I change not” (Malachi 3:6). What he has spoken in his holiness he will do, for Isaiah says that his word does its work and does not return to him empty (Isaiah 55:11).

“I will rejoice” is ʻâlaz, to exult or jump for joy, a word of triumph. The joy is declared while the defeat of the opening verses is still fresh, and it rests on what God has promised before anything has changed that the eye can see. This is anticipatory faith, delighting now in a fulfilment that God’s character guarantees. The psalmist of Psalm 119:162 speaks the same way when he rejoices at God’s word like someone who has found great treasure.

“I will divide Shechem” uses châlaq, to divide, share, allot or assign. Used of land it means apportioning territory as its owner, and it recalls the first division of the land among the tribes under Joshua (Joshua 14). “Mete out” is mâdad, which properly means to stretch, and so to measure as if by stretching a line. Dividing and measuring are the acts of someone who holds the land and has the right to assign it. In Israel the possession of land was bound up with faith. The land was God’s gift, the visible mark of his faithfulness to Abraham and his descendants, promised in his covenant with Abram (Genesis 15:18–21). When God speaks of dividing it, he is restating his covenant claim over his people’s inheritance at the very time they have lost battles.

Shechem, Shᵉkem, a name meaning “ridge”, lay in the central hill country of Ephraim, west of the Jordan, and it was full of covenant memories. Abraham built his first altar there when he came into Canaan, where the LORD promised the land to his seed (Genesis 12:6–7), and Joshua gathered Israel there to renew the covenant (Joshua 24). The valley of Succoth lay east of the Jordan near the river Jabbok, in the territory of Gad. Its name, Çukkôwth, means “booths” or “shelters”, and it appears already in Jacob’s story (Genesis 33:17). The word for valley, ʻêmeq, is a broad vale.

Naming a city west of the Jordan and a valley east of it takes in the whole land on both sides of the river, the western heartland and the eastern frontier. God’s word claims all of it.

Verse 7 moves from places to the tribes that held them. Gilead (Gilʻâd) was the region east of the Jordan, known for its rich pasture. Manasseh (Mᵉnashsheh) was a large tribe with land on both sides of the river, and its eastern half, with Gilead, formed a frontier often exposed to attack. Of both God says “is mine”. He gave this land to Israel, and his claim holds whoever has the upper hand on the battlefield for the moment. God apportioned the nations their places from the beginning (Deuteronomy 32:8), the earth is the LORD’s (Psalm 24:1), and to the people he has redeemed he says, “thou art mine” (Isaiah 43:1).

By naming tribes of the east, of the central and northern hills, and of the south, the verse takes in the whole nation. Each part has its own place and work, and all of them stand together under God’s rule as one people. The land is his gift and his trust, held by Israel as his inheritance.

Having claimed his people’s land, God turns to the nations around it that had long opposed Israel. Their fate is in his hands, as he says to his king in Psalm 2:8 that he will give him the nations for his inheritance. Moab lay east of the Dead Sea, named for a son of Lot (Môwʼâb, “from her father”). Edom (ʼĔdôm, “red”), the descendants of Esau, lay south of Moab. The Philistines (Pᵉlesheth) lived along the Mediterranean coast and were Israel’s most persistent enemies in the early years of the kingdom, as David’s fight with Goliath shows (1 Samuel 17:50). David did bring Moab and Edom under his rule (2 Samuel 8:2, 2 Samuel 8:14). Each nation gets its own picture of humbling, taken from everyday life.

These verses find their fullness in Jesus. The holiness in which God spoke is seen in him, the Holy One of God (Mark 1:24), and he is himself the Word made flesh (John 1:14). The land promised to Israel points on to the eternal inheritance that Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, secures by his blood for those who believe (Hebrews 9:15). In him all the promises of God are yea and Amen (2 Corinthians 1:20), guaranteed by his resurrection, so the psalmist’s “I will rejoice” belongs to everyone who trusts him.

The tribes of verse 7 point to him as well. Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5), who came to fulfil the law (Matthew 5:17) and is the mediator of a better covenant (Hebrews 8:6). God has made him head over all things to the church, which is his body (Ephesians 1:22–23), and the protection Ephraim gave Israel his people find in him. The tribes of east, north and south foreshadow the people Christ has redeemed from every kindred, tongue, people and nation (Revelation 5:9), gathered under the one through whom all things were created and in whom they hold together (Colossians 1:16–17). Of his kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:33).

The enemies of verse 8 point to the greater enemies Christ has overcome: sin, death and the powers of darkness. On the cross he made an open show of principalities and powers and triumphed over them (Colossians 2:15). He must reign until all his enemies are under his feet (1 Corinthians 15:25), and his resurrection has made death a defeated foe (1 Corinthians 15:54–57). The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29) is King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16), and every knee will bow to him and every tongue confess him (Philippians 2:10–11). His people live out that victory by bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4–5), and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keeps their hearts (Philippians 4:7).

These verses give us a God who speaks into loss. When his people had been shaken and could see only defeat, he spoke in his holiness, and his word named hill and valley, tribe and enemy as his own. The psalmist’s joy came before the battle was won, because the one who had spoken could be trusted, and the psalm goes on to pray for God’s help with that same confident expectation (Psalm 60:9–12). We know the same holy God, and we have his promises kept in Christ. What he claims is his, and that includes the people he has made his own, whatever the field looks like today.