Psalm 60

To the choirmaster: according to Shushan Eduth. A Miktam of David; for instruction; when he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and when Joab on his return struck down twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt. 

The psalm opens with a very lengthy superscription linking this psalm with the events recorded in 2 Samuel 8:1-14 and its parallel in 1 Chronicles 18:1-13. These histories describe how David systematically subdued nations on all sides -- Philistia, Moab, Syria, and Edom. In doing so he extended the boundaries and influence of Israel to its farthest extent ever. His son Solomon would maintain those borders and between the two of them, create what was the golden age of Israel -- wealth, peace, and cultural creation. The psalm itself seems to have been composed during this time of conquest by David. The narratives in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles do not suggest this, but the superscription and the content of the psalm indicate the Edomites may have taken advantage of David’s absence while fighting the Syrians to invade Israel from the south. This would certainly make sense strategically -- come in the back door while the owner of the house is away. The first four verses of the psalm suggest this type of national disaster followed by a prayer for victory. David has been wildly successful against the Philistines and Moabites, and is currently fighting the Syrians in the north. One can’t blame the Edomites for taking advantage of this situation, knowing that they are probably next on David’s list. Modern readers may be put off by this psalm, it’s promotion of conquest and its nationalism, but we shouldn’t be too quick to judge. Every nation wants security -- the ability to work the land without fear that someone is going to invade and steal it from you. This seems to be a God-given right, the right to property (This is why “thou shalt not steal” is one of the ten commandments). What is true of the individual is also true of the nation. In order to achieve this security, nations like to have the luxury of maintaining a buffer zone, an area around the nation where any fighting will happen, rather than happening in one’s own country. This has been true in the entire history of humanity and warfare. David’s goal is security for his nation, and his method is to conquer the four nations bordering Israel and exact tribute from them. It may also be likened to what happens to the bully on the playground. When you stand up to him, he leaves you alone. David stood up to these four nations and the result was 40+ years of peace. Now the process of standing up to the bullies was bloody, deadly, and very ugly (including the killing of POWs). David was not allowed to build the temple because there was so much blood on his hands. Being a king in the ancient world was not for the faint hearted, and I will not presume to judge him from the comforts of my twenty-first century easy chair where I enjoy the fruits of peace and security that were bought with the blood of soldiers. Nor should anyone else. 

1 O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses; you have been angry; oh, restore us.

2 You have made the land to quake; you have torn it open; repair its breaches, for it totters.

These verses suggest a national catastrophe as a result of a foreign invasion. While there is the language of an earthquake, this is metaphorical of the massive disruption that a marauding army can cause -- physically destroying things, stealing everything they desire, raping women, kidnapping children, killing and abusing people randomly for intimidation, and causing populations to flee and become refugees in other countries. Warfare is always rough on civilian populations, as the African proverb reminds us: When the elephants fight it is the grass that suffers. In keeping with ancient near eastern theology, the responsibility for this catastrophe rests with God, even though it was the result of purposeful human actions. Everything had a spiritual component to it. This was assumed. David doesn’t confess any national sins or pray a prayer of repentance, so perhaps he doesn’t connect the actions of God with a particular reason, other than to suggest that God is angry (presumably for good reason). Recall the episode in Joshua 7:1 where one member of the community, Aachan, disobeys God and the entire nation suffers for it. They were initially dumbfounded at their defeat at Ai until it came to light that there was “sin in the camp”. This may be what David is assuming here, there’s just no way to know. If this disaster has a spiritual cause, David’s spiritual solution will come later in the psalm when he asks for God’s intervention, declares God’s sovereignty over the nations and trusts that victory will ultimately be theirs. The language in these verses is appropriate for many nations for many times in history. As divided and battered as our country might feel this year in light of a global pandemic, there have been far worse times in our history and in the history of nations -- worldwide wars, genocide, communist tyranny. As the optimist says, “it could always be worse.” While there are human causes to all of the above, there is a spiritual dimension as well, and this is the ancient wisdom that we need to heed. Sin has consequences. Always. And sin is not an individual act; it always affects others. As a nation, we have committed sin en masse and any judgment we are receiving from God is surely due us. Ask different groups of people and they will tell you different sins, but most everyone will acknowledge that as a society we have wronged others -- racism, abortion, pornography, rampant dishonesty (mostly on  Twitter) -- the list is long. God’s just anger is surely deserved, and we shouldn’t be surprised if the land feels ripped open while structures totter on the verge of collapse. Perhaps the nation will be healed only when we pray with David and seek God’s help, believe in his sovereignty, and trust in his victory. Restore us O God. 

3 You have made your people see hard things; you have given us wine to drink that made us stagger.

4 You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow. [that it may be displayed because of truth] Selah

The psalmist lays blame for the nation’s woes at the hand of God, saying that he has made his people see hard things. They have seen things they never thought they would have seen, traumatic experiences that were completely unexpected, things that you can’t unsee. It is as if God has given them an alcoholic beverage that caused them to stumble about, in a fog, shocked at what is happening to them. There is something dissociative about the experience with alcohol, it both numbs and immobilizes, so that you are not fully there. This is the experience of a nation that has experienced a sucker punch out of nowhere, suddenly invaded with no defense. And yet in this catastrophe God has set up a banner for those who fear him. The banner was a signal flag used by the military to communicate during the fog of war. These signals originated from the commander of the army and his standard also served as a rallying point, a sign that the battle was not lost, the commander was still on the field. When that flag falls you know that you have been overrun and the best thing you can do is try to get out alive. The psalmist is declaring that in the midst of chaos, God’s banner is still waving for those who will look to it and find courage. He invites the people to flee toward that banner, toward truth. This is a tricky verse to translate as the word “truth” only occurs here and in Proverbs 22:21. God and his truth are the rally point for cultural survival. A culture that has abandoned truth is stumbling drunk, questioning everything, seeing things that shouldn’t be, indeed, causing them. This is an apt description of western civilization today. Things which once were unthinkable are now unquestioned. Men marry men, men become women, boys become girls, babies are suctioned from their mother’s wombs in the name of sexual freedom, adult happiness is ultimate and the kids will be okay. We are reeling and need to rally around the banner of truth, the reality of God and his moral law. 

5 That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer us!

This verse forms the central prayer of the psalm. David hasn’t given up on God even though it feels like God has given up on his people. It feels like He is angry and it looks like he has rejected them, abandoning them when they needed him most. He failed at the most basic function -- keeping them secure. And yet, David trusts that the nation is still “beloved” by God and that God will answer his prayer even now, that they will be delivered from this calamity, that they will see God’s strong right hand intervene and answer his appeal. The right hand is synonymous with strength -- presumably because the majority of people are right-handed, so the right hand is the favored hand, used more often, stronger than the left. This is reflected in the Latin names for right (dexter) and left (sinister). The psalm teaches us that it’s okay to be angry and frustrated with God, to acknowledge feelings of disappointment and abandonment. But we need to move on to recognize that God is still on the battlefield, his flag is still flying and we can rally around him, around truth. And so David speaks truth to the situation. We are his beloved and he will save us with his own right hand. These are the words of Isaiah 52-53 as well as Isaiah describes God baring his holy arm in the sight of the nations, followed by a description of Jesus, the suffering messiah. Jesus is the salvation of God, his holy arm with whom he delivers his beloved. 

6 God has spoken in his holiness: [sanctuary] “With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Vale of Succoth.

7 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet; Judah is my scepter.

8 Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph.” [Revocalization (compare Psalm 108:10); Masoretic Text over me, O Philistia, shout in triumph]

David receives an immediate answer to his prayer. The action hasn’t taken place, but David envisions it through the eyes of faith. God speaks, either more generally “out of his holiness” to the heart of David or specifically, “from his sanctuary” (presumably from a prophet at the temple communicating that message to David and the people through him). Then we hear the voice of God, not the psalmist as He makes his boast. You cannot understand this text without looking at a map. Beginning with the land of Israel, he declares his sovereignty over the land. Shechem is the heart of western half of the country that sat astride the great travel route through the land,  and the fertile Valley of Succoth lies east of the Jordan (representing the eastern half of the country). Gilead lies north of Succoth and represents the northeastern part of the country corresponding with Ephraim and Manasseh to the west of Gilead and north of Shechem. Ephraim is described as the “helmet”, and represented the northern kingdom of Israel. As the helmet, Ephraim was a defensive buffer to the north, thwarting invasions from Syria. The remaining tribe is Judah who is described as being the scepter, the law-giver, literally, the “inscriber”. Of course David is from the tribe of Judah, the tribe predicted by Jacob to rule, even though Judah was the fourth son. Having described the geography of Israel and implying the fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to give Abraham the land that he walked up, God turns to Israel’s neighbors to the east, south, and west. He cleans up his feet in Moab, the land to the east of the Dead Sea suggesting a dirty basin of water, indicating that they would be in service to Israel, and he tosses his shoes on Edom, a symbolic gesture of ownership. Recall that it is the Edomites who are likely the attacking army in this psalm. God is declaring complete victory in this conflict and a preemptive celebration is in order. He shouts in triumph over Philistia, the nation to the west that had been a long-time enemy of Israel and David personally. This could also be translated that Philistia is shouting, but that wouldn’t really make sense. What this geography lesson shows is that God keeps his promises to Abraham, even if it took a thousand years. It will be another 1,000 years before God fulfills his ultimate promise to bless Abraham’s seed (plural, descendants) through Abraham’s seed (singular, Jesus). The seed of Abraham and the Root of Jesse (David) are both descriptive terms of Jesus, and the psalm reminds us of God’s certain victory even when it is still future. David hasn’t seen this victory, but he can see God’s promise fulfilled to Abraham in the parceling of land, and this gives him assurance that God is a promise keeper and worthy of his trust. 

9 Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?

10 Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go forth, O God, with our armies.

The response to Edom’s attack is to counter attack, invade their country and besiege their city. David asks rhetorically, “Who will lead us in this attack?”, and the implied answer is God, the one who has tossed his sandal on Edom and declared it “mine”. However, the following verse recalls the earlier lament of the psalm, God had seemed to reject his people and stayed behind when their armies went out. David asks three questions in quick succession, but it’s really just one repeated for emphasis. “Are you with us?” It’s a question that we often ask of God when things aren’t going well. Circumstances may suggest that we are alone, but David is fueled by the previous vision of reality - God is in control; He is sovereign over the nations; He is with us. David’s assurance of this was past history, looking back to previous victories and the success of his armies in the past, securing vast swaths of land as buffers between Israel and potential rivals. Our assurance of victory is also secured by looking to the past, to the ultimate “God with us” experience -- the incarnation of Jesus, who literally walked these same lands. “Every place you step your foot will be yours” -- this was the promise to Abraham. Jesus fulfills this pledge in an unexpected way. God walked the land and declared all of it “mine” through Jesus.  As Abraham Kuyper said, “There is not one square inch in all of creation over which Jesus, who is Lord of all, does not declare, ‘mine’”. Knowing that Jesus is sovereign over creation and human history, gives us the courage to face a new day, even as it may seem like the world is staggering as under the effects of wine. 

11 Oh, grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man!

12 With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.

The psalm concludes with a prayer and a prediction. The prayer is that God would help the nation against her foes, and this is undergirded by a bit of desperation -- “there’s no help from man (adam).” A recognition of our dependence on God is central to prayer because it is an indicator of the absence of pride. While David has been very successful in leading his armies to victory over the nations that surround Israel, at this moment he is giving credit to God and calling on Him for success. With that in mind he confidently states what will happen next. “With God will shall do valiantly”. In Hebrew, the word valiantly here is a noun that typically means strength or efficiency, and is often connected with military might but also courage, as in “David’s mighty men”, and “men of valor.” Knowing that God is helping us, gives us courage to move into the battle. The treading down of our foes recalls the prediction of Genesis 3 that the seed of woman would crush the serpent’s head. God’s ultimate beatdown of our enemies would take place one Passover weekend in Jerusalem. Humanity’s two primary foes would be defeated in the span of 3 days. Recall the opening scene of The Passion of the Christ, where Jesus is praying in the garden and his last act before being betrayed by a friend is to stomp on the head of a serpent. This victory was won in the garden, in prayer, before the actual battle on the cross. And so our victories will be won in prayer first as we call upon God for help against the foe, acknowledge our dependence on Him, and move courageously into action.