You have made the earth tremble; You have broken it; Heal it’s breaches for it is shaking.
You have shown Your people hard things; You have made us drink the wine of confusion.
You have given a banner to those who fear You, That it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah
That Your beloved may be delivered, Save with Your right hand and hear me.
God has spoken in His holiness, I will rejoice; I will divide Shechem and measure out the valley of Succoth.
Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet for My head; Judah is my lawgiver.
Moab is my washpot; Over Edom I will cast my shoe. Philistia shout in triumph because of Me.
Who will bring me to the strong city? Who will lead me to Edom?
Is it not You O God? Who cast us off? And You O God? Who did not go out with our armies?
Give us help from trouble, For the help of man is useless.
Through God we will do valiantly, for it is He who will tread down our enemies.
So, I admit, after reading today's Psalm, I knew I had a lot of studying to do, before I could post on it. See, I am not as well educated in all of the Old Testament as I should be. This Psalm refers to so many events that I know little about.
So, it was time to research, to dig deep, to understand David's words in this Psalm. Because honestly, from first glance, it again seems like such an angry Psalm, and to be honest, if it was not for doing Psalms Sunday, I may have read this Psalm and just move on to the next Psalm, without once trying to learn the background information, or the meaning of the Psalm.
I consulted several sources and I encourage you to check them out as well, since I will simply paraphrase what I read and feel that the sites have so much more to offer.
First, I went to Darlene Zschech's site She writes on each Psalm and I love the way she discusses each one. I am usually on her site each Sunday to read her take on the Psalm and to learn from her.
The second site, which provided me a wealth of historical information, was Spurgeon's Commentary on Psalm 60
So with the help of Spurgeon and Zschech, let's break down this Psalm and learn together, shall we?
Verse 1: O God, You have cast us off, You have broken us down; You have been displeased; O restore us again!
What displeasure is David talking about here? Well there is much. First and foremost, as you can find in I and II Samuel, the Hebrews demanded a king. This desire went against God's desire for His people. The Hebrews desired to be ruled by a person, as opposed to being ruled by God. And although He didn't like it, God helped to appoint their King, Saul.
And Saul was chosen king by the people based on worldly attributes, like his looks and height. And Saul continually disobeyed God.
According to Spurgeon, when David found himself on the throne, after Saul's death, he was put in a position to deal with an already crumbling Israel. He also had to handle problems at home and invasions from abroad.
He knew that the strife was due to the Lord's displeasure. And David chose to place himself in genuine prayer over the condition of Israel.
Verse 2: You have made the earth tremble; You have broken it; Heal it’s breaches for it is shaking.
I am going to quote Spurgeon here....
"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."
Verse 3: You have shown Your people hard things; You have made us drink the wine of confusion.
Israel had been through very difficult things because of the wrong choices they had made, but despite that, God still loved them. They were still his chosen people. But their hardships, though caused by their decisions, were God's will and served a purpose.
And in regards to drinking the wine of confusion, they were staggering, as though drunk, and they were ready to fall. Also, they were so hung up on all of the trouble they were facing, that it overflowed in them, so that they could no longer be joyful.
Verse 4: You have given a banner to those who fear You, That it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah
Again, I find it neccessary to quote Spurgeon, because he just said it so well.
"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."
Verse 5: That Your beloved may be delivered, Save with Your right hand and hear me.
Notice how David says to save first and then to hear. He is desperate.
Verse 6: God has spoken in His holiness, I will rejoice; I will divide Shechem and measure out the valley of Succoth.
David could speak with confidence, because God made promises that Israel would be victorious. He trusted in those promises.
My pastor today said that biblical hope is the confident faith that God will meet your expectation. It isn't just a wish, it is a confidence, in knowing that God can be held to His word.
Verse 7: Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet for My head; Judah is my lawgiver.
Again David talks of other lands that he will conquer, that God will give to Him.
Verse 8: Moab is my washpot; Over Edom I will cast my shoe. Philistia shout in triumph because of Me.
And now, I will quote Darlene who so eloquently stated... "Re the washpot…well David is stating the fact that as a washpot was a symbol of where dirty feet would be cleansed, and a man would cast his shoes aside before he washed his feet… that this nation coming against him was a mere washpot, a mere going through the motions now for David…he had dominion in his heart, and dominion in his stance…
Whatever you are going through, you may feel like God is a long way away, but believe me, he is closer than your next breath…and ready to intervene in His perfect time."
Verse 9: Who will bring me to the strong city? Who will lead me to Edom?
David intended to gain access into Petra, the city of the rock. But who would bring him into that strong and inaccesible city? David knew he couldn't do it with his military's strength only. No matter how many successes he would have before heading to Petra, it wasn't his own stregnth that was getting him the victories.
Verse 10: Is it not You O God? Who cast us off? And You O God? Who did not go out with our armies?
In His mercy, God will gather His people. He will rejoice in helping his prodigals. He loves it when we go astray and then seek His face again. He will not cast us off, He will hold our hands, He will carry us through. But we need to come to that place where we realize all that we had done and that we really do need God.
Verse 11: Give us help from trouble, For the help of man is useless.
This verse sure does speak for itself. How often do we seek the world for our answers? Instead of the Bible, we seek self-help books. When we are down, we want a friend to encourage us. Why not run to God? He gives us TRUE help for our troubles.
Verse 12: Through God we will do valiantly, for it is He who will tread down our enemies.
"The Lord is with us, omnipotence sustains us, and we will not hesitate, we dare not be cowards." - Spurgeon
"Take a good look at EVERY area of your life, and lay hold of God for the answers to those seemingly troublesome areas that you cannot seem to get victory over. For IT IS HE…WHO WILL TREAD DOWN OUR ENEMIES…."
- Darlene Zschech
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