Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 8 Nov. 2026
Underlined words in Scripture quotes indicate words that are in common with the Biblical language text of the sermon passage. Otherwise, underlining indicates words to emphasize vocally when reading this transcript out loud.
The superscript of this Psalm has a curious phrase, which in Hebrew is שׁוּשַׁן עֵדוּת :
The ancient Greek Septuagint translated it, “for them that shall be changed,”
The Aramaic Targums added some words to come up with, “Concerning the ancient testimony between Jacob and Laban,”
Menacham Meiri’s commentary from the 13th century says it was a musical instrument,
Nineteenth century commentators Hengstenberg and Alexander claimed that it referred to the law of God as found in the books of Moses,
And the NIV translated it, “To the tune of ‘The Lily of the Covenant.’” (I’m inclined towards the NIV’s interpretation.)
The only other place in the Bible where a phrase anything like this appears is in the superscription to Asaph’s Psalm 80, another psalm which expresses distress over God’s discipline followed by a plea for restoration much like this one does.
The occasion about which Psalm 60 was written was, according to the superscription, “when [David] strove/struggled/fought Aram Naharaim [that is, the northern Syrians in Mesopotamia along the Euphrates River] and with Aram-tsobah [that is, the western Syrians by the mountainous border of Lebanon], and Joab [David’s army general] returned and smote/struck down 12,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt [somewhere around the Dead Sea south of Israel1].”
These army campaigns under King David are mentioned in 2 Samuel 8 (where Joab is not mentioned) and in 1 Chronicles 18:12 (where David’s other General, Abishai is mentioned and the total body count is 18,000, perhaps indicating that Abishai, the younger general, led a force that killed 6,000 Edomites in addition to the 12,000 that Joab’s forces killed, and David, as King, got credit for the overall victory achieved by his two generals2).
However, it appears that this Psalm was written before those victories in battle – when the threat of the Syrians and Edomites against Israel was weighing heavily upon David’s mind. The oppression which was coming from these foreign nations was felt by David as chastisement from God Himself, so he asks for God to deliver him and his people.
Translation
of Psalm 60:1-5: For the concert-master. To “The Testimonial
Lilly.” A journal-entry by David for teaching about his conflict
with Mesopotamia and Western Syria when Joab returned
and made a strike against 12,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
God, You have put us off, /and\ You have broken us. You have
been angry, /yet\ You will bring restoration to us. You have caused
the land to quake /and\ You have opened rifts in her. Heal her
fractures for she has been in upheaval. You have caused Your people
to see hardship/s\; You have caused us to drink dizzying wine. You
have given a signal for those who respect You to be distinguished
from the presence of what is certain. SELAH
In order that Your
beloved ones may be rescued, please save [by] Your right hand and
answer /me\.
I’m sure there were a million matters of state and hundreds of administrative problems which David could have pointed at at the causes of his dismay, but he goes right to the heart of the matter with the first word of his Psalm: “O God, You have put us off…”
This reflects what he has said in other recent Psalms of lament like:
Psalm 43:2 “...my God, my stronghold! Why did you cast me away? Why do I go gloomily into the oppression of an enemy? ” (NAW)
Psalm 44:9 “...You have put off and caused us embarrassment, and You /God\ have not deployed with our armies.” (NAW)
Calvin’s commentary on this Psalm related this “rejection” to God’s rejection of King Saul, “[H]e deplores the long-continued and heavy disasters which had fallen upon the people of God under Saul’s administration... 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…”
When everything is going wrong, and the appliances and the car are breaking down, and the kids are fighting (or the boss and co-workers are yelling at each other), and everybody is being mean to you, and nothing is going your way, and it looks like you are an utter failure, and sickness or disability is overwhelming you, David points the way to the first person you need to talk to about it all, and that is God.
Whether the problems are your fault and you need to start by confessing your sin to God,
or whether the problems are not your fault and you simply need to talk to the One in charge of everything, you must pray!
The only time in the Biblical history of David that the verb in v.1 for “burst forth/broken/scattered” occurs with God as the subject is when David was trying to move the Ark of the Covenant from Keriath Jearim to Jerusalem without following God’s directions for how to move it properly – the Bible also says that God got “angry” on that occasion:
2 Samuel 6:5-9 “...David along with all the /children\ of Israel were playing before the presence of Yahweh with all [their] /might, that is with songs\ and with guitars and with harps and with tambourines and with shakers and with /flutes\. And when they walked toward the threshing-floor of /Nodon\, Uzzah reached out /his hand\ toward the ark of God /to\ hold onto it because the oxen had come loose. Then the anger of Yahweh grew hot against Uzzah, and God struck him down there on the basis of his deviance, and he died there beside the ark of God. Then it grew hot for David due to Yahweh bursting out with an outburst against Uzzah (and that place is called the Uzzah Outburst to this day), and David became afraid of Yahweh on that day, /saying\, ‘How can the ark of Yahweh come to me?’” (NAW, || 1 Chron. 11, cf. 1 Chron. 15:13)
In Deuteronomy 9:8 Moses told the Hebrew nation, “Also in Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath [by worshiping the golden calf], so that the LORD was angry enough with you to have destroyed you.” (NKJV)
God gets justifiably angry at us when we show disrespect to Him through rebellion, disobedience, or even indifference or unthankfulness toward Him. (Psalm 2:12 “Pay homage without hindrance, otherwise He will become angry and y'all will perish...” ~NAW)
We also see God’s wrath in the New Testament – for instance, in Ephesians 2:3, where it calls those who conduct themselves in the lust of the flesh “children of wrath.” Ephesians 2:3-7 “...we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (NKJV)
God’s grace is the astounding reason why the end of Psalm 60 verse 1 takes the sudden shift from dismay to hope: “...yet/now You will bring restoration to us [turn thyself to us again].”
The only other time this intensive (Polel) form of the verb occurs in the Bible before Psalm 60 is Psalm 23:3 – “He restores my soul…” This is what God does. Yes He disciplines His people when they sin, yes He allows stress to press us closer to Him in faith, but that is never permanent; He always restores.
The Sons of Korah, and the Prophets, and the Apostles after them all recognized this hope:
Psalm 85:4-7 “Restore us, O God of our salvation, And cause Your anger [כעס] toward us to cease. Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations? Will You not revive [חיה] us again, That Your people may rejoice in You? Show us Your mercy, LORD, And grant us Your salvation.” (NKJV)
Isaiah 12:1 “...I will thank You, Yahweh: though You were angry with me, Your anger turned away, and You showed compassion to me.” (NAW)
1 Peter 5:10 “And after y'all have suffered a few [things], the God of all grace who called y'all into His eternal glory in Christ Jesus will Himself renew3 [y'all], He will confirm, strengthen, [and] establish.” (NAW)
Do you have that hope? Do you understand and believe (and live like you believe) that God brings restoration after brokenness? Will you seek God in prayer for that restoration?
Hebrews 11:6 “[W]ithout faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (NKJV)
So first principle of praying from dismay is to go to God. The second principle in in...
In verses 2-3, David seems to be describing the damage that foreign armies of Edomites and Syrians have done to Israel, as well as the internal disunity and infighting among the tribes of Israel, using terminology of an earthquake figuratively4. But note who David blames in verses 2 & 3 for all the damage: He blames God: “You caused this!”
God unashamedly takes the credit for His acts of judgment and discipline:
Psalm 18:7 “Then the earth crashed and buckled, and foundations of mountains trembled [ירגזו]. They crashed themselves because he was angry.” (NAW)
Isaiah 13:13 “Therefore I will make the heavens tremble [ארגיז], and the earth will shake out of her place at the wrath of Yahweh Commander of armies in the day of His fierce anger.” (NAW, cf. 24:19)
And yet, at the same time, God is the only way to find security in the midst of the judment and chastisement He brings to the earth: Psalm 46:1-3 “It is God who has truly been found to be a refuge, a strength, and a helper for us in crises, therefore we will not be afraid when the earth shifts and when the mountains are overthrown into the heart of the seas. Its waters roar; they roll. Mountains will quake with its uprise.” (NAW)
And so David asks God to “heal/mend/repair the fractures/breaches/wounds” which He has inflicted on His people. And notice the reason why: simply because “the land is shaking/tottering/quaking!” David knows that God has compassion over brokenness.
When Jesus, in Matthew 9:36, looked out over the multitudes who were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd,” He didn’t despise them or wish for more punishment on them. No! “He was moved with compassion for them…” (NAW)
Isaiah 30:26 “...Yahweh will bind up His shattered people, and He will heal the wound of His blow.” 54:10 “For the mountains may recede and the hills may slip away, but my lovingkindness will not recede from you and the covenant of my peace will not slip away, says Yahweh, your Compassionate One.” (NAW)
2 Chron. 7:14 “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (NKJV)
In v.3, David further acknowledges God’s sovereignty by confessing that it was God who had made His people see hardship. The only other occurrences of this word for “hard” in the Biblical history of David are in 2 Sam. 2:17, 3:39, when Abner & Ishbosheth contested David’s right to the throne after King Saul died, so a “hard” battle was fought by “hard” men before David could become king. That was certainly a time of deep division and political upheaval for the nation of Israel, explaining the metaphor of the earthquake in the previous verse.
In our day and age, we see deep division between political parties and even within political parties with radically different visions for the government and future of our nation, resulting in tumultuous swings in policy back and forth from one extreme to another as different administrations come into power and try to do opposite things. We can relate to David’s words of lament here over the instability of his nation, and we need to learn from David’s considerable experience (as both a king and a true prophet) how to think and what to do in situations like ours.
I’ve seen a lot of pundits evaluating the landslide victory of the Democrats and Socialists over the last week after the elections, but almost none of them learned from the Bible how to think about current events. They have mostly focused on this or that political mis-step of the President or of the Senate Majority leader or of the Texas Governor and how to either resist or ride the Blue Wave, and almost nobody is saying: “God did this; God, heal this!” – but that’s what David teaches us to do.
“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... Whatever our trouble is, and whoever are the instruments of it, we must own the hand of God, his righteous hand, in it… [Even] When God is turning His hand in our favour, it is good to remember our former calamities... that we may retain the good impressions they made upon us, and may have them revived.” ~M. Henry, 1714 AD
Psalm 71:20 “You, who have shown me great and severe troubles [צָרוֹת], Shall revive [חיה] me again, And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.” (NKJV) Do you believe that? Are you asking Him to do that?
At the end of v.3, David describes this time of experiencing hardships figuratively as God making Israel drink “wine” to the point of them being “disoriented/dizzy/shaky” (cf. Psalm 11:6).
“[T]he Hebrews [could] make their wine stronger and more inebriating by the addition of ... spices… [distillates], mandrakes, opiates, and other drugs… [so that’s what this wine of astonishment may be referring to].” ~James M’Lean (English translator of Calvin’s commentaries), 1846 AD
Later Old Testament Prophets picked up on this same image of God’s punishment as being like an alcoholic drink, as did Jesus Himself when He referred to His crucifixion as a “cup” from God that He must drink according to God’s will, in order to suffer God’s wrath against our sin in our place, satisfy justice for our offenses against God, and redeem us and bring us into God’s house forever. We also see “cups” of intoxicating beverage as symbols of God’s punishments against sinners prophesied in the book of Revelation.
Psalm 75:8 of Asaph “For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, And the wine is red; It is fully mixed, and He pours it out; Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth Drain and drink down.” (NKJV)
Jeremiah 25:15-16 “For thus says the LORD God of Israel to me: ‘Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. And they will drink and stagger and go mad5 because of the sword that I will send among them.” (NKJV, cf. Ezekiel 23:31-32)
Isaiah 51:17-22 “...Jerusalem, which drank from the hand of Yahweh the cup of His fury. You drank you drained the goblet cup of the trembling… Therefore, please hear this, lowly one, and intoxicated one (but not from wine). Thus says your Lord Yahweh and your God, who will contend for His people, ‘Look, I take from your hand the cup of trembling. The goblet cup of my fury you will not be caused to drink any more of it again.” (NAW)
Habakkuk 2:16 “You will be filled with shame instead of glory; you also must drink and be treated as uncircumcised. The cup of Yahweh's right hand will come around upon you, and intense shame will be upon your glory…” (NAW)
Zechariah 12:2 “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.” (KJV)
Matthew 26:39 “...My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass by me..."
Revelation 14:9-10 “...If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone… 16:19 … and Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath…” (NKJV)
At the chiastic center of verses 2 & 3, however is that urgent prayer – a command even to God, “Heal/mend/repair her broken places…” When we are in dismay, we must not only go to God, we must ask Him in faith for healing! The next step is in..
Verse 4 calls this gift a “banner.”
According to a commentary by Hamer quoted in a footnote of Calvin’s commentary, “Eastern people have looked upon the giving them a banner as a more sure pledge of protection ‘than that given by words.’ So Albertus Aquensis tell 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, until they had received the banner of Tancred [one of the chiefs of the Crusade army] as a pledge of life… [they trusted the banner] when they would not trust any promises.”
This word for “sign/standard/banner” shows up only three times in the Bible before Psalm 60, each one of them as a memorial of God’s judgment against sin and salvation of His people:
Exodus 7:14-16 “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.’ And Moses built an altar and called its name, The-LORD-Is-My-Banner; for he said, ‘Because the LORD has sworn: the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.’” (NKJV)
Numbers 21:8 “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a [signal]pole[standard]; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.’” (NKJV)
Numbers 26:10 “and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up together with Korah when that company died, when the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men; and they became a sign.” (NKJV)
This is not the “banner” of love from the Song of Solomon (2:4) or the celebratory “banner” of Psalm 20:5, the Hebrew word for which is “digel;” this instead is the Hebrew word “naes,” a battle-standard that says, “We’re in a war, and this is the boundary between the two sides at war with each other – between the pagan Amalekites and the people of God, between the rebels who will die of snakebite and the penitent who will look in faith upon the standard, between the rebels swallowed by the earth and those faithful to God and His Anointed – and you’d better be on the right side – the side God is taking!”
As to what specifically this banner was, godly men have explained it various ways, but the general idea is the same:
Matthew Henry commented in the 18th century, “This banner was David's government [really, the government of God’s Anointed One]6, 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... It animated them, and put life and courage into them, as the soldiers are animated by the sight of their banner. 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. 11:10-12), 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’ (Cant. 6:4-10).”
19th Century Commentator William Plummer stayed closer to the text here when he wrote, “The banner then is the truth, the truth of God, which had been much obscured in the reign of Saul, but was now to be lifted up in the pious care of David for the sound instruction of the people and for the pure worship of God.”
Others have said the banner is God Himself. A footnote in Calvin’s commentary reads, “The poet uses this symbol to express his hope that God Himself would be the source of their valor and success, in order that the truth, the promise made to David, might be accomplished.”7.
In
the Gospel of John, we see all
three concepts of God
who is also the Anointed
One to govern God’s people and who is also The Truth
– fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus said:
John 12:31-33
“‘Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this
world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all [peoples] to Myself.’ This He said, signifying by
what death He would die.” (NKJV) We
are in a spiritual war which is much bigger than the political
upheavals of our day. The cross of Christ marks the boundary
between the Holy God and the Sinful World.
(I
think T. S. Elliot referred to it as the “axle-tree... the still
point of the turning world8.”)
This is the “sign/standard/banner” which God has “given” to “those who fear/respect [Him].” Although contemporary English versions have translated this Hebrew verb with English words less-central to its meaning, the #1 dictionary definition of this Hebrew verb is “to give,” implying that God is the source of this sign and that it comes to us as a free gift from Him.
To those who “fear” God He gives this gift. We “fear” Him because He, as our Creator, has the right to tell us what we must (and must not) do and to judge every one of us by His standard, and He has the awesome power to punish all who have rebelled against Him and transgressed His law.
The
second half of v.4 gets translated lots of different ways:
to
be distinguished from the presence of certainty/that it may be
displayed because of the truth/to be unfurled against the bow/that
they may flee from the bow/before the archers.
English versions translated before the year 2000 generally rendered it according to the Masoretic Hebrew text that this “banner” which God has given to His people is to “be lifted up before the truth.”
But English versions translated after the year 2000 generally rendered it according to the ancient Greek and Aramaic versions that this “banner” is for God’s people to “flee from the bow/archers.” In other words, God lets His people know by means of a sign or banner where a place of safety is to which they can run in order to escape from hostile soldiers.
The main reason for the disagreement in interpretation of verse 4 is that the words, as they are spelled in the Medieval Masoretic Hebrew text, are rather-obscure words for “truth” and for “certainty,” found in only one or two other verses in the Hebrew Old Testament, also, they are spelled very similarly to the more-common words in Hebrew for “flee” and for “bow.” Furthermore, in a curious providence of history, although we believe that the Psalms were originally written in Hebrew, the oldest-known manuscripts of this Psalm are Greek, Aramaic, and Latin translations which read “flee from before the bow,” which are hundreds of years older than the oldest-known Hebrew manuscripts which read “displayed because of the truth.”
I think that it would do David an injustice to interpret this Psalm as merely saying that God would help David’s army avoid casualties from archers as he marched against the Syrians that were oppressing Israel, although that is surely part of David’s thinking as he walks through the dark valley of death. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, David’s Psalms also carry instruction about Jesus the Messiah and about God’s relationship with the church of all ages, and so the concept of God giving to His people a standard which marks out the boundary of truth between God’s wrath against sin and His salvation of His people from judgment by the substitutionary atonement of Jesus on the cross is just as certainly there in the meaning of this verse.
20th Century Jewish commentator A. Cohen explained in the Soncino Commentary, “In the darkness of the nation’s humiliation, the psalmist perceives a ray of hope by reflecting upon the past. God had summoned Israel, who acknowledged His Sovereignty, to His service, and, so to speak, presented them with the banner of His cause, which they were to hold aloft for the purpose of guiding other people to His truth… By recognizing Israel as His standard-bearers, He had displayed His love for them. Upon that fact the Psalmist bases his plea.”
So, in the midst of dismay, we must go to God, ask Him for Healing, receive and use what He has given us, and finally in...
David ends this part of his prayer in v.5 by asking once again, in different words, for God to save him, and not just him but all those who are “loved” by God.
He does this with the conviction that God has the ability to save him,
and with the understanding that there is no other way that he can be saved except by God’s right hand, (Psalm 17:7 “Savior of those who take refuge from adversaries by Your right hand, showcase your lovingkindness.” ~NAW)
and with the faith that he is one of God’s beloved. (Psalm 18:19 “...He will bring me out to [where there is] room; He will snatch me away because He delights in me.” ~NAW)
And he doesn’t give up and quit asking God for salvation. (He’s been praying this since Psalm 69, and he’s still praying it in Psalm 60!)
The same is true of all who will be saved: we believe that God can save, that God alone can save us from hell, and that Jesus loves us, so we don’t give up on Him or quit looking to Jesus for our salvation.
The Messianic fulfillment of verse 5 comes clear when we consider Who it is that sits at the right hand of the Father10 – God’s salvation of His people came through Jesus at God’s right hand! In the ultimate, spiritual, eternal sense, David’s prayers (and the prayers of all God’s people) for salvation were answered when Jesus left the right hand of His Father in heaven and “suffered for us under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, and the third day rose from the dead, then ascended into heaven to sit at God’s right hand” and ensure our eternal salvation.
Let me pause the Psalm here and conclude by going back to the superscription at the beginning of the Psalm which tells us that it is “to teach/for instruction.”
In every case that this word “teaching/instruction” occurs in this form in the Hebrew Old Testament, it is something intended to be taught to others.
Thus Matthew Henry commented, “[T]he general design of the psalm... is to teach… we must, in it, teach ourselves and one another. [Whether in a day of dismay or i]n 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 [in Him]…”
Anatoly Sharansky’s book Fear No Evil, published in 1988, describes his nine-year imprisonment and torture in the Soviet Russian Gulags for the crime of exposing human rights abuses in the Russian government to English-speaking journalists. At one point, prison officials informed him of his father’s death but refused to allow him to write a letter of sympathy to his mother. It was at this point that he decided to spend the next 40 days reading and copying Psalms from the Hebrew Bible. He wrote, “Day after day, I reconciled myself with the past, and my feelings of grief and loss were gradually replaced by sweet sorrow and fond hopes.” He was “buoyed up by the power of God’s words in the psalms to mend brokenness and to retake territory occupied by evil…. No matter how broken and fragmented our world becomes because of our own and others’ sin, God can mend and heal up its fractures. Our failures do not mean that God has failed…. Confronted by [our] own human impotence in the face of attack or suffering, [we] are forced to approach the only stronghold and hope”11 left, and that is God.
When dismay grips your soul, go to God, ask Him for healing, recognize and use the gift of Jesus Christ which He has given you, and keep praying for deliverance believing that He loves you and will deliver you.
DouayB (Vulgate) |
LXXC
|
BrentonD (Vaticanus) |
KJVE (1769) |
NASBF (1995) |
NIVG |
ESVH (2025) |
NAW (2026) |
HebrewI |
BauscherJ |
E.M.CookK |
1
Unto the end, for them
that shall be changed,
for the inscription
of a title, to David himself, for doctrine,
2)
When he set
fire to Mesopotamia
of Syria and Sobal: and Joab returned and slew of Edom, in the
vale of the saltpits, 12
thousand men. 3)
O God, thou hast
cast us off,
[and]
hast destroyed
us; thou hast been angry, [and]
|
1
Εἰς τὸ τέλος· τοῖς ἀλλοιωθησομένοις
ἔτι, εἰς στηλο γραφίαν τῷ Δαυιδ,
εἰς διδαχήν, |
1
For the end, for them
that shall yet be changedM;
for an inscription
by David for instruction, when he had burned
Mesopotamia
of Syria, and Syria Sobal, and Joab had returned
and smitten X XN
in the valley of salt 12
thousand. O God, thou hast
rejected
[and]
destroyed
us; thou hast been angry, [yet]
hast pit |
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 |
1 For the choir director; according to Shushan Eduth. A Mikhtam of David, to teach; when he struggled with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and Joab returned, and smote 12 thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt. O God, You have rejected us. You have broken us; You have been angry; O, restore us. |
1 For the director of music. To the tune of "The Lily of the Covenant." A miktam of David. For teaching. When he fought Aram Naharaim and Aram Zobah, and when Joab returned and struck down twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt. You have rejected us, O God, [and] burst forth [upon] us; you have been angry-[now] restore us! |
1
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 12
thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt.
O God, you have
rejected
us, broken
|
1 /For the concert-master. To “The Testimonial Lilly.” A journal-entry by David for teaching about his conflict with Mesopotamia and with Western Syria when Joab returned and made a strike against 12,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt.\ God, You have put us off, /and\ You have broken us. You have been angry, /yet\ You will bring restoration to us. |
א
לַמְנַצֵּחַ עַל שׁוּשַׁןO
עֵדוּת מִכְתָּםP
לְדָוִד לְלַמֵּדQ: |
1 God, you have forgotten us, [and] you have driven us out [and] you have been provoked with us X X! |
1.
For praise. Concerning the ancient
testimony
between Jacob and Laban. A copy [made] by David, for
instruction. 2. When [David had gathered
troops and passed
by the Heap of Witness
and]
fought with Aram-on-the-Euphrates and Aram Zobah, and
[afterwards] Joab returned and smote the Edomites in the Plain
of Salt, [and] twelve thousand [from the army of David and
Joab] |
4) Thou hast moved the earth, [and] hast troubled it: heal thou the breaches thereof, for it has been moved. |
4 συνέσεισας τὴν γῆν [καὶ] συνετάραξας αὐτήν· ἴασαι τὰ συντρίμματα αὐτῆς, ὅτι ἐσαλεύθη. |
2 Thou hast shaken the earth, [and] troubled it; heal its breaches, for it has been shaken. |
2 Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh. |
2 You have made the land quake, You have split it open; Heal its breaches, for it totters. |
2 You have shaken the land [and] torn it open; mend its fractures, for it is quaking. |
2 You have made the land to quake; you have torn it open; repair its breaches, for it totters. |
2 You have caused the land to quake /and\ You have opened rifts in her. Heal her fractures for she has been in upheaval. |
ד הִרְעַשְׁתָּה אֶרֶץ פְּצַמְתָּהּV רְפָה שְׁבָרֶיהָ כִי מָטָה: |
2 You have shaken the Earth [and] you have opened it, breaching its breaks, therefore it is weakened. |
4. You shook the land [of Israel, you made it quake and] you flayed it; heal its wounds, for it has become unsteady. |
5) Thou hast shewn thy people hard thing[s]; thou hast made us drink the wine of sorrow. |
5 ἔδειξας τῷ λαῷ σου σκληρά, ἐπότισας ἡμᾶς οἶνον κατανύξεωςW. |
3 Thou hast shewn thy people hard thing[s]: thou has made us drink the wine of astonishment. |
3 Thou hast shewed thy people hard thing[s]: thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. |
3 You have made Your people experience hardship; You have given us wine to drink that makes [us] stagger. |
3 You have shown your people desperate [times]; you have given us wine that makes us stagger. |
3 You have made your people see hard thing[s]; you have given us wine to drink that made [us] stagger. |
3 You have caused Your people to see hardship/s\; You have caused us to drink dizzying wine. |
ה הִרְאִיתָ עַמְּךָ קָשָׁהX הִשְׁקִיתָנוּ יַיִן תַּרְעֵלָהY: |
3
You have shown your people hardship[s]
and you have made |
5. You made your people see hardship, you made us drink the wine of execration. |
6) Thou hast given a warning to them that fear thee: that they may flee from before the bow: X |
6 ἔδωκας τοῖς φοβουμένοις σε σημείωσιν τοῦ φυγεῖν ἀπὸ προσώπου τόξου. διάψαλμα. |
4 Thou hast given a token to them that fear thee, that they might flee from XZ the bowAA. Pause. |
4 Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. |
4 You have given a banner to those who fear You, That it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. |
4
[But]
for those who fear you, you have |
4
You have |
4 You have given a signal for those who respect You to be distinguished from the presence of what is certain. SELAH |
ו נָתַתָּה לִּירֵאֶיךָAB נֵּסAC לְהִתְנוֹסֵסAD מִפְּנֵי קֹשֶׁטAE סֶלָה: |
4
You have given your worshipers a sign
that they will [not]
flee from before
[your] |
6. You have given those who fear you a sign to be lifted up by, because of the honesty [of Abraham] forever. |
That
thy beloved
may be delivered.
7) Save [me
with] thy
right hand, and |
7 ὅπως ἂν ῥυσθῶσιν οἱ ἀγαπητοί σου, σῶσον [τῇ] δεξιᾷ σου καὶ ἐπάκουσόν μου. |
5
That thy beloved ones may be delivered; save [with]
thy right hand, and |
5
That thy beloved may be delivered; save with
thy right hand, and |
5 That Your beloved may be delivered, Save [with] Your right hand, and answer us! |
5
Save [us]
and |
5
That your beloved ones may be delivered,
[give]
salv |
5 In order that Your beloved ones may be rescued, please save [by] Your right hand and answer /me\. |
ז לְמַעַן יֵחָלְצוּןAF יְדִידֶיךָ הוֹשִׁיעָה AGיְמִינְךָ ועננוAH: |
5 So that your beloved ones will be equipped, save [me by] your right hand and answer me. |
7.
[Because of the merit of Isaac,] those who X
loveX
[you]
will be delivered; redeem [with] your right hand [because
of the piety of Jacob,] and |
1Scholars debate whether it was in the Negev more directly south of Judah or more southeast in the Dead Sea area, but between those two areas south of Judah was where the Edomites lived.
2Cohen independently published the same conclusions in the Soncino Commentary on the Psalms, and this theory was also the first on Plummer’s list. G. F. Wilson, however, seemed to think that Psalm 60, 1 Chr. 18 and 2 Sam. 8 were all describing different events in history. Augustine, on the other hand, following the Vulgate tradition that translates hatzot as “burned” saw no time in history when David “burned” Mesopotamia and therefore considered it an end-time prophecy of when the Messiah would judge the earth by fire, but his extremely allegorical and mystical interpretation is rather out-of-character for the down-to-earth details of the superscriptions of the Psalms.
3Καταρτίσαι, cf. the Hebrew word תְּשׁוֹבֵב (an intensive word for “turn”) in Psalm 60:1, which is translated οἰκτίρησας (“have compassion”) in the ancient Greek version of the psalm.
4Cf. Calvin: “‘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.” (M. Henry concurred.)
5וְהִתְגֹּעֲשׁוּ וְהִתְהֹלָלוּ – synonymous with words for what the earthquake did in v.2 and the “dizzying” effects of the wine of chastisement in v.3.
6Cf. Calvin “[W]hen 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.”
7This quote is cited as being from “Walford” by the English editor of Calvin’s commentary, as though Walford were a well-known commentator, but my searches for his commentary on the Psalms have turned up nothing.
8in his poem, “Burnt Norton.”
9Psalm 6:4 “Return, Yahweh! Snatch away my soul; save me because of Your lovingkindness.” (NAW)
10Viz. Matt. 22:44, 26:64, Mark 14:62, 16:19, Luke 22:69, Acts 2:33, 5:31, 7:55-56, Rom. 8:34, Eph. 1:20, Col 3:1, Heb. 8:1, 10:12, 12:2, 1 Pet. 3:22
11G. F. Wilson’s comment.
AWhen
a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not
indicate it has done so by the use of italics (or greyed-out text),
I put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses
a wording which is different from all the other translations, I
underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in
my opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the
Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original
text, I use strikeout. And when a version omits a
word which is in the original text, I insert an X. (I also place an
X at the end of a word if the original word is plural but the
English translation is singular.) I occasionally use colors to help
the reader see correlations between the various editions and
versions when there are more than two different translations of a
given word. The only known Dead Sea Scroll containing Psalm 59 is
11Q8 Psalmsd, containing fragments of verses 3-7, and it
agrees completely with the Masoretic text (including having
appropriate spaces between legible words to match what it in the
MT). Where the DSS and/or ancient versions support each other
against the MT in such a way that I suspect they are the original
reading, I have highlighted
them with
yellow.
BDouay Old Testament first published by the English College at Douay, A.D. 1609, Revised and Diligently Compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner, Published in 1582, 1609, 1752. As published on E-Sword Aug 5, 2026.
CThe Septuagint (LXX), edited by Alfred Rahlfs. Published in 1935; public domain. As published on E-Sword Aug 5, 2026
DEnglish translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, 1851, “based upon the text of the Vaticanus” but not identical to the Vaticanus. As published on E-Sword Aug 5, 2026
E1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published electronically by E-Sword Aug 8, 2019.
FScripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
GThe Holy Bible, New International Version Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
HThis publication contains The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright ©2001, 2016, 2025 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV® Text Edition: 2025. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.
IFrom
the Wiki Hebrew Bible
https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%A8_%D7%AA%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D.
DSS text comes from https://downloads.thewaytoyahuweh.com
JThe Peshitta Holy Bible Translated by Glenn David Bauscher, Copyright © 2018 Lulu Publishing, 3rd edition Copyright © 2019 as found on https://biblehub.com/hpbt/psalms/59.htm
KThe Psalms Targum: An English Translation, by Edward M. Cook, © 2001 Edward M. Cook. As found on http://targum.info/pss/ps2.htm
LCf Symmachus’ synonyms for these first two verbs in v.3: ανεβαλου… διεκοψας. He used the same verb for the third verb (“was angry” – Aquila used the synonym θυμωθεις), but used a very different word to translate the final verb: περιηγαγες (“lead astray” - cf. Aq. μετεστρεπψας “turned aside” and E’ περιεκυκλωσας “surrounded”) – These second-century translations are more like the MT than the LXX/Vulgate “had mercy.”
M2nd Century versions came up with yet more possibilities for this cryptic superscription: Aquila = “To the victory-bringer upon lilies, a testimony of the humble and perfect one of David.” Symmachus: “...for the flowers, a testimony of the humble-minded and spotless one of David...”
NSymmachus agreed with the LXX on translating הַצּוֹת as “burned,” but he did not omit “Edom” as the LXX did. Some mss of the LXX do not omit Edom, and it must have been one of those that Jerome followed, because the Vulgate does not omit Edom.
OAquila and Symmachus (followed by the NIV) interpreted this word as a “lily/flower,” but the Targums render it “ancient,” and the LXX/Vulgate rendered it “changed into something other.” 13th Century Jewish commentator Meiri suggested it was a musical instrument. Because of this confusion, many English versions have avoided hazarding a translation and merely rendered a transliteration. The only other place any form of this phrase appears is in the superscription to Asaph’s Psalm 80 (אֶל־שֹׁשַׁנִּים עֵדוּת), in which a synonym to the preposition appears and the first word is pluralized, yet the whole Psalm of which expresses a similar distress over God’s discipline together with a plea for restoration.
PThis is the 6th and final Miktam in the Psalms, the first being Psalm 16, and the rest being the four psalms previous to #60.
QIn every case that this Piel infinitive of “teach” occurs in the Hebrew Old Testament (HOT), it is something intended to be taught to others (Deut. 4:14, 6:1, Jdg. 3:2, 2 Sam. 1:18, 2 Chr. 17:7, Ezr. 7:10, and Dan. 1:4).
RLXX, Symmachus, and Vulgate read as though this word were spelled בהציתו (“he burned”) instead of the MT and Aramaic בהצותו.
SThese two areas of Aram (a.k.a. Syria) include one that is to the North in the “river valley” (a.k.a. Mesopotamia) and one that is on the mountainous, Eastern side of Syria in Zobah (cf. 1 Chr. 18). Both of these are described among David’s conquests in 2 Sam. 8. Syria was then a loose-knit coalition of city-states north of Israel (Damascus being another one of them), and, from time to time, they would band together in military action against Israel.
TMT Cantillation places the major punctuation of the verse here.
UThis is a correct translation of the Targums. The Targums state the opposite of the MT with the 3p verb: “they [David’s forces] fell,” instead of the MT’s 3s Hiphil verb “he [Joab] caused to strike.” The only passage in the historical books of the Bible relating David, the Edomites, and the number 12,000, is a victory in which David’s forces under Joab killed that many Edomites, but that makes the depressed tone of this psalm puzzling. The Targums’ proposed solution would be attractive if its interpretation could be derived from the MT or LXX text, but I don’t see how it can be. More likely, this describes political conditions earlier in David’s reign, prior to these victories. (With this Cohen and Delitzsch agreed.) Calvin’s English editor cited Hare, Secker, and Adam Clarke’s hypothesis that the superscription was supposed to introduce Psalm 85 and accidentally got put with Psalm 60 instead, but considering the level of scholarship put into the composition and compilation of the Psalms, I find that theory incredible.
VHapex Legomenon. BHS cites manuscripts which omit the pronominal ending (the object “it”), but all the ancient versions include it. MT cantillation places the major punctuation here.
WCf. Aq. καρωσεως (“dizziness”) and Sym. σαλου (“lurching”).
XSlavery
in Egypt was “qashah” (Ex. 1:14, 6:9, Dt. 26:6), but the
only other occurrences of this word in the Biblical history of David
are in 2 Sam. 2:17, 3:39, when Abner & Ishbosheth contested
David’s right to the throne after King Saul died, so a “hard”
battle had to be fought before David become king over all Israel.
That was certainly a time of deep division and political upheaval
for the nation of Israel, explaining the metaphor of the earthquake
in the previous verse.
Although this Hebrew word is singular
(“hardship” as attested by the Targums, NASB, CSB, Holman, and
LSB), the LXX, Peshitta, and Vulgate all rendered this word plural,
so most English versions pluralized it. (NLT deleted the actual verb
in this verse and turned this adjective into the main verb
instead!)
Matthew Henry commented, “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… while the Philistines and other
ill-disposed neighbours took all advantages against them…” This
sentiment was shared by Keil and Calvin, but G. F. Wilson, who was
less-inclined to see these Psalms as David’s compositions,
credited the upheaval primarily to “a foreign enemy.”
YThe
only other places this word appears in the Bible are in Isaiah
51:17 & 22 “...Jerusalem... drank from the hand of
Yahweh the cup of His fury. You drank - you drained - the
goblet cup of the trembling…” (NAW) and simplified forms
of it in Nahum 2:4 “war-horses tremble” and Zech.
12:2 “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling
unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege
both against Judah and against Jerusalem.” (KJV)
Augustine,
unable to let go of the image from the Latin superscription about
“burning Mesopotamia,” commented: “‘wine of goading’...
For it was not a killing that destroyeth, but a medicine that
burneth.”
Keil rendered it, “wine which is sheer
intoxication (an apposition instead of the genitive attraction),”
but I found no other commentator in agreement.
ZLXX Greek has the word “face/presence/before” (which is also in the MT), but Brenton omitted it in his English version.
AASymmachus’ version matches the LXX, but Aquila’s is “… a signal to be marked from the face of certainty.”
ABCf. Psalm 34:7 “God's angel is posted around in support of those who respect Him, and he will rescue them.” (NAW) “[W]hen God rewards such as fear and worship him, it is always with a respect to his own free love.” ~J. Calvin
ACThis word for “sign/standard/banner” shows up only three times in the Bible before Psalm 60, each one of them as a memorial of God’s judgment against sin and salvation of His people (Exo. 7:14-16, Num. 21:8 & 26:10).
ADThe
MT spelling is passive from the root נסס,
thus the Targum “be lifted up,” Keil “lift yourselves up,”
and Geneva/KJV/NKJV/RV/ASV/NASB “be displayed” (and NIV “be
unfurled”), but the Peshitta, LXX, and Vulgate all read active
from the root נוס
“flee”
(followed by the NET, ESV, CSB, Holman, LSB, and G. F. Wilson).
Could it be that the pre-Masoretic text read slightly
differently?
Keil commented: “[T]o 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... The reflexive התנוסס
here
therefore signifies not, as Hithpal. of נוּס,
“to betake one's self to flight,” but “to raise one's
self.”
Contrarily, G. F. Wilson, following Marvin Tate’s
commentary published in 1990, wrote, “It may be from nws
(‘flee, escape’), in which case the rallying banner does not
provide safety but exposes Israel to the firepower of the enemy
archers. In such an interpretation, verse 4 continues the negative
actions of God toward his people begun in 60:1-3 and assumes the
Hebrew noun qoset
(‘truth’)… is a mistake for one of the similar sounding
nouns...”
AEThis
word is not pointed like this anywhere else in the MT, and there are
only 3 other places where even this consonantal spelling occurs:
Prov. 22:21 “...the certainty of the
words of truth….,” Dan. 2:47 “… Of a truth it
is, that your God is a God of gods….,” and Dan 4:37 (Heb.
v.34) ...the King of heaven, all whose works are truth…”
(KJV), so, Geneva, KJV/NKJV, RV, AJV, ASV/NASB followed Symmachus,
the Targums, and the MT with “truth.” But NIV, NET, ESV, LSB,
Holman, CSB (and BHS footnotes) followed the Peshitta, LXX, and
Vulgate with “bow.” Why? The Hebrew word for the bow that shoots
arrows is קשׁת,
a homonym that sounds the same but has a different last letter.
“Archer” a participle of דּרך
("tread”)
or of משׁך
(“draw”)
is far more different in spelling from what the MT has here. It’s
hard to say whether the MT was edited after the ancient versions
were made or whether the ancient translators all got confused in the
same way, perhaps due to this word having a homophone and the
translation process using oral readers in combination with
translator-scribes?
Keil commented, “מִפְּנֵי
denotes the
reason and motive… [I]t is more than improbable that the bow,
instead of being called קֶשֶׁת
(feminine
of the Arabic masculine kaus), is here, according to an
incorrect Aramaic form of writing, called קֹשֶׁט,
whereas this word in its primary form קֹשְׁטְ
(Prov.
22:21) corresponds to the Aramaic קוּשְׁטָא
not in the
signification ‘a bow,’ but (as it is also intended in the Targum
of our passage) in the signification ‘truth’ … ‘Thou hast
given those who fear Thee a banner to muster themselves... on
account of the truth...’”
AFThe Niphal form of this verb only occurs previous to this Psalm in Num. 31:3; 32:17, 20, all denoting “being armed for war,” but the only other instances of the Niphal form of this verb outside of the parallel Psalms 60:7 || 108:7 are in Prov. 11:8-9, which clearly denote “rescue/snatched away.” The basic Qal form of this verb first occurs in Leviticus to denote “plucking/breaking out/extracting” stones defiled by mildew from a house.
AGAlthough all the versions insert a preposition here (“with/by”), there is no preposition here in the Hebrew. This noun “your right hand” is in the position of a subject or object, but we can rule out the possibility of it being the subject of the imperative verb because the verb is masculine and “arm” is feminine. To ask God to “save Your right arm” might be possible if David and the Messiah could call themselves God’s right arm, but nowhere else in Scripture is the phrase “your right arm” used of a third party (Gen. 48:18; Exod. 15:6, 12; 2 Sam. 2:21; Ps. 21:9; 44:4; 60:7; 108:7; 110:5; Ezek. 39:3), and everywhere that the phrase “your right arm” refers to God’s right arm, it is God’s arm acting to bring justice and salvation (e.g. Exodus 15:6 “Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has dashed the enemy in pieces.” ~NKJV) So you see why the interpretation of the agency of God’s salvation being His right arm has been chosen, even if it means inserting a preposition.
AHNIV, ASV/NASB, RV/ESV, LSB, and ESV follow the Kethib – the traditional Masoretic text (“us”) while Peshitta, LXX, Vulgate, Geneva, KJV/NKJV, AJV, CSB, Holman, Keil, and NET follow the Qere – the recommended edit from the Masoretic scribes (וַעֲנֵנִי – “and answer me”). The Qere is also supported by the parallel passage in Psalm 108:6 where there is no variant. Because David represents his nation as anointed king, there is no great difference in meaning whether it is he alone praying or his people praying for deliverance.