Psalms 60:1 - Meaning and Application

The title tells us the general purpose of this psalm. It is a Michtam, David’s precious song, and it is meant to teach. The Levites were to teach it to the people, and through it they were to learn to trust God and rejoice in him. We also should use it to teach ourselves and one another.

Even in days of public joy, we still need instruction. We must learn to turn our gladness toward God and let it end in him. We must give no praise to the tools of our rescue that belongs to him alone. At the same time, our joys should strengthen our hope for what is still ahead.

The psalm also points to a particular time in David’s life. It was during war with the Syrians, including those from Mesopotamia and Zobah, and after a great victory over the Edomites under Joab, David’s commander, who left 12,000 enemies dead on the field. David looks at both troubles here. About the Syrians he prays, and about the Edomites he rejoices with holy confidence that God will finish the victory.

We often have cares and joys at the same time, and they help balance one another. One should not crowd out the other. They also give us matter for both prayer and praise, and both must be brought before God with the right heart. If one enemy has been beaten, another may still remain, so no one should boast as if every battle were over.

These opening verses begin with a sad memory of the many troubles and losses God had allowed his people to suffer in earlier years. During Saul’s reign, especially near the end, and during David’s struggle with Saul’s house, while David ruled only Judah, the kingdom was deeply troubled. Nearby nations took every chance to press in on them.

David says they had seen hard things, meaning they had suffered hard things, while the Philistines and other hostile neighbors attacked them (Psalm 60:3). God sometimes gives even his own people hard times in this world so they will not settle down here, but learn to rest in him alone. David also admits that God’s displeasure was the cause of their trouble: God had been angry with them, cast them off, and scattered them (Psalm 60:1). If God had not withdrawn his protection, their enemies could never have prevailed.

Whatever our trouble is, and whoever the human agents are, we must own God’s righteous hand in it. David also grieves over the results of those troubled years. The whole land had shaken, as if in an earthquake (Psalm 60:2). The people were filled with dread about how all this would end.

Even the faithful were stunned. David says God made them drink the wine of astonishment (Psalm 60:3), meaning they were stunned like people who have lost their senses and did not know how to explain God’s dealings with his people. They were amazed and did not know what to do. This reminder is given to teach the people. When God begins to favor us again, it is good to remember former troubles.

We should remember them for three reasons. First, so that the lessons of affliction stay fresh and humble us within ourselves (Lamentations 3:19, Lamentations 3:20). Second, so that God’s kindness in lifting us up will seem even greater, because relief after misery feels like life from the dead. Third, so that we do not become careless, but rejoice with caution, knowing we may be tested again before long.

David then gives thankful notice of the hope God had set before them, even though things had been bad for a long time. God had given a banner to those who fear him, meaning a signal of hope and unity for the faithful remnant (Psalm 60:4). This banner was David’s rule, now established and spreading over all Israel. The godly Israelites, who honored God’s choice of David for the throne, took his rise as a good sign from God.

Like a banner lifted up in battle, David’s kingdom did several things. It gathered the scattered people together. It gave them courage and new life. And it struck fear into their enemies, who now had a flag of challenge raised against them. In a higher sense, Christ, the Son of David, is the banner for those who fear God (Isaiah 11:10). In him they are gathered into one, to him they look, in him they boast, and from him they take courage. His love is the banner over them, and under him the church becomes as threatening to evil as an army with banners.

David then offers a humble plea for timely mercy. First, he asks God to be reconciled to them, even though he had been displeased with them. Since their troubles began in God’s anger, their peace must begin in God’s favor: “Turn yourself to us again” (Psalm 60:1). If God smiles on them and takes their side, they will have peace indeed. A God at peace with us spreads peace through everything else.

Second, David asks that the people be reconciled to one another, since they had been broken apart and badly divided. “Heal the breaches of our land” (Psalm 60:2), he says, meaning both the wounds made by enemies and the divisions made among themselves. Human folly and sin create such cracks, and only God’s wisdom and grace can repair them by pouring out love and peace. Only then can a shaken and shattered kingdom be set right and saved from ruin.

So God’s people might be kept safe from their enemies (Psalm 60:5), the prayer is, “Deliver those you love, and do not let them be taken as prey. Save them by your right hand, by your own power, and by the means you choose. Hear me.” Those who fear God are his beloved. They are as dear to him as the apple of his eye. They often face distress, but they will be delivered.

God’s own right hand will save them, because those who have his heart also have his hand. “Save them, and hear me.” This reminds us that God’s praying people can treat the church’s public deliverances as answers to their own prayers. If we use whatever standing we have before God to ask blessings for the whole people of God, and those blessings come, then besides sharing in the good they bring, each of us can say with special joy, “God has heard me and answered me.”