Psalm 60

Introduction & Background

“Welcome to Torah Today Ministries and our continuing series Tehillim Talks, our studies in the Psalms. And today, we’re going to look at Psalm 60, a very unique and can be very confusing Psalm until we find what I believe to be the key. And other people will find other keys and other ways of interpreting this very odd, confusing Psalm.

But this Psalm actually spoke deeply to my heart. And I’ve shared some of these insights with friends over the last couple of weeks. And I spoke to them in the same way.

So I hope it speaks to you as well. Psalm 60 has quite a long postscript to it. It says to the choir master, according to Shushan Idut.

Shushan is the Hebrew word for rose. Idut means testimony. So Shushan Idut would mean the rose of testimony.

What exactly this is, best guess, it’s a melody to which this psalm is to be sung. It’s a mikhtam of David. Now we’ve looked at the term mikhtam and all the Psalms from Psalm 56 through 60 are labeled as mikhtams.

And if you recall, a mikhtam means a golden truth, which I think is about the best translation for this word. It comes from a word for a special quality of gold. And each of these Psalms from 56 through 60 contains a golden truth.

And I think if we tap into what I believe is the golden truth contained in this psalm, it will really speak to us. A mikhtam of David for teaching. So it’s a psalm that we’re to learn from.

It’s not just to inspire or to encourage or it’s not just a plea to God, but it’s something that’s to teach us deeply. And it gives us the background for this psalm. When he, David, strove with Aram Nacharim and with Aram Zobah, and when Joab on his return struck down 12,000 of Edom in the Valley of Salt.

In other words, there’s a great victory. These battles are going on, incredible victories, and you can read more about these in 2 Samuel 10, and also 2 Samuel 8, 1 Chronicles 18, cover these events. I won’t go over them here, but great victories.”

Victory Yet Groaning

“So now here’s the question. As we get into the psalm, you see David kind of moaning. Now what’s so odd is in the previous psalm, Psalm 59, if you recall, all the circumstances in David’s life are totally against him.

Life is crushing him in, but his attitude is very positive. It’s very up, if you can put it that way. He’s encouraged.

He’s confident in God. He’s not worried about all the stuff that’s going on where Saul is sending his forces and spy masters to try to kill David. But here, there’s victory, yet David is groaning and moaning, and it just kind of feels like he’s defeated.

What’s going on? Well, let’s just do something a little different than we usually do. I’m just going to read straight through the Psalm, then go back and revisit a couple of details, and then tell you what I think is the golden truth the Psalm contains for us.

So here we go, first four verses. Oh God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses. You have been angry. Oh, restore us.

Now remember, the superscription is, we just killed 12,000 of the enemy, we’ve got victory. But David’s saying, God, you’ve rejected us.

Verse two, *you have made the land to quake. You have torn it open. Repair its breaches, for it totters.

You have made your people see hard things. You have given us wine to drink that made us stagger. You have set up a banner, and that word for banner can also be test for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow.*”

Banner, Test, or Miracle?

“You know what? I’m just gonna go ahead and dive into this a little bit. You’ll notice the red line on the left, which is my way of indicating a very difficult verse to translate.

And if you look at different translations, they translate this in an array of ways. This word, nase, which is the word that’s used here, can either be a banner or a test. It can also be a miracle.

The word for nase is miracle in Hebrew. But a test is given to elevate. And this word means to test, and it also means to elevate.

And it’s got a host of meanings to it. So which one do we pick? Why not all four?

You have set up a nase, a banner, a test, a miracle. You’ve set up something to elevate us. For those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow.

Now this word, we’re not quite sure of. Keshet, the word that’s translated bow here, actually means truth. It’s a very rare word for truth.

It’s only used, I think, four times in the Bible. Twice in Daniel as an Aramaic word for truth. But the other two places is found, it means truth, we think.

But it’s a homophone for the word keshet, spelled with a tov, which is kof sheen tov, instead of a tet at the end. And that means bow, like bow and arrow or the rainbow that God set in the clouds. And so some translations think it’s a homophone meaning bow.

Another is simply translated as truth. And so the translations can get kind of scattered here. Let me just give you a few.”

Comparing Translations

“Here’s how the English Standard Version translates it. You have set up a banner for those who fear you that they may flee to it from the bow.

The New American Standard says this. You have given a banner to those who fear you that it may be displayed because of the truth.

The Concordant Literal Translation says, you have given a banner to those fearing you for flight from the face of the bow.

And the Koren Tanakh puts it this way. But you have given those who fear you a waving banner beyond bow shot.

Now, it’s interesting. Koran, which is a Jewish publisher, in their Tanakh, in their version of the scriptures, they translate it as bow, or bow shot. But this is the, also by the same publisher, this is the Tanakh Tehillim.

And I’m going to be reading a comment to you from this. The Koren, K-O-R-E-N, Tehillim. It’s a wonderful book.

And I have the small softback version. And this is how it translates it. Well, you have raised a banner for those who fear you around which they may rally for the sake of truth.

So, which one’s right? We don’t know. Take your pick.

Choose them all. Because they all contain definite insights into the truth.”

God’s Dominion Over Nations

“Well, let’s move on. Verses five through eight. *That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer us. God has spoken in his holiness.

Quote, with exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the veil of Sukkot. Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine, Ephraim is my helmet, Judah is my scepter. Moab is my wash basin, upon Edom I cast my shoe, over Philistia I shout in triumph. Unquote.*

Now these early places, Shechem and Gilead, Manasseh, Ephraim, these are all parts of Israel, and Judah of course. But these other places, Edom and Philistia are the enemy.

And they’ve just battled Edom. They’ve killed 12,000. And he says, Moab is my wash basin.

In other words, this is a place where I wash my feet. And if you’ve been in a war, your feet are going to get bloodied. And maybe it’s a wash basin where he washes his hands as well, because they have blood on them.

And upon Edom, I cast my shoe. Since shoes cannot be made ritually clean, they are basically destroyed when they become this impure from battle. So I cast my shoe over Edom. And Philistia, I shout in triumph.”

Confusion and Contradiction

“In verses 9-12, who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?

Well, they just were at Edom. They just killed 12,000. They won the war.

But he feels like he hasn’t even started. It’s very confusing. It’s very contradictory.

Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go forth, O God, with our armies. Well, he just said that he, he, his, Moab’s his washbasin.

Edom, I, over Edom, I cast my shoe. Over Philistia, I shout triumph. What, what is David saying here?

Who will lead me to Edom? They’ve just been to Edom. They just won.

Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go forth, O God, with our armies. O grant us help against the foe. For vain is the salvation of man. With God, we shall do valiantly. It is he who will tread down our foes.

What is going on here? What in the world is going on? Somehow, as I read this Psalm, I wasn’t getting much understanding.

It just was not making any logical sense to me. But somehow deep in my spirit, it was like familiar. It’s like I’ve been here before.

I’ve been to a place where I got what I wanted, but lost my ability to enjoy it. It’s almost as if God gave me what I prayed for, but there was no blessing in it.”

The Rose and the Thorns

“Did you ever get your own way and then you’re miserable because of it? I can think of several things in my, especially in my youth where I was passionately desiring something. I had to have this thing when I got it. What a pain in the neck it was.

It’s like so many people who want a boat. A lot of guys want a boat. Fortunately, I’ve never been one of those, but I hear this frequently.

They say the two happiest days in a boat owner’s life is the day he buys the boat, and the day he sells the boat. It’s like, if I had a boat, I could go out on the lake, enjoy some peace, do some fishing, just have fun being out away from everybody. It would be wonderful.

Then you get the boat, and then you realize all of the responsibilities and the headaches that go with owning that boat, hauling that boat, docking the boat, launching the boat, paying all the insurance and the upkeep on the boat, storing the boat, and eventually you look forward to the day you sell it.

Now, that’s not the case with everybody, but it seems to be a pretty common theme with boat owners. And I think there are a lot of us, we have our boats in our lives, things we’re passionate to acquire, and then depressed once we receive them.

You know, this Psalm in the superscript says that it’s to be sung, we think it’s a melody. The Shoshan Idut, the rose of testimony. Well, think about a rose for a moment.

A rose is beautiful, has this wonderful fragrance, but it also has thorns. It’ll reach out and bite you if you’re not careful. And anyone who has worked with roses knows the danger of the thorns.

And so many times we desire the rose, but we experience the thorns afterward. So in this poem, as you read it, logic tells you victory, but your spirit tells you failure.”

Mixture of Blessings and Disappointments

“So what I want to do, and this I know is a short study of this psalm, but I think this is the best way to sum it up. I’m going to read to you a comment from the Koran Tehillim and from Psalm 60. And I think this sums it up well.

Says, the lesson of our psalm is apparent, and it applies not just to military situations, but to all of life struggles. Rarely does one taste the sweetness of pure victory, or of total cure, or of absolute resolution of thorny interpersonal conflicts. Much more commonly, the results of our prayers appear to us to be mixtures of great blessings and painful disappointments. No wonder we are torn between praising God and imploring Him not to reject us.

This is the nature of religious experience. It is seldom crystal clear. It is more typically laden with persistent doubt to an ongoing conflict.

That is the lesson of our psalm. You have given us wine that makes us stagger, but you have raised a banner for those who fear you. Rarely do our struggles in this world conclude with a pronouncement, and they lived happily ever after.

So many things in our lives are a mixture. And I think this is why we have to have complete and utterly pure motives when we go before the Father in prayer. Someone told me when I was quite young, be careful what you pray for.

You may just get it. And I think that in this poem, though they had the victory, the physical victory over these enemies, they lost the ability to appreciate that victory. It was almost like there was this heartache over why do we have to have war at all?

And maybe God was trying to bring David to a place where instead of praying for victory in warfare, pray that there won’t be any warfare. Pray that God would remove the need for warfare. I don’t know.

But somehow, and I know this teaching is quite different from the other Psalm teachings I’ve done. Somehow, in this Psalm, I just sense this conflict in David’s heart. And I just sense this conflict in David’s heart. And it’s a conflict that echoes in my own heart so many times when I wanted something so badly, got it, and wish I hadn’t asked for it.”

Golden Truth – The Real Victory

“And so, so many times these episodes where everyone thinks, well, you should be happy, you got your way, but you lost the ability to enjoy what you got.

So, in closing, I want to leave us with the words of Psalm 106, 15. It’s referring back to when Israel was in the wilderness and they requested meat.

They wanted flesh to eat. So, God gave it to them. And it cost them, many of them, their lives.

And Psalm 106, 15 says, Then he gave them their request, but sent leanness to their soul. He gave them their requests, but their souls are poverty stricken.

You know, I think in our movies and so much of entertainment, if that’s what you want to call it, it glorifies the mob and the gangsters and the cartels and the drug dealers, because they have all this wealth, these beautiful homes, and they have beautiful things and expensive cars.

Would you ever stop to ask, do they have the ability to enjoy any of those things? You know, I don’t have all those things that the mobsters and the cartels have, but I can enjoy a small and expensive book. More that they can enjoy their mansions and their sports cars.

So, let’s learn to ask God for the things that He wants us to have. And let’s make sure we ask for things according to His motives. And let’s make sure that our victories are not just physical victories, but spiritual ones as well.

And I know the greatest victories in my life are not the victories over others, but the victories over myself. The victories over my own inclination to want to do things my own way. And you know that the source of misery in our lives is when every man did what was right in his own eyes.

Let’s learn to do what’s right in his eyes. And let’s desire that. And let’s learn to align and yoke our desires to his.

And then I think we’ll find life very fulfilling. And not only will we receive answers to our prayers, but we’ll have an expanded capacity to enjoy them.

So I hope this has been thought provoking to you and a blessing. And maybe is found to be a golden truth in your life. So until next time, I wish you shalom and may God bless.”