David Calls On God To Save Them By His Mighty Right Hand So That The People Whom He Loves Might Be Delivered, And Declares The Certainty Of YHWH's Victory Because The Surrounding Nations Are Subject To Him (Psalms 60:5-8).
David calls on God to personally save the people on whom He has set His love, and expresses his confidence that He will intervene, and this because God has exultantly declared His sovereignty over the area. It is all under His control and He will do with it as He will. Israel (Ephraim) is His helmet, and Judah His sceptre, the outward evidence of His rule, whilst the surrounding nations, Moab, Edom and Philistia are in inferior positions.
‘That your beloved ones may be delivered,
Save with your right hand, and answer us.'
In order that His beloved ones, the ones on whom He has set His love, might be delivered, he calls on God to save by means of His mighty right hand, answering His people (or answering David) as they call on Him.
We might ask, ‘if they are His beloved ones why has He allowed them to suffer these reverses?' And the reply will be, ‘Whom YHWH loves He reproves and chastens, even as a father the son in whom he delights' (Proverbs 3:12). David is aware of this and is confident that after rebuke will come blessing.
‘Answer us' is the kethib (original reading), ‘answer me' is the qere (suggested adjustment), the latter being a correction and alternative reading in the MT.
‘God has spoken in his holiness,
‘God has spoken in His holiness.' ‘In His holiness' expresses the uniqueness of what God is. He is the wholly righteous One Who is always true to His word, and the One Who is distinctive in His ‘otherness', above, beyond and distinctive from His creation. He is ‘the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity Whose Name is Holy' (Isaiah 57:15). And it is as such that He has spoken (made His solemn declaration), thus guaranteeing the end result.
“I will exult,
I will divide Shechem,
And mete out the valley of Succoth.
Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine,
Ephraim also is the defence of my head,
Judah is my sceptre.'
Moab is my washpot,
On Edom will I cast my shoe,
Philistia, shout you because of me.”
What God has spoken is now made plain. It may be that we are to see this as God raising His standard on behalf of His people (Psalms 60:4), or alternatively as God's promise to David. But in either case it depicts God as arising victoriously, and exultantly carrying out His purpose and revealing His sovereignty. The whole area is under His control.
Shechem and Succoth were the two places which Jacob had first reached on entering the land after his sojourn in Paddan Aram (Genesis 33:17-18). Shechem was west of the Jordan, and Succoth east of Jordan. They may thus have been seen as representing the north of Israel on both sides of the Jordan over which God now claims to exercise His authority and control. The thought may be included here that God is fulfilling His promises to Jacob.
Gilead and Manasseh may be seen as representing the whole swathe of land east of the Jordan (Gilead is a flexible term often indicating a large part of the land east of Jordan). Although Manasseh was also well represented west of the Jordan, a large part of the land east of Jordan was territory belonging to the tribe of Manasseh. It is being emphasised that they belong to God.
Ephraim was the popular name for the central highlands and related territory, and was the name of the most powerful tribe in Israel. It would eventually became synonymous with northern Israel (a somewhat restricted Israel), but at this stage it was simply the largest and strongest tribe. This is portrayed as God's battle helmet. Judah, of course, represented the southern part of the kingdom, the part which had first yielded to David's rule (2 Samuel 3:2-5). It is represented as God's sceptre, for it was through Judah that kingship was to be established (Genesis 49:10-12).
Thus the whole of the land over which David ruled is intended to be covered here (geography at that time was vague). The descriptions of Ephraim and Judah as His battle helmet and sceptre indicate how personal is God's activity on their behalf. It is through Ephraim and Judah that He achieves His warlike success and sovereignty.
Moab, Edom and Philistia, Israel's nearest neighbours, are portrayed as very much subservient to Israel. Moab is His washpot. That is, it is in Moab that He washes His feet. On Edom He casts His shoe. They are His slaves who are given his shoes to clean ready for Him to wear. Alternately some see the casting of a shoe as a claim to sovereignty. Philistia shout because of Him. The idea is that they proclaim His lordship, and possibly even that they run before His chariot clearing the way for Him.
Thus David is assured that the whole area is subject to God's control, so that he need not fear that Edom will be successful in their attempts to take over southern Judah.