David complaining to God of former judgment, now, upon better hope, prayeth for deliverance: comforting himself in God's promises, he requesteth that help whereon he trusteth.
To the chief Musician upon Shushan-eduth, Michtam of David, to teach; when he strove with Aram-naharaim, and with Aram-zobah, when Joab returned, and smote of Edom, in the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand.
Title. עדות שׁושׁן על al shushan eduth. Upon Shushan-eduth, &c.] See on Psalms 22. Houbigant renders it, Upon the hexachord of the testimony. Others render it, Upon the lily of the testimony; Michtam, or golden psalm of David. We here subjoin some further remarks on the titles of the Psalms by the author of the Observations. D'Herbelot, says he, observes, that "the works of seven of the most excellent Arab poets who flourished before the times of Mohammedanism, were called Al Moallacat, because they were successively fixed by way of honour to the gate of the temple of Mecca; and also Al-Modhahebat; which signifies gilded or golden, because they were written in letters of gold upon Egyptian paper:" and in a following page the same writer informs us, that the Arabs, when they would praise any one's poems, were wont to say, "These are the golden verses of such or such a one;" which he seems to suppose was derived from the writing of these poems in letters of gold. Now, might not the present psalm, and those five others which are distinguished by the same epithet, be called golden, on account of their having been, on some occasion or other, written in letters of gold, and hung up in the sanctuary, or elsewhere? Not (it may be) on account of their being judged to have a superior excellence to the other hymns of this collection, absolutely speaking, but on account of their being suited to some particular circumstances which might occasion their being treated with this distinction. Hezekiah, we know, went up to the house of the Lord, and spread the letter of Sennacherib before him there; Isaiah 37:14 hung it up, it may be, before the Lord. What Hezekiah did with a paper of threatening, other princes might do with these psalms of encouragement and hope. Some have imagined that they were called golden psalms merely on account of their distinguished excellence. That distinguished excellence, however, doth not appear; and what is more, the ancient Jews, it is certain, had a different way of marking this out: as, The song of songs, which is Solomon's; not the golden song of Solomon. Ainsworth supposes the word מכתם michtam to signify a golden jewel. That the affixing such a title to a psalm would have been agreeable enough to the eastern taste anciently, we may believe, from what appears in these modern times. D'Herbelot has actually mentioned a book intitled bracelets of gold, containing an account of all that history had mentioned relating to a month sacred among the Arabs. I cannot, however, easily admit that this is the true meaning of the word michtam, because there are several psalms which have this word prefixed to them; whereas, if it signified a jewel of gold, it would have been intended, if we may judge by modern titles of eastern books, to have distinguished one psalm from all the rest. To which may be added, that some of these psalms have another name given them; the 56th being called the dove dumb in distant places; and the present, the lily of the testimony. I will only farther add, that this writing in letters of gold still continues in the east. Maillet, speaking of the royal Mohammedan library in Egypt, which was so famous, and was afterwards destroyed by Saladine, says, "The greatest part of there books were written in letters of gold, such as the Turks and Arabs, even of our time, made use of in the titles of their books." And a little after, speaking of the ignorance of the modern Egyptians, as to the burnishing of gold, so that their gilding has nothing of the ancient splendour, he adds, "It is true, to make up this defect, they have preserved the art of making gold liquid, and fit for ink. I have seen some of their books written with this gold, which were extremely beautiful." See Observations, p. 318.
When he strove with Adram-naharaim— That is Syria of the rivers, or that part of it which is called Mesopotamia, as lying between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates. The Syrians, both here and in other places, were called Aram, because they were the descendants of Aram, the son of Shem, Genesis 10:22. Aram-Zobah is that part of Syria which was called Zobah. 2 Samuel 8:5. As David's victory over Idumea was different from that over the Syrians, the next clause should be rendered literally, And Joab returned.
This conquest of Joab's is to be looked upon as distinct from that of Abishai, mentioned 2 Samuel 8:13 and 1 Chronicles 18:12. After Abishai had slain eighteen thousand of the Idumeans, Joab fell upon them again; and, as the title of this psalm particularly informs us, smote in the same place twelve thousand more, and afterwards destroyed them entirely. See 1 Kings 11:15-16. The Valley of Salt, is in Idumaea, near the Black Sea.
Psalms 60:1. Thou hast scattered us— See 1 Samuel 1:7. Mudge renders these words, Thou hast made a breach upon us.