O God, Thou hast cast us off; Thou hast scattered us.
A psalm of defeat
In our own language we possess many fine songs of patriotism. It would be impossible to overestimate the value of such a song as “Scots wha hae” as a means of keeping alive patriotic sentiments in the breasts of the people. What a treasure it would be if we had a dozen other incidents from the great epochs of our history embalmed in equally immortal verse and sung at every fireside. The Hebrews had their history thus set to music; and the poetical commentary on their national fortunes reaches down to the very bottom of their meaning, for it reads them in the light of eternal truth.
I. A patriot’s depression (Psalms 60:1-5). The enemy had invaded the country, and there was sufficient force to withstand them. So great was the panic that the inhabitants were like drunken men, unable to comprehend the extent of their calamity and unable to stand up against it (Psalms 60:3). But the worst was that it was a triumph of the heathen over the people of the true God, to whom a banner had been given to display because of the truth (Psalms 60:4). The humblest Christian has received a banner to display because of the truth. We are working for a cause which is old as eternity and lofty as heaven. Our personal success or defeat is nothing; but the victory of the truth is everything. This great verse was given out by Ebenezer Erskine beneath the castle walls of Stirling when he and his congregation were turned out of the Church of Scotland; and it has been connected with other great historical scenes in the history of the Church.
II. The promise recalled (Psalms 60:6-8). At this point a change comes over the spirit of the writer. Prayer has brought him to himself. We are either to suppose that, in reply to an inquiry addressed to God, perhaps through the Urim and Thummim, he receives an oracle on the situation, or that, his memory being quickened by a sudden inspiration, he recalls an ancient oracle, given in some similar crisis, in which God promises to His anointed king the complete possession of the Holy Land and also the subjection of the neighbouring peoples. The oracle is quoted after the psalmist has expressed his joy at recalling it. God promises to divide Shechem, as at the Conquest under Joshua He divided the different parts of the land to the various tribes, and to mete out the valley of Succoth. Why these two places are specially mentioned, it is impossible now to say. They may have been strongholds of the enemy. Then (verse 7) Gilead and Manasseh, which stand for the part of the country beyond the Jordan, are claimed by God as His. And of Ephraim and Judah, which represent the division west of the Jordan, it is said that the one shall be His helmet (“the strength of mine head”) and the other His sceptre (not “lawgiver”). As the Holy Land is represented by these well-known parts, the hostile nations, which are to be subjugated, are represented by Israel’s three well-known foes--Moab, Edom, and Philistia. And, as the positions which Ephraim and Judah were to occupy are depicted by saying that they are to fulfil the honourable offices of helmet and sceptre to God, the fate of the hostile nations is similarly depicted by representing them as fulfilling to Him the basest offices (verse 8). Moab is to be the vessel in which He washes His feet when coming home from a journey, and Edom the slave to whom, in so doing, He flings the dusty sandals which He has taken off; while Philistia is to grace his triumph. In this way the psalmist rallied his spirit in an hour of disaster. And, in fighting the Lord’s battles, we can similarly fall back on the promise recorded in the second psalm, that the heathen shall be given to Christ and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. The humblest Christian can fall back on the promise that none shall pluck him out of Christ’s hand, and that the good work which God has begun shall be perfected.
III. The return of hope (verses 9-12). At verse 9 he turns to face the crisis which in the first part of the psalm he had bewailed. He sees the difficulty of the situation. Edom is a strong enemy, and its capital, Petra, a “strong city.” “The entrance to it,” says a traveller, “is by a narrow gorge lined by lofty precipices, nearly two miles in length. At some places the overhanging rocks approach so near to each other that only two horsemen can proceed abreast.” Who, asks the psalmist, is to bring me thither? And the answer is, None but God. For a time He had deserted them, perhaps because they had been trusting to themselves or to their past victories. They needed to be humbled and to learn the lesson that “vain is the help of man” (verse 11). But defeat had taught them this lesson; and now they are trusting only in their God. When God’s servants have reached this state of mind, nothing can stand before them. And so this psalm, which began in panic and tears, ends with the trumpet note of hope (verse 12). (J. Stalker.)