Psalm 60:1

Psalm 60:1

A National Prayer for God's help

The background to this Psalm is not entirely clear. We need to remember that for much of David’s reign he was heavily engaged in warfare against the surrounding nations. In so doing he extended the boundaries of Israel and overcome many foreign and pagan neighbours. The battle lines ebbed and flowed but the general direction of the country was towards expansion and growing influence. Some enemies were overcome and then regrouped, calling others to join them in their attempts to hold back the Israelite forces. 1 Chronicles 18 and 2 Samuel 8 describe some of these conflicts and the accounts are interspersed with phrases like, “The Lord gave David victory wherever he went.” In 2 Samuel 8:13 we read, “And David became famous after he returned from striking down eighteen thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.” The Edomites occupied land in what is now southern Jordan and the Valley of Salt is now called the Dead Sea. The title of Psalm 60 attributes the conquest of Edom to Joab who was, of course, the Commander of David’s armies.

All of these successes were not handed to the nation on a plate. Soldiers died, enemy leaders reneged on their peace pacts, there were times when borders were under threat. This Psalm embraces the ups and downs of the times and reveals to us, yet again, that David did not fight alone; all that he accomplished was with the help of the Lord – something he had learned when besieged by Saul and his forces years earlier in his life. By the way, it will be helpful to have a map available of the Cities and Regions of the time this was written, quite a few place names will crop up later in the Psalm.  

And another thing, doesn’t this Psalm have a beautiful tune – The Lily of the Covenant? Don’t you wish we knew how the melody went and what this Lily of the Covenant is?  Sadly, no one seems to know.

 

v1        It seems that any enemy triumph was seen by Israel as a failure by the Lord God to protect His people. He must obviously have rejected them and be angry with them so now they cry out for restoration.  The language used describes a flood bursting over the people suggesting that some adversarial forces have swamped part of the land are gaining significant ground. The borders that were thought to be unassailable have been overcome and foreign armies are pressing in. It may seem strange to us to blame the Lord for such incursions and to consider this to be a rejection by him! However, it demonstrates how David and his contemporaries trusted in God and expected to be guarded and protected. That was their norm, any retreat or foreign encroachment felt like abandonment. Wouldn’t it be great if we had a similar view of the Lord God and His defence of us as His people today?

I wonder if sometimes the barriers are broached and enemy infiltration is allowed, simply to remind us not to trust in ourselves and also to teach us dependency on the Lord. If all went well all of the time, we would very quickly become lethargic and start to take His sovereign protection for granted. An incursion by spiritual enemy forces reminds us that our faith has become weakened and we need to re-commit ourselves to the Lord. We cannot afford to let our guard down. 

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