Psalms 60:1-12

Title.—(RV) 'For the Chief Musician; set to Shushan Eduth: Michtam of David, to teach: when he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and Joab returned, and smote of Edom in the Valley of Salt twelve thousand.'

Shushan-eduth ('the lily of the testimony') denotes that this Ps. was set to the same melody as Psalms 45, 69, 80. For 'Michtam'.see Psalms 16. The historical occasion in the title is described in 2 Samuel 8:3; 2 Samuel 8:13; 1 Chronicles 18:3; 1 Chronicles 18:12, but in these passages Abishai is mentioned instead of Joab, and the number of the slain is given as 18,000. 1 Chronicles 1 Chronicles 8:12 is probably right in reading 'Edom' instead of 'the Syrians' (Aram) of 2 Samuel 8:13. The Ps., however, is plainly written after a lost battle, not after a victory. It has been suggested that while David was engaged with the Syrians in the N. of Palestine, the Edomites may have gained a temporary success in the S. before they were routed by David's generals, and that the Ps. may have been written under the shadow of this reverse. Others think that Psalms 60:6, asserting God's sovereignty over the whole territory ruled by David, are a Davidic fragment worked into a later poem of national distress. The last six verses form the second part of Psalms 108; Psalms 60:1 describe the defeat of Israel. The prayer in Psalms 60:5 leads to a confident expectation of extensive conquests by God's assistance (Psalms 60:6).