Psalms 60 - Introduction

LX.

This psalm is composite; certainly two (Psalms 60:1), probably three, independent pieces (Psalms 60:1) compose it.

Psalms 60:5 appear again at Psalms 108. The fact that the compiler of that psalm began his adaptation with Psalms 60:5, and not where the ancient original piece begins (Psalms 60:6), as well as the trifling variations, show that this psalm was in its present state when the later arrangement was made. Most scholars agree in thinking that the oracular verses, 6-8, are Davidic, or belong to a period as old as David’s; and the inscription no doubt refers us to the series of events which this part of the poem reflects.

There is nothing to guide conjecture as to the time when the ancient oracular promise of victory was embodied in a poem, which evidently reflects a period of national depression, either from some crushing defeat by a foreign enemy, or from civil strife, in which the pious part of the community had suffered. The poetical form is necessarily irregular.

Title. — See title, Psalms 4, 16

Upon Shushan-eduth (comp. Psalms 80, and Psalms 45, title) — i.e., upon a lily of testimony; which has been variously explained to mean, “Upon lily-shaped bells,” “A harp with six strings,” &c. After the analogy of other titles, it is better to take it as the beginning of some hymn, to the tune of which this psalm was to be sung.

To teach. — This recalls 2 Samuel 1:18 : “To teach the sons of Judah the [song of the] bow.” This psalm, like the elegy over Saul and Jonathan, was possibly used to kindle the martial ardour of youthful Israel.

When he strove with ... — The allusion to “Aram-naharaim” — i.e., Aram of the two rivers — and “Aram-zobah” are to be explained by the events narrated in 2 Samuel 8:10. The English rendering of 2 Samuel 8:13 reads as if Syrians, and not Edomites, were then slain in the valley of salt; but the Hebrew seems rather to be, “And David gat him a name in the valley of salt [eighteen thousand], when he returned from smiting the Syrians.” This still leaves a discrepancy in the numbers; but it may be noticed that the mode of the introduction of the number in the history looks suspiciously like a gloss which may have been made from memory and afterwards crept into the text.