《Keil & Delitzsch Commentary – Psalms (Vol. 2)》(Karl F. Keil, etc.) 51 Psalm 51

60 Psalm 60
Introduction

Drill Psalm after a Lost Battle

This last of the Elohimic (Michtammı̂m) of David is dated from the time of the Syro-Ammonitish war: When he (David) waged war (Hiph. of נצה, to pull, to seize by the hair) with (את like על in Numbers 26:9; according to Ben-Asher, with (Segol) instead of (Makkeph) here, as in Psalm 47:5, Proverbs 3:12, three passages which are noted by the Masora) Aram of the two rivers (the people of the land of the twin streams, Mesopotami'a) and with Aram Zobah (probably between the Euphrates and Orontes north-east of Damascus), and Joab returned (ויּשׁב, transition from the infinitive to the finite verb, Ges. §132, rem. 2) and smote Edom in the Valley of Salt (the Edomitish (Ghor), i.e., the salt plain, some ten miles wide, at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea) with twelve thousand men. This historical inscription comes from an historical work which gave the Psalm in this connection. It is not take out of any of the histories that have been preserved to us. For both in 2 Samuel 8:13 and in 1 Chronicles 18:12 we find the number eighteen thousand instead of twelve. In the former passage, in which עשׂה שׁם is substantially equivalent to the Roman triumphum agere, we have to read את־עדם after the inscription of our Psalm instead of את־ארם. It is, however, still more probable that the words ויּך את־עדם (lxx ἐπάταξε τὴν Ἰδουμαίαν ) have accidentally fallen out. The fact that here in the Psalm the victory over the Edomites is ascribed to Joab, in the Chronicles to Abshai (Abishai), and in 2 Sam. to David, is a difference which may easily be reconciled by the consideration that the army of David was under the supreme command of Joab, and this battle in the Valley of Salt was fought against the Edomites by Joab indirectly through his brother (cf. 2 Samuel 10:10).
The inscription carries us into the time of the greatest, longest, and most glorious of David's wars, that with the Ammonites, which, so far as these were concerned, ended in the second year in the conquest of Rabbah (vid., Psalm 21:1-13), and with their Aramaean allies, among whom Hadadezer, the ruler of the powerful kingdom of Zobah, was defeated in the first year at Chêlam on the other side the Jordan. Then when, in the second year, he endeavoured to fortify himself anew in the districts on the banks of the Euphrates, he was completely subjugated together with the Syrians who had come to his assistance. Thus are the accounts of Aramaean wars related in 2 Sam. 8 and 2 Samuel 10:1 to be combined. Whilst, now, the arms of David were making such triumphant progress in the north, the Edomites in the south had invaded the land which was denuded of troops, and here a new war, which jeopardized all the results that had been gained in the north, awaited the victorious army. Psalm 60:1-12 refers more especially to this Edomitish war. Hengstenberg is wrong when he infers from the inscription that it was composed after the victory in the Valley of Salt and before the conquest of Idumaea. The inscription only in a general way gives to the Psalm its historical setting. It was composed before the victory in the Valley of Salt, and presupposes the Israelitish south had been at that time grievously laid waste by the Edomites, against whom they were unable to oppose an adequate force. We may also infer from other indications how the occupation of the neighbouring and brother-country by the Edomites called for vengeance against them; vid., on Ps 44. That Korahitic Psalm may have been composed after the Davidic Psalm, and is designedly, by Psalm 60:10, brought into relationship with it. In the cento Psalms 108:7-14 correspond to Psalms 60:7-14.
The Michtam character of the Psalm manifests itself both in the fact that a divine oracle is unfolded in it, and also in the fact that the language of complaint, “Elohim, Thou hast cast us off” (cf. Psalm 44:10), is repeated as its favourite utterance. Concerning על־שׁוּשׁן עדוּת, after “A Lily is the testimony” (or “The Lily of the testimony”), vid., on Psalm 45:1. The addition of ללמּד is to be interpreted according to ללמּד בּני־יהוּדה קשׁת, 2 Samuel 1:18: the song is thereby appointed to be sung in connection with the practice of the bow. The elegy on Saul and Jonathan was suited to this by reason of the praise which is therein given to the bow of Jonathan, the favourite weapon of that brave warrior, and by the indirect remembrance of the skilful Philistine archers, who brought a disgrace upon the name of Israel in the battle on Gilboa, that needed as speedily as possible to be wiped out. Psalm 60:1-12, this most martial of all the Psalms, is also a song at the practice of arms, which was designed to inflame and to hallow the patriotic martial ardour of the young men when they were being exercised.
Hengstenberg and others, who reckon according to the Masoretic verses, divide the Psalm into three strophes of four Masoretic verses each. The fact that the use made of Psalm 60:1-12 in Psalm 108:1-13 begins with Psalm 60:7, למען יחלצון, lends some colour to this division, which is also strengthened by the Sela. Nevertheless Psalm 60:6 and Psalm 60:7 belong inseparably together.

Verses 1-5

This first strophe contains complaint and prayer; and establishes theprayer by the greatness of the need and Israel's relationship to God. Thesense in which פּרצתּנוּ is intended becomes clear from 2 Samuel 5:20, where David uses this word of the defeat of the Philistines, andexplains it figuratively. The word signifies to break through what hashitherto been a compact mass, to burst, blast, scatter, disperse. The prayeris first of all timidly uttered in תּשׁובב לנוּ inthe form of a wish; then in רפה (Psalm 60:4 ) and הושׁיעה (Psalm 60:7 ) it waxes more and more eloquent. שׁובב ל here signifiesto grant restoration (like הניח ל, to give rest; Psalm 23:3; Isaiah 58:12). The word also signifies to make a turn, to turn one's self away, inwhich sense, however, it cannot be construed with ל. On פּצמתּהּ Dunash has already compared Arab. (fṣm), (rumpere), (scindere), andMose ha-Darshan the Targumic פּצּם = פרע, Jeremiah 22:14. Thedeep wounds which the Edomites had inflicted upon the country, are afterall a wrathful visitation of God Himself - reeling or intoxicating wine, or asיין תּרעלה (not יין), properly conceived of,is: wine which is sheer intoxication (an apposition instead of the genitiveattraction, vid., on Isaiah 30:20), is reached out by Him to His people. Thefigure of the intoxicating cup has passed over from the Psalms of Davidand of Asaph to the prophets (e.g., Isaiah 51:17, Isaiah 51:21). A kindred thought isexpressed in the proverb: Quem Deus perdere vult, eum dementatAll thepreterites as far as השׁקיתנוּ (Psalm 60:5 ) glance back plaintively atthat which has been suffered.
But Psalm 60:6 cannot be thus intended; for to explain with Ewald and Hitzig,following the lxx, “Thou hast set up a banner for those who reverenceThee, not for victory, but for flight,” is inadmissible, notwithstanding thefact that מפּני קשׁת nuwc is a customaryphrase and the inscribed ללמּד is favourable to the mention of thebow. For (1) The words, beginning with נתתּ, do not sound like an utterance of something worthy of complaint - in this case it ought at least to have been expressed by עך להתנוסס (only for flight, not for victory); (2) it is more than improbable that the bow, instead of being called קשׁת (feminine of the Arabic masculine kaus), is here, according to an incorrect Aramaic form of writing, called קשׁט, whereas this word in its primary form קשׁט (Proverbs 22:21) corresponds to the Aramaic קוּשׁטא not in the signification “a bow,” but (as it is also intended in the Targum of our passage) in the signification “truth” (Arabic (ḳisṭ) of strict unswerving justice, root קש, to be hard, strong, firm; just as, vice versa, the word (ṣidḳ), coming from a synonymous root, is equivalent to “truth”). We therefore take the perfect predication, like Psalm 60:4 , as the foundation of the prayer which follows: Thou hast given those who fear Thee a banner to muster themselves (sich aufpanieren), i.e., to raise themselves as around a standard or like a standard, on account of the truth - help then, in order that Thy beloved ones may be delivered, with Thy right hand, and answer me. This rendering, in accordance with which Psalm 60:6 expresses the good cause of Israel in opposition to its enemies, is also favoured by the heightened effect of the music, which comes in here, as (Sela) prescribes. The reflexive התנוסס here therefore signifies not, as Hithpal. of נוּס, “to betake one's self to flight,” but “to raise one's self” - a signification on behalf of which we cannot appeal to Zechariah 9:16, where מתנוססות is apparently equivalent to מתנוצצות “sparkling,” but which here results from the juxtaposition with נס (cf. נסה, Psalm 4:7), inasmuch as נס itself, like Arab. (naṣṣun), is so called from נסס, Arab. (naṣṣ), to set up, raise, whether it be that the Hithpo. falls back upon the Kal of the verb or that it is intended as a denominative (to raise one's self as a banner, sich aufpanieren).

(Note: This expression wel illustrates the power of the German language in coining words, so that the language critically dealt with may be exactly reproduced to the German mind. The meaning will at once be clear when we inform our readers that Panier is a banner of standard; the reflexive denominative, therefore, in imitation of the Hebrew, sich aufpanieren signifies to “up-standard one's self,” to raise one's self up after the manner of a standard, which being “done into English” may mean to rally (as around a standard). We have done our best above faithfully to convey the meaning of the German text, and we leave our readers to infer from this illustration the difficulties with which translators have not unfrequently to contend. - Tr.])

It is undeniable that not merely in later (e.g., Nehemiah 5:15), but also even in older Hebrew, מפּני denotes the reason and motive (e.g., Deuteronomy 28:20). Moreover Ps 44 is like a commentary on this מפּני קשׁט, in which the consciousness of the people of the covenant revelation briefly and comprehensively expresses itself concerning their vocation in the world. Israel looks upon its battle against the heathen, as now against Edom, as a rising for the truth in accordance with its mission. By reason of the fact and of the consciousness which are expressed in Psalm 60:6, arises the prayer in Psalm 60:7, that Jahve would interpose to help and to rescue His own people from the power of the enemy. ימינך is instrumental (vid., on Psalm 3:5). It is to be read ענני according to the Kerî, as in Psalm 108:7, instead of עננוּ; so that here the king of Israel is speaking, who, as he prays, stands in the place of his people.

Verses 6-8

A divine utterance, promising him victory, which he has heard, is expanded in this second strophe. By reason of this he knows himself to be in the free and inalienable possession of the land, and in opposition to the neighbouring nations, Moab, Edom, and Philistia, to be the victorious lord to whom they must bow. The grand word of promise in 2 Samuel 7:9. is certainly sufficient in itself to make this feeling of certainty intelligible, and perhaps Psalm 60:8-10 are only a pictorial reproduction of that utterance; but it is also possible that at the time when Edom threatened the abandoned bordering kingdom, David received an oracle from the high priest by means of the Urim and Thummim, which assured him of the undiminished and continued possession of the Holy Land and the sovereignty over the bordering nations. That which God speaks “in His holiness” is a declaration or a promise for the sure fulfilment and inviolability of which He pledges His holiness; it is therefore equal to an oath “by His holiness” (Psalm 89:36; Amos 4:2). The oracle does not follow in a direct form, for it is not God who speaks (as Olshausen thinks), to whom the expression אעלזה is unbecoming, nor is it the people (as De Wette and Hengstenberg), but the king, since what follows refers not only to the districts named, but also to their inhabitants. כּי might have stood before אעלזה, but without it the mode of expression more nearly resembles the Latin me exultaturum esse (cf. Psalm 49:12). Shechem in the centre of the region on this side the Jordan, and the valley of Succoth in the heart of the region on the other side, from the beginning; for there is not only a [Arab.] (sâkût) (the name both of the eminence and of the district) on the west side of the Jordan south of Beisân (Scythopolis), but there must also have been another on the other side of the Jordan (Genesis 33:17., Judges 8:4.) which has not as yet been successfully traced. It lay in the vicinity of Jabbok ((ez) -(Zerka)), about in the same latitude with Shechem (Sichem), south-east of Scythopolis, where Estori ha-Parchi contends that he had found traces of it not far from the left bank of the Jordan. Joshua 13:27 gives some information concerning the עמק (valley) of Succoth. The town and the valley belonged to the tribe of Gad. Gilead, side by side with Manasseh, Psalm 60:9 , comprehends the districts belonging to the tribes of Gad and Reuben. As far as Psalm 60:9 , therefore, free dominion in the cis-and trans-Jordanic country is promised to David. The proudest predicates are justly given to Ephraim and Judah, the two chief tribes; the former, the most numerous and powerful, is David's helmet (the protection of his head), and Judah his staff of command (מחקק, the command-giving = staff of command, as in Genesis 49:10; Numbers 21:18); for Judah, by virtue of the ancient promise, is the royal tribe of the people who are called to the dominion of the world. This designation of Judah as the king's staff or sceptre and the marshal's baton shows that it is the king who is speaking, and not the people. To him, the king, who has the promise, are Joab, Edom, and Philistia subject, and will continue so. Joab the boastful serves him as a wash-basin;

(Note: A royal attendant, the (tasht) -(dâr), cup-or wash-basin-bearer, carried the wash-basin for the Persian king both when in battle and on a journey (vid., Spiegel, Avesta ii. LXIX). Moab, says the Psalmist, not merely waits upon him with the wash-basin, but himself serves as such to him.)

Edom the crafty and malicious is forcibly taken possession of by him and obliged to submit; and Philistia the warlike is obliged to cry aloud concerning him, the irresistible ruler. סיר רחץ is a wash-pot or basin in distinction from a seething-pot, which is also called סיר. The throwing of a shoe over a territory is a sign of taking forcible possession, just as the taking off of the shoe (חליצה) is a sign of the renunciation of one's claim or right: the shoe is in both instances the symbol of legal possession.

(Note: The sandal or the shoe, I as an object of Arab. (wt'̣), of treading down, oppressing, signifies metaphorically, (1) a man that is weak and incapable of defending himself against oppression, since one says, (ma) (kuntu) (na‛lan), I am no shoe, i.e., no man that one can tread under his feet; (2) a wife ((quae) (subjicitur)), since one says, (g'alaa‛) (na‛lahu), he has taken off his shoe, i.e., cast off his wife (cf. Lane under Arab. (ḥiḏa'â'), which even signifies a shoe and a wife). II As an instrument of Arab. (wṭ‛), tropically of the act of oppressing and of reducing to submission, the Arab. (wa‛l) serves as a symbol of subjugation to the dominion of another. Rosenmüller (Das alte und neue Morgenland, No. 483) shows that the Abyssinian kings, at least, cast a shoe upon anything as a sign of taking forcible possession. Even supposing this usage is based upon the above passage of the Psalms, it proves, however, that a people thinking and speaking after the Oriental type associated this meaning with the casting of a shoe upon anything. - Fleischer. Cf. Wetzstein's Excursus at the end of this volume.)

The rendering of the last line, with Hitzig and Hengstenberg: “exult concerning me, O Philistia,” i.e., hail me, though compelled to do so, as king, is forbidden by the עלי, instead of which we must have looked for לי. The verb רוּע certainly has the general signification “to break out into a loud cry,” and like the Hiph. (e.g., Isaiah 15:4) the Hithpal. can also be used of a loud outcry at violence.

Verses 9-12

The third strophe reverts to prayer; but the prayer now breathes more freely with a self-conscious courage for the strife. The fortified city (עיר מצור) is not Rabbath Ammon; but, as becomes evident from the parallel member of the verse and 2 Kings 14:7, the Idumaean chief city of Sela' (סלע) or Petra (vid., Knobel on Genesis 36:42, cf. Psalm 31:22; 2 Chronicles 8:5; 2 Chronicles 11:5 together with Psalm 14:5). The wish: who will conduct me = Oh that one would conduct me (Ges. §136, 1)! expresses a martial desire, joyful at the prospect of victory; concerning מי נחני, quis perduxerit me, vid., on Psalm 11:3. What follows is not now to be rendered: Not Thou (who but Thou), Elohim, who … (Hitzig) - for in order to have been understood thus and not as in Psalm 60:3, Psalm 44:10, the poet could not have omitted אשׁר - on the contrary, the interrogatory הלא is the foundation on which the supplicatory הבה is raised. The king of Israel is hard pressed in the battle, but he knows that victory comes from above, from the God who has hitherto in anger refused it to His people, inasmuch as He has given power to Edom to break through the defensive forces of Israel (vid., Psalm 44:10). עזרת (not עזרת = עזרה) is, as in Psalm 108:13, equivalent to עזרתה. The view that it is equal to עזרתי, the suffix being cast away, is not confirmed in this instance, vid., on Psalm 16:6, cf. Psalm 3:3. How vain is human succour, has been seen only very recently in the case of the kings of Zobah and Ammon, who have succumbed in spite of their confederates. Israel prays for its victorious power from above, and also obtains it thence, as is most confidently expressed in v. 14. עשׂה חיל, to do valiantly, to show valour, is equivalent to: to be victorious, as in Psalm 118:16. In God does Israel conquer, and God, who is in Israel, will by means of Israel tread down Edom in accordance with its deserts.
61 Psalm 61
Introduction

Prayer and Thanksgiving of an Expelled King on His Way Back to the Throne

The Davidic (Michtammı̂m) are now ended, and there follows a short Davidic song על־נגינת. Does this expression mean “with the accompaniment of stringed instruments?” Not strictly, for this is expressed by the inscription בּנגינות (Psalm 4:1, cf. Isaiah 30:29, Isaiah 30:32). But the formula may signify “upon the music of stringed instruments,” i.e., upon stringed instruments. And this is more probable than that נגינת is the beginning of a standard song. The termination ath is not necessarily the construct state. It was the original feminine termination; and the prevailing one in Phoenician.
Some expositors, like Köster, Ewald, Hitzig, and Olshausen, feel themselves here also bound, by reason of the לדוד of the inscription, to seek a place for this Psalm as far down as the Babylonian exile and the times of the Ptolemies and the Seleucidae. Hupfeld deals somewhat more kindly with the לדוד in this instance, and Böttcher (De Inferis, p. 204) refutes the hypotheses set up in its stead in order finally to decide in favour of the idea that the king of whom the Psalm speaks is Cyrus - which is only another worthless bubble. We abide by the proudly ignored לדוד, and have as our reward a much more simple interpretation of the Psalm, without being obliged with Ewald to touch it up by means of a verse of one's own invention interwoven between Psalm 61:5 and Psalm 61:6. It is a Psalm of the time of Absalom, composed in Mahanaim or elsewhere in Gilead, when the army of the king had smitten the rebels in the wood of Ephraim. It consists of two parts of eight lines.

Verses 1-4

Hurled out of the land of the Lord in the more limited sense

(Note: Just as in Numbers 32:29. the country east of Jordan is excluded from the name “the land of Canaan” in the stricter sense, so by the Jewish mind it was regarded from the earliest time to a certain extent as a foreign country (חוצה לארץ), although inhabited by the two tribes and a half; so that not only is it said of Moses that he died in a foreign land, but even of Saul that he is buried in a foreign land (Numeri Rabba, ch. viii. and elsewhere).)

into the country on the other side of the Jordan, David felt only as thoughhe were banished to the extreme corner of the earth (not: of the land, cf. Psalm 46:10; Deuteronomy 28:49, and frequently), far from the presence of God(Hengstenberg). It is the feeling of homelessness and of separation fromthe abode of God by reason of which the distance, in itself so insignificant(just as was the case with the exiles later on), became to him immeasurablygreat. For he still continually needed God's helpful intervention; the enveloping,the veiling, the faintness of his heart still continues (עטף, Arab. (‛tf), according to its radical signification: to bend and lay anything round sothat it lies or draws over something else and covers it, here of a self-enveloping); a rock of difficulties still ever lies before him which is toohigh for his natural strength, for his human ability, thereforeinsurmountable. But he is of good courage: God will lead him up with asure step, so that, removed from all danger, he will have rocky ground under his feet. He is of good courage, for God has already proved Himself to be a place of refuge to him, to be a strong tower, defying all attack, which enclosed him, the persecuted one, so that the enemy can gain no advantage over him (cf. Proverbs 18:10). He is already on the way towards his own country, and in fact his most dearly loved and proper home: he will or he has to (in accordance with the will of God) dwell (cf. the cohortative in Isaiah 38:10; Jeremiah 4:21) in God's tabernacle (vid., on Psalm 15:1) throughout aeons (an utterance which reminds one of the synchronous Psalm 23:6). With גּוּר is combined the idea of the divine protection (cf. Arabic (ǵâr) (ollah), the charge or protegé of God, and Beduinic (ǵaur), the protecting hearth; (ǵawir), according to its form = גּר, one who flees for refuge to the hearth). A bold figure of this protection follows: he has to, or will trust, i.e., find refuge, beneath the protection of God's wings. During the time the tabernacle was still being moved from place to place we hear no such mention of dwelling in God's tabernacle or house. It was David who coined this expression for loving fellowship with the God of revelation, simultaneously with his preparation of a settled dwelling-place for the sacred Ark. In the Psalms that belong to the time of his persecution by Saul such an expression is not yet to be found; for in Psalm 52:7, when it is desired that Doeg may have the opposite of an eternal dwelling-place, it is not the sacred tent that is meant. We see also from its second part that this Psalm 61:1-8 does not belong to the time of Saul; for David does not speak here as one who has drawn very near to his kingly office (cf. Psalm 40:8), but as one who is entering upon a new stage in it.

Verses 5-8

The second part begins with a confirmation of the gracious purpose of God expressed in Psalm 61:5. David believes that he shall experience what he gives expression to in Psalm 61:5; for God has already practically shown him that neither his life nor his kingship shall come to an end yet; He has answered the prayers of His chosen one, that, blended with vows, resulted from the lowly, God-resigned spirit which finds expression in 2 Samuel 15:25., and He has given or delivered up to him the land which is his by inheritance, when threatened by the rebels as robbers, - the land to which those who fear the covenant God have a just claim. It is clear enough that the receivers are “those who fear the name of Jahve;” the genitive relation describes the ירשּׁה as belonging to them in opposition to those who had usurped it. Or does ירשּׁה here perhaps mean the same as ארשׁת in Psalm 21:3 ? Certainly not. נתן ירשּׁה ל is a customary phrase, the meaning of which, “to give anything to any one as his inheritance or as his own property,” is to be retained (e.g., Deuteronomy 2:19). God has acknowledged David's cause; the land of Israel is again wrested from those to whom it does not belong; and now begins a new era in the reign of its rightful king. In view of this the king prays, in Psalm 61:7, Psalm 61:8, that God would add another goodly portion to the duration of his life. The words sound like intercession, but the praying one is the same person as in Psalm 61:2-5. The expression מלכּא משׁיחא (the King Messiah) of the Targum shows to whom the church referred the word “king” after the extinction of the Davidic dynasty. The exalted tone of the wish expressed in Psalm 61:7 (cf. Joel 2:2) favours this without absolutely requiring it (cf. עולמים, Psalm 61:5, Psalm 21:5, and the royal salutation, 1 Kings 1:31; Daniel 2:4, and frequently). There ought (as also e.g., in Psalm 9:8) not to be any question whether ישׁב in Psalm 61:8 signifies “to sit enthroned,” or “to sit” = “to abide;” when the person spoken of is a king it means “to remain enthroned,” for with him a being settled down and continuous enthronement are coincident. מן in Psalm 61:8 is imperat. apoc. for מגּה (after the form הס, נס, צו). The poet prays God to appoint mercy and truth as guardian angels to the king (Psalm 40:12, Proverbs 20:28, where out of pause it is צּרוּ; cf. on the other hand Psalm 78:7; Proverbs 2:11; Proverbs 5:2). Since the poet himself is the king for whom he prays, the transition to the first person in v. 9 is perfectly natural. כּן signifies, as it always does, so or thus = in accordance therewith, corresponding to the fulfilment of these my petitions, thankfully responding to it. לשׁלּמי is the infinitive of the aim or purpose. Singing praise and accompanying it with music, he will make his whole life one continuous paying of vows.