Psalms 60

A Lament After a Defeat and a Prayer for Restoration

For the music director, according to Shushan Eduth. ▼

▼Perhaps “The Lily of Testimony”

A miktam of David. To teach.
When he fought Mesopotamia and Aram Zobah, and Joab returned and struck Edom in the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand persons. ▼

▼The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first two verses of the psalm; the English verse number is reduced by two

1O God, you have rejected us. You have broken us.
You have been angry. Restore us!
2You have made the land quake. You have split it open.
Heal its fissures, because it totters.
3You have shown your people hard things;
You have given us wine that staggers.
4You have rallied those who fear you round a banner
⌞out of bowshot⌟, ▼

▼Literally “from the presence of the bow”

Selah
5so that your beloved ones may be rescued.
Save by your right hand and answer us.
6God has spoken in his holiness,
“I will rejoice;
I will divide up Shechem,
and portion out the valley of Succoth.
7Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine,
and Ephraim is the ⌞helmet for⌟ ▼

▼Literally “protection of”

my head;
Judah is my scepter. ▼

▼Or “commander’s rod”

8Moab is my washing pot;
over Edom, I will cast my sandal.
On account of me, O Philistia, raise a shout.”
9Who will bring me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
10Have not you yourself rejected us, O God,
and not gone out with our armies, O God?
11Give us help against the adversary,
for the help of humankind is futile.
12Through God we will do ⌞valiantly⌟, ▼

▼Literally “might”

and it is he who will tread down our enemies.