Psalm 60: Through God We Shall Do Valiantly
A psalm of national defeat answered by God's promise of victory.
Psalm 60 opens by mourning that God has cast off and scattered His people, making the earth 'tremble' and its breaches need healing, a communal distress unlike the personal danger of Psalms 59. God then answers 'in his holiness,' claiming Shechem, Gilead, and Manasseh as His own.
O God thou hast cast us off, thou hast broken us down; Thou hast been angry; oh restore us again.
Thou hast made the land to tremble; thou hast rent it: Heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.
Thou hast showed thy people hard things: Thou hast made us to drink the wine of staggering.
Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, That it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah
That thy beloved may be delivered, Save with thy right hand, and answer us.
God hath spoken in his holiness: I will exult; I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.
Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the defence of my head; Judah is my sceptre.
Moab is my washpot; Upon Edom will I cast my shoe: Philistia, shout thou because of me.
Who will bring me into the strong city? Who hath led me unto Edom?
Hast not thou, O God, cast us off? And thou goest not forth, O God, with our hosts.
Give us help against the adversary; For vain is the help of man.
Through God we shall do valiantly; For he it is that will tread down our adversaries. Psalm 61 For the Chief Musician; on a stringed instrument. `A Psalm' of David.