Psalm 60:1
You have rejected us, O God; You have broken us; You have been angry; restore us!
Sermons
A Psalm of DefeatJ. Stalker.Psalm 60:1-12
Assurance in PrayerC. Short Psalm 60:1-12
Despondency and its AntidoteW. Forsyth Psalm 60:1-12














There are heights and depths in the Divine life. We may pass quickly from the one to the other. When at the height of triumph we may be brought low. When in the depths of despondency we may be raised up. This psalm speaks of despondency. We see -

I. HOPE RISING IN THE MIDST OF DESPONDENCY. (Vers. 1-4.) We are apt to fix our mind on our trials. They bulk large. They press us sorely. We dwell upon their grievousness. We shrink from their effects, bewildered and dismayed (ver. 3). Besides, we are too ready to think of our trials as judgments. Our sins make us afraid. God seems to be visiting us in wrath, instead of mercy. But this is our infirmity. As we turn to God with humility, hope rises in our hearts. God is not against us, but for us. If he visits us with trials, it is for our good. His banner over us is still the banner of love.

II. FAITH IN GOD'S PROMISES SUSTAINING THE SOUL IN DESPONDENCY. (Vers. 5-8.) The words of Moses, Samuel, and Nathan had sunk deep into the psalmist's heart. He remembered them, and was comforted. How much more reason have we to say, "God hath spoken in his holiness"! We have not only the words, that David had, but many words besides - not only the words of prophets and apostles, but the words of him of whom it was said, "Thou hast the words of eternal life." The Holy Scriptures are rich in promises (2 Peter 1:3, 4; 2 Corinthians 1:20). We may take one and another to the throne of grace, and say, "Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction" (Psalm 119:49, 50). Two rabbis, it is said, approaching Jerusalem, observed a fox running up the hill of Zion. Rabbi Joshua wept, but Rabbi Eliezer laughed. "Wherefore dost thou weep?" asked Eliezer. "I weep because I see what is written in the Lamentations fulfilled: 'Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it'" (Lamentations 5:18). "And therefore do I laugh," said Eliezer; "for when I see with my own eyes that God has fulfilled his threatenings to the letter, I have thereby a pledge that not one of his promises shall fail, for he is ever more ready to show mercy than judgment."

III. PRAYER TO GOD GAINING THE VICTORY OVER DESPONDENCY. (Vers. 9-12.) There are great things promised, but how are they to be performed? If we had to do with man, we might have doubts and fears. But we have to do with God, and he is both able and willing to fulfil his word. Remembering his character and his works, we rise above all desponding and depressing influences. Committing ourselves to the keeping of the Lord of hosts, we go forth to the fight with brave hearts. "Jehovah-Nissi" is our watchword, and we are able to say, "Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (l Corinthians 15:57). - W.F.

The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.
I. GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MERCY. The expressions of the Psalm indicate sorrow of no ordinary kind. Much of this sorrow caused by a sense of the indignation of God against sin (ver. 1). What he pleads for is the pardon of sin, the restoration of the light of the Divine countenance. His plea is God's mercy and God's glory.

II. HOLY DETERMINATION TO FORSAKE SIN. "Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity. Those who have experienced God's pardoning mercy will never be content to continue in sin.

III. HUMBLE CONFIDENCE. The Lord will receive my prayer. When under the pressure of different causes of sorrow the believer may take confidence from former deliverances.

(J. D. Lane, M. A.)

The earlier verses of this Psalm are a wail, but it ends in song. It is like a day of rain which clears at evening.

I. THE ELEMENTS OF THE PSALMIST'S SORROW (1-7). There was the pressure of Divine displeasure on account of sin (1, 2), combined with soul-anguish (3, 4), perhaps accompanied with sickness, brining nigh unto death (4, 5), whilst enemies add their hate (6, 7).

II. THE CERTAINTY OF THE PSALMIST'S DELIVERANCE (8-10). The prayer is no sooner uttered than answered. The consciousness of having been heard steals over the weary soul like a glint of light on to a bed in the hospital ward. Weeping has a voice for the ear of God. The Revised Version reads the imprecations of verse 10 as future tenses — "they shall be ashamed and turn back." When God returns, cur enemies turn back.

(F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

The work of sin seems pleasant and gainful; but in the end ye shall find it both unpleasant and painful when you get your wages paid you from your master, the devil, you shall know the truth of the saying of the apostle, "the reward of sin is death."

(A. Symson, B. D.)

Let us refuse, therefore, to work any longer task unto Satan, and betake us to a better Master and better service, and work in the Lord's vineyard.

(A. Symson, B. D.)

As David's prayers were not dumb, but had a voice, so they are not dry but full of tears: those sappy prayers be acceptable to God, which proceed not from a barren and dry heart, but from a heart well watered with the clouds of heaven, hearts planted at the Rivers of waters which we should all pray for. Think ye not that a mother will discern the voice, but much more the weeping of her own child, and the ewe discern the bleating of her own lamb among a thousand; and will not God regard the prayer of His own child being in affliction?

(A. Symson, B. D.)

People
Aram, David, Edomites, Joab, Manasseh, Psalmist, Syrians
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Angry, 60, Aram, Aram-naharaim, Aramzobah, Aram-zobah, Broken, Burst, Cast, Chief, Choirmaster, Covenant, David, Death, Defenses, Directions, Displeased, Edom, Edomites, Eduth, Fighting, Forth, Fought, Gt, Hadst, Hast, Instruction, Joab, Killed, Leader, Lily, Lt, Mesopotamia, Michtam, Miktam, Music, Musician, Music-maker, Naharaim, O, Oh, Overseer, Poem, Rejected, Restore, Return, Returned, Salt, Scattered, Secret, Shushan, Shushan-eduth, Smiteth, Smote, Striving, Strove, Struck, Syrians, Teach, Teaching, Testimony, Thousand, Thyself, Treasure, Tune, Turn, Turneth, Twelve, Valley, Zobah
Outline
1. David, complaining to God of former judgment
4. now upon better hope, prays for deliverance
6. Comforting himself in God's promises, he craves that help whereon he trusts

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 60:

     4446   flowers
     4472   lily
     5088   David, character
     5420   music
     5607   warfare, examples

Psalm 60:1-3

     6115   blame

Library
Moab is My Washpot
What does Moab represent to you and to me? We are the children of Israel by faith in Christ, and in him we have obtained by covenant a promised land. Our faith may cry, "I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valles of Succoth." All things are ours in Christ Jesus; "Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine." Now Moab was outside of Canaan. It was not given to Israel as a possession, but in course of time it was subdued in warfare, and became tributary to the Jewish king. Even thus our faith overcometh
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

That we must not Believe Everyone, and that we are Prone to Fall in Our Words
Lord, be thou my help in trouble, for vain is the help of man.(1) How often have I failed to find faithfulness, where I thought I possessed it. How many times I have found it where I least expected. Vain therefore is hope in men, but the salvation of the just, O God, is in Thee. Blessed be thou, O Lord my God, in all things which happen unto us. We are weak and unstable, we are quickly deceived and quite changed. 2. Who is the man who is able to keep himself so warily and circumspectly as not
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Dialogue i. --The Immutable.
Orthodoxos and Eranistes. Orth.--Better were it for us to agree and abide by the apostolic doctrine in its purity. But since, I know not how, you have broken the harmony, and are now offering us new doctrines, let us, if you please, with no kind of quarrel, investigate the truth. Eran.--We need no investigation, for we exactly hold the truth. Orth.--This is what every heretic supposes. Aye, even Jews and Pagans reckon that they are defending the doctrines of the truth; and so also do not only the
Theodoret—The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret

Vehicles of Revelation; Scripture, the Church, Tradition.
(a) The supreme and unique revelation of God to man is in the Person of the Incarnate Son. But though unique the Incarnation is not solitary. Before it there was the divine institution of the Law and the Prophets, the former a typical anticipation (de Incarn. 40. 2) of the destined reality, and along with the latter (ib. 12. 2 and 5) for all the world a holy school of the knowledge of God and the conduct of the soul.' After it there is the history of the life and teaching of Christ and the writings
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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