The Bible Study Hour

Guest (Male): Sometimes when we're on the top of our game and everything seems to be going right, a defeat creeps in. It may stagger us and cause us to question why. Well, today on The Bible Study Hour, we're looking at Psalm 60, a Psalm David wrote later in his life as he reflected back on his failures and successes. Listen as Dr. James Boice pieces together the circumstances of this defeat and shows us how we can apply it to our lives today.

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically. It's the banner against the bow as David seeks revenge and attains victory over a rocky stronghold. It's a picture of God doing for men when the help of men is useless. Let's look at Psalm 60 and study David's cry and God's response.

Dr. James Boice: For some time now, we've been studying the Psalms in Book 2 of the Psalter that have an historical setting from the life of David. We've come to the very last of those in this study, to Psalm 60. Psalm 60 has a set of unique distinctions. For one thing, the setting comes from later in the life of David. All the others were relatively early. This one is late.

Secondly, it has the longest historical introduction or title of any Psalm in the Psalter. Psalm 18 has a rather long one. We've already studied that, but this one is longer still. It occupies three and a half lines in my Bible and about the same amount of space in the standard Hebrew Bible. In the Hebrew Bible, these titles, if they exist, are generally identified as verse one.

So what we have as our verse one is actually verse two in the Hebrew Bible and so on. But this particular title is so long it takes up two verses in the Hebrew Bible. So our verse one is actually verse three and there are a total of 14 verses in the Hebrew Psalm.

Now it tells us, if you look at it closely, the second half of it, that this Psalm is when David fought Aram-Naharaim and Aram-Zobah and when Joab returned and struck down 12,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. Now the only time in David's career that that could possibly be placed is after he had become king in Israel and had reigned for a considerable amount of time.

But if that's so, then this battle with the Edomites and the defeat that the Psalm speaks about is interesting because the Psalm is the only thing that would indicate that David had any defeats during this particular period of his history. Derek Kidner, I mention him from time to time, one of the excellent commentators on the Psalm, says, "Except for this Psalm and its title, we should have no inkling of the resilience of David's hostile neighbors at the peak of his power."

What he means is if you go back to the Old Testament to the historical accounts and you read this portion of his history, all you read about are victories. And yet here is a title to a Psalm that indicates there was a defeat. Now that's strange as well. The title actually is about a victory, but the Psalm is about a defeat. And the other thing is that you read about the defeat, but you go back to the history and all you read about is victories.

Now I think there are some lessons in that before we even get into the Psalm, but in order to see them, we ought to go back and just see what it says in the Old Testament about this period of David's life. The relevant portion of Scripture is 2 Samuel chapter 8, the first 14 verses. Let me say that in the section of 2 Samuel immediately preceding that, we read a number of wonderful things in this period of David's life after he had become king.

Let me just say the things that are there. Starting with chapter 5, we find in that chapter, the first five verses, that David becomes king of Israel at last. All these years he's been chased by Saul and finally Saul is killed by the Philistines. And even then David doesn't become king right away. Rules in Hebron for seven years. But it's at the end of that period that we're talking about when David finally becomes king of all Israel. What Samuel the prophet had told him when he anointed him back in his father's house, maybe 20 years before.

So that's the first thing. Secondly, we're told how he conquered Jerusalem and how he made it his capital. Jerusalem was not a Jewish stronghold. It was possessed by another people until that time, but the fifth chapter of 2 Samuel tells us how he took it. Third, we're told about decisive victories that he achieved over the Philistines. They had been the great enemies of the people. It was the Philistines that had defeated Saul in the battle of Gilboa and then Saul was killed, but David had victory over them.

Fourth, he brought the Ark to Jerusalem as a focus for the people's worship. All of chapter 6 of 2 Samuel is given over to that. Fifth, God sent Nathan the prophet to him with the greatest message that David received in his entire lifetime, namely that God was going to establish his house and his throne forever. Now that was a promise of the Messiah and David recognized that right away because when that prophecy came, David replied, "Is this natural for a man and a man's household?"

He knew perfectly well that human kingdoms rise and fall. He recognized that if God was going to do it, it was going to be God's kingdom and therefore it was going to be his Messiah. Now it's immediately after all those unprecedented events, not just unprecedented in the life of David, but unprecedented in the whole history of Israel, that we come to chapter 8 where we read about these victories, and those victories are the setting for our Psalm.

Now let me read them just so you understand a little bit about what is happening at this time. In the course of time, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. He took Metheg Ammah from the control of the Philistines. David also defeated the Moabites. Moreover, David fought Hadadezer son of Rehob, the king of Zobah, when he went to restore his control along the Euphrates River. Now those are the places that are mentioned in the title of Psalm 60.

David captured a thousand of his chariots, 7,000 charioteers, and 20,000 foot soldiers. He hamstrung all but a hundred of the chariot horses. When the Arameans of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David struck down 22,000 of them. He put garrisons in the Aramean kingdom of Damascus, and the Arameans became subject to him and brought tribute. The Lord gave David victory everywhere he went.

After David became famous, he returned from striking down 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. That also is what is mentioned in the title of our Psalm. He put garrisons throughout Edom, and all the Edomites became subject to David. The Lord gave David victory everywhere he went. Now what seems to have happened, if you put that historical account together with Psalm 60, is this.

The Edomites, who lived very close to Jerusalem, simply took advantage of David being away from the capital in the center of his kingdom fighting along the Euphrates to bring an insurrection and attack upon Jerusalem. And they had some success, apparently. That's what the Psalm is describing. David, engaged in the campaign on the Euphrates, did the best thing he could. He sent Joab back to subdue the Edomites. And Joab did. He fought this great battle in the Valley of the Salt, that's south near the Dead Sea, and all these people were killed.

12,000 of them, according to the title of the Psalm. After that, David himself returned and he pursued the conquest of Edom even to taking the strongholds in the mountains. And that would probably explain why, if you listen very carefully, in 2 Samuel 8, it says he returned from the Euphrates to the Valley of the Salt, he pursued the Edomites, and he killed 18,000 of them, but here in the Psalm where Joab goes and fights a battle, it says only 12. Apparently, there were two battles and David completed the conquest.

Now, that's what the historical background is, but it tells us something very interesting. And I think it's something that we really need to learn. It tells us that even in times of unprecedented blessing, there are still defeats. Now, we're always astounded at that. You see, we think when we have times of great blessing, there should always be blessing, never be defeats. But we live in a sinful world. And in a sinful world, there will always be defeats and there were defeats of David.

David was winning all these great battles out along the Euphrates and he had defeated the Philistines. And when he came back, he had a victory over the Edomites, but at least at this little period in here, people from Israel were still being killed. Now, we need to apply that to ourselves and say that even in times of blessing, we can expect some things to go wrong.

As far as an outline goes, this Psalm falls into three very easy parts. Each part has four verses in it. So you've got four, four, and four, and it goes like this. The first four are a lament on the occasion of this defeat. David is complaining. He's lamenting what has happened, verses one to four. Secondly, in verses five to eight, he appeals to God and God answers.

So he's not just wringing his hands and saying how bad it is. He's saying, "God, help us," and God does, and that's what you have in those verses. And then finally, the very last section, verses nine through twelve, you have two important lessons that are to be drawn from the experience. Now let's go back and look at those sections one at a time. First of all, we have to look at this defeat. Now we don't know any of the specifics about it.

That's because that account back in 2 Samuel, and there's a parallel account in 1 Chronicles, only mentions the victories. And the only inkling of the defeat we have is here, but we don't have any of the details. We don't know exactly when it happened. We don't know exactly where it happened. We don't know the people that were involved. But it certainly was a great defeat. At least that's the way David takes it.

He uses two interesting images to describe it, one in verse two and the other in verse three. Verse two talks about the land being shaken. Well, he's talking about an earthquake there. That's the image that he's using and he's asking God to mend its fractures. Now, we know something about earthquakes because when earthquakes occur, they make the news. And sometimes we even see it on television if somebody happens to be there and captures it on a video camera.

That happened in the last great earthquake out in San Francisco. I was in Southern California at the time. I was calling home on the phone. It happened during one of the World Series games out there, and I had that on and I turned down the volume so I couldn't hear what was coming over the television because I was talking with my wife. And while I was talking, the picture from the stadium went off and all of a sudden there was a newscaster on there talking.

And I was wondering what in the world was going on. And I hung up and I turned on the TV and lo and behold there'd been an earthquake. They'd lost all connection with the stadium. And pretty soon the pictures began to flood in: these cracks in the earth, the collapsed freeway, the section of the bridge running over to Oakland that fell down, and the car that went down over the edge. It was a terrifying sort of thing. I called up on the phone again. I said, "Turn on the television. There's been an earthquake out in Northern California."

I was supposed to be there, but I was delayed and was in the south, so I missed it. I was very sorry about that. I kind of wished I'd gotten in on the thing. But that's what earthquakes are. And we see it. We read about it in the newspapers. Recent earthquake in Cairo where so many people were killed because of the structure of the building. Earthquakes in Latin America and the former Soviet Union and in other places.

You see, when David uses an image like that, he's saying a great and unprecedented disaster has overtaken us. What is it about an earthquake? Well, you don't expect it. Suddenly it occurs. There is a great deal of destruction and death and there's nothing you can do about it. So David is saying, "Well, that's what it was like when we suffered this defeat."

The second image he uses is of drunkenness. And that's what he talks about in verse three. "You have shown your people desperate times. You have given us wine that makes us stagger." Now that's a powerful Old Testament image. You find it again and again in the Psalms and also in the prophets. You find it in Psalm 75, for example. And it always has to do with the Lord pouring out his wrath. It goes like this: "In the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out and the wicked of the earth drink it down to the very dregs."

That's the way that image is often used. You find it also as I said in the prophets, in Isaiah and Jeremiah. One example, Isaiah 51:17: "Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to the dregs the goblet that makes men stagger." Now that's the same kind of language you have here in the Psalms. It says, if we would phrase it this way, that this attack by the Edomites left the people staggering. They were absolutely reeling from the attack.

And yet, when you read this first stanza, the worst thing about this defeat as David describes it is not that it was as destructive as an earthquake or representative of what you think of when you think of drunkenness, but rather that it was because the Lord was angry with his people. That's what verse one says and that's the thing that's really on his mind. David says, "You have rejected us, O God, and burst forth upon us. You have been angry." And he's praying now for God to restore the people.

Now that doesn't mean that God was angry with everyone necessarily. There's no reason to think he was angry with David. You go back to the historical account in the Old Testament and it said the Lord was pleased with David and he gave him victories everywhere he went. So at this period of his life, David was very close to the Lord and the Lord was not punishing David.

Moreover, he doesn't even seem to have been angry with all of the people who were left at home because look at verse four. This is talking about some of the people who remained. "But for those who fear you, you have raised a banner to be unfurled against the bow." So here were people who were godly and pious and David said, "You protected them. You raised a banner on their behalf."

But you see some of the people had displeased God and he was angry against them. And because of that, the defeat came. We think of another Old Testament example when the Jewish forces were invading Canaan for the first time and were defeated at the Battle of Ai. After the Battle of Jericho, it was because of one man, Achan, who had disobeyed the Lord and taken things from the Battle of Jericho that were to be dedicated to the Lord. And they had a defeat until that was rectified.

Now that is very easy to apply. We expect victories for the church, but we have to remember that the church is often defeated because of the sin of one or a few. Whole churches have been destroyed because of a few factious people within the church. They get into a fight and they won't ever let a thing drop, and pretty soon the whole church is split apart over that and it loses its witness. We can think of many examples and it's one of the great tragedies.

Sometimes I have to deal with people in that situation, mostly the pastors that are involved because I'm a pastor and I have more of an entrée to them than I do to the elders or the people in the congregation. And I do whatever I can to sustain the minister because it's really unfortunate if that kind of thing is allowed to happen, and yet it does.

And it happens with denominations too, that is, groups of churches, church bodies. They become drawn aside because of the sin or the failure of a few, and that was happening here. Well, what should we do when that's happening? Sometimes you can correct it. And if you can correct it, you should correct it. At other times you can't, but what you should always do is what those people did at verse four. You rally around the banner.

And if you ask the question, "Well, what is our banner?" Our banner is the gospel. That's what we rally around. You see, there may be lots of things that we find it hard cooperating on, different ideas of what a ministry should be, certainly personality differences which are difficult, but you see if what our concern really is is for the gospel, that is the good news of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ to save us from our sins, and if we understand that that's what we're conveying to the world, showing something of the compassion of Jesus Christ, well then Christians can rally around that. You see, and some of these worst things can be overcome.

People who do that show that they actually fear God and God will defend them. You know, in this text, you find a little Selah there in the margin at that point. We're never quite sure what that Selah means, but the general wisdom of the commentators is that it probably means pause at this point, stop and consider. Well, that's a good point to pause and consider. Rallying around the banner, those who fear God.

Now the second section of this, the second stanza, contains an appeal to God to help the people who have been attacked by the Edomites. And it's followed very closely by God's answer. As a matter of fact, the answer follows so closely upon the appeal that when you read the appeal, you have to understand that it's already uttered in faith. David's asking God to speak and help and save, and right after that God is speaking so we know that he believes that God's going to do it. And of course, God did.

Now God's answer is in verses six to eight, and you'll notice that it's even quoted beginning with the words, "In triumph I will parcel out Shechem." Now there are two different ways verses six to eight may be understood. It says at the beginning of that verse, "God has spoken from his sanctuary." The sanctuary usually refers to the place where the Ark of the Covenant was located. Now later in history, after the Temple was built, that was the Temple area and especially the Holy Place. At this stage, there wasn't a Temple, but there was a tabernacle, probably the wilderness tabernacle brought up to Jerusalem after David had conquered it.

And if that's what it's referring to, well then this may be something like an oracle from God that came to David by the mouth of Nathan or one of the other prophets. And that's probably why it's quoted the way it is in our Bible. It's as if the prophet had this message and the message was conveyed to David: "This is what God says, quote, 'In triumph I will parcel out Shechem,' and so on." Now that may be one way of understanding it, and if that's the case, it's very important.

It would explain, by the way, why we find exactly those verses, that is, verse six and following, repeated in another Psalm, Psalm 108. It forms the latter half of that Psalm, verses six to thirteen. It might mean, you see, that that oracle from God was written down, conveyed to David. David used it in his Psalm, but it also was there in its own right and so was picked up by another writer later and incorporated into another Psalm. That would explain it. I don't know if that's the explanation, but it could be.

Now that's one way of looking at it. The other way is this. If you look at those place names—Shechem and Succoth and Gilead, Manasseh—those don't seem to be the names that you would expect if this were a revelation given first of all in David's time. Remember now they're settled in the land. The conquest is over. The tribal allocations have all been made. You would expect probably a reference to the tribal areas.

And of course, it does mention Ephraim and Judah, but there were other tribes as well. You kind of wonder why it doesn't mention those. Now that causes you to look at these names a little more closely, and when you do, you find that they actually come from an early period in Israel's history and more or less are a review of the way in which the land actually came into the hands of the Jewish people.

Let me explain. Shechem, the first place that's mentioned, was where Jacob settled after his return to Canaan from Paddan-Aram where he'd lived for 20 years with his uncle Laban. And Succoth, which is the next place mentioned, was where he stayed immediately before that. So those two names are associated with the life of Jacob and his return to Israel. You see, he'd been out of the land, but now he returned. And so you have the beginning of a permanent settlement there in the land.

Gilead and Manasseh represent larger areas of the eastern side of the Jordan River, and they were occupied by Israel at the time of the conquest. Ephraim and Judah represent the most prominent tribes to the west. Now, if you think of the historical association with those names, it may be that the occurrence of the names, particularly in the order that we have them, is meant to remind us of that early history of the period.

And in that case, it's not that David was given a specific oracle from God that came to him from Nathan the prophet, but rather this is a reference to the promises that had been given to the people all along. It's a way of saying God has always promised us the land, he'd given it to us piece by piece, this is the way he's given it to us, and because he gave it to us, God is going to preserve us, we can trust him.

In any case, whether it's a special revelation on this occasion or whether it's something building on the past, it's the word of God that David trusted. And because God had said he was giving them the land and would give them victory over their enemies, he trusted what God said. He sent Joab even with a portion of his force to attack the enemy and he expected Joab to win, and of course, Joab did.

Now that tells us something about faith. Biblical faith is always founded upon the word of God. Biblical faith is not optimism. Some people have talked about it as if that's what it is, just always expecting the very best. Biblical faith is not a positive mental attitude, kind of thing you try to work up if you're a salesperson: "You know, I'm going to do even better today than I did yesterday," and you go out the door ready to do better today than you did yesterday. It's not that at all.

Biblical faith is believing the word of God and acting on it, and that's exactly what David did. He believed the word of God and he acted on it. Now it raises the question, you see, do we really believe the word of God and act upon it? We've got a whole Bible to believe and act upon, but think of it just in terms of this banner of the gospel. Do we believe that God is establishing a banner of the gospel and where that is raised high, those who are his people will come to it? If we did, we would raise the banner high. We would do that and expect God to bless and bring people to know him and to come to faith.

Some people have believed that and they've won entire cities to Christ. David Livingstone believed it and he won a whole continent, all of Africa. Well, you see, that's a challenge to our faith. Now we come to the very last stanza and there are several lessons to be drawn. At least that's the way I understand these final verses. Now let me begin by asking this question: When was Psalm 60 written? Precisely.

Now, you see, we know from 2 Samuel 8 that David eventually joined Joab in Edom and together they conducted that campaign so that David eventually took even the strongholds of Edom that were in this hidden mountainous country and were inaccessible humanly speaking. And yet in the Psalm he's praying that God will do it. That's what the final stanza says: "Who is going to lead me to the fortified city? Lead me to Edom? Only God will do that."

So the verse is written before the actual conquest and yet after the defeat, so somewhere in the middle there is where David writes it. After he had heard of the defeat, after he had dispatched Joab to the battle, but before the final victory. So you ask yourself the question: What's in his mind at this time? What's he thinking about? What kind of lessons is he learning? Well, let me suggest that if we read these last verses carefully, there are two of them. And the first lesson is this. Number one, only God can give the victory.

Now, you see, you get that. He doesn't say that in so many words, but that's what he's saying. Only God can give the victory. That's what that reference to the fortified city means. What is the fortified city? Well, it could be any fortified city, but now when you're talking about Edom, the great fortified city of Edom was Petra. Petra was locked in that high mountain fortress. You could only approach it by a two-mile passage through the mountains called a siq. It's like a little narrow valley where the limestone rock rises on each side to heights of several thousand feet and where it's so narrow in places that only two horses can pass abreast.

I had the privilege of getting into Edom and Petra years ago and I rode in on a little crazy horse. I hope I never see that little horse ever, ever again. The passage was harder because of the horse than it would have been walking, but at any rate, only about two horses could go in there side by side and people say that have been there and I would certainly say the same thing, why, half a dozen men could defend Petra against a battalion because they couldn't fight except in that narrow little siq. There'd be no other way to get in and do that.

So when David said, "Who's going to bring me to the fortified city? Who's going to lead me into Edom?" the answer's perfectly obvious. No human being is going to be able to help me conquer Edom. That's impregnable humanly speaking. So if I'm ever going to do it, it's going to be because of God. Only God could give a victory like that and David knew it.

But here's the second thing. Not only can only God give the victory, if God's going to give the victory, we must ask for it. You see, that's the second lesson. You have to ask for it, and so David did. And because he did, and because he trusted God, he speaks in great faith at the end of the Psalm saying that's exactly what God is going to do. "With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies."

One of the writers says the Psalm closes on a strong note of confidence which was engendered by the promises of God which were grasped in faith. That's a good summary of Psalm 60. If you summarize these things, write it down: a strong note of confidence engendered by the promises of God which are grasped by faith.

Now let me end this way. You and I are not kings as David was, not in this kind of military sense. We don't fight military battles and we've never seen an Edomite. And so all of the promises in the Bible for victory over Edomites do not directly apply to you and me. But you and I are engaged in a great spiritual battle.

The apostle Paul writes about it in Ephesians. He says our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Compared to the conquest of these spiritual forces, the battle against Petra and the Edomites was a piece of cake, even though humanly speaking it was impossible.

Our battle is a spiritual battle and the forces of Satan are very, very powerful. And you say to yourself, "Who can ever win that battle?" The answer is certainly not you, and certainly not me, and we can't even do it together. And even if we marshal all of the resources of all of Christendom, by ourselves we cannot do it. But we can do it in the power of God.

You see, in the Bible it speaks again and again of the defeat of Satan. Satan is a defeated foe. He's overthrown. He is yet very powerful, but he's destined to utter destruction. And what will conquer, according to the teaching of Scripture, is the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. So what should we do? Well, we should recognize that we need God to win the victory and, number two, we should ask God to give us the victory.

Do we do that? Do we really ask God to do it? I think if we did, we ask God to give us the victory and we believe that God would give us the victory, we would be far more aggressive in advancing the kingdom of God than you and I usually are. Let me give you a final reminder again from the Old Testament. You remember in the Book of Daniel how Nebuchadnezzar, the great king of Babylon, had that vision of a statue?

A statue had a head of gold and shoulders and arms of silver, the upper portions of brass, and finally the legs and the feet of iron. and it represented all these great succeeding kingdoms of the world. Nebuchadnezzar himself was the golden head. After that would come another glorious kingdom, not quite as glorious, but stronger, just as silver is stronger than gold, and that was the empire of the Greeks under Alexander.

And after that there was the bronze and then there was the iron. The iron finally represents Rome. You remember how that great vision ends? It tells us that in the vision what Nebuchadnezzar saw was a rock out of the mountains, not made with hands, that came rolling down, struck the feet of the statue so it tumbled over, it ground it to bits, it became dust, it blew across the heavens, and that rock not made with hands grew up to become a great mountain that filled the whole earth.

And you know the meaning of that. That rock is Jesus Christ and that mountain is his kingdom. Now that is God's prognosis for human history. We look at these great kingdoms all around us and we say, "Oh, how glorious they are," or we look at the iron kingdom and we say, "Oh, how strong it is." And it does seem that way to human beings. But it's not the kingdoms of this world that are destined to triumph. It's the kingdom of Jesus Christ. If you and I believe that, then that's the banner around which we must rally and hold it high and shout it out for Jesus, our great King.

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