A Prophetic Psalm (NIV 1984 Edition)
Introduction:
King David was a warrior king and had seen many victories over Israel’s enemies. This psalm came from the Holy Spirit to David “the singer of songs” called “Miktams”. This psalm of course was a song. The tune the lyrics were set to was titled “The Lily of the Covenant” which in its prophetic context of this psalm spoke of the Messiah our Lord Jesus who would bring in the New Covenant over 1,000 years later.
It was also a song for teaching to instruct David’s present and future generations specifically about totally relying upon the LORD and nothing else when facing the enemy.
Underlining the theme of this psalm is also a prophetic theme in that it telescopes to the Second Coming of the Messiah who will rescue Israel and give them the total and complete victory over their enemies arrayed against them at the very end of this present age.
David wrote it after he had won several battles in the past that had seen the LORD fight for Israel through His warrior king David whom He had anointed with the Holy Spirit for his ministry as the King of Israel.
Historical markers are mentioned against Aram Naharaim and Aram Zobah. These were a Semitic people whose homeland was primarily in what is now modern-day Syria. In the Old Testament, the Arameans were Israel’s immediate neighbours and primarily adversaries of the Israelites.
Also David was remembering the earlier days of his reign when he and his army subjected the neighbouring nations. In 2 Samuel 8:1-8 we have recorded David’s victories over Philistia (modern day Gaza), Moab (modern day central Jordan) and Syria (modern day Syria).
Then in 2 Samuel 10:1-19 tells of David’s victories over Ammon (modern day northern Jordan) and Syria.
Then in 1 Chronicles 18:11-13 it records David’s victories over Edom (modern day southern Jordan expanding into Saudi Arabia). Specifically mentioned are Joab and the armies of Israel killing 12,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt which is generally believed to be situated between Judah and Edom, near the southern end of the Dead Sea.
These battles David and the armies of Israel waged foreshadow the Messiah with the armies of Israel conquering all of the Land promised to Abraham from the Wadi of Egypt all the way up to the River Euphrates in Syria and everything in between including most of the Sinai Peninsula, Judea and Samaria (the West bank), Gaza, the Golan Heights, and most of Syria up to the River Euphrates (Genesis 15:17-19).
Moab, Ammon, Philistia, and the Amalekites whose founder was Amalek (the grandson of Esau) were all subjected to King David. The Amalekites were persistent enemies of the Israelites, known for their unprovoked attacks during the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt (Exodus 17:8-13).
God had commanded them to be eliminated due to their hostility and malevolence towards His people. God’s Word records His divine command to remember the actions of Amalek and to blot out their memory. God would be at war with the Amalekites from generation to generation (Exodus 17:14-16).
The Amalekites as a people historically were eliminated. However, they were decedents of Esau the father of the Arab nations today. The same entity or principality that was over Amalek back then remains over the Arab nations today that afflict Israel. The hostility between the decedents of Jacob (the Jews) and Esau (the Arabs) goes way back to when Jacob and Esau wrestled in the womb of their mother Rebekah (Genesis 25:23; 27:39-41).
The victories described in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles do not mention the kind of setbacks lamented in this psalm. It reminds us that the historical Biblical record often condenses events, and that the successes were real, yet not always immediate. Let’s now look at this psalm of David
Psalm 60 “The Warrior King” Exposition:
(Vs.1) “You have rejected us, O God, and burst forth upon us; You have been angry-now restore us!”
King David understood that when he and the army of Israel went to war that they had to completely rely upon the LORD and not on man. As we read in Psalm 146:3-5 “Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the LORD his God.”
There were times when David and the armies of Israel fought against foreign armies and experienced some measure of defeat. David knew that when the LORD fought for Israel, victory was assured; if there was defeat, it was likely because of God’s displeasure due to some act or rebellious attitude or disobedience from His people.
Therefore David appealed to what he believed to be the ultimate cause, not the immediate cause. David has seen the consequences of King Saul’s disobedience and the cost to the armies of Israel and understood the ramifications of disobedience and unbelief.
Possible he sensed that Israel were in some way were not fully trusting in the LORD and that from Israel’s past history disobedience to the LORD carried with it dire consequences as we see in the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience (Leviticus Chapter 26) (Deuteronomy Chapter 28).
It is interesting to note that the curses outweighed the blessings because sin is a very serious matter to God and carries with it severe penalties if it is not confessed and put away by the power, the grace and the mercy of God (1 John 1:9). David knew from personal experience that worse than defeat was the sense of separation from God and a deep feeling of estrangement from Him (Psalm 51).
Without a sense of God’s abiding presence in the daily lives of His people their lives become a meaningless existence. They are brought to see that being abandoned by His divine presence is the most miserable condition. They are not at home among God’s people but neither are they at home in the world either if they once tasted the power of God but lost it through wilful disobedience and unrepentant sin.
Now the thing that caused God to persevere with David, even after his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah, that David knew where to go when he became conscious of his sin. The psalms reflect this character trait of David.
In the case of adultery and murder David had started to settle down and pretend that all was well. However, at the rebuke of Nathan the prophet and the death of his son birthed through Bathsheba, David thoroughly repented until the sense of God’s pardon and cleansing was restored (Psalms 32 & 51).
David also knew that God restores those who repent and that His anger subsides when He sees the heartfelt confession and repentance for sin. Hence David prays for restoration. If in some way God had caused the defeat of Israel, it did not discourage David from appealing to Him that His favour be restored. This cry, “restore us” immediately brings hope to the matter. As we see reflected in Psalm 85:6 in the psalmist’s prayer; “Will You be angry with us forever? Will You draw out Your anger to all generations? Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You? Show us Your loving devotion, O LORD, and grant us Your salvation.” David continues…
(Vs.2) “You have shaken the land and torn it open; mend its fractures, for it is quaking.”
David also knew that personal sin always affects others in some way. Even though David was forgiven, cleansed and continuing in His calling and gifting from God that was irrevocable (Romans 11:29), he also knew that we live with the consequences of our sins even though they have been cleansed and forgiven.
David’s sin of adultery and murder continued through his son Absalom who as a result of his rebellion came to a terrible end and that without repentance unto eternal life, a tragedy that never really left David’s memory. Added to this we also know that in His grace and mercy our Triune God is able to restore the years that the locusts (demonic forces) have eaten (Joel 2:25).
When one looks at Israel’s long and troubled history we see where time and time again that when the nation turned away from trusting God to lean upon other nations for help and support in a time of Israel’s calamity, that the consequences of defeat for His people were like a shaking of the whole land by a severe earthquake and by this calamity metaphorically speaking torn apart.
Those the kings and the people of Israel had trusted in could not be relied upon in the end. David knew that the LORD could also mend Israel’s fractures, healing the breaches, and stop its shaking if they only turned to Him for their peace and security.
This is a lesson that the leaders of Israel today needs to learn. Having said this, the only one who can save them as a nation in the end is the Messiah our Lord Jesus “the Lily of the Covenant.”
At present by and large the Jewish leaders and people of Israel are still under the curse of the law because of their rejection of the Messiah. At the cross that curse was broken, and their sin atoned for by the Messiah’s shed blood, not only for Israel’s sin but for the sin of the whole world (Galatians 3:13-14) (1 John 2:1-2) (John 1:29; 3:16-18). However, the substitutionary sacrifice of the Messiah must be personally received if that curse is to be broken in one’s life whether Jewish or Gentile (John 1:10-13).
King David, the Warrior King, foreshadowed the Messiah, Israel’s eternal king, and the one who would spiritually and nationally restore Israel at His Second Coming as the King of the Jews and in this context Israel’s Warrior King. Before this happens Israel as a nation must pass through the Time of Trouble where God will deal with them to bring them back to Himself. In that day He will be the only one to look to in their calamity when the nation will be shaken and fractured (Zechariah 12:10-13:1) (Zechariah 13:8-9).David continues…
(Vs.3) “You have shown your people desperate times; You have given us wine that makes us stagger.”
Desperate times we face are designed by a sovereign, loving, wise and infinitely good God to cause us to look to Him alone for help and deliverance. When we see the children of Israel in the Exodus from Egypt facing tests and trials and enemies bent on their destruction, God was allowing these to show His people His total ability to act on their behalf and that He could be completely trusted in all of life’s circumstances if they followed and trusted Him with all of their heart. David also understood this as he reflected on God’s past dealings with Israel.
As we read in God’s Word “For the eyes of the LORD roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:19).
Israel’s defeat was hard to understand by many in Israel and at times even David himself showed this in this psalm he had written as well as ion other psalms he wrote. God had made them drink the wine of confusion in order to cause them to turn to Him alone for answers to the dilemma they were facing.
At times even David himself must have experienced confusion in certain perilous situations, however, in his sense of confusion strengthened himself in the LORD (1 Samuel 30:6).
David also understood there was a comfort in understanding that God was the author of it all, because what God does in judgment or discipline, He can restore in love and mercy as David writes in another of his psalms (Psalm 30:5).
Sometimes God will allow a sense of confusion especially in a time of trial testing or even when we are experiencing a sense of inner heaviness through manifold temptations (1 Peter 1:6). His purpose is to encourage us to lean more upon Him and on His unchanging Word which cannot fail to deliver on its promises.
As we read in the Book of Proverbs; “Every word of God proves true; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him” (Proverbs 30:5). Davis now focuses on what God will do for those who revere Him with profound respect and affection and stand in awe of Him. And so David proclaims…
(Vs.4) “But for those who fear You, You have raised a banner to be unfurled against the bow. Selah”
It is written in the Word of God “When the enemy shall come in, like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a (battle) standard against him” (Isaiah 59:19). When the bow of the enemy are launching their fiery arrows at the righteous who walk by faith, like a flood the Spirit of God will be there to enable that shield of faith to be raised with its protective covering to extinguish those fiery arrows (Ephesians 6:16).
As it is also written; “Come, see the works of the LORD, who brings devastation upon the earth. He makes wars to cease throughout the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the shields in the fire. “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth” (Psalm 46:8-10). This is the heritage of all who reverence the LORD.
To fear God is to reverence Him with profound respect and affection, mingled with awe or a healthy fear and to honour Him, to not treat Him lightly or flippantly, something that is missing in many Church fellowships today! In both Testaments we see God’s people constantly engaged in a spiritual wrestling match with Satan and his henchman both in the physical realm we see with our eyes and in the unseen spiritual realm (Ephesians 6:12).
This continuing battle has been going on since the fall of man in the garden of Eden and especially in relation to Israel as we see in the Book of Daniel (Daniel 10:12-14). Today the battle rages as the end of this present age draws closer which will see Israel increasingly becoming centre stage in world affairs (Daniel 12:1) (Matthew 24:21-22).
The LORD’s banner is the blood of the Messiah who was slain from before the foundation of the world, a spiritual weapon transcending time and eternity. The powers of hell must give way to the power of the Messiah’s blood and one’s testimony to its power to save, deliver, redeem and sanctify those who trust in His salvation (Revelation 12:11). For the Body of Messiah the war has been won through the cross and the resurrection of the Messiah.
For Israel their physical battle with the evil one is still raging and as yet by and large the Jewish people have not as yet had the Messiah revealed to them by the Spirit of God. They are still intensely labouring under the curse of the law because as a nation for the most part are rejecting the Messiah. However, this will change!
After Israel has been savaged by the Antichrist and his beast empire and it looks like the Jews will be annihilated, in their desperation they will cry out to the LORD and the Messiah will come to save them as their Warrior King (Jeremiah 30:1-10).
Those Jews remaining alive on earth will be saved. The Jews at Jerusalem will join the Messiah their Warrior King in the line of David when He takes the fight to their enemies (Zechariah 12:10-13:1). As it is written; “Judah will Also fight at Jerusalem” (Zechariah 14:14).
At present Israel’s hardness of heart towards the Messiah is a partial one, however that will change when the Messiah returns and His feet touch once again on the Mount of Olives, to rescue Israel and take the fight to their enemies (Zechariah 14:1-5).
In that day the vast armies Islam and the other nations that have accompanied them will be destroyed (Isaiah 63:1-6) (Revelation 19:11-21).
As we read in the Book of Romans; “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; He will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins… for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:25-27, 29). And then we read…
(Vs.5) “Save us and help us with Your right hand, that those You love may be delivered.”
In the Bible when we see references to the Right hand of the LORD it is the Messiah Himself. His beloved ones, or those He loves, are the redeemed community of believers in both Testaments. Even though David would not see the Messiah in the flesh in his day he had revelation after revelation from the Spirit of God concerning the future Messiah which we see reflected in the psalms David wrote in the Spirit-breathed Word of God.
Our Lord Jesus affirmed this when He told the unsaved Pharisees concerning His eternal pre-existence before His incarnation that David knew about and acknowledged Him through the revelation of the Spirit. Jesus said concerning this about David; “‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet.” ’So if David calls Him ‘Lord,’ how can He be David’s son?” (Matthew 22:44-45).
This revelation was revealed to Job in the Old Testament times. Job proclaims; “Even now my witness (umpire) is in heaven, my advocate is on high… But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I will see Him for myself; my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 16:19; 19:25-27)
In the Old Testament we see the right hand of God at work through the Angel of the LORD. In the Hebrew text renders the word with the definite article being “the Angel,” not an angel or just any angel. The pre-existent Messiah appeared to Abraham as Melchizedek as well as appearing to other men and women in the Old Testament in human form before He was incarnated as a flesh and blood man, when He, as the eternal pre-existent Word of God, was manifested in the flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:1-3;14-15).
As David continues to compose this psalm the Spirit of God now shifts the focus to the end of the age when the Messiah, the Warrior King in the character traits of His ancestor in the flesh David the Warrior King. When God reveals Himself and speaks from His sanctuary in heaven things start to shift on earth where His people are concerned.
His final word to the world will be revealed and activated at the Second Coming of His one and only begotten eternal Son the saviour of the world and the King of the Jews! As the apostle John writes; “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen” (Revelation 1:7). And so we read…
(Vs.6) “God has spoken from His sanctuary: “In triumph I will parcel out Shechem and measure off the Valley of Succoth. Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim is My helmet, Judah My sceptre. Moab is My washbasin, upon Edom I toss My sandal; over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
Notice God says that these territories are “Mine” as He owns the land and has given it to the Jewish people as their earthly inheritance though the lineage of Isaac and Jacob and not through the lineage of Ishmael and Esau, the patriarchs of the Arab nations (Genesis 17:15-21).
Here then we see our Triune God ratifying His covenant with Abraham concerning the Land of Israel to be “an everlasting possession” for his decedents in the lineage of Isaac and Jacob the patriarchs of Israel and the Jewish people (Genesis 17:7-8).
In triumph as a declaration God Himself would rejoice in His Lordship over Israel and His victory over the nations. The Triune God of Israel acting through the Messiah now proclaims and declares what He will do through Him concerning the welfare of His people Israel after His Second Coming. We now read what He will do
With these and the following lines God Himself will rejoice in His Lordship over Israel and His victory over the nations which He will proclaim to the nations when the Messiah’s feet once again stand on the Mount of Olives at His Second Coming.
“In triumph I will parcel out Shechem and measure off the Valley of Succoth.” The specific mentions of Shechem, of the Valley of Succoth, of Gilead, of Manasseh, of Ephraim, and of Judah show that God did not speak symbolically, but geographically. Though He is LORD over all the earth, He has a special care and regard for the land of Israel. Where Abraham and His decedents the people of Israel are concerned, God is into Real Estate!
This complete restoration of the land will come to its fullest fruition when the Warrior King the Messiah our Lord Jesus has defeated all of Israel’s enemies and inaugurated His Messianic rule over the nations on earth that have survived His Second Coming. God will in fact parcel out His land exactly as it suits Him!
Shechem was located in a valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, near the modern city of Nablus in Judea and Samaria (the West bank) in the heart of the Land of Israel. At present militant Arabs are making life hard for the Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, however, after the Messiah has returned, things will change and the Israelis living there will live in peace and no one will ever make them afraid again (Jeremiah 30:8-10).
“Gilead is Mine” Gilead is the ancient region located east of the Jordan River, corresponding to modern north-western Jordan. It is often mentioned in the context of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh in the Bible. “Ephraim is My helmet” Ephraim is called a ‘helmet’ (literally meaning “the strength of my head’), symbolic of force. “Judah My sceptre” symbolising the Messiah’s dominion and governance over Israel and the nations after His Second Coming (Genesis 49:10).
“Moab is My washbasin” Ancient Moab is located in modern-day central Jordan, primarily on the plateau east of the Dead Sea and an enclave of the Arabs which are approximately 98% of the population. The idea of Moab coming with a washbasin is for the warrior to wash his feet and in its prophetic context it is referring to the Arab people of modern–day Central Jordan being in subjection to the warrior King the Messiah our Lord Jesus, a Jew.
“Upon Edom I toss My sandal” Edom today is Southern Jordan but sweeps down into Saudi Arabia the heartland of the Islamic world today (Ezekiel 25:12-14). The idea is of one throwing their sandals either in anger or contempt, as the manner of many masters was in Bible times in such cases where slaves in subjection to their master was concerned.
In fact when the Messiah returns He will fight the armies of Islam in Saudi Arabia as He marches through Bozrah, the southern gateway from Israel into Saudi Arabia, and back again after having destroyed the armies of Islam in wholesale lots (Isaiah 34:5-10; 63:1-6) (Ezekiel 25:12-14).
As for the armies of the nations that will have attacked Israel they will have gone down into the pit of Hell in wholesale lots and they are specifically named in scripture and are all Islamic nations today (Ezekiel 32:18-32).
As yet Israel still does not possess all of the land God gave to them as their inheritance, however, in the Messianic kingdom age to come Israel will totally “possess their possession” and “possess the gates of their enemies” (Obadiah 1:17) (Genesis 22:17).
“Over Philistia I shout in triumph.” Philistia today is Gaza the hotbed of Islamic tyranny and terrorism as Hamas continues to fight against Israel. The same principality that controlled the ancient Philistines who constantly attacked and harassed Israel is over Gaza today. The time is coming when Gaza will be totally destroyed and that by God Himself (Amos 1:6-7) (Zephaniah 2:4) (Zechariah 9:5).
Historically the Philistines ceased to exist as a distinct group around 604 BC, after being conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonian Empire. Following this conquest, they gradually lost their identity through assimilation into other cultures. However, the principality over the Gaza strip still remained and is active today through the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
Even though attempts are being made for the reconstruction of Gaza it will remain an Islamic conclave and at the end it will be destroyed because of its continuous aggression against Israel. In the Messianic kingdom when the renewal of the earth will take place Gaza will be just a part of the restoration of the whole land of Israel.
(Vs.9-11) “Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? Is it not you, O God, you who have rejected us and no longer go out with our armies? Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless”
David understood that if God did not go out with the armies of Israel it was because of disobedience and unrepentant sin. It was sin in the camp that hindered the victory of the Israelites over the city of Ai, a small city compared with Jericho which Joshua and the Israelites had conquered. Achan had taken a thing devoted to destruction and it was only after he had paid for his sin that Israel could continue in their victory over the cities of Canaan.
David was thinking about the fortified city in Edom at this time. When David spoke of “the fortified city” he could have only meant Petra, the most inaccessible and apparently impregnable mountain stronghold of Edom at that time. Only God could give victory over a fortress like that, and David knew it.
So he cried to God, acknowledging that “the help of man is worthless” when it comes to fighting spiritual battles with implacable enemies both on earth and in the unseen spiritual realm in the lower atmosphere just above the surface of the earth.
David knew by first-hand experience when fighting God’s battles it took God’s grace and strength to defeat Israel’s enemies. Unless God armed them with His power they would never prevail over the insurmountable odds they often faced.
As we read in God’s Word; “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes” (Psalm 118:8-9). And as Jeremiah the prophet writes; ““Thus says the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes human strength his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:5).
It is the same for God’s people today. It is a lesson that Israel is yet to rediscover. Today Israel is relying upon America and a seemingly peaceful situation with their Islamic Arab neighbours, however, it will not last for the time is coming when the armies of the nations will converge on Jerusalem but ultimately fall on the mountains of Israel when God fights for Israel in and through the Messiah our Lord Jesus after He has returned to the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:1-5). After the dust of battle has settled over the land and Israel’s enemies swept away in divine wrath, the Millennial Messianic Kingdom will commence. And so we find David writing;
(Vs.12) “With God we will gain the victory, and He will trample down our enemies.”
Israel is yet to pass through their darkest hour and be overwhelmed and completely destitute of all strength to resist what will come upon them, however when all human aid is gone they will look only to the LORD and cry out to Him as the Israelites did in Egypt and just as God sent them a deliverer in Moses, so He will send them their Lord and Saviour and Messiah our Lord Jesus, who will give the victory to Israel and who will trample down their enemies. David had this prophetic revelation as he penned the last stanza of this song concerning Israel’s Warrior King!
At that time every Jew still living will look upon Him whom they have pierced and be saved and reconciled to Him, and in that day for the people of Israel weeping with tears of repentance and joy it will be life from the dead! Their Messiah, the Warrior King of Israel with the character traits of King David will have returned! Selah!
