PSALMS 60      Other translations  -  previous  -  next  -  meaning  -  Psalms  -  BM Home  -  Full Page

PSALM 60

To him that presides upon Shushan-eduth; Michtam of David, to teach; when he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah; when Joah returned, and smote of Edom in the valley of Salt twelve thousand.

1. O god, you have cast us off, you have scattered us, you have been displeased; do you restore us again!
2. You have made the earth to tremble, you have rent it to pieces; heal the breaches thereof, for it shakes.
3. You have showed to your people hard things; you have made us to drink the wine of trembling.
4. You have given a banner to them that fear you, that it may be displayed because of your truth. Selah.
5. That your beloved may be delivered; save with your right hand, and hear me.
6. god has spoken by his holiness; I will exult; I will divide Schechem and measure out the valley of Succoth.
7. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is the strength of my head; Judah is my lawgiver.
8. Moab is my wash-pot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; O Philistia, triumph you because of me.
9. Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me into Edom?
10. Will not you, O god! You that have forsaken us? you, O god, that have not gone forth with our armies?
11. Give us help against the enemy; for vain is the help of man.
12. With god we shall do valiantly; for he will tread down our enemies.

Verses 1, 2. O god, you have cast us off, you have scattered us, you have been displeased; restore again us. You have made the earth to tremble, you have broken it; heal the breaches thereof, for it shakes. By a breach is signified the decay of the church, and hence the perversion of truth, and the inroad of what is false; this therefore is signified by making the earth to tremble, by breaking it, and by the earth being moved; the earth is the church. AE 400.

Verse 6. I will divide Schechem, and measure out the valley of Succoth. Schechem is the first station, as it were, in the land of Canaan, in coming from Syria, or from Haran; and whereas by the land of Canaan are signified celestial things of love, it is evident that by Schechem is signified the first appearing of things celestial. Jacob, when he returned from Haran to the land of Canaan, in like manner as Abram, came to Schechem, as may appear from Genesis 33:18, where also by Schechem is signified the first dawn of light; so in David, "god has spoken in his holiness, I will exult, I will divide Schechem, and measure out the valley of Succoth; Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine, and Ephraim is the strength of my head; Judah is my lawgiver, Moab is my wash-pot, over Edom will I cast my shoe, over Philistia will I triumph," Psalm 60:6—8, where, by Schechem also the like is signified. AC 1441.

Succoth signifies tents, and tents the holy principle of truth. AC 4392.

Verse 7. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine, and Ephraim is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver, By Manasseh is here signified the good of the church; by Ephraim its truth; and by Gilead, the natural principle; and since truth has divine power from natural good, therefore it is said, Ephraim is the strength of my head: the reason why there is divine power by truth from good in the natural principle is because the natural principle is the ultimate, into which interior things, which are spiritual and celestial, flow, and where they are together and subsist; they are therefore in their fullness there, in which, and from which, is all divine operation. AE 440.

Verse 8. Over Edom will I cast out my shoe. The shoe is what invests the sole of the foot and the heel, therefore the shoe signifies what is still more natural; thus the very corporeal principle itself. AC 1748.

Verse 11. For vain (or vanity) is the help of man. Vanity signifies the falsity of doctrine, and a lie, the false principle of life. AC 9248.