Psalms 60:3
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You have shown Your people hardship; we are staggered from the wine You made us drink.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
After many psalms which David penned in a day of distress this comes which was calculated for a day of triumph; it was penned after he was settled in the throne, upon occasion of an illustrious victory which God blessed his forces with over the Syrians and Edomites; it was when David was in the zenith of his prosperity, and the affairs of his kingdom seem to have been in a better posture then ever they were either before or after. See Sa2 8:3, Sa2 8:13; Ch1 18:3, Ch1 18:12. David, in prosperity, was as devout as David in adversity. In this psalm, I. He reflects upon the bad state of the public interests, for many years, in which God had been contending with them (Psa 60:1-3). II. He takes notice of the happy turn lately given to their affairs (Psa 60:4). III. He prays for the deliverance of God's Israel from their enemies (Psa 60:5). IV. He triumphs in hope of their victories over their enemies, and begs of God to carry them on and complete them (Psa 60:6-12). In singing this psalm we may have an eye both to the acts of the church and to the state of our own souls, both which have their struggles. To the chief musician upon Shushan-eduth, Michtam of David, to teach, when he strove with Aram-naharaim, and with Aramzobah, when Joab returned, and smote of Edom in the valley of salt 12,000.
Open source ↗60:3 wine (Hebrew yayin) that sent us reeling: Yayin, the generic Hebrew term meaning “wine,” is often associated with drunkenness (2 Sam 13:28; Isa 5:11; 28:7-8; cp. Ps 104:15; Deut 14:26; Isa 55:1); it symbolized God’s judgment of the wicked (Ps 75:8; Jer 51:7).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of His fury; you who have drained the goblet to the dregs— the cup that makes men stagger.
Though You have shown me many troubles and misfortunes, You will revive me once again. Even from the depths of the earth You will bring me back up.
Thus says your Lord, the LORD, even your God, who defends His people: “See, I have removed from your hand the cup of staggering. From that goblet, the cup of My fury, you will never drink again.
This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from My hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it.
For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours from His cup, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to the dregs.
The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.
You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.
So now, our God, the great and mighty and awesome God who keeps His gracious covenant, do not view lightly all the hardship that has come upon us, and upon our kings and leaders, our priests and prophets, our ancestors and all Your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today.
You will be filled with shame instead of glory. You too must drink and expose your uncircumcision! The cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will cover your glory.
So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. Yet the cup will pass to you as well; you will get drunk and expose yourself.