Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 60:5
That thy beloved may be delivered; save [with] thy right hand, and hear me.
5. thy beloved ] Thy beloved ones (plur.) are Israel. Cp. Deu 33:12; Jer 11:15. God’s love for Israel is the counterpart to Israel’s fear of God.
save ] i.e. give victory. Cp. Psa 60:11.
hear me ] Answer me. The Kthbh has us, which R.V. adopts; but the Qr is me. This has the support of the Ancient Versions and is preferable. David is the speaker. Cp. Psa 60:9.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
5 8. A prayer for deliverance and victory, based upon God’s promise to give Israel the possession of Canaan, and supremacy over the neighbouring nations.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
That thy beloved may be delivered – The word beloved is in the plural number, and might be rendered beloved ones. It refers not merely to David as his servant and friend, but to those associated with him. The reference is to the calamities and dangers then existing, to which allusion has been made above. The prayer is, that the enemy might be driven back, and the land delivered from their invasion.
Save with thy right hand – The right hand is that by which the sword is handled, the spear hurled, the arrow drawn on the bow. The prayer is, that God would put forth his power and deliver his people.
And hear me – literally, Answer me. The answer which he desired was that God would lead his armies successfully into Edom, Psa 60:8-9.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Thy beloved people, last mentioned.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. hear meor, “hear us.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
That thy beloved may be delivered,…. Some think that these words express the effect or end of the banner being displayed; but because of the word “Selah” at the end of Ps 60:4, which makes so full a stop; rather they are to be considered in construction with the following clause. By the Lord’s “beloved” ones are meant, not so much the people of Israel, who were loved and chosen by the Lord above all people on the face of the earth, as the elect of God, both among Jews and Gentiles, who are the chosen of God, and precious, and are loved of him with a free, sovereign, everlasting, and unchangeable love: these are the beloved of Father, Son, and Spirit; who, falling into a state of condemnation and death in Adam, and being under the power of sin, and involved in the guilt and faith of it; and being fallen into the hands of many enemies, sin, Satan, and the world; stood in need of deliverance out of all this, which they could not work out of themselves, nor any creature for them; wherefore, that they might be delivered, the following request is made;
save [with] thy right hand; from sin, the cause of damnation; from the law, which threatens with condemnation and death; from Satan, that would devour and destroy; and from all their enemies; from wrath to come, from hell and the second death; or from going down to the pit of corruption. The persons for whom this petition is put up are not only David himself, but all the beloved ones; and these God has appointed unto salvation; Christ is the Saviour of them, and to them salvation is applied in due time by the Spirit, and in a little while they will be in the full possession of it: and this is wrought out by the “right hand” of the Lord; either by his mighty power, the saving strength of his right hand, who is mighty to save; or by his Son, the man of his right hand, made strong for himself, who able to save to the uttermost; and by whom God has determined to save, and does save all his people; or the words may be rendered, “save thy right hand, [thy] Benjamins” p who are as near and dear to thee as thy right hand, being his mystical self, to whom salvation is brought by him, Isa 63:1;
and hear me; in so doing, he suggests he would hear and answer him his prayers would be ended and accomplished; this being the sum of them, his own salvation, and the salvation of the Lord’s beloved ones. The “Cetib”, or writing of this clause, is, “hear us”; the “Keri”, or reading of it, “hear me”.
p .
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(5) From this verse onward the psalm appears again, with some variations noticed there, in Psa. 108:6-13.
(6, 7, 8) These three verses, forming the centre of the poem, are, plainly by their style, of different age and authorship from the beginning. Possibly, indeed, they formed an original poem by themselves, an ancient oracular saying descriptive of the relations of Israel to the tribes bordering on her territory, and were then employed by the compilers of this psalm and Psalms 108, to rouse the drooping spirits of the race in some less fortunate time. (See Introduction.) The speaker is God Himself, who, according to a familiar prophetic figure, appears in the character of a warrior, the captain of Israel, proclaiming the triumphs won through His might by their arms. (Comp. Isa. 63:1-6.) Here, however, the picture is rather playful than terriblerather ironic than majestic. The conqueror is returning, as in the passage of Isaiah referred to above, from the battle, but he is not painted glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength. The fury of the fight, the carnage, the bloodstained garments are all implied, not described. Instead of answering a challenge, as in Isaiah, by a description of the fight, here the champion simply proclaims the result of his victory as he proceeds to disarm and prepare for the bathfigures expressing the utmost contempt for the foe so easily subdued.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Thy beloved The same word, radically, as Jedediah, the beloved of Jehovah, a title of endearment given to Benjamin and to Solomon. Deu 33:12; 2Sa 12:25. See Psa 108:6.
Right hand As the emblem of most excellent strength, fidelity, and honour.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
David Calls On God To Save Them By His Mighty Right Hand So That The People Whom He Loves Might Be Delivered, And Declares The Certainty Of YHWH’s Victory Because The Surrounding Nations Are Subject To Him ( Psa 60:5-8 ).
David calls on God to personally save the people on whom He has set His love, and expresses his confidence that He will intervene, and this because God has exultantly declared His sovereignty over the area. It is all under His control and He will do with it as He will. Israel (Ephraim) is His helmet, and Judah His sceptre, the outward evidence of His rule, whilst the surrounding nations, Moab, Edom and Philistia are in inferior positions.
Psa 60:5
‘That your beloved ones may be delivered,
Save with your right hand, and answer us.’
In order that His beloved ones, the ones on whom He has set His love, might be delivered, he calls on God to save by means of His mighty right hand, answering His people (or answering David) as they call on Him.
We might ask, ‘if they are His beloved ones why has He allowed them to suffer these reverses?’ And the reply will be, ‘Whom YHWH loves He reproves and chastens, even as a father the son in whom he delights’ (Pro 3:12). David is aware of this and is confident that after rebuke will come blessing.
‘Answer us’ is the kethib (original reading), ‘answer me’ is the qere (suggested adjustment), the latter being a correction and alternative reading in the MT.
Psa 60:6
‘God has spoken in his holiness,
‘God has spoken in His holiness.’ ‘In His holiness’ expresses the uniqueness of what God is. He is the wholly righteous One Who is always true to His word, and the One Who is distinctive in His ‘otherness’, above, beyond and distinctive from His creation. He is ‘the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity Whose Name is Holy’ (Isa 57:15). And it is as such that He has spoken (made His solemn declaration), thus guaranteeing the end result.
Psa 60:6-8
“I will exult,
I will divide Shechem,
And mete out the valley of Succoth.
Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine,
Ephraim also is the defence of my head,
Judah is my sceptre.’
Moab is my washpot,
On Edom will I cast my shoe,
Philistia, shout you because of me.”
What God has spoken is now made plain. It may be that we are to see this as God raising His standard on behalf of His people (Psa 60:4), or alternatively as God’s promise to David. But in either case it depicts God as arising victoriously, and exultantly carrying out His purpose and revealing His sovereignty. The whole area is under His control.
Shechem and Succoth were the two places which Jacob had first reached on entering the land after his sojourn in Paddan Aram (Gen 33:17-18). Shechem was west of the Jordan, and Succoth east of Jordan. They may thus have been seen as representing the north of Israel on both sides of the Jordan over which God now claims to exercise His authority and control. The thought may be included here that God is fulfilling His promises to Jacob.
Gilead and Manasseh may be seen as representing the whole swathe of land east of the Jordan (Gilead is a flexible term often indicating a large part of the land east of Jordan). Although Manasseh was also well represented west of the Jordan, a large part of the land east of Jordan was territory belonging to the tribe of Manasseh. It is being emphasised that they belong to God.
Ephraim was the popular name for the central highlands and related territory, and was the name of the most powerful tribe in Israel. It would eventually became synonymous with northern Israel (a somewhat restricted Israel), but at this stage it was simply the largest and strongest tribe. This is portrayed as God’s battle helmet. Judah, of course, represented the southern part of the kingdom, the part which had first yielded to David’s rule (2Sa 3:2-5). It is represented as God’s sceptre, for it was through Judah that kingship was to be established (Gen 49:10-12).
Thus the whole of the land over which David ruled is intended to be covered here (geography at that time was vague). The descriptions of Ephraim and Judah as His battle helmet and sceptre indicate how personal is God’s activity on their behalf. It is through Ephraim and Judah that He achieves His warlike success and sovereignty.
Moab, Edom and Philistia, Israel’s nearest neighbours, are portrayed as very much subservient to Israel. Moab is His washpot. That is, it is in Moab that He washes His feet. On Edom He casts His shoe. They are His slaves who are given his shoes to clean ready for Him to wear. Alternately some see the casting of a shoe as a claim to sovereignty. Philistia shout because of Him. The idea is that they proclaim His lordship, and possibly even that they run before His chariot clearing the way for Him.
Thus David is assured that the whole area is subject to God’s control, so that he need not fear that Edom will be successful in their attempts to take over southern Judah.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jesus is the beloved of the Father, full of grace and truth. But it should seem that Christ had an eye in this prayer to the church which is his beloved, and in him also the beloved of the Father. Reader, if you take the verse in this sense, and then connect with it what the Lord Jesus Christ said in the days of his flesh, Joh 17:23 . I do not know a thought which can be awakened in the mind more blessed, more delightful, and full of glory! Cherish it, I pray you, forever, and carry it about with you wherever you go, to help your mind on to the unceasing love and praise of all the persons of the Godhead. Doth God the Father indeed love the church of the Lord Jesus, even as he loveth him?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 60:5 That thy beloved may be delivered; save [with] thy right hand, and hear me.
Ver. 5. That thy beloved may be delivered ] Heb. thy darlings, those that fear thee, Psa 60:4 , for, for their sakes it is that God doth good to a people; to all others he seemeth to say, as Elisha once did to Jehoram, that wicked king of Israel, What have I to do with thee? &c. Were it not that I regarded such and such people, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee, 2Ki 3:13-14 .
Save with thy right hand
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
hear = answer.
me. Hebrew text reads “us”; but some codices, with four early printed editions, Aramaean, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read “me”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 60:5-12 are identical with Psa 108:6-13.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
That: Psa 60:12, Psa 22:8, Psa 108:6-13, Deu 7:7, Deu 7:8, Deu 33:3, Mat 3:17, Mat 17:5
save: Psa 17:7, Psa 18:35, Psa 20:6, Psa 74:11, Exo 15:6, Isa 41:10
Reciprocal: Psa 108:1 – General Psa 138:7 – and thy right Jer 17:14 – save Rom 1:7 – beloved Eph 1:6 – in
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
David now requested divine deliverance for the chosen people. God’s right hand represents His might. Psa 60:5-12 are identical to Psa 108:6-13.