Psalms 60:1-12

A Hymn of War and Victory.

To the chief musician upon Shushaneduth, to be chanted in public worship according to the melody "The Lily of Testimony," this tune indicating also the contents of the psalm as referring to God's faithfulness in preserving His people and granting the armies of Israel victory, Michtam of David, a poem in epigrammatic form, to teach; when he strove with Aram-naharaim, that is, with Mesopotamia beyond the Euphrates, and with Aram-zobah, the Syria of Zobah, 2 Samuel 10, when Joab returned and smote of Edom, whose armies had invaded Canaan from the south, 2 Samuel 8:13, in the Valley of Salt, near the southwestern end of the Dead Sea, twelve thousand. David, as king, was commander-in-chief of the armies of Israel, the victory therefore being credited to him, but Joab was the general of the army, and he dispatched his brother Abishai, the commander of this expedition, which, as it seems, slew twelve thousand Edomites in one battle and a total of eighteen thousand in the entire campaign, 2 Samuel 8:13; 1 Chronicles 18:12.