Psalms 60:2

_THOU HAST MADE THE EARTH TO TREMBLE; THOU HAST BROKEN IT: HEAL THE BREACHES THEREOF; FOR IT SHAKETH._ Thou hast made the earth to tremble - an image for political convulsion and rending of the nation. HEAL THE BREACHES THEREOF. The healing already has begun (Psalms 60:1; Psalms 60:4): perfect it now. HEAL THE BREACHES THEREOF. The healing already has begun (Psalms 60:1; Psalms 60:4): perfect it now....

1-5 David owns God's displeasure to be the cause of all the hardships he had undergone. And when God is turning his hand in our favour, it is good to remember our former troubles. In God's displeasure their troubles began, therefore in his favour their prosperity must begin. Those breaches and divisions which the folly and corruption of man make, nothing but the wisdom and grace of God can repair, by pouring out a spirit of love and peace, by which only a kingdom is saved from ruin. The anger of God against sin, is the only cause of all misery, private or public, that has been, is, or shall be. In all these cases there is no remedy, but by returning to the Lord with repentance, faith, and prayer; beseeching him to return to us. Christ, the Son of David, is given for a banner to those that fear God; in him they are gathered together in one, and take courage. In his name and strength they...

THOU HAST MADE THE EARTH TO TREMBLE - This refers, doubtless, to some calamity that might be compared with an earthquake - some disaster, discomfiture, or defeat that had shaken their hopes, as a city is shaken by an earthquake. Such comparisons are common in the Scriptures. THOU HAST BROKEN IT - As if it were broken up, or convulsed. HEAL THE BREACHES THEREOF - That is, Appear for thy people, and repair their disasters, as if after an earthquake thou shouldst appear and fill up the rents which it had made. The prayer is that he would place things in their former condition of prosperity and success. FOR IT SHAKETH - It is convulsed or agitated. That is, there is still commotion. Things are unsettled and disturbed. The prayer is, that there might be stability or continued success....

EXPOSITION IN the case of this psalm, the "title" is again our best guide, both with respect to the author and to the occasion of the composition. The title is unusually full, and contains such a number of minute particulars, as a later compiler or commentator would scarcely have ventured upon. The history involved in the title—reconcilable on the whole with the accounts in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles—is certainly not contained in those accounts. It implies an author, writing from his own knowledge of facts—an author who, if not David himself, must have been a contemporary. The psalm itself has every characteristic of the Davidic style—liveliness, rapid transitions, terse yet comprehensive language, strong metaphors, intense feeling, hopefulness. It belongs to the time when, after his first Syrian campaign (2 Samuel 8:3), David was engaged in a war with

THOU HAST MADE THE EARTH TO TREMBLE; THOU HAST BROKEN IT,.... As is frequently done by an earthquake; which, whatever natural causes there may be of it, is always to be ascribed to God. The ancient Heathens m were of opinion that all earthquakes were of God. This respects not the whole earth, but the land of Israel only; and so the Targum, "thou hast moved the land of Israel, thou hast shaken and rent it;'' and it does not design a natural earthquake in it, but a figurative one; a shaking and rending of their civil and church state; see Hebrews 12:26; HEAL THE BREACHES THEREOF; FOR IT SHAKETH; which will be done in the latter day, when they shall return into their own land, and be restored as at the beginning, Isaiah 30:30. m A. Gell.

Psalms 60 The Lord with His People _ 1. Confessions and prayer (Psalms 60:1)_ 2. The inheritance anticipated (Psalms 60:6) 3. Faith's certainty (Psalms 60:9) This Psalm, “Shushan-Eduth” (the lily of testimony), also a Michtam of David, has for its beginning a confession of the godly in Israel. The Lord they acknowledge had scattered them and is angry with them. They pray for restoration. “That thy beloved may be delivered, save with Thy right hand and hear me.” Then He hears and answers in His holiness and His people rejoice as once more they possess their earthly inheritance. The casting of the shoe upon Edom m

LX. This Ps. really consists of two bound together in an abrupt style. In A, _i.e._ in Psalms 60:1; Psalms 60:10_ b_, Psalms 60:11 f. we have a lament over the desperate condition of Israel, though the Psalmist is driven by his despair to renewed trust in God. In B (Psalms 60:6_ a_) the tone is quite different. Appeal is made to a Divine oracle and the poet exults in the confidence that Israel will recover its possessions and utterly subdue Moab and Edom. The whole of B recurs in Psalms 108:7_ a_: so also does the conclusion of Ps.,

BROKEN. made fissures. Occurs only here....

Grave disasters have befallen Israel through God's displeasure....

THOU HAST MADE THE EARTH TO TREMBLE— _The land._ By this figurative expression the Scripture frequently denotes extraordinary troubles and calamities: Compare Isaiah 23:13; Isaiah 29:6. And such were the dreadful commotions and miserable divisions among David's people....