Psalm 60 is a fervent emotional psalm, a prayer to be restored to God. It has a meaningful order. It begins with the despair of feeling that God has cast us away, and has allowed us to be broken down. This leads us to an understanding that the Lord permits us to go through hard experiences so that we may be strengthened and be able to be brought back with truer understanding.
The psalm moves on to use familiar names in the land of Israel to represent the scenes of the Lord’s might and influence. These are the Lord’s possession and they are the means for his power and involvement. The Lord claims them absolutely.
The third part of the psalm finds new courage and confidence from seeing the intimate power and presence of God over all Israel and over each part of it. It asserts that the Lord will unfailingly bring us to safety and lead us, this Lord whom earlier was said to have cast us off and who did not come to our aid. It ends, triumphing in God’s might and the assertion that help from man then is useless.
The first three verses give us a harrowing picture, that somehow God has acted against us in several ways, because he is displeased. This of course is not true, but it pictures a state that can descend on us even though we know and believe the opposite. It is caused by seeing the appearance and not seeing the underlying reality. It is interesting that in the middle of all this, the speaker begs to be restored again. This suggests the spark of some remnant state. (Divine Love and Wisdom 40[2])
The curious phrase in verse 3 about the ‘wine of confusion’ is literally the ’wine of reeling’. Being made to drink this by God means that God allows us to have states where our thoughts and understanding become disturbed and unclear. This allows us to reorder them which then strengthens them, which is then beneficial to us. (Arcana Caelestia 6377)
Verses 4 and 5 are about the ‘banner’ given by God to be displayed so that we can be delivered. What is this ‘banner’? A little further on it says ‘it is displayed because of the truth’, which is the purpose of the ‘banner’ or standard, to raise truth high up to be seen and known. A banner is a war rallying ensign; truth in our mind is our spiritual rallying point to which we turn for courage and confidence. (Arcana Caelestia 8624)
Then we come to the place-names of Israel which God claims and rules. The spiritual meaning of all these together and of Israel as a whole is that they stand for our existence from God. Individually, we are ‘Israel’. God is over it all, directing and governing our lives in every possible way. (Heaven and Hell 307:3)
The reference to dividing Shechem carries the spiritual idea of God almost like a referee, separating our warring factions and strife. Measuring the valley of Succoth stands for the Lord’s knowledge of the true state of us. Gilead, Manasseh and Ephraim become the trinity of life, and the goodness and truth which are needed to guide our life. Judah, the lawgiver, stands for the supreme need to recognise and acknowledge that truth is of and from the Lord. (Arcana Caelestia 4748:3))
It then moves on to more questions, but now they are full of confidence and understanding: ‘Who will bring me…? Who will lead me…?’ ‘Is it not You, O God, who cast me off?’ The speaker is overruling his early complaint to God and now, in this greater realisation, he feels the leading presence and power of God. (True Christian Religion 137[5])
The psalm comes to an end, having journeyed from dismay into instruction and to realisation, by comparing the trust we put in God and the trust we would be wise not to put in man. Spiritually, ‘man’ represents our own will which is fickle and delusory whereas Divine will and truth is an ever-dependable foundation.
