The Wine of Astonishment Text: Psalm 60
Introduction: The Gift of Hard Times
We live in a soft age. We have been conditioned to believe that comfort is the great goal, and that any form of national or personal affliction is a sign that God has somehow failed us. We think that if we are God’s people, then our armies should never be routed, our economy should never falter, and our cultural influence should never wane. But this is a profound theological error, born of a weak and sentimental view of God’s sovereignty. The Bible, and this psalm in particular, teaches us something very different. It teaches us that sometimes the most profound evidence of God’s fatherly care is when He shows His people hard things.
This psalm is given a very specific historical context. It is set "when he struggled with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and Joab returned, and smote twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt." This was a time of intense, multi-front warfare for David. While his main forces were engaged in the north against the Arameans, the Edomites saw an opportunity and attacked from the south. Israel suffered a significant defeat. This was not a minor skirmish; it was a national crisis. The land was shaken, broken even. And David, speaking for the nation, does not begin by blaming the Edomites or the Arameans. He begins by looking straight at God.
This is the first and most crucial lesson for us. When our nation is in disarray, when the church is compromised, when our personal lives are reeling, our first question should not be, "Who did this to us?" but rather, "God, what are you saying to us?" David understands that military defeat, like all historical events, is not ultimately the work of Edomite opportunism, but of divine providence. God is the one who casts off, God is the one who breaks down, God is the one who is displeased. And because God is the one who wounds, He is the only one who can heal. This psalm, then, is a master class in how to respond to divine chastisement. It moves from a brutally honest assessment of the disaster to a steadfast confidence in God's promises, culminating in a declaration of future victory. It begins with the bitter cup of God's discipline, what David calls "the wine of astonishment," and it ends with the triumphant shout that "through God we shall do valiantly."
The Text
O God, You have cast us off; You have broken us down; You have been displeased; Oh, restore us again!
You have made the earth tremble; You have broken it; Heal its breaches, for it is shaking.
You have shown Your people hard things; You have made us drink the wine of confusion.
You have given a banner to those who fear You, That it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah
That Your beloved may be delivered, Save with Your right hand, and hear me.
God has spoken in His holiness: "I will rejoice; I will divide Shechem And measure out the Valley of Succoth.
Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet for My head; Judah is My lawgiver.
Moab is My washpot; Over Edom I will cast My shoe; Philistia, shout in triumph because of Me."
Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me to Edom?
Is it not You, O God, who cast us off? And You, O God, who did not go out with our armies?
Give us help from trouble, For the help of man is useless.
Through God we will do valiantly, For it is He who shall tread down our enemies.
(Psalm 60 LSB)
Honest Inventory of a God-Sent Disaster (vv. 1-3)
David begins with a raw and unflinching diagnosis. He does not sugarcoat the situation.
"O God, You have cast us off; You have broken us down; You have been displeased; Oh, restore us again! You have made the earth tremble; You have broken it; Heal its breaches, for it is shaking. You have shown Your people hard things; You have made us drink the wine of confusion." (Psalm 60:1-3)
Notice the relentless focus on God's agency. "You have cast us off... You have broken us... You have been displeased... You have made the earth tremble... You have shown Your people hard things... You have made us drink." David knows that Edom is merely the rod of God's anger. The ultimate cause of Israel's misery is God Himself. This is the beginning of all true repentance and all true wisdom. Until we see the hand of God in our calamities, we will simply curse our circumstances and blame our enemies. But David knows better. God scattered us, not the Arameans. God broke us, not the Edomites.
This is a national disaster. The land itself is pictured as trembling and broken, like a wall with breaches in it after an earthquake. The defeat was so disorienting that it was like being forced to drink a powerful wine that makes you stagger and lose your senses. This "wine of confusion" or "wine of astonishment" is the gift of hard times. It is the mercy of God that forces us to come to grips with our own folly, our own self-reliance, our own disregard for His word. God had given Israel this terrible gift to wake them from their stupor.
This is precisely where we must begin. We look at the state of our own nation, the moral chaos, the political corruption, the weakness in the church, and we must learn to say with David, "You, O God, have done this. You have shown Your people hard things." This is not fatalism; it is the foundation of hope. If our troubles are random, or if they are solely the work of men, then we are without hope. But if God is the one who has brought the calamity, then He is the one who can restore us. The one who broke the land is the only one who can "heal its breaches."
The Banner of Truth and the Beloved's Deliverance (vv. 4-5)
In the midst of this disaster, David identifies a remnant who are capable of learning the lesson God is teaching.
"You have given a banner to those who fear You, That it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. That Your beloved may be delivered, Save with Your right hand, and hear me." (Psalm 60:4-5)
Even in judgment, God preserves a people for Himself. To "those who fear You," He gives a banner. A banner is a rallying point in battle. It is the standard under which the army gathers. What is this banner? It is the truth. In the middle of the confusion, the staggering, and the defeat, God ensures that His truth remains. He gives a standard to His faithful remnant so they know where to gather and what to fight for. When everything else is shaking, the truth of God's Word stands firm. This is a profound encouragement. When our culture seems to be collapsing, when the visible church seems to be compromised, God always preserves a people who fear Him, and He always gives them the banner of His truth to rally to.
And the purpose of this banner, this rallying to the truth, is the deliverance of God's "beloved." This is covenant language. Despite the chastisement, Israel is still God's beloved. And so David prays with confidence, "Save with Your right hand, and hear me." The right hand in Scripture is the symbol of power and authority. David is not asking for a partial or weak deliverance. He is asking for God to act in all His saving strength for the sake of His covenant people, for the sake of His own name and promises.
God's Unshakable Word of Triumph (vv. 6-8)
David's prayer for deliverance immediately pivots to a confident declaration of God's sovereign promise. It is as though he has received a fresh oracle from God.
"God has spoken in His holiness: 'I will rejoice; I will divide Shechem And measure out the Valley of Succoth. Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet for My head; Judah is My lawgiver. Moab is My washpot; Over Edom I will cast My shoe; Philistia, shout in triumph because of Me.'" (Psalm 60:6-8)
This is the turning point of the psalm. David stops describing the disaster and starts quoting the promise. "God has spoken in His holiness." This means the promise is as unchangeable as God's own character. And what is the promise? It is a declaration of total ownership and triumphant victory. God speaks as a conquering king, dividing up the land as His own possession. Shechem, Succoth, Gilead, Manasseh, Ephraim, Judah, these are all regions of Israel. God says, "They are Mine." Ephraim is His strength ("helmet"), and Judah is His authority ("lawgiver"). He is reaffirming His covenant ownership of His people.
But then He turns His attention to the surrounding enemies, the very nations causing the trouble. And He speaks of them with holy contempt. "Moab is My washpot." A washpot was a basin used for washing dirty feet. Moab is a trivial piece of household furniture to God. "Over Edom I will cast My shoe." This was a gesture of claiming ownership, like throwing your sandal onto a piece of land to claim it. Edom, the source of the current defeat, will be God's conquered property. "Philistia, shout in triumph because of Me." This is likely a taunt. The Philistines will be made to shout in tribute to their conqueror.
This is the great reality that undergirds all of Christian history. God has spoken a definitive word in His Son, Jesus Christ. He has promised Him the nations for His inheritance (Psalm 2). Jesus is the great son of David who inherits a broken kingdom, a fallen world, and He is progressively and certainly restoring it. The hostile nations of the world are, to God, a washpot and a place to toss His sandal. Their rebellion is futile. God has spoken in His holiness, and He will give the world to His Son.
From Desperation to Declaration (vv. 9-12)
Grounded in this divine promise, David returns to his immediate predicament, but now with a new perspective.
"Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me to Edom? Is it not You, O God, who cast us off? And You, O God, who did not go out with our armies? Give us help from trouble, For the help of man is useless. Through God we will do valiantly, For it is He who shall tread down our enemies." (Psalm 60:9-12)
He asks a rhetorical question: "Who will lead me to Edom?" Who can give us victory over this enemy that just defeated us? The answer is implicit. Only God can. And then he repeats the hard truth from the beginning of the psalm, but this time as the basis for his appeal: "Is it not You, O God, who cast us off?" This is brilliant. He is saying, "God, since You are the one who caused this defeat by withdrawing Your presence, You must be the one to reverse it by returning to us."
This leads to the great conclusion of the matter. First, a recognition of human impotence: "Give us help from trouble, For the help of man is useless." All our political strategies, military technologies, and economic plans are utterly vain if God is not with us. We must be brought to the point of desperation where we confess that our own strength is worthless.
And only when we have confessed our own weakness can we make the final, glorious declaration of faith: "Through God we will do valiantly, For it is He who shall tread down our enemies." This is the great paradox of the Christian life. It is not quietism, where we sit back and wait for God to do everything. And it is not moralism, where we try to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. It is the biblical synthesis: God works, so we work. "Through God," we act. "He shall tread down our enemies," and He does it through us as we act valiantly.
This is the principle of Philippians 2:12-13: "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." God does 100 percent of the work, and we are responsible for 100 percent of the work. He works it in, and we work it out. The only thing we work out that He did not work in is sin. The victory is entirely His, but the fighting is genuinely ours. Through Him, we do valiantly.
Conclusion: The Valiant Church
This psalm is our story. We are the church of Jesus Christ, the greater David. He has inherited a world broken by sin, a world staggering under the wine of God's judgment. And He is, steadily and progressively, healing its breaches. He is conquering His enemies and making them His footstool.
And He has called us into this great campaign. We face enemies, strong cities of unbelief, entrenched Edomite hostilities to the gospel. And at times, we are routed. The church in the West has been drinking the wine of astonishment for a generation, staggering in confusion. We have been shown hard things. And the first step is to recognize, with David, that this is the Lord's doing. He has been displeased. He has not gone out with our armies.
But He has not abandoned us. He has given us a banner, the truth of the gospel, to which we must rally. He has spoken a holy, unchangeable word: the world belongs to Jesus. Moab and Edom and Philistia, the modern secular states and pagan ideologies, are His washpots. Therefore, we must stop trusting in the useless help of man, in political saviors or clever church growth programs.
We must cry out to God for help, and then, through Him, we must get up and do valiantly. We preach the gospel. We plant churches. We build Christian culture. We fight the good fight. We do not do this in our own strength, but in His. And because it is He who will tread down our enemies, our victory is not just possible, but certain.