Psalms 60 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~995 BC, during David's campaigns to secure Israel's borders after taking Jerusalem
Location
The northern and eastern frontiers against the Aramean kingdoms of Syria, and the Valley of Salt south of the Dead Sea in Edom
Audience
Israelites in public worship, with the heading noting the psalm was used for teaching
Situation
The heading recalls David's wars with the Arameans and Joab's defeat of Edom in the Valley of Salt. The psalm opens with the shock of a national setback, saying God has rejected his people and made them drink wine that leaves them staggering, then quotes a divine oracle claiming the surrounding territories.
Key Background
Israel's neighbors treated a lost battle as proof that a nation's god had abandoned it, so a defeat raised a religious crisis as much as a military one, which is what the opening lines are wrestling with. The oracle in the middle lists regions in dismissive images from daily life, calling Moab a washbasin and throwing a sandal over Edom, which was the gesture of a landowner claiming a plot as his property. Being labeled a teaching psalm meant it was learned by heart and passed on, a normal way of preserving national memory in a society where few people read.