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For the music director. According to “Lily of the Testimony.” A psalm (miktam) of David, useful for teaching, about the time he fought against Aram-naharaim and Aram-zobah, and then Joab returned and killed 12,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
1 You, God, have rejected us! You have broken us; you have been angry with us; but now you have to welcome us back![a]
2 You have sent earthquakes on our land and split it apart. Now heal the cracks, for the land is still having tremors.
3 You have been very hard on your people; you gave us wine that made us stagger around.
4 But you have given those who respect you the banner of truth to unfurl and rally around.[b] Selah.
5 Rescue those you love! Answer us, and save us by your power!
6 God has spoken from his Temple: “Triumphantly I divide up Shechem, and portion out the Valley of Succoth.[c]
7 Both Gilead and Manasseh belong to me. Ephraim is my helmet, and Judah is my scepter.[d]
8 I will treat Moab as my washbasin; I will place my sandal on Edom; I will shout in triumph over Philistia.”[e]
9 Who will bring me into the fortified city? Who will lead me into Edom?[f]
10 Have you rejected us, God? Won't you lead our armies?
11 Please give us help against our enemies, for human help is worthless.[g]
12 Our strength is in God, and he will crush our enemies.
- a Literally, “restore.”
- b The Hebrew is unclear and capable of many interpretations.
- c This presumably refers to the dividing up of the country when the Israelites entered the Promised Land.
- d Ephraim was the tribe of many warriors, and synonymous with the northern kingdom, while Judah was the tribe from which the kings came, and symbolized the southern kingdom.
- e These are all symbols of victory and subjugation.
- f Since it is unlikely that the speaker of these lines is God, it is conjectured that it is now the king that is speaking. The fortified city is probably Sela, the capital of Edom, later called Petra.
- g Literally, “the help of man is vain.”