Psalm 60:8














There are heights and depths in the Divine life. We may pass quickly from the one to the other. When at the height of triumph we may be brought low. When in the depths of despondency we may be raised up. This psalm speaks of despondency. We see -

I. HOPE RISING IN THE MIDST OF DESPONDENCY. (Vers. 1-4.) We are apt to fix our mind on our trials. They bulk large. They press us sorely. We dwell upon their grievousness. We shrink from their effects, bewildered and dismayed (ver. 3). Besides, we are too ready to think of our trials as judgments. Our sins make us afraid. God seems to be visiting us in wrath, instead of mercy. But this is our infirmity. As we turn to God with humility, hope rises in our hearts. God is not against us, but for us. If he visits us with trials, it is for our good. His banner over us is still the banner of love.

II. FAITH IN GOD'S PROMISES SUSTAINING THE SOUL IN DESPONDENCY. (Vers. 5-8.) The words of Moses, Samuel, and Nathan had sunk deep into the psalmist's heart. He remembered them, and was comforted. How much more reason have we to say, "God hath spoken in his holiness"! We have not only the words, that David had, but many words besides - not only the words of prophets and apostles, but the words of him of whom it was said, "Thou hast the words of eternal life." The Holy Scriptures are rich in promises (2 Peter 1:3, 4; 2 Corinthians 1:20). We may take one and another to the throne of grace, and say, "Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction" (Psalm 119:49, 50). Two rabbis, it is said, approaching Jerusalem, observed a fox running up the hill of Zion. Rabbi Joshua wept, but Rabbi Eliezer laughed. "Wherefore dost thou weep?" asked Eliezer. "I weep because I see what is written in the Lamentations fulfilled: 'Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it'" (Lamentations 5:18). "And therefore do I laugh," said Eliezer; "for when I see with my own eyes that God has fulfilled his threatenings to the letter, I have thereby a pledge that not one of his promises shall fail, for he is ever more ready to show mercy than judgment."

III. PRAYER TO GOD GAINING THE VICTORY OVER DESPONDENCY. (Vers. 9-12.) There are great things promised, but how are they to be performed? If we had to do with man, we might have doubts and fears. But we have to do with God, and he is both able and willing to fulfil his word. Remembering his character and his works, we rise above all desponding and depressing influences. Committing ourselves to the keeping of the Lord of hosts, we go forth to the fight with brave hearts. "Jehovah-Nissi" is our watchword, and we are able to say, "Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (l Corinthians 15:57). - W.F.

Moab is my washpot.
"Moab is my wash-pot," nothing more — a thing contemptible and despicable as compared with the eternal realities of covenant blessings; yet, for all that, there was a use for Moab, a use to be rightly understood. My object will be to show that, contrary to the ordinary course of nature, but not contrary to faith, even this ungodly world may be made to assist our advance in holiness. Moab may become our washpot. The defiling world may be made helpful to us in the following ways.

I. First of all, ungodly men, if we are in a gracious spirit, may be of solemn service to us, because WE SEE IN THEM WHAT SIN IS. They are beacons upon the rocks to keep us from danger. They are our washpot in that respect, that they warn us of pollution, and so help to prevent our falling into it. We were "heirs of wrath even as others." "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Our sins are different, but we were all without exception shapen in iniquity, and as in water, face answereth unto face, so the heart of man to man. When you see the wickedness of an ungodly man, make him your washpot, by remembering that you also, though you are regenerate, are. encompassed with "the body of this death." By remembering what we are, and what we were, we may, by taking warning from the evil courses of others, avoid the like condemnation. There are certain sins which we readily detect in others, which should serve as loud calls to us to correct the same things in ourselves. For instance, as to the matter of bodily indulgence. The sinner is a man who puts his body before his soul, and his head where his feet should be; he is a monster in nature. When, therefore, you see a drunkard, or an unchaste person, say to yourself, "I must mortify my members, and give my spiritual nature the predominance. For this I must cry mightily to God, the Eternal Spirit, lest the body of this death prevail over me. I must keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest I, too, become a prey to the same animal passions, which lead sinners captives." Warnings are neglected by the foolish. The young sluggard sees the huge thorns and thistles in the older sluggard's garden, and yet he follows the same lazy habits. One sheep follows another into the shambles. The Lord make us wise and prudent, and from the errors of others may we learn to steer our own course aright.

II. WE SEE IN THE UNGODLY THE PRESENT EVIL RESULTS OF SIN.

1. First, are you not very certain, those of you who watch unconverted and ungodly people, that they are not solidly happy? What roaring-boys they are sometimes I How hilarious their laughter! Their joy comes and goes with the hour. See them when the feast is over — "Who hath woe? Who hath redness of the eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; the men of strength to mingle strong drink." Mark them when alone: they are ready to die with dulness. Ungodly men at bottom are unhappy men. "The way of transgressors is hard." "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Their Marah is never dry, but flows with perennial waters of bitterness.

2. It is not merely that ungodly men are not happy; there are times when they are positively wretched through their sin. Sometimes fear cometh upon them as a whirlwind, and they have no refuge or way of escape. When we think of the despair of men, of blasted hopes, Moab may become our washpot, and may keep us from setting our affection upon their fleeting joys. If young men knew the price of sin, even in this life, they would not be so hot to purchase pleasurable moments at the price of painful years. Who would coin his life into iniquity to have it returned to him in this life, red-hot from the mint of torment!

III. Men of this world are made useful to us since THEY DISCOVER IN US OUR WEAK PLACES. Their opposition, slander, and persecution, are a rough pumice-stone, to remove some of our spots. If we cannot bear a little shake from men, how shall we bear the shaking of heaven and earth at the last day? The world often tries us as with fire, and the things which we reckoned to be gold and silver perish in the ordeal if they are but counterfeit, but we are gainers by such a loss. In the world our temper is tried, and too often we become irritated. What then? Why, just this. If sanctification has regulated our emotions, patience will have her perfect work, and charity will suffer long; but if we are soon angry and find it hard to forgive, let us not so much find fault with those who try us as with ourselves, because we cannot bear the ordeal. Our pride must go down, we must become slow to wrath, we must be content to be as our Lord, the meek and lowly Saviour.

IV. IN REFERENCE TO THE WORLD TO COME, the terrible doom of the ungodly is a most solemn warning to us.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

Implying that Moab should be reduced to slavery, it being the business of a slave to present the wash-hand basin to his master. With the Greeks, πλύνειν τινὰ, to wash down any one, was a slang term, signifying to ridicule, abuse, or beat; hence we have the word washpot applied to the subject of such treatment. "You don't appear to be in your right sense, who make a washpot of me in the presence of many men." — Aristophanes.

(Thomas S. Millington.)

Over Edom will I cast out my shoe
The person who is about to wash his feet casts his shoe to a slave. "To Edom will I cast my shoe," (Hengstenberg). Or else the idea of casting the shoe in contempt upon Edom expresses at once the taking possession victoriously of the Edomite land and the treading upon the pride of Edom, wherewith he had trodden the Israelite land as an invader. The casting of the shoe was also a symbol of transference of possession (Ruth 4:7).

(A. R. Fausset.)

People
Aram, David, Edomites, Joab, Manasseh, Psalmist, Syrians
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Aloud, Basin, Cast, Cry, Edom, Glad, Loud, Moab, O, Philistia, Pot, Sandal, Shoe, Shout, Sounded, Throw, Toss, Triumph, Wash, Washbasin, Washbowl, Washing, Washpot, Wash-pot
Outline
1. David, complaining to God of former judgment
4. now upon better hope, prays for deliverance
6. Comforting himself in God's promises, he craves that help whereon he trusts

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 60:8

     5179   sandal
     5445   potters and pottery
     5528   shouting

Library
Moab is My Washpot
What does Moab represent to you and to me? We are the children of Israel by faith in Christ, and in him we have obtained by covenant a promised land. Our faith may cry, "I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valles of Succoth." All things are ours in Christ Jesus; "Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine." Now Moab was outside of Canaan. It was not given to Israel as a possession, but in course of time it was subdued in warfare, and became tributary to the Jewish king. Even thus our faith overcometh
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

That we must not Believe Everyone, and that we are Prone to Fall in Our Words
Lord, be thou my help in trouble, for vain is the help of man.(1) How often have I failed to find faithfulness, where I thought I possessed it. How many times I have found it where I least expected. Vain therefore is hope in men, but the salvation of the just, O God, is in Thee. Blessed be thou, O Lord my God, in all things which happen unto us. We are weak and unstable, we are quickly deceived and quite changed. 2. Who is the man who is able to keep himself so warily and circumspectly as not
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Dialogue i. --The Immutable.
Orthodoxos and Eranistes. Orth.--Better were it for us to agree and abide by the apostolic doctrine in its purity. But since, I know not how, you have broken the harmony, and are now offering us new doctrines, let us, if you please, with no kind of quarrel, investigate the truth. Eran.--We need no investigation, for we exactly hold the truth. Orth.--This is what every heretic supposes. Aye, even Jews and Pagans reckon that they are defending the doctrines of the truth; and so also do not only the
Theodoret—The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret

Vehicles of Revelation; Scripture, the Church, Tradition.
(a) The supreme and unique revelation of God to man is in the Person of the Incarnate Son. But though unique the Incarnation is not solitary. Before it there was the divine institution of the Law and the Prophets, the former a typical anticipation (de Incarn. 40. 2) of the destined reality, and along with the latter (ib. 12. 2 and 5) for all the world a holy school of the knowledge of God and the conduct of the soul.' After it there is the history of the life and teaching of Christ and the writings
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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