“O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again.”
This opening lament that God has rejected and broken the covenant community establishes the psalm in the context of national crisis and military defeat, suggesting that the people have experienced a divinely-inflicted disaster. The reference to God's anger burning indicates that the divine rejection is understood not as mere absence but as active punishment; God has turned away in wrath. The image of pouring out wrath suggests that the community has experienced judgment through military defeat and loss. This verse establishes the context: national disaster is interpreted as divine judgment for covenant violation, and the psalm moves from this acknowledgment toward petition for restoration.
Church Fathers on Psalms 60:1
1. David the king was one man, but not one man he figured; sometimes to wit he figured the Church of many men consisting, extended even unto the ends of the earth: but sometimes One Man he figured, Him he figured that is Mediator of God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5 In this Psalm therefore, or rather in this Psalm's title, certain victorious actions of David are spoken of:...“To the end, in behalf of those men that shall be changed unto the title's inscription,…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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