Ps. 60.1 (city under siege)

O God / who has spurned us / who has breached our defenses
though you are angry, / turn back to us. 

This opening line exemplifies the dynamic that we will see in the psalm between the promise(s) of God and a present reality of his abandonment. The first line, in no uncertain terms, identifies the people’s present plight as the result of God’s ‘spurning us’. The result are breached defenses, perhaps alluding to walls that have been torn down and are now flood gates to attackers. Important to note however is, within this single line, we see a complex understanding of God’s involvement. The first accusation is that God “has spurned us” which pictures God as turning away, as abandoning his people. The second, however, says God “has breached our defenses.” It seems (and this is crucial as it relates to the final theme of the psalm) that, for the psalmist, God’s passivity (his spurning) is tantamount to his active breaching of their defenses. Importantly, God is not here portrayed as the attacker, but the abadon-er. It is his absence that results in their inability to defend themselves (their defenses being overcome). The final lines of the psalm will say this: “Give us relief from distress, for human aid is futile. With God we could gain success, he could tread down our foes.” The point seems to be that, when God no longer inhabits his people with is power (when he spurns them), they become merely ‘human’. Their walls become…merely walls and not “God is our refuge” (city that is enlivened by God’s presence). This is why the reverse of “God’s anger” is his “turning back to us”. Without God their city is subject to the vanity of being merely ‘human’; with God “turning back” it will again become Jerusalem/Zion, the impregnable “city of God”, the “siege-proof city” (vs. 9). It is in this context that this prayer’s desperation is revealed and seen to be profoundly acute. The question will become how the psalmist attempts to ‘bring God back’.