This psalm opens Book V of the Psalter, and it is genuinely unusual among all one hundred fifty — David didn’t write it fresh. He built it by joining together the closing half of one psalm he had already written with the closing half of another, stitching two older songs into a single new one.
A study in Psalm 108 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 10 min read
O God, My Heart Is Fixed
“O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory. Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.”
Psalm 108:1-3
These opening verses come almost word for word from the closing half of Psalm 57 (My Heart Is Fixed, O God), written while David was hiding in a cave from Saul. David clearly considered this particular resolve, praise decided before circumstances actually improved, worth singing again in an entirely different setting.
Thy Mercy Is Great Above The Heavens
“For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and thy glory above all the earth; that thy beloved may be delivered: save with thy right hand, and answer me.”
Psalm 108:4-6
“That thy beloved may be delivered” is the actual hinge of this psalm — the old private confidence from the cave now redirected toward an urgent, present national need, a fresh request grafted directly onto borrowed praise.
Moab Is My Washpot
“God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth. Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver; Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; over Philistia will I triumph.”
Psalm 108:7-9
This entire section is drawn from the middle of Psalm 60 (Through God We Shall Do Valiantly), David’s response to a military setback — every territory of Israel claimed by name, and Israel’s threatening neighbors reduced to a washpot and a place to fling a shoe.
Vain Is The Help Of Man
“Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom? Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts? Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.”
Psalm 108:10-12
“Who hast cast us off” is a remarkably honest question to direct at the very God being praised only a few verses earlier — David does not pretend the setback behind Psalm 60 never happened. He simply insists that the same God who allowed it is still the only one worth asking to fix it.
“Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.”
Psalm 108:13
This psalm closes on exactly the line Psalm 60 closed on — and the repetition itself may be the real point. Whatever new occasion prompted David to combine these two older songs, he apparently found in both of them a confidence sturdy enough to still be true, unchanged, the second time he needed it.
