Read
Psalm 60:3
You have shown your people hard things. You have made us drink the wine that makes us stagger.
1For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Lily of the Covenant.” A teaching poem by David, when he fought with Aram Naharaim and with Aram Zobah, and Joab returned, and killed twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt. God, you have rejected us. You have broken us down. You have been angry. Restore us, again.
2You have made the land tremble. You have torn it. Mend its fractures, for it quakes.
3You have shown your people hard things. You have made us drink the wine that makes us stagger.
4You have given a banner to those who fear you, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.
5So that your beloved may be delivered, save with your right hand, and answer us.
Notice
The wine that makes God's people stagger portrays hardship as something God has made them drink, while their words remain a prayer addressed to him.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What hardship, if any, would you describe with this image of staggering?
Write on thisWhat would you want to say to God about the words “You have made us drink”?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 71:20You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.Both prayers address God as the one who has shown his people trouble; Psalm 71 also expresses hope for renewed life.
Psalm 75:8For in the LORD’s hand there is a cup, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very …Both portray suffering through wine God makes people drink, though Psalm 75 names the wicked as those drinking.
Isaiah 51:17Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the LORD’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and …Both describe staggering caused by drink received from God; Isaiah names Jerusalem and identifies the cup as God's wrath.
Isaiah 51:22Your Lord GOD, your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my …Both use staggering drink to portray suffering under God's hand; Isaiah adds God's promise to remove the cup.
Jeremiah 13:13Then tell them, ‘The LORD says, “Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and …Both portray God bringing distress through the image of drunkenness; Jeremiah names Jerusalem's inhabitants and leaders.
Jeremiah 25:15For the LORD, the God of Israel, says to me: “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.Both describe God making people drink wine that represents suffering; Jeremiah names it as wrath directed toward nations.
Isaiah 21:2A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s …The shared thread is grievous distress: Isaiah describes treachery and destruction, while the psalm depicts God's people staggering.
Ezekiel 23:32“The Lord GOD says: ‘You will drink of your sister’s cup, which is deep and large. You will be ridiculed and held in derision. It contains much.Both portray suffering as something people must drink; Ezekiel's cup also carries ridicule and derision.
Ezekiel 23:31–32You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.’Both use a drink or cup imposed by God to depict hardship; Ezekiel states a reason involving the sister's conduct.
Jeremiah 23:9Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the LORD, …Both compare distress connected with God to being overcome by wine, with Jeremiah describing shaking bones and a broken heart.
Jeremiah 25:18Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, with its kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is today;Both describe a people's devastation, though Jeremiah names Jerusalem and Judah while the psalm speaks of God's people.
Job 21:20Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.Both use drinking to describe suffering from God; Job speaks of the Almighty's wrath, while the psalm names staggering.
Where this verse fits
Feeling distant from God. doubt. grief.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
These words belong to a people shaken in the midst of war. Their prayer names God's hand in their hardship, and they still speak to him as his people.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 60:3. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
Keep goingPsalm 60 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms
Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).