What Does Psalm 60:1 Mean in the King James?

To the chief Musician upon Shushan-eduth, Michtam of David, to teach; when he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, when Joab returned, and smote of Edom in the valley of salt twelve thousand. O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again.

Psalm 60:1 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The plea for God to turn back is already spoken to God, so even abandonment remains a relationship being addressed.

THE MEANING

You can name rejection and rupture without disguising them. This prayer speaks from that wound to God and asks for return, holding the rupture and the reaching together.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that naming abandonment means the relationship is over.

THE ROOT

פְּרַצְתָּנוּ

peratz'tanu

GROWS FROM

פרץ

To break through, burst open, or make a breach.

The Hebrew verb carries the image of a breach made through the people, giving “scattered” the added sense of a community ruptured. The same root can name both the break and the force that breaks through.

ALSO GROWS

perets: A breach or breakthrough.

פֶּרֶץ

This noun names the opening made by breaking through, giving the scattering the image of a breach in the community.

parits: A violent breaker or raider.

פָּרִיץ

This branch carries the force of breaking through, showing that the word can describe an active rupture as well as its result.

שׁוּבָה

shuvah

GROWS FROM

שוב

To turn back, return, or come back toward.

“turn thyself to us again” in this verse is shuvah. The KJV spreads the meaning across “turn thyself ... again,” while the Hebrew verb itself carries the return. In Lamentations, this same root describes both the request to turn the people back and their own return, making restoration a movement shared between them.

ALSO GROWS

shuvēnu: Turn us back.

שׁוּבֵנוּ

Lamentations 5:21 uses this form to ask God to turn the people toward God.

venashuvah: And we shall return.

וְנָשׁוּבָה

The same verse repeats the root for the people’s return, echoing the two-way movement in this plea.

THE PATTERN

Scripture names rupture directly while keeping return and repair within reach.

Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.

Psalm 60:2 · KJVThe breach is named plainly, and the same verse asks for its healing.

Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

Lamentations 5:21 · KJVThe plea asks for a turn toward God and names the people’s return with the same root.

Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

2 Corinthians 4:9 · KJVIt names persecution and being cast down while refusing to make abandonment or destruction the final description.

THE THREAD

Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

Lamentations 5:21 · KJV

Both passages use ⁨שׁוּב⁩ (shuv, turn or return): Psalm 60 asks God to return toward the people, while Lamentations asks God to turn the people back and then names their own return with the same root. The repeated verb makes restoration a shared movement between God and the people.

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