Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 60:3

"Thou hast showed thy people hard things: Thou hast made us to drink the wine of staggering." — Psalms 60:3 (ASV)

Hard things — that is, a hard fate.

Wine of astonishment. — Literally, either wine of reeling — that is, an intoxicating draught — or wine as reeling — that is, bewilderment like wine, or wine, which is not wine, but bewilderment, depending on the construction.

In any case, the figure is the same one that we often encounter in Hebrew poetry (Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:22; Jeremiah 25:15, and others), expressing that infatuation which the pagan proverb so well describes:

“Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat.”