John Calvin 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)

You have shown your people hard things. He says, first, that the nation had been dealt with severely, and then adds a figure of speech that may additionally represent the grievousness of its calamities, speaking of it as drunk with the wine of stupor or astonishment. Even the Hebraist interpreters do not agree among themselves on the meaning of תרעלה, tarelah, which I have rendered astonishment. Several of them translate it as poison. But it is evident that the Psalmist alludes to some kind of poisoned drink that deprives a person of his senses, insinuating that the Jews were stupefied by their calamities. He intends, in short, to place before their eyes the curse of God that had pressed upon the government of Saul, and to induce them to abandon their obstinate attempts to maintain the interests of a throne that lay under divine reprobation.