(A Song; a Psalm of Asaph.) O God, keep not silence; hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God
The psalm calls on God twice in one verse, and both times it asks Him to stop doing nothing. Faith's hardest test is not the attack itself, but heaven's silence while it goes on.
The plea admits something painful. God can watch His enemies act and not move.
The silence of God and His refusal to step in, while men do evil and His people suffer, is a great test for faith. Yet faith knows that in God's own time, when evil is ripe, God must act. So faith appeals to God to keep silence no longer.
Men have not let that delay go to waste.
God had long held His peace. Man had used that period of patience, at Satan's suggestion, to build up his own greatness apart from God.
Psalm 83 does not stand alone. The psalm before it faces a different kind of danger.
Psalm 82 deals with the corrupt leaders inside the circle of God's people. Psalm 83 deals in judgment with the allied enemies of God's people who attack them from outside.
The verse calls on God twice, and in Hebrew it uses two names for Him: Elohim and El. Who God is decides whose fight this is.
The psalm appeals to "El" again. This is the character in which it calls on Elohim (v. 1), and this is the scene where He shows it most clearly. He is supreme in holiness, above the evil, but His name is Jehovah. He uses His power so that His enemies may seek Him in this way. They are to know that He is "Elion," the Most High, supreme in rule and blessing over all the earth (v. 18). The action of the psalm turns wholly around Him, the people being only the occasion of it. The enemies are His, and He is the Object of their hatred (vv. 1, 2). The people are also His — His hidden ones (v. 3), and the alliance against them is against Him, to take possession of His dwelling places.
Commentators read the psalm as looking forward, to a coalition that forms against Israel settled in the land. One writer is careful about who is in view here, and who is not.
Here we have another page of Israel's history while in the land. Those nations inside the land and along its borders form an alliance. The Assyrian helps them and joins with them. Their aim is to cut off Israel from being a nation, so that no one remembers the name of Israel any more. The subject now is not the Jews or the Antichrist... it is Israel in the land, and the appeal to God is for His name and His honour. They are His enemies. They intend to take the houses of God for their own.
The psalm asks God to break His silence, and later it asks Him to destroy. So a question follows: should Christians pray this way about their own enemies?
The proper prayer for those who hate us is certainly not the language of Psalm 83:9-18. But it is the right utterance of faith in Jewish saints who are looking to God to arise and judge the earth... While God is calling out the church, He does not step in like that. He is proclaiming salvation to the world that rejected and murdered His Son... So God's present patience toward an ungodly world shapes the church's calling. Suffering, then, is her portion in the meantime, and grace, not judgment, is her cry to God about her enemies.
God's answer, when it comes, does more than rescue His people. It teaches the whole world.
God's final judgments on the earth are what teach the people of the world righteousness and bring them to know the name of Jehovah. The Christian world overlooks these judgments, and the empty mind of the flesh despises or criticises them... The Name regains its power for Israel's heart.
- Silence — God does not act while His people suffer, and that is a real test of faith. This verse is faith's answer to it: an appeal to God Himself.
- Ripeness — faith holds that God must step in when evil is ripe. The delay is His timing, and men use it to build themselves up apart from Him.
- Ownership — the psalm turns on God, not on the sufferers. The enemies are His, the hatred is aimed at Him, the people are His hidden ones, and the land they grab is His dwelling place.
- Setting — the two psalms cover corrupt leaders inside and allied enemies outside. Here the alliance aims to erase the very name of Israel.
- Outcome — when the silence ends, the world learns righteousness and knows Jehovah as Most High over all the earth. Until then, the church's cry about her enemies is grace, not judgment.
For behold, thine enemies make a tumult; and they that hate thee lift up the head.
Psalm 83 opens with a plea for God to break His silence, and this verse gives the reason: His enemies grow louder and bolder while He says nothing. Two questions follow: why are Israel's attackers called God's own enemies, and how should a Christian pray this psalm?
The psalm's plea assumes a God who is not yet acting. One writer explains what that silence does to faith:
God stays silent and does not step in while men do evil and His people suffer. That is a great test for faith. Still, faith knows that, in God's due time, when evil is ripe, God must intervene. That is why the psalm appeals to God to keep silence no longer.
The same writer links the uproar to that patience. The enemies treat God's silence as their chance, and their hatred of God falls on His people:
God's enemies take advantage of His patience and His silence. They raise their voice against God and exalt themselves. This hatred of God comes out against God's people. They are His hidden ones, whom God has sheltered in secret, even if for a time He does not openly step in for them.
The next verse calls them God's hidden ones. The ESV translates that phrase as "your treasured ones."
The psalm says "your enemies," not "our enemies." One commentator explains the reason:
They realise that these are not only their enemies but, more importantly, God's enemies. Israel is hated because they are God's chosen people (vv. 1-2). The tumult at the end of the Great Tribulation period will be more pronounced than ever before.
Psalm 82 has just dealt with corrupt rulers among God's own people. Psalm 83 turns outward, to a league of nations whose real quarrel is not with a small country but with its God:
So the godly remnant will cry to their God when the great alliance arises (Ps. 83). They ask for the complete defeat of their foes, who are intent on wiping the name of Israel off the earth (v. 4). It is the great alliance under the northern power, in league against God Himself. Long ago the Lord defeated the Midianites. Earlier still He defeated the Canaanites, who had gathered under the leadership of Sisera. So again His people in this psalm look for His intervention to be as effective as in the days of Barak and Gideon.
Barak and Gideon were early leaders of Israel. God scattered their enemies, and the psalm asks Him to do it again.
The point of the answer is not simply that the smaller nation survives. One writer, commenting on this verse, shows how far the outcome reaches:
In the last days God is about to make good His purposes concerning Israel and to settle them again in His land. At that time there are nations who will come against them. So they are looked at as God's enemies (Psalm 83:2). They hate Him. Their first thought is to cut off Israel from being a nation, so that the name of Israel may be remembered no more... This rising up against God is what brings the call for judgment. The aim is not only that Israel may be delivered. It is that men may know that Jehovah, Israel's God, is Most High over all the earth.
A prayer calling for judgment sits oddly beside the words of Jesus on the cross. One writer answers this by placing such prayers in a time still to come:
The present age is one of pure grace. God is not now charging men with their trespasses. He freely forgives all who believe in Jesus, even the worst. And the exhortation to us is, "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them."... While His enemies were nailing Him to the cross, our Lord Himself said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." But a time is coming when prayers like these will go up to heaven. They are inspired prayers, remember.
- Silence. God's silence while His people suffer tests faith. It is not indifference. Faith waits, knowing He must act when evil is ripe.
- Tumult. That patience emboldens His enemies. They raise their voice and exalt themselves because nothing has stopped them yet.
- Hatred. The attack lands on God's people, but the hatred is against God — they are hated because they are His.
- Alliance. The psalm looks ahead to nations banded together against God. It asks Him to scatter them, as He scattered the enemies of Barak and Gideon.
- Most High. God's answer goes beyond rescue. Judgment falls so that all men learn that Jehovah alone is Most High over all the earth.
They take crafty counsel against thy people, and consult against thy hidden ones
Psalm 83 begs God not to stay silent. Verse 3 says why: the enemies are not marching in the open but sitting in council, plotting against the people God calls His own — the "treasured ones" whom an older translation calls "Your hidden ones."
The verse describes plotting that God seems to ignore. Writers call that silence a test faith has to carry — and a silence with a time limit.
God stays silent and does not step in while men do evil and His people suffer. That is a great test for faith. Still, faith knows that God must act at His own due time, when evil is ripe. So comes the appeal that God would keep silent no longer.
The phrase does not describe people who are in hiding. It describes people God has put somewhere safe. The enemies plot in secret; God shelters His own in secret. That shelter holds while the plotting goes on and no rescue is in sight.
The godly person looks ahead to the last great alliance of the nations against God and His people. He sees that such wickedness calls for judgment. God's enemies take their chance from His patience and His silence. They raise their voice against God and lift themselves up. This hatred of God comes out against God's people — His hidden ones, whom God has sheltered in secret, even if for a time He does not step in openly for them (compare Psalm 31:20).
Others make the same link to that psalm, noting simply that the meaning of "hidden ones" is found there — where God hides His own "in the cover of your presence" (Psalm 31:20).
As to "hidden ones," see Psalm 31:20, 23.
The plotting in verse 3 targets Your people. That one word runs through the psalm, and it moves the whole quarrel onto God.
Everything that happens in the psalm centres on God Himself; the people are only the occasion of it. The enemies are His enemies, and He is the One they hate (vv. 1, 2). The people are His too — His hidden ones (v. 3). So the alliance against them is an alliance against Him, formed to seize the places where He dwells.
The hatred has a cause, and the cause is God's own choice of them.
The last attack of God's enemies on Israel will be determined and vicious. It calls for urgent pleading by the godly that God would keep silent no longer. They realize that these are not only their own enemies but, more importantly, God's enemies. Israel is hated because they are God's chosen people (vv. 1-2). The uproar at the end of the great tribulation will be greater than ever before. Even today the nations surrounding Israel are more and more united in their hostility to her very existence, and, as verse 3 tells us, they take crafty counsel against the people God has chosen.
Writers connect this psalm with a future gathering of nations. The plan of verse 3 runs its course — and then meets its answer.
One great aim of the gathered nations is to crush and overthrow Israel (Psalm 83:3-5). But God steps in. He destroys them completely and delivers His own, just as He did in the early days of the judges.
One writer names who joins that alliance, and says what the judgment is for.
This is the last alliance of the nations around Canaan, with Assyria helping them. … God carries out judgment so that the rebellious nations may seek Jehovah's name. It is not, know the Father, nor, know that there is a God; but, know Jehovah.
- Hidden. The phrase names God's own act — these are people "whom God has sheltered in secret," not people who found a hiding place of their own.
- Hidden, not helpless. The shelter holds even when God "does not step in openly for them." No visible rescue does not mean no God.
- Hidden ones are His. The people belong to God, so "the alliance against them is an alliance against Him."
- Hidden means hated. The hostility grows out of that relationship: "Israel is hated because they are God's chosen people."
- Hidden until He speaks. The silence ends. God "destroys them completely and delivers His own," so that the rebellious nations seek Jehovah's name.
They say, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, and let the name of Israel be mentioned no more.
The words of verse 4 are the settled decision of a hostile alliance: erase a people, and erase even the memory that they existed. Commentators read this as more than ancient politics. They hear a hatred that aims past Israel at God Himself. Can such a plan ever work?
The enemies want more than a win. They want Israel wiped out and forgotten.
The intention of the enemy is to cut off Israel as a nation from the face of the earth, with the desire that their very memory may perish.
The name itself is the target. One writer explains why a name stirs such fury.
When the chief sinner appears (2 Thess. 2), he will aim his main strength at the only rival he has any cause to fear. The very name of Israel denies everything he claims, for his power and honour come from himself. Rule and the obedience of the nations were claimed long ago for Judah's royal tribe (Gen. 49:10). This self-made ruler and god of the whole earth will try to put out the light of Israel's hope, just as the ruler before him tried, who was a picture of him (Matt. 2:16).
The people under threat are God's hidden ones. He shelters them, even when He stays silent for a time.
The godly soul looks ahead to the last great alliance of the nations against God and His people, and sees that such wickedness calls for judgment. God's enemies take advantage of His patience and His silence. They raise their voice against Him and lift themselves up. This hatred of God shows itself against God's people — His hidden ones, whom God has sheltered in secret, even if for a time He does not step in openly for them (cp. Ps. 31:20).
The psalm calls these people God's enemies. The plot strikes at His name and at what belongs to Him.
Here is another page of Israel's history in the land. The nations inside the land and along its borders band together, with the Assyrian joining to help them. Their aim is to cut off Israel — now recognised as a nation there — from being a nation, so that the name of Israel is remembered no more... The appeal goes up to God for His name and His honour. They are His enemies, and they mean to take the houses of God for themselves.
Haman was an official in Persia who got a decree passed to destroy all the Jews. One writer hears this verse in him.
He is marked by pride that nothing can control, by the wish to lift himself up and make himself a god, and by terrible hatred against the people of God and against the man who stands for them. To get revenge on that one man, the enemy sacrifices the whole nation... In a word, he is wickedness itself, in person. Is he not the same one who says, "Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!"? (Ps. 83:4)
Commentators also hear these words in living speech, not only in old records.
In our day Israel has become a nation again in the promised land, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 18. Even now we hear the Arab nations use the words of this psalm... The spirit of Haman is alive today. These words, spoken today, will be spoken again at the end, if they are not repeated all the way until the end.
One writer sets this plan against God's promise about Israel's name.
They make no secret that they would like to see Israel wiped out completely, and along with others who think the same way, they will plan it together (v. 4). What a hopeless plan! Isaiah writes to that nation, "For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain" (Isa. 66:22).
The psalm answers with prayer. It looks back to two battles God had already won.
So when the great alliance rises (Ps. 83), the godly remnant will cry to their God for the complete defeat of their foes, who are set on wiping the very name of Israel off the earth (4)... Long ago Jehovah had subdued the Midianites (Judges 8:28), and earlier still He had subdued the Canaanites, who had gathered under the leadership of Sisera (Judges 4:23-24)... Their prayer for this is given in prophecy (13-18), so that the alliance may learn, when God steps in, that He whose name alone is Jehovah is the Most High over all the earth.
- The plan — the goal is not defeat but erasure: Israel cut off as a nation and its memory gone.
- The target — behind the nation stands its God. The psalm calls the enemies His, and the houses they want are His.
- The shelter — those threatened are His hidden ones, kept safe by Him even during a long silence.
- The echo — Haman spoke this plan, and voices repeat it in our own day.
- The end — God has promised that Israel's name will remain. The plan fails, and Jehovah is known as Most High over all the earth.
For they have consulted together with one heart they have made an alliance together against thee.
Israel's neighbours have been making threats. Here the threats harden into an agreement: separate peoples reach one mind and sign. And the psalm points the pact in a startling direction — not against Israel, but against God Himself.
The psalm has already called these peoples God's enemies. The alliance targets a nation, yet faith names the real opponent. One writer notes how the faithful among Israel read the situation:
This psalm recognises the national rising of a confederacy against Israel, now looking to God again in the land. We already have the list of the confederacy. The Spirit in the remnant says in faith, "Your enemies"; "against You they make a covenant." It is all national. It is Jacob, Israel (not Messiah) and Jehovah. Israel is just being established as a nation, and they come to cut them off from it.
The verses that follow put names to the agreement. The names form a ring that closes in from every side:
The people are also His — His hidden ones (v. 3), and the confederacy against them is against Him, to take possession of His dwelling places. Edom and the Ishmaelites on the south appear to be prominent. The alliance spreads northward to Moab and the Hagarites on the east, and to Gebal, near Lebanon, on the north. Ammon is then introduced on the east, Amalek joining on the south-west. The whole seaboard follows — Philistia, with the inhabitants of Tyre. These run parallel to the nations mentioned first, and the whole nation of Israel is surrounded by enemies who have a footing in the land. Outside of it, Asshur adds her help to Moab and Ammon.
These peoples are old rivals. One shared aim pulls them into a single body:
In seeking to achieve this end the nations confer together, forming themselves into a confederacy against God. The nations directly surrounding the land of Israel are listed. The Assyrian from the north helps them.
The psalm shows no anxiety about the outcome. Israel has a resource, and the united force meets a shield it cannot break:
Israel is now set right within, so the storm may roar against her; there is no rotten core left to make the tree break. Still, she must find her resource in God — and she will find it. The eighty-third psalm closes the series with a great confederacy of the nations throwing itself against Israel's shield, only to be smashed to ruin off it. And so Jehovah is made known in all the earth as supreme in power.
That defeat has a purpose. The psalm closes by naming the God the nations must come to know:
At the close of the psalm the cry goes up to God simply as God, because Israel is not yet established in covenant blessing; then Jehovah's name is brought in. Judgment will be carried out, so that the rebellious nations may seek Jehovah's name. It is not, know the Father, nor, know there is a God; but, know Jehovah. When His judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Men will know that He whose name alone is Jehovah — He who is, and was, and is to come — is the Most High over all the earth.
A covenant of many nations invites an obvious answer: build a rival covenant. The psalm points anyone who feels outnumbered somewhere else:
We read throughout the Scriptures of confederacies against Israel. The destruction of them will be complete, like chaff driven away from the summer threshing floor. And the Israel of God behave here as Isaiah instructs them. They do not trust in a counter-confederacy, but set the Lord apart in their hearts and make Him their object.
- Covenant — The peoples do not just agree. They bind themselves by covenant, and the party they sign against is God.
- Against you — Faith reads the attack right. The enemies are His enemies and the people are His hidden ones, so an assault on Israel is an assault on Him.
- Surrounded — The named allies close in from the south, the east, the north and the seacoast. Assyria adds help from outside the land.
- Shattered — The combined force throws itself at Israel's shield and breaks. Then all the earth sees His supremacy in power.
- Known — The judgment has a goal: the nations seek His name. They learn that He whose name alone is Jehovah is Most High over all the earth.
The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarites;
Psalm 83 prays against a group of nations joined together to destroy Israel. Verse 6 starts naming them, and two questions follow: why does Edom come first, and who are these tribes?
The names are not a random list. Taken in order, they trace a circle around the land.
Edom and the Ishmaelites in the south seem to stand out. The alliance then spreads northward to Moab and the Hagarites in the east, and to Gebal, near Lebanon, in the north. Ammon comes next in the east, and Amalek joins in the south-west. Then follows the whole coastline — Philistia, with the people of Tyre. These match the nations named first, so the whole nation of Israel is ringed by enemies who have a footing in the land.
These enemies are not strangers. Most of them are Israel's own relatives, and one writer thinks the fourth name in the verse may belong to the same family line.
As far as we can identify them, they are Israel's closest neighbours — and mostly their relatives too — along with Philistia and Tyre, who lived on the borders of their land… Two of them we cannot identify for certain: Gebal, and the Hagarenes or Hagarites. The Hagarites stand in the second half of verse 6, matching Ishmael in the first half, and paired with Moab just as Ishmael is paired with Edom. Were they perhaps, as their name may hint, only a branch of the Ishmaelites themselves…?
That is only a guess. A Bible dictionary is more careful about the Hagrites — also spelled Hagarites.
A people in Arabia whom the two and a half tribes fought. The great plunder taken from them shows that they were a wealthy tribe. 1 Chr. 5:10, 19-22; Ps. 83:6. Where the name comes from, and where they lived, is not known. In this psalm they are kept distinct from the Ishmaelites.
Edom heads the list. Why does a lesser power come first?
In the alliance against Israel we find "the tents of Edom." Edom is the first power named — of course not as the strongest, but as the one urging the others on to Israel's ruin. As neighbours they would know the people and their land better, so they would be the more dangerous, quite apart from the moral side of the case… So the Spirit of God places Edom among Israel's final enemies, just as He had already done through Moses and Joshua with Israel's earliest ones.
One writer reads these names as a line-up still to come — the same old neighbours, regrouped.
There is the Near Eastern League, made up of Israel's ancient enemies — Edom, Ammon, Moab and others — and you will find it in Psalm 83. These powers will appear again on the political stage when Israel appears again, and they will show the same murderous hatred towards Abraham's descendants that marked them long ago.
Commentators differ on how closely these names fit any event, past or future. One of them says so plainly.
It is also hard, in many ways, to connect a sudden invasion by these peoples — most of whom vanished long ago — with Israel's prophetic history, as far as we understand it so far… So we must leave the exact application of this passage uncertain. The day will make it clear, for there can be no reasonable doubt that it is a prophecy of the last times… This is not an attack by distant enemies. It is an attempt by neighbouring and related peoples to settle old scores with Israel.
The psalm does not stop at the names. It ends with what God's judgment proves.
In Psalm 83 we have the last conspiracy of the Assyrians and of those who live inside the borders of the land. There the judgment shows that Jehovah is Most High over all the earth.
- Named. Verse 6 opens the roll-call of allies. Edom, the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites all live close to Israel's borders.
- Related. Most of them are Israel's own relatives. Two names, Gebal and the Hagrites, we still cannot place.
- Ringed. Through verse 8 the names circle the land: south, east, north, then the coast. Every enemy has a footing near Israel.
- Ringleader. Edom stands first, not as the strongest, but as the one urging the rest on. A close neighbour knows the people and the land best.
- Ruined. The last conspiracy ends in judgment, and that judgment shows Jehovah is Most High over all the earth.
Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia, with the inhabitants of Tyre;
Psalm 83 is a prayer against a league of nations that has agreed on one aim: to wipe Israel out of existence. Verse 7 adds more names to that alliance. Who are these peoples, and why does Scripture list them?
The names are not random. Read as a map, they draw a circle around the land. This verse closes it.
Edom and the Ishmaelites on the south appear to be prominent. The alliance spreads northward to Moab and the Hagarites on the east, and to Gebal, near Lebanon, on the north. Ammon comes next on the east, with Amalek joining on the south-west. The whole coastline follows — Philistia, with the inhabitants of Tyre. These match the nations named first. So enemies with a foothold in the land surround the whole nation of Israel. From outside the land, Assyria adds her help to Moab and Ammon.
Some of these peoples are well known. Others are not. One commentator maps out the region, then admits where the evidence runs out.
They are Israel's closest neighbors, as far as we know them — and mostly their relatives too, along with Philistia and Tyre, who lay on the borders of their land... So Israel's enemies are all around her. Edom, Ishmael, and Moab are in the south; Ammon and Amalek on the east; the Philistines and Tyrians on the west coast; and Assyria to the north. Two of them we do not know for sure — Gebal and the Hagarenes, or Hagarites... Gebal appears only here, if the Gebal of Ezekiel 27:9 (the home of the Giblites of Joshua 13:5) is a different place.
Commentators differ: Whybrow places Gebal near Lebanon in the north, while Grant leaves it unidentified.
Amalek once held a leading place among the nations. Here it appears again, as one name among many.
Israel's ancient enemies are all united, and Amalek appears among them. Amalek is only one of the group. It no longer holds the leading place it once had as "the first of the nations." It is there to receive its final judgment from the Lord at His coming.
Commentators read Amalek as a picture of something in us that God refuses to negotiate with.
Amalek is a type of the flesh, and with flesh God can make no terms. In it dwells no good thing (Rom. 7:18); God condemned the sin that belongs to it in the sacrifice of Christ (Rom. 8:3). Scripture views Christians as having themselves "crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal. 5:24), which means they have accepted God's sentence against the evil thing.
The Philistines were not a distant power. They lived inside the land itself.
They appear to me to represent the power of the enemy acting within the circle of God's people. They were in the territory of the Israelites — within the land, and even on this side of the Jordan. They were not, like the Egyptians or Assyrians, enemies from outside. They were always hostile to Israel, the people God had appointed to hold the promised land. They were all the more dangerous because they were always close by, and because they claimed the country as their own. So the Philistines picture the power of the enemy working from inside.
The last name on the list stands apart. Tyre's hostility grew from a different root.
The lesson is all the more serious because Tyre does not seem to have acted out of plain hatred for Israel. It was commercial greed. Tyre saw a chance to profit from the disasters of the chosen people. That greed drew the city into hostility toward Israel, and Jehovah resented it. His chastening of His people gives no one a right to the selfish greed that would profit from their troubles or their downfall.
Naming them has a purpose. The alliance stands so that judgment on it may teach the earth something.
It is the last confederacy of the nations surrounding Canaan, with Assur helping them. At the close of the psalm the cry is to God as such, because Israel is not yet settled in covenant blessing. Even so, the psalm brings in the name Jehovah. God will execute judgment, so that the rebellious nations may seek Jehovah's name... Men will know that He whose name alone is Jehovah (He who is, and was, and is to come) is the Most High over all the earth.
- Surrounded. These names close the circle. Hostile peoples surround Israel on every side, most with a foothold inside the land.
- Unknown. No one can identify Gebal and the Hagarites for certain, and commentators say so plainly.
- Inside. Philistia was dangerous because it was near — the enemy at work inside the land God had given.
- Greed. Tyre joined for profit, not from plain hatred. God resents those who cash in on His people's troubles.
- Named. The ring closes, then God breaks it. The nations learn what the psalm aims at: He whose name alone is Jehovah is Most High over all the earth.
Asshur also is joined with them they are an arm to the sons of Lot. Selah.
Psalm 83 names a ring of enemies who have banded together to wipe Israel out. The list closes with a power from far outside that ring. So the verse raises three questions. Who is Asshur? Why are Moab and Ammon called "the children of Lot"? And what does it mean that Assyria becomes their "strong arm"?
The first name in the verse is not a new nation but an older spelling of a familiar one.
Another form of Asshur or Assyria. Ezra 4:2; Ps. 83:8.
The other nations in the list all sit close to Israel, in a circle around her. Assyria does not. One writer traces the sweep of the list and then marks where Assyria stands:
Edom and the Ishmaelites on the south appear to stand out. The alliance spreads north to Moab and the Hagarites on the east, and to Gebal, near Lebanon, on the north. Ammon comes in next on the east, and Amalek joins on the south-west. Then the whole coastline follows — Philistia, with the people of Tyre. These match the nations named first. So enemies with a foothold in the land ring the whole nation of Israel. Outside it, Asshur adds her help to Moab and Ammon.
The verse does not say "Moab and Ammon." It names their ancestor. Those two nations began with Abraham's nephew Lot, and both are in the coalition:
The two sister-nations, Moab and Ammon, go by the name "the children of Lot" (Deut. 2:9). Both came from incest (Gen. 19:37-38). They have always been bitter enemies of God's chosen nation, and they will never relent. They will belong to the coming great alliance of nations that the revived Assyrian power will form. Its aim is to destroy the children of Israel and to blot their very name off the earth (see the prophecy in Psalm 83:4-8).
Of the whole list, one name carries the greatest weight, and the family tie is the sad note:
Of all of these, the most important is Assyria, the King of the North. He will come like a whirlwind against Israel (Dan. 11:40), and bring ruin and destruction such as has never been before. One sad fact is that these enemies were once close relatives of the Israelites. Verse 8 links Lot with them, and Lot was the nephew of Abraham.
The verse calls Assyria the strong arm of the children of Lot: a great power lending its strength to its neighbours' plan. One writer names the goal of the alliance, and shows who is on stage in this scene and who is not:
Here we have another page of Israel's history while in the land. The nations inside the land and along its borders band together, and the Assyrian helps them. He joins them to cut off Israel — now recognised as a nation there — from being a nation, so that no one remembers the name of Israel any more. This is not about the Jews or the Antichrist, and the Spirit is not moving in that line of thought. The beasts are not on the scene at all. Israel is in the land, and the appeal goes up to God for His name and His honour. They are His enemies, they will have "the houses of God in possession."
Prophecy gives the northern power other names too. One writer warns against pressing the links too hard:
In the prophet Daniel we find another title, "the King of the North," and in Ezekiel, "Gog." It would not be wise to speak too firmly about how far to identify these with the Assyrian. Daniel does not use that name, but several of the other prophets speak of him often… In Psalm 83 and other passages various nations join with the Assyrian, just as the ten kings stand with the chief of the Roman Empire in Revelation 13 and 17… Whatever power or group of powers this name points to, it is clear that they come from the regions north of Palestine.
The alliance of verse 8 works to erase a name. The psalm ends by making a name known:
This is the last alliance of the nations surrounding Canaan, with Assur helping them… God will execute judgment, so that the rebellious nations may seek Jehovah's name. The point is not to know the Father, nor to know there is a God, but to know Jehovah… Men will know that He whose name alone is Jehovah (He who is, and was, and is to come) is the Most High over all the earth.
- Name erased. The whole alliance has one aim: to blot out Israel's name for good.
- Name lent. Asshur is Assyria. It stands outside the land and lends its strength to the neighbours pressing in on Israel.
- Name shared. Moab and Ammon are called "the children of Lot" — Abraham's nephew — so the attackers are relatives.
- Name uncertain. Writers agree the Assyrian comes from the north. They warn against tying him too firmly to other names in prophecy.
- Name known. The judgment on this alliance leaves one name standing: Jehovah, the Most High over all the earth.
Do unto them as to Midian; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the torrent of Kishon
Psalm 83 is a prayer raised while a ring of neighbouring nations plots to erase Israel's name from the earth. At verse 9 it turns from the danger to history, asking God to repeat two old rescues — Midian in Gideon's day, Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon river.
The psalm does not ask for something new. It asks God to be consistent with Himself, and it names two rescues recorded in the book of Judges as the measure.
In verse 9 the psalmist asks God to deal with Israel's enemies as He dealt with Midian in the days of Gideon — and even earlier, when Barak defeated Sisera and his armies (Judges 4-5). God defeated those earlier enemies completely. Would He not also defeat those who come against His people at the time of the end?
The psalmist picks these two examples because the situation matches. The old invaders wanted the land that belongs to God. So do the new ones.
This alliance of nations matches Midian flooding the land in the days of Gideon, and Sisera and Jabin in the time of Deborah. The psalmist prays that these enemies may be destroyed as those enemies were... They too would have seized the dwelling places of God in the land, and taken His inheritance for themselves.
The verse fixes the second victory at a river. Commentators say Sisera seems to have chosen that ground himself, and that the name of the place points to the very thing that destroyed him.
The battle takes place at the river Kishon... Its name comes from a root meaning to bend, and has usually been given as "winding." Other words come from the same root too — "a bow" and "to lay a snare." So the name suggests a weapon of war, and the ambush that the schemer himself falls into. Kishon seems to be the place he chose himself for the battle. He falls into the pit he had dug for others. Yet God had foreseen and provided for it all.
Both precedents are famous for the smallness of the means used. Gideon's men carried no weapons worth the name, and that was the point.
Gideon and his feeble 300 men, however, utterly defeated the great Midianite host... Trumpets, pitchers and lamps are wonderfully effective weapons if God is pleased to use them, but then clearly the excellency of the power is not of them but of God.
Writers here read the psalm as more than a memory of old wars. Midian becomes a fixed model — used in this prayer, and used again by the prophet Isaiah for the day when Israel's oppressor is finally broken.
This victory over Midian becomes the pattern for the final overthrow of Israel's enemies. It appears in the prayer of the suffering remnant (Psalm 83), and Isaiah predicts the day it will actually happen (Isaiah 9:4).
The aim of that overthrow is not revenge. It is that the nations come to know who God is.
This is the last alliance of the nations around Canaan, with Assyria helping them... Judgment has to be carried out, so that the rebellious nations may seek Jehovah's name. The point is not that they know the Father, or know there is a God, but that they know Jehovah. When His judgments are in the earth, the people of the world will learn righteousness. Men will know that He whose name alone is Jehovah — the One who is, and was, and is to come — is the Most High over all the earth.
A Christian reading this verse may wonder whether to pray it. Commentators answer plainly, and they point to the people this prayer belongs to.
The right prayer for those who hate us is certainly not the language of Psalm 83:9-18. But it is the right expression of faith from Jewish believers, who are looking to God to rise up and judge the earth.
The reason is a difference in destiny.
We leave the world and go to heaven. We never have to ask for the destruction of our enemies in order to enter glory. But Israel cannot have rest on earth until the wicked are destroyed. So they do ask for this righteous judgment, and that is how they will be delivered.
- Precedent. The prayer asks nothing novel — it points God back to Midian, Sisera and Jabin, and asks Him to act in character again.
- Stakes. Both old invaders wanted the land God calls His own. The new alliance wants the same, so the old cases apply.
- Power. Gideon beat Midian with 300 men carrying trumpets and jars — proof that the power belonged to God, not to the means.
- Pattern. Midian's defeat is the model for the last overthrow of Israel's enemies, and Isaiah points to the same day.
- Purpose. The end is not revenge but recognition. Judgment falls so that the nations learn righteousness and know God's name.
Who were destroyed at Endor; they became as dung for the ground.
Psalm 83 is the cry of God's people while the nations around them plot to wipe them out. At verse 10 the prayer stops speaking in general terms and points to one battlefield, asking God to do again what He did there.
En-dor was a real town, and more than one memory is attached to it.
A city with its towns, belonging to Manasseh though located in Issachar. It was apparently the scene of the death of Sisera and of Jabin. It was also the home of the medium whom Saul consulted.
The line just before this one names the river Kishon. One writer notes the river had a share in the defeat.
The river Kishon is also mentioned as having a part in this victory. God had said He would draw Sisera to Kishon. The torrent itself may have swept many of his army away, perhaps because Israel's army had trapped them.
The request is shaped exactly on two earlier invasions — Midian overrunning the land in Gideon's time, and the Canaanite commander Sisera under King Jabin.
This alliance is set beside Midian's flooding of the land in the days of Gideon, and beside Sisera and Jabin in the time of Deborah. The psalmist prays that their destruction may be like theirs. He prays that their "anointed ones," given a special place among them, may be like the kings who fell by Gideon's hand. They too would have seized the dwelling places of God in the land, and taken His inheritance for themselves.
Faith here argues from history. God's people ask Him to act as He has already acted.
Long ago Jehovah had subdued the Midianites. Earlier still, the Lord had subdued the Canaanites, when they gathered under the leadership of Sisera. So again His people in this psalm look for Him to step in, as effectively as He did in the days of Barak and in the days of Gideon.
The names of the enemy kings in the next line make the point sharper.
Zebah means "sacrifice." Here it suggests not the way of approach to God, but the slaughter the world delights to inflict on the people of God, without mercy. Zalmunna, "shade," or "refuge denied," hints at the same. So the same slaughter would fall on them, with no mercy to shelter them: "For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy." This victory over Midian became the pattern for the final overthrow of Israel's enemies. It shapes both the prayer of the suffering remnant and the fulfilment Isaiah predicted.
Should a Christian pray this against his own enemies? Commentators say this part of the psalm is not the Christian's language.
The fitting prayer for those who hate us is certainly not the language of Psalm 83:9-18. But it is the right voice of faith in Jewish saints who are looking to God to arise and judge the earth.
The reason given is a difference of hope, not a difference between an angry God and a kind one.
This is why we find in the Psalms these appeals to judgment, and demands for it. They have often stumbled Christians when the enemies of Christianity press them. They are not the expression of Christian feelings. We leave the world and go to heaven. In no sense do we have to demand the destruction of our enemies to pass into glory. But Israel cannot have their rest on earth until the wicked are destroyed. So they do demand this righteous judgment, and this is how they will be delivered.
The psalm does not end in revenge. The ruin asked for in verse 10 serves a purpose stated at the close.
God will carry out judgment, so that the rebellious nations may seek Jehovah's name. It is not, know the Father, nor, know there is a God; but, know Jehovah. When His judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Men will know that He whose name alone is Jehovah is the Most High over all the earth.
- Precedent. En-dor is named because Sisera and Jabin seem to have died there, and the Kishon swept their army away.
- Pattern. The prayer copies Midian's and Sisera's overthrow, asking that this alliance end the same way.
- Plea. Faith argues from what God has already done. It looks for help as real as in the days of Barak and Gideon.
- Principle. Judgment falls without mercy on those who showed none — the day of Midian becomes the model for the final overthrow.
- Purpose. Not private revenge. The aim is that the nations seek His name and learn that Jehovah alone is Most High over all the earth. This is a prayer for Israel's rescue on earth, not the Christian's, who leaves the world and goes to heaven.
Make their nobles as Oreb and as Zeeb; and all their chiefs as Zebah and as Zalmunna.
Israel is surrounded by allied enemies, and the prayer asks God for nothing new. It asks Him to do again what He once did through Gideon. Four dead Midianite chiefs are named. Why pray by names from old battles, and whose prayer is this?
The psalm looks back to the time of the judges. God rescued Israel then through Gideon and through Barak.
So the godly remnant, when the great alliance rises against them (Ps. 83), will cry to their God to defeat their enemies completely. Those enemies are set on wiping the very name of Israel off the earth. It is the great alliance under the northern power, and it is really in league against God. Long ago Jehovah put down the Midianites. Earlier still the Lord put down the Canaanites too, when they gathered under Sisera's leadership. So again His people in our Psalm look for His help to be as effective as in the days of Barak and in the days of Gideon.
The verse pairs two sets of names. The first two men were princes; the second two were kings. All four fell in one campaign.
Prince of Midian: he invaded Israel, but Gideon defeated him and killed him at the rock Oreb — an event that seems to have given the rock its name.
The names of the two kings carry a message of their own.
Zebah means "sacrifice." Here, of course, it does not point to the way of approach to God. It points to the "slaughter" that the world loves to inflict on the people of God, without mercy — as Zalmunna, "shade," or "refuge denied," also shows. So the same slaughter would fall on them, with no mercy to shelter them: "For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy."
The prayer aims at the men at the top. One writer says what these leaders were among their own people, and what they meant to take.
The alliance is set beside Midian flooding the land in the days of Gideon, and beside Sisera and Jabin in the time of Deborah. The psalmist prays that these enemies may be destroyed as those were. He prays that their "anointed ones," the men set apart to a special place among them, may be like the kings who fell by Gideon's hand. They too would have seized the dwelling places of God in the land, and taken His inheritance for themselves.
Gideon's defeat of Midian was not the end of the story. Isaiah takes up the same place and makes it a picture of something still ahead.
In Isaiah 10:26, Gideon's victory over Midian at the rock of Oreb points forward to the final victory over the Assyrian. In the same way, Barak's victory over Sisera at Megiddo pictures the final slaughter of the armies that will gather in the last days at Armageddon.
Read that way, the whole psalm belongs to one future crisis, and its outcome settles a question about who God is.
In Psalm 83 we have the last conspiracy of the Assyrians, and of those that dwell within the limits of the land, where judgment displays that Jehovah is Most High over all the earth.
Throughout the psalm the quarrel belongs to God. One writer sets out the aim of the judgment, and why the fight is His own.
He is supreme in holiness, above the evil. But His name is Jehovah, and He uses His power so that His enemies may seek Him in this way. Then they will know that He is "Elion," the Most High, supreme in government and blessing over all the earth. … The enemies are His, and He is the One they hate. The people are also His — His hidden ones — and the alliance against them is against Him, formed to take possession of His dwelling places.
A Christian reader may hesitate here. One writer answers that this prayer is not the Christian's way of praying about people who hate him.
So the fitting prayer for those who hate us is certainly not the language of Psalm 83:9-18. But in Jewish saints it is the right expression of faith, as they look to God to rise up and judge the earth.
The same writer traces this note through every part of the Psalms and draws the general rule.
So all the way through, earthly judicial righteousness is the atmosphere. It is not the heavenly grace by which the Christian is now called to feel, pray, worship and walk.
- Pattern. The prayer asks for no novelty: do to today's leaders what You did to Oreb, Zeeb, Zebah and Zalmunna through Gideon.
- Persons. Oreb and Zeeb were princes of Midian. Zebah and Zalmunna were its kings, and their names carry the sense of slaughter and of refuge denied. All four fell by Gideon's hand.
- Position. The men named are the "anointed ones," the leaders set apart among the enemy. They meant to seize God's dwelling places as their own.
- Prophecy. The rock of Oreb becomes a picture. That old defeat points ahead to the final overthrow of the last alliance gathered against God's people.
- Purpose. The aim is not destruction for its own sake. It is that His enemies may seek Him, and know Jehovah alone as Most High over all the earth.
For they have said, Let us take to ourselves God's dwelling-places in possession.
The enemies in this psalm want more than a victory over Israel. Verse 12 quotes what they said to each other, and their claim falls on property that belongs to God — which is why the prayer of this psalm turns so fierce.
The verse reports what the attackers said. One writer bases the plea for judgment on what God has already done to earlier invaders:
In verse 9 the psalmist asks God to deal with the enemies of Israel as He dealt with Midian in the days of Gideon. Earlier still, Barak defeated Sisera and his armies (Judges 4-5). God defeated those earlier enemies completely. Would He not also defeat those coming against His people at the time of the end? For they said, "Let us take possession for ourselves of the pastures of God" (v. 12). At the end it seems the attackers will be more determined and vicious than ever, but their self-confidence is empty!
Translations differ here. Some read "pastures of God," others "houses" or "dwelling-places of God." Either way, what they plan to seize belongs to God:
They too would have seized the dwelling-places of God in the land, and taken His inheritance for themselves.
Edom made the same claim on the land elsewhere. The same writer answers it:
The land is truly Jehovah's land. He has never forfeited it, and He will never give it up to those who are His enemies.
This psalm is not mainly about the people. God Himself stands at the centre of it:
The action of the psalm centres entirely on Him. The people are only the occasion of it. The enemies are His, and He is the One they hate. (vv. 1, 2.) The people are also His — His hidden ones (v. 3). The alliance against them is against Him, to take possession of His dwelling-places. … The situation is like the days of Deborah and of Gideon. The same lust of possession drove their oppressors.
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The previous verse names Oreb, Zeeb, Zebah and Zalmunna, the princes and kings of Midian who fell in Gideon's day. Their names carry meaning, and their defeat set the pattern:
Zebah means "sacrifice." Here it does not point to the way of approach to God. It points to the slaughter that the world delights to inflict on the people of God, without mercy — and Zalmunna, "shade," or "refuge denied," points the same way. So the same slaughter would come on them, with no mercy to shelter them: "For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy." This victory over Midian becomes the pattern for the final overthrow of Israel's enemies, both in the prayer of the suffering remnant (Ps. 83) and in the fulfilment Isaiah predicted (Isa. 9:4).
A reader today may wonder whether to pray these words against his own enemies. One writer marks off this prayer from the prayer that fits Christians:
The right prayer for those who hate us is certainly not the language of Ps. 83:9-18. But it is the right expression of faith in Jewish believers, who are looking to God to rise up and judge the earth.
The psalm does not stop at revenge. The judgment it asks for has a purpose, and the last verse states it:
God will carry out judgment, so that the rebellious nations may seek Jehovah's name. It is not, know the Father, nor, know there is a God; but, know Jehovah. When His judgments are in the earth, the people of the world will learn righteousness.
- Their words. The verse quotes the enemies themselves. What they said out loud becomes the charge against them.
- His property. What they planned to seize, "pastures" or "dwelling-places," is God's, and He has never given up His claim to it.
- His people. Because the land is His and the people are His hidden ones, the plot against them is a plot against Him.
- His pattern. Midian's princes fell without mercy because they showed none. That defeat shows how this alliance ends.
- His name. The goal of the judgment is not revenge but recognition — that the nations learn who Jehovah is.
O my God, make them like a whirling thing, like stubble before the wind.
Psalm 83 is a prayer against a ring of nations who have joined forces against Israel and against God. Here the psalmist asks God to act. He asks Him to turn the whole alliance into something light and worthless — dust and chaff that the wind sweeps off the ground.
The verse belongs to a real crisis, not a private quarrel. The psalm names who these enemies are.
To reach this goal the nations talk together and form an alliance against God. The psalm lists the nations right around the land of Israel. The Assyrian from the north helps them.
One writer calls it the last plot of its kind, ended by a judgment that shows who rules the earth.
In Psalm 83 we have the last conspiracy of the Assyrians and of those who live inside the borders of the land. There judgment shows that Jehovah is Most High over all the earth.
The two pictures come from harvest work. Grain was trampled on an open threshing floor, and the wind did the sorting.
When people threshed grain on the threshing floor, the wind blew through the open doors at either end and carried the chaff away. The grain stands for believers, the chaff for unbelievers, who are of no practical use at all. But unbelievers are not only blown away. They are also open to the flame of a frightening fire, which is the direct judgment of God, or to the storm of God's wrath, like a tempest no one can resist.
Translations give the first word as "whirling dust," "a whirling thing," or "thistledown." Each is a light thing that spins along the ground in a strong wind. The point is whose hands these enemies are in.
He prays that, in the hands of the Mighty God, they may be like chaff or thistledown whirled about by the wind. Fire catches hold of a wood; the flame of a volcano sets the mountains alight. So he prays that the anger of God may chase them, and that His presence may terrify them like the blast of a hurricane.
Isaiah uses the same pictures for nations that rush against Zion. There the sweeping away is not a request but a promise.
"The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters," that is, against Zion… But at her worst moment, when her case looks hopeless to every eye, the Lord steps in to rescue her. So Isaiah says of the gathered nations: "He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm. At evening time, behold, terror! Before morning, they are no more."
Many readers stumble here. The New Testament tells believers today to do the opposite of what this verse asks.
The present age is one of pure grace. God is not now counting men's sins against them. He freely forgives all who believe in Jesus, even the vilest and the worst. And the command to us is, "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them."… Our Lord Himself said, while His enemies were nailing Him to the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." … But a time is coming when prayers like these will rise to heaven — and remember, they are inspired prayers.
The difference lies in how God is dealing with the world at each time.
When God judges His enemies, as He did long ago and will do again, His people share in that judgment to some degree. Now He is showing sovereign grace, and a different spirit suits them; the New Testament proves this beyond doubt for the Christian and the church. Even so, the Psalms are a rich treasure from God for the believer.
The prayer does not stop at destruction. The psalm ends with a goal, and this scattering serves it.
The goal is the blessing of man through the lifting up of God — that man may find his place with God. For this, man must be brought low and his pride hidden from him… Yes, the destruction of His foes is meant to make Him known as Supreme, who alone is Jehovah, the Unchanging One because He is the Perfect One.
- Plot. The nations around Israel form an alliance, helped by the Assyrian from the north. The psalm calls that alliance a plot against God Himself.
- Plea. The psalmist asks God to make these enemies weightless: dust and chaff that the wind blows off the threshing floor.
- Power. The wind is not chance. It is God's own hand, followed by fire and hurricane — direct judgment, not bad luck.
- Postponed. This prayer is inspired, but it is not the Christian's prayer now. God is showing grace, so we bless and do not curse, like the One who prayed for the men who nailed Him to the cross.
- Purpose. The scattering is not the end. God blows pride away so that man can find his place with Him, and so that all the earth knows Jehovah alone as Most High.
As fire burneth a forest, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire,
Psalm 83 is the prayer of a people surrounded by nations with one shared aim: to wipe Israel out of existence and out of memory. In this verse the psalmist hands God a picture of what he asks for — fire running through a forest, a whole mountainside alight.
The psalm just before this one looked at trouble inside Israel. This one looks outward:
Psalm 82 deals with the corrupt leaders within the circle of God's people. Psalm 83 deals in judgment with the confederated enemies of God's people who oppose them from without.
One writer describes it as the last such alliance:
This is the last confederacy of the nations surrounding Canaan, with Assyria helping them.
The fire line is not a stray picture. It belongs to a single sweep of images — wind, fire, storm — that the psalmist piles up in one plea:
He prays that, in the hands of the Mighty God, they may be like chaff or thistledown whirled by the wind. He prays that the anger of God may pursue them as fire catches hold of a wood, or as the flame of a volcano sets the mountains on fire. He prays that His presence may terrify them like the breath of the hurricane.
Wind and fire come from two different scenes. One writer explains both, starting with the threshing floor:
When grain was trodden on the threshing floor, the wind blew through the open doors at either end and took the chaff away. The grain stands for believers, but the chaff for unbelievers, useless for all practical purposes. And unbelievers are not only blown away. They also meet the flame of frightening fire, which is the direct judgment of God, or the storm of God's wrath, an irresistible tempest.
The psalm looks back to enemies God has already beaten. That memory drives the request:
God defeated those earlier enemies completely. Would He not also defeat those coming against His people at the time of the end? For they said, "Let us take possession for ourselves of the pastures of God." At the time of the end it seems the attackers will be more determined and vicious than ever before. But how empty their self-confidence is!
The psalm does not stop at the burning. At its close the aim of the judgment comes out:
At the close of the psalm the cry is to God as such, for Israel is not yet established in covenant blessing. Even so, the name Jehovah comes in. God will execute judgment, so that the rebellious nations may seek Jehovah's name. It is not, know the Father, nor, know there is a God; but, know Jehovah. When His judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Men will know that He whose name alone is Jehovah is the Most High over all the earth.
Asking God to burn your enemies does not sound like Christian prayer. One writer faces that head on:
This is why the Psalms contain these appeals to judgment, and demands for it. They have often tripped up Christians when the enemies of Christianity bring them up. They are not the expression of Christian feelings. We leave the world and go to heaven. In no sense do we have to demand the destruction of our enemies to pass into glory. But Israel cannot have their rest on earth until the wicked are destroyed. So they do demand this righteous judgment, and this is how they will be delivered.
- Threat. A last confederacy of the nations around Canaan, with Assyria helping them, sets out to end Israel.
- Plea. The psalmist asks for wind, fire and storm together: chaff whirled away, flame running through forest and mountain, terror like a hurricane.
- Picture. The harvest wind blows chaff away as useless. The fire is God's direct judgment, and the storm an irresistible one.
- Purpose. The burning is not the end point. God judges so that the nations will seek His name and learn that He alone is Most High over all the earth.
- Place. This cry for the destruction of enemies is not Christian language. It belongs to a people whose rest is on earth, and who wait for God to judge their oppressors.
So pursue them with thy tempest, and terrify them with thy whirlwind.
Psalm 83 is the prayer of a nation surrounded: neighbouring peoples have joined forces to wipe out the name of Israel. Verse 15 closes a chain of images — dust, chaff, a forest fire, and now a storm that hunts the enemy down.
The verse finishes a comparison started one line earlier, where flame burns through a forest and over the mountains:
He prays that, in the hands of the Mighty God, they may be like chaff or thistledown whirled by the wind. Fire catches hold of a wood, or the flame of the volcano sets the mountains on fire. In the same way, he prays that the anger of God may pursue them and His presence terrify them like the breath of the hurricane.
Notice what the prayer asks. Not simply that the enemy scatter, but that God's anger chase them. Another writer names what each picture stands for:
Unbelievers are not only blown away. They also meet the flame of frightening fire, which is the direct judgment of God, or the storm of God's wrath, an irresistible tempest.
One writer names the enemies the storm falls on, an alliance gathered around the land of Israel:
Here we have another page of Israel's history while in the land. Those nations within the limits of the land and its borders form a confederacy. The Assyrian helps them and joins with them, to cut Israel off from being a nation, so that the name of Israel is remembered no more. It is not now the Jews or Antichrist... They are His enemies; they will have "the houses of God in possession."
That last phrase matters. What the attackers want to seize belongs to God, so the tempest asked for is God's answer to a raid on His own property.
Praying for someone's terror jars a Christian reader. Commentators answer by asking whose mouth these words belong in:
The fitting prayer for those who hate us is certainly not the language of Psalm 83:9-18. But it is the right voice of faith in Jewish saints, who are looking to God to arise and judge the earth.
Another writer makes the same point a matter of timing:
The present time is one of unmixed grace. God is not now counting men's trespasses against them. He freely forgives all who believe in Jesus, even the worst. To us the instruction is, "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them."... But there is a time coming when prayers like these (inspired prayers, remember) will go up to heaven.
So the verse is not a model for how to treat your enemies today. It is a true word, held for its hour.
The next line asks God to fill their faces with shame. That is not the end of the request:
Yet the punishing hand of God has not only condemnation as its object, but recovery if that is possible. If only men may be ashamed enough to seek God's name, there would be good results for them.
So the storm is not the same as plain destruction. It leaves room for the enemy to turn.
The psalm ends by naming what the judgment is for:
God will carry out judgment, so that the rebellious nations may seek Jehovah's name. It is not, know the Father, nor, know there is a God; but, know Jehovah. When His judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
The prayer for a hurricane, then, is a prayer for God to become known.
- Storm — The verse finishes the fire picture: as flame races through a forest, so God's anger pursues and His presence terrifies.
- Target — The storm falls on a confederacy that wants Israel's name erased and God's own houses seized. An attack on His people is an attack on Him.
- Timing — Today is a day of unmixed grace: "Bless those who persecute you." These words are not the Christian's prayer now. They are the right cry of faith when God rises to judge the earth.
- Mercy — The shame asked for aims at more than condemnation. It aims at recovery: men ashamed enough to seek God's name.
- End — The whole tempest exists to make God known. When His judgments are in the earth, the world learns righteousness and learns who Jehovah is.
Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek thy name, O Jehovah.
Psalm 83 is the cry of God's people when the nations around them band together to take the Lord's land. Verse 16 asks God to shame these enemies — but the shame is aimed at something, and commentators focus on that aim.
One writer sees here a final alliance of the nations around the land. God's judgment on them has an aim: they are to seek one particular name.
With Psalm 83 we need only call attention to its subject. It is the last confederacy of the nations surrounding Canaan, with Assur helping them. At the close of the psalm, Jehovah's name comes in. The cry itself goes up to God as such, because Israel is not yet established in covenant blessing. God will execute judgment, so that the rebellious nations may seek Jehovah's name. It is not, know the Father, nor, know there is a God; but, know Jehovah.
Not every writer fixes the moment with the same confidence. Another finds the date hard to settle. He reads the psalm's examples from Israel's history as enemies fighting Israel for the land God had given them.
Yet I feel it very difficult to fix an exact time for the action described here. Some of its wording has at times made me see here an attempt to drive Israel out again, after they have been re-established in the land. The historical references seem to favour this view. All the examples quoted from the book of Judges have one thing in common. In each case the nations tried to take the Lord's land from Israel, after He had brought them in and given it to them as their own possession.
God's hand falls to condemn, but condemnation is not its only aim.
Yet the punishing hand of God has not only condemnation as its object, but recovery if that is possible. If men are only ashamed enough to seek God's name, that will bring good results for them (v. 16). But whether they seek Him or not, His dealing with them will have its proper results — on one side true blessing, on the other their eternal dismay (v. 17).
Shame is the doorway, not the destination. Pride is what has to go before a man can take his place before God.
The end is to be the blessing of man in the exaltation of God — that man may find his place with God. He must be brought low for this, and his pride hidden from him… Yes, God destroys His foes to make Himself known as Supreme. He alone is Jehovah, the Unchanging One, because He is the Perfect One.
God uses His power with an aim: that His enemies should seek Him as He truly is.
He is supreme in holiness, above the evil. But His name is Jehovah, and He uses His power so that His enemies may seek Him in that character. They are to know that He is 'Elion,' the Most High, supreme in government and blessing over all the earth (v. 18). The action of the psalm centres wholly around Him, the people being merely the occasion of it. The enemies are His, and He is the Object of their hatred (vv. 1, 2).
Why this name and not another? Because it is the name tied to a covenant that reaches beyond one nation.
"Jehovah" is especially the covenant name of Israel's God (Ex. 6:3). In that covenant He has bound Himself by promise to His nation. But the covenant also holds within it the government of the whole earth, in blessing and in power. It is through the blessing of the nation of Israel that the other nations come to know and adore the name and glory of the God of the whole earth.
A Christian reading verse 16 may wonder whether to pray it against enemies today. One writer draws a firm line.
The right prayer for those who hate us is certainly not the language of Ps. 83:9-18. But it is the right expression of faith in Jewish believers, who are looking to God to rise up and judge the earth.
- Storm. God's judgment falls on a last alliance of the nations gathered around Israel's land.
- Shame. The humbling is not an end in itself. God's punishing hand aims at condemnation, but at recovery too, where recovery is possible.
- Seeking. God brings a man low and hides his pride from him, so that he can find his place with God.
- Name. They are not simply to learn that there is a God. They are to seek Jehovah, the covenant name of Israel's God, and through Israel's blessing the other nations come to know Him.
- Supremacy. The psalm ends where it aimed: His enemies will know Him as the Most High over all the earth. This is the prayer of people waiting for God to judge the earth, not words given to Christians for their own enemies.
Let them be put to shame and be dismayed for ever, and let them be confounded and perish
Psalm 83 closes with a prayer that God's enemies be shamed and ruined forever. Nations have joined forces to wipe Israel out, and the prayer raises two questions: who prays like this, and what is the shame meant to do?
One writer looks at what the plot reveals about man. Hatred of God's people is enmity against God — and the attempt to destroy them ends up proving who God is.
Psalm 83 shows the way man is guilty of active enmity against God. In his hatred of God's people he uses cunning, conspiracy, and violence to wipe their memory off the earth. The result is that Jehovah alone (the God of Israel) is the Most High over all the earth. Such is the effect of man's efforts.
Another writer works through the psalm and finds God at every point — including in the request of verse 17:
Everything in the psalm centres on Him, and the people are only the occasion for it. The enemies are His enemies, and He is the One they hate. The people are His too — His hidden ones — and the alliance against them is an alliance against Him, formed to seize His dwelling places. … For His own name's sake, Jehovah is called on to put them to shame, so that they may be confounded and perish.
Verse 16 asks God to fill their faces with shame "that they may seek your name, O LORD" (ESV). Verse 17 then asks for shame that lasts forever, and for ruin. Older translations read its last line as "let them be confounded and perish." The two verses do not clash, because God's hand can end in more than one way.
God's punishing hand aims at more than condemnation. It also aims at recovery, if recovery is possible. If men are ashamed enough to seek God's name, the result will be good for them (v. 16). But whether they do or not, His dealing with them will have its proper result: on one side true blessing, on the other their eternal dismay (v. 17).
So the prayer for lasting shame is not a wish that no one turns back. Where shame does not lead men to seek God, it ends in ruin. Either way, His dealing reaches its proper result.
The judgment has an aim, and the aim is knowledge. One writer shows how narrow that knowledge is.
The subject of Psalm 83 only needs pointing out. It is the last alliance of the nations around Canaan, with Assyria helping them. At the end of the psalm the cry is addressed to God as God, because Israel is not yet settled in covenant blessing. Even so, the name Jehovah is brought in. God will carry out judgment so that the rebellious nations may seek Jehovah's name. The call is not to know the Father, nor to know that there is a God, but to know Jehovah. When His judgments are in the earth, the people of the world will learn righteousness.
Another writer points to the psalm's last verse as its defining note.
The Spirit's direct desire here is that the name of JEHOVAH be shown in power, as the Most High God over all the earth (verse 18). This is the leading feature of the psalm, and it gives the psalm a special interest and value.
Commentators are careful here. This is not a model for how believers today should pray about people who hate them.
The right prayer for those who hate us is certainly not the language of Psalm 83:9-18. But it is the right expression of faith for Jewish believers who are looking to God to arise and judge the earth.
So who is left to pray it? Another writer answers.
A hidden remnant still remains to Israel, and God will remember them at the right time. This Psalm plainly relates to them. It is the voice of the Spirit of Christ praying for His earthly people against the fully ripened plans of wicked men, who stand united as one man in their attempt to frustrate Jehovah's purpose.
- Name attacked. The plot is to wipe Israel's memory off the earth. But Israel are His hidden ones, so the attack lands on God Himself.
- Name sought. The psalm asks for shame with a purpose — that those who feel it would turn and seek the Lord's name.
- Name refused. Where shame leads to no seeking, it ends in the lasting dismay of verse 17. God's dealing reaches its proper result either way.
- Name known. The goal of judgment is knowledge, not revenge. The nations must learn not just that there is a God, but that He is the Lord, Most High over all the earth.
- Name prayed. Commentators warn that this is not the believer's prayer against personal enemies. It is the cry of a hidden remnant asking God to arise and judge.
That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth.
Psalm 83 is a prayer against a group of nations plotting to wipe Israel's name off the map. Its last verse names the outcome the whole prayer aims at. The psalmist asks for more than rescue. He asks that one Name be known as supreme, and known everywhere.
The psalm ends with a purpose clause, and commentators read the judgment asked for in verses 13–17 as the means to that end. What is to be learned is very specific:
Judgment is to be executed, so that the rebellious nations may seek Jehovah's name. It is not, know the Father, nor, know there is a God; but, know Jehovah. When His judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Men will know that He whose name alone is Jehovah — He who is, and was, and is to come — is the Most High over all the earth. That is, Jehovah, the one true God, the God of Israel, is the One above all, supreme over the earth.
The verse rests everything on a name. Older translations write it "Jehovah." Most English Bibles print it as "the LORD" in small capitals. Its force is existence that depends on nothing:
The dread and sacred Name Jehovah signifies underived existence, the Self-Existing One. To Israel the Name was explained as "I AM WHO I AM" (Ex. 3:14); to Gentiles as "him who is and who was and who is to come" (Rev. 1:4; 4:8)... "Who is" implies independent, unchangeable existence. "Who was" points to Jehovah's relation to the past. "Who is to come" shows His connection with the future.
The second title in the verse, Elyon, carries its own weight, and the psalm deliberately stretches it beyond one nation:
Elyon, "the Most High," is another name of God. Sometimes it stands alone, as in Deut. 32:8; 2 Sam. 24:14; and in Dan. 4:17-34 (from a related word). Sometimes one of the above words is added to it, and it is then "the Most High God," Gen. 14:20, or "the LORD Most High," Ps. 7:17. It is not limited to Israel, for He is "the Most High over all the earth." Ps. 83:18.
So the verse joins the name Israel knew to the title under which God claims the whole world. One writer traces this title from earlier Scripture to the coming reign:
It is in this name that He takes possession of the earth. Melchizedek pronounced his blessing in the name of the Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. And Nebuchadnezzar, the humbled head of the nations, praises and blesses the Most High. It is His millennial name, the name in which He takes His great power and reigns.
The plot in this psalm is to erase a people. Its actual outcome, one writer notes, is the public establishment of the very God being resisted:
Psalm 83 shows the way man is guilty of active enmity against God. In his hatred of God's people he uses craft, conspiracy, and violence to destroy their memory off the earth. The result is that Jehovah alone, the God of Israel, is the Most High over all the earth. Such is the effect of man's efforts.
The harsh prayers before verse 18 trouble many Christian readers. One writer puts this psalm on different ground from the church's calling:
The prayer that fits those who hate us is certainly not the language of Ps. 83:9-18. But it is the right expression of faith in Jewish believers, who are looking to God to arise and judge the earth.
The lesson the psalm asks God to teach is one the world has not yet learned. The point is God's right to dispose of the earth:
The earth is full of confusion and sorrow, because men are proud and self-willed. They are bent on dividing the earth by their own plans, to satisfy their own ambition. Between the wars, negotiators come together to discuss terms of peace. God is not uppermost in their thoughts. Still less is the Man whom God has appointed Heir of all things... The nations will yet have to learn that God is the Most High. He has absolute right to dispose of everything as He wills. And as the Almighty He is well able to carry out His will, and crush all opposition.
- Name — the verse turns on one word: Jehovah, "the LORD." It means existence that depends on nothing: He who is, and was, and is to come.
- Claim — "Most High" (Elyon) is not a title limited to Israel; it asserts God's right over the whole earth.
- Method — God teaches the nations by judgment, not by argument. When His judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
- Irony — a conspiracy formed to erase God's people ends by establishing that Jehovah alone is supreme.
- Reach — the prayer looks past one rescue to a lasting result: God known as Most High over all the earth, in the name under which He takes His great power and reigns.