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.