Psalms 83

1 O God, do not keep quiet: let your lips be open and take no rest, O God.

2 For see! those who make war on you are out of control; your haters are lifting up their heads.

3 They have made wise designs against your people, talking together against those whom you keep in a secret place.

4 They have said, Come, let us put an end to them as a nation; so that the name of Israel may go out of man's memory.

5 For they have all come to an agreement; they are all joined together against you:

6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagarites;

7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek; the Philistines and the people of Tyre;

8 Assur is joined with them; they have become the support of the children of Lot. (Selah.)

9 Do to them what you did to the Midianites; what you did to Sisera and Jabin, at the stream of Kishon:

10 Who came to destruction at En-dor; their bodies became dust and waste.

11 Make their chiefs like Oreb and Zeeb; and all their rulers like Zebah and Zalmunna:

12 Who have said, Let us take for our heritage the resting-place of God.

13 O my God, make them like the rolling dust; like dry stems before the wind.

14 As fire burning a wood, and as a flame causing fire on the mountains,

15 So go after them with your strong wind, and let them be full of fear because of your storm.

16 Let their faces be full of shame; so that they may give honour to your name, O Lord.

17 Let them be overcome and troubled for ever; let them be put to shame and come to destruction;

18 So that men may see that you only, whose name is Yahweh, are Most High over all the earth.

Psalms 83 Commentary

Chapter 83

The designs of the enemies of Israel. (1-8) Earnest prayer for their defeat. (9-18)

Verses 1-8 Sometimes God seems not to be concerned at the unjust treatment of his people. But then we may call upon him, as the psalmist here. All wicked people are God's enemies, especially wicked persecutors. The Lord's people are his hidden one; the world knows them not. He takes them under his special protection. Do the enemies of the church act with one consent to destroy it, and shall not the friends of the church be united? Wicked men wish that there might be no religion among mankind. They would gladly see all its restraints shaken off, and all that preach, profess, or practise it, cut off. This they would bring to pass if it were in their power. The enemies of God's church have always been many: this magnifies the power of the Lord in preserving to himself a church in the world.

Verses 9-18 All who oppose the kingdom of Christ may here read their doom. God is the same still that ever he was; the same to his people, and the same against his and their enemies. God would make their enemies like a wheel; unsettled in all their counsels and resolves. Not only let them be driven away as stubble, but burnt as stubble. And this will be the end of wicked men. Let them be made to fear thy name, and perhaps that will bring them to seek thy name. We should desire no confusion to our enemies and persecutors but what may forward their conversion. The stormy tempest of Divine vengeance will overtake them, unless they repent and seek the pardoning mercy of their offended Lord. God's triumphs over his enemies, clearly prove that he is, according to his name JEHOVAH, an almighty Being, who has all power and perfection in himself. May we fear his wrath, and yield ourselves to be his willing servants. And let us seek deliverance by the destruction of our fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 83

\\<>\\. This is the last of the psalms that bear the name of Asaph, and some think it was written by him on occasion of David's smiting the Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Edomites, and others, 2Sa 8:1-14, but these did not conjunctly, but separately, fight with David, and were overcome by him; whereas those this psalm makes mention of were in a confederacy together; and besides, the Tyrians in David's time were in friendship with him; but are here mentioned as joining with others against Israel, Ps 83:7, others are of opinion that this was prophetic delivered out with respect to future times, either to the conspiracy of the enemies of the Jews against them in the times of the Maccabees, ``Now when the nations round about heard that the altar was built and the sanctuary renewed as before, it displeased them very much. &c.'' (1 Maccabees 5:1) or rather to the confederacy of the Moabites, Ammonites, and others, in the times of Jehoshaphat, 2Ch 20:1, so Kimchi, Arama, and the generality of interpreters: perhaps reference is had to the enemies of God's people, from age to age, both in the Old and in the New Testament; R. Obadiah understands it of the war of Gog and Magog.