Psalms 83

Psalms 83THEME: A cry for judgmentThis is “A Song or Psalm of Asaph.” This is the last psalm of the Asaph series and a rather puzzling one. The fact of the matter is that you cannot fit it into the history of the nation of Israel. Since you cannot, the idea is to guess at it, and there have been some wild guesses. This is an imprecatory prayer, a cry for justice. The psalmist prays for God to deliver His people from their enemies.

Psalms 83:1

Whoever the enemy is here, he hates God. But isn’t that always the case with the enemy?

Psalms 83:3

This refers to those who have plotted the destruction of the nation Israel. There are those who have tried to fit this psalm into the time of Jehoshaphat, and others who have attempted to fit it into other historical periods. The important thing for us to note is that the enemies of God express their hatred toward Him. Now we begin with the section of this psalm that is difficult to fit into history.

Psalms 83:5

“Assur” is Assyria. “The children of Lot” would be Moab and Ammon. The names in this portion of God’s Word are His enemies. There is no place in history where they seem to fit in; and that makes it a very remarkable section, because it appears that these verses look to the future. Apparently these nations which were in existence at one time will appear again in the future. At the present time Israel is surrounded by Arab nations who are apparently joined together not so much as Arabs but as Moslems. They are opposed to the nation Israel. It looks as though the nations mentioned in these verses will come back into existence during the last days. They are not in existence now, and there is nothing to which they correspond. This fact makes Psalms 83 a very remarkable passage of Scripture. The remainder of this psalm is an imprecatory prayer. It asks for God’s judgment. It is retrospective in the sense that the psalmist is saying, “Judge as You have done it in the past.”

Psalms 83:9

In the Book of Judges we read how God judged those nations. There are those who say that God will not judge that way in the future. He won’t? He has judged that way in the past. God has not changed. What He has done in the past, He will do in the future. For that reason this is impressive. Let me remind you that this is not the way we, as believers today, should pray. We should pray for our enemiesnot that God would punish them, but that they might be converted, that they might turn to God. This is a prayer for Israel to pray:

Psalms 83:13

Do you remember reading about the great big wheel that the oxen used to pull around to beat out the grain and crush the stubble? The psalmist is saying, “Deal with our enemies that way, O Lord.”

Psalms 83:14

In other words, “Be like a forest fire!” Now note the conclusion:

Psalms 83:18

I am convinced that the only way this world is going to know that God is God is for Him to move in judgment. The goodness of God ought to lead men to repentance, but it doesn’t. If men were at all sensitive to the presence and person of God, it would lead them to His presence, but it actually drives them farther away from God. We are an affluent nation now. When we were a frontier nation, pioneering, fighting our way across to the West, we depended on God, but today we think we don’t need Him. However, it looks to me as if we need Him desperately.