Psalm 083

Introduction

All of the psalms since Psalm 73 have been psalms of Asaph. And today’s psalm is his last one.

According to 1 Chronicles 6, he was a Levite who, along with others, was appointed by David to provide music for the worship of God in the tabernacle. And not only did he provide music, but he wrote a few of the psalms which were used in the worship of the Lord. It’s possible that a few of these psalms of Asaph were not written by the original Asaph, but by one of his descendants. For instance, Psalm 74 seems to be about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar, an event which took place long after David and the original Asaph had died. And so, while these psalms bear his name, the original Asaph probably did not write all of them.

And all of the psalms of Asaph are about God’s judgment. So, in Psalm 73 he wrote about the wicked, who for now are carefree and prosperous, but the Lord has put them on slippery ground and they will be destroyed suddenly. In Psalm 74 he asks the Lord to rise up from his throne in heaven to defend his cause in view of what his enemies were doing to his people. In Psalm 75 God speaks and says: ‘I choose the appointed time; it is I who judge justly.’ In Psalm 76 we read that both horse and chariot lie still at God’s rebuke. And who can stand before the Lord when he is angry? And from heaven he pronounces judgment. In Psalm 77 he recalled how God displayed his great power among the people and delivered his people from Egypt with his mighty arm. So, he destroyed the Egyptians in order to save his people. Psalm 78 was a long psalm in which Asaph warned the present generation of God’s people not to be stubborn and rebellious like their forefathers who turned away from the Lord. And because they turned away from the Lord, he sent trouble on them to punish them. In Psalm 79 he asked the Lord to pour out his wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge the Lord. Psalm 80 is about how God was angry with his people because they had turned away from him. In Psalm 81 he warned the people of the trouble they’ll suffer if they’re unfaithful to the Lord. And Psalm 82 was about how God will judge unjust rulers, including the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms and human rulers here on earth. God will punish them for failing to defend the cause of the weak and fatherless.

So, all of Asaph’s psalms have been about God’s judgment, whether it’s God judgment on his unfaithful people or whether it’s God’s judgment on the unbelieving nations. And in the last of Asaph’s psalms, he calls down curses on God’s enemies who are attacking God’s people. Make them like tumble-weed. Make them like chaff. Pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm. Cover their faces with shame. And may they be ashamed and dismayed. May they perish in disgrace.

By calling down curses on them, he wants them to know that the Lord alone is the Most High God over all the earth. So, let them see that you alone are God.

Verses 1 and 2

The psalm begins with an urgent, threefold plea to the Lord: do not keep silent; be not quiet; be not still. From time to time we hear about some kind of abuser who got away with their crimes for years and years. And when they are eventually arrested and we hear what they did, we wonder why no-one ever did anything before. People knew what the abuser was doing. And so, why didn’t someone speak up? Why didn’t someone intervene? And that’s what the psalmist is asking the Lord to do. You know what’s happening to your people. So, speak up! Say something to stop them. Put a stop to what they’re doing.

And in verse 2 he complains that God’s enemies are astir. That is, they are making an uproar; or they are in tumult. Think of the raging of the sea. That’s what his enemies are like: they are raging against God. He also says that they rear their heads, which conveys a sense of their confidence and boldness. They are not afraid or ashamed, but confident and proud.

Verses 3 and 4

In verse 2, the psalmist referred to the enemy as ‘your enemies’. That is, they were God’s enemies. They were enemies of the Lord. But how do the enemies of the Lord attack the Lord? They attack the Lord by attacking the Lord’s people.

And so, in verses 3 to 4 he describes how they conspire against the Lord’s people. They plot against those the Lord’s cherishes. Let us destroy them as a nation, they say. And they want to destroy the Lord’s people so that the name of the Lord’s people will be remembered no more. In other words, they want to annihilate the people of God. They want to wipe them out completely.

The word ‘cunning’ in verse 3 recalls the description of the serpent in Genesis 3, who was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord had made. It’s the same Hebrew word. So, their enemies are as cunning and crafty as the Devil in the Garden of Eden. Indeed, they are just like him, because just as the Devil hates the Lord and his people, so they hate the Lord and his people.

Verses 5 to 8

In verses 5 to 8 he describes how the nations join together with one mind to plot against the Lord’s people. They form an alliance with one another.

He mentions ten nations in these verses and it’s likely that these ten nations represent all the nations who are against the Lord and his people. The nations may not have many things in common, and they may be divided in many ways, but they have this in common: they are united in their opposition to the Lord and his people.

The word translated ‘alliance’ in verse 5 is actually the Hebrew word which is normally translated ‘covenant’. One of the commentators makes the point that God’s covenant gives life to his people. So, in the Old Testament, the Lord promised them life in the Promised Land of Canaan. Now he promises his people everlasting life in his presence in the new heavens and earth. God’s covenant is life-giving. But their enemies want the opposite for God’s people, because their covenant with one another brings death.

Verses 9 to 12

And now the psalmist asks the Lord to do to their enemies what the Lord did in the past to other nations who attacked them.

And so, in verses 9 to 12 he refers to the Midianites, whom we read about in Judges 6 to 8. Oreb and Zeeb and Zebah and Zalmunna in verse 11 were Midianite rulers. And he mentions Sisera and Jabin, whom we read about in Judges 4. Jabin was a Canaanite king and Sisera was the commander of his army.

The psalmist is asking the Lord to do to their present enemies what he did to their past enemies in the days of the judges, when God raised up Gideon to defeat the Midianites and when he raised up Barak to defeat Jabin and Sisera. Sisera was the man who was killed by Jael, when he fell asleep in her tent and she hammered a tent peg through his head.

So, what you did in the past, do now in the present. Just as you destroyed our old enemies, will you destroy our present enemies?

Verses 13 to 17

And therefore the psalmist asks the Lord to make them like tumble-weed and like chaff. You’ve seen tumble-weed in old westerns and how it’s blown away by the wind. And you probably know about chaff: when the farmer threshed his wheat, he tossed it up in the air and while the wheat fell to the ground, the light and useless chaff was blown away by the wind. So, the psalmist is asking the Lord to blow away their enemies. Pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm. He could be referring to a literal storm; and we all know how powerful the wind can be and what damage a storm can have. And if God terrifies them in this way, then they will run away, as people run away from a fire.

And he asks the Lord to cover their faces with shame. In verse 2, he said that they raised their heads. So, they were confident and proud. But the psalmist wants the Lord to humble them. And he wants the Lord to humble them so that men will seek your name. Do you see that in verse 16? Seeking God’s name means seeking God. When God humbles his enemies like this, other people will see it and seek the Lord. They will turn to God and worship him.

And he goes on to call down curses on their enemies: may they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace; and let them know that you, whose name is the Lord, that you alone are the Most High God over all the earth.

Explanation

All these nations are united together in their opposition to the Lord and his people. They are like the Devil in that they are crafty and cunning and hate the Lord and his people. And the psalmist wants the Lord to do to them what he has done before to other nations. So, in the days of the Judges, God’s people were persecuted by enemy nations. And the Lord saved his people by destroying their enemies. And the psalmist wants the Lord to do the same so that their present enemies will perish in disgrace.

But this is not a plea for personal revenge, because he’s concerned for the glory and honour of God’s name. So, he wants God to act against their enemies so that others will see what God is like and will seek him and worship him. And he wants God to act against their enemies so that it will become clear to their enemies that their gods are nothing and the Lord is the one, true and living God.

And, of course, God’s people today are still hated by people across the world. Every Wednesday night we hear about the persecuted church and how believers in many nations around the world are persecuted for the sake of Christ. Believers are killed or imprisoned because of their faith. Or they face discrimination in their workplace and community. And they aren’t allowed to meet together for worship. These things happen routinely to our brothers and sisters across the world.

And while we may not face such persecution, we face other kinds of opposition from those who do not believe and who think we’re fools for believing in Christ and who think we’re evil for living according to the law of God. And there’s the daily pressure in our day to day lives to conform to the ways of an unbelieving world which we come across in schools and colleges and in the workplace and in the community and through the media.

And so, God’s people still face opposition and enmity in our day. And this psalm teaches us that we can turn to the Lord for his help. We can ask the Lord to act on our behalf and on behalf of our fellow Christians against those who set themselves up in opposition to the Lord and his people.

The Lord, of course, commands us to love our enemies and to bless those who persecute us and he tells us not to repay evil for evil, but to do good to all. But this psalm teaches us that we can appeal to the Lord to act on our behalf; and we can call on God to do what he has done before and to put a stop to wicked men and women who are attacking his people.

So, when we hear of wicked people doing wicked things to God’s people in other nations, we can pray to the Lord to stop them. And when people attack Christianity in this country, we can ask the Lord to stop them. And we can pray to the Lord to act in such a way that others will see what he has done and, as a result, will seek him and worship him and that it will become clear that the Lord our God is the one, true and living God, who deserves to be worshipped by all.

In other words, we’re to pray for God’s name to be honoured and for his kingdom to come. And that means we’re to pray that God will enable people everywhere to know and to acknowledge him; and that the gospel will be proclaimed throughout the world; and that he will prevent and remove unbelief and idolatry and contempt for holy things and whatever dishonours him; and that he will bring his people into his kingdom and keep them in it and protect them from all his enemies; and that he will arrange all things for his glory.

And even as we pray these things, we should also give thanks to God the Father, because he graciously and freely removed our own enmity towards God, which was in us from birth; and he added us to his kingdom by enabling us to turn from our unbelief and sin and to believe in his Son, who gave up his life to pay for our sins and to make peace for us with God. Because of Christ and his self-sacrifice on the cross, we have been reconciled to God. And so, though by nature we deserve to be covered in shame, we can now look forward to everlasting life in the presence of God in the new heavens and earth. We can look forward to it, because Christ our Saviour suffered the wrath of God in our place. He perished in disgrace, so that we would not perish, but have eternal life.