Psalms 83

Enemies All Round Us! ▼
▼83:0 The psalm is in two parts:

– Verses 1-8: what the enemies of God and Israel are doing

– Verses 9-18: what the psalmist wants (prays that) God will do

This psalm is a song for Asaph.

1God, do not seem to be asleep!

Do not remain quiet and do nothing, God!

2For look, your enemies are all doing something.

The people that hate you are getting ready to fight you. ▼
▼83:2 In verses 1-2, the psalmist says that God seems to be doing nothing while his enemies are getting ready to fight him. They fight God by fighting his people Israel. They want everybody to forget that there ever was an Israel, verse 4! Verses 6-8 tell us who these enemies are. Some are to the east, like Moab. Some are to the west like Philistia. Some are to the south and some are to the north. We are not sure who the Hagrites and Gebal were. The important thing is this: the enemies were all round Israel! In verse 8, ‘the sons of Lot’ means the countries that his children started.

3They are making clever plans against your people.

They are deciding together what to do with those people that you love.

4They are saying, ‘Come on, we will destroy their country.

Then nobody will ever remember the name of Israel.’

5They are deciding together what to do.

They are agreeing to do something against you.

6 ▼
▼This verse is empty because in this translation its contents have been moved to form part of verse Psa 83:7.
 ▼
▼In this translation, this verse contains text which in some other translations appears in verses Psa 83:6-Psa 83:7.
7The people doing this are from:

· Edom and the Ishmaelites

· Moab and the Hagrites

· Gebal, Ammon and Amalek

· Philistia and Tyre

8Even Assyria has joined them.

They have made the sons of Lot Moab and Ammon strong.

SELAH

9Do to them what you did to Midian

and to Sisera and Jabin at the River Kishon.

10They died at Endor

and they became like dirt on the ground.

11Make their leaders like Oreb and Zeeb.

Make all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna.

12They said, ‘Let us take all the country that belongs to God.’ ▼
▼83:12 In verses 9-12,we read about people that God destroyed. Gideon destroyed Midian; the story is in Judges 6-8. Oreb and Zeeb were princes of Midian. People from Ephraim killed them, the story is in Judges 7:24-25. Ephraim was one of the tribes of Israel. Gideon killed Zebah and Zalmunna in Judges 8:21. They were kings of Midian. Sisera and Jabin come from another story, in Judges 4:1-24. Jabin was king of Hazor. Sisera was the leader of his army. A woman (Jael) killed Sisera as he hid in her tent. Two judges (leaders) of Israel destroyed Jabin’s army at the River Kishon.

13God, blow them away like chaff in the wind!

14As fire burns a forest and lights the mountains,

so they are on fire. ▼
▼83:14 In verse 14, ‘lights the mountains’ means ‘makes a fire on the mountains.’ Bible students are not sure what verses 16-18 mean. Some think that it means that the psalmist wants God to destroy his enemies as he destroyed Midian. Other Bible students think that it means that the psalmist wants them to be sorry and believe in God. The name LORD is the covenant name of God. It is the name people use who agree with God and who want to obey him.

15Go after them with bad weather

and frighten them a lot with your storms.

16Make their faces ashamed

so that they will look for your name, LORD.

17Let them always be ashamed and very frightened.

Let them become so ashamed that then they die!

18Then they will know that your name is LORD.

And they will know that you are the Most High over all the earth.
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