Psalms 83King James Version
Keep not thou silence, O God. A prayer against a coalition of enemies.
The last of the Asaph psalms: a national prayer against a coalition of enemies who want to wipe Israel's name from the earth. Ten nations are named. The prayer draws on historical precedents: do to them as Midian, as Sisera, as Jabin at Kishon. Let them be as whirling dust, as stubble before wind, as fire consuming the forest. The goal is not their destruction but their conversion: that they may seek the name of the LORD and know that he alone is Most High.
The prayer against enemies has a theological goal beyond their defeat: that through judgment they might come to know the name of the LORD.
verse: "That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth." The imprecation points toward acknowledgment of divine sovereignty, not annihilation.
Superscription: 'A Song or Psalm of Asaph.' The list of ten nations in vv6-8 is the largest coalition of enemies in the Psalter. No single historical event corresponds to all ten; the psalm may be composite or anticipatory. The Midianite and Canaanite victories referenced (vv9-11) are from the book of Judges.
Asaph and Israel as the threatened; ten named nations (Edom, Ishmael, Moab, Hagarenes, Gebal, Ammon, Amalek, Philistia, Tyre, Assur); Midian, Sisera, Jabin as historical precedents; God as the one whose silence must end.
Psalm 83 closes the Asaph collection (50, 73-83) and represents the broadest national threat in the Psalter. The coalition of nations wanting to erase Israel from memory became a template text for Jewish prayers during persecution. The closing appeal for the enemies' conversion to acknowledgment of YHWH is a remarkable theological qualification of the imprecatory request.
For when multiple threats converge at once and the combined weight feels existential. The psalm names every threat by name before it prays.
1[A Song or Psalm of Asaph.] Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
2For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
3They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:
6The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.
9Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:
10Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.
11Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:
12Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
13O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
14As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;
15So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.
16Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.
17Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:
18That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.