O God, Do Not Keep Silence
A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.
83 O God, do not keep silence;
do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
2 For behold, your enemies make an uproar;
those who hate you have raised their heads.
3 They lay crafty plans against your people;
they consult together against your treasured ones.
4 They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;
let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”
5 For they conspire with one accord;
against you they make a covenant—
6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Asshur also has joined them;
they are the strong arm of the children of Lot.Selah
9 Do to them as you did to Midian,
as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,
10 who were destroyed at En-dor,
who became dung for the ground.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 who said, “Let us take possession for ourselves
of the pastures of God.”
13 O my God, make them like whirling dust,
like chaff before the wind.
14 As fire consumes the forest,
as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,
15 so may you pursue them with your tempest
and terrify them with your hurricane!
16 Fill their faces with shame,
that they may seek your name, O Lord.
17 Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;
let them perish in disgrace,
18 that they may know that you alone,
whose name is the Lord,
are the Most High over all the earth.
Reflection
- This psalm is an impassioned appeal to God to crush the nations that conspired and attacked Israel. This psalm is also a prayer of intercession – interceding for people to have knowledge of God’s final vindication, and for this to result in conversion prior to that final day.
- The surrounding nations wanted to destroy the people of God (v.4). Yet, the psalmist saw this more as an attack on God Himself. He refers to them as “your enemies” (v.2) and stated how “against you they make a covenant” (v.5).
- The prayer of this Psalm is that God’s enemies will be routed. “O my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind.” (v.13). However, this is not merely a plea for destruction, but it is also intercession for conversion. “Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Lord…. that they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.” (vv.16, 18).
- Who are your opponents right now? Are your enemies also God’s? Do you pray for vengeance or the grace to love your “enemy” and for their conversion?
Prayer & Journaling:
Stay with God for a little longer. Continue to converse with God and listen to what he wants to tell me. Then write down any thought and/or prayer in the “Spiritual Journal” book.