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Sometimes God seems not to be concerned at the unjust treatment of his people. But then we may call upon him, as the psalmist here. All wicked people are God's enemies, especially wicked persecutors. The Lord's people are his hidden ones; the world knows them not. He takes them under his special protection. Do the enemies of the church act with one consent to destroy it, and shall not the friends of the church be united? Wicked men wish that there might be no religion among mankind. They would gladly see all its restraints shaken off, and all that preach, profess, or practice it, cut off. This they would bring to pass if it were in their power. The enemies of God's church have always been many: this magnifies the power of the Lord in preserving to himself a church in the world. The Israel of God were now in danger, and fear, and great distress, and yet their prayer is called, A song or psalm; for singing psalms is not unseasonable, no, not when the harps are hung upon the willow-trees. (Psa 83:1 KJV) A Song or Psalm of Asaph. Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. The psalmist here begs of God to appear on the behalf of his injured threatened people: “Keep not thou silence, O God! but give judgment for us against those that do us an apparent wrong.” (Psa 83:1 KJV) Keep not thou silence, O God,.... Which he is thought and said to do, when he does not answer the prayers of his people, nor plead their cause, nor rebuke their enemies; when he does not speak a good word to them, or one for them, or one against those that hate and persecute them; Thus Jehoshaphat prayed upon occasion of that invasion, Behold, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession. (2Ch 20:11 KJV) Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit. Sometimes God seems to connive at the unjust treatment which is given to his people; he keeps silence, as one that either did not observe it or did not concern himself in it; he holds his peace, as if he would observe an exact neutrality, and let them fight it out; (Psa 83:1 KJV) hold not thy peace; or "be not deaf" to the cries and tears of his people, and to the reproaches, menaces, and blasphemies of wicked men: he is still, and gives not the enemies of his people any disturbance or opposition, but seems to sit by as a man astonished, or as a mighty man that cannot save. (Psa 83:1 KJV) and be not still, O God; or "quiet", at rest and ease, inactive and unconcerned, as if he cared not how things went; the reason follows. Then he gives us leave to call upon him, as here, “Keep not thou silence, O God! Lord, speak to us by the prophets for our encouragement against our fears” (as he did in reference to that invasion, etc.); (2Ch 20:14 KJV) Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the LORD in the midst of the congregation; “Lord, speak for us by the providence and speak against our enemies; speak deliverance to us and disappointment to them.” God's speaking is his acting; for with him saying and doing are the same thing. He here gives an account of the grand alliance of the neighboring nations against Israel, which he begs of God to break, and blast the projects of. (Psa 83:5 KJV) For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee: Now observe here, against whom this confederacy is formed; it is against the Israel of God, and so, in effect, against the God of Israel. Thus the psalmist takes care to interest God in their cause, not doubting but that, if it appeared that they were for God, God would make it to appear that he was for them, and then they might set all their enemies at defiance; for whom then could be against them? “Lord,” says he, “they are thy enemies, and they hate thee.” All wicked people are God's enemies (the carnal mind is enmity against God), but especially wicked persecutors; they hated the religious worshippers of God, because they hated God's holy religion and the worship of him. This was that which made God's people so zealous against them - that they fought against God: They are confederate against thee, (Psa 83:5 KJV) they are confederate against thee; or have made a covenant against thee; the covenant they had entered into among themselves, being against the Lord's people, was against him; and such a covenant and agreement can never stand; for there is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord, (Pro 21:30 KJV) There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD. This the psalmist mentions to engage the Lord in the quarrel of his people, and not be still, and act a neutral part; since those were his enemies, and confederates against him, and they are next particularly named. Were our interest only concerned, we could the better bear it; but, when God himself is struck at, it is time to cry, Help, Lord. Keep not thou silence, O God! (Psa 83:3 KJV) They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. He proves that they are confederate against God, for they are so against the people of God, who are near and dear to him, his son, his first-born, his portion, and the lot of his inheritance; he may truly be said to fight against me that endeavors to destroy my children, to root out my family, and to ruin my estate. “Lord,” says the psalmist, “they are thy enemies, for they consult against thy hidden ones.” (Psa 83:3 KJV) and consulted against thy hidden ones; not hidden from the Lord, and unknown unto him, though from their enemies, and unknown by them, and so the object of their hatred and persecution; but hidden by him as his jewels and peculiar treasure, which he takes care of; hidden under the shadow of his wings, in the secret of his presence and tabernacle, as in a pavilion; and therefore it was a daring piece of insolence in their enemies to attack them: so the life of saints is said to be hid with Christ in God, which denotes both its secrecy and safety; (Col 3:3 KJV) For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. the Targum is, "against the things hidden in thy treasures;'' meaning the riches of the temple. Note, God's people are his hidden ones, hidden, in respect of secrecy. Their life is hid with Christ in God; the world knows them not; if they knew them, they would not hate them as they do. In respect of safety. God takes them under his special protection, hides them in the hollow of his hand; and yet, in defiance of God and his power and promise to secure his people, they will consult to ruin them and cast them down from their excellency, (Psa 62:4 KJV) They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah. and to make a prey of those whom the Lord has set apart for himself, (Psa 4:3 KJV) But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him. They resolve to destroy those whom God resolves to preserve. How this confederacy is managed. (Psa 83:2 KJV) For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. The devil is at the bottom of it, and therefore it is carried on, with a great deal of heat and violence: Thy enemies make a tumult, (Psa 83:2 KJV) For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult,.... Or "a noise": wicked men are commonly noisy, roaring out their blasphemies against God, belching out oaths and curses, and breathing threatenings and slaughter against the saints; especially a numerous army of them, consisting of many people and nations, as this did; who are called the Lord's "enemies", being the enemies of his people, and their cause and his are one and the same; and besides, all wicked men are enemies to God, and all that is good, in their minds, and which appears by their actions; yea, they are enmity itself unto him: The heathen rage, (Psa 2:1 KJV) Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The nations are angry, (Rev 11:18 KJV) And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. They are noisy in their clamors against the people whom they hope to run down with their loud calumnies. This comes in as a reason why God should not keep silence: “The enemies talk big and talk much; Lord, let them not talk all, but do thou speak to them in thy wrath,” (Psa 2:5 KJV) Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. With a great deal of pride and insolence: They have lifted up the head. (Psa 83:2 KJV) and they that hate thee have lift up the head; are haughty, proud, and arrogant; speak loftily, and with a stiff neck; set their mouth against heaven, and God in it; and their tongue walks through the earth, and spares none; they exult and rejoice, as sure of victory, before the battle is fought; such then were, and such there are, who are haters of God, hate his being, perfections, purposes, and providences; hate his Son without a cause, and even do despite unto the Spirit of grace; hate the law and its precepts, the Gospel and its doctrines and ordinances, and the ways, worship, and people of God, as appears by what follows. In confidence of their success, they are so elevated as if they could over-top the Most High and overpower the Almighty. With a great deal of art and policy: They have taken crafty counsel, (Psa 83:3 KJV) They have taken crafty counsel against thy people,.... The people of Israel, hereafter named, whom God had chosen and avouched to be his people; these they dealt subtlety with, as the king of Egypt had done with their forefathers; and this, agreeably to their character, being the seed of the old serpent, more subtle than any of the beasts of the field; these devised cunning devices, formed crafty schemes for the destruction of the Lord's people; but often so it is, that the wise are taken in their own craftiness, and their counsel is carried headlong: The subtlety of the old serpent appears in their management, and they contrive by all possible means, though ever so base, ever so bad, to gain their point. They are profound to make slaughter, (Hos 5:2 KJV) And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all. as if they could outwit Infinite Wisdom. With a great deal of unanimity. Whatever separate clashing interest they have among themselves, against the people of God they consult with one consent, (Psa 83:5 KJV) For they have consulted together with one consent,.... Or "heart"; wicked men are cordial to one another, and united in their counsels against the people of God, and his interest: whatever things they may disagree in, they agree in this, to oppose the cause and interest of true religion, or to persecute the church and people of God: Herod and Pontius Pilate are instances of this: nor is Satan's kingdom divided against itself. To push on this unholy war, they lay their heads together, and their horns, and their hearts too. Fas est et ab hoste doceri - Even an enemy may instruct. Do the enemies of the church act with one consent to destroy it? Are the kings of the earth of one mind to give their power and honor to the beast? And shall not the church's friends be unanimous in serving her interests? If Herod and Pilate are made friends, that they may join in crucifying Christ, surely Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Peter, will soon be made friends, that they may join in preaching Christ. What it is that is aimed at in this confederacy. (Psa 83:4 KJV) They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. They consult not like the Gibeonites to make a league with Israel, that they might strengthen themselves by such a desirable alliance, which would have been their wisdom. They consult, not only to clip the wings of Israel, to recover their new conquests, and check the progress of their victorious arms, not only to keep the balance even between them and Israel, and to prevent their power from growing exorbitant; this will not serve. It is no less than the utter ruin and extirpation of Israel that they design: “Come, let us cut them off from being a nation, as they cut off the seven nations of Canaan; (Psa 83:4 KJV) They have said,.... Secretly in their hearts, or openly to one another, and gave it out in the most public manner, as what they had consulted and determined upon; (Psa 74:8 KJV) They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land. (Psa 83:4 KJV) come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; they were not content to invade their country, take their cities, plunder them of their substance, and carry them captives, but utterly to destroy them, root and branch; so that they might be no more a body politic, under rule and government, in their own land, nor have so much as a name and place in others; this was Haman's scheme, (Est 3:8 KJV) And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king's laws: therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them. let us leave them neither root nor branch, but lay their country so perfectly waste that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance, no, not in history;” for with them they would destroy their Bibles and burn all their records. (Psa 83:4 KJV) that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance; but this desperate and dreadful scheme, and wretched design of theirs, took not effect; but, on the contrary, the several nations hereafter mentioned, who were in this conspiracy, are no more, and have not had a name in the world for many hundreds of years; while the Jews are still a people, and are preserved, in order to be called and saved, as all Israel will be in the latter day, (Rom 11:25 KJV) For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. So Dioclesian thought to have rooted the Christian name out of the world; but in vain: the name of Christ, the name of Christianity, the name of a Christian church, will endure to the end of the world; (Psa 72:17 KJV) His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed. Compare with this, (Jer 11:19 KJV) But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. Such is the enmity of the serpent's seed against the seed of the woman. It is the secret wish of many wicked men that the church of God might not have a being in the world, that there might be no such thing as religion among mankind. Having banished the sense of it out of their own hearts, they would gladly see the whole earth as well rid of it, all its laws and ordinances abolished, all its restraints and obligations shaken off, and all that preach, profess, or practice it cut off. This they would bring it to if it were in their power; but he that sits in heaven shall laugh at them. Who they are that are drawn into this confederacy. (Psa 83:6 KJV) The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; (Psa 83:7 KJV) Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; (Psa 83:8 KJV) Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah. The nations that entered into this alliance are here mentioned; (Psa 83:6 KJV) The tabernacles of Edom, Or the Idumeans, as the Targum; the posterity of Esau, who, with the rest that joined with them, hereafter mentioned, and made the confederate army, brought their tents with them, pitched them, and encamped in them against Israel: (Psa 83:6 KJV) and the Ishmaelites; or Arabians, as the Targum, who descended from Ishmael, the son of Abraham: the Edomites and Ishmaelites, both descendants from Abraham, lead the van; for apostates from the church have been its most bitter and spiteful enemies, witness Julian. These were allied to Israel in blood and yet in alliance against Israel. There are no bonds of nature so strong but the spirit of persecution has broken through them. The brother shall betray the brother to death. (Psa 83:6 KJV) of Moab, and the Hagarenes; the Moabites, who sprung from Lot by one of his daughters, in an incestuous way; and the Hagarenes are the same with the Hagarites, (1Ch 5:10 KJV) And in the days of Saul they made war with the Hagarites, who fell by their hand: and they dwelt in their tents throughout all the east land of Gilead. who dwelt to the east of the land of Israel, so called from Hagar, the handmaid of Abraham, but not by him, but by another husband, after sent away from him, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi think, or by him, supposing Hagar to be the same with Keturah, as some do: the Targum calls them Hungarians; the Syriac version renders it Gadareans, or Gadarenes; of which see (Mar 5:1 KJV) And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. (Psa 83:7 KJV) Gebal,.... Gubleans, or Gebalites, as the Targum; the same with Giblites, (Jos 23:5 KJV) And the LORD your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the LORD your God hath promised unto you. or men of Gebal, (Eze 27:9 KJV) The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise. the same with Byblus: these dwelt in Phoenicia, near Tyre, where Pliny makes mention of a place called Gabale: the Syriac version joins it with Ammon, and renders it "the border of Ammon": (Psa 83:7 KJV) and Ammon and Amalek, the Philistines, with the inhabitants of Tyre; these are well known in Scripture, and as the enemies of Israel. Moab and Ammon were the children of righteous Lot; but, as an incestuous, so a degenerate race. The Philistines were long a thorn in Israel's side, and very vexatious. How the inhabitants of Tyre, who in David's time were Israel's firm allies, come in among their enemies, I know not; (Psa 83:8 KJV) Assur also is joined with them,.... Before mentioned, or Assyria, though at so great a distance from Israel, and unprovoked by them: according to R. Joseph Kimchi, the sense is, that the Assyrians joined them, continuing in their wickedness, though their army had been destroyed by an angel in Hezekiah's time, of which they were unmindful; but this, as his son observes, makes this confederacy and war to be after the times of Hezekiah; whereas it was long before it: the Targum is, "Sennacherib, king of Syria, is joined with them;'' and so some refer this to his invasion of Judea, and besieging Jerusalem, with an army consisting of many nations, in Hezekiah's time; but he was the principal there, and not an auxiliary, as here: But that Assur (that is, the Assyrian) also is joined with them is not strange, or that (as the word is) they were an arm to the children of Lot. (Psa 83:8 KJV) they have holpen the children of Lot; Selah. or were "an arm" unto them, assisted and strengthened them: these were the Moabites and Ammonites, who were the principals in the war, and the rest auxiliaries, as it appears they were in the times of Jehoshaphat, (2Ch 20:1 KJV) It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle. here were ten different nations, which joined in confederacy against the people of Israel; to which answer the ten horns of the beast, or ten antichristian kings, who agreed to give their kingdom to the beast, and to make war with the Lamb and his followers, (Rev 17:12 KJV) And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. and it may be observed, that these were on all sides of the land of Israel; the Edomites, Ishmaelites, and Amalekites, were on the south; the Moabites, Ammonites, and Hagarenes, were on the east; the Assyrians on the north; and the Philistines, Gebalites, and Tyrians, on the west: so that Israel was surrounded on all sides with enemies, as the Lord's people are troubled on every side, (2Co 4:8 KJV) We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; and so the Gog and Magog army, of which some understand this, will encompass the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city, (Rev 20:9 KJV) And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. See how numerous the enemies of God's church have always been. Lord, how are those increased that trouble it! God's heritage was as a speckled bird; all the birds round about were against her, (Jer 12:9 KJV) Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour. which highly magnifies the power of God in preserving to himself a church in the world, in spite of the combined force of earth and hell.
Article Source: http://www.christianarticledirectory.org
Ray Zink has been intensely researching the Holy Word of God for the past 28 years. As a published author through article writings and blog posts, he now shares with others the deeper wisdom of the Scriptures that he has had the blessings to discover. More of his work can be seen at bible-mysteries.com/watchmanstrumpet/
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