Psalm 83 A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.
“‘Do not keep silent;’ plead for us dear Jesus by Your Spirit in the presence of the Father. “‘Do not hold Your peace;’ or, be not deaf, to our prayers, and to the blasphemies of thine and our enemies. ‘And do not be still,’ i.e. unactive and unconcerned for us.” (Matthew Poole)
“‘For behold, Your enemies’ Thine, because ours; for there is a league offensive and defensive between God and his people; the Church must, therefore, needs be invincible, because God is so.” (John Trapp)— “‘make a tumult;’— “throng together” (Adam Clarke)— “‘and those who hate You have lifted up their head.’ - They have made an irruption into Your church, even our church counsel meetings. There they have “their consultations crafty, cunning, artful, malignant. Instead of pursuing a course in their deliberations that would be just, true, honorable, they have followed the reverse.” (Albert Barnes)— “‘and consulted together against Your sheltered ones;’ even those hidden under the hollow of thy hand, under the shadow of thy wing; and therefore safe from strife of tongues or force of hands,… The Greek rendereth it, ‘Thy saints,’ such as whose life is hid with Christ in God, Colossians 3:3, 1 John 3:2.” (John Trapp)
“They have said, ‘Come, and let us cut them [the church of the firstborn]off from being a nation [expelling them from the congregation that they might die eternally], that the name of Israel may be remembered no more;’ that is the ancient religion of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. “They have laid aside all their private quarrels and animosities, and agreed together against thee.” (Matthew Poole) “They were not content to take the Church as prisoner: but sought to utterly destroy it.” (Geneva Study Bible) “‘For they have consulted together with one consent;’— Hebrew, ‘...‘with one heart,’ showing their earnestness and unanimity... ‘They form a confederacy against You’— It is God’s cause; the enemies of the Church are His enemies.” (Whedon's Commentary)
Here is the confederacy: “The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;... at odds among themselves, and yet well agreed for a mischief to the Church, who might ever well say, as the hare in Martial, ... ‘As dogs, fighting and intertearing one another, can give over and join together to follow the harmless hare that passeth by them; so here. If Manasseh be against Ephraim, and Ephraim against Manasseh, yet they will be both against Judah.’” (John Trapp)— yeah, even against Joseph, the church of the firstborn.—
“And the Hagarenes”—a false church, “who came also of Hagar, as well as the Ishmaelites; but were a distinct people, and would be called Saracens, from Sarah, the freewoman, for honour’ sake, as if the promises made to Abraham and Sarah had belonged to them (Saracens, in Arabic, is thieves). Ptolemy maketh mention of the Saracens, and placeth in Arabia, the seat of the Hagarenes, where there is also a city called Agra, of Hagar, likely. Aben Ezra saith they came of Hagar, by another husband. The Chaldee calleth them Hungarians.—
‘Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek’—Answerable whereunto were the ten kings of Christendom, who gave their power to the beast, Ezekiel 27:9. Gebal might be the inhabitants of Gabel, a city of Phoenicia, saith Stephanus; or of Syria, saith Strabo, which Volateran saith was called Gibel in his time, but anciently Biblus. See Joshua 13:5.” (John Trapp) “‘Assyria also has joined with them; they have helped the children of Lot’—that righteous man who chose to live in the walls of a wicked city. Selah
Prophetically— “The idea here is, that the persons referred to in the subsequent part of the psalm (Psalm 83:6-8) had been assembled in a divan, or for consultation, and that they had there formed a malignant plan - against God and His people…” (Albert Barnes) - “who are called God’s hidden or secret ones [imply the hidden or spiritual Israel], to intimate the singular care and respect which God hath to them, as to His peculiar treasure, as they are called, Exodus 19:5 Psalms 135:4, whom He will hide and preserve in the secret of His presence, and under the shadow of His wings; and withal, to note their folly in seeking the destruction of those whom God was engaged and resolved to protect.” (Matthew Poole) “Elsewhere in prophecy we read of the confederacies of nations, Israel’s enemies, coming against the land of Israel in a final great onslaught. There will be an invasion from the north mentioned in Isaiah 29:1-24; Joel 2:1-32; Daniel 8:9-12, and in Zechariah 12:2. Then there will also be Gog and Magog invading the land (Ezekiel 38:1-23) [perhaps spiritual battle] … The godly remnant prays and speaks of these invading hosts as ‘His enemies’ calling upon the Lord to deal with them. Their satanic object is to cut them [the church of firstborn] off from being a nation. They remind the Lord of what He did with Israel’s former enemies and treat them likewise, so that Jehovah may become the Most High over all the earth.” (Arno Gaebelein)
“‘Do unto them as unto the Midianites’ - That is, Let them be overthrown and destroyed as the Midianites were. The reference here is to the complete overthrow of the Midianites, as related in Judges 4:4, Judges 4:6, Judges 4:14-15, and was slain by Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, Judges 4:17-21.” (Albert Barnes) “The thing they proposed to do to Judah is imprecated on them. The issue of the war was the question of national existence. Let God arbitrate, and give this boon only to the innocent party… The battle was at the River Kishon, on the great plain of Esdraelon, where the army under the generalship of Sisera was routed, which lost for him his life, and for Jabin, the king, his kingdom… Which perished at Endor—The battle, which began at Kishon, reached its crisis at Endor, eight miles east, where the flight began.” (Whedon’s Commentary) “‘They became as dung for the earth’ - The land was enriched or made fertile by their flesh, their blood, and their bones, as the field of Waterloo was by that of the slain, or as fields of battle commonly are.” (Albert Barnes) “‘Like Oreb, and… Zeeb’—Two leading Midianitish princes. Judges 7:25. ‘Zebah, and… Zalmunna’—Two kings of the Midianites. Judges 8:11-12; Judges 8:21.” (Whedon’s Commentary)
These said “Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.” (Verse 12) 13 O my God, make them like the whirling dust, like the chaff before the wind! 14 As the fire burns the woods, and as the flame sets the mountains on fire, 15 So pursue them with Your tempest, and frighten them with Your storm. 16 Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek Your name, O Lord. 17 Let them be confounded and dismayed forever; yes, let them be put to shame and perish, 18 that they may know that You, whose name alone is Yaheweh, are the Most High over all the earth.