Psalm 83─An Imprecatory Prayer for God’s Victory Over Israel’s Enemies
By Dr. F. Kenton Beshore
Editor's note:
There has developed controversy over the Psalm 83 passages about the fate of Israel's neighboring enemies. Certainly, no people are in more danger of God's Judgment than are those primarily Islamic nations, most of whom have at one time or another voiced their desire to see the Jewish people and the nation Israel forever removed from the Middle East --even from the planet. (Read Genesis 12: 1-3 to see God's Warning to those who would curse Abraham's offspring. And that offspring comes from Abraham's son Isaac, and grandson, Jacob.)
Is Psalm 83 exclusively an imprecatory plea to Israel's God to completely destroy Israel's neighbor antagonists? Or --are the passages of this Psalm predictive of an actual war that is scheduled, perhaps before the long prophesied Gog-Magog invasion of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39?
We are putting two views on the passages side by side. Each explains the particular position in excellent fashion.
Read, study, pray, and come to your own conclusions.
--Terry James
There are several imprecatory prayers in Psalms – 35, 55, 58, 59, 69, 109, 137 and 140. All of them except Psalms 83 and 137 are prayers of David for God to judge his enemies. Psalm 137 is a prayer for God to judge Edom, and Psalm 83 is a prayer for God to judge the enemies of Israel – Edom (Southern Jordanians), the Ishmaelites (Saudi Arabians), Moab (Central Jordanians), Hagarites (Egyptians), Gebal (Northern Lebanese), Ammon (Northern Jordanians), Amalek (Arabs south of Israel), Philistines (Palestinians of Gaza), inhabitants of Tyre (Southern Lebanese) and Assyria (Syria).
A song. A Psalm of Asaph.
83:1 O God, keep not thou silence:
Hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
83:2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult;
And they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
83:3 They take crafty counsel against thy people,
And consult together against thy hidden ones.
83:4 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.
83:5 For they have consulted together with one consent;
Against thee do they make a covenant:
83:6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites;
Moab, and the Hagarenes;
83:7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek;
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre:
83:8 Assyria also is joined with them;
They have helped the children of Lot.
Selah
83:9 Do thou unto them as unto Midian,
As to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the river Kishon;
83:10 Who perished at Endor,
Who became as dung for the earth.
83:11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb;
Yea, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna;
83:12 Who said, Let us take to ourselves in possession
The habitations of God.
83:13 O my God, make them like the whirling dust;
As stubble before the wind.
83:14 As the fire that burneth the forest,
And as the flame that setteth the mountains on fire,
83:15 So pursue them with thy tempest,
And terrify them with thy storm.
83:16 Fill their faces with confusion,
That they may seek thy name, O Jehovah.
83:17 Let them be put to shame and dismayed for ever;
Yea, let them be confounded and perish;
83:18 That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, Art
the Most High over all the earth. (American Standard Version)
According to this psalm a coalition of nations and peoples that hate God have made a covenant against God, and are conspiring against Israel to destroy her. Their desire is to “cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.” The covenant they have made is the acceptance of the religion of Islam. This conspiracy to destroy Israel has been going on since May 14, 1948.
This coalition of Arab and Islamic states and peoples will attack Israel along with Gog and Magog (Russia), Persia (Iran), Cush (Ethiopia), Put (Somaliland), Gomer (Germany) and Togarmah (Turkey) as prophesied by Ezekiel (38:1, 5-6). This war is described in detail in Ezekiel 38:1-39:16. Psalm 83 is not a description of a different war between the Arab/Islamic nations and Israel. Instead God will answer that imprecatory prayer by defeating the nations noted above when they attack Israel prior to the Rapture and the start of the Tribulation. Their destruction will be so spectacular that everyone will understand that they were defeated by God Himself rather than by the Israeli Defense Forces:
And I will send a fire on Magog, and on them that dwell securely in the isles; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. And my holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel; neither will I suffer my holy name to be profaned any more: and the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, the Holy One in Israel. (Ezekiel 39:6-7)
God declares that He alone destroys the enemies of Israel when they attack her. He says that He will pour out His wrath upon them with an earthquake so great that the “mountains shall be thrown down” (Ezekiel 38:19-20). Then He will cause the enemy forces to kill each other (Ezekiel 38:21) and He will send “pestilence” on them. He will finish them off with “great hailstones, fire, and brimstone” (Ezekiel 38:22).
God says that after He destroys the enemies of Israel He “will magnify” Himself, and“sanctify” Himself, and He “will make” Himself “known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that” He is “Jehovah” (Ezekiel 38:23). He then says:
And I will send a fire on Magog, and on them that dwell securely in the isles; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. And my holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel; neither will I suffer my holy name to be profaned any more: and the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, the Holy One in Israel. (Ezekiel 39:6-7)
The Exodus will pale in comparison to what will happen in the war of Ezekiel 38 and 39. God’s new historic identity, “the Lord who lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north” is based on Jeremiah 16:14-15:
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries whither he had driven them. And I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
The similarities between the War of Gog/Magog (Ezekiel 38-39) and the prayer of Psalm 83 clearly show that Psalm 83 is a prayer for the fulfillment of the Gog/Magog War. Psalm 83:9 requests that the enemies be killed as the Midianites were by God who caused them to kill each other (Judges 7:22). The Russian coalition will also be killed by God in this manner (Ezekiel 38:21). In Psalm 83:14 a request is made that the enemies be destroyed by fire and the Russian-led coalition will be destroyed in that manner (Ezekiel 38:22).
Other ideas regarding the meaning of Psalm 83 have gained traction in recent years. Some are teaching that it is a prophecy of a future battle that describes a war other than the one of Ezekiel 38:1-39:16. In this war the enemies of Israel will be defeated by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) rather than by God Himself. They would then receive the credit for defeating the coalition of Arab and Islamic nations that surround Israel. Psalm 83 does not say the “exceedingly great army” of Israel will be responsible for the destruction of her enemies. Instead it says that God destroys Israel’s enemies:
That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, Art the Most High over all the earth. (Psalm 83:18)
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