"A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.
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 for ever;
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."
Psalm 83
The problem of the silences of God, and man's impatience with them, reflected in the previous Psalm, is underlined once again in this Psalm in which we are confronted by the enemies of the Lord who are threatening the existence of God's people and cause. There are two sections in it, in the first (1-8) Israel's extremity is described: in the second (9-18) we have Israel's supplication. The first consideration in Israel's extremity is that, more even than the fact of the pressure from their enemies, there is the sense that God is doing nothing about the situation, and not moving quickly enough to help. We need to stop here before going any further, to consider a very real issue: in any time of pressure, such as is envisaged here, it is natural to want God to intervene and make bare His holy arm. But intervention does not always come when we want it, or when we think it should; and when it does not, what then? Two things can happen: one is that dark discouragement can come, even doubt, and in extreme cases, loss of faith; the other is that the temptation becomes very strong to try to force God's hand or, worse still, to take matters into one's own hands. Perhaps the best commentary on the first of these points - discouragement and doubt - is to be found in the marvellous words of Faber's hymn, 'Workman of God! O lose not heart...'. How needful to 'learn what God is like'! The other temptation, to take things into our own hands and precipitate matters, is perhaps more linked with the first than we might realise, for it has at its root a basic misunderstanding of God's working. Another line in the hymn already quoted, 'Learn to lose with God' is a word of wide application. There is a word in Isaiah (28:16) that fits all this perfectly: 'He that believeth shall not make haste'!