1 A song, a psalm of Asaph.
2 O God, keep not silence; hold not thy peace and be not still, O God (El).
3 For, behold, thine enemies make a tumult, and those that hate thee have lifted up the head.
4 Against thy people they devise secret craft and consult against thy hidden ones.
5 They said, Come, and we will emit them off from [being] a nation, and let the name of Israel be remembered no more.
6 For they have heartily consulted together; against thee do they make a covenant:
7 The tents of Edom, and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarenes;
8 Gehal and Ammon and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
9 Asshur also is joined with them; they are an arm to the sons of Lot. Selah.
10 Do to them as [to] Midian, as [to] Sisera, as [to] Jabin, at the river Kishon.
11 They were destroyed at Endor; they became dung for the ground.
12 Make their nobles as Oreb and as Zeeb; yea, all their princes as Zebah and as Zahrumna;
13 Who said, Let us take to our inheritance the habitations of God.
14 O my God, make them as the whirling thing, as stubble before the wind.
15 As fire will burn a forest, and as a flame will set mountains on fire,
16 So pursue them with thy tempest and with thy whirlwind trouble them.
17 Fill their faces with shame, that [and] they will seek thy name, O Jehovah.
18 They shall be ashamed and dismayed for ever, and they shall be confounded and perish.
19 And they shall know that thou alone, whose name [is] Jehovah, [art] Most High above all the earth.
Notes on Psalm 83
This also is “A song, a psalm of Asaph.” Here it is not only those who had authority from God warned of His judging, and the Spirit in Israel calling on Him to arise for it, and those who had His word threatened with a fall like to mere men, as alike without real understanding. But we have the last great confederacy, of which the Assyrian is the head, according to the prophets generally and here expressly named with others too familiar to the ancient people of God. It is by the final execution of judgments on the earth, however overlooked by Christendom, and despised or censured by the vain mind of the flesh, that the inhabitants of the world shall learn righteousness and know the name of Jehovah. But thus shall they at the end of the age know that “Thou, Thy name Jehovah only Thine, art Most High above all the earth.” The Name regains its power for Israel’s heart.