Psalm 83

Psalm 83  •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 7
This Psalm is still in the same connection. It is one of the cries of Israel in the latter day. They call on the Lord to break silence (Psa. 28:11<<A Psalm of David.>> Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. (Psalm 28:1)); they show Him the evil doings of their federated enemies, saying as it were, “And now, Lord, behold their threatenings;” they make the cause as much His as theirs; and they call for such signal judgment upon them that the inhabitants of the world may thereby learn righteousness, or that there is a God who judgeth in the earth. (Psa. 58:10-1110The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. 11So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. (Psalm 58:10‑11); Isa. 26:99With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. (Isaiah 26:9).)
We read throughout the Scriptures of confederacies against Israel. (Isa. 7; Isa. 8; Ezek. 38; Joel 3; Mic. 4:1111Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion. (Micah 4:11); Zech. 14:2-32For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. (Zechariah 14:2‑3).) The destruction of them will be complete, like the driving away of the chaff from the summer threshing-floor. And the Israel of God behave themselves here as Isaiah instructs them. They do not trust in a counter-confederacy, but sanctify the Lord in their hearts, and make Him their object. (See Isa. 8.)
The confederacy contemplated here appears to be after Israel has become a nation again (Psa. 83:44They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. (Psalm 83:4)). Such objects the Prophets seem to look at occasionally; and no doubt the action of the latter days, on the Lord taking the kingdom and appearing in His glory, will be widely extended. God, as another has said, does not only judge the last rebellion of antichrist or the beast, but having made His power felt, the moment of His wrath being come, He judges all nations. Scripture cannot be broken; that is true and precious. We, however, may be able to follow it out in our thoughts only partially.
The judgment closes in the exaltation of the God of Israel, Jehovah, in His kingdom over all the earth.