The Sinister Conspiracy Text: Psalm 83:1-4
Introduction: The Prayer Against Silence
We live in an age that is terrified of sharp edges. Our generation of Christians has been taught a soft and sentimental faith, one that is all cushion and no backbone. We have been told that the Christian ideal is a state of perpetual niceness, a placid smile in the face of outrageous evil. And so, when we come to passages like Psalm 83, we tend to get the ecclesiastical jitters. We read these raw, urgent cries for God to act against His enemies, and we blush. We think it all very un-New Testament like, and we try to shuffle past it as quickly as possible, as though we had stumbled upon an embarrassing family secret.
But this psalm, and others like it, are in the Bible for a reason. They are inspired by the Holy Spirit. They are not the rantings of some primitive, vindictive Israelite who needed to be told to love his enemies. They are the prayers of the saints, given to us by God, to teach us how to pray in a world that is at war with God. This is a war psalm. It is a prayer that recognizes the reality of the battle. The world is not a neutral playground; it is a contested battlefield. And on this battlefield, silence is not golden. Silence can be complicity. Silence can be surrender.
The psalmist, Asaph, begins with a desperate plea against the silence of God. He looks out at the world and sees the enemies of God roaring, conspiring, and boasting. He sees a confederacy of malice arrayed against the people of God. And in the face of this, God appears to be at rest, quiet, and still. This is the great trial of faith in every generation. We see evil prospering, we see the wicked plotting, we see the name of God blasphemed, and we are tempted to ask, "Where is God in all this?" This psalm gives us the language for that moment. It teaches us to turn our anxiety into petition, to take our fears and forge them into prayers. It teaches us that the proper response to the roaring of God's enemies is not to retreat into a quiet corner, but to cry out to God, "O God, do not be quiet!"
This is not a prayer for personal vengeance. Notice the pronouns. The psalmist is concerned with "Your enemies," "Your people," "Your treasured ones." This is a prayer for the vindication of God's name, the protection of His covenant people, and the defeat of those who have set themselves against the throne of Heaven. It is a prayer that understands that true peace can only come through the victory of the Prince of Peace, and that victory sometimes requires a fight.
The Text
O God, do not remain at rest;
Do not be silent and, O God, do not be quiet.
For behold, Your enemies roar,
And those who hate You have lifted up their heads.
They make shrewd plans against Your people,
And conspire together against Your treasured ones.
They have said, “Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation,
That the name of Israel be remembered no more.”
(Psalm 83:1-4 LSB)
An Urgent Plea (v. 1)
We begin with the psalmist's urgent, threefold appeal.
"O God, do not remain at rest; Do not be silent and, O God, do not be quiet." (Psalm 83:1)
The prayer is stacked with synonyms for divine inaction. Do not rest. Do not be silent. Do not be quiet. This is the cry of a watchman on the wall who sees the enemy gathering and is desperately trying to rouse the king. It is a prayer born of holy impatience. Asaph is not accusing God of being asleep at the switch. Rather, he is praying on the basis of God's character and His promises. He is essentially saying, "Lord, this situation is incompatible with who You are. You are a God who judges the earth. You are a God who defends the weak. You are a God who keeps His covenant. Therefore, act!"
This is a model for our own prayers. When we see the cultural tide of wickedness rising, when we see laws passed that mock the law of God, when we see the church persecuted and the name of Christ dragged through the mud, we are not to despair. We are to go to God and appeal to Him on the basis of His own reputation. We are to remind Him of His promises. This is not because God is forgetful, but because this is the kind of prayer He has ordained to be the means by which He accomplishes His purposes in the world. He wants us to be invested. He wants us to long for His kingdom and His righteousness. He wants us to be bothered by the silence.
The Arrogant Enemy (v. 2)
Next, the psalmist lays out the reason for his urgency. It is the brazen arrogance of the wicked.
"For behold, Your enemies roar, And those who hate You have lifted up their heads." (Psalm 83:2 LSB)
Notice first who these people are. They are not Asaph's personal rivals or business competitors. They are "Your enemies." They are those who "hate You." This is the fundamental divide in all of humanity. There are those who love God, and there are those who hate Him. There is no middle ground, no neutral territory. Jesus said, "He who is not with Me is against Me" (Matthew 12:30). The enemies of the church are not enemies because they have a problem with us, fundamentally. They have a problem with our God. We are just the visible representatives of the King they despise.
And what are these enemies doing? They "roar." This is the sound of a predator, the sound of chaos. It is the noise of a mob, full of rage and fury, signifying nothing but rebellion. And they have "lifted up their heads." This is a picture of insolent pride. They are not hiding in the shadows. They are strutting. They are boasting. They believe they are winning. They have thrown off all restraint and are openly defying the God of Heaven. This is a perfect description of our own secular moment. The enemies of God are not quietly agnostic; they are roaring atheists. They are not diffident about their sin; they lift up their heads in pride parades. They hate God, and they are not shy about it.
The Cunning Conspiracy (v. 3)
The psalmist then describes the method of their opposition. It is not just a chaotic roar; it is a calculated conspiracy.
"They make shrewd plans against Your people, And conspire together against Your treasured ones." (Psalm 83:3 LSB)
The enemies of God are not stupid. They are shrewd. The Hebrew word implies cunning and craftiness. This is the subtlety of the serpent in the garden. They do not always attack with brute force; they scheme. They hold committees. They form coalitions. They create five-year plans. They conspire. They whisper in secret and plot in the dark. We must not be naive about the nature of the opposition. The spirit of antichrist is not just a vague feeling of negativity; it is an intelligent, coordinated, and strategic assault on the kingdom of God.
And who is the target of this conspiracy? "Your people." "Your treasured ones." The word for treasured ones here speaks of something hidden, protected, and precious. We are God's treasure. We are the apple of His eye. An attack on the church is an attack on the personal property of Almighty God. This is why we can have confidence in the face of such shrewd opposition. They may be cunning, but they have picked a fight with someone infinitely more cunning than they are. They are conspiring against the One who holds all their molecules together. Their every plot is known to Him before it is hatched, and He who sits in the heavens laughs at their futile machinations (Psalm 2:4).
The Genocidal Goal (v. 4)
Finally, Asaph quotes the enemy directly, revealing the ultimate goal of their conspiracy. It is nothing less than total annihilation.
"They have said, 'Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, That the name of Israel be remembered no more.'" (Psalm 83:4 LSB)
This is the satanic ambition in every age. The goal is not simply to defeat God's people, but to erase them from history. "Wipe them out as a nation." "That the name of Israel be remembered no more." This was the ambition of Pharaoh, of Haman, of Herod, of Hitler, and of every Christ-hating tyrant down to the present day. The world does not want to coexist with the church. The world wants the church to cease to exist.
And we must understand what "Israel" means here. In the Old Testament, it referred to the covenant people of God, the physical descendants of Abraham. But the New Testament makes it clear that the true Israel is composed of all those who have faith in Israel's Messiah, Jesus Christ, whether Jew or Gentile (Galatians 6:16). The Church is the Israel of God. We are the nation God has called out of the world for His own possession. Therefore, this ancient threat is a threat against us. The world's desire is that the name of Christ's people be remembered no more.
But this is the one thing that is guaranteed to fail. Jesus Christ promised that He would build His church, and the gates of Hell would not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). The enemies of God can roar, they can lift up their heads in pride, they can conspire with all their shrewdness, but they cannot win. Their every effort to stamp out the name of God's people will only serve to advance the kingdom they are trying to destroy. Their hatred is the soil in which the gospel grows. Their persecution is the wind that scatters the seeds of the church. Their desire to wipe us out will end with them being wiped out, and the name of Israel, the people of the triumphant Christ, will be remembered forever.
Therefore, when we see this sinister conspiracy unfolding around us, we should not be surprised or dismayed. We should be like Asaph. We should see it for what it is, a rebellion against our God. And we should go to Him in prayer, with confidence, and say, "O God, do not be quiet. Your enemies are roaring. It is time for You to act. It is time for Your name to be vindicated." And we can be sure that He will answer.