Bird's-eye view
This section of Psalm 83 provides the roster of the damned, a detailed intelligence briefing on the confederacy of nations arrayed against God's people. The psalmist, Asaph, is not just listing names for historical effect; he is laying out the articles of indictment before the heavenly court. The core issue is a conspiracy born from a unified heart of hatred, not just against Israel, but against God Himself. They "cut a covenant" against Yahweh, making their treason formal and official. This is not a random border skirmish; it is a premeditated, international, and fundamentally religious war. The list of participants is a veritable who's who of Israel's generational enemies, many of them relatives in the flesh, which only deepens the treachery. From the descendants of Esau and Ishmael to the incestuous offspring of Lot, this is a family feud of cosmic proportions. The psalm teaches us that the world's opposition to the Church is often coordinated, deeply rooted in history, and aimed at the very name of God. But it also teaches us that our response should be to name our enemies before the throne of grace, confident that the Judge of all the earth will do right.
The prayer is imprecatory, yes, but it is not personal vindictiveness. It is a righteous appeal for God to vindicate His own name and His own covenant people. The specificity of the list demonstrates that God's people are not to be naive about the threats they face. We are to be shrewd as serpents, identifying the enemy's order of battle, while remaining innocent as doves, entrusting the outcome entirely to God. The final inclusion of Assyria, a regional superpower, shows that the world's might is no obstacle to God's purposes. In fact, it often serves only to magnify His glory when He brings such arrogant alliances to nothing.
Outline
- 1. The Covenantal Conspiracy (Ps 83:5-8)
- a. The Unanimous Heart of Hatred (Ps 83:5a)
- b. A Covenant Against God (Ps 83:5b)
- c. The Roster of Rebels (Ps 83:6-8)
- i. The Treacherous Relatives: Edom, Ishmaelites, Moab (Ps 83:6a)
- ii. The Forgotten Foes: Hagrites, Gebal (Ps 83:6b-7a)
- iii. The Classic Adversaries: Ammon, Amalek, Philistia (Ps 83:7b)
- iv. The Mercenary Merchants and Imperial Muscle: Tyre, Assyria (Ps 83:7c-8)
- d. The Selah Pause: A Moment to Consider the Folly (Ps 83:8c)
Context In Psalms
Psalm 83 is the last of the psalms attributed to Asaph, a prominent Levitical musician appointed by King David. The Asaph psalms (50, 73-83) are often characterized by their grappling with the problem of evil, the prosperity of the wicked, and God's judgment in history. This psalm is a national lament and a powerful imprecatory prayer, meaning it calls for God to execute judgment upon His enemies. It follows psalms that wrestle with God's apparent silence and inaction in the face of Israel's suffering (e.g., Psalm 74, 79, 80). Psalm 83 brings this theme to a head, beginning with a plea for God to break His silence ("O God, do not keep silence") and then laying out the reason: a vast, international conspiracy to annihilate God's people and, by extension, God's covenant promises. The psalm serves as a model for the Church when she is besieged by a hostile world. It is a prayer that is both brutally realistic about the nature of the opposition and unshakably confident in the sovereignty and justice of God.
Key Issues
- The Nature of Covenants (Divine and Human)
- Imprecatory Prayer
- Corporate and Generational Enmity
- The Relationship Between Israel's Enemies and God's Enemies
- The Theological Significance of Old Testament Nations
- The Meaning of "Selah"
The Unholy Alliance
A covenant is a solemn bond, sovereignly administered, with attendant blessings and curses. God makes covenants with men, and they are the backbone of Scripture. But men also make covenants with one another. When they do so in defiance of God, it is a high-handed sin. In our passage, the enemies of Israel "cut a covenant." This is the formal language of covenant-making, hearkening back to the practice of cutting an animal in two and passing between the pieces. This was a self-maledictory oath; they were essentially saying, "May it be done to me as it was done to this animal if I break this treaty."
Their covenant was not a standard political or military alliance for mutual defense. It was an offensive pact with a singular, genocidal goal: to wipe Israel off the map so "that the name of Israel may be remembered no more" (v. 4). And because Israel is God's covenant people, this was a direct assault on God Himself. They made a league against Him. This is the ultimate expression of the enmity that has existed since Genesis 3:15 between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. The world system, in its various national and ethnic expressions, will periodically formalize its hatred for Christ and His Church. They will conspire together, thinking their unity gives them strength. But as the psalmist knows, a multitude of sinners linked arm-in-arm is just a bigger target for the judgment of God.
Verse by Verse Commentary
5 For they have conspired together with one heart; Against You they cut a covenant:
The conspiracy is first described by its internal character: with one heart. This is not a reluctant alliance of convenience. This is a deep-seated, unanimous malice. The Hebrew word for heart, lev, refers to the seat of their intellect, will, and emotions. Their entire being is united in this purpose. And what is the purpose? They formalize their shared hatred by cutting a covenant. This is a league, a sworn confederacy. And the psalmist makes it plain who the ultimate target is: "Against You." They may be marching on Jerusalem, but their quarrel is with Heaven. Every attack on the people of God is an attack on God Himself. Saul of Tarsus learned this lesson on the Damascus road when the risen Christ asked him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" He had been persecuting the church, but Jesus took it personally.
6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites;
Now the roll call begins. First on the list are the estranged relatives. Edom refers to the descendants of Esau, Jacob's twin brother. Theirs is a story of bitter rivalry from the womb. The Ishmaelites are descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's firstborn son. Here we have the children of the flesh persecuting the children of the promise. Moab descends from Lot, Abraham's nephew, through an incestuous union. The phrase "tents of Edom" suggests their nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle, but it also paints a picture of a people encamped for war. The Hagrites are likely another Ishmaelite clan, named for Hagar, Ishmael's mother. This is a family affair, a gathering of the clans who defined themselves by their rejection of God's sovereign, elective choice of the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
The circle of hatred widens. Gebal was a Phoenician city on the coast, north of Israel, known for its craftsmen. Ammon was the other son of Lot, brother to Moab, and a persistent enemy to the east of the Jordan. Amalek was a descendant of Esau, and their enmity was ancient and uniquely cursed by God Himself because they attacked the weak and weary Israelites coming out of Egypt. God had sworn to have war with Amalek from generation to generation (Ex. 17:16). Philistia occupied the coastal plain to the west, the perennial thorn in Israel's side. And then there are the inhabitants of Tyre, the great merchant city. Tyre was often a trading partner, but here they have joined the conspiracy, showing that commercial interests are no match for spiritual hatred. When it comes to a choice between God and mammon, the unregenerate will always choose mammon, and will join with anyone who promises to protect it.
8 Assyria also has joined with them; They have become the power of the children of Lot. Selah.
As if the list were not formidable enough, the regional superpower, Assyria, has thrown in with them. Assyria was the brutal empire to the northeast. Their involvement changes the strategic calculus entirely. They have "become the power," or literally "an arm," for the children of Lot (Moab and Ammon). This means the big boys have come to provide the military muscle for the smaller, local antagonists. This is what the people of God are facing: a conspiracy of unanimous hatred, fueled by ancient rivalries, and backed by the might of a world empire. And at the end of this terrifying list, the psalmist inserts a musical or liturgical notation: Selah. This is a command to pause. Stop. Think about this. Consider the overwhelming odds. Let the weight of the threat sink in. And in that silence, remember who is on the throne. The pause is not for despair, but for a renewed and desperate reliance upon the only One who can save.
Application
It is a common temptation for modern Christians to read a passage like this and immediately relegate it to ancient history. We don't have Edomites and Amalekites threatening our borders. But the spiritual reality described here is perennial. The Church of Jesus Christ is always, in every generation, surrounded by a world that has conspired together with one heart against the Lord and against His Anointed (Psalm 2:2). This conspiracy may take different forms, sometimes it is violent persecution, other times it is the soft totalitarianism of secularism, and other times it is the internal corruption of compromise.
We must have our eyes open to the nature of the opposition. It is unified, it is covenantal in its own dark way, and it is aimed at the complete erasure of the name of Christ from public memory. We should not be surprised when old enemies, who can agree on nothing else, suddenly find common cause in their opposition to the gospel. Political factions, rival philosophies, and competing religions will gladly join hands if the target is the faithful church.
Our response should be that of the psalmist. First, we must name the enemies. We should not be naive. We must identify the ideologies, the institutions, and the spiritual forces that have set themselves against our King. Second, we must bring them before God in prayer. Our primary weapon is not political maneuvering or cultural accommodation, but petition before the throne of Heaven. We lay out the enemy's plans before the Lord, just as Hezekiah spread out the letter from Sennacherib in the temple. And third, we must pause. Selah. We must cultivate a quiet confidence in the face of overwhelming odds, knowing that the One who is for us is greater than all those who are against us. Their covenant is a covenant of death, but we are people of the new covenant, sealed in the blood of the Son, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.