Bird's-eye view
This section of Psalm 83 is the heart of the imprecation, where the psalmist, Asaph, moves from a general plea for God to act against His enemies to a series of specific, historically-grounded requests. He is not simply venting his spleen; he is praying biblically. He calls upon God to reenact His mighty judgments from Israel's past, specifically the victories recorded in the book of Judges. The prayer is a request for historical continuity. "Lord, do it again." The enemies of God in the psalmist's day have confederated to wipe Israel off the map, to erase God's name from remembrance. In response, Asaph asks God to remember His own name and His past deliverances. He petitions for a judgment so decisive and humiliating that the enemies of God will be utterly broken, their pride turned to dung, and their arrogant ambitions to possess God's land shown to be utter folly. This is not a prayer for personal revenge, but a plea for the public vindication of God's holy name and the preservation of His covenant people.
The central theological principle at work here is that God is consistent. The God who judged Midian is the same God Asaph is praying to. The God who brought down the arrogant princes of the past can and should do the same to the arrogant princes of the present. The prayer is a profound expression of faith in God's covenant justice. It recognizes that the ultimate issue in this conflict is not Israel's real estate, but God's reputation. The enemies have declared their intention to seize "the pastures of God," and so the battle is truly the Lord's. Asaph is simply asking God to act in accordance with His revealed character and His established historical precedent.
Outline
- 1. A Prayer for Historical Precedent (Ps 83:9-12)
- a. The General Plea: Do It Again (Ps 83:9a)
- b. Historical Example 1: The Defeat of Sisera and Jabin (Ps 83:9b-10)
- c. Historical Example 2: The Humiliation of Midian's Princes (Ps 83:11)
- d. The Root of the Rebellion: Usurping God's Inheritance (Ps 83:12)
Context In Psalms
Psalm 83 is the last of the psalms of Asaph and stands as a powerful example of an imprecatory, or cursing, psalm. It is a national lament, a corporate cry to God in the face of a massive confederation of enemies bent on Israel's destruction (vv. 1-8). The psalmist has laid out the nature of the threat: it is a crafty, hateful, and genocidal conspiracy against God's own "sheltered ones." Having identified the enemy and their blasphemous intent, the psalm pivots in our text to the appropriate response: a prayer for God's direct, historical, and devastating judgment. This is not out of step with the rest of the Psalter. The psalms are full of raw, honest prayers that take God's justice seriously. They refuse to adopt a sentimental posture in the face of wickedness. They recognize that true peace and shalom are only possible when evil is decisively dealt with. This prayer for judgment is therefore a prayer for the coming of God's kingdom, where righteousness will finally and fully prevail.
Key Issues
- Imprecatory Prayer
- God's Covenant Justice
- Historical Precedent in Prayer
- The Battle for God's Inheritance
- Corporate Guilt and Judgment
- The Vindication of God's Name
Praying Down the Judgments of Old
When modern Christians encounter a passage like this, our first impulse is often embarrassment. We have been catechized by a sentimental culture to think that anything this severe must be sub-Christian, something belonging to the "Old Testament God" whom Jesus supposedly came to soften. But this is a profound misunderstanding. These prayers are not rooted in personal vindictiveness but in a zealous love for God's glory and a deep understanding of His justice. Asaph is not making this up. He is grounding his prayer in God's own inspired history book, the book of Judges.
He is essentially saying, "Lord, you have revealed Your character to us through Your past actions. You have shown us what you think of arrogant confederacies that set themselves against Your people. We are not asking for anything new or out of character. We are simply asking you to be Yourself. Be the God of Gideon. Be the God of Deborah and Barak. The enemies we face are just like the enemies you have already defeated. Their sin is the same, so let their judgment be the same." This is how mature saints pray. They pray Scripture back to God. They appeal to His character, His promises, and His precedents. It is a prayer of profound faith, not hateful bitterness. It is a prayer that takes God at His word and asks Him to act on it.
Verse by Verse Commentary
9 Do to them as to Midian, As to Sisera, and Jabin at the river of Kishon,
The psalmist opens the imprecatory section with a direct appeal to historical precedent. He names names. The first reference is to Midian, which points us to the story of Gideon in Judges 6-8. The Midianites were a massive horde that had oppressed Israel for seven years, stripping the land bare like locusts. God used Gideon and his tiny band of 300 men to throw the entire Midianite army into a panic and rout them. The second reference is to Sisera and Jabin, from the time of Deborah and Barak in Judges 4-5. Jabin was the king of Canaan who oppressed Israel, and Sisera was his commander. They were defeated in a great battle at the river Kishon, where God fought for Israel from the heavens. In both cases, the enemy was overwhelmingly powerful, and the victory was undeniably God's. Asaph is asking for that kind of miraculous, God-wrought deliverance.
10 Who were destroyed at En-dor, Who were as dung for the ground.
This verse elaborates on the fate of Sisera and Jabin's army. En-dor was near the battlefield. The destruction was so complete that their corpses were not even buried but were left to rot on the field, becoming fertilizer for the ground. The imagery is graphic and visceral. To be left as "dung for the ground" is the ultimate humiliation. It is to be reduced to refuse, your pride and power turned into filth. This is what the psalmist wants for the current enemies of God. He is asking God to strip them of all their dignity and glory and to show the world what He thinks of those who defy Him. Pride, when it sets itself against God, is destined for the manure pile.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb And all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
Asaph now returns to the Midianite account, focusing on the fate of their leadership. Oreb and Zeeb ("Raven" and "Wolf") were two Midianite princes who were captured and executed by the Ephraimites (Judges 7:25). Zebah and Zalmunna were the two senior kings of Midian whom Gideon himself pursued and executed (Judges 8:21). The prayer is specific: let the leaders of this new confederacy suffer the same fate as the leaders of the old one. This is a prayer for a decapitating strike against the enemy. It recognizes that rebellion is driven by proud and arrogant leaders. By praying for their downfall, Asaph is praying for the deliverance of God's people. There is no peace with a wolf in the sheepfold; the wolf must be dealt with.
12 Who said, “Let us possess for ourselves The pastures of God.”
Here we get to the theological root of the enemy's sin, and the justification for the severity of the requested judgment. Their crime was not merely political or military; it was theological. They looked at the land of Israel, the inheritance that God had given to His people, and called it their own. They sought to seize "the pastures of God." The word for pastures here can also mean dwellings or habitations. They wanted to dispossess God's people and take God's house for themselves. This was a direct assault on God's ownership and sovereignty. They were not just fighting Israel; they were attempting to rob God. When men decide that they will take for themselves what belongs to God, whether it is His land, His glory, His people, or His day, they have declared war on heaven. And for that sin, a judgment like that which fell on Midian is not only appropriate, it is righteous and necessary.
Application
We live in a therapeutic age, not a theological one. We are far more concerned with being nice than with being righteous. As a result, the imprecatory psalms are a closed book to many. But they are in our Bibles for a reason. They teach us how to hate what God hates. They teach us to pray for the victory of God's kingdom, which necessarily means praying for the defeat of Satan's kingdom.
We are not, of course, in the same situation as Old Testament Israel. We do not have a physical land, and our primary enemies are not flesh and blood, but principalities and powers (Eph. 6:12). But the principle remains. We are to pray for the overthrow of wickedness. When we see the proud and arrogant enemies of God today, those who want to seize the "pastures of God" by redefining marriage, murdering the unborn, and silencing the church, we should not respond with a milquetoast shrug. We should pray that God would do to them as He did to Midian. We should pray that He would confound their counsels, break their power, and bring their arrogant plans to nothing. We can pray, as Asaph does at the end of this psalm, that God would fill their faces with shame, so that they may seek Your name, O LORD (v. 16). The ultimate goal of judgment can be redemptive. A humiliating defeat is sometimes the only doorway through which a proud man will crawl to find grace. But if they will not repent, we must still pray for the victory of God's justice. We must pray for their schemes to be turned into dung, for the glory of God and the good of His church.