Psalm 83 - Asaph's Prayer Against a Confederacy of Enemies
Asaph names ten nations plotting against Israel and calls on God to act.
Psalm 83 opens with an urgent cry, 'Keep not thou silence, O God,' as Asaph lists ten hostile nations, from Edom to Assyria, who have banded together to wipe out Israel's name. It reads as one continuous prayer within the wider Psalms overview, giving voice to a nation under real, coordinated threat.
O God, keep thou not silence. Hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult, and those who hate thee have lifted up the head.
They take crafty counsel against thy people, and consult together against thy hidden ones.
They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
For they have consulted together with one consent. They make a covenant against thee:
the tents of Edom, and the Ishmaelites, Moab, and the Hagarenes,
Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre,
Assyria also is joined with them; they have helped the sons of Lot. Selah.
Do thou to them as to Midian, as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the river Kishon,
who perished at Endor, who became as dung for the earth.
Make their ranking men like Oreb and Zeeb, yea, all their rulers like Zebah and Zalmunna,
who said, Let us take to ourselves in possession the habitations of God.
O my God, make them like the whirling dust, as stubble before the wind,
as the fire that burns the forest, and as the flame that sets the mountains on fire.
So pursue them with thy tempest, and terrify them with thy storm.
Fill their faces with confusion, that they may seek thy name, O Jehovah.
Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever. Yea, let them be confounded and perish,
that they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, are the Most High over all the earth.