Through the Psalms

Old Testament

We Call God's Power for All Battles, Spiritual and Otherwise - (Psalm 83:1-2)

Daily Praise
Do not keep silent, O God do not hold Your peace, and do not be still, O God for behold, Your enemies make a tumult; and those who hate You have lifted up their head.

Reading Notes
This psalm was a national lament for Israel as well as an imprecatory prayer asking God to intervene and defeat His enemies. The events listed in Second Chronicles 20:1-30, may be related to this psalm. This is a time when all the surrounding nations came against Israel and King Jehoshaphat. The Lord sent word to the king and gave the people victory over the enemies of God. Here in these two opening verses the people are first praying for God to make Himself known greatly amongst His enemies. These nations hated God and therefore they hated the people of God. Their intentions were to remove Israel from the map, and thereby remove the God of Israel as well. Many of the pagan nations mentioned here, even though some were directly blood relations to Israel, followed demons and not the true and living God of Israel.

Asaph's prayer is for God to make Himself known to the entire world. To bring about a dramatic victory in such a way as the nations are unable to deny the true and living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Asaph's plea is for God to defeat those, "who have lifted their heads in rebellion toward Him." This phrase "have lifted up their head," was an idiom and it meant to "take an arrogant stand against God." As Christians, we too can effectively use this prayer to battle against the one the Apostle Paul calls, "the prince of the power of the air," who is Satan, as well as against other principalities (demons) which seek to destroy God's people. Our faith and the great name of the Lord of Host who is Christ the Lord, is our defense. We have to remember the real battle is in the spiritual realm. We do not necessarily against those who are in rebellion, but rather the real battle is with the spiritual forces which aid and drive their rebellion against God.

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