PSALM 83 Reading Guide

PSALM 83 Reading Guide

PSALM 83 2 PSALM 83 1 O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! 2 For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads. 3 They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones. 4 They say, Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more! 5 For they conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant 6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, 7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; 8 Asshur also has joined them; they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah 9 Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, 10 who were destroyed at En-dor, who became dung for the ground. 11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, 12 who said, Let us take possession for ourselves of the pastures of God. 13 O my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind. 14 As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze, 15 so may you pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane! 16 Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O LORD. 17 Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace, 18 that they may know that you alone, whose name is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth.

PSALM 83 3 DAY 1 Read through Psalm 83 once writing down what you find interesting, what you find helpful, and what you don t fully understand. According to the introductory notes on Psalm 83 in the ESV Study Bible, This is a community lament, geared to a situation in which God s people are threatened by Gentile enemies... who aim to destroy them. The Psalm prays that God will make such enemies fall miserably, being put to shame and perishing so that they might come to know the Lord... Christians would use this psalm not against national enemies (Christians transcend national boundaries) but in cases where their persecutors would destroy them and all traces of their faith. They would use this Psalm rightly when they ask God to thwart these plans in such a way that even their persecutors might come to seek God s name. Read through the notes on Psalm 83 in the ESV Study Bible. Write at least one paragraph highlighting what you learned from the study notes. Reread Psalm 83, personalizing the Psalm as your own prayer. Write out that prayer. DAY 2 Read Psalm 83 again. Make a list of the reasons God s people are crying out to him (verses 1-8). Read verses 9-15 and write down what they want God to do to their enemies. Now read verses 16-18 and write down what their ultimate hope is for their enemies. In Matthew 5:43-44 Jesus corrects the common view of the day of how God s people should relate to our enemies: You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Psalm 83 follows a similar pattern: Though God s people ask God to treat their enemies as their enemies desire to treat them, they ask not so their enemies will be destroyed, but so their enemies will seek God s name (verse 16) or at least know that God is the Most High over all the earth (verse 17). An enemy can either be someone that seeks to do you harm or someone that simply takes what you say through a negative grid. Spend some time asking God whom you view as an enemy or who views you as an enemy. Spend some time praying for them and asking God how you can love them and pray for them. DAY 3 Read Psalm 83 again, writing down some of the feelings you think the Psalmist is communicating through the Psalm. For example, in verse 4 Israel s enemies want to wipe them out as a nation so that the name of Israel will be remembered no more. God s people probably felt things like fear and anger in response. Think of times you feel similar things. Write down some of the things that cause you to feel those things.

PSALM 83 4 Now read Romans 8:31-39. Write out a prayer telling God about your feelings and reasons for those feelings. Ask God to act on your behalf. End expressing confidence in God based on what you read in Romans 8. DAY 4 Read Psalm 83 again. Again, in verse 4 Israel s enemies commit to completely destroy them. Verse 5 makes it clear that coming against God s people like that is really a commitment to come against God himself ( against you they make a covenant ). God s enemies still come against his people. Samuel J. Stone, in his hymn The Church s One Foundation, explains how this happen. Though with a scornful wonder Men see her sore oppressed, By schisms rent asunder, By heresies distressed, Yet saints their watch are keeping, Their cry goes up, How long? And soon the night of weeping Shall be the morn of song. The church shall never perish! Her dear Lord to defend, To guide, sustain and cherish Is with her to the end; Though there be those that hate her, And false sons in her pale, Against or foe or traitor She ever shall prevail. Mid toil and tribulation, And tumult of her war, She waits the consummation Of peace for evermore; Till with the vision glorious Her longing eyes are blest, And the great church victorious Shall be the church at rest. The Church s enemies are no longer foreign nations or people, but instead the world, the flesh, the devil. Against all of those Jesus has promised his church will prevail: I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18). Write out a prayer of thanksgiving, thanking Jesus for his continued provision and protection of his church.

PSALM 83 5 DAY 5 Read through Psalm 83 twice. Write out at least two paragraphs reflecting on what you ve learned about God, yourself, and others from Psalm 83. Write out at least one thing you hope to apply to your life from Psalm 83. Spend at least 15 minutes sharing what you wrote with a trusted friend or family member. If they read Psalm 83 this week, ask them to do the same. End your time in prayer, thanking God for what he taught you this week. * Purchasing an ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Bibles, 2008.) will aid you in your understanding of the Psalms. The first day s reading each week assumes you will have access to the notes in the ESV Study Bible. The ESV Study Bible is the most comprehensive study Bible ever published. It will help you understand not just the Psalms, but also the rest of the Bible in a deeper way. You can either buy the Bible (amazon.com, search: ESV Study Bible) or purchase online access to the notes at www.esvbible.org. Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

PSALM 83 6 2014 Elliot Grudem.