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© 1993, L. L. Griffith.
In the day of the LORD [1] the people of the countries surrounding Israel are angry. They direct their anger against Israel's God. They are confederated against the LORD.
[1] This is my conclusion of the time of the Psalm's application, which was made after a word-for word, verse-by-verse study of Psalm 83, and both Daniel's prophecy and the book of the Revelation!
These angry peoples are of "one consent" in their intention toward "the people" of Israel and toward His "hidden ones." [2]
[2] This phrase "hidden ones" is a marvellous clue to the "times" of the Psalm's stated confederacy. Who are these "hidden ones" and where are they "hidden?"
How are they hidden? In the wilderness? Behind the walls of the LORD's sanctuary?
Perhaps, as in John 8:59; 12:36, (as in Revelation 11, in Joel, too!) the witnesses of the LORD, having again the powers of the Holy Spirit, are concealed whenever the LORD requires concealment of them.
These confederates fully intend to "cut them off from being a nation." In effect, the surrounding nations desire to remove "the name of Israel" from all memory. How they go about to do this is a matter of "last days" prophecy.
Reviewed simply, Psalm 83 shows the above facts. Is the Psalm a prophecy of "the last days?" If so, where is the confederacy located? When does it appear in the timetable of those last "days"?
POINT: The verses of the Psalm require a scenario in connection with the "acts of nature" mentioned at the end of the Psalm.
Though noncommittal on some points, other points in the Psalm are most clear. The confederates "have consulted together with one consent." They agree about their purpose. However, the Psalm provides no evidence within itself to prove that the ethnic groups listed are actually the "ten horns" of Revelation 17:12- 18. (...The Psalm was written about 1040 B.C. by Asaph)
A tenuous connection with the Revelation's prophecy is inferred from the "one consent" of Psalm 83:5 with the "one mind" of Revelation 17:17. [3]
[3] While much of Old Testament prophecy does have an outcome on "the day of the LORD," - matters of long-suffering judgment due, for example - other prophecy in the Old Testament was fulfilled as a requirement of its own time period. To discern and isolate the different times, the Bible student must examine all the O. T. Holy Scriptures very carefully.
It is a formidable task done manually with lexicons and concordances. But, the computer has become a wonderful tool for rapid searching of the same Bible-text books. ONLINE BIBLE provides both the KJAV text, Strong's Concordance numbers, and Thayer's Lexicon for word definitions, along with its own mini text editor for joting down notes at particular verse sites.
The names in Psalm 83 include:
How should these names be grouped? (I've grouped them, going north to south, and east of the Dead Sea, to the south.) Are the names of these ethnic groups to be equated with (ten) actual nations?
Problems:
Deduction:
The Psalm however does reveal
This last item, the prayer, places the desire of the Psalmist concerning "the end" time in a distinct era-of-time context. When is that fulfillment's time?
The Psalmist petitions the LORD, so that - whenever the apprehended time unfolds - He may frustrate the purpose of what these confederates have determined to do. The petition places the Psalmist's desire in the hands of God for His final disposition.
Undoubtedly the Psalm had an ancient application.
The question is, Does Psalm 83 also have an application for the days in which the Lord's Second Coming is expected?
This question prompts our attention toward Revelation 17:17, which reads: "Because God gave it into their hearts to do His mind, and to do one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God should be done."
The Psalmist's prayer is now a consideration to mull over in this "end time" context. When the will of the Father is done upon the earth as it is done in the heavens, the things asked for will be brought about, we believe.
Regardless of what the "ten" horns of the Revelation are minded to do or who they are, note what the Psalmist requests concerning those groups he has named:
These things the Psalmist requests in that the LORD may "work" or "act" on Israel's behalf, as He before did in ancient times. There is no intimation at all that the Psalmist is using "symbolic" or metaphorical language of any sort. He wants to see the LORD's enemies actually destroyed from out of the Land.
What the LORD once did to the Midianites at the brook of Kishon, and what the LORD once did at Endor is a matter of biblical, historical record of truth.
The events are written about in Judges 4 to Judges 8. All the locations are nearby, or in the valley of Megiddo and Jezreel; the area of the future battle of Armageddon.
Let us examine the things of the Psalmist's petition.
I. Before the time of the first ancient event a prophetess named Deborah arose, Judges 5:7-8,13. She was a judge of Israel, about 1252 B.C. According to a prophecy, she directed the remnant's warfare under Barak against the western armies ruled by the Syro-Phoenician Canaanite, King Jabin, and his army's captain, Sisera.
All of Sisera's army were killed by Barak. Sisera, who had deserted his army, was himself killed by the woman Jael.
With God's help - by the help of the elements from the heavens, Judges 5:20-22 - Jabin, the Canaanite king, and his army, were destroyed.
II. The other incident concerns Gideon about forty years earlier. Gideon, 1212 B.C., under the influence of the power of the Holy Spirit of the LORD, commanded his small but select company of 300 warriors. God then delivered the armies of the enemy into Gideon's hand.
Gideon's men killed both princes. They killed Oreb east of the Jordan at the Raven's Rock; and Zeeb, they killed at the place of Zeeb's winepress. One hundred twenty thousand (120,000) men of the Midianite armies fell under Gideon's sword, and "the sword" of the LORD. The princes from the East did not plague Israel for many years to come thereafter. [4]
[4] The prophet Isaiah also mentions this incident of the "slaughter of Midian" as pointing toward "the Assyrian" who shall invade Israel in the last days. See Isaiah 10:24-27. Isaiah further declares "the yoke (bound on Israel) - [Daniel's band of bronze and iron around the tree's stump?] - shall be destroyed because of the anointing."
The remaining 15,000 men of the armies of the kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, were secure at Karkor, east of Jordan and southeast of Penuel. Gideon nevertheless "vanquished" their army, Judges 8:12. According to Judges 8:24, they were Ishmaelites.
Make note of these things:
III. The Psalmist argues for the LORD to make these adversaries altogether the same "as refuse upon the ground;" and "as rolling things of plant stubble" which the wind blows away. He wishes them to be reduced to ashes as "fire burns the forest" and as a "flame that sets a mountain on fire."
As a matter of fact he pleads for the LORD to intervene with His "tempest" and with His "storm" in order to persecute them and to cause them fear. He wishes these enemies to be put to shame. He wants them destroyed. He asks the LORD to "confound" and to "trouble" their enemies "forever".
Yet he also wants mankind to recognize then that the LORD of the heavens is the only true God!
When we accept that this petition and prayer offered by the Psalmist will be rightly acted upon, as it is written, won't the LORD favorably reply to the request? We should expect that the LORD will do as requested and in accordance with His own time and purpose. The named nations/peoples are sure to receive - at some future time - the judgments which are asked for!
A Conclusion
The Psalmist desires divine intervention, as in the ancient days, to save Israel and to make known the name of the LORD.
Facets of this desire are agreeable with other prophecies of "the last days" of Israel as a nation. One text that immediately comes to mind is Romans 9:19-29, wherein Paul quotes from both Hosea and Isaiah concerning God's desire to "show His wrath and to make His power known" to the Jews and to the nations (i.e., Gentiles). There he also speaks of God saving "the remnant" of the Jews from complete destruction.
We know that the Gospel message - at the first, anyway, Matthew 12:34-45 and Luke 3:7, before the Judaizers corrupted the Messiah's teachings - was preached about and warned all the people to flee from "the wrath to come" in the judgment day. [5] The apostle Paul continued to deliver the same message of a day of the wrath of God wherever he preached the gospel to the nations, according to Peter's testimony, 2 Peter 3:16.
[5] The continuous church age/continuous history interpretation is causing as much upheaval amongst the Evangelical Christian community as the same method of interpretation causes within the Christadelphian community. Please note, most interpretation derives from an old legacy of the Roman Catholic Church which wished to paint a better picture of "the Church" and to discourage the individual's study of the Bible and prophecy, in order to secure the Church's increase.
Prophecy is not supposed to be considered "a matter of doctrine." But, by accepting the continuous history interpretation of the book of the Revelation, the many - Christians lately taught by Lord Bacon, Bishop Newton, and their students, and those who have learned from them - are caused to be cast adrift from a sound faith concerning these last days.
That time of God's wrath will be "a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men."
More Problems
1) Can we identify the nature of the LORD's persecuting "tempest"? What is the nature of His fearful "storm"? For both these things are pleaded for, in order to work one day against those nations for their shame and destruction.
[6] The Yam Suph is better known as the "Red Sea," the sea near (Pi-thom) where the tempest; a whirlwind and a storm from the LORD overtook, inundated and destroyed Pharaoh and his army during the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt.
Both tempest and storm are descriptives found in Psalm 83. And, both words are found in many of the prophecies of the last days in context of Israel's affliction by the nations. Their presence in the texts of the prophecies assures the reader that similar heavenly phenomena is very likely in readiness to be at work during "the day of the LORD."
2) Who are those "hidden ones," 83:3?
3) And last, what is it about the possession of "houses" of God that seems to provoke the hatred of these enemies so?
In Psalm 83 the Ishmaelites are counted with the "tents of Edom." The charge against the kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, is stated to be (in the KJAV), "...Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession." What are we to make of that word, houses?
The last item for animosity, according to the charge noted in the Psalm, concerns these houses.
Upon examination the word (which is elsewhere translated as pasture, habitation, beautiful, comely, or a pleasant place) should more correctly be interpreted as the green pastures or natural beauty spots of the land. By this definition, the named peoples merely desire to have the possession of all "the beautiful land" without the presence of Israel to disturb their sight.
Israel's "last days" position in the Land seems to parallel the same position which they were in, shortly after the exodus from Egypt!
The controversy concerning the land has already been a matter of argument in the Israeli Parliament, and of great interest in the nations of the world's power brokers for more than forty years! The Israeli occupation of the land since 1948 has been a continual thorn in the side of the surrounding nations. Before the final end the controversy over the land (and the city, Jerusalem) certainly will become excruciatingly painful for the Israeli people.
Hatred toward Israel and toward her God is the common motive for wanting to cut off "Thy people" along with "Thy hidden ones."
The dispute is the ancient "controversy of Zion" now in a nearly completed agenda and ready for the LORD's "recompenses," Isaiah 34:8-10, [where Edom is singled out by name].
Without straining anyone's credulity, Isaiah's testimony of the end time offers the fact that the LORD will indeed "stir up a scourge" for the Assyrians of the latter days "according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock Oreb..," Isaiah 10:26. His witness is thus a testimony along with the facts stated in Psalm 83.
Isaiah's prophecy, since it also mentions the "storm" and the "whirlwind" seems a good place to focus a further search. More clues to the time of the Psalm's future fulfillment may well be found. These clues might show names of the nations, but have no real need to do so. The clues must refer to either tempest or storm, or both. All evidence must be in the same time context, and must show how the LORD will persecute and frighten the nations and peoples who are Israel's adversaries during those days.
The adversaries, the enemies - of Psalm 83 - might be identified with the "ten horns" of Revelation 17:17 through the "one mind" brought about by God, but this the Psalm alone cannot confirm.
The horns which are attached to the head of the last beast before "the finish" may be a different number than we generally expect. They seem to appear at the last hour after "the beast" has been reformed into its body having the seven heads. And in the natural course of life, 'horns' normally do appear upon an animal's head only at a specific stage of the young animal's growth. (I interpret the phrase "the beast" to describe a body of adversity against Israel which incorporates seven "heads," from whence one "head" then emerges as the eighth "head"). It seems to me that this last head of "the beast" will appear only after the "ten horns" appear joined to the last beast's "head."
Daniel, the prophet, was most eager to discover the truth concerning the events of the last days when Israel is reconstituted as a kingdom, and as the people of God. His prophecy ties into the Gospel records - on account of Messiah's coming - and then both, tie in with the Lord's apocalypse as shown in The Revelation, in the "day of the Lord."
Daniel's prophecy, therefore, is the book to look into for further study - without the influence of any "continuous historical" philosophy.