Psalm 83, if you want to turn
with me to Psalm 83. Psalm 83, and I want to read
through this with you. It says in verse one, keep not
thou silence, O God, hold not thy peace, and be not still,
O God, for lo, thine enemies make a tumult, and they that
hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty
counsel against thy people and consulted 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 are confederate against
thee. the Tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites of Moab,
and the Hagareens, Giebel, and Ammon, and Amalek, the Philistines
with the inhabitants of Tyre. Asher also is joined with them,
and they have helped the children of Lot, Selah. Do unto them as
unto the Midianites, as to Sisera, as to Jabin, as at the brook
of Caishon, which perished at Endor, they became as dung for
the earth. Make their nobles like Oreb and
Zeb, yea, all their princes as Zeba and Zalmana, who said, Let
us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession, O my God,
make them like a wheel, as the stubble before the wind. As the
fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on
fire, so persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid
with thy storm. Fill their faces with shame,
that they may seek thy name, O Lord. Let them be confounded
and troubled forever, yea, let them be put to shame and perish.
that men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah,
art the most high over all the earth. All right. So there you
have Psalm 83. Now, in this psalm, we see names
of many different kinds of people mentioned in verses six through
eight. And we also see in this psalm
a prayer to God to judge these nations or these different peoples,
these cultures. And the language here is severe,
the way that he says this. He says, make them like a wheel
as the stubble before the wind, as the fire burneth the wood,
and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire. This is some
serious judgment that the prayer that's being offered up here
is against these people. And he also says, make them like
the Midianites, He says in verse 9, Do unto them as unto the Midianites,
as to Sisera, to Jabin, at the brook of Kishon, which perished
at Endor, and they became as dung for the earth. And he goes
on and names a lot of others like Oreb and Zeb. And so these
were people actual people, historical people in the history of the
nation of Israel who were the avowed enemies of Israel. All
of these people, if you look at verse 6, he says, the tabernacles
of Edom. and the Ishmaelites, and Moab,
and the Hagareens, Gebel, in verse seven, Ammon, Amalek, and
the Philistines, with the inhabitants of Tyre. Remember, Tyre is a
coastal city, Tyre and Sidon. There was a woman in Matthew
15 who came out of the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile
woman. And those nations, those places,
those cities, Tyre and Sidon, were notorious and were cursed.
by God. So you see that these people
here in this psalm that are prayed against, severe judgment is asked,
the one praying is asking for severe judgment to come upon
them. And so, if we think about it that way, it seems like this
psalm is a very dark psalm. It seems like, why would people
pray against another people in this way? Well, that's one of
the questions that comes to our mind as we read this psalm. In
fact, it kind of raises a larger question, doesn't it? If you
read through, for example, the book of Exodus, even Genesis,
but Exodus especially, and in the book of Judges, or any of
the Old Testament books, it seems like the nation of Israel, there
was two different things that were going on. Number one, they
were the object of attack. They were the object of hatred.
the people around them, like the Egyptians, or even in Abraham's
day, in Genesis 14, those kings that attacked another set of
kings, and Abraham went and rescued his brother Lot from them and
had to defeat several kings and their armies. Then there was
the Egyptians, there were the Philistines, there was the two
kings of the Philistines that Abraham, in one case, lied to
about his wife, Sarah, and then later Isaac did about his wife,
Rebecca. because they feared for their
lives. And there were the Syrians. Remember, Laban was an enemy
of Jacob, even though Jacob married two of his daughters, Leah and
Rachel. And so then, when God delivered
Israel from Egypt, then it seemed like battles were just all over
the place. Even in the wilderness, the Amalekites
came against Israel, remember? And then these other nations
came against them. Sihon, the king of the Amorites,
came out against them, and other nations came out. And then in
Canaan, you can go down the list. You can probably make a list
of at least 20 different nations in the land of Canaan that were
against the people of Israel. Some of them are mentioned here,
like the Midianites, for example. or the Ishmaelites, the Moabites,
the Ammonites, and so on. So all of these nations were
against Israel, and it raises the bigger question. Not only
does it seem like this psalm is a prayer for God to judge
these people, but it seems like the history of Israel was a history
of wars, and those wars were against other people, and God
had commanded them, actually, to go in, and to dispossess these
people from the land of Canaan. Remember when they first crossed
Jordan, the first city they came to was Jericho. And God had commanded
Joshua to go and destroy the entire city, everything in it,
all the people and all the animals. And it was because there were
some left that God judged them. After that, there was Akin whose
household was destroyed because he took some of the possessions
from Jericho, that wedge of gold, that piece of cloth, and so on. They were constantly at war,
and God had assigned Israel the job of destroying these people. And so that was part of it. So what does it all mean? The
history of Israel, these nations that they were told to destroy,
the nations that opposed them. And so that's kind of what this
psalm is about, isn't it? You see that in the prayer of
this psalm. It's a prayer to God to destroy
these people. So clearly, if you look at it
in the overview, this psalm is calling for judgment from God
upon the enemies of God's people. So that's kind of a summary overview. It's a prayer for God to judge
the enemies of God's people. If we remember that, I think
it helps us to put the meaning of this psalm in place against
the rest of scripture. The second thing is that throughout
this psalm, the people, The enemies against God's people, there's
several things about them. Number one, they're numerous. They're numerous. There's lots
of them. Number two, they surround them on every side. On the east,
on the west, on the north, and on the south. And number three,
they're wicked. They want to destroy Israel.
They want to destroy them because they're the Lord's people. They
hate the people of God because they hate God. And so that's
the second thing about these people. They're numerous. They
surround God's people, and they hate them, and they hate their
God. And the second thing is that
if the Lord delivers, not the second, the third thing probably,
if the Lord delivers, if these people are going to be delivered
from these enemies, the Lord is going to have to do it. They
don't have power. There's too many of them. They're
all around them. They live amongst them, in fact.
Remember, they couldn't drive them out, and so they dwelt among
them. And they were wicked, and they hated the Israelites. So
God is gonna have to deliver them. Israel has no strength
against them, and they don't know what to do to fight them. So the Lord himself must fight
for Israel. Now, because, here's the other
thing too, is because God's people themselves In this chapter, and
especially read the book of Judges, and you'll see this clearly,
God's people themselves are sinners. They themselves are sinners,
like their enemies. Therefore, if God does deliver
Israel, then it's going to have to be a deliverance of distinguishing
grace. because the enemies of God deserve
to be judged. What about Israel, since they
also are sinners, not only sinners, but idolaters? The problem Israel
had while they were in Egypt, while they were in the wilderness,
when they came into Canaan, and even after that when they were
in lands where they were taken captives, is that Israel served
our idols, they served other gods, and they forsook the Lord. So if God does deliver Israel
from their enemies, it has to be an act of pure grace, distinguishing
grace to save them and not save their enemies, and also it has
to be a judgment of grace that's based on God's own righteousness,
so that His name receives honor. for doing this for Israel. How could God have honor if He
showed kindness to one idolater and didn't to another? It would
seem unjust. But God has to ground His grace
to those He shows grace on something that gives God glory, and that,
of course, is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's distinguishing
grace has to always be grounded on God's own righteousness, and
that's what the gospel is about. So the Lord has to save them,
it has to be by grace, it has to be grounded on his own righteousness,
and he has to do it for his glory. He has to deliver them. And the
second big thing to note in order to understand this psalm is not
only were these enemies numerous, innumerable at times, like the
Midianites, they were like grasshoppers, And not only were they wicked,
not only did they hate God and God's people, but what we see
in the New Testament is that the Spirit of God unfolds to
us the meaning of these things because he identifies our enemies
as not enemies that we can touch, but spiritual enemies in high
places. And so if we see that, for example,
if you read Ephesians 6 about the weapons of our warfare, I
mean, yeah, the weapons of our warfare, we have the helmet of
salvation, we have the breastplate of righteousness, our loins girt
about with the truth, and so on, the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God, the shield of faith, And all these
things are spiritual weapons or defenses against spiritual
enemies. We don't wrestle with flesh and
blood, he says, but with principalities and powers in high places. I'm going to turn to Ephesians
6, since I've referenced it, and I want to read a portion
of that. And Ephesians 6 is where I'm
I'm going to read beginning at verse 10. It's a familiar text
of scripture to you, but this is given to us and it explains. It's the lens through which we
can see the Old Testament explained. He says in Ephesians 6.10, Finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his
might. Notice God has to do this. He's
our strength. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,
for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, like Philistines and
Amorites and so on, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places. Notice the emphasis is not on
material enemies, but on spiritual enemies. And I just read that
as a sample. Getting back to Psalm 83, so
we see then all these things that are true about the enemies
that are prayed against in this scripture of Psalm 83. There
are many, they're wicked, they hate God, they hate God's people.
If Israel will be delivered, God's going to have to do it.
If he does deliver them, it's gotta be by distinguishing grace.
And since it's by grace, then it has to be grounded on God's
righteousness and it has to be for God's glory, which is all
true in our salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the other
thing that helps us to understand this chapter, as well as the
entire history of Israel in all of their wars, is what's said
in Galatians chapter 4. If you want to look at Galatians
chapter 4, in Galatians 4, where in the book of Galatians the
big issue is between our own obedience to God's law versus,
which is a complete failure by the way, there is no such thing
as man's obedience to God's law because every man has fallen
short. Every man is a sinner and fallen
short of the glory of God. But in Galatians the emphasis
is given that you know, men have failed all, universally have
failed and yet God hasn't failed. He sent Christ and Christ has
kept the law and Christ answered the demands of the law for justice
for his people because he was cursed for them. He redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. So
that's what Galatians is unfolding to us and it's underscoring this
because The Galatians were being tempted by these people called
Judaizers, which were just simply trying to convert them back to
Judaism, which is works religion. And so Paul is correcting the
Galatians in his book, and he's emphasizing the fact that we're
not justified by what we do, but by what Christ has done.
He died, and he is our justification. But in chapter four of Galatians,
he uses an allegory, something from the Old Testament, and he
explains the history of that Old Testament account by showing
it was teaching the gospel. And so in Galatians chapter 4,
he says in verse 21, tell me, you that desire to be under the
law, do you not hear the law? So the law itself now is going
to correct you. The law you trust is going to
correct you. He says, for it is written that Abraham had two
sons, the one by a bondmaid, a slave woman, the other by a
free woman. So he had two sons, one by a
slave woman, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the
bondwoman, the son that was born to the slave woman, was born
after the flesh. but he of the free woman was
by promise." Okay, so now here you see this, and he says in
verse 24, which things are an allegory, for these are the two
covenants. Do you see that? Now, This is
complicated, it seems, when you read it in Genesis, in the book
of Genesis, because Abraham and Sarah were promised a son by
God, but it took a long time, and there was no, a long time
passed, and there was no son. And so Sarah suggested to Abraham,
well, why don't you have a son by Hagar, my slave woman? And Abraham said, okay. So he did, and Ishmael was born. Now, Ishmael is therefore here
according to God's own word. It was designed by God to give
us an allegory of the gospel. In other words, the history of
Abraham's son Ishmael and how he was born as a son of a slave
woman was given in order to teach us the gospel. And what does
it teach us by Ishmael? Well, Ishmael was not born by
promise. God never promised Abraham would
have a son by Hagar. He did promise Abraham would
have a son by Sarah. And he did promise that through
Abraham's son by Sarah, which is Isaac, that God would bless
all nations of the earth through him, through his seed. And he
meant Christ who would be born through Isaac. And so, but since
Abraham didn't have children by Sarah for a long time, and
because Sarah suggested this, and Abraham did have a son by
Hagar, therefore God used that birth of that son to teach us
the anti-gospel, which is depending upon our own ability, our own
contribution, our own works. And so Abraham tried by the birth
of Ishmael, Abraham was trying to bring the promise of God to
pass by his own efforts. And that's exactly what, that's
the definition of works. Trying to bring what God must
do and what God promised he would do in Christ by our own effort. And so if you put it that way,
if you think of it that way, then Ishmael represents man's
free will works religion. Now, if we just take this one
case of Ishmael and we go back to Psalm 83 then, what we see
is that God is using the entire history of Israel and these other
people as an allegory. It's an allegory of the gospel.
And so that the prayer here to destroy these enemies, if it's
understood through the explanation of the New Testament then, we
can see now that these are spiritual enemies represented by these
physical nations, and the wickedness of these physical nations is
just a shadow, really, of the wickedness of our spiritual enemies. And the powerlessness or the
impotence of Israel against their physical enemies, and the number
of their physical enemies, how many there were, and how they
surrounded them, all teaches us about the number, the wickedness,
and the ubiquitousness of all of our spiritual enemies. They're
everywhere. In fact, as I was thinking about
this, when Israel came into Canaan, it seemed like they found a people
there who were native to that land. Maybe they weren't. Maybe
they came from other lands and settled there because it was
such a nice place. But these people were comfortable there,
and they were established. And when Israel came, it seemed
like they were not. They were strangers in that land.
And so you can see also that these people, these wicked people,
were native. They were the natural dwellers,
inhabitants of this land. But God had promised this land
to Israel. So now those who seem to be natural
in the land have to be cast out and overthrown by God through
His grace on the foundation of Christ to the glory of God, as
we have noted here. And this all has to be done without
the strength of God's people, because they have no power against
their enemies, but it has to be done according to what God
is saying here. It's a prayer to God that He
would do something. Notice in Psalm 83 in verse 1,
He says, Keep not thou silence, O God, In other words, don't
remain. It seems as if you're not doing
anything here. You're not saying anything. Don't
keep silence, O God. Hold not thy peace and be not
thou still, O God. Don't be still. Do something
and say something. And he's asking here, say something
to me, say something in favor, judge for me and judge against
my enemies. Now that's what the gospel is,
isn't it? God speaking to us of what he has said concerning
us in Christ and what he has said against our enemies, our
sins. And so we can see then that this
psalm is giving us a portrait, really, of the warfare that goes
on between God and our sins, and
how he overthrows our enemies, all of our sins and all that
our sins bring, which includes a lot of enemies, doesn't it?
And these enemies are comfortable in us. By nature, we have an
old man. And this old man is our greatest
enemy, isn't it? And this great enemy cannot be
overthrown by us. We have no power against him.
And we're taught in scripture how the victory comes to us,
how we overcome these enemies. And this psalm is through prayer,
Lord, Do something. Say something. Say something
to me. Say to my soul, I am thy salvation. And overthrow my enemies. Speak to them and silence my
enemies. They rise up against me. They
accuse me. They would rob me of my inheritance that you have
promised to me in Christ. Don't let them do that. Overthrow
them, you see. So now, We could continue this
spiritual allegory and try to identify some of these enemies.
They are our sins, aren't they? In Psalm 65, when we read that
psalm, if you remember in verse 3 of Psalm 65, he says, I'll read it to you in Psalm
65, verse 3. Iniquities prevail against me. That's an enemy, isn't it? Iniquities,
my iniquities, my offenses against God, those things that God has
commanded me not to do, which I have done, they prevail against
me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away, cut them off. This is how God is going
to deal with our enemies, through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on
high. That's from Hebrews one and verse
three. So, we can see then, excuse me, that
first of all, our sins are our enemies. Remember in Micah chapter
7, let me read that to you as well. One of my favorite scriptures.
It's interesting how when you read through the scriptures,
you come across these verses and you stop and you go, oh,
I didn't see that before. And it's quite delightful so
that then it becomes something that you remember. In Micah chapter
seven, let me read this to you. I know that this is also familiar
to you. He says this. So I get these pages separated
here. He says in Micah chapter 7, in verse 5, trust not in a
friend, put Enoch confidence in a guide, keep the doors of
thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom, for the son dishonoreth
the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law, a man's enemies are the men of his own
house, his own house, therefore I will look unto the Lord, I
will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Rejoice not against me, O mine
enemy. When I fall, I shall rise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord
shall be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of
the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my
cause." and execute judgment for me.
He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his
righteousness." You see how the prophet is saying, God is going
to plead for me. And when he does, then he'll
bring me forth to the light. I sinned against him. I have
to wait on him. He has to perform this. And then
look at verse 18. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth
iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?
That's God's elect. He retaineth not his anger forever,
not against them, because he delighteth in mercy. That's propitiation
in Christ. Verse 19, he will turn again.
He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue, like enemies,
our iniquities, and that will cast all their sins into the
depths of the sea. You see the casting of sins into
the sea, like the Egyptians? So these analogies are given
here, even in the Old Testament. between iniquities and enemies
prevailing against us, between sins and the need for God to
plead his cause in our case, and how God would overthrow our
sins and cast them into the sea of his judgment like he did the
Egyptians for us. And so this is the theme here.
And the New Testament is the fulfillment of those Old Testament
promises. And so that we see these spiritual
enemies include our sins, and they include our sinful nature,
our sinful nature. I want you to look at a interesting
text of scripture in Genesis. Look at Genesis chapter 25. As
we look at this list of enemies, we'll see this more clearly in
Genesis chapter 25. Sorry, wrong book, I'm in Exodus.
Genesis chapter 25, look at this here. It says in verse 19 of Genesis
25, it says, and these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's
son, Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when
he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian,
of Padan Aram, and the sister to Laban, the Syrian. And Isaac
entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren. And the
Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. Okay,
so now she's pregnant. Verse 22, and the children struggled
together within her. And she said, if it be so, why
am I thus? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. And the Lord said to her, notice this, this is very important.
Two nations, nations, are in thy womb. And two manner of people
shall be separated from thy bowels. So it's clear from this that
the two babies in her womb, being twins, are going to be the ancestors
of two different nations, two kinds of people. And so they
represent these two different kinds of people, each of them.
And so she asked the Lord, why are these two babies in my womb
struggling? They're fighting. I can feel
it. They're already fighting, they're struggling. And the Lord
said, because there's two nations in your womb, two manner of people
shall be separated from thy bowels. And notice, and the one people
shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve
the younger. Now that's interesting, isn't
it? The one who would be born first, the elder, would actually
serve the younger. Now, if you understand this in
the New Testament context, what do we know? Well, the elder was
Esau, the younger was Jacob. Esau was born first, he was the
firstborn. But look at the end of this chapter. of chapter 25, Genesis 25, and
verse 34. Jacob gave Esau bread and ported,
sorry, pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink and rose
up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. Okay, Esau was born first, and
the firstborn had an advantage over the other sons that would
be born, because he got the blessing. But Esau didn't care for the
blessing that Isaac would give to him. And he sold it. He sold
it away for a bowl of lunch. He said, what good is it going
to do me? I'm going to die. So he sells
it to Jacob. And Jacob said, now you swear to me. Don't you
be backing down later. You swear to me. And Esau, OK,
sure, no problem. I just need some food. He gives
him the bowl. Esau eats. He wipes his mouth.
Maybe he doesn't. He walks away. He doesn't have
a care in the world. His conscience doesn't bother
him at all. He despised his birthright. And what was his birthright?
All the promises of God given to Abraham concerning Christ.
He despised the Lord Jesus Christ. He cared nothing for him. He
was the firstborn. He was a man, according to Hebrews
12, verse 16, he was a profane man. He was a fornicator and
a profane person. Okay, so Esau represents a fornicator,
a profane person, the firstborn who despised Christ. And what
is that? That's the natural man, isn't
it? Isn't he the man of the flesh?
And so, what we see here in God's promise to Rebekah, while these
two children struggled in her womb, is that the elder would
serve the younger. The flesh, that Esau represented,
that man of flesh, he would be the servant of the man who was
the man of the spirit, Jacob. And so, this again, it teaches
us that in the gospel. When the Lord saves
his people, he finds them as they are naturally. He says in
John chapter 3 verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is
flesh. That's it. When God saves us,
he doesn't convert our flesh, does he? What does he convert?
He gives us a new heart, a new nature. And that new nature is
said to be created in Christ Jesus. It's said to be born of
the Spirit, so it comes second, doesn't it? It's the younger. And yet the elder is going to
serve the younger. Because when the Lord saves his
people, he gives them grace. They're no longer under the law,
like Ishmael, or like Esau was also a symbol of that, because
he lived by his works. Only more so was Esau a symbol
of being a fornicator and a profane person who cared not for Christ.
He had no faith and didn't care about salvation. He was a man
of the flesh. That's what we are naturally.
Naturally, we're haters of God, Romans 1, verse 30. Naturally,
we're dead in sins. Naturally, we have a carnal mind
that is not only hostile towards God, but it cannot be subject
to the law of God, in Romans 8, verse 7. So naturally we're
just flesh and we're depraved and God doesn't change that.
What he does is he gives us a new nature created in Christ Jesus
on two good works and in that new nature he says you're no
longer under the law, you're under grace, therefore sin shall
not have dominion over you. and therefore God be thanked
that when you were the servants of sin, you obeyed from the heart
that new nature, you obeyed believing the gospel, which is called the
obedience of faith, you've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered to you. So what we see then is that these
people, we could begin with each one of them and follow them through
Ishmael and Esau, which is called Edom in Psalm 83, they're allegories. They're allegorical historical
people or nations that are used by God to teach us the gospel. And notice, if you go back to
Psalm 83 now, and look at verse six. I want you to notice how
all of these are working together. In fact, look at verse Verse
two, he says, for lo, thine enemies make a tumult, and they that
hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty
counsel against thy people, and consulted 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 remembered, or
no more in remembrance, for they have consulted together. So they
have the same mind now, the same counsel. They have consulted
together with one consent, this is verse five, they are confederate
against thee, against God. And confederate there means a
covenant, they've made a covenant together. Remember those enemies
of the gospel, and the book of Acts, those men who swore they
were not going to eat or drink or do anything until they killed
Paul? Paul lived for years after that, so I don't know what happened
to those guys. They covenanted together, they swore with an
oath. that they would give up their lives trying to kill Paul. That's what these enemies do.
That's what all of God's enemies do. They're ready to die in order
to kill and to wipe out the memory of God's people on the earth.
Okay, but notice in verse six now, who are they? Well, they're
these people with one consent, the tabernacles of Edom, that's
Esau, the Ishmaelites, that's the Ishmael we just talked about,
Moab, who was Moab? He was the firstborn son of Lot
by his eldest daughter, so that was an incestuous, illegitimate
birth. Moab was an illegitimate son.
He was not a true son, just like Ishmael, or just like any other
illegitimate son. He was not one of God's sons
of promise. And the Hagareens, well that
would be the children born to Hagar, probably not through Abraham,
but through another husband that she later married because they
were of Hagar. Gebel, Gebel is a people that
is mentioned in Ezekiel 27. They evidently were shipbuilders
like the people of Tyre and Sidon, so they were Canaanites and descended
from Canaan, who was the son of Ham, Noah's son Ham. And then
it says in verse 7, Gebel and Ammon, Ammon was the second born
son of Lot by his youngest daughter, another incestuous relationship.
And Amalek, now Amalek was the son of Esau's son, so Esau was
Amalek's grandfather. And so Amalek, he's featured
throughout the Old Testament. God is going to destroy. He's
going to have war with Amalek perpetually, it says in Exodus
chapter 17. When Israel came out of Egypt,
right after God gave them water out of the smitten rock, then
Amalek began to fight with Israel. Remember that fight in Exodus
17? We'll get to that in a minute. But suffice it to say that Amalek
fought against Israel and God swore he would have war with
Amalek for all generations and put out the remembrance of Amalek.
And then there were the Philistines. The Philistines were the nation
from which Goliath came, which means they were just Satan's
servants. Goliath represented Satan, and
David, representing Christ, killed him with a stone cut off his
head, just like the devil suffers the second death at the hand
of Christ. And with the inhabitants of Tyre, another Gentile nation,
and these were also Canaanite people. Asher, which is a man
who is associated with Assyria, he went and built Nineveh, it
says in Genesis 10. So he was a son of one of Ham's
children. And he's joined with them, and
they have helped the children of Lot. Those are the Ammonites
and the Moabites. Then the prayer in verse 9. Do
to them as unto the Midianites. Remember the Midianites? Gideon. God used Gideon to destroy the
Midianites. They were like grasshoppers. There were so many of them. Sisera. He was a captain. His king was
Jabin. Jabin was a king over Canaan.
And Barak was the man who was used at the direction of Deborah
in Judges chapter 4. Sisera died at the hand of a
woman. Remember, she pounded a stake
from her tent through his head. when he was sleeping in her tent.
That was Jael, the wife of Heber, killed this man named Sisera,
who was a strong captain, had 900 iron chariots, and Israel
was afraid of him, and God used a woman to kill him. And then
his king was Jabin. He was killed by the Israelites
at that time. Anyway, they perished at Endor,
they became as dung for the earth, and then he says, make their
nobles like Oreb and Zeb. Oreb and Zeb were nobles or princes
of the Midianites, and Zeba and Zalmunna were also kings of the
Midianites, and Gideon killed both of those kings, and Oreb
and Zeb as well. So you can see that the wars
that were fought here against these people were victories God
gave to Israel through these judges, which judges means saviors. In this sense, God delivered
Israel from their enemies by these men, such as Barak and
Deborah, who was a woman actually, Jael, who was a woman, and Gideon
and others. And he sets these nations up. All these nations are listed
here as the avowed enemies who are confederate. They're in league
together. They have an agreement together
to wipe out Israel. Not just to kill them, but to
wipe out the memory of them. And so you can see that God is
using these people as a representation of our spiritual enemies. All
right, so we're gonna have to stop there, and we'll try to
get into some more detail in this psalm next time. I especially
wanna cover this at the end of the psalm, where he says in verse,
notice verse 16, fill their faces with shame that they may seek
thy name, O Lord, and in the last verse, that men may know
that thou whose name alone is Jehovah art the most high over
all the earth. Notice how even in this prayer,
against these people, against the enemies of the Lord's people,
there's a light of mercy that shines through so that they might
seek the Lord and that God's name as Jehovah would be made
known throughout all the earth. And this is a promise of the
gospel coming through here. All right, let's pray. Father,
we do pray, as the psalmist says, that you wouldn't be silence
to us, you would speak to us, you would speak for us in our
defense, you would justify us through the blood of your Son.
And you would speak against our enemies, silencing them, putting
them to shame, our sins and our sinful nature, Satan and his
kingdom, this present evil world, hell and death and every other
enemy. that would be against us to bring our souls into the
pit. We pray, Lord, that you would
dispossess them, that you would overthrow them, that we would
see their overthrow in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
we would overcome them through faith in Him. Give us this grace
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to look to Him only.
We know that these enemies are constantly with us. They surround
us. They're innumerable. We have
no power against one of them. And yet we know that we overcome
through the blood of the Lamb, looking to the Lord Jesus Christ
who washed us from our sins. And if God has done this for
us, shall he not also deliver us from every enemy? Yes, he
shall. So we trust that he will. Know
that if God is for us, none can be against us. He will justify,
he has justified his people and he will bring them to himself
as his own dear sons according to his eternal purpose. Give
us this grace, Lord, from your word to trust Christ by your
Holy Spirit. In his name we pray, amen.