#DailyDevotion Come LORD Jesus & Deliver Us
Psalm 83 O God, don’t keep silent; don’t be quiet, O God, and fail to act. 2Your enemies are raging, and those who hate You hold their heads high. 3They discuss shrewd plots against Your people and plan against those You treasure.
The psalmist is calling on God to deliver His people. It seems very urgent. The enemies of God’s people are God’s enemies also. God and His people are one. Their enemies are ramping up to attack His chosen people. Judah looks weak and seems a prime candidate to attack and plunder. Because of this he calls upon God to not be silent and quiet or fail to act. All God needs to do is speak the word and His people will be safe. So too, Jesus, because He is the LORD, during His visible ministry among us in the flesh, often just spoke the word and people were healed and set free from oppression by illness, demonic oppression or even death.
4They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation, so no one will remember Israel’s name any longer.” 5All of them agree on their plan and make an alliance against You: 6Edom’s tents and Ishmael’s descendants, Moab and Hagar’s descendants, 7Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, Philistia and those who live at Tyre; 8Assyria also has joined them, becoming an arm of Lot’s descendants. (Music)
Who is plotting against them? Their closest relatives are! Edom is Isaac’s son. Ishmael is Abraham’s son by Hagar. Moab and Ammon are Lot’s kids by his daughter (Lot was Abraham’s nephew). These all plot against their cousin with Israel’s ancient enemies and their newest enemy from Assyria. Being jealous of Israel’s inheritance they conspire together at this weak time in Judah’s history to plunder them.
Perhaps then we should not be surprised when those closest to us conspire against us, either religiously or familiarly. Jesus tells us not to get revenge. Paul reminds us to let God get revenge for us. We are to overcome evil with good.
9Do to them what You did to Midian, to Sisera and Jabin at the brook Kishon, 10who were destroyed at Endor and became fertilizer for the ground. 11Make their noblemen like Oreb and Zeeb, all their leaders like Zebah and Zalmunnah.
He recalls how the LORD gave them the victory in the past. He asks Him to do the same now. When we feel like we are being attacked, we should remember Jesus’ victory over sin and death when He was crucified and risen from the grave for us. We should remember how He conquered temptation in the wilderness for us and ask Him for the victory over our spiritual battles.
12They said, “We’ll take God’s pastures for ourselves.” 13O my God, make them like tumbleweed, like chaff the wind blows away. 14As a fire burns a forest, as flames set ablaze the hills, 15so hunt them down with Your storm and terrify them with Your tornado. 16Let their faces blush with shame when they seek Your name, O LORD. 17May they be ashamed and terrified forever and perish in disgrace. 18Then they will know that You Whose name is the LORD —- that You alone are high over all the earth.
The Church has its enemies in the world. We pray the LORD here to do for the Church what He has promised to do on the Last Day. He will overcome the world, the nations with all its leaders who conspire against Him and His people. He will judge them and wipe them out. They will finally, against their will, acknowledge Christ as LORD and receive their judgment in the Lake of Fire.
Heavenly Father, give us strength when we are attacked spiritually and by the world. Come LORD Jesus and deliver us from all evil. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.