The Enemy Coalition
Study note
Asaph begs God not to remain silent. A group of nations — including Edom, Moab, Ammon, Philistia, Tyre, and Assyria — have secretly plotted together to destroy Israel completely.
1 God, please do not stay quiet. Do not close your ears, God. Do not sit there. Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
2 Look -- your enemies are making a scene. The people who hate you are holding their heads high. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
3 They whisper sneaky plans against your people. They scheme together against the ones you hold dear. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 "Let's go," they say. "Let's wipe them off the map completely. Let's make sure nobody ever remembers the name Israel again." 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.
5 They have all agreed on one thing. Together, they have formed a covenant to fight against you: For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:
6 the people of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, Philistia along with the people from Tyre. Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Assyria has jumped in too. They back up the descendants of Lot. Selah. Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.
Remember Past Victories
Study note
Asaph asks God to do to these enemies what he did to Midian, Sisera, and Jabin in the past — enemies who were utterly defeated.
9 Treat them the way you treated Midian, the way you handled Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River. Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:
10 They were wiped out at Endor. Their bodies became fertilizer for the soil. Which perished at En-dor: they became as dung for the earth.
11 Do to their leaders what you did to Oreb and Zeeb. Treat all their commanders the way you treated Zebah and Zalmunna, Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:
12 who bragged, "We are going to take over God's pastures for ourselves." Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
Sweep Them Away
Study note
Asaph asks God to make the enemies like tumbling weeds and chaff, like fire consuming a forest. Let them be ashamed and terrified so they will know that the Lord alone is the Most High over all the earth.
13 My God, spin them around like tumbleweeds. Blow them away like dry straw in the wind. O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
14 The way fire tears through a forest, the way flames race up a mountainside -- As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;
15 chase them just like that with your fierce storm. Scare them out of their minds with your whirlwind. So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.
16 Fill their faces with disgrace, Lord, until they finally come looking for your name. Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.
17 Let them live in shame and panic forever. Let them be completely disgraced and come to an end. Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:
18 Then they will learn that you -- and you alone -- whose name is the Lord, are the ruler above everyone and everything on earth. That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.