My family loves to play games together. And we can be fiercely competitive in our game-playing.
With a fairly strategic mind, I do well much of the time. In fact, my kids have concluded that I win our games most of the time. I don’t. They give me way too much credit. But whenever I win, they notice. And as a result, I have become the nemesis of the family.
Because of that it’s not uncommon for some of the kids to gang up, making an alliance against me and gloating when they take me down. It’s all in good fun and no feelings are hurt, since I enjoy the banter and the extra challenge.
But there are times when getting ganged up against is no laughing matter. Kids on the playground mock and exclude. Politically motivated groups blacklist businesses they find offensive. Nations ally themselves against other nations. Co-workers gossip about a fellow worker till they bring her down.
In Psalm 83, psalmist Asaph bemoans a multi-national alliance against the people of God and calls on God to do something about it.
O God, do not remain silent;
do not turn a deaf ear,
do not stand aloof, O God.
See how your enemies growl,
how your foes rear their heads.
With cunning they conspire against your people;
they plot against those you cherish.
“Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation,
so that Israel’s name is remembered no more” (Ps. 83:1-4).
The list of nations allied against God’s people is a Who’s Who of Israel’s enemies.
With one mind they plot together;
they form an alliance against you —
the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
of Moab and the Hagrites,
Byblos, Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia, with the people of Tyre.
Even Assyria has joined them
to reinforce Lot’s descendants (Ps. 83:5-8).
The Edomites where descendants of Esau. As such, the Israelites, whose lineage when back to Esau’s twin brother Jacob, had both a sense of family and of hostility with the Edomites.
The Ishmaelites were similar, as descendants of Abraham’s first son. The Hagrites are listed in parallel to the Ishmaelites of which they were an offshoot, their name derived from Hagar, the mother of Ishmael. A battle against them occurs in 1 Chronicles 5:18-22.
Moses was buried in Moab and Ruth, King David’s grandmother, was a Moabite. But despite those ties, there was deep hostility between the two peoples, stemming from the Moabite hostility toward the Hebrews during their post-slavery years in the desert.
Byblos (now Jibayl) was an ancient city on the coast of Lebanon. It is further north along the coast from Tyre, another key city of Phoenicia. These sea-faring city-states were trading partners and competitors of Israel to their south.
Ammon and Amalek were east of the Jordan River in the modern country of Jordan. Amalek was a grandson of Esau and the Amalekites were therefore an offshoot of the Edomites. The Ammonites were located near Amman, the capitol of modern Jordan, which draws its names from the ancient people.
Philistia is located where the Gaza strip is today. The modern name Palestine comes from the ancient name Philistine. The Philistines entered the Iron Age while Israel lagged in the Bronze Age which explains why their less numerous people caused so much trouble during the reign of Saul and the beginning of the reign of David.
The capitol of the Assyrian empire was Ninevah, located on the Tigris River and made famous by the story of Jonah. It rose and fell in power several times, holding significant sway over much of the ancient Near East at times.
In other words, Israel was surrounded by them — south-east, east, far east, and north. If this alliance were to truly take shape, as Asaph fears, Israel would be doomed.
So, he looks back into history for an example of what God did to a former foe of his people and comes up with Midian and the Canaanites.
Do to them as you did to Midian,
as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,
who perished at Endor
and became like dung on the ground.
Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
who said, “Let us take possession
of the pasturelands of God” (Ps. 83:9-12).
Sisera was the general for Jabin, king of the Canaanites, who were defeated by Deborah and Barak in Judges 4:12-24. Sisera got a tent peg driven through his skull by the woman Jael. And Deborah sang a taunting song (Judges 5) which featured Sisera’s mother waiting at the window for her son to come home (5:28-30).
Zebah and Zalmunna were kings of the Midianites, with Oreb and Zeeb as commanders over their troops. Their armies included two advantages over the Israelites. They used mercenaries and camels. The camels were a major technological advantages, enabling them to swoop in from a distance without warning. And the mercenaries gave them an inflated army. But having foreign mercenaries among them turned out to be their downfall. The guerrilla attack by Gideon’s tiny force relied on confusion, not power. And the forces of Midian ended up killing themselves in the dark of night and the mix-up of language (Judges 7).
The defeat of the Midianites was so conclusive they disappeared from history at that point, never to reappear again. Gone. Kaput.
This is why Asaph recalls that particular story. He wants the same level of devastation to be handed out to this ungodly alliance.
Make them like tumbleweed, my God,
like chaff before the wind.
As fire consumes the forest
or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,
so pursue them with your tempest
and terrify them with your storm (Ps. 83:13-15).
But Asaph is conflicted. He wants this alliance gone. But he considers another alternative. What if they were to be so beaten down that they chose to turn from their alliance against God and instead chose an alliance with God?
Cover their faces with shame, LORD,
so that they will seek your name (Ps. 83:16).
It’s a rare case when people go the way of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” but Asaph is hopeful. Or at least he seems to be till you get to the next verse.
May they ever be ashamed and dismayed;
may they perish in disgrace.
Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD —
that you alone are the Most High over all the earth (Ps. 83:17-18).
The Psalms are conflicted. And that’s why they resonate with us so well, because we’re conflicted, too.
Throughout the Psalter, there’s an unavoidable thread of revenge. Worship leaders have become adept at editing these parts out and keeping to the happier themes to the impoverishment of our worship.
The reason vengeance is such a persistent theme in the Psalms is because it’s a persistent theme in our own hearts. Anyone who claims differently is a liar.
And if anything, the Psalms do not lie in their prayers to God. They may dip into the ugly, but they never step away from honesty. And the ugly, honest truth is that we humans are vengeful people. All of us.
The desire for revenge arises initially from what’s wrong in the world. Someone has done something and must be stopped. And once that person is stopped, he must be made to never, ever do that thing again. And on top of that, he must pay for, make good on what he has done. Often there is nothing that can be done to repair or replace what has been broken or stolen and so something else of value must be taken from him, the most valuable being hislife. If the world is to be just and right, wrong-doing must be stopped and the wrong-doer must pay for his crimes.
This is the source of the Psalms’ call for revenge: the need for justice.
At the same time, the Psalms spring from the Hebrew story. And at the beginning of that story is Abraham and the covenant God made with him which launched the biblical mission to be a blessing to all peoples (Gen. 12:1-3).
So, here’s Asaph’s conflict in Psalm 83. He wants justice done. He wants God to exact vengeance on these terrible troublemakers. But he also wants mission done. He wants God to bless all nations, drawing them to himself.
So, how do you resolve such a conflict?
You don’t theologize. You don’t philosophize. You pray.
You pray both sides of the conflict and you hope God will figure it out. Perhaps your praying is skewed to one side over the other (and Psalm 83 definitely skews to the side of vengeance), but you don’t worry about that. You just pray it. And in your praying of it, you leave it up to God to do as he wills and in the way he wills it.
There is both activity and passivity on your part. You actively pray. You passively let go and let God be the Judge.
We see this throughout the Psalms and right here in Psalm 83. Justice and mission. Vengeance and mercy.
If we don’t pray our revenge, we’ll take our revenge. And that is the one thing the Scriptures agree is unacceptable.
And so we make an alliance with God, hand him the dice, and watch to see how he will play the game.