Psalms 83 In Review
A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.
1 O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
2 For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads.
3 They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones.
4 They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”
5 For they conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant –
6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites,
7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Asshur also has joined them; they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah
9 Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,
10 who were destroyed at En-dor, who became dung for the ground.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 who said, “Let us take possession for ourselves of the pastures of God.”
13 O my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind.
14 As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,
15 so may you pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane!
16 Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Lord.
17 Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace,
18 that they may know that you alone, whose name is Jehovah, are the Most High over all the earth.
As I was reading this passage the other night it struck me that it sounds a lot like what is going on in the Middle East right now with the surrounding nations of Israel threatening to wipe it off the map. Why do they hate Israel so much? Well, the fact of the matter is that they get their marching orders from their religion, which actually teaches them to hate Israel. So my question would be, why, if Israel and Islam serve the same God, would one book say to destroy Israel, and Christians for that matter, and go directly against the teaching of the other? Why is this passage which was written thousands of years ago speaking directly to the EXACT people who today are fulfilling the writings of the Psalmist, if the Bible isn’t true? How can this be then? If the Bible is not the clear word of God, how can it, in so many places, speak of the exact actions and people that it’s talking about, yet it was written thousands of years ago by at least 40 different people?
The beautiful thing about the Bible is that it’s like an intricately woven tapestry. It not only states facts like this passage in one place, but also in many other books by other authors written at different times. Yet they agree and do not contradict each other. If it’s been usurped and rewritten or mistakenly translated, how is it that these prophecies still agree with one another? How is it that they are coming to fruition right before our very eyes today?
What does the Q’ran have to say about any of the things that are going on today? Does it spell out specific events that are to take place and name peoples or places that are involved? That is a topic for another discussion. I’ll let the Lord lead me on it.