831 God, don’t keep silent.
Don’t keep silent,
and don’t be still, God. 2 For, behold, your enemies are stirred up.
Those who hate you have lifted up their heads. 3 They conspire with cunning against your people.
They plot against your cherished ones. 4 “Come,” they say, “and let’s destroy them as a nation,
that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” 5 For they have conspired together with one mind.
They form an alliance against you. 6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites;
Moab, and the Hagrites; 7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek;
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; 8 Assyria also is joined with them.
They have helped the children of Lot. Selah.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 83:1-8
Commentary on Psalm 83:1-8
(Read Psalm 83:1-8)
Sometimes God seems not to be concerned at the unjust treatment of his people. But then we may call upon him, as the psalmist here. All wicked people are God's enemies, especially wicked persecutors. The Lord's people are his hidden one; the world knows them not. He takes them under his special protection. Do the enemies of the church act with one consent to destroy it, and shall not the friends of the church be united? Wicked men wish that there might be no religion among mankind. They would gladly see all its restraints shaken off, and all that preach, profess, or practise it, cut off. This they would bring to pass if it were in their power. The enemies of God's church have always been many: this magnifies the power of the Lord in preserving to himself a church in the world.