This
psalm is the last of those that go under the name of Asaph. It is penned, as
most of those, upon a public account, with reference to the insults of the
church's enemies, who sought its ruin. Some think it was penned upon
occasion of the threatening descent which was made upon the land of Judah in
Jehoshaphat's time by the Moabites and Ammonites, those children of Lot here
spoken of (ver. 8), who were at the head of the alliance and to whom all the
other states here mentioned were auxiliaries. We have the story 2 Chron. xx.
1, where it is said, The children of
Moab
and Ammon, and others besides them, invaded
the land. Others think it was penned with reference to all the confederacies
of the neighbouring nations against Israel, from first to last. The psalmist here makes
an appeal and application, I. To God's knowledge, by a representation of
their designs and endeavours to destroy Israel, ver. 1-8. II. To God's justice and
jealousy, both for his church and for his own honour, by an earnest prayer
for the defeat of their attempt, that the church might be preserved, the
enemies humbled, and God glorified, ver. 9-18. This, in the singing of it,
we may apply to
the enemies of the gospel-church, all anti-christian powers
and factions, representing to God their confederacies against Christ and his
kingdom, and rejoicing in the hope that all their projects will be baffled
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.
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Complaints
against Enemies.
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A song or psalm of Asaph.
1 Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy
peace, and be not still, O God. 2 For, lo, thine enemies make a
tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. 3 They
have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy
hidden ones. 4 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 For they have consulted together with one
consent: they are confederate against thee: 6 The tabernacles of
Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; 7 Gebal,
and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot.
Selah.
The Israel of God were now in danger, and fear, and great distress, and yet
their prayer is called, A song or psalm; for singing psalms is not
unseasonable, no, not when the harps are hung upon the willow-trees.
I. The psalmist here begs of God to appear on the behalf of his injured
threatened people (v. 1): "Keep not thou silence, O God!
but give judgment for us against those that do us an apparent wrong."
Thus Jehoshaphat prayed upon occasion of that invasion (2 Chron. xx. 11), Behold,
how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession. Sometimes
God seems to connive at the unjust treatment which is given to his people;
he keeps silence, as one that either did not observe it or did not concern
himself in it; he holds his peace, as if he would observe an exact
neutrality, and let them fight it out; he is still, and gives not the
enemies of his people any disturbance or opposition, but seems to sit by as
a man astonished, or as a mighty man that cannot save. Then he gives us
leave to call upon him, as here, "Keep not thou silence, O God!
Lord, speak to us by the prophets for our encouragement against our
fears" (as he did in reference to that invasion, 2 Chron. xx. 14,
&c.); "Lord, speak for us by the providence and speak against our
enemies; speak deliverance to us and disappointment to them." God's
speaking is his acting; for with him saying and doing are the same thing.
II. He here gives an account of the grand alliance of the neighbouring
nations against Israel, which he begs of God to break, and blast the
projects of. Now observe here,
1. Against whom this confederacy is formed; it is against the Israel of God,
and so, in effect, against the God of Israel. Thus the psalmist takes care
to interest God in their cause, not doubting but that, if it appeared that
they were for God, God would make it to appear that he was for them, and
then they might set all their enemies at defiance; for whom then could be
against them? "Lord," says he, "they are thy enemies, and
they hate thee." All wicked people are God's enemies (the carnal
mind is enmity against God), but especially wicked persecutors; they
hated the religious worshippers of God, because they hated God's holy
religion and the worship of him. This was that which made God's people so
zealous against them--that they fought against God: They are confederate
against thee, v. 5. Were our interest only concerned, we could
the better bear it; but, when God himself is struck at, it is time to cry,
Help, Lord. Keep not thou silence, O God! He proves that they are
confederate against God, for they are so against the people of God, who are
near and dear to him, his son, his first-born, his portion, and the lot of
his inheritance; he may truly be said to fight against me that endeavours to
destroy my children, to root out my family, and to ruin my estate.
"Lord," says the psalmist, "they are thy enemies, for they
consult against thy hidden ones." Note, God's people are his hidden
ones, hidden, (1.) In respect of secrecy. Their life is hid with Christ
in God; the world knows them not; if they knew them, they would
not hate them as they do. (2.) In respect of safety. God takes them under
his special protection, hides them in the hollow of his hand; and yet, in
defiance of God and his power and promise to secure his people, they will
consult to ruin them and cast them down from their excellency (Ps.
lxii. 4), and to make a prey of those whom the Lord has set apart for
himself, Ps. iv. 3. They resolve to destroy those whom God resolves to
preserve.
2. How this confederacy is managed. The devil is at the bottom of it, and
therefore it is carried on, (1.) With a great deal of heat and violence: Thy
enemies make a tumult, v. 2. The heathen rage, Ps. ii. 1. The
nations are angry, Rev. xi. 18. They are noisy in their clamours against
the people whom they hope to run down with their loud calumnies. This comes
in as a reason why God should not keep silence: "The enemies talk big
and talk much; Lord, let them not talk all, but do thou speak to them in
thy wrath," Ps. ii. 5. (2.) With a great deal of pride and
insolence: They have lifted up the head. In confidence of their
success, they are so elevated as if they could over-top the Most High and
overpower the Almighty. (3.) With a great deal of art and policy: They have taken
crafty counsel, v. 3. The subtlety of the old serpent appears in
their management, and they contrive by all possible means, though ever so
base, ever so bad, to gain their point. They are profound to make
slaughter (Hos. v. 2), as if they could outwit Infinite Wisdom. (4.)
With a great deal of unanimity. Whatever separate clashing interest they
have among themselves, against the people of God they consult with one
consent (v. 5), nor is Satan's kingdom divided against itself.
To push on this unholy war, they lay their heads together, and their horns,
and their hearts too. Fas est et ab hoste doceri--Even an enemy may
instruct. Do the enemies of the church act with one consent to destroy
it? Are the kings of the earth of one mind to give their power and honour to
the beast? And shall not the church's friends be unanimous in serving her
interests? If Herod and Pilate are made friends, that they may join in
crucifying Christ, surely Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Peter, will soon be
made friends, that they may join in preaching Christ.
3. What it is that is aimed at in this confederacy. They consult not like
the Gibeonites to make a league with Israel, that they might strengthen
themselves by such a desirable alliance, which would have been their wisdom.
They consult, not only to clip the wings of Israel, to recover their new
conquests, and check the progress of their victorious arms, not only to keep
the balance even between them and Israel, and to prevent their power from
growing exorbitant; this will not serve. It is no less than the utter ruin
and extirpation of Israel that they design (v. 4): "Come, let
us cut them off from being a nation, as they cut off the seven nations
of Canaan; let us leave them neither root nor branch, but lay their country
so perfectly waste that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance,
no, not in history;" for with them they would destroy their Bibles and
burn all their records. Such is the enmity of the serpent's seed against the
seed of the woman. It is the secret wish of many wicked men that the church
of God might not have a being in the world, that there might be no such
thing as religion among mankind. Having banished the sense of it out of
their own hearts, they would gladly see the whole earth as well rid of it,
all its laws and ordinances abolished, all its restraints and obligations
shaken off, and all that preach, profess, or practise it cut off. This they
would bring it to if it were in their power; but he that sits in heaven
shall laugh at them.
4. Who they are that are drawn into this confederacy. The nations that
entered into this alliance are here mentioned (v. 6-8); the Edomites
and Ishmaelites, both descendants from Abraham, lead the van; for apostates
from the church have been its most bitter and spiteful enemies, witness
Julian. These were allied to Israel in blood and yet in alliance against
Israel. There are no bonds of nature so strong but the spirit of persecution
has broken through them. The brother shall betray the brother to death.
Moab and Ammon were the children of righteous Lot; but, as an incestuous, so
a degenerate race. The Philistines were long a thorn in Israel's side, and
very vexatious. How the inhabitants of Tyre, who in David's time were
Israel's firm allies, come in among their enemies, I know not; but that Assur
(that is, the Assyrian) also is joined with them is not strange, or
that (as the word is) they were an arm to the children of Lot. See
how numerous the enemies of God's church have always been. Lord, how are
those increased that trouble it! God's heritage was as a speckled bird;
all the birds round about were against her (Jer. xii. 9), which
highly magnifies the power of God in preserving to himself a church in the
world, in spite of the combined force of earth and hell.
9 Do unto them as unto the Midianites;
as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:
10 Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the
earth. 11 Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all
their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna: 12 Who said, Let us
take to ourselves the houses of God in possession. 13 O my God,
make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind. 14 As
the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on
fire; 15 So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them
afraid with thy storm. 16 Fill their faces with shame; that they
may seek thy name, O LORD.
17 Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to
shame, and perish: 18 That men may know that thou, whose
name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.
The psalmist here, in the name of the church, prays for the destruction of
those confederate forces, and, in God's name, foretels it; for this prayer
that it might be so amounts to a prophecy that it shall be so, and this
prophecy reaches to all the enemies of the gospel-church; whoever they be
that oppose the kingdom of Christ, here they may read their doom. The prayer
is, in short, that these enemies, who were confederate against Israel, might
be defeated in all their attempts, and that they might prove their own ruin,
and so God's Israel might be preserved and perpetuated. Now this is here
illustrated,
I. By some precedents. Let that be their punishment which has been the fate
of others who have formerly set themselves against God's Israel. The defeat
and discomfiture of former combinations may be pleaded in prayer to God and
improved for the encouragement of our own faith and hope, because God is the
same still that ever he was, the same to his people and the same against his
and their enemies; with him is no variableness. 1. He prays that their
armies might be destroyed as the armies of former enemies had been (v.
9, 10): Do to them as to the Midianites; let them be routed by their
own fears, for so the Midianites were, more than by Gideon's 300 men. Do to
them as to the army under the command of Sisera (who was general under Jabin
king of Canaan) which God discomfited (Judg. iv. 15) at the brook Kishon,
near to which was Endor. They became as dung on the earth; their dead
bodies were thrown like dung laid in heaps, or spread, to fatten the ground;
they were trodden to dirt by Barak's small but victorious army; and this was
fitly made a precedent here, because Deborah made it so to aftertimes when
it was fresh. Judg. v. 31, So let all thy enemies perish, O Lord!
that is, So they shall perish. 2. He prays that their leaders might be
destroyed as they had been formerly. The common people would not have been
so mischievous if their princes had not set them on, and therefore they are
particularly prayed against, v. 11, 12. Observe, (1.) What their
malice was against the Israel of God. They said, Let us take to ourselves
the houses of God in possession (v. 12), the pleasant places
of God (so the word is), by which we may understand the land of Canaan,
which was a pleasant land and was Immanuel's land, or the temple, which was
indeed God's pleasant place (Isa. lxiv. 11), or (as Dr. Hammond suggests)
the pleasant pastures, which these Arabians, who traded in cattle, did in a
particular manner seek after. The princes and nobles aimed to enrich
themselves by this war; and their armies must be made as dung for the earth,
to serve their covetousness and their ambition. (2.) What their lot should
be. They shall be made like Oreb and Zeeb (two princes of the
Midianites, who, when their forces were routed, were taken in their flight
by the Ephraimites and slain, Judg. vii. 25), and like Zeba and Zalmunna,
whom Gideon himself slew, Judg. viii. 21. "Let these enemies of ours be
made as easy a prey to us as they were to the conquerors then." We may
not prescribe to God, but we may pray to God that he will deal with the
enemies of his church in our days as he did with those in the days of our
fathers.
II. He illustrates it by some similitudes, and prays, 1. That God would make
them like a wheel (v. 13), that they might be in continual
motion, unquiet, unsettled, and giddy in all their counsels and resolves,
that they might roll down easily and speedily to their own ruin. Or, as some
think, that they might be broken by the judgments of God, as the corn is
broken, or beaten out, by the wheel which was then used in threshing. Thus,
when a wise king scatters the wicked, he is said to bring the
wheel over them, Prov. xx. 26. Those that trust in God have their hearts
fixed; those that fight against him are unfixed, like a wheel. 2. That they
might be chased as stubble, or chaff, before the fierce wind.
"The wheel, though it continually turn round, is fixed on its own axis;
but let them have no more fixation than the light stubble has, which the
wind hurries away, and nobody desires to save it, but is willing it should
go," Ps. i. 4. Thus shall the wicked be driven away in his
wickedness, and chased out of the world. 3. That they might be consumed,
as wood by the fire, or as briers and thorns, as fern or furze, upon the
mountains, by the flames, v. 14. When the stubble is driven by the
wind it will rest, at last, under some hedge, in some ditch or other; but he
prays that they might not only be driven away as stubble, but burnt up as
stubble. And this will be the end of wicked men (Heb. vi. 8) and
particularly of all the enemies of God's church. The application of these
comparisons we have (v. 15): So persecute them with thy tempest,
persecute them to their utter ruin, and make them afraid with thy storm.
See how sinners are made miserable; the storm of God's wrath raises terrors
in their own hearts, and so they are made completely miserable. God can deal
with the proudest and most daring sinner that has bidden defiance to his
justice, and can make him afraid as a grasshopper. It is the torment of
devils that they tremble.
III. He illustrates it by the good consequences of their confusion, v.
16-18. He prays here that God, having filled their hearts with terror, would
thereby fill their faces with shame, that they might be ashamed of their
enmity to the people of God (Isa. xxvi. 11), ashamed of their folly in
acting both against Omnipotence itself and their own true interest. They did
what they could to put God's people to shame, but the shame will at length
return upon themselves. Now, 1. The beginning of this shame might be a means
of their conversion: "Let them be broken and baffled in their attempts,
that they may seek thy name, O Lord! Let them be put to a stand, that
they may have both leisure and reason to pause a little, and consider who it
is that they are fighting against and what an unequal match they are for
him, and may therefore humble and submit themselves and desire conditions of
peace. Let them be made to fear thy name, and perhaps that will bring them
to seek thy name." Note, That which we should earnestly desire and beg
of God for our enemies and persecutors is that God would bring them to
repentance, and we should desire their abasement in order to this, no other
confusion to them than what may be a step towards their conversion. 2. If it
did not prove a means of their conversion, the perfecting of it would
redound greatly to the honour of God. If they will not be ashamed and
repent, let them be put to shame and perish; if they will not be troubled
and turned, which would soon put an end to all their trouble, a happy end, let
them be troubled for ever, and never have peace: this will be for God's
glory (v. 18), that other men may know and own, if they themselves
will not, that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH (that
incommunicable, though not ineffable name) art the Most High over all the
earth. God's triumphs over his and his church's enemies will be
incontestable proofs, (1.) That he is, according to his name JEHOVAH, a
self-existent self-sufficient Being, that has all power and perfection in
himself. (2.) That he is the most high God, sovereign Lord of all, above all
gods, above all kings, above all that exalt themselves and pretend to be
high. (3.) That he is so, not only over the land of Israel, but over all
the earth, even those nations of the earth that do not know him or own
him; for his kingdom rules over all. These are great and unquestionable
truths, but men will hardly be persuaded to know and believe them; therefore
the psalmist prays that the destruction of some might be the conviction of
others. The final ruin of all God's enemies, in the great day, will be the
effectual proof of this, before angels and men, when the everlasting shame
and contempt to which sinners shall rise (Dan. xii. 2) shall redound to the
everlasting honour and praise of that God to whom vengeance belongs.
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