God’s Protection - He Fights His Fight For Us! Psalms 81-83

 Psalms 83:5-8 (ESV)

For they conspire with one accord;

against you they make a covenant—

the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,

Moab and the Hagrites,

Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,

Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;

Asshur also has joined them;

they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah

In this song we read about a plot that is being formed against the nation of Israel by ten of their enemies.   Throughout the history of Israel (past and present) they have had conspiring enemies around them and against them.  This is nothing new.  We probably don’t even need the Scriptures to tell us that.  Most historians see and would admit that Israel seems to have an unusual place in history as the center of controversy.   This is because they are God’s chosen people and the world does not want to submit to God so they take their anger out on His people.    Why would I say that?  Look at the above text again.  Especially the first lines of these particular verses.  We might get lost in the list of the ten other nations, but the key is in the first line of the above:

For they conspire with one accord;

against you they make a covenant—

Asaph, the writer of this song, is talking to God.  He is telling God that there is a problem and he needs God’s divine intervention.    He pleads to God for Him to recognize that these nation so not like Israel, but this is His fight, not their fight.   They were chosen to represent God and the fight is against God, not Israel.  These nations may think they are fighting against this tiny nation, but they are not.   They might think that way but God’s people can not think that way.   

The same is true for us today.  Notice what Jesus prayed to His Father in John about believers then and to come:

John 17:13-16 (ESV)

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

The world will hate us.  The world will plot against us.  But, it is not us that they hate:

John 7:7 (ESV)

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.

Asaph is writing a praise song not that these ten nations are plotting against him, but against God.  He appeals to God for deliverance because it is God’s fight.   The say is true today.  We can appeal to God to protect us against a wicked world because it is not our fight, it is God’s fight.   The following verse is not exactly the same time as Asaph’s song, but it has the same theme.   God promised King Jehoshaphat, in a similar situation, the following:

2 Chronicles 20:15 (ESV)

And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the LORD to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God's.