1. Keep not thou silence, O God. One word of thine can deliver thy people; therefore, O
Lord, break thy quiet and let thy voice be heard. Hold not thy peace, and be
not still, O God. Here the appeal is to El, the Mighty One. He is intreated
to act and speak, because his nation suffers and is in great jeopardy. The
psalmist asks not for “a great leader bold and brave,” or for any form of
human force, but casts his burden upon the Lord, being well assured that his
eternal power and Godhead could meet every difficulty.
2. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult. So sure are they of devouring thy people that they already
shout over the feast. And they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
Confident of conquest, they carry themselves proudly and exalt themselves as if
their anticipated victories were already obtained. These enemies of Israel were
also God’s enemies, and are here described as such by way of adding intensity
to the argument of the intercession. The adversaries of the church are usually
a noisy and a boastful crew.
3. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people. Whatever we may do, our enemies use their wits and lay
their heads together. Malice is cold-blooded enough to plot with deliberation;
and pride, though never wise, is often allied with craft. And consulted
against thy hidden ones. Hidden away from all harm are the Lord’s chosen;
their enemies think not so, but hope to smite them; they might as well attempt
to destroy the angels before the throne of God.
4. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being
a nation. Easier said than done. Yet it shows
how thorough-going are the foes of the church. Theirs was the policy of
extermination. That the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
They would blot them out of history as well as out of existence. Evil is
intolerant of good. People would be glad to cast the church out of the world
because it rebukes them, and is thus a menace to their sinful peace.
5. For they have consulted together with one consent. They seem to have but one heart, and that a fierce one,
against the chosen people and their God. They are confederate against thee.
At the Lord himself they aim through the sides of his saints. They make a
covenant, and ratify it with blood, resolutely banding themselves together to
war with the Mighty God.
6. The tabernacle of Edom. Nearest of kin, yet first in enmity. Their sire despised
the birthright, and they despise the possessors of it. Leaving their rock-built
mansions for the tents of war, the Edomites invaded the land of Israel. And
the Ishmaelites. A persecuting spirit ran in their blood; they perpetuated
the old grudge between the child of the bondwoman and the son of the freewoman.
Of Moab. Born of incest, but yet a near kinsman, the feud of Moab
against Israel was very bitter. Little could righteous Lot have dreamed that
his unhallowed seed would be such unrelenting enemies of his Uncle Abraham’s
posterity. And the Hagarenes—perhaps descendants of Hagar by a second
husband. Whoever they may have been, they cast their power into the wrong
scale, and with all their might sought the ruin of Israel. Children of Hagar,
and all others who dwell around Mount Sinai, which is in Arabia, are of bondage,
and hence they hate the seed according to promise.
7. Gebal
was probably a near neighbor of Edom, though there was a Gebal in the region of
Tyre and Sidon. And Ammon, and Amalek. Two other hereditary foes of
Israel, fierce and remorseless as ravening wolves. Nor is this all. Here comes
another tribe of ancient foemen, the Philistines, who once blinded
Samson, and captured the ark of the Lord; and here are old allies become new
enemies; the builders of the temple conspiring to pull it down, even the inhabitants
of Tyre. These last were mercenaries who cared not at whose bidding they
drew sword, so long as they carved something for their own advantage. True
religion has had its quarrel with merchants and craftsmen, and because it has
interfered with their gains, they have complained against it.
8. Assur is also joined with them. It was then a rising power, anxious for growth, and it thus
early distinguished itself for evil. What a motley group they were; a league
against Israel is always attractive, and gathers whole nations within its
bonds. Herod and Pilate are friends, if Jesus is to be crucified. They have
helped the children of Lot. All these have come to the aid of Moab and
Ammon, which two nations were among the fiercest in the conspiracy. There were
ten to one against Israel, and yet she overcame all her enemies. Her name is
not blotted out, but most of her adversaries are now a name only, their power
and their excellence alike gone. Selah. There was good reason for a
pause when the nation was in such jeopardy, yet it needs faith to make a pause,
for unbelief is always in a hurry.
9. Do unto them as unto the Midianites. Faith delights to light upon precedents, and quote them
before the Lord; in the present instance, Asaph found a very appropriate one,
for the nations in both cases were very much the same, and the plight of the
Israelites very similar. Yet Midian perished, and the psalmist trusted that
Israel’s present foes would meet with the like overthrow from the hand of the
Lord. As to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison. The hosts were
swept away by the suddenly swollen torrent, and utterly perished; which was a
second instance of divine vengeance upon confederated enemies of Israel. When
God wills it, a brook can be as deadly as a sea.
10. Which perished at En-dor. There was the center of the carnage, where the heaps of the
slain lay thickest. They became as dung for the earth, manuring it with
man, making the earth feed on its own children. War is cruel, but in this case
its avengements were most just—those who would not give Israel a place above
ground are themselves denied a hiding-place under the ground; they counted
God’s people to be as dung, and they became dung themselves. Asaph would have
the same fate befall other enemies of Israel; and his prayer was a prophecy,
for so it happened to them.
11. Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb. Smite the great ones as well as the common. As Oreb fell at
the rock and Zeeb at the winepress, so do thou mete out vengeance to Zion’s
foes wherever thou mayest overtake them. Yea, all their princes as Zebah,
and as Zalmunna. These were captured and slain by Gideon, despite their
claiming to have been anointed to the kingdom.
12. Viewing
the temple, and also the dwellings of the tribes, as all belonging to God,
these greedy plunderers determined to push out the inhabitants, slay them, and
become themselves landlords and tenants of the whole. These were large words
and dark designs, but God could bring them all to nothing. It is in vain for
people to say, “Let us take,” if God does not give.
13. O my God, make them like a wheel; like a rolling thing which cannot rest, but is made to move
with every breath. Let them have no quiet. May their minds eternally revolve
and never come to peace. Blow them away like thistledown, as the stubble
before the wind. Scatter them, chase them, drive them to destruction.
14. As the fire burneth a wood. Long years have strewn the ground with deep deposits of
leaves; these are very apt to take fire, and when they do so the burning is
terrific. In this way, O Lord, mete out destruction to thy foes. The flame
setteth the mountains on fire. Even thus, O Lord, do thou conspicuously and
terribly overthrow the enemies of thine Israel.
15. The Lord
will follow up his enemies, alarm them, and chase them. He did this, according
to the prayer of the present psalm, for his servant Jehoshaphat; and in like
manner will he come to the rescue of his chosen.
16. Shame has
often weaned people from their idols, and set them upon seeking the Lord. If
this was not the happy result in the present instance, with the Lord’s enemies,
yet it would be so with his people who were so prone to err. They would be
humbled by his mercy, and ashamed of themselves because of his grace; and then
they would with sincerity return to the earnest worship of Jehovah their God,
who had delivered them.
17. Where no
good result followed, and the men remained as fierce and obstinate as ever,
justice was invoked to carry out the capital sentence. It was better that they
perished than that Israel should be rooted up.
18. Hearing
of the Lord’s marvelous deeds in defeating such a numerous confederacy, the
very heathen would be compelled to acknowledge the greatness of Jehovah. We
read in 2 Chronicles 20:30 that the fear of God was on all the neighboring
kingdoms when they heard that Jehovah fought against the enemies of Israel. At
times the wonderful works of the Lord compel the most unwilling to adore his
majesty.
Thus has this soul-stirring lyric risen from the words of
complaint to those of adoration; let us in our worship always seek to do the
same.
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
