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by Katie Erickson

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:43-45).

Today’s psalm, Psalm 83, was written centuries before Jesus spoke the words above. In it, the psalmist is praying for his enemies, but not in the way that Jesus commanded. This is technically a psalm of lament, but the writer is pretty angry toward his enemies and is praying for revenge on them.

The psalm starts out in verse 1 with the writer urging God to listen and take action rather than being silent about the situation. In English we see simply “God” twice, but in Hebrew those are two different words - Elohim and El. While both do mean “God,” Elohim is the more majestic or kingly name for God, whereas El refers more specifically to God’s power and might. The psalmist is recognizing God’s authority and power over all the earth and asking Him to use those in this situation.

So what is the situation at hand? Verses 2-4 tell us that there are enemies conspiring against God’s people Israel. The enemies “growl,” “rear their heads,” “conspire,” and “plot against” Israel. The enemies want to make a name for themselves and to erase the name of Israel. In those days, a nation’s name was the same as their reputation. Having a nation’s name destroyed would be effectively like destroying that nation.

In verse 5, the psalmist turns the tables and bit and says that the nations are not only against God’s people, but they’re plotting against God Himself! He wants God to get personally involved and take care of the enemies.

When you get to a list of names, whether people or nations, in the Bible, do you have a tendency to just gloss over it? That’s so easy for us to do when we’re not familiar with those people or places. But the list of nations who are Israel’s enemies given here in verses 6-8 is interesting and significant when you look at who they are.

The Edomites were basically the archenemies of Israel. Israel was founded by Jacob who had a twin brother named Esau. The Edomites were Esau’s descendants. There was some serious rivalry between Jacob and Esau, which continued through the generations. The Ishmaelites were the illegitimate descendants of Abraham (Jacob’s grandfather). When Abraham and his wife Sarah were not able to have a child, they took matters into their own hands instead of waiting on God. Abraham had a son with Hagar, Sarah’s servant, who was named Ishmael. That didn’t turn out very well, so Hagar and Ishmael ran away (Genesis 16), and Ishmael’s descendants became enemies of Israel.

The Moabites and Ammonites were descended from Abraham’s nephew Lot. We see many instances in the Old Testament of fighting between these nations and Israel: Judges 3:12-30 and Judges 11:6-33 just to name a couple. Not much is known today about the Hagrites or the people of Byblos. The Hagrites were a nomadic tribe living east of the Jordan River. The city of Byblos was located near Tyre south of the Dead Sea, and both were important economic centers of the day. You can read more about the Amalekites here, and the Philistines here. The last enemy listed, the Assyrians, were the dominating power in that area at that time.

Clearly, Israel had a lot of enemies! With so many threats against their small nation, they really did need to trust in God that He would take care of their enemies for them. In the next section of the psalm, verses 9-12, the psalmist relates how God has protected them in the past. The psalmist relates specific events and actions that God had taken.

The concluding section of the psalm, verses 13-18, shares what the psalmist wants God to do to Israel's enemies, at first saying to put them to shame and destroy them. Again, reputation was everything in that era, so shaming enemies would effectively mean to destroy them. But, the psalmist also asks God to use that shame to turn His enemies back to Him: “Cover their faces with shame, Lord, so that they will seek your name” (verse 16). This thought is repeated in verse 18: “Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord — that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.”

While at first glance this psalm appears to be about revenge and anger toward Israel’s enemies, it takes a turn at the end and instead the psalmist is praying for His enemies to turn to the one true God.

So what does this mean for us? While we don’t generally have other nations actively physically attacking us, we all have enemies in our lives. Maybe it’s that coworker you just can’t stand, or maybe you’re being bullied by someone else. Whatever that looks like in your life, you probably would love it for God to just strike that person down, right?

But recall the words of Jesus that I quoted at the start of this post: “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). We as followers of Christ are commanded to do exactly that - pray for our enemies. We should pray that they, too, would turn toward God and come to faith in Him. If we’re seeking God and our enemies are seeking God too, they’ll no longer be our enemies, but our brothers and sisters in Christ.

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