Sunday, January 4, 2009

Psalm 83 Port Elizabeth

A song, a psalm of Asaph.

83:1 O God, do not be silent!

Do not ignore us! Do not be inactive, O God!

83:2 For look, your enemies are making a commotion;

those who hate you are hostile.

83:3 They carefully plot against your people,

and make plans to harm the ones you cherish.

83:4 They say, “Come on, let’s annihilate them so they are no longer a nation!

Then the name of Israel will be remembered no more.”

83:5 Yes, they devise a unified strategy;

they form an alliance against you.

83:6 It includes the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,

Moab and the Hagrites,

83:7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek,

Philistia and the inhabitants of Tyre.

83:8 Even Assyria has allied with them,

lending its strength to the descendants of Lot. (Selah)

83:9 Do to them as you did to Midian –

as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River!

83:10 They were destroyed at Endor;

their corpses were like manure on the ground.

83:11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,

and all their rulers like Zebah and Zalmunna,

83:12 who said, “Let’s take over23 the pastures of God!”

83:13 O my God, make them like dead thistles,

like dead weeds blown away by the wind!

83:14 Like the fire that burns down the forest,

or the flames that consume the mountainsides,

83:15 chase them with your gale winds,

and terrify them with your windstorm.

83:16 Cover their faces with shame,

so they might seek you, O Lord.

83:17 May they be humiliated and continually terrified!

May they die in shame!

83:18 Then they will know that you alone are the Lord,

the sovereign king over all the earth.