Saved From Hell – Psalm 83

Have you ever been attacked physically and/or verbally due to your faith in God? In Psalm 83, Asaph asks God to preserve His witnesses from being destroyed by their enemies.

“A Song. A Psalm of Asaph. Do not keep silent, O God! Do not hold Your peace, and do not be still, O God! For behold, Your enemies make a tumult, and those who hate You have lifted up their head. They have taken crafty counsel against Your people and consulted together against Your sheltered one’s. They have said, ‘Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.’ For they have consulted together with one consent. They form a confederacy against You: the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagrites; Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot. Selah!” Psalm 83:1-8

Psalm 83 of Asaph is a song in which he pleas for God to intervene on behalf of His glory. His people Israel are those who make His glory known. The challenge for Israel was that Satan, the hateful one, stirred up Israel’s neighbors to hate God, and to devise plans to completely destroy them from being God’s witnesses. And as if that were not enough, once Israel ceased to exist, they wanted to erase the memory of Israel from the minds of all people.

In his song to God, Asaph lists the names of those who are participants in the devil’s scheme.

The children of Lot spear-headed the attack while other nations happily helped them.

In Psalm 83:6-8, Lot was the patriarch of the Moabite and Ammonite nations. Their nations were located to the east of Israel.

In Psalm 83:6, Esau, the son of Isaac, was the patriarch of the Edomites. Ishmael, son of Abraham, was the patriarch of the Ishmaelites. The Edomites and Ishmaelites dwelt to the southeast of Israel. The Hagrites were likely descendants of Hagar (Ishmael’s mother). [1]

These nations were related to the nation of Israel by ancestry, but worshipped different gods.

Of the remaining people groups: Gebal, meaning “mountain” or “boundary,” is commonly equated with the Phoenician city of Byblos, modern Jubayl in Lebanon. [2] Philistia was to the south of Israel, Tyre to the north, and Assyria was to the far northeast. These regions are located in modern day Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, Syria, and parts of Iraq and Saudi Arabia. [3]

The failure of this evil coalition to destroy tiny Israel magnified God’s preserving power. God kept Israel’s lamp shining forth. He ensured that their witness for Him continued.

Asaph described to God the problem that Israel needed resolved, and trusted God to solve it.

“Deal with them as with Midian, as with Sisera, as with Jabin at the Brook Kishon, who perished at En Dor, who became as refuse on the earth. Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb, yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, ‘Let us take for ourselves the pastures of God for a possession.’” Psalm 83:9-12

Jabin was the captain of King Sisera’s Midianite army. In Judges 4:15–5:21, God gave Israel the victory over the Midianites via the prophetess Deborah’s faith in God. She encouraged Israel’s general Barak to trust the Lord and after hearing God’s Word, he went forward into battle.

In Judges 7:25 and 8:12–21, God gave Gideon the victory over the nobles (Oreb and Zeeb) and over the princes (Zebah and Zalmunna) of Midian.

Asaph believes the testimonies recorded in God’s Word concerning Israel’s past victories over the Midianites. He believes God will continue to faithfully give Israel victory over their foes.

“O my God, make them like the whirling dust, like the chaff before the wind!” Psalm 83:13

Asaph asks God to make Israel’s enemies like restless and unstable dust and chaff. Some scholars interpret this imagery as a threshing wheel that crushes grain, symbolizing God’s judgment breaking the wicked apart. [4]

Proverbs 20:26 says, “A wise king sifts out the wicked, and brings the threshing wheel over them.”

“As the fire burns the woods, and as the flame sets the mountains on fire, so pursue them with Your tempest, and frighten them with Your storm.” Psalm 83:14-15

Asaph asked God to frighten Israel’s enemies with fiery storms.

I probably would not be here today if I had not been warned about a fiery eternal hell. I remember driving my car at its maximum speed as a teenager and suddenly, the Holy Spirit reminded me of hell, and I immediately slowed down. I remember telling a so-called “friend” who tempted me to do wrong, “I don’t want to go to hell.” These are just two of many incidents, where the fear of ending up in the lake of fire, frightened me from going against God.

In Luke 16:19-31, Mark 9:43-48, Matthew 13:42; 25:30, Jesus described hell as a place of eternal torment from which you cannot return to warn your loved ones, a place of unquenchable fire where the worm does not die, a place where people gnash their teeth in anguish and regret, and a place of outer darkness. In Matthew 10:28, Jesus compared hell to ‘Gehenna’ which was a place where rubbish was burned and maggots abounded.

Jesus talked about hell because He loves people deeply.

In Romans 6:23, God says that the wages of sin is death. What is sin? Sin is any activity that is not of Jesus because Jesus is the standard by which we are to live. He is the expressed image of God. Thus, every person needs the merits of Christ applied to their account with God or else they will come up short of His glory, and be eternally lost.

You and I, and everyone else needs the atoning blood of Christ applied to our sins to wash them away. We need God to forgive us our sins and give to us His Holy Spirit. Romans 8:9 says, “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” God gives His Spirit to those who repent of sin and profess faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

“Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek Your Name, O Lord.” Psalm 83:16

I am so glad that the Holy Spirit makes me ashamed of sinning. Before I came to know of God’s love for me, I used to think it was unfair that I felt so ashamed of myself when I sinned while others seemed to have no problem with it. The Holy Spirit used painful memories of past shame to restrain me from sinning.

“Let them be confounded and dismayed forever. Yes, let them be put to shame and perish, that they may know that You, whose Name alone is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.” Psalm 83:17-18

O that all people would fear the Lord and turn to Jesus Christ, and be saved.

Asaph prays that the enemies of God would perish “that they may know You.” How many enemies of God have been converted to Him on their death beds? Suddenly, they realize how wrong they have been about God, and they ask Him to forgive them.

According to Luke 23:33-39, during Jesus’ crucifixion, two thieves were crucified beside Him. Initially, both mocked and blasphemed Him, as did many spectators. However, one of the thieves was graciously granted the gift of repentance before he died.

In Luke 23:40-42, the repentant thief rebuked the other one, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this Man has done nothing wrong.” “Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’”

What did Jesus say to the repentant thief? In Luke 23:43, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

“Yes, Lord, please grant to those who hate and oppose You, a heart of repentance as You did to this unnamed thief. I would rather see them believe in You than to perish forever in their sin.”



[1] www.genz.bible/Psalms/83
[2] Ibid
[3] www.ucg.org/good-news/good-news-magazine-march-april-2013/biblical-prophecy-arab-confederation
[4] Matthew Henry’s Commentary