Conspiracy Theories

Psalm 83:1-8

A psalm of Asaph. A song.

1O God, don’t sit idly by,

silent and inactive!

2Don’t you hear the tumult of your enemies?

Don’t you see what your arrogant enemies are doing?

3They devise crafty schemes against your people,

laying plans against your precious ones.

4“Come,” they say, “let us wipe out Israel as a nation.

We will destroy the very memory of its existence.”

5This was their unanimous decision.

They signed a treaty as allies against you—

6these Edomites and Ishmaelites,

Moabites and Hagrites,

7Gebalites, Ammonites, and Amalekites,

and people from Philistia and Tyre.

8Assyria has joined them, too,

and is allied with the descendants of Lot.

Interlude

If anyone knew about the kinds of troubles Psalm 83 talks about, it was King Ahaz. Two nations to the north were ganging up against his people and threatening to wipe out the little nation of Judah unless drastic measures were taken. At least that’s what King Ahaz thought.

But the prophet Isaiah knew better. The Lord told Isaiah, “Tell him to stop worrying” (Isaiah 7:4). This threat wouldn’t amount to anything. “Do not be afraid that some plan conceived behind closed doors will be the end of you. Do not fear anything except the Lord Almighty. . . . If you fear him, you need fear nothing else” (Isaiah 8:12-13).

Unfortunately, Ahaz wouldn’t listen. Instead of turning to the Lord in repentance, he turned to the mighty nation of Assyria to rescue him from his enemies. Assyria brought its brutal war machine into the area and defeated Judah’s foes, but then it turned on Judah, too (see also Psalm 83:8). Jerusalem was spared only by God’s miraculous intervention in response to the faith of Ahaz’s godly son, Hezekiah.

Many Christians these days feel as if everyone is conspiring against them, that there’s an all-out assault against God’s people. We fear the government, the media, and the culture in general—and Psalm 83 can fan those fears. But don’t forget the challenge of Isaiah: “Do not fear anything except the Lord Almighty. . . . If you fear him, you need fear nothing else.”

Fear Him, ye saints, and you will then

Have nothing else to fear;

Make you His service your delight,

Your wants shall be His care.

NAHUM TATE

Fascinating Fact

Benedict, the seventh-century monk who founded the Benedictine Rule, spent his last days paralyzed, having the Psalms read to him. The last one he heard was Psalm 83.