John Calvin Commentary Psalms 83

O God! hold not thy peace. It is very generally agreed among commentators that this psalm was composed during the reign of King Jehoshaphat, and I readily concur with this opinion. That godly king, as is well known, had to engage in dreadful wars against multiplied hosts of enemies.

Although the Ammonites and Moabites were the originators of the principal war in which he was engaged, yet they mustered forces not only from Syria but also from distant countries, and the troops thus brought together nearly overwhelmed Judea with their multitude. It would then appear, from the long list of enemies, enumerated here, who had conspired together to destroy the people of God, that the conjecture referring the composition of this psalm to that occasion is well-founded; and sacred history informs us that one of the Levites, under the influence of the Spirit of prophecy, gave the king assurance of victory, and that the Levites sang before the Lord.

In the midst of such great dangers, the whole nation, as well as the holy king, must have been in the deepest distress; and, accordingly, we have here a prayer full of earnestness and solicitude.

These feelings prompted the repetition of the words which occur in the very opening of the psalm: Hold not thy peace, Keep not silence, be not still. By this, the faithful would intimate that if God intended to help them, He needed to make haste; otherwise, the opportunity to do so would be lost.

It is unquestionably our duty to wait patiently when God at any time delays His help; but, in condescension to our infirmity, He permits us to supplicate Him to make haste.

What I have rendered keep not silence with yourself, is literally keep not silence to yourself, which some translate by the paraphrase, Hold not your peace in your own cause—an exposition that is too refined to be discussed in more detail here. This form of expression is equivalent to saying, Hold not yourself in. Perhaps the particle here is superfluous, as it is in many other places.

For, behold! your enemies are tumultuous. As an argument for enforcing the prayer of the preceding verse, it is affirmed that the faithful are oppressed both by the impetuous violence and the crafty policy of their enemies, which, to all human appearance, rendered their escape from death utterly hopeless. When it is said that they are tumultuous and lift up the head, the meaning is that, relying upon their own power, they behave insolently and proudly. Because of this conduct by their enemies, the minds of God’s people are greatly depressed, and the only way they can obtain relief is by making their complaint to Him whose continual work it is to repress the proud. Therefore, when the saints implore His aid, it is their usual practice to lay before Him the perverseness of their enemies. It is worthy of notice that those who molest the Church are called the enemies of God.

It gives us considerable confidence that those who are our enemies are also God’s enemies. This is one of the fruits of His free and gracious covenant, in which He has promised to be an enemy to all our enemies—a promise for which there is good reason, when it is considered that the welfare of His people, whom He has taken under His protection, cannot be assailed without an injury also being done to His own majesty.

Meanwhile, let us live at peace with all people, as much as it is possible for us, and let us endeavor to practice uprightness in our entire conduct, so that we may be able confidently to appeal to God that when we suffer at the hands of others, we suffer wrongfully. The pride and violent assaults of our enemies may be combined with craftiness.

But when this is the case, it is fitting for us to give God the honor that belongs to Him, by trusting that He can help us. For breaking the proud who foam out their rage, and catching the crafty in their own craftiness, is work He has customarily performed throughout all ages.

To keep us from thinking that we are abandoned to the snares and traps of our enemies, the prophet here timely presents us with a thought designed to offer the greatest comfort and hope, when he calls us God’s hidden ones. Some understand this expression to mean that the aid and protection God gives us is not apparent to human senses or reason, just as it is said elsewhere of the life of God’s people, that it is hid (Colossians 3:3). But this interpretation is too strained and completely inconsistent with both the context of the passage and the natural meaning of the words.

Their purpose is simply to teach that we are hidden under the shadow of God’s wings. For although outwardly we seem vulnerable and exposed to the will of the wicked and the proud, we are preserved by the hidden power of God. Accordingly, it is said in another Psalm (Psalms 27:5):

In the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret of His tabernacle He shall hide me (Psalms 27:5).

However, it should also be noted that none are hidden under God’s care and protection except those who, renouncing all reliance on their own strength, turn to Him with fear and trembling. Those who, under the influence of a deceptive belief in their own sufficient strength to resist, boldly enter the conflict and, as if devoid of all fear, become reckless, will ultimately suffer the consequences of their inadequate resources. We will then best ensure our own safety by taking shelter under the shadow of the Almighty and, conscious of our own weakness, committing our salvation to Him, casting it, so to speak, into His bosom.

They have said, Come and let us cut them off from being a nation. The wickedness of these hostile powers is aggravated by the fact that it was their determined purpose to exterminate the Church utterly. This may be restricted to the Ammonites and Moabites, who were like bellows fanning the flames among the others.

But the Hagarenes, the Syrians, and the other nations, being through their instigation filled with no less hatred and fury against the people of God (for whose destruction they had taken up arms), we may justly consider this boasting language as uttered by the entire combined army. For, having entered into a mutual pact, they rushed forward with competing eagerness and encouraged one another to destroy the kingdom of Judah.

The prime agent in inciting such cruel hatred was undoubtedly Satan, who, from the very beginning, has continually exerted himself to extinguish the Church of God. For this purpose, he has never ceased to stir up his own children to commit outrage.

The phrase, to cut them off from being a nation, means to exterminate them root and branch, and so to put an end to them as a nation or people. That this is the meaning is more clearly shown by the second clause of the verse: Let the name of Israel be no more remembered.

God's compassion would be greatly aroused by the fact that this war was not undertaken, as is common in wars, merely to bring them, once conquered, under the rule of their enemies. Instead, the cruel aim of their enemies was their utter destruction.

And what did this amount to, if not an attempt to overthrow the decree of God on which the perpetual duration of the Church depends?

For they have consulted with the heart together. The numerous armies that combined their strength to oppose the Church of God and to bring about her downfall are listed here. As so many nations, formed into one powerful alliance, were determined to destroy a kingdom not particularly distinguished by its power, the miraculous aid of God was absolutely essential for the deliverance of a people who, in such dire circumstances, were completely unable to defend themselves. In circumstances apparently as hopeless, good King Asa expressed that truly noble thought:

Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God! For we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude (1 Chronicles 14:11).

The same Spirit who inspired that devout king with such unconquerable courage dictated this psalm for the benefit of the whole Church, to encourage her with unhesitating confidence to turn to God for help. And in our own time, He presents these words to us, so that no danger or difficulty might prevent us from calling upon God. When the whole world may conspire together against us, we have, so to speak, a wall of brass for the defense of Christ’s kingdom in these words, Why do the heathen rage? etc. (Psalms 2:1).

It will be very profitable for us to contemplate this as an example in which we see reflected, as in a mirror, what has been the lot of the Church of God from the beginning. If we reflect on this properly, it will keep us today from being unduly dejected when we witness the whole world arrayed against us. We see how the Pope has inflamed the whole world against us with diabolical rage. Therefore, wherever we turn our eyes, we meet with so many hostile armies seeking to destroy us.

But once we have arrived at a settled conviction that nothing strange is happening to us, the contemplation of the Church's condition in ancient times will strengthen us to continue in the exercise of patience until God suddenly displays His power, which is perfectly able, without any created help, to frustrate all the world's attempts.

To remove from the minds of the godly all doubts about whether help from heaven is readily available to them, the prophet distinctly affirms that those who harass the Church are guilty of making war against God, who has taken her under His protection. The principle upon which God declares that He will be our helper is contained in these words:

He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye (Zechariah 2:8).

And what is said in another psalm concerning the patriarchs is equally applicable to all true believers:

Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm (Psalms 105:15).

He intends the anointing with which He has anointed us to be, so to speak, a shield to keep us in perfect safety. The nations listed here did not openly make war against Him; but since, when He sees His servants unjustly assaulted, He interposes Himself between them and their enemies to bear the blows aimed at them, they are here justly represented as having entered into a league against God. The case is analogous to that of the Papists in the present day.

If anyone were to ask them, when they hold consultations for the express purpose of accomplishing our destruction, whether they were stronger than God, they would immediately reply that they had no intention whatever of assaulting heaven in imitation of the giants of old.

But since God has declared that every injury done to us is an assault upon Him, we may, as from a watchtower, behold in the distance by the eye of faith the approach of that destruction which the followers of Antichrist will eventually experience sadly and mournfully.

The expression, to consult with the heart, is explained by some as, to deliberate with the greatest exertion and earnestness of mind. Thus, we commonly say that something is done "with the heart" when it is done with earnestness and passion. But this expression is rather intended to signify the secret, cunning schemes mentioned earlier.

Some interpreters refer the tents of Edom to military equipment, and understand the words to mean that these enemies came well-equipped and supplied with tents for prolonging the war; but the allusion seems rather to be to the custom prevalent among those nations of dwelling in tents. It is, however, a hyperbolic expression, as if it had been said, so great was their eagerness to engage in this war, that they might be said even to uproot their tents from the places where they were pitched.

I do not intend to enter minutely into a discussion concerning the respective nations named here, as most of them are familiarly known from the frequency with which they are spoken of in the sacred Scriptures. When it is said that Assur and the rest were an arm to the sons of Lot, this is evidently an additional aggravation of the wickedness of the sons of Lot.

It would have been an act of unnatural cruelty for them to have aided foreign nations against their own kindred. But when they themselves are the first to sound the trumpet, and when on their own initiative they invite the aid of the Assyrians and other nations to destroy their own brethren, ought not such barbarous inhumanity to call forth the deepest detestation?

Josephus himself records that the Israelites had passed through their borders without doing them any harm, sparing their own kin according to the express command of God. When the Moabites and Ammonites then knew that their brethren the Jews spared them, remembering that they were of the same blood and descended from a common ancestor, ought they not also to have reciprocated such kindness on their part as not to have embarked in any hostile action against them?

But it is, so to speak, the destiny of the Church, not only to be assailed by external enemies, but to suffer far greater trouble at the hands of false brethren. At the present day, none are more furiously enraged against us than counterfeit Christians.

Do to them as to the Midianites. The faithful, having complained of the very grievous oppressions to which they were subjected, with the aim of inducing God to aid them more readily, now recall the many occasions on which he had provided relief to his people when they were brought into the most desperate circumstances.

From this, it is an obvious inference that God wisely delays his aid to his servants under oppression, so that when they seem to be reduced to the last extremity, he may appear in a miraculous manner to aid them. The prophet, in this verse, mingles together two histories. Strict accuracy would have required him to have said in one connected sentence, Do to them as to the Midianites at the brook Kishon. But he inserts in the middle of this sentence the slaughter of Jabin and Sisera.

It was, however, of no great importance to distinguish particularly between the two histories. He considered it enough for his purpose to recall to himself and other pious Jews the miracles which God in days of old had so often performed in delivering his people. The primary purpose is to show that God, who had so often put his enemies to flight and rescued his poor, trembling sheep from the jaws of wolves, still possessed the power to accomplish the same deliverance.

The wonderful manner in which he aided his people by the hand of Gideon is well known (Judges 6 and 7). It might have seemed altogether ridiculous for Gideon to venture to engage in battle against a very powerful army with no more than three hundred soldiers; and these, it should be noted, were men who had been in bondage their whole lives, and whom the mere look of their lords might have thrown into consternation.

And yet, the Midianites perished by turning their swords against each other. God displayed the same goodness in the slaughter of Sisera and King Jabin (Judges 4:13). Barak, led by a woman, Deborah, defeated them both when, with a small handful of soldiers, he intrepidly gave battle to their mighty army.

And Sisera, the general of the army, did not die bravely on the field of battle but was struck down by a woman after he had retreated to a hiding place. So that the faithful may not be overwhelmed with terror and fall into despair, they timely fortify themselves with these examples of deliverance, by which God had shown that in him alone resides sufficient power to defend his people, whenever, lacking human aid, they should turn to him.

From that astonishing and unusual way of granting deliverance, they came to the conclusion that he is a wonderful worker in preserving His Church, in order to encourage themselves to have the fullest confidence that in his breath alone they would have sufficient strength to overthrow all their enemies. Nor is it only in this passage that the slaughter of the Midianites is related for this purpose.

Isaiah also (Isaiah 9:4) introduces it to confirm the truth of the Church’s restoration: For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

When it is stated that they became manure for the earth, the expression may be explained as meaning either:

1. that their carcasses lay rotting upon the earth;
2. or that they were trampled underfoot as manure.

This latter explanation is the most appropriate, but I do not reject the former.

It is somewhat difficult to ascertain the reason why it is said, They perished at Endor. The name Endor is found in Joshua 17:11, and it is probable that the army of King Jabin was destroyed there. The opinion held by some, that Endor is used here as a descriptive term conveying the idea that their defeat was open and visible to the eye, is one I cannot approve.