That They May Seek Your Name – Psalm 83

Is it okay to pray for the destruction of our enemies?  What is so interesting about this psalm is that as he is praying for the destruction of Israel’s enemies, even their total destruction, he is also asking that they might seek the name of Yahweh.  Can both of those happen?

A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.

O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God!  For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads.  They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones.  They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”  For they conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant—the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Asshur also has joined them; they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah

Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who were destroyed at En-dor, who became dung for the ground.  Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, “Let us take possession for ourselves of the pastures of God.”

O my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind.  As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze, so may you pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane!  Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O LORD.  Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace, that they may know that you alone, whose name is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth.  (Psalm 83 ESV)

When our enemies conspire against us they are really hating God as well.  The prayer for their destruction does not negate that we want them to seek Yahweh’s name or at least come to understand that He alone is Most High over all the earth.  So we recall how He has delivered us before and pray for that same deliverance to be repeated.