Possession of the Pastures

Christians love to quote from the book of Psalms, but some psalms are easier to apply to ourselves than others are.

I was enjoying Psalm 83 this morning while simultaneously noting just how difficult all the Hebrew specifics make it to apply the psalmist’s words meaningfully to present-day believers. The enemies of Israel do not work well as analogies for grumpy HR ladies, obnoxious environmentalist neighbors, or even — to make it more relevant — social misfits with sniper rifles and a burning grudge.

Too soon? Yeah, probably.

Not least among the problems we have applying the psalm to ourselves are the curses the writer heaps upon God’s enemies: “Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb” (who got their heads chopped off), or “like Zebah and Zalmunna” (killed by the sword of Gideon). Any Christian who has read “love your enemies”, or “bless those who persecute you” addressed to followers of Jesus is going to have some difficulty relating.

These issues disappear if we simply acknowledge the psalm is not about us at all. It has little or no direct relevance to our present era in God’s gracious dealings with humanity.

They Conspire with One Accord

Psalm 83 is one of a number written by a Levite named Asaph during the reign of David. It’s only eighteen verses long, so I may as well quote it here in its entirety:

“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.”

The language of the psalm is intense, and shows deep concern for Asaph’s nation. The natural assumption might be that the psalmist lived through the events he describes and is appealing to God for relief, and that he wrote Psalm 83 in one of that era’s worst moments for his fellow Israelites who feared for their lives.

A Shaky Hypothesis

A closer, more historically informed examination, however, shows that any such hypothesis rests on very shaky ground.

David was a man of war, and fought many battles on his people’s behalf before and after becoming king of Israel. He started early: in his youth, the women of Israel sang that he had “slain his ten thousands”. We would not be wrong if we assume Asaph also lived through many, many wars. He did. David lived a violent seven decades. No Israelite family would have been untouched by the dangers he was obliged to confront. Israelite sons and husbands fought in Saul’s and David’s armies. On occasion, David’s enemies carried away Israelite wives and daughters. Many of David’s own appeals to God are on record for us. He had numerous enemies and he knew his need of aid from heaven. So surely did Asaph.

Still, I think we can say with a fair bit of confidence that no conspiracy such as the one Asaph describes ever took place in David’s lifetime. Oh, he lists many of the right names: Edom, the Ishmaelites, Moab, Ammon, Amalek and the Philistines (more times than David probably cared to recall). All were bitter enemies, and there were even more: 1 Chronicles 18 also describes David’s successful campaigns against the king of Zobah at the Euphrates and against the Arameans of Damascus. Some of these were defensive battles. Many were not. Sometimes nations teamed up against Israel, but never once did they all do so.

Chronological Anomalies

There are several chronological anomalies in Asaph’s list of enemies:

• Israel’s recorded battles with the Hagrites took place across the Jordan in Gilead during the days of Saul, and appear to have been local skirmishes primarily involving Reuben, Gad and Manasseh. It’s not impossible David was present early in his career, but the historical books do not mention it.
• Gebal was a maritime city on the Phoenician coast. Scripture mentions no conflicts with Gebal during David’s lifetime.
• The city-state of Tyre was an ally during both David’s and Solomon’s reigns, and Hiram its king was David’s friend.
• Asshur is a variant of Assyria mentioned in scripture prophetically as early as Balaam’s oracle. There is no record of Assyrian battles with Israel for hundreds of years after David’s reign.

When the behavior of 40% of the listed nations does not jibe with the historical record during David’s reign, we need to start considering a different interpretation for the psalm.

A Multi-National Conspiracy Against God

More importantly, in Psalm 83, Asaph is describing a concerted effort between all these nations to seize Israelite territory. “They conspire with one accord.” That sure sounds like a multi-national conspiracy.

Most significantly, however, David’s name does not even occur in the psalm. Nothing about it suggests the king of Israel was personally the object of the sort of focused foreign hatred Asaph refers to. No, Asaph’s conspiracy is against God himself: “against you they make a covenant”, “Let us take possession … of the pastures of God”, “those who hate you”, “your enemies”.

So if Asaph was not writing about the times in which he lived, what exactly was he writing about?

Locating the Conspiracy

Like many psalmists, Asaph was a prophet. Chronicles calls him “Asaph the seer”. The conspiracy to seize the pastures of God can only be coherently assigned to one of two eras:

1/ The Babylonian Captivity

One legitimate possibility is Asaph foresaw the Babylonian siege of Judah. (Assyria had no luck taking Jerusalem, so we have to rule that empire out.) It’s well documented that the Chaldeans who conquered Babylon subdued or made vassals of many nations prior to destroying Jerusalem, and their armies were, in part at least, composed of soldiers from these subjugated nations, including Moab, Edom, Philistia, Assyria and probably other besides. Obadiah wrote concerning Edom that they gleefully cheered Judah’s distress, hoping to loot its wealth. It’s possible, even likely, that other nations did too.

There’s one serious problem with the Babylonian theory. We’d have to assume Asaph’s prayer was answered in the negative, that God failed to respond to his people’s need or to magnify his name in the earth. Given the tone of the psalm, I think that very unlikely.

2/ Armageddon

A better suggestion is that Asaph is speaking in the voice of the repentant remnant of Israel at the very end of the great tribulation, just as Christ is about to return to deliver his earthly people, after the Church has been taken up into glory by its triumphant Head.

Think about it. It’s well known by students of Bible history that its writers consistently (perhaps universally: I have yet to find a single exception) use then-current, familiar names of geographic territory when they refer to events that took place there in the past. So you will find a reference to the “country of the Amalekites” before Amalek was ever born. Likewise, you find references to the territory eventually named after Gilead centuries before Gilead the man came into the world. This device was necessary to communicate effectively to the generation in which the OT historians lived, and it worked.

This being the case, it would be entirely logical for a prophet writing in the eleventh century BC to use then-current place names to describe the homes of Israel’s future enemies. Why not? Nobody in the eleventh century would have understood names like Kuwait or Turkey.

Around the Clock

If we assume the contemporary nations Asaph designated as members of his conspiracy are actually intended as spiritual placeholders for the inhabitants of these geographic locations 3,000+ years down the road, Psalm 83 depicts the Israelite remnant surrounded and harassed on every side. The picture fits far better than in any prior historical period. Today, Ammon, Moab and Edom would be in Jordan. The Hagrites would be in northern Jordan or southern Syria. Amalek would be southern Jordan or northern Saudi Arabia; Philistia would be the Gaza Strip. Gebal and Tyre would be Lebanon. Today, ancient Assyria would be parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and/or Kuwait. Ishmael is probably Saudi Arabia.

Can you picture a coming day when all these nations conspire to take possession of the pastures of God “from the river to the sea”, and when the enemies of Israel are really enemies of Christ?

I sure can. The political will and momentum are there already.