Psalm 83 – A Prayer for Justice on Evil Nations

Aug 30, 2026 | Pastor's Blog, Psalms

Timeless Biblical Truth.

Believers may pray for God to deal in justice with His and their enemies and preserve His faithful, so that His sovereignty may be seen over all the world.

  1. Believers are to pray urgently when God’s enemies conspire to destroy His people (1-8).
    1. Petition: Believers pray intensely for God to become active (1).
    2. Reason: Evil nations conspire to destroy His people (2-8).
  2. Believers may pray for God to destroy His enemies so that His sovereignty will be seen over all the earth (9-18).
    1. Petition #1: Believers pray that God now treat His enemies (and theirs) as He did in the past (9-12).
    2. Petition #2: Believers pray that God completely shame and judge His enemies using the forces of nature (13-17).
    3. Reason: Believers pray for justice so that God may display His sovereignty over the entire earth (18).
“The style of the Bible is uniquely powerful and beautiful. It can be parodied but never duplicated. The elements that make the Bible the most expressive book in the world include concreteness, realism, simplicity, an elemental quality, brevity, repetition, emphasis on the spoken world, and affective power.” Leland Ryken: How to Read the Bible as Literature, p. 196.

Questions for Second Milers

  1. What is Israel’s situation? Characterize those mentioned.
  2. On what basis does the psalmist call for help?
  3. How serious is the threat?
  4. Why does the psalmist call for God’s judgment on His (and their) enemies (cf. Judges 4-8)?
  5. What are the images of destruction used by the psalmist? What do these images suggest to you?
  6. How did Israel respond to her shame (cf. Psalm 74)?
  7. What is the purpose of shame?
  8. When you pray for vindication or deliverance, what is your motivation? Is it the same as that in verse 18? Why?
  9. Give your own short title to this psalm.

“The paradoxes of human life are held in tension in what can be called the most balanced book ever written. Divine sovereignty and human responsiveness, justice and mercy, law and freedom, man’s simultaneous smallness and greatness, the claims of the individual and of society, the worth of both earth and heaven—these paradoxes are affirmed throughout biblical literature and constitute the poles between which God and man operate.” Leland Ryken: The Literature of the Bible, p. 15.

“Good readers ruminate. To scamper through a book is like bolting your food: you miss the flavor and risk dyspepsia.” Holbrook Jackson, The Reading of Books.

The Bible Church of the Lakes