Psalm 83 - A Prayer for Israel

Five years ago I blogged "150 Days of Psalms." I've not looked at the old posts because I wanted to possibly have a new take, a fresh look - and I didn't want to be influenced by what I wrote before. I suppose it might be interesting to look after-the-fact at a psalm, but I haven't done that yet.

But today..... I looked.... and now I can't think of something different to say.

Here's what I said five years ago. I think it still works.


Today's Psalm is one that Israel still needs to use as a prayer - only the names have changed to the modern names of the same people: Iran, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, etc.

Christians can use that same prayer using these same names, plus they can add: China, North Korea, Indonesia, Sudan and many more.

14 Like fire that burns the forest And like a flame that sets the mountains on fire, 15 So pursue them with Your tempest And terrify them with Your storm. 16 Fill their faces with dishonor, That they may seek Your name, O LORD. 17 Let them be ashamed and dismayed forever, And let them be humiliated and perish, 18 That they may know that You alone, whose name is the LORD, Are the Most High over all the earth.

Pray today for Israel and for the Persecuted Church.

But I would add this - something that I left out. It looks like my thought before was for the "consuming fire" side of God. That was the psalmists desire too. But he added this (and I think I overlooked this) "That they may seek Your name, O LORD" and "That they may know that You alone, whose name is the LORD, Are the Most High over all the earth."

Sometimes I get caught up in wishing something terrible would happen to the "bad guys" that I forget that I also need to pray that they would come to know the Lord. We still need to pray for Israel and for the Persecuted Church, but we need to pray both parts of this psalm - May they be humiliated and perish, but also, may they seek the Lord and know Him.

A side note.......
Every day I do a search for that day's psalm. Every day there are many beautiful pictures with a verse of the psalm written on it. Today, there are only pictures like the one I used before: maps of the holy lands, charts comparing the old names of Israel's enemies with their new names... those kinds of things. So I made this one. Not exactly a pretty mountain scene or a butterfly on a flower, but it matches the verse.