I’ve been trying to demonstrate with these blogs how to observe, understand (after some reflection) and apply a daily reading from the Bible. This year I have been reading through the Psalms (and Proverbs, earlier in the year). One thing I have learned and am trying to practice in psalm reading is to SLOW DOWN and think about what I read. Too often I hurry through; but this year I’m taking a psalm a day – to keep the devil away! Better still, to know God better. Here’s how I thought through Psalm 83. When God and his people are being opposed & hated & conspired against, I want God to say something! So did Asaph (1-3). Sad to say, there are those “enemies” who would love to see God’s people (Christianity in particular) wiped out and “remembered no more” (4). This is especially true in the “unreached” parts of the world such as North Korea & Indonesia, parts of the Middle East, India & Africa & definitely China (although the underground church there is alive & thriving). In Asaph’s time, there was a confederacy of 10 nations that conspired together against God’s people (and by extension, God himself) (5-8). Not only did Asaph want God to SAY something about this (1), he wanted him to DO something; and what he had in mind was their destruction, like what God did in the past to Israel’s other enemies (9-12). [Here’s where you could check a concordance or just Google these names to learn what Asaph was talking about. It pays to know some history Bible here.] When faced with such threatening opposition, Asaph appealed to God to act with equally destructive forces (wind, fire & hurricane force) (13-15). But Asaph had a two-fold purpose in God’s action: (1) “that they may seek your name, O LORD” (16); and (2) “that they may know that you alone … are the Most High over all the earth” (18). Asaph’s prayer rose above just an appeal for national deliverance to a higher aim of the proper recognition of God among the nations. That should also be my goal in prayer – for God’s recognition in our nation, not just my own personal (or even national) relief or benefit. In times like these, I have confidence that God HAS spoken and God IS working in our land to accomplish his purposes for worldwide fame.
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