“Let the Lord be known as the Most High over all the earth”

[Psalm 83]

Yesterday, during the Tuesday early morning prayer service, I meditated on Exodus 3:7-8: “And the Lord said: ‘I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.’” Reflecting on these two verses, I considered the six verbs used in them, which reveal God's plan of salvation for us. These verbs are: “seen,” “heard,” “concerned,” “come down,” “bring them up,” and “lead.” How did I apply this to our lives? I realized that God saw the suffering of our church member, Mrs. Jang Jang-su, heard her cry, “God, take me to heaven,” knew her pain, came down to deliver her from all her suffering, and led her to the true Canaan, the promised land—heaven. When I reflect on this work of God, I cannot help but confess that our God is a good God. He desires to reveal His goodness to us. In other words, our God is a God who reveals Himself.

In today’s Scripture, Psalm 83:18, the psalmist prays: “That men may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.” I want to meditate on this prayer of the psalmist, who desires for the Lord alone to be known as the Most High over all the earth, and consider how God makes Himself known as the Most High in the world. I will reflect on a few points of the lesson He gives.

First, the Lord makes Himself known as the Most High over all the earth by protecting His people.

Last year, during the New Year’s Eve service, I blessed all the members of our church with three blessings, using the Aaronic blessing (Deuteronomy 6:22-26). The first blessing was the blessing of “God’s protection.” I prayed for God to protect us from sin, from the wicked, and from Satan, and I continue to pray for that protection. In connection with this, I encouraged everyone to hold onto the words of Psalm 121:3-8: “He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.” Why does God protect us without slumbering or sleeping? The answer can be found in Psalm 83:3, the key verse of today’s passage: “They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, and consulted together against Your sheltered ones.” The reason God protects us is that we are His people, and we are His “sheltered ones.” In the NIV version of the Bible, “Your sheltered ones” is translated as “those You cherish.” This means we are those whom the Lord holds dear in His heart. We are the ones God has cherished in His heart. That’s why we receive His protection. We are His treasured possession: “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6).

God protects and guards us without slumbering or sleeping, and the reason He does so is not only because we are "His hidden ones," but also because we are His "sheep."

Look at today's passage, Psalm 83:12: "They said, 'Let us take for ourselves the pastures of God as our possession.'" Here, "the pastures of God" refers to the land of Canaan (according to Park Yoon-seon). The wicked sought to invade the land of Canaan, where God's sheep, the people of Israel, were living, and make it their own possession. The fact that the land of Canaan is referred to as "God’s pastures" implies that God views the people of Israel as His sheep. The Lord, our Shepherd, loves His sheep so much that He is willing to lay down His life for them (John 10:15). He is the God who, at the cost of His life, protects and guards us—His sheep. Our Shepherd, the Lord, treasures us deeply in His heart. We are His sheep, loved by Him to the point that He would give His life for us. He protects and guards us without slumbering or sleeping. Therefore, the Lord is making it known that He alone is the Most High over all the earth.

Finally, secondly, the Lord is the God who makes Himself known as the Most High over all the earth by destroying the wicked.

The wicked, who sought to destroy God's sheep, the people of Israel, whom He held dear in His heart, gathered together to attack and plot against them (v. 3). What did they plot when they came together? Look at Psalm 83:4: "They said, 'Come, let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.'" When these wicked people gathered to discuss how to annihilate Israel and make sure their name was no longer remembered, they "unanimously" deliberated (v. 5). I am reminded of a passage in Acts 4:25-26, where it speaks about the kings of the earth and the rulers gathering together against Jesus. Even Herod and Pilate, who had been enemies, joined forces and became allies to carry out a united effort against Jesus. In the same way, in Psalm 83:4-5, we see the enemies of Israel joining forces to destroy the people of Israel. Not only did these wicked people gather and discuss how to destroy Israel with one accord, but they also made a covenant with each other (v. 5). They formed a united front. The enemies of Israel who formed this united front were “the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them to help the children of Lot" (vv. 6-8).

In times like these, the psalmist remembers how God destroyed the enemies of the Israelites in the past and prays to God, asking that, just as He did in the past, He would defeat the enemies of Israel again (v. 9).

For example, in verse 9, the psalmist recalls how, during the period of the judges, Gideon, with God's help, destroyed the vast army of the Midianites, and how Barak, under the guidance of Deborah, defeated his enemy Sisera and Jabin at the battle of Kishon (as noted by Park Yoon-seon). By recalling these events, the psalmist prays to God to defeat the enemies of the people of Israel in the present. If we analyze the psalmist's prayers regarding Israel's enemies, we can summarize them in two points:

(1) The first prayer request is: 'Let the enemies of Israel be put to shame.'
"O Lord, fill their faces with shame, that they may seek Your name. Let them be ashamed and startled forever, let them suffer defeat and destruction" (vv. 16-17).

Here, the psalmist’s request for God to make Israel’s enemies ashamed is, in fact, a prayer that the plans of the wicked, who sought to destroy God's chosen people, would fail (as noted by Park Yoon-seon). Furthermore, through their failure, the psalmist prays that these wicked people would seek the name of the Lord. In other words, the psalmist prays that, seeing their plans to destroy Israel fail, they would repent and return to God.

(2) The second prayer request is: 'Let the enemies of Israel be destroyed.'
"My God, make them like tumbleweeds rolling, like chaff driven by the wind. Pursue them with Your tempest, and make them afraid with Your storm, like a fire that burns the forest, like a flame that sets the mountains ablaze" (vv. 13-15).

The psalmist’s prayer for God to chase the wicked with His tempest and storm hints that these wicked people are like chaff that is blown by the wind. It suggests that when God judges them with His mighty wind, they are no more than dust, bound to be blown away.

Our holy Lord, by judging the wicked, reveals that He alone is the Sovereign Lord of the entire world. By revealing His holiness and justice, God makes known that He alone is the Most High over all the earth.

Our God is the God who reveals Himself. He is the Lord who is the Most High over all the earth. Only the Lord is the Most High. The fact that the Most High Lord came to this lowly earth and died on the cross—the tree of curse—was not only to make His holiness and justice known to the world, but also to reveal His great love, grace, and mercy to the world. Jesus, who bore the wrath of God in our place on the cross, received the punishment for our sins, which we deserved for eternal destruction. Through His death on the cross and His resurrection, you and I have received salvation. Through the death of the Son of the Most High on the cross, we have been exalted. We have become precious and honorable children of God. And even now, we are being led by the Lord toward the high and glorious heavenly kingdom. Just as Sister Jung Chang-eul-soo, when the time comes for our death, we must praise the height and greatness of the Lord as we leave this world and enter the heavenly realm.

Thinking of Sister Jung Chang-eul-soo,

Pastor James Kim
(Singing hymn 40, "The Greatness and Majesty of the Lord," with the desire to sing it when the time of passing comes.)