Seder 33: Psalm 83---National Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies

 Psalm 83 is an imprecatory psalm, in the same category as Psalms 35, 58, 69, 109, and 137.  It is a national lament asking God to intervene against the enemies of Israel.

A number of specific enemies are listed.  Commentator Willem Van Germeren asserts that these enemies can be seen as symbolizing the enemies of God's people in any era.  He divides them into three categories:

• troublers---Edom, Ishmael, Moab, Ammon, Amalek, Philistia.
• seducers---Gebal and Tyre;
• oppressors---Assyria.

This is a prayer that exhibits love for enemies.  The prayer is that these enemies be corrected so that they would come to seek the true God---verse 16.

The enemies plot against God's "treasured ones," a reference back to Exodus 19:5.  The words attributed to them, "Come, let us wipe them out as a nation," (verse 4) compare them to the rebels at Babel (Ge 11:3-4).  The enemies want autonomy from God, and so they plan to wipe out God's representatives.  Ultimately they are fighting against God (verse 5).

The prayer refers to previous times when God had delivered his people during the era of the Judges under Gideon and Deborah and Barak (Judges 4-8).  The request is for God to rescue Israel again, as he had in the past.  This rescue will be a witness to all nations and lead enemies to submit to God.

Seder 94: Psalm 35---Lament and Imprecation

 Psalm 35 is a psalm of David and an individual lament.  He begins by imploring God to plead his cause:  "Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me."  Here the midrash notes that God is indeed "your God who pleads the cause of his people" (Isa 51:22).  

David uses both military language and courtroom language to call on the Divine Warrior for help (vv 1-3).  Asserting his innocence (v. 7), he prays that God will make things right by bringing his persecutors to justice (vv 4-8).  As with other imprecations in the psalms, David is not seeking personal vengeance.  Those who turn against him often are opposing the progress of God's plan, and David is seeking for God to make things right.  (Many are praying with Psalm 35 in early 2022 during Russia's invasion of the Ukraine.) 

 He anticipates publicly praising God when his deliverance comes (vv 9-10, 18, 28).

As in other laments of a righteous sufferer, Christians see in Psalm 35 a foreshadowing of the later experience of Jesus.  The malicious witnesses in verse 11 remind us of Jesus' experience on the eve of his crucifixion (Mark 14:55-59).  

Moreover, in John 15:25, Jesus said, "But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled:  'They hated me without a cause.' " Here the reference is either to Psalm 69:4 or Ps 35:7,19, and Jesus was viewing one of those two psalms as a prophecy about himself. 

Seder 64: Psalm 69---Lament of a Righteous Sufferer

 Psalm 69 is traditionally associated with David and is attributed to him by Paul in Romans 11:9.  

David comes to God in an unidentified desperate situation, likening himself to a drowning man.  He has calling out to God to no avail.  He has been enduring false accusation and suffering for God's sake, and he worries about the effect his situation will have on other followers of God (vv 1-6).  While he has been at the temple, praying and fasting, others make fun of him (vv 9-12).  David asks God to deal justly with his tormentors (vv 22-28).  He looks forward to the time when he has been delivered and publicly thanks and praises God, giving encouragement to others who suffer (vv 30-36).  

Christians from the beginning have seen David's experience here as a type of the experience of Jesus, the ultimate righteous sufferer.  In the New Testament six different passages from Psalm 69 are referenced:

• John 2:17 quotes Ps 69:9a (``zeal for your house has consumed me'') in connection with Jesus' first temple cleansing incident.
• In John 15:25 Jesus seems to be referring to Ps 69:4 (or perhaps Ps 35:7) in discussing the fact that his disciples could expect to be persecuted because he was.  The fact that David was hated without a cause indicates that the Messiah would be also.
•  In John 19:28-30 reference is made to Ps 69:3, 21 when Jesus is given sour wine on the cross.  Similarly, Matt 27:34 refers to Ps 69:21.
• In Acts 1:20 Peter applies the imprecation in Ps 69:25 to Judas, Jesus' betrayer.
• In Romans 11:9-10, Paul applies Ps 69:22-23 to describe the temporary stumbling of those in Israel who did not recognize Jesus as Messiah.
• In Romans 15:3 Paul applies Ps 69:9b ("the reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen on me") to Jesus in holding up Jesus' endurance of suffering without a cause as a moral example for his followers.

Not all of the material in Psalm 69 seems to apply to Jesus.  For example, David's admission of his sins in verse 5 is not something Jesus would have said.  Jesus on the cross did not level imprecations at his persecutors---in fact, just the opposite (Luke 23:34).  The New Testament writers applied Psalm 69 selectively, as Ben Witherington points out in his book Psalms Old and New.