Wednesday Bible Study: QAnon

Psalms 81 and 82 are pretty standard fare. 81 is written for a specific observance, and it reminds the Israelites that they are God's chosen people and to be faithful. 82 calls on God to punish the wicked and reward the righteous -- as if he wouldn't do it unless we asked. 

Psalm 83, however, is getting a whole lot of attention right now, from people who probably don't read this blog and who you probably are barely aware of. It describes a broad alliance against Israel, bent on its destruction, and calls on God to exterminate them, referring to the massacres of the Midianites in Numbers 31, and the massacre of the Canaanites in Judges 4. (As far as the sanctity of life is concerned, in these incidents Yahweh ordered the Israelites to exterminate these people, which they do.) Oddly, however, the alliance does not correspond to any actual event in the Deuteronomistic history. It's just a grab bag of nations that have been hostile to Israel at one time or another. 

So it seems that a whole lot of people -- Christians, mostly, as far as I can tell -- have decided that it's a prophecy. Some think that its predictions are imminent. Supposedly,  the Arab nations are going to form an alliance and try to destroy Israel, and it's all right there in Psalm 83. Just enter "psalm 83 prophecy" into your favorite Internet search engine and you'll find dozens if not hundreds of web sites making this claim. Many are pondering whether this is about to happen in response to the events in Gaza, and whether it portends the End Times. Riiiiiiiiiight.

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of Asaph.

81 Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
² Raise a song, sound the timbrel,
    the sweet lyre with the harp.
³ Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
    at the full moon, on our feast day.
⁴ For it is a statute for Israel,
    an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
⁵ He made it a decree in Joseph,
    when he went out over^[a] the land of Egypt.

I hear a voice I had not known:
⁶ “I relieved your^[b] shoulder of the burden;
    your^[c] hands were freed from the basket.
⁷ In distress you called, and I delivered you;
    I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
    I tested you at the waters of Mer′ibah.Selah
⁸ Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
    O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
⁹ There shall be no strange god among you;
    you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
¹⁰ I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
    Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

¹¹ “But my people did not listen to my voice;
    Israel would have none of me.
¹² So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
    to follow their own counsels.
¹³ O that my people would listen to me,
    that Israel would walk in my ways!
¹⁴ I would soon subdue their enemies,
    and turn my hand against their foes.
¹⁵ Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him,
    and their fate would last for ever.
¹⁶ I would feed you^[d] with the finest of the wheat,
    and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

Footnotes

1. Psalm 81:5 Or against
2. Psalm 81:6 Heb his
3. Psalm 81:6 Heb his
4. Psalm 81:16 Cn Compare verse 16b: Heb he would feed him

 

A Psalm of Asaph.

82 God has taken his place in the divine council;
    in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
² “How long will you judge unjustly
    and show partiality to the wicked?Selah
³ Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
    maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
⁴ Rescue the weak and the needy;
    deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

⁵ They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
    they walk about in darkness;
    all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

⁶ I say, “You are gods,
    sons of the Most High, all of you;
⁷ nevertheless, you shall die like men,
    and fall like any prince.”^[a]

⁸ Arise, O God, judge the earth;
    for to thee belong all the nations!

Footnotes

1. Psalm 82:7 Or fall as one man, O princes

 

 

83 O God, do not keep silence;
do not hold thy peace or be still, O God!
² For lo, thy enemies are in tumult;
    those who hate thee have raised their heads.
³ They lay crafty plans against thy people;
    they consult together against thy protected ones.
⁴ They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;
    let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”
⁵ Yea, they conspire with one accord;
    against thee they make a covenant—
⁶ the tents of Edom and the Ish′maelites,
    Moab and the Hagrites,
⁷ Gebal and Ammon and Am′alek,
    Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
⁸ Assyria also has joined them;
    they are the strong arm of the children of Lot.Selah

⁹ Do to them as thou didst to Mid′ian,
    as to Sis′era and Jabin at the river Kishon,
¹⁰ who were destroyed at En-dor,
    who became dung for the ground.
¹¹ Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
    all their princes like Zebah and Zalmun′na,
¹² who said, “Let us take possession for ourselves
    of the pastures of God.”

¹³ O my God, make them like whirling dust,^[a]
    like chaff before the wind.
¹⁴ As fire consumes the forest,
    as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,
¹⁵ so do thou pursue them with thy tempest
    and terrify them with thy hurricane!
¹⁶ Fill their faces with shame,
    that they may seek thy name, O Lord.
¹⁷ Let them be put to shame and dismayed for ever;
    let them perish in disgrace.
¹⁸ Let them know that thou alone,
    whose name is the Lord,
    art the Most High over all the earth.

Footnotes

1. Psalm 83:13 Or a tumbleweed