Is there a Psalm 83 War?

[schwartzie]

I've heard some Bible teachers - generally those who are not mainstream - speak of a Psalm 83 war.  Bill Salas (who has popularized the idea and who is not totally soundi in his doctrine) is one of them.  We're on the cusp of the Ezek. 38 war and the Isaiah 17 war, but Psslm 83? Let's look into it...

A Psalm 83 War?

Joel Richardson


Does Psalm 83 predict an imminent war that is about to break out in the

Middle East? Is Israel about to conquer its surrounding neighbors and

occupy their lands? Some students of prophecy believe this, but is it

consistent with Scripture? While it is fair to say that Psalm 83 is a

prophetic Psalm with application beyond its original context as an

imprecatory prayer written in the 10th Century B.C., the view that it is

referring to a specific war that takes place prior to other major end time

wars associated with the Antichrist stands in direct conflict with Scripture.

Those who teach that Psalm 83 is to be understood as a specific war,

distinct from the Battle of Gog of Magog, or other wars of the Antichrist,

base their view on a series of inferences and false assumptions. We need

to understand what these assumptions are. First, proponents of this view

point out that the nations listed in Psalm 83 are not listed in Ezekiel 39-39.

Despite the fact that this is not entirely true (both passages include parts

of Turkey and Syria for example), it is from this observation that the first

assumption is made that these passages must be speaking of two

separate wars. Then it is observed that the nations listed in Psalm 83 are

close to Israel, forming what is called an “inner ring” of nations, whereas

the nations mentioned in Ezekiel 38 and 39 form a larger “outer ring” of

nations. Thus, it is reasoned that in the future, Israel will first utterly defeat,

even annihilate and occupy, the “inner ring” nations, and then at a later

time, defeat the “outer ring” of nations in war.

Before we turn to the Scriptures to examine the problems with this theory,

it is important to stop and consider exactly what is being proposed by

those who teach this theory. Bill Salus, the teacher most best known for

popularizing this view, holds that the nations of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq,

Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon will all be defeated and occupied by Israel:

“Because of this Israeli conquest over the inner circle of the core

surrounding Arab populations of Palestinians, Syrians, Saudi

Arabians, Egyptians, Lebanese, and Jordanians, Israel’s borders

are enlarged, prosperity increases, and national stature is

enhanced.” (Israelestine: The Ancient Blueprints of the Future

Middle East, Bill Salus)

Other prophecy teachers seem to differ slightly from this view, teaching

that these nations will all simply be “annihilated” by Israel, in what is

referred to as “The War of Extermination.” In my opinion, both positions

strain the bounds of believability on a few levels. The idea that Israel, a

single nation with approximately 6 million Jews, will either subdue and

concurrently occupy, or worse yet, “annihilate” several nations with a total

population of approximately 170 million Arabs is quite a claim, making

Israel responsible for the equivalent of 30 Holocausts. In my opinion, not

only is this view difficult to believe, but it also casts the people of Israel in

a murderous and imperialistic light far worse than what even the most

obsessed anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists would ever claim.

But let us turn to the primary reason why the popular Psalm 83 War of

Extermination theory stands in direct conflict with Scripture.

Continued at link

[PrisonerOfHope]

Since that Watchman River guy - who is otherwise doctrinally sound from what I've heard - keeps talking about a Psalm 83 war, let's take another look at what that Psalm is about. The issue is not a matter of soteriology, but it's important to keep doctrine straight. In addition to the information below, let me add that there are Bible scholars who believe this Psalm is simply a general song of lamentation about the enemies who have come against Israel throughout the years, and others who believe that this Psalm describes the Six Day War of 1967. In any case, none of those who are promoting the teachng of a Psalm 83 war are good, sound teachers. Bill Salus, for example - perhaps the biggest proponent of a Psalm 83 war - thinks most - at least the first five - seals do not occur during the seven-year tribulation period, so they are not part of the day of the Lord’s wrath. This point is anathema to doctrinally sound teachers, because they place their pretrib view on the fact that the seals are expressions of the day of the Lord’s wrath during the seven-year period. Salus also believes the first seal represents the Antichrist in his unrevealed arrival upon the world’s scene as he politically positions himself before he is revealed as the Antichrist; he also teaches a new dispensation - a "gap theory" in which there are weeks, months, or even years between the rapture and the start of Daniel's 70th Week. There are other exegetical acrobatics on Salus' part - none of which conform to the teachings of the best and most sound theologians throughout the years - but all of which would cause a serious student of Bible prophecy to question the veracity of his teaching. 

The Psalm 83 War: When?


Another popular but misguided teaching these days says this: Psalm 83 is a prophecy about an End Time war against the nation of Israel.



In fact, this psalm, along with other closely related psalms, speaks about a past event that took place in 485 B.C. In that year, the newly-crowned Emperor Xerxes of Persia, dealing with rebellions throughout the empire at the death of his father Darius, allowed the neighboring enemies of the rebellious province of Judah to punish the Jews for him. (Xerxes had more pressing concerns: an ongoing rebellion in his much more important province of Egypt, and a brewing rebellion in Babylon.)



Nothing in Psalm 83 speaks of its events as taking place in the future of Asaph’s days. On the contrary, they speak of events that he experienced:



Psalm 83 A Song. A Psalm of Asaph. 1 Do not keep silent, O God: do not hold not your peace, and do not be still, O God. 2 For behold, your enemies make an uproar, and those who hate you have lifted up their head. …They have said, “Come and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more. 5 …They form a confederacy against you: …Edom and the Ismaelites, 6 Moab and the Hagrites 7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, the Philistines…Tyre, 8 Assyria…



Other Psalms written by Asaph make clear that he was writing about events of his own day. In Psalm 74, he wrote:



Psalm 74:1 …of Asaph. O God, why have you cast [us] off for ever? [why] does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? ... 3 Lift up your feet unto the perpetual desolations: all [that] the enemy has done wickedly [or, destroyed] in the sanctuary. ...6 ...they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers. 7 They have cast fire into your sanctuary, they have defiled the dwelling place of your name to the ground. 8 They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.



Synagogues/meeting places were an institution begun during the Babylonian captivity, and brought back to the Holy Land with Zerubbabel’s emigration in 537 B.C.



Psalm 80 …of Asaph. 4…O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people? 5 You have caused them to eat the bread of tears, and caused them to drink tears in great measure. 6 You have made us a strife unto our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves.



All of these things Asaph was experiencing. There is no indication at all that he was prophesying about some far-distant future.



The Book of Lamentations, despite its non-verifiable attribution to Jeremiah, was probably also written by Asaph, or at least by a contemporary. That book begins,



Lamentations 1:1 How isolated sits the city, [that was] full of people! She has become as a widow! She [that was] great among the nations, princess among the provinces, she has become a tributary! 2 …all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies. ...10 The adversary has spread out his hand upon all her desirable things: for she has seen the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom you did command [that] they should not enter into your congregation.



The mention of Jerusalem as being “princess among the provinces” discloses that this book was written during the era of the Persian Empire, when Judah was truly a province. During the era of the Babylonian Empire, Judah was a vassal kingdom before becoming desolate, never a province.



The few Jews left (briefly) in Judah after Nebuchadnezzar had carried off captives to Babylon–which captives included all the priests that he had not killed–had plenty of “wine and summer fruit and oil” left for them to harvest. Jer. 40:10 Now contrast that time with this one in Lamentations:



Lam. 4:9 [Those] slain of the sword are better of than [these] slain of hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for [want of] the fruits of the field.



One more point, among many similar points of evidence. Lamentations 4:20 reads,



The breath of our nostrils, the anointed one of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, “Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.”



Now, can you see Jeremiah (or any other righteous chronicler of his day) calling the weak and vacillating King Zedekiah “the breath of our nostrils”?? Hardly. (Ezekiel called Zedekiah a “profane, wicked prince.” Ezek. 21:25)



This “anointed one”–whom the Jews had crowned king over Judah in defiance of the Persian Emperor, inciting him to send his allies against Judah–is spoken of in yet another Psalm of this era:



Psalm 89:39 You [God] have renounced the covenant of your servant, you have profaned his crown to the ground. … 51 …your enemies…have reproached the footsteps of your anointed one/messiah.



God allowed this reproach, because the Jews didn’t have his permission to anoint another king over his people prior to the coming of the Messiah of the house of David. The Jews had been presumptuous, thinking that the prophecies of Isaiah about a Messiah were to be fulfilled in their own day. Therefore, God permitted their enemies to spank them, and depose their false messiah.



About 28 years after this time, Ezra spoke in 457 B.C. about the “captivity, pillage, and humiliation” of Judah “at the hand of the kings of the lands…as it is this day.” Ezra 9:7 In 444 B.C., Nehemiah wept because Jerusalem’s walls had been broken down, its gates burned, and “the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach;” and later testified to Artaxerxes that Jerusalem “lies waste. Neh. 1:3; 2:3



In stark contrast with this, the Jews and Jerusalem had previously “prospered” under guidance of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, and Zerubbabel the governor, around 519 B.C. Ezra 6:14 So clearly, sometime after this time of prosperity, the province of Judah suffered an extended period of “captivity, pillage, and humiliation” –exactly what Asaph and others said had begun in their days.



To cut this short and sum up: there is plenty of biblical, historical, and grammatical evidence to show that in Psalm 83 and related texts, Asaph and others were bearing witness about events of their own day, ca. 485 B.C., that they experienced. Neither the verb tenses, nor any other indication or description, suggest that Psalm 83 is prophesying about a future war in the End Times.

link

[shalom]

Amir Tsarfati just posted this today:


Why I Believe We are Not Watching the Fulfillment of Psalm 83


Many have contacted me recently asking if Israel’s current perilous situation could bring about the fulfillment of Psalm 83. I tell them no. Why? Primarily because Psalm 83 was already fulfilled 75 years ago.

The psalmist Asaph penned a prophetic song about a future time when countries would unite to wipe Israel from the face of the earth. He wrote:



Do not keep silent, O God!

Do not hold Your peace,

And do not be still, O God!

For behold, Your enemies make a tumult;

And those who hate You have lifted up their head.

They have taken crafty counsel against Your people,

And consulted together against Your sheltered ones.

They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation,

That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” (Psalm 83:1-4)



The rest of the Psalm goes on to mention the parties aligning against Israel and calls on God to supernaturally rescue His people from the coming assault. Many see the fulfillment of this prophecy in Israel’s current dangerous state. They hear voices calling for the destruction of the nation and read the reports of 250,000 missiles aimed across the borders into the country. On the surface, a prophetic fulfillment certainly seems plausible. However, when you closely examine the facts, it becomes evident that this cannot be the Psalm 83 war. There are three primary reasons why it is clear to me that Psalm 83 is not being fulfilled now but was already realized 75 years ago in 1948.



The Name

Psalm 83 is about ensuring that the name “Israel” remains in the dustbin of history. After suppressing the Bar Kokhba revolt in AD 136, the Romans were tired of Jewish uprisings. In an attempt to break down Jewish identity, Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina and Judea was renamed Syria Palestina. At that moment, the name of Israel disappeared, and it remained gone for over 1800 years. Then, suddenly, the State of Israel was created in a day on May 14, 1948. Immediately, the surrounding nations rose up against them. The name “Israel” had returned, but they were determined that it still “be remembered no more.”



The Timing

Psalm 83 is about a war, but that war took place 75 years ago. When the State of Israel was born, all the neighboring states armed themselves and attacked. What was their goal? They wanted to kill the baby before it had a chance to take its first breath. They wanted to “cut them off from being a nation.” At first, no one stood with Israel. Not even the American State Department believed that it should be recognized. But President Harry Truman surprised them all by being the first world leader to accept the existence of this newfound nation. I believe that America has received untold blessings from the Father because of this move. Despite the best efforts of Israel’s enemies, they were no match for an all-powerful God who was fulfilling His promises to the tiny nation. As in Psalm 83, the people called out for divine assistance, and it was given.



The Perpetrators

This is where today’s situation strays the farthest from Psalm 83. In the biblical prophecy, we read of nation after nation rising up against Israel. In 1948, Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen all stood against the new state. In today’s scenario, there is only one country coming against Israel – Iran. In Syria, it is not Bashar al-Assad’s government aiming the missiles at Israel. It is the many Iranian proxy militias. Missiles are ready to be fired from Lebanon, but it is not the Lebanese military manning them. It is Hezbollah, a proxy terrorist organization supported by Iran. In Iraq, it is again Iranian proxy terrorist militias targeting their missiles at Israel.

Most of the nations surrounding Israel despise Iran’s militias and the Islamic regime’s interference in their government and society. In fact, the leaders of these nations are speaking out against this potential attack. Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced any launch of rockets toward Israel from within his country. The Prime Minister of Iraq, Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani, strongly condemned the use of Iraqi territory to launch any regional aggressions at the behest of Iran.

Finally, if we look at a number of the specific nations mentioned, we see they just don’t fit the Psalm 83 scenario. Jordan and Egypt are mentioned in the prophecy using their biblical names. Currently, they both have peace treaties with Israel. Lebanon and Syria are also mentioned, yet today they are so dysfunctional that they are barely existing as sovereign, independent countries. In contrast to the others, Yemen isn’t mentioned at all in the prophecy, yet we still find it as part of the proxies that are threatening Israel. Psalm 83 is the gathering of the nations against Israel. What we see today is just one nation gathering its many militias against the country.



So, what is happening today? If anything, rather than an already fulfilled Psalm 83 being played out, I see a buildup to Ezekiel 38. Alliances are being made and weapons are being distributed in preparation for Russia, Iran, Turkey, and the others to finally trigger their attack. Am I saying this is the Ezekiel 38 war? No. Could it be related to it? I believe it is likely.