Psalm 83 Pt 5

0:01 All right, this morning we go back to Psalm eighty three. I don't necessarily want to be in Psalm eighty three, but that's where we are. I feel like I have to finish this. When this all started, I thought it was going to be It was more. It was more out of kind of just curiosity and just confused why. I don't even know how many sermons I've listened to on PSAW eighty three, and the more I listen to, the more perplexed and convoluted everything becomes. It's one thing that just people offer an interpretation of psawm eighty three that you can be like, all right, that's their interpretation, here's my interpretation. The two interpretations are not the same, so there's a disagreement. Move on. What has been maddening is well, the original series that sparked all of this. It's now up to twenty one parts, and I think I'm at part eleven or part twelve, and I can honestly say ninety percent of it has nothing to do with PSA Madi three. I mean it talks about everything KJV only music, women's dress, I mean everything other than saw Mayti three. And I don't even know where they're taking it from. And then sometimes then after like ten parts, then he goes back to verse one and it kind of just starts walking through it. But then as soon as he starts walking through it, it's never about Israel, but then it's supposed to be about a coming Middle East war, which they never identify. The whole thing is maddening. And then so if that's not and then not only is that bad enough, multiple things said

1:34 in the sermon are just absolutely false. There's just not true. Things he says about some of the end of countries here that he tries to identify with modern countries, there's just not any truth to it. Clearly, things he says said about manuscripts just completely fraudulent. And so that was bad enough. And then the other sermons, as we've already talked about, how they some of many of them cant sawmity three to second Chronicles twenty, but then by saying things that are absolutely fraudulent, like johosephat calling in Acef just not true. Acef was dead. So like, I don't understand what it is about Saw eighty three that makes people either one feel like they have to make it prophetic. But then don't do anything to prove that it's prophetic, meaning pointing towards a future war. Even for us, those who try to connect it to Second Chronicles twenty seem to have to utilize complete falsehoods in order to try to make it work. What is it about Psalm eighty three? I don't know. So we have worked on it. I think in some ways, I think we've done enough to kind of have everyone understand what Sam eighty three is. But I want to continue to do more work on it. And I'm going to try to do something today just to try to combat a criticism that's usually leveled at me when I handle Old Testament scripture. So we'll try to work on that all in the next two hours. So let's do this simply put, simply put, Psalm eighty three is what. Let's see how

3:06 if you can simply tell me what Psalm eighty three is after the I don't know, thirty hours of work I've done on Psalm eighty three, simply what is Psalm eighty three? Okay, it's that simple. Psalm eighty three is a lament written by Asaff, who was the worship leader during the time of David. Maybe somewhat into the time of Solomon. He composes a lament to express the fear, concern, worry, doubt that the people have at the time. He is composing it because they are facing a situation where a confederacy of nations is coming to wipe b Israel off the face of the earth.

3:57 That's what it is. I mean, there's nothing, there's nothing in the text that makes me go, wait a minute, we got to make this all symbolic. Wait a minute, this is prophetic. No, it's just a lament where he cries out. And so the as of last week, I kept making this emphasis and I don't know if anyone will remember it. It's one of the last things I said in the sermon on Sunday. I said it in the Sunday school Hour. I also said it in the Sunday morning hour. I kind of said the main lesson, one of the main lessons we can take from Psalm eighty three is that Psalm eighty three. I won't ask you to repeat it and see it to see if you remember, but if not, I'll repeat it multiple times today. Psaw eighty three is a lament that clearly kind of describes what living out the Christian life is because as Christians, we live a life believing in a God whom we cannot see, while living in circumstances that we can see. That seemed to indicate and at us that there is no God. That's kind of the and Psaw many three expresses that right right at the very beginning. What does psaw many three Verse one say, do not keep silent, Oh God, do not hold your peace, do not be still, Oh God. Now that indicates one that he believes in God, right, But at the same time, there's something making them question, where are you God? Why are you not doing

5:29 anything? How come you're not being active? So the Christian life really is that life. We all of us live a life where we believe in a God whom we cannot see. Can we all agree with that? Yet we live in the midst of circumstances that we very much can see. And many times those circumstances scream at us that there is no God, or that God is silent, that God has abandoned us, that God is not involved. The God seems not even concerned with our circumstances. And every day I could bring a stack of newspaper articles and go well, this happened or this happened, and what would you say? Where was God? All right? So that's the struggle. That's the struggle of the Christian life. And Saw maybe three it's expressing that very struggle. So we know what it is. It's a lament. We know what it's expressing. It's expressing fear, doubt, and concern in the face of circumstances they can't see, wanting to know where the God is whom they cannot see, because they want the God whom they cannot see to get involved in the circumstances that they can see. So in that sense, like what else needs to be said? Right, that's pretty simple, pretty straightforward. Why is Why are all the sermons about it make it so complicated? I truly don't know. I truly don't understand. And many of the sermons don't even bother to provide an outline or anything. It's just weird. I don't get it. That look the low sometimes I can

7:01 understand by going okay, their theology would lead on that direction, and we just don't agree on the theology. This is just I just don't understand the difficulty with SAW eighty three. But here's what we are going to do. Right, we are going to look at two. We saw eighty three is the overall thing. But I'm going to try to focus on two really really two basic concepts, right, or maybe maybe we could break it down into three if I want. All right, So what I'm going to do is I'm going to first of all, emphasize and I'm gonna be repetitive on this until we until you almost have it memorized. I want us to look how Asaf the Sawmist describes the enemy's attributes and actions, and we see that describe and verses two through five. All right, we will read it in a minute. So we're gonna look at how Asaf describes the action and attributes of the enemies. All right, everybody got that. Second, we're going to look at the enemies listed, because he lists the enemies by name. Okay, everybody got that. So what's the first time? We're gonna look at the actions and attributes of the enemies. Second, the the the enemies listed, and then third we're gonna just look at I don't know how I want

8:31 to put this. We're gonna look at how he wants to deal, well, how he wants God to deal with the enemies, right, which is starting in verse nine to we'll say down to eleven or you know, to eleven, because what remember the way the first way he wants to deal with the enemies. It's very interesting because what does he want? He wants God to act in the present as he has acted in the past, all right, So that that's to be a major focus here. So the attributes and actions of the enemies, the enemies listed, and then asking God to deal in the present as he had in the past. Right, So that's simple, straightforward. Now, on one hand, I could literally walk through that and probably fifteen to twenty thirty minutes and we've already kind of walked through it.

9:24 But we're gonna step back and do something different. And here's the reason why. Okay, one of the criticisms that I may receive frequently is my constant yelling and screaming that so many times people take Old Testament passages and they immediately kick out the original recipients and make it all about us. And that drives me absolutely crazy when people do that, right, because it leads to major problems, right, because you're either then claiming that in the that scripture talking about someone else is about us, so we get the promises, or we get this, or we get that, and in some cases it's just not the case. All week on the podcast, it's been Joshua one eight, Joshua one eight, Joshua one eight, Joshua one eight. I don't know how many sermons I reviewed on Joshua one eight. I'm to the point I never want to hear another sermon ever again on Joshua one a because in every single sermon, guess what they did at Joshua one eight. They kicked out the original recipients. Boom made it immediately about us, not them.

10:37 They make it about us, right, and and they completely not one sermon connected Joshua one eight with Deuteronomy twenty eight. You can't read Joshua one eight and disconnected from Deuteronomy twenty eight. Deuteronomy twenty eight is what we sometimes refer to as the Land covenant. God makes a specific covenant to Israel that when you go into the land, and if you do these things, what happens. You get blessings, you get good success, and if you don't do these things, what do you get? Curse that is for Israel. So you get to Joshua one. Ain't he is telling Israel on the basis of that covenant. Don't let the words of this book, those specific instructions clearly given an Exodus and Deuteronomy. Don't let that depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night, and do everything that's in it. Now, what do you know from a historical perspective, did they do that? No?

11:41 We know this from a historical perspective. Does any of us do that? No? All right, so we already know that our interpretation here, We've got to do some work on it. Right. Well, One, clearly those are law passages which only are going to condemn us and make us go to Christ. Because Christ did do those three things? Did he not they let the law of the Lord depart from his mouth? No? Did he meditate on a day and night? Yes? Did he observe all that was in it? Yes? So in Christ he's done it for us. But most importantly though, it's specifically for Israel. So I get so frustrated when people go to these passages and just make them about us, and nobody in churches raise their hands. Everybody's just in the congregation going amen, Amen, Amen. I'm like, what are you ameny? Okay, you're not even understanding the text, so I get criticized for that. What drives me crazy is people's criticism tends not to be accurate. Just because I say that most of the passages that people immediately apply to us is to someone else, that does not mean that there's not ways to possibly make it applicable to us.

12:54 Right, there are lessons that can be gained from it. But what must we do when we find lessons and any passage of scripture? Right, when we're going to make lessons for us? What must we do? How should we be able to find those lessons without doing what everyone else does, which just kicks out the original recipients. Well, I'm not going to ask you to identify how you should do it. You should know how to do it. But what you have to do first and foremost is the first application. The first interpretation has to be dependent upon what the original recipients has to be, all right, then any lesson drawn to us must be consistent with what the text actually says. Correct. For example, if you're going to apply Joshua one to eight to us, well, then nobody gets any prosperity or success without what meditating on God's word day and night. I've yet to meet a Christian even comes close to doing that. You can't even get Christians to read the Bible. You definitely can't get Christians to study the Bible, and meditation goes way beyond reading, right, So then, but no, then what we do is we take that and I say, well we can do it. Nobody does it, so why do it? If you're going to make it applicable, it's got to be You've got to then follow the actual text. You can't then come in and modify the text. Right.

14:22 If you're gonna say the text is promising something, well, then it's got to be able to be somewhat connected to reality. Correct. Okay, so there are certain things we have to do. So I'm going to try today, based off those three concepts in Saw eighty three that we're gonna look at, I'm going to try to take some of that and make it somewhat applicable to us. So what are the three things we're gonna look at for the next two hours? First, attributes and actions of the enemies, Number two the list of the enemies, and number three basically them wanting God to deal with the present enemy like you did in the past. Now that third one is going to be very difficult, and it's going to be a challenge to see if we can eat if this is even going to work. We're gonna I'm gonna try to put us in the text to some level, and then we're gonna see if it falls apart. It may fall completely apart, and if it falls completely apart, well, then no one can accuse me of not trying. Okay, but we got to be honest with it. Okay, I think that third part is where things are going to really fall apart for us. But okay, we will see. All right, everybody ready, so that we've already covered this, but I am going to if all we can accomplish in this hour is being like, I don't care if I have to repeat this one hundred times for each one. I want you to know the attributes of these enemies because this is what the rest of the day is completely dependent upon. Okay, everybody got that? All right? So

15:54 saw eighty three to one. There is really the heart of the lament God. Where are you? Why are you being silent? Why are you being inactive? Right? Everybody got that? All right? Verse two. Right now, this is going to give us the reason for the lament, and he's going to give the reason of the limit. It's going to because of the attributes and actions of the enemies, starting in verse two. For behold, your enemies make a number one a tumult, and the King James a tumult. All right now, remember we talked a little bit. I want to make sure we get this. The enemies identified in Psalm eighty three, one of their actions, kind of one of their attributes, is they produce and create a tumult. Now, the word tumult and the King James refers to a loud, confused noise, or disturbance caused by a crowd of people.

16:53 When the Saumus mentions that the enemies are making a tumult, it implies that there is an uproar, commotion chaotic behavior being exhibited by them. This description suggests a sense of disorder, agitation, and unrest amongst the enemies of God's people. They are not acting calmly or peacefully, but rather in a disruptive and tumultuous manner, likely reflecting their aggressive and threatening attentions towards the community. The use of the term tumult conveys a vivid image of noise disorder created by the enemies of God as they conspire against God's people. So they are chaot So they are chaotic, they're loud, they're unpredictable, okay, which could create a sense of panic, could create a sense of fear. If someone is unpredictable and chaotic, you don't know what to expect next. Right, If someone is acting calmly and logically, you may have a way to be able to anticipate the next move. But if they're chaotic and loud and aggressive and disordered, you may I don't know what's coming next. Who knows, I don't even know how to predict what's coming next. So the first description of God's enemies here, or the enemies of Israel, the enemies period in this section is they are chaotic, They're loud. There's no order, there's no sense of calm, there's no sense of peace. Right, And

18:23 in some ways this kind of describes them, but it also, in a sense it describes what not only them, It kind of describes what they're going to produce. Right, Are they not producing a sense of chaos and disorder and panic amongst the people clearly, because it's so gotten to the people that they have done. What Look at verse one, they're crying out to God, going, God, where are you? Because there's something so disturbing that's making them disturbing. When things around you are chaotic, when things around you are loud, loud, and disorderly, that can sometimes do what create a sense of chaos inside of you? All right, keep that in mind.

19:10 So what's the first kind of attribute and characteristic of the enemies? Chaos? I like that word chaos, chaotic, loud, unpredictable. We have that, we got, I mean, repeat it fifty times, all right. Next, what's the next attribute characteristic? Before that? There's a phrase before that, and those who hate you they hate God. The phrase indicates that the enemies are not only opposed to God's people, but also harbor a deep seated animosity towards God himself. Their hostility is directed not just at the nation or community, but extend to the divine, reflecting a rebellious and defiant stance against God. They hate God. The enemies hate God. That they are loud, chaotic, I mean, you don't know what to expect from them, and they hate God, meaning if they hate God, they're gonna hate everything associated with God. Right, They're gonna hate what God would like, or what God would love, or what God would approve of. They hate God, right, so chaotic and hate God. If you want to make it simple, they are chaotic and they hate God. Everybody have that down,

20:42 all right? What's the third? They lifted up their heads. The phrase lifted up their heads can symbolize arrogance, pride, and defiance. It suggests that the enemies are acting with the sense of haughtiness and self importance, perhaps displaying an attitude of superiority or triumph. They may be showing off their power, influence, or confidence, and their ability to achieve their nefarious goals. The ideas they're just arrogant, proud, boastful, rebellious. They're not. They're lifting up their heads almost in a defiant way. So how are these enemies described? Number one chaotic? Number two hate God and number three prideful, arrogant, defiant? Getting basic idea? Right, what's next?

21:45 They have taken crafty counsel against your people, so taking let's go with the idea of crafty counsel. This phrase suggests that the enemies are devising, cunning, and deceitful strategies are playing to harm God's people. They're not employing honest methods, but deceitful, shrewd methods, possibly underhanded tactics and schemes. The use of the word crafty implies a level of cunning and subtlety, and they're planning, indicating that they are. They are strategic and calculating in their actions.

22:26 Right, crafty, council, crafty. Everybody understand that deceitful, underhanded, right, subtle, they're not just even though they're chaotic, they're still being crafty and deceitful, and that which could make make it even more difficult to even know what they're going to do. Right if they're chaotic, but at the same time, crafty, subtle, cunning, deceitful, manipulative, I'm shady, all the words we can come up that that's gonna make them even more of a threat, Right, all right, So what's number one?

23:07 Chaos? Chaotic, two hate God? Three arrogant, defiant, just rebellious, prideful? Next, cunning, crafty, craftiness, cunning, deceitful, manipulative people. Right, Okay, okay, I think so? Right? Yeah, right, exactly crafty. Yeah, yeah, there's lots of examples, lots of examples of that, yeah, all throughout the Bible.

23:47 Right, so we got that all right? Next, all right, they consult together. You see that. It's mentioned a number of times. Verse three, they have taken crafty counsel against your people. They have consulted together against Well, well we'll just say consulted together. Then if you look down, you see it, see it? Yeah? Verse five, Oh there it is, Okay, I knew somewhere else. For they have consulted together with one consent, they form a confederacy against you. What's the main thing to take from that? They're unified. They're unified in their schemes. They're unified in their pride. They're unified, and they're chaos. They're unified in their purpose. They come together. They are unified in these areas too, because they hate God. They have a common enemy. They hate God, they hate the things associated with God, and obviously they hate Israel. All right, So but they come together, they have a unified purpose. They're not divided, they're not there's no division amongst them. They're unified. Right, So let's go through these again. Chaos Number two hate God. Number three arrogant, proud, okay, fourth, cunning, crafty, deceitful,

25:23 manipulative, next, unified. They come together. They are setting aside whatever would divide them for an ultimately common purpose. Okay, right, do we have another one? Okay? They will say they are dedicated to the destruction of what they have said, Come, let us cut them off from being a nation that the name of Visual may be remembered no more. They are dedicated to the absolute destruction of Israel, God's covenant people. They come together, and for what purpose? They want to destroy Israel, the thing that God loves, the thing that God chose, the thing that would be important to God. They want to wipe off the face of the earth. That's very important in this. All right, So let's get this, let's get these these attitudes and attributes right. Always. Number one, we got chaos.

26:29 Everybody should have that. That's that's an easy one to remember since we're just using one word chaos. Number two, hate God. That's an easy one to remember, since we're only using two words. Okay. Number three that arrogant, prideful, defiant, rebellious. Those were using more words. But the prideful is The main thing to take from that, they're prideful, next, cunning, crafty, deceitful, manipulative, right, shrewd, subtle, All right, schemes. You get that, You get the basic idea. Okay, next unified, and the next committed to the destruction of Israel, or we could say, committed to the destruction of that which God has chosen in loves. That's very important. Okay, Now is there one more.

27:27 We spend a lot of time on this one. Yeah, we we we that's the same same kind of idea. All right, We kind of skipped it over up in verse three, but we'll go back to it. They consulted together. Okay, continue, No, No verse three against your sheltered ones, hidden ones are treasured ones. There going against God's sheltered ones, hidden ones, treasured ones. Okay, So what we want to the main thing we want to say here is that they are going after what God, what God treasures, what God you know, cares about. We'll just go that way. It's the same idea of Israel, but Israel's clearly identified here. He just says sheltered ones, treasured ones, the hidden ones.

28:23 There's a lot of different phrases each phrase, depending on how it's translated, has different kind of you know, meaning sheltered ones, treasured ones. The main idea is this is what These are God's people whom God has chosen. So you could say, we could say it this way. They are committed to going after God's chosen ones, are God's elect. I think that's even a better way of putting it, right, because is Israel God's elect. Yes, he chose them from all the other nations, not because they were the strongest, not because they were the wisest, and definitely not because they were the most godly correct. Right, so he goes they go after that, all right, So I now I think we have a pretty good picture.

29:10 Right, So let's see if we have these. I want these almost memorized. All right, everybody ready, Chaos number two, hate God number three, arrogant, prideful number four, deceit, cunning, crafty, shrewd, manipulative. Next, united, committed together, they're committed to a unified purpose. Next they want to destroy Israel. Right, and then we'll we're going to separate the next one, right, because the sheltered ones, we're gonna say God's elect. The one that mentions Israel I just want that because that's specifically named. All Right. I know that those are connected to some level, but I just want them. I want to separate them for that purpose. Does that make sense, all right? Because Israel's clearly so we want to keep it. That's the enemies. That's the way they are described, all right, that's the way that that's their attributes, that's their characteristics.

30:12 Now here's the question. Here's the question. All right, everybody ready, Okay, Now, I could go to the enemies listed, but I'm not going to do that right now. All right, we'll get to them in a minute. All right. Well, well we'll look at them in a minute, but let me just ask this question here. I'll ask the question here and now I'll return to the question in a minute. Okay. So here's the question. When you look at that description of those enemies, is there anything and that description that could be even remotely applicable or connected to us without doing damage of the original meaning of the text. I'm waiting for you to answer. Okay, we're getting we gotta know. Okay, I don't know. I'm just asking you. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna give anything away, Okay. I said, what's in the text that could be

31:45 applicable or connected to us? Anything could be applicable. What what can we take from this? Uh without destroying the meaning of the text? Clearly? First and foremost, this is describing what the enemies that they are facing at that time, all right? So do we just leave it there but that's at the end? Or is there something there that would make you think, well, maybe this has maybe this could be applied or connected to something beyond just that. Is there a lesson or is there something that can be taken from it? All right, y'all don't seem too convinced that there is anything, all right, So we should just say, Hey, that's the description of the enemy's ri Israel the end, all right? Okay, that's that's how y'all feel. Okay, Well, this is gonna get really ugly because I disagree one thousand percent. Okay, but I believe there's something in the text that would tell me to disagree with that. Okay, let's go through them again, all right. The first description of the enemies is chaos number two, Hey, God, number three, they lift up their heads, proud, arrogant number next, cunning, deceitful, shrewd manipulate. Next Unified.

33:02 Next, I want to destroy Israel. Next they go after God's elect people. Okay, all right, do what I mean? These are attributes that I think we could be able to say, go way beyond just the original context, right, I mean, those are very specific attributes, are they not. Yeah, yeah, don't think it. There's nothing there that would make you think, huh, those attributes sound kind of familiar. Okay, why yeah, you're going directly to people. I don't know why you would go. Okay, I guess we that would make more sense, Okay, okay, all right, well so we'll just leave it there, y'all.

33:57 Don't seem to I thought it would just kind of jump off the like whoa. If you think about those attributes, this could go a lot of directions. Okay, but since you're not getting that, well we'll come back to it. All right, So let's go to the that's the first part. The enemies attributes and actions are described in very specific detail, all right. Typically, when I'm reading a text and it goes into that grade of detail, I think that should get your attention, right, I mean I think they could have said that probably like, hey, your enemies hate you and us. But it puts into very specific details about the attributes, does it not? Or no? I don't think so? Okay, yeah, I think. I mean it's been some considerable time, and when you look at those specific attributes, I don't know, I have a hard time just saying, well, okay, nothing for me there. I think that there's a lot that we could possibly consider. But next, what do they do?

34:55 Next? The enemies are listed? Remember I get view that line at the beginning, right, the enemies are listed that starts where it starts in verse six. Okay, and what do we have in verse six? The tents of eat them? All right? Eat them? Or the descendants of Esau, who held a long standing rivalry with the Israelites. All right, so from a historical context, enemies. Right, they have a long standing rivalry with Israel. Next Ishmaelites, descendants of Ishmael often associated with nomadic tribes in the region. You could possibly see why they may have some issues with Israel. Correct, all right, I think we can all derive something from that. I think we should be able to Next Moab, these are descendants of Lot who were historical enemies of Israel. Okay, Next, the Hagarins are the hag Rights, depending on your translation, possibly a reference to a group of nomads or descendants of Hagar right. Next Geball or Gbal right a city in the region of modern day Lebanon. Now we could possibly dig in to their possible historical animosity or issues with Israel, but okay, Next Ammon, descendants of Lot, also known for their hostility towards Israel. Next Emilek, a long standing enemy of the Israelites, known for their attacks on the vulnerable. Next the Felistia or the Philistines, inhabitants of the Philistine region,

36:31 known for their conflicts with Israel throughout history. All Right, So the point is all of these they're naming very specific enemies because all of these enemies have a long history of having conflict with whom Israel. So these are very specific. So in this particular case, right from a historical perspective, the enemies are listed, and they're attributes and characteristics are listed, so we know historically, this makes perfect sense why there would be so bothered and concern because you take all of these enemies, and all of these enemies have done what they've come together, They've conspired, right, They've formed a confederacy. It would be one thing to have to deal with one of these nations, but now they are dealing with all of them, all conspiring, all committed to their ultimate destruction. You could see, once again, this confirms my what I talked about last week. The major emphasis here, and this is a psalm that describes the people who believe in a God whom they cannot see, but living in the midst of circumstances that they can see. That seems to describe that would seem to scream there is no God, and that would write there when you list those enemies, that's a great concern. Yes, those are historical enemies that are all now saying, you know what, instead of fighting

38:02 against them separately, let's fight against Israel together, which then would make it very very very concerning. Okay, so we've got the enemies attributes, we got the enemies listed. Does anything at this point I just still think it's nothing for us. Why I'm asking you, all right, So I just so I'll make sure we understand. All right, So as individuals, if y'all were reading Psaw eighty three and studying it, meditating on it, your conclusion would simply be well that's bad for Israel the end. It wouldn't take anything from it. Go okay, I can apply this, or I can take this, or I can learn this or nothing. Okay, all right, So the so you would take, you would focus on the limit.

39:04 Okay. So I'm just gonna throw this out there since no nobody else went there, and just see, all right. As Christians in the spiritual realm, I think we can acknowledge that we face various enemies that seek to undermine our relationship with God. These spiritual enemies can take different forms and present diverse challenges to believers. Would we agree with that statement? I took that statement from a different source, all right. That statement was taken as someone's observation of Sawny three because they were like, well, look at those attributes and the the enemies are specifically listed. Clearly, Israel's facing what kind of an enemy? A physical one. It could be argued that the physical manifestation is being driven by something spiritual. It could be argued whether we want to go there or not, we don't know, right. I think we could argue that there's possibly something that hates what God hates. There's possibly something that I

40:34 don't know, hates God select there is possibly something that we would describe as being very prideful and arrogant. There's probably something we would describe as being very bringing about chaos and is chaotic. There's probably something that we would describe as being subtle and crafty and having schemes. I think there's something in the Bible that seems to fit that description relatively well. I could be wrong, but I think that not only does it fit the description, I think the entire Bible gives all of the things we just listed describe something with those exact descriptors, at least in part. Nobody does anyone else know what? Okay, Satan obviously right, Okay, Now, what if it possible that Satan possibly does not like Israel and hates Israel because they are God's chosen. I think there's a possibility, right. I think there may be some scripture that would even indicate that, right maybe, and I think they would do so.

41:32 I what I want to do is if they listed the enemies. Those are physical enemies, that's true, but I think that we have enemies that we can list, And what we're gonna try to do is go through a list of enemies. I've got a long one I made. I think I have ten. I don't know if we'll go through all ten, and I'm gonna try to demonstrate that those enemies have the exact same attributes and characteristics as what's described in Psalm eighty three, almost to the very word. Now, I may not be able to prove it for all ten. I don't know if we're gonna go through all ten, but I'm gonna go through some of these.

42:15 I mean, some of these are obvious to me. But We're gonna go through and see if what Israel faced in the physical we face in the spiritual with the exact same attributes. Now, where this is going to fall apart is what Israel relies on to deal with this situation. We'll see if that's where. If that's where it won't apply to us. But I think this is very applicable. Right, we see physical enemies facing Israel, and I should remind me that we have what enemies. Now the question is does those attributes and characteristics of those enemies do they actually describe our enemies? Now, at any point we may decide what Ah, this is not working, it's falling apart, and so we can throw those out. We'll see, right, we'll see. I use multiple sources here to try to compile a list of these descriptors, going, hey, okay, if this are if this is the description of the enemy, and saw maybe three, how does this spiritual enemy that everyone should be able to agree as a spiritual enemy?

43:30 Does it fit the same descriptors? I use multiple sources to try to determine if it works. Some of the sources are in agreement. Some of the sources don't know. But we were going to see what we can come up with. All right, now we are well, we've got like five minutes, so we'll just go ahead and introduce the first one. Everyone should know the first one, right when we think of when we start thinking, we'll do this, let's do this in five minutes, start writing compiling a list. Let's see how well you can do of all the enemies that are Christian faces? What are the enemies a Christian faces? Start just compiling a list. To start compiling the list and see what you can find specific enemies that we face. What's the first one everyone wrote down? Oh, everyone wrote the flesh first. Okay, interesting, Okay, that's probably good. Okay, but that's that's interesting. But the flesh, Now, if we go with the flesh, just the flesh kind of okay, when we go with flesh, we'll put flesh self or nature sinful nature altogether, right because that all kind of describes the same thing, right all right? Uh? Is the sinful nature the flesh? Does it not lead to chaos? And it's chaotic? It does not bring peace? All right? Doesn't hate God?

44:55 Oh? Oh, way, this sounds pretty discribed. It sounds pretty similar or does it not? Okay? What else? Is it? Prideful and arrogant? That's a very essence of our nature? Correct? All right? Next? Oh, it's absolutely the hardest deceitful above. I mean, come on, that's the simple one. Like this is like this is like this is like elementary stuff. Right next? Does it hate what God loves and treasures? Absolutely? All right? In fact? Does our nature? Does our nature love what God has chosen or elected? It hates it? Our nature hates it. It's literally you could read that description in Saw eighty three, and what you should have written down is the first thing that should have screamed at you was like that describes me, correct, which is gonna be very interesting because when we see how what Israel wants God to do to fix their problem, it's fascinating because the very first one. In fact, i'll just go ahead and give you a preview. Look at verse nine. Deal with them as with Midian. Right, everybody know where God dealt with Midian.

46:16 Gideon had a battle with the Midianites, right, we read it about it in Judges six, seven and eight. He has an army that's too big. God reduces the army and he wins the victory. Ooh, okay, So we want God to deal with Midian like we want God to deal with our current enemies like he dealt with our past enemies. And that sounds like such a good solution. But how does that story end? They see Gideon the hero, he returns as a hero, and they're like, Gideon rule over us, and he's like, no, I don't want to rule over you, but I do want your gold and silver. And he makes an ephod which leads to idolatry. Oh have to be a polygamist and an adulterer. Oh, and an idolatr. That's how the story ultimately ends, which then demonstrates what having God deal with your external enemy does not fix the real problem, because the real problem is you. He can destroy the Medianites what it means, but destroying the Midianites did not change what Gideon's sinful nature, because it manifests itself right there in chapter eight. He has a concubine, he has multiple wives, and he ultimately guess what happens to Israel after Gideon defeats the Midianites. They go right back into idolatry because Gideon has this

47:52 Ethod made. It's all right there in Judges six, seven and eight. So immediately when I see that, I'm like, whoa. Even though they want to do with their physical enemy, what's the real enemy for Israel themselves? So guess what that description describes whom us lady? That's that if you want to take something from Ssaw eighty three, then that's what we see. The very first thing Sal eighty three should make you scream is like, oh, man, I am not reading about them, I'm reading about me right here. I am the I am the enemy in Psaw eighty three, it's me. See we read that and we're like, oh, all these bad people. And guess what almost every preacher does with saw Maity three if they want to apply it. Oh, it's the liberals, or it's them, or it's them, or you should be going it's us. Were saw eighty three? Were those enemies? That describes us better than anything else? Could you? If you're gonna make an e harmony profile, make that your e harmony profile? Right? Chaotic? I hate God. I'm prideful, arrogant, I'm cunning and deceitful. I hate what God loves. Oh, nobody wants to describe themselves that way. I'm sorry. That's your nature, that's my nature, that's us. So immediately we know saw me. And again

49:23 the key is when you get to the Midianites and you go read about how he defeated the Midianites, just read all the way to judges Ate and then you're like, what is Gideon doing? You're like at that point you're like, well, then there was no point in defeating the Midianites. It didn't accomplish anything, because what's the real enemy. So then that immediately makes me think, then the enemies here, even though they're they're literal nations, they're really what we need to look at is spiritual enemies because that's where the battle really is foed correct we did not fight against flesh and plad to see.

50:05 You see where we're going, all right, So we'll we'll go through all of them. I don't know how how many of you got down on your list, but I came up with almost I think ten. So we'll work through them in the next hour. And what we're gonna do, we're gonna do. It's gonna be repetitive, but we're gonna take each one and then look at what those no, no, no, those attributes, those attributes to see if they apply to each one of those enemies. If they do, then I think we are then staying true to the text right and yet being able to find something that's applicable to us, which every one accuses me of not doing, which I always do to some level, but we just got to be true. I spend most of our time combating, however one keeps removing the original recipients. I think I've been very fair to the original recipients all the way through this, have we not? So now we can say, Okay, we've got that down. Where do we fit into this?

51:01 Well, there may be a place where we fit, but I'm putting it forth as a hypothesis because guess what. I got no problem saying it fell apart. We're gonna test it, right. I like to put forth the hypotheses and then we test it what together? Right? So I think there's a part that's gonna fall apart. But we'll see, we'll see, right. Well, we'll stuck there. So what are the attributes again? Let's just go thro them again? Chaos, Hey, God, proud, arrogant, cunning, deceitful, shrewd, unified, destroy Israel and hate God's elect or what God loves, God's chosen? All right, everybody got those attributes. If you get those attributes down, you can do a lot with those attributes, and whenever you look at a lot of different issues. All right, So let's pray, Lord God. We come before you this morning.

51:54 Lord, as we continue to work on Psaw eighty three, it appears first and forem we may want to see ourselves and how we are the enemies, just as those nations were the enemies of Israel and your enemy, we are your enemy in every similar way. Help us see that and be convicted by that. We asked us in Jesus name, and God's people said