that they may know that you alone, whose name is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth.
Psalm 83 is a prayer against a group of nations plotting to wipe Israel's name off the map. Its last verse names the outcome the whole prayer aims at. The psalmist asks for more than rescue. He asks that one Name be known as supreme, and known everywhere.
The Goal of the Judgment Is Knowledge
The psalm ends with a purpose clause, and commentators read the judgment asked for in verses 13–17 as the means to that end. What is to be learned is very specific:
J. N. DarbyJudgment is to be executed, so that the rebellious nations may seek Jehovah's name. It is not, know the Father, nor, know there is a God; but, know Jehovah. When His judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Men will know that He whose name alone is Jehovah — He who is, and was, and is to come — is the Most High over all the earth. That is, Jehovah, the one true God, the God of Israel, is the One above all, supreme over the earth.
The Name Itself
The verse rests everything on a name. Older translations write it "Jehovah." Most English Bibles print it as "the LORD" in small capitals. Its force is existence that depends on nothing:
Walter ScottThe dread and sacred Name Jehovah signifies underived existence, the Self-Existing One. To Israel the Name was explained as "I AM WHO I AM" (Ex. 3:14); to Gentiles as "him who is and who was and who is to come" (Rev. 1:4; 4:8)... "Who is" implies independent, unchangeable existence. "Who was" points to Jehovah's relation to the past. "Who is to come" shows His connection with the future.
"Most High" Reaches Past Israel
The second title in the verse, Elyon, carries its own weight, and the psalm deliberately stretches it beyond one nation:
Morrish Bible DictionaryElyon, "the Most High," is another name of God. Sometimes it stands alone, as in Deut. 32:8; 2 Sam. 24:14; and in Dan. 4:17-34 (from a related word). Sometimes one of the above words is added to it, and it is then "the Most High God," Gen. 14:20, or "the LORD Most High," Ps. 7:17. It is not limited to Israel, for He is "the Most High over all the earth." Ps. 83:18.
So the verse joins the name Israel knew to the title under which God claims the whole world. One writer traces this title from earlier Scripture to the coming reign:
J. N. DarbyIt is in this name that He takes possession of the earth. Melchizedek pronounced his blessing in the name of the Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. And Nebuchadnezzar, the humbled head of the nations, praises and blesses the Most High. It is His millennial name, the name in which He takes His great power and reigns.
Man's Hostility Produces the Opposite of What It Wants
The plot in this psalm is to erase a people. Its actual outcome, one writer notes, is the public establishment of the very God being resisted:
J. N. DarbyPsalm 83 shows the way man is guilty of active enmity against God. In his hatred of God's people he uses craft, conspiracy, and violence to destroy their memory off the earth. The result is that Jehovah alone, the God of Israel, is the Most High over all the earth. Such is the effect of man's efforts.
Whose Prayer This Is
The harsh prayers before verse 18 trouble many Christian readers. One writer puts this psalm on different ground from the church's calling:
William KellyThe prayer that fits those who hate us is certainly not the language of Ps. 83:9-18. But it is the right expression of faith in Jewish believers, who are looking to God to arise and judge the earth.
Why It Still Presses on Us
The lesson the psalm asks God to teach is one the world has not yet learned. The point is God's right to dispose of the earth:
W. W. FeredayThe earth is full of confusion and sorrow, because men are proud and self-willed. They are bent on dividing the earth by their own plans, to satisfy their own ambition. Between the wars, negotiators come together to discuss terms of peace. God is not uppermost in their thoughts. Still less is the Man whom God has appointed Heir of all things... The nations will yet have to learn that God is the Most High. He has absolute right to dispose of everything as He wills. And as the Almighty He is well able to carry out His will, and crush all opposition.
Summary
- Name — the verse turns on one word: Jehovah, "the LORD." It means existence that depends on nothing: He who is, and was, and is to come.
- Claim — "Most High" (Elyon) is not a title limited to Israel; it asserts God's right over the whole earth.
- Method — God teaches the nations by judgment, not by argument. When His judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
- Irony — a conspiracy formed to erase God's people ends by establishing that Jehovah alone is supreme.
- Reach — the prayer looks past one rescue to a lasting result: God known as Most High over all the earth, in the name under which He takes His great power and reigns.