Tehilim Perek 83

Welcome to NachDaily, covering the entire TANACH one perek at a time. I’m Rabbi Shaya Sussman, and today we’ll be discussing Tehilim, Chapter 83.

This prayer was written by Asaph about the war that he fought with King Yohoshaphat. For background information, see Divrey Hayomim Bais, chapter 20.

This perek can also be understood as a prayer for one of the stages in the final redemption, when Yisrael will be surrounded by their enemies, and about our long galus, exile.

Baruch Hashem we continue to be saved from daily threats against us by the surrounding nations who are constantly planning on ways to destroy us. They have “Yerushalayim” written on the noses of their warheads. Even though these chapters were written over 2,000 years ago, they are just as relevant today.

The chapter opens with a call to God to not be silent when our enemies plan to destroy us. Not only do they hate Yisrael, but God as well. They unanimously and openly proclaim, “Let us destroy Israel.”

Asaph enumerates the nations who want to harm Yisrael: Edom, Yishmael, the descendants of Hagar, Gival, Ammon, Amelek, Philistine, the residents of Tyre and Assyria.

Asaph asks Hashem to treat them as He’s treated all the other nations who wanted to destroy us, to completely wipe them out, make them like chaff in the wind, and to consume them like a forest fire. They will ultimately receive their tikkun, rectification, by acknowledging God’s omnipotence, realizing that nothing is separate from Him.

Verse 18 ends the perek with;

וְֽיֵדְע֗וּ כִּֽי־אַתָּ֬ה שִׁמְךָ֣ יְהוָ֣ה לְבַדֶּ֑ךָ עֶ֝לְי֗וֹן עַל־כָּל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃

May they know that You alone, whose Name is God, are the Most High over all the earth.

The Sefer Mamarim explains that God has two ways of running the world: through nissim, miracles, and through teva, nature. We tend to think that open miracles are greater than nature because they strengthen our emunah.

Truth be told, however, the thousands of “natural” miracles that we experience usually go completely unrecognized. Our hearts beat, our brains function, we can breathe, the human eye is incredible, and the list goes on.

In the future we will celebrate the “natural” miracles as being as amazing as the open ones.

That is what is meant by “You alone know all the miracles that are done.” They will become apparent to all mankind. Our awareness will be completely raised to a new level of consciousness to celebrate all the doings of Hashem.

May we merit not waiting for the Messianic era to recognize that all of the natural miracles that we take for granted are from God. By celebrating every little bit of good we have now, we can experience the World to Come, right here!

Thank you for listening, and have a wonderful day.