God, Don't Keep Silent

God, don’t keep silent.Don’t keep silent,and don’t be still, God.

Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.

The psalm opens with a triple plea against silence: don't keep silent, don't keep silent, don't be still. The problem is not that God has acted but that he seems not to have acted at all.

Also read Psalm 35:22, Isaiah 42:14, Psalm 44:23, Psalm 28:1

For, behold, your enemies are stirred up.Those who hate you have lifted up their heads.

For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.

Also read Isaiah 37:29, Acts 21:30, Matthew 27:24, Acts 17:5

They conspire with cunning against your people.They plot against your cherished ones.

They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.

The enemies act with cunning. Their target is named in two ways, your people and your cherished ones, so an attack on Israel is framed as an attack on those God holds dear.

Also read Psalm 64:2, Psalm 31:20, Colossians 3:3, Isaiah 7:6-7

“Come,” they say, “let’s destroy them as a nation,that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”

They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

The enemies' own words are quoted. They want to destroy Israel as a nation so completely that its name is remembered no more. This is the heart of the threat.

Also read Acts 9:1-2, Daniel 7:25, Jeremiah 31:36, Jeremiah 48:2

For they have conspired together with one mind.They form an alliance against you.

For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:

The plot is united: they conspire with one mind and form an alliance. The verse says the alliance is against you, meaning God, not only against Israel.

Also read Revelation 19:19, Isaiah 7:5-7, Revelation 17:13, Acts 23:12-13

The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites;Moab, and the Hagrites;

The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;

The list of enemies begins here: the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites. Verses 7 and 8 continue it with Gebal, Ammon, Amalek, Philistia, Tyre and Assyria.

Also read 1 Chronicles 5:19-20, Psalm 137:7, 2 Chronicles 20:10-11, Genesis 25:12-18

Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek;Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;

Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;

Also read Joshua 13:5, Ezekiel 27:9, 1 Samuel 4:1, Amos 1:9

Assyria also is joined with them.They have helped the children of Lot. Selah.

Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.

Also read Genesis 19:37-38, Deuteronomy 2:9, 2 Kings 15:19, Isaiah 33:2

Do to them as you did to Midian,as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the river Kishon;

Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:

The prayer reaches back to earlier victories. It asks God to treat these enemies as he treated Midian, and Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon. The psalm names them without retelling the stories.

Also read Judges 4:7, Isaiah 10:26, Judges 5:21, Isaiah 9:4

who perished at Endor,who became as dung for the earth.

Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.

Also read Zephaniah 1:17, Joshua 17:11, 1 Samuel 28:7, Jeremiah 8:2

Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,

Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:

The psalm asks that the enemy nobles and princes end like Oreb and Zeeb, Zebah and Zalmunna. Verse 12 gives their offence: they said they would take possession of God's pasture lands.

Also read Judges 7:25, Judges 8:12-21

who said, “Let’s take possession of God’s pasture lands.”

Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.

Also read Psalm 83:4, Psalm 74:7-8, 2 Chronicles 20:11

My God, make them like tumbleweed,like chaff before the wind.

O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.

The imagery turns to nature. Tumbleweed and chaff before the wind are light and rootless, easily blown away, and that is how the writer asks God to treat the enemy.

Also read Psalm 74:11-12, Psalm 22:1, Jeremiah 13:24, Psalm 35:5

As the fire that burns the forest,as the flame that sets the mountains on fire,

As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;

Also read Isaiah 30:33, Nahum 1:10, Isaiah 33:11-12, Isaiah 64:1-2

so pursue them with your tempest,and terrify them with your storm.

So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.

Also read Psalm 50:3, Job 27:20-23, Isaiah 28:17, Isaiah 30:30

Fill their faces with confusion,that they may seek your name, LORD.

Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.

Here the purpose of the judgement appears. Confusion on their faces is meant to lead somewhere: that they may seek the LORD's name. The shame asked for is shame that turns them toward God.

Also read Psalm 6:10, Psalm 132:18, Job 10:15, Psalm 109:29

Let them be disappointed and dismayed forever.Yes, let them be confounded and perish;

Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:

Also read Psalm 35:26, Psalm 40:14-15, Psalm 35:4, Psalm 109:29

that they may know that you alone, whose name is the LORD,are the Most High over all the earth.

That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.

The last verse states the goal of the whole prayer. The enemies are to know that God alone, whose name is the LORD, is Most High over all the earth. The KJV prints the name here as JEHOVAH: whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.

Also read 2 Kings 19:19, Zechariah 4:14, Psalm 59:13, 1 Kings 18:37