The miracle of Psalm 83

The divine inspiration of the Bible is quite obvious when we look at the nation and country of Israel in 2022.  To illustrate it we want to discuss part of a psalm that was written around 3,000 years ago.   It begins with a plea to God, 

‘O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still.’  Psalm 83:1

Why the plea?  

‘See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads.  With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish.’  Psalm 83:2-3

Note: Your [God’s] enemies are astir and God’s foes rear their heads.  They plan to attack God’s people, Israel.

“Come, ‘they say,’  Let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.'”  Psalm 83:4

In this Psalm certain nations wanted to annihilate Israel so that they will no longer be a nation.  These events happened thousands of years ago.  It is an ongoing lingering desire of some nations and individuals to destroy Israel.  The Bible explains that it is rooted in hatred towards God.  

Today we relive the events of Psalm 83.  Iran makes no secret of it that they want to destroy Israel.  Through the ages many attempts have been made to destroy God’s people, the Jews.  None of the past attempts, of which Hitler’s is a major one, have yet succeeded.  

Verses 5-8 relate,

‘With one mind they plot together, they form an alliance against You….’

The fight is not primarily against the Jews, but against God.  The psalm ends with the following, 

‘Let them know that you, whose Name is the Lord — that You alone are the Most High over all the earth.’  Psalm 83:18 

The hatred for Israel is a recurring war against God that has led to much pain and bloodshed.  It proves that to resist the Lord Most High is the biggest mistake anybody can ever make and it has dire consequences.

God and the New Atheists

The most amazing aspect of the Bible is its predictive ability. For example it predicted the war against God 3,000 years ago in Psalm 83:1-2: ‘O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still. See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads.’  Peter Boghossian calls Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett, valiant fighters against the ‘terror’ of the God of the Bible.¹ They fit the description of enemies …astir.

 

In Psalm 83:3 we read, ‘With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish.’  New Atheists like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Victor Stenger, Michel Onfray, Dan Barker, A C Grayling, Lawrence Krauss, Jerry Coyne, Greta Christina, Michael Shermer, David Silverman, Steven Pinker conspire and plot.² They write mainly from a scientific perspective. Victor Stenger proposed that the personal Abrahamic God is a scientific hypothesis that can be tested by standard methods of science. Logically Dawkins and Stenger concluded that the hypothesis fails any such tests. ³  (Richard Dawkins is the founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science – RDFRS).⁴

 

When New Atheists want scientific information on how the virgin birth took place, or how a man can be resurrected after he has been dead for three days? How do we answer them? Jesus showed us a strategy. He was once questioned by the chief priests and the elders, ‘By what authority are you doing these things? …who gave you this authority?’  Jesus said if they can answer His question, He will answer them: John’s baptism—was it from heaven or from men? They deliberated about it and realised that whichever way they answered, they were in trouble. So they said they didn’t know. Jesus replied that He was then under no obligation to answer them. ⁵

 

In the same way atheists believe they are scientific, rational and logical. They can ‘crush’ ignorant Bible believers with their excellent arguments. So let us follow Jesus’ strategy and ask them to answer our question first, before we answer theirs. How did male and female evolve simultaneously so that evolution could continue? When in the history of life did organisms begin sexual reproduction, because it is very uneconomical in evolutionary terms? ⁶

 

Atheists will have trouble with this simple biological question. They can only say that they don’t know yet. It happened somewhere, somehow. In the mean time the public have to believe that sex evolved without any scientific evidence. That is not science, but faith in evolution.

 

The take away message is: if they cannot answer us, why do they question us? Yet we intend to answer their questions in this blog. Don’t be afraid. It is not the Bible or God that is a myth. The opposite is true. Evolution is the myth.

 

References

1. P Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists, Pitchstone Publishing, 2013, p 17
2. Wikipedia
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Matthew 21:23-27
6. Reece et al, Campbell Biology, Pearson, 2011, p 354