Psalm 83:18

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

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

83:9-18 All who oppose the kingdom of Christ may here read their doom. God is the same still that ever he was; the same to his people, and the same against his and their enemies. God would make their enemies like a wheel; unsettled in all their counsels and resolves. Not only let them be driven away as stubble, but burnt as stubble. And this will be the end of wicked men. Let them be made to fear thy name, and perhaps that will bring them to seek thy name. We should desire no confusion to our enemies and persecutors but what may forward their conversion. The stormy tempest of Divine vengeance will overtake them, unless they repent and seek the pardoning mercy of their offended Lord. God's triumphs over his enemies, clearly prove that he is, according to his name JEHOVAH, an almighty Being, who has all power and perfection in himself. May we fear his wrath, and yield ourselves to be his willing servants. And let us seek deliverance by the destruction of our fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

That men may know - That all people may be impressed with the belief that thou art the true and only God. This was the design and aim of the prayer in the psalm. It was that there might be such a manifestation of the power of God; that it might be so evident that the events which had occurred could be traced to no other source than God himself, that all people might be led to honor him.

That thou whose name alone is Jehovah - To whom alone this name belongs; to whom alone it can be properly ascribed. This was the special name by which God chose to be known. Exodus 6:3. Compare the notes at Isaiah 42:8. On the word Jehovah - יהוה Yahweh - see the notes at Psalm 68:4. It is found in combination, in Genesis 22:14; Exodus 17:15; Judges 6:24; Ezekiel 48:35; Jeremiah 23:6; Jeremiah 33:16.

Art the Most High over all the earth - Thou art the Supreme God, ruling over all people. Thy dominion is so absolute over nations, even when combined together, and thy power is so complete in foiling their plans, and disconcerting their purposes, that it is clear that thou dost reign over them. He that could break up such a combination - he that could rescue his people from such an allied force - must have all power over the nations - must be the true God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. that they may seek—or as Ps 83:18, supply "men," since Ps 83:17, 18 amplify the sentiment of Ps 83:16, expressing more fully the measure of destruction, and the lesson of God's being and perfections (compare 2Ch 20:29) taught to all men.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That men may know, or that they may know, to wit, by costly experience, even by their own ruin, what they would not know by information for their own good, that thou art the Most High, the most high God, and the God not only of his people Israel, as the heathen fancied, and as their gods were confined to their particular and several territories, but the God and Governor of all the nations and parts of the earth.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah,.... Or, "that thou, thy name alone is Jehovah" (p), a self-existent Being, the Being of beings, the everlasting I AM, the immutable God; for this name is expressive of the being, eternity, and unchangeableness of God, who is, and was, and is to come, invariably the same, Revelation 1:4 which is to be understood not to the exclusion of the Son or Spirit, who are with the Father the one Jehovah, Deuteronomy 6:4, and to whom this name is given; see Exodus 17:6, compared with 1 Corinthians 10:9, Isaiah 6:8 compared with Acts 28:25, but to the exclusion of all nominal and fictitious deities, the gods of the Heathens; and the being and perfections of God are known by the judgments he executes, Psalm 9:16,

art the most High over all the earth; or,

and that thou art, &c. (q), being the Maker and the Possessor of it, and the sovereign Lord of its inhabitants, doing in it what seems good in his sight; see Genesis 14:22, for the accents require two propositions in the text: the Heathens (r) give the title of most high to their supreme deity: the Targum is,

"over all the inhabitants of the earth.''

(p) "quod nomen tuum", Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus. (q) "Quod tu, inquam, sis altissimus", Michaelis. (r) Pansan. Boeotica sive, l. 9. p. 555.

Geneva Study Bible

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

(n) Though they do not believe, yet they may prove by experience, that it is in vain to resist against your counsel in establishing your Church.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. That they may know that thou, whose name is JEHOVAH, even thou alone,

Art the Most High over all the earth.

The primary object of chastisement is conversion (Psalm 83:16); but if they will not acknowledge Israel’s God as the God of revelation, let them be compelled by reiterated judgements to recognise Him as the Almighty Ruler. Cp. Isaiah 37:20; 2 Chronicles 20:29. The ruin with which they threaten God’s people will recoil upon themselves (Psalm 6:10; Psalm 35:4; Psalm 35:26). For ‘know’ see Psalm 59:13 : and generally, cp. Psalm 97:8-9; Isaiah 26:9-11.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - That men may know; rather, that they may know. There is no "men" in the original. That thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth (see the comment on ver. 16).



Psalm 83:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The aim of the wish is that they in the midst of their downfall may lay hold upon the mercy of Jahve as their only deliverance: first they must come to nought, and only by giving Jahve the glory will they not be utterly destroyed. Side by side with אתּה, v. 19a, is placed שׁמך as a second subject (cf. Psalm 44:3; Psalm 69:11). In view of Psalm 83:17 וידעוּ (as in Psalm 59:14) has not merely the sense of perceiving so far as the justice of the punishment is concerned; the knowledge which is unto salvation is not excluded. The end of the matter which the poet wishes to see brought about is this, that Jahve, that the God of revelation (שׁמך), may become the All-exalted One in the consciousness of the nations.