Ps. 83.9-12 (the blessing of judgment)

Do to them / as with Midian
as with Sisera / and Jabin
at the river Kishon
who were destroyed at En-dor
who became dung for the ground.
Deal with their nobles / as with Oreb and Zeeb
and with their princes / as with Zeban and Zalmuna
who said,
“Let us take possession / for ourselves
of the pasturelands / of God.” 

There are several curiosities to these lines. Why, for example, did the psalmist choose Midian as the precedent for God’s delivering judgment? Why not choose another example when several nations joined together and were routed? Why also does he seem to go to such lengths to list the individual leaders of Midian (six in all)? And why end with their declaration? I think there can be some general answers to several of these but I’m not sure they are all convincing. The first observation is that the psalmist has just finished a recounting of no less than ten nations that are surrounding Israel. Here, however, when he turns to God in petition, they are refashioned in a single enemy: Midian. This does cohere with what we have seen before—these nations are not simply a random assortment of enemies. Rather, they have “become one” through their covenant of hate toward Yhwh and Israel. They are no longer ten nations but a single entity displaying a unifying form, a single ‘spirit’ that binds them together in such a way that the sum is greater than their parts. 

They are like the appendages of a single being—which, importantly, is how they are referred to in the immediately preceding verse; as “the arm for the sons of Lot”.This, I think, is one reason why, here, they are treated under the single memory of Midian’s destruction. This points to a further insight—that the memory of Midian is something that can live outside the boundaries of what we would consider direct parallel. There is a unity between these two situations that is, in a sense, ‘deeper’ than we might imagine or would be able to grasp. 

A descending and total destruction. Another reason Midian may have been chosen is found in the way in which the individuals are ordered. It begins with the military commanders (Sisera and Jabin), descends to the nobles (Oreb and Zeeb) and ends with the princes (Zeban and Zalmuna). God’s judgment descends all the way down the hierarchical structure such that it completely consumes the leadership. 

As with. The nations mentioned total ten. Here, the are ten petitions that begin with “Do to them as with…” In these verses there are six. In the next two verses there will be four more. The point, I think, is that these six individuals represent six of the nations, with the remaining four representing the completion. 

The blessing of judgment. The observation here is general although no less profound. It is something we have seen in nearly every psalm dealing with petitions. It is the psalmist’s understanding that God’s judgment is an act of tremendous blessing in part because of its delivering power. There is no sense in the psalms for deliverance that we have come across that deliverance is not an act of judgment and conquering of enemies. One is always delivered from someone, precisely by that other party being subjugated and brought low. This is why the psalmists yearn and plead for God’s judgment. Importantly, they are very aware of the fact that they, and God, have enemies. It is, I think, in this context that we need to read the final two lines that they “be destroyed as at Endor” and “become dung for the ground”. As to the Endor-destruction, this refers to the place where Sisera and Jabin were routed by the Israelites. The ‘dung for the ground’ may be simply a particularly vivid image of destruction-followed-by-shame. Importantly, this type of judgment is what befell Jabin—he was killed by a woman,  in a tent, while asleep, with a tent peg being driven through his skull. It is a horribly embarrassing (and, terribly funny) story.