Psalm 83: What To Do When You Feel Surrounded

When life stacks up so fast you can’t find a quiet breath, it’s easy to assume you’re fighting alone. Psalm 83 pushes back on that lie with a raw, honest prayer, and Pastor Brandon brings it to life with a surprisingly vivid picture from laser tag: when you’re surrounded, you don’t sprint in circles, you go “back to back” and face the moment with help.

We walk through Psalm 83 as part of our Soundtrack of Life journey through the Psalms, looking at how Asaph names the threat, asks God not to stay silent, and remembers what God has done before. Along the way, we talk about the modern versions of being surrounded: schedules you can’t control, appointments you can’t miss, conflict you didn’t choose, anxiety you can’t shake, and the unknowns that show up in doctor’s reports and late-night thoughts. This is a Bible breakdown that stays practical, devotional, and honest about stress.

The key shift is simple but hard: pray instead of panic. We bring God the real details, not polished lines, and we let prayer remind us that nothing is greater than Him. If you need encouragement, fresh faith, and a clear next step for overwhelmed seasons, press play and pray with us at the end. Subscribe, share this with someone who feels surrounded, and leave a five-star review so more people can find the daily Bible study.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey

Welcome And Daily Bible Plan

SPEAKER_00 0:02

everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

Psalm 83 And Feeling Surrounded

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Psalm chapter 83. And today's title is What to Do When You Feel Surrounded. What to do when you feel surrounded.

Laser Tag Story And Back To Back

SPEAKER_01 0:37

I don't know about you, but in our city, we have this area where you can go and play laser tag. And it is so much fun. I it should not be as much fun as it is. Paintballs, maybe a little bit more fun, but laser tag is so much fun. And I think maybe the most fun is when you go in and you play with a few people you know, but you also play with a whole bunch of people you don't know. And I I love doing it. And I'll never forget one time I was out of town with my family, and my wife, Autumn, she she is not, she doesn't love doing it, but she's such a good sport and she'll always play for the sake of us, right? And so she all and she turns out to be the best of us, right? And we were all going in to play laser tag, and there were some other people that were going to play as well. And we start playing, and quickly we all kind of form up on our little teams and stuff. And there's this one guy who he was, he was kind of started partnering up with me, you know, and we were just kind of just trying to shoot and get everybody whatever. And all of a sudden, we started getting surrounded by everybody else. And this guy just yells out, back to back, back to back. I'd never heard that phrase before, but I instantly knew what to do. I put my back up against his and we just started shooting, you know, just just started shooting. I mean, I think you would have thought that we thought this was for real. You know what I mean? But it was so much fun, and it gave me an idea about how to look at today's chapter.

Naming The Pressures Closing In

SPEAKER_01 2:05

What do you do when it just feels like the things of the world, the troubles, the concerns, the appointments, the schedules, the unanswered questions, all the different things just are surrounding you. And everybody wants a piece of you and they want to know right now, what do you do when you're surrounded? Well, thank goodness God's word tells us exactly what we need to do. So if you got your Bibles, want to open up with me. If you want to get out your laser guns, get ready to play some laser tech, whatever else you need to do to get ready for God's word, it's gonna be a good one today. Make sure you also take just a moment, like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help. And make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. That's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job. And you can get all that information by going to the Biblebreakdown.com because the more we dig, the more we find. Well, this is another chapter in this journey through the book of Psalms. And we're calling it Soundtrack of Life because it's the greatest hits of the people of God. It's actually a collection of five psalm books from the time of Moses all the time to Malachi, or all the way to the Malachi. And he's there's talking about like how to do life with God. And this is one of those moments when you feel like you are just surrounded by just enemies and not necessarily people, but circumstances, unknown things, you know, the doctor's reports. What do you do when it just feels like you're just surrounded? Let's see what God's Word has to say, and let's trust God with it today. Here we go. Psalm

Reading Psalm 83 Aloud

SPEAKER_01 3:37

83, verse 1 says this O God, do not be silent. Do not be deaf. Do not be quiet, O God. Don't you hear the uproar of your enemies? Don't you see that your arrogant enemies are rising up? They devise crafty schemes against your people. They conspire against your precious ones. Come, they say, let us wipe out Israel as a nation. We will destroy the very memory of his existence. Yes, this was their unanimous decision. They signed a treaty as allies against you, these Edomites and Ishmaelites, Moabites and Hagarites, Gabalites and Ammonites and Amalekites, the people of Philistia and Tyre. Assyria has joined them too and is allied with the descendants of Lot. Interlude, which means let the band play. Well, as the band is playing, Asaf is singing about how all of God's enemies seem to be just surrounding the people of God. And he just saying, God, I you I know you're not deaf. You got to be hearing all that they're saying. We're going to need some help. And so with that being said, verse 9, do to them what you did to the Midianites, and as you did to Sisera, to Japan, to Kishon at the Kishon River. They were destroyed at Indor, and they were decaying corpses fertilizing the soil. Let their mighty nobles die as Oreb and Zeb did. Let all the princes die like Ziba and Zlumna. For they said, Let us seize for our own use the pasture lands of God. O my God, scatter them like tumbleweed, like chaff before the wind. As a fire burns a forest, and as a flame sets mountains ablaze, chase them with your fierce storm. Terrify them with your tempest. Utterly disgrace them until they submit to your name, O Lord. Let them be ashamed and terrified forever. Let them die in disgrace. Then they will learn that you alone are called the Lord, and that you alone are the most high, supreme over all the earth.

Pray Instead Of Panic

SPEAKER_01 5:51

I love this idea that it talks about how when we feel surrounded, the first thing that this particular psalmist does is he is aware of what's going on. He comes to God and he tells God what's going on, but instead of panicking, he starts to pray. Instead of thinking that he's in it alone, he's basically saying, God, back to back, I need you in this with me. Only to realize that God is not just in this with him. It's more like the other way around. He's in this with God. God is the senior partner of this relationship. But the idea here is, is when he is surrounded, instead of panicking, he goes to God and he says, God, we are surrounded, yet you are greater. And he brings it before him and praying instead of panicking. What do we do when we feel like we are surrounded? Well, just like that guy, instead of just panicking and running away, he says, Hey, back to back. In other words, get in this with me. Let's do this together. That's what we do to God. We come to God and we say, God, I know you are greater. I know you are bigger. I know that all of these things are bigger than me, but nothing is greater than you. And so I am telling you what the problem is, even though I know you already know. And then I am reminding you because I need to be reminded myself that this is not the first time that I've needed you to come through, and you have. And so in this moment, I trust you and I bring it to you. And when we do that, watch what happens. God is always faithful. God is always already working in more ways than we can imagine. And he's always working for his glory, which is for our good. And so today, if you feel surrounded, you're in a perfect place because you are in a place where you can draw close to God and you can watch him do miracles.

Prayer And Closing Blessing

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. God, we don't celebrate the difficulty, we celebrate the miracle. We celebrate that you are always doing more than we can imagine. We don't want to have bad days, but we know that in those bad days we see your light shine brightly. So we celebrate you in the middle of all of those storms. I pray, God, today, if there's someone who's listening or watching this and they feel surrounded, help them realize they're not alone. But you right there, you have their back. But even more so, you have the front, you have the side, you have everything. We celebrate you today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And amen. Well, God's word says in Psalm 34, verse 1, say with me, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Psalm chapter 84.