83:3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy {c} hidden ones.
(c) The elect of God are his secret ones: for he hides them in the secret of his tabernacle, and preserves them from all dangers.
83:3 Hidden ones - Thy people of Israel, who are called God's hidden or secret ones, to intimate the respect which God has to them, as to his peculiar treasure.
83:1-8 Sometimes God seems not to be concerned at the unjust treatment of his people. But then we may call upon him, as the psalmist here. All wicked people are God's enemies, especially wicked persecutors. The Lord's people are his hidden one; the world knows them not. He takes them under his special protection. Do the enemies of the church act with one consent to destroy it, and shall not the friends of the church be united? Wicked men wish that there might be no religion among mankind. They would gladly see all its restraints shaken off, and all that preach, profess, or practise it, cut off. This they would bring to pass if it were in their power. The enemies of God's church have always been many: this magnifies the power of the Lord in preserving to himself a church in the world.
