Biblion Bible Commentary
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God Presides in the Great Assembly
Psalms 82:1-8
1 A Psalm by Asaph. God presides in the great assembly. He judges among the gods. · WEB
Judges are addressed as gods, told what the job is, and informed that they will die like men.
God presides in the great assembly. He judges among the gods Psalms 82:1.
Eight verses, and they are a courtroom scene in which the judges are the defendants. Who the gods are has been argued at length; the psalm itself settles it in verse seven, where they are told they will die like men, and in Jesus' use of it, where he applies the word to those to whom the word of God came John 10:34–35. They are human judges, addressed by the title their office carries because they exercise God's own function.
"How long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked?" Psalms 82:2.
The charge is not incompetence. It is favoritism — lifting the face of the wicked, which is the Hebrew idiom for deciding a case by who is standing in front of you.
"Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked" Psalms 82:3–4.
The job description, given in four commands, and every one concerns people with no power. This is the clearest statement in Scripture of what a court is for, and it is given as a rebuke to judges who thought it was for something else.
They don't know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken Psalms 82:5.
The last clause is the psalm's largest claim. When judges are corrupt, what is affected is not merely a set of verdicts; the foundations move. A society in which the courts can be bought has lost the thing everything else was standing on, and the psalm ranks this with earthquakes.
"You are gods, all of you are sons of the Most High. Nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the rulers" Psalms 82:6–7.
The title and its limit in consecutive lines. The office really does carry that much dignity — a judge decides what God decides, on God's behalf — and the man holding it is going to die like everybody else, on a date he does not know.
Jesus quotes verse six when accused of blasphemy for calling himself God's Son, and his argument is from the lesser to the greater: if Scripture could call corrupt judges gods, the charge against him does not stand as framed John 10:34–36.
Arise, God, judge the earth, for you inherit all of the nations Psalms 82:8.
The psalm ends by asking the presiding judge to do the job himself. Having watched the delegated version fail, the only request left is for the assize to be taken over.
held with reason What this mark means