Original Meaning
The Heading (82:0)
PSALM 82 IS SIMPLY DESCRIBED as a “Psalm of Asaph.” The designation mizmor (“a psalm”) is the most common title for the compositions of the Psalter and probably refers to a poem or song to be accompanied with music (see comments on Ps 73:0).
Bridging Contexts
ISRAEL’S GOD AND THE GODS. There is a profound question of ontology when we come to Psalm 82, namely, just what did the Israelites believe about the gods of the nations? In particular, were they real or were they not? There seems to be something of a contradiction between the language of Psalm 82 and other references to the gods in the psalms. Perhaps the starkest contrast would be to read this psalm in the light of Psalm 96:5, which reads: “For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.” The psalmist there clearly sees the gods as empty and untrue, so how is it that the poet who penned Psalm 82 appears to place greater credence in the existence of the gods? There are at least three ways to read passages such as Psalm 82.
1. Polemic: Often scholars treat the language of the divine assembly as an example of polemic in the literature of the Old Testament. Clearly, the religious history of the Old Testament points to Israel’s belief in Yahweh as the one true God, so the concept of an assembly of gods seems incongruous. Many readers, therefore, view Psalm 82 as an example of Israelite borrowing from the religious beliefs of the nations and twisting their known ideologies to make a particular point about Yahweh. Many of the nations around Israel—and certainly the Babylonians, who had taken Israel into captivity—believed in a pantheon or assembly of gods. In such an assembly of gods there would be a high god (often called ’el) who ruled over the parliament of deities. It may well be the case that the psalmist is simply borrowing these familiar concepts and figuratively adapting them to point out the absolute, sovereign rule of Yahweh over all things—including the divine assembly. If we read Psalm 82 as a polemic, we do not have to form a conclusion about what the Israelites believed regarding the gods; rather, we are simply saying that polemic makes use of a linguistic and conceptual tradition that is alien to the orthodox religious beliefs of the people in order to emphasize some aspect of their theology. So, if Psalm 82 is polemic, it is not actually addressing the existence or nonexistence of gods, and it merely adopts a common currency in order to say something profound about Yahweh, namely, that if there were a divine assembly, Yahweh would be the absolute Ruler over it.18
2. Progression in Israel’s religious awareness: Some scholars believe that compositions such as Psalm 82 reflect the complex religious history that ultimately resulted in the developed monotheism we now see in the Old Testament. The idea is that in the early days of Israel’s community life, the people were polytheists like all the other people groups of the ancient world. Gradually, with the passage of time, Israel developed a more complex and holistic theological belief system which resulted in the realization that God is singular rather than many. So, some see Psalm 82 as a relic of the ancient, naïve, premonotheistic beliefs adhered to by Israel before belief in Yahweh as the one, real God became the dominant theological view.19
3. Monotheism not excluding other gods: In more recent years there has been increasing and fruitful discussion of just what the monotheism of Israel actually meant. From a modern perspective we assume that the existence of only one God precludes the existence of any other gods. But it is far from clear that the Israelites held precisely this view in their day. In particular, when we examine the book of Deuteronomy more closely, we see that Israel’s belief in the oneness of God did not necessarily preclude their belief in the possible existence of other gods. If we look at passages such as Deuteronomy 4 and 32:8–9 (mentioned above), we see that the monotheism of this book is really a call to singularity of devotion, worship, love, and affiliation rather than an ontological claim that only Yahweh exists.20
In fact, these texts seem to imply a belief in the “reality” of the existence of other gods. So, it could be argued that the call to monotheism in the Old Testament is actually a call to monolatry (that Yahweh alone is to be worshiped) rather than a statement of abstract ontology (that only Yahweh exists). With this being the case, Psalm 82 would fit well within Israel’s conceptual understanding of monotheism. As far as the psalmist is concerned, other gods may exist in reality, but, if they do exist, they too are under the judgment of the God of Israel just like every other created being.21
What conclusions can we draw from these deliberations? It is highly unlikely that Psalm 82 remains as some relic of a previously polytheistic worldview in Israel. On another level, the poem clearly fills a polemic function. The belief systems of the nations are critiqued in Psalm 82’s presentation of Yahweh as the one who rules in the divine assembly, who delegated authority to the gods, and who ultimately finds them wanting and, therefore, judges them. The Babylonians may have believed that the capture of Jerusalem proved Marduk more powerful than Yahweh, but the psalmist paints a picture of a spiritual reality that goes far beyond geopolitical events. So, polemic is definitely in play in Psalm 82. But we should also bear in mind the possibility that Israel’s understanding of the singularity of Yahweh and the people’s responsibility to worship him alone did not necessarily preclude (in their understanding) the existence of other gods. In fact, if we do ascribe some degree of literality to the psalmist’s understanding of the imagery in Psalm 82, the poem becomes all the more vivid and its lessons all the more pointed. (See Contemporary Significance for further discussion.)22
Psalm 82 in Book 3 of the Psalter. We see a flow of question and response in the psalms of this mini-collection. The compositions from Psalms 79–83 seem to be particularly closely related through the repetition of words and themes and the asking and answering of questions.23
Psalms 79 and 80 ask the questions “Why?” and “How long?” and Psalms 81 and 82 provide the answers to those questions. In Psalm 81 Yahweh reminds the people that they face the crisis of exile because they refused to listen. Psalm 82 continues the voice of Yahweh and responds to both questions asked in the laments of the earlier psalms. Why does Israel face the exile? Like the “gods” of the nations, God’s people also failed to execute justice for the poor and needy, so they too had to face divine judgment. They had refused to listen to the prophetic critique of their society and had to face the consequences. So, Psalm 82 confirms the message of Psalm 81: God’s people had not listened to the challenge to maintain godly justice in their society. But Psalm 82 also answers the “How long?” question of Psalm 80:4. God’s people are reminded that all the gods of the nations are subject to the absolute, sovereign rule of Yahweh. Israel’s God is the undisputed Ruler over every god and therefore over every nation! So, Psalm 82 reminds the community of faith that their exile does not continue because of the strength of nations; rather, it continues according to the will of the God who rules. Exile will end when his purpose is fulfilled.
Psalm 82 in the New Testament. Psalm 82:6 is quoted by Jesus in John 10:34–38 when he is challenged by the Pharisees about his claim to be one with God the Father. Jesus uses the unusual message of this verse to make the point that his claim to divinity—unmistakable, as seen by the reaction of the religious leaders of the day—is not unprecedented within the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Jesus uses the Scriptures to make the very point the psalm itself makes: namely, that true divinity is marked by the characteristics of God. He goes on to point out that the deeds he has done, the miracles he has worked, and the way he has lived in the midst of the people all evidence the true nature of his deity because they are in keeping with the character of God himself. In Psalm 82 the gods come under Yahweh’s judgment because they fail to reflect the priorities and expectations of the High God. The point Jesus makes in John 10 is that his actions precisely mirror the priorities and expectations of Yahweh. He truly is the one and only “son of the Most High” who is faithful to the purposes of his Father.
Contemporary Significance
HOW DO WE JUDGE OUR SOCIETY? While there are undoubtedly complexities in Psalm 82 with regard to its perspective on the existence or nonexistence of other gods, there is absolutely no doubt about the main teaching thrust of the psalm: Yahweh expects nations and societies to be run justly, and if they do not enact justice, they will receive his punishment. The failure of the “gods” to maintain justice for the poor is the sole criterion for the declaration of their mortality. They failed to do that which was expected by Yahweh, and judgment was the consequence. The singularity of God’s assessment should function as a stark warning for all of us as we assess our own societies from the divine perspective. As Crossan says, “Psalm 82 tells us how we are to be judged by God but also how God wants to be judged by us. Everything else that God says or does in the Bible should be judged by that job description.”24
Social justice is properly basic to the nature of the God of the Bible.
We tend to allow other factors to shape our assessment of the world in which we live. Fiscal wealth, economic and political stability, comfort for the majority of people, low crime rates, good housing or public services, or “quality of life” and plenty of entertainment—these are the features constantly used in surveys to discover the best places in the world to live. Psalm 82 is a stark warning to the church today, particularly to the church in the comfortable, developed world. There is only one standard by which our societies are assessed by God—how we care for the weak, the poor, the marginalized, the voiceless, and the disenfranchised. God judges our societies today, and Psalm 82 gives us the standard by which he views the “success” or “failure” of our communities. Whether we have cable or multiplex cinemas is not high on God’s list of priorities, but how we care for the single mother or the troubled teenager is.
So, the challenge for the church today revolves around our influence within our societies. Are we a constant, nagging, prophetic voice that calls out, “Remember the poor!”—or have we been shaped by the standards of our world to such an extent that we are simply happy being comfortable? What are we doing with the money our congregations collect? We are often quick to build new buildings or invest in the fabric of our structures, but what are we doing for the poor? We should not expect the needy to come to us—for too long churches have been disengaged from the needs of the poor; rather, we should seek every opportunity to minister practically and spiritually to all those who have less than we do.
The message of Psalm 82 is unmistakable: Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. How are we, as congregations of God’s people, going to be proactive in delivering social justice to the weak, fatherless, poor, oppressed, and needy of our day? We have no right to delegate this task to the state, for this singular standard is the one by which God will judge us as his representatives on the earth.
Justice in the human realm was a concern of all Near Eastern religions, but in Psalm 82 the cosmic realm also depends upon justice in the social order. Indeed the very foundations of cosmic order are shaken in the presence of injustice. The cosmos, the universe, the divine world, depends upon the maintenance of justice in the human community—not only in Israel’s midst but in all communities. When justice is not maintained, then the very foundations of the earth are shaken, the world threatens to fall apart into chaos once more. That is how much justice matters. It is not just one of the virtues. It is not even a high ethical demand. Justice is the issue on which the very claims of deity are settled. Justice, just rule, is that central activity by which God is God. Without it the very universe cannot survive.25
Original Meaning
God and the Assembly of “the Gods” (82:1)
GOD PRESIDES IN THE GREAT ASSEMBLY. The context and setting of Psalm 82 is fairly alien to the mindset of contemporary Christians. The NIV translates this verse as referring to the “great assembly.” Sometimes the Hebrew words ’el and ’elohim can be translated as meaning “great” or “mighty,”2
but the more “normal” rendering would be to see these words as referring to “God” or “the gods.” So, God’s presiding in the ‘edat-’el (v. 1) is probably better understood as God’s standing with authority over the “assembly of God” or “divine assembly.”
What difference is borne out by these varying translation options? Basically, the choices that we make concerning the translation of the opening verse of Psalm 82 affect whether we read the poem as a rebuke of the corrupt leaders (either of Israel or the nations) or as addressed against the gods of the nations. In translating verse 1 as a reference to the “great assembly” and by placing in quotation marks the reference to the “gods” in the second part of this verse, the NIV’s translators make it clear that they see this as a figurative reference to leaders rather than a literal address to the gods. But if we see verse 1a as speaking about the “divine assembly” and verse 1b as addressing the “gods,” then this psalm takes on much more spiritual and cosmic overtones.
For a variety of reasons, I believe the latter translation option to make better sense of Psalm 82. First, Psalm 82 continues the response to the laments voiced by God’s people in the community complaints of Psalm 74 and the following psalms, and particularly the prayers of Psalms 79–83, which seem to form a contextual unit. One of the questions asked in these preceding psalms is, “Why should the nations be allowed to mock Israel’s God?” (see Pss 74:10, 18, 22; 79:4, 10, 12; 80:6 et al.). In securing military victory over Israel and Judah, the surrounding nations believed their gods to be more powerful than Yahweh. They therefore exalted their gods and mocked the God of Israel as a direct result of the exile. From a contextual reading of these psalms, Psalm 81 begins Yahweh’s response to the people by answering the “Why?” and “How long?” questions of the exilic people. Here in Psalm 82 God responds (again by prophetic utterance), but this time he addresses the issue of spiritual rule and reality that is brought up in Psalms 79 and 80. The divine response in Psalm 82 reminds the community that Yahweh still rules absolutely despite their moral and military failures.
There are also linguistic reasons for seeing Psalm 82 as having in mind the gods and the heavenly realms. Reference to the “sons of the Most High” (v. 6) is often seen as an indication that human rulers are in view.3
But even this concept is frequently used in the Old Testament and Psalter with reference to heavenly beings (e.g., see Job 1:6; 2:1; Ps 29:1). The references in Job point to the “sons of God” (i.e., heavenly beings) as taking part in a “heavenly assembly,” a scenario much like the one we read of here in Ps 82:1. Equally, the Psalms frequently refer to God as being praised or being incomparable “among the gods” (Pss 86:8; 95:3; 96:4; 97:9). So, although the concept of a heavenly council over which God rules may be an alien one to the modern mindset, this would not be so among the original hearers and early readers of this psalm.4
In Psalm 82:1, therefore, the psalmist provides the setting for the proclamation of Yahweh that follows in verses 2–6. The voice of the poet is heard again in the closing prayer of verse 8, where the poet seeks God’s arousal. The psalmist paints a picture (akin to the imagery in Job 1–2) in which Yahweh stands in authority over the heavenly assembly. He has called a meeting, and all the heavenly beings, the gods, are obliged to attend in order to hear his authoritative judgment against them.5
John Eaton comments on this verse:
“God” (originally probably “Yahweh”) is presiding at the divine assembly (‘edat ’el), thought of as the solemn event where affairs of the world are reviewed and decisions of destiny made. It is a question whether to translate in v. la “stands” (Tate) or . . . “presides” (see Dahood); for the former, nearer the usual sense of the verb, the point would be that the enthroned God now stands to announce his verdict, while the latter rendering has him seated in majesty throughout before the standing servants. These underlings are indeed “holy ones / gods,” but the psalm will vividly illustrate the limits of their power (cf. 29.1; 95.3; 96.4). In v. 1b the verb “he judges . . .” probably refers to the conclusion of his judging, the verdict which will now follow.6
Bridging Contexts
ISRAEL’S GOD AND THE GODS. There is a profound question of ontology when we come to Psalm 82, namely, just what did the Israelites believe about the gods of the nations? In particular, were they real or were they not? There seems to be something of a contradiction between the language of Psalm 82 and other references to the gods in the psalms. Perhaps the starkest contrast would be to read this psalm in the light of Psalm 96:5, which reads: “For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.” The psalmist there clearly sees the gods as empty and untrue, so how is it that the poet who penned Psalm 82 appears to place greater credence in the existence of the gods? There are at least three ways to read passages such as Psalm 82.
1. Polemic: Often scholars treat the language of the divine assembly as an example of polemic in the literature of the Old Testament. Clearly, the religious history of the Old Testament points to Israel’s belief in Yahweh as the one true God, so the concept of an assembly of gods seems incongruous. Many readers, therefore, view Psalm 82 as an example of Israelite borrowing from the religious beliefs of the nations and twisting their known ideologies to make a particular point about Yahweh. Many of the nations around Israel—and certainly the Babylonians, who had taken Israel into captivity—believed in a pantheon or assembly of gods. In such an assembly of gods there would be a high god (often called ’el) who ruled over the parliament of deities. It may well be the case that the psalmist is simply borrowing these familiar concepts and figuratively adapting them to point out the absolute, sovereign rule of Yahweh over all things—including the divine assembly. If we read Psalm 82 as a polemic, we do not have to form a conclusion about what the Israelites believed regarding the gods; rather, we are simply saying that polemic makes use of a linguistic and conceptual tradition that is alien to the orthodox religious beliefs of the people in order to emphasize some aspect of their theology. So, if Psalm 82 is polemic, it is not actually addressing the existence or nonexistence of gods, and it merely adopts a common currency in order to say something profound about Yahweh, namely, that if there were a divine assembly, Yahweh would be the absolute Ruler over it.18
2. Progression in Israel’s religious awareness: Some scholars believe that compositions such as Psalm 82 reflect the complex religious history that ultimately resulted in the developed monotheism we now see in the Old Testament. The idea is that in the early days of Israel’s community life, the people were polytheists like all the other people groups of the ancient world. Gradually, with the passage of time, Israel developed a more complex and holistic theological belief system which resulted in the realization that God is singular rather than many. So, some see Psalm 82 as a relic of the ancient, naïve, premonotheistic beliefs adhered to by Israel before belief in Yahweh as the one, real God became the dominant theological view.19
3. Monotheism not excluding other gods: In more recent years there has been increasing and fruitful discussion of just what the monotheism of Israel actually meant. From a modern perspective we assume that the existence of only one God precludes the existence of any other gods. But it is far from clear that the Israelites held precisely this view in their day. In particular, when we examine the book of Deuteronomy more closely, we see that Israel’s belief in the oneness of God did not necessarily preclude their belief in the possible existence of other gods. If we look at passages such as Deuteronomy 4 and 32:8–9 (mentioned above), we see that the monotheism of this book is really a call to singularity of devotion, worship, love, and affiliation rather than an ontological claim that only Yahweh exists.20
In fact, these texts seem to imply a belief in the “reality” of the existence of other gods. So, it could be argued that the call to monotheism in the Old Testament is actually a call to monolatry (that Yahweh alone is to be worshiped) rather than a statement of abstract ontology (that only Yahweh exists). With this being the case, Psalm 82 would fit well within Israel’s conceptual understanding of monotheism. As far as the psalmist is concerned, other gods may exist in reality, but, if they do exist, they too are under the judgment of the God of Israel just like every other created being.21
What conclusions can we draw from these deliberations? It is highly unlikely that Psalm 82 remains as some relic of a previously polytheistic worldview in Israel. On another level, the poem clearly fills a polemic function. The belief systems of the nations are critiqued in Psalm 82’s presentation of Yahweh as the one who rules in the divine assembly, who delegated authority to the gods, and who ultimately finds them wanting and, therefore, judges them. The Babylonians may have believed that the capture of Jerusalem proved Marduk more powerful than Yahweh, but the psalmist paints a picture of a spiritual reality that goes far beyond geopolitical events. So, polemic is definitely in play in Psalm 82. But we should also bear in mind the possibility that Israel’s understanding of the singularity of Yahweh and the people’s responsibility to worship him alone did not necessarily preclude (in their understanding) the existence of other gods. In fact, if we do ascribe some degree of literality to the psalmist’s understanding of the imagery in Psalm 82, the poem becomes all the more vivid and its lessons all the more pointed. (See Contemporary Significance for further discussion.)22
Psalm 82 in Book 3 of the Psalter. We see a flow of question and response in the psalms of this mini-collection. The compositions from Psalms 79–83 seem to be particularly closely related through the repetition of words and themes and the asking and answering of questions.23
Psalms 79 and 80 ask the questions “Why?” and “How long?” and Psalms 81 and 82 provide the answers to those questions. In Psalm 81 Yahweh reminds the people that they face the crisis of exile because they refused to listen. Psalm 82 continues the voice of Yahweh and responds to both questions asked in the laments of the earlier psalms. Why does Israel face the exile? Like the “gods” of the nations, God’s people also failed to execute justice for the poor and needy, so they too had to face divine judgment. They had refused to listen to the prophetic critique of their society and had to face the consequences. So, Psalm 82 confirms the message of Psalm 81: God’s people had not listened to the challenge to maintain godly justice in their society. But Psalm 82 also answers the “How long?” question of Psalm 80:4. God’s people are reminded that all the gods of the nations are subject to the absolute, sovereign rule of Yahweh. Israel’s God is the undisputed Ruler over every god and therefore over every nation! So, Psalm 82 reminds the community of faith that their exile does not continue because of the strength of nations; rather, it continues according to the will of the God who rules. Exile will end when his purpose is fulfilled.
Psalm 82 in the New Testament. Psalm 82:6 is quoted by Jesus in John 10:34–38 when he is challenged by the Pharisees about his claim to be one with God the Father. Jesus uses the unusual message of this verse to make the point that his claim to divinity—unmistakable, as seen by the reaction of the religious leaders of the day—is not unprecedented within the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Jesus uses the Scriptures to make the very point the psalm itself makes: namely, that true divinity is marked by the characteristics of God. He goes on to point out that the deeds he has done, the miracles he has worked, and the way he has lived in the midst of the people all evidence the true nature of his deity because they are in keeping with the character of God himself. In Psalm 82 the gods come under Yahweh’s judgment because they fail to reflect the priorities and expectations of the High God. The point Jesus makes in John 10 is that his actions precisely mirror the priorities and expectations of Yahweh. He truly is the one and only “son of the Most High” who is faithful to the purposes of his Father.
Contemporary Significance
HOW DO WE JUDGE OUR SOCIETY? While there are undoubtedly complexities in Psalm 82 with regard to its perspective on the existence or nonexistence of other gods, there is absolutely no doubt about the main teaching thrust of the psalm: Yahweh expects nations and societies to be run justly, and if they do not enact justice, they will receive his punishment. The failure of the “gods” to maintain justice for the poor is the sole criterion for the declaration of their mortality. They failed to do that which was expected by Yahweh, and judgment was the consequence. The singularity of God’s assessment should function as a stark warning for all of us as we assess our own societies from the divine perspective. As Crossan says, “Psalm 82 tells us how we are to be judged by God but also how God wants to be judged by us. Everything else that God says or does in the Bible should be judged by that job description.”24
Social justice is properly basic to the nature of the God of the Bible.
We tend to allow other factors to shape our assessment of the world in which we live. Fiscal wealth, economic and political stability, comfort for the majority of people, low crime rates, good housing or public services, or “quality of life” and plenty of entertainment—these are the features constantly used in surveys to discover the best places in the world to live. Psalm 82 is a stark warning to the church today, particularly to the church in the comfortable, developed world. There is only one standard by which our societies are assessed by God—how we care for the weak, the poor, the marginalized, the voiceless, and the disenfranchised. God judges our societies today, and Psalm 82 gives us the standard by which he views the “success” or “failure” of our communities. Whether we have cable or multiplex cinemas is not high on God’s list of priorities, but how we care for the single mother or the troubled teenager is.
So, the challenge for the church today revolves around our influence within our societies. Are we a constant, nagging, prophetic voice that calls out, “Remember the poor!”—or have we been shaped by the standards of our world to such an extent that we are simply happy being comfortable? What are we doing with the money our congregations collect? We are often quick to build new buildings or invest in the fabric of our structures, but what are we doing for the poor? We should not expect the needy to come to us—for too long churches have been disengaged from the needs of the poor; rather, we should seek every opportunity to minister practically and spiritually to all those who have less than we do.
The message of Psalm 82 is unmistakable: Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. How are we, as congregations of God’s people, going to be proactive in delivering social justice to the weak, fatherless, poor, oppressed, and needy of our day? We have no right to delegate this task to the state, for this singular standard is the one by which God will judge us as his representatives on the earth.
Justice in the human realm was a concern of all Near Eastern religions, but in Psalm 82 the cosmic realm also depends upon justice in the social order. Indeed the very foundations of cosmic order are shaken in the presence of injustice. The cosmos, the universe, the divine world, depends upon the maintenance of justice in the human community—not only in Israel’s midst but in all communities. When justice is not maintained, then the very foundations of the earth are shaken, the world threatens to fall apart into chaos once more. That is how much justice matters. It is not just one of the virtues. It is not even a high ethical demand. Justice is the issue on which the very claims of deity are settled. Justice, just rule, is that central activity by which God is God. Without it the very universe cannot survive.25
Original Meaning
Gods of Injustice (82:2–4)
HOW LONG WILL YOU DEFEND THE UNJUST? In the Old Testament we often encounter the question, “Who is a God like you?” (e.g., see Exod 15:11; Pss 35:10; 71:19; 89:8; Mic 7:18 et al.). We tend to read this question as entirely rhetorical; however, for the writers of these verses their question would be genuinely comparative. They lived in a world where there were hundreds, even thousands of gods, and each one made its own claims. Some would claim to offer fertility of crops or children, others control over the storm, and still others would grant power over enemies.7
The genuinely comparative nature of this question comes to the fore in the verses of this prophetic oracle in which Israel’s God—the true High God—pronounces judgment on the other gods in the heavenly assembly. Their activity is assessed by Yahweh and found to be corrupt and to fall short of the High God’s standards, as highlighted in Psalm 82:2 by Yahweh’s interrogation of the gods for their unjust activity. “How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?” Yahweh expects the gods to adhere to his standards in their activity. Since they have failed to do so, they receive his rebuke. In this metaphor of the heavenly assembly, it is as though Yahweh—the High King—has delegated power to the gods to rule over portions of the earth (see the NIV’s footnote on Deut 32:8) but expects them to do so in accordance with his own absolute standards. Since the gods have failed Yahweh’s expectation of them, he calls them to task. The High God’s verdict is that they have defended the unjust and showed preferential treatment to the wicked. Such behavior is diametrically opposed to the “divine order of law that is meant to be defended and carried out by the gods within the territories assigned to them on behalf of the nations that are subject to their jurisdiction.”8
The “How long?” question takes a different slant in Psalm 82. In Psalms 79 and 80 we see this question directed at God concerning the duration of his people’s suffering, and in Psalm 81 Yahweh answers that question. In Psalm 82, however, it is Israel’s God who takes up the question and asks it of the gods of the nations. In this instance, we can see that the question is entirely rhetorical because it leads into command. Yahweh does not sit powerless and wondering when the minor gods might stop their bad behavior. He sits in authority and commands obedience (vv. 3–4). In this instance the “How long?” question lays bare the basic character inadequacies of the gods—they do not maintain societal justice in line with the character of God. “In this psalm, the provision of delivering justice is made the decisive criterion for the authenticity of deity! It is not one of the features, it is the sole issue.”9
Defend the weak and the fatherless. There then follows a fourfold command from God addressed at the gods. Clearly, from the perspective of the psalmist, these “deities” are entirely under the authority of Yahweh and subject to his control. The focus of the divine order is singular. These gods do not maintain social justice as they ought. Gods were thought to be territorial in the ancient world, their rule thought to extend to the limits of “their” kingdom. So, the rule of Re, the high god of Egypt, was thought to extend throughout the Egyptian kingdom. Since the time that Israel had been taken into exile, they had witnessed firsthand the social order of the nations, and according to the psalmist the society of the kingdoms “ruled” by the gods was found seriously wanting. These spiritual “rulers” do not secure justice for the poor and weak of the nations under their supposed aegis.
The conception is that the government of the earth’s nations has been delegated to [the divine beings] as ministers of the supreme King, the Lord. As generally in the Near East, the acid test of good government is held to be the care of the vulnerable and afflicted, such as widows, orphans, the poor and migrants (cf. 72.f.).10
The gods have been found wanting. These commands in Psalm 82:3–4 do not imply a recommissioning of the gods to their task of stewardship; rather, the commands remind the gods of their failure to do what was required by Yahweh. The pronouncement of judgment follows in verse 5.
Bridging Contexts
ISRAEL’S GOD AND THE GODS. There is a profound question of ontology when we come to Psalm 82, namely, just what did the Israelites believe about the gods of the nations? In particular, were they real or were they not? There seems to be something of a contradiction between the language of Psalm 82 and other references to the gods in the psalms. Perhaps the starkest contrast would be to read this psalm in the light of Psalm 96:5, which reads: “For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.” The psalmist there clearly sees the gods as empty and untrue, so how is it that the poet who penned Psalm 82 appears to place greater credence in the existence of the gods? There are at least three ways to read passages such as Psalm 82.
1. Polemic: Often scholars treat the language of the divine assembly as an example of polemic in the literature of the Old Testament. Clearly, the religious history of the Old Testament points to Israel’s belief in Yahweh as the one true God, so the concept of an assembly of gods seems incongruous. Many readers, therefore, view Psalm 82 as an example of Israelite borrowing from the religious beliefs of the nations and twisting their known ideologies to make a particular point about Yahweh. Many of the nations around Israel—and certainly the Babylonians, who had taken Israel into captivity—believed in a pantheon or assembly of gods. In such an assembly of gods there would be a high god (often called ’el) who ruled over the parliament of deities. It may well be the case that the psalmist is simply borrowing these familiar concepts and figuratively adapting them to point out the absolute, sovereign rule of Yahweh over all things—including the divine assembly. If we read Psalm 82 as a polemic, we do not have to form a conclusion about what the Israelites believed regarding the gods; rather, we are simply saying that polemic makes use of a linguistic and conceptual tradition that is alien to the orthodox religious beliefs of the people in order to emphasize some aspect of their theology. So, if Psalm 82 is polemic, it is not actually addressing the existence or nonexistence of gods, and it merely adopts a common currency in order to say something profound about Yahweh, namely, that if there were a divine assembly, Yahweh would be the absolute Ruler over it.18
2. Progression in Israel’s religious awareness: Some scholars believe that compositions such as Psalm 82 reflect the complex religious history that ultimately resulted in the developed monotheism we now see in the Old Testament. The idea is that in the early days of Israel’s community life, the people were polytheists like all the other people groups of the ancient world. Gradually, with the passage of time, Israel developed a more complex and holistic theological belief system which resulted in the realization that God is singular rather than many. So, some see Psalm 82 as a relic of the ancient, naïve, premonotheistic beliefs adhered to by Israel before belief in Yahweh as the one, real God became the dominant theological view.19
3. Monotheism not excluding other gods: In more recent years there has been increasing and fruitful discussion of just what the monotheism of Israel actually meant. From a modern perspective we assume that the existence of only one God precludes the existence of any other gods. But it is far from clear that the Israelites held precisely this view in their day. In particular, when we examine the book of Deuteronomy more closely, we see that Israel’s belief in the oneness of God did not necessarily preclude their belief in the possible existence of other gods. If we look at passages such as Deuteronomy 4 and 32:8–9 (mentioned above), we see that the monotheism of this book is really a call to singularity of devotion, worship, love, and affiliation rather than an ontological claim that only Yahweh exists.20
In fact, these texts seem to imply a belief in the “reality” of the existence of other gods. So, it could be argued that the call to monotheism in the Old Testament is actually a call to monolatry (that Yahweh alone is to be worshiped) rather than a statement of abstract ontology (that only Yahweh exists). With this being the case, Psalm 82 would fit well within Israel’s conceptual understanding of monotheism. As far as the psalmist is concerned, other gods may exist in reality, but, if they do exist, they too are under the judgment of the God of Israel just like every other created being.21
What conclusions can we draw from these deliberations? It is highly unlikely that Psalm 82 remains as some relic of a previously polytheistic worldview in Israel. On another level, the poem clearly fills a polemic function. The belief systems of the nations are critiqued in Psalm 82’s presentation of Yahweh as the one who rules in the divine assembly, who delegated authority to the gods, and who ultimately finds them wanting and, therefore, judges them. The Babylonians may have believed that the capture of Jerusalem proved Marduk more powerful than Yahweh, but the psalmist paints a picture of a spiritual reality that goes far beyond geopolitical events. So, polemic is definitely in play in Psalm 82. But we should also bear in mind the possibility that Israel’s understanding of the singularity of Yahweh and the people’s responsibility to worship him alone did not necessarily preclude (in their understanding) the existence of other gods. In fact, if we do ascribe some degree of literality to the psalmist’s understanding of the imagery in Psalm 82, the poem becomes all the more vivid and its lessons all the more pointed. (See Contemporary Significance for further discussion.)22
Psalm 82 in Book 3 of the Psalter. We see a flow of question and response in the psalms of this mini-collection. The compositions from Psalms 79–83 seem to be particularly closely related through the repetition of words and themes and the asking and answering of questions.23
Psalms 79 and 80 ask the questions “Why?” and “How long?” and Psalms 81 and 82 provide the answers to those questions. In Psalm 81 Yahweh reminds the people that they face the crisis of exile because they refused to listen. Psalm 82 continues the voice of Yahweh and responds to both questions asked in the laments of the earlier psalms. Why does Israel face the exile? Like the “gods” of the nations, God’s people also failed to execute justice for the poor and needy, so they too had to face divine judgment. They had refused to listen to the prophetic critique of their society and had to face the consequences. So, Psalm 82 confirms the message of Psalm 81: God’s people had not listened to the challenge to maintain godly justice in their society. But Psalm 82 also answers the “How long?” question of Psalm 80:4. God’s people are reminded that all the gods of the nations are subject to the absolute, sovereign rule of Yahweh. Israel’s God is the undisputed Ruler over every god and therefore over every nation! So, Psalm 82 reminds the community of faith that their exile does not continue because of the strength of nations; rather, it continues according to the will of the God who rules. Exile will end when his purpose is fulfilled.
Psalm 82 in the New Testament. Psalm 82:6 is quoted by Jesus in John 10:34–38 when he is challenged by the Pharisees about his claim to be one with God the Father. Jesus uses the unusual message of this verse to make the point that his claim to divinity—unmistakable, as seen by the reaction of the religious leaders of the day—is not unprecedented within the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Jesus uses the Scriptures to make the very point the psalm itself makes: namely, that true divinity is marked by the characteristics of God. He goes on to point out that the deeds he has done, the miracles he has worked, and the way he has lived in the midst of the people all evidence the true nature of his deity because they are in keeping with the character of God himself. In Psalm 82 the gods come under Yahweh’s judgment because they fail to reflect the priorities and expectations of the High God. The point Jesus makes in John 10 is that his actions precisely mirror the priorities and expectations of Yahweh. He truly is the one and only “son of the Most High” who is faithful to the purposes of his Father.
Contemporary Significance
HOW DO WE JUDGE OUR SOCIETY? While there are undoubtedly complexities in Psalm 82 with regard to its perspective on the existence or nonexistence of other gods, there is absolutely no doubt about the main teaching thrust of the psalm: Yahweh expects nations and societies to be run justly, and if they do not enact justice, they will receive his punishment. The failure of the “gods” to maintain justice for the poor is the sole criterion for the declaration of their mortality. They failed to do that which was expected by Yahweh, and judgment was the consequence. The singularity of God’s assessment should function as a stark warning for all of us as we assess our own societies from the divine perspective. As Crossan says, “Psalm 82 tells us how we are to be judged by God but also how God wants to be judged by us. Everything else that God says or does in the Bible should be judged by that job description.”24
Social justice is properly basic to the nature of the God of the Bible.
We tend to allow other factors to shape our assessment of the world in which we live. Fiscal wealth, economic and political stability, comfort for the majority of people, low crime rates, good housing or public services, or “quality of life” and plenty of entertainment—these are the features constantly used in surveys to discover the best places in the world to live. Psalm 82 is a stark warning to the church today, particularly to the church in the comfortable, developed world. There is only one standard by which our societies are assessed by God—how we care for the weak, the poor, the marginalized, the voiceless, and the disenfranchised. God judges our societies today, and Psalm 82 gives us the standard by which he views the “success” or “failure” of our communities. Whether we have cable or multiplex cinemas is not high on God’s list of priorities, but how we care for the single mother or the troubled teenager is.
So, the challenge for the church today revolves around our influence within our societies. Are we a constant, nagging, prophetic voice that calls out, “Remember the poor!”—or have we been shaped by the standards of our world to such an extent that we are simply happy being comfortable? What are we doing with the money our congregations collect? We are often quick to build new buildings or invest in the fabric of our structures, but what are we doing for the poor? We should not expect the needy to come to us—for too long churches have been disengaged from the needs of the poor; rather, we should seek every opportunity to minister practically and spiritually to all those who have less than we do.
The message of Psalm 82 is unmistakable: Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. How are we, as congregations of God’s people, going to be proactive in delivering social justice to the weak, fatherless, poor, oppressed, and needy of our day? We have no right to delegate this task to the state, for this singular standard is the one by which God will judge us as his representatives on the earth.
Justice in the human realm was a concern of all Near Eastern religions, but in Psalm 82 the cosmic realm also depends upon justice in the social order. Indeed the very foundations of cosmic order are shaken in the presence of injustice. The cosmos, the universe, the divine world, depends upon the maintenance of justice in the human community—not only in Israel’s midst but in all communities. When justice is not maintained, then the very foundations of the earth are shaken, the world threatens to fall apart into chaos once more. That is how much justice matters. It is not just one of the virtues. It is not even a high ethical demand. Justice is the issue on which the very claims of deity are settled. Justice, just rule, is that central activity by which God is God. Without it the very universe cannot survive.25
Original Meaning
Judgment in the Divine Assembly (82:5)
THE “GODS” KNOW NOTHING, THEY UNDERSTAND NOTHING. Yahweh’s voice continues with a public declaration of his ultimate verdict concerning the gods. He no longer speaks to them (“you” plural [vv. 2–4]) but speaks about them to the listening community of his people (“they” [v. 5]). The emptiness that the gods have to offer is described in terms of their lack of knowledge. Inherent to the concept of deity is the fact that a divine being knows more than a human being. A “god” should be more knowledgeable of those things that are of vital importance than a human being is, yet Yahweh’s verdict on these deities is that they are profoundly lacking in their knowledge of ultimate reality. They have not shown the wisdom that could be expected of them in the natural scheme of things. “[T]hey have not ‘known’ or ‘recognized’ the context of justice or injustice, or their own personal share in the situation, or the consequences of their behavior.”11
Yahweh’s judgment does not just address the fact that they failed to behave as they should have done—even more damning is the fact that these so-called deities did not even realize that social justice is the hallmark of a good society. The injustice of their activity is compounded by their ignorance of the effects of their praxis.
They walk about in darkness. The imagery of verse 5b is sardonic. Gods are supposed to have greater insight than humans, but the psalmic presentation is of deities who cannot see in the dark. This is chaos imagery that underlines the inadequacy of their activity. The prophets draw a link between justice and light (e.g., see Isa 51:4), whereas injustice brings nothing but darkness (Isa 59:9–10). The justice and righteousness of Yahweh bring order—light by which the people can live. Injustice and the rejection of God’s ways bring chaos—darkness in which both gods and people stumble.12
All the foundations of the earth are shaken. Herein lies the essence of Crossan’s claim mentioned above, namely, the notion of the foundations of the earth as being shaken speaks to the fundamental significance of the gods’ injustice. Their behavior counters the very fabric of the divinely created order. According to the biblical writers, when Yahweh created the universe he instilled in it certain innate processes that are basic to the proper running of creation. Justice is one of these creation ordinances (e.g., see Pss 89:14; 97:2; Prov 8:20). It is foundational to Yahweh’s rule over the earth, and the universe only works properly when God’s justice is maintained. So it is that the gods’ rejection of justice strikes at the very fabric of the created order (Ps 85:5b). That there are nations in which justice is not honored rocks the very core of the world. “Criminality and social irresponsibility upset the stability and goodness of creation. The earth will shake and quake in revulsion to human unfairness.”13
Bridging Contexts
ISRAEL’S GOD AND THE GODS. There is a profound question of ontology when we come to Psalm 82, namely, just what did the Israelites believe about the gods of the nations? In particular, were they real or were they not? There seems to be something of a contradiction between the language of Psalm 82 and other references to the gods in the psalms. Perhaps the starkest contrast would be to read this psalm in the light of Psalm 96:5, which reads: “For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.” The psalmist there clearly sees the gods as empty and untrue, so how is it that the poet who penned Psalm 82 appears to place greater credence in the existence of the gods? There are at least three ways to read passages such as Psalm 82.
1. Polemic: Often scholars treat the language of the divine assembly as an example of polemic in the literature of the Old Testament. Clearly, the religious history of the Old Testament points to Israel’s belief in Yahweh as the one true God, so the concept of an assembly of gods seems incongruous. Many readers, therefore, view Psalm 82 as an example of Israelite borrowing from the religious beliefs of the nations and twisting their known ideologies to make a particular point about Yahweh. Many of the nations around Israel—and certainly the Babylonians, who had taken Israel into captivity—believed in a pantheon or assembly of gods. In such an assembly of gods there would be a high god (often called ’el) who ruled over the parliament of deities. It may well be the case that the psalmist is simply borrowing these familiar concepts and figuratively adapting them to point out the absolute, sovereign rule of Yahweh over all things—including the divine assembly. If we read Psalm 82 as a polemic, we do not have to form a conclusion about what the Israelites believed regarding the gods; rather, we are simply saying that polemic makes use of a linguistic and conceptual tradition that is alien to the orthodox religious beliefs of the people in order to emphasize some aspect of their theology. So, if Psalm 82 is polemic, it is not actually addressing the existence or nonexistence of gods, and it merely adopts a common currency in order to say something profound about Yahweh, namely, that if there were a divine assembly, Yahweh would be the absolute Ruler over it.18
2. Progression in Israel’s religious awareness: Some scholars believe that compositions such as Psalm 82 reflect the complex religious history that ultimately resulted in the developed monotheism we now see in the Old Testament. The idea is that in the early days of Israel’s community life, the people were polytheists like all the other people groups of the ancient world. Gradually, with the passage of time, Israel developed a more complex and holistic theological belief system which resulted in the realization that God is singular rather than many. So, some see Psalm 82 as a relic of the ancient, naïve, premonotheistic beliefs adhered to by Israel before belief in Yahweh as the one, real God became the dominant theological view.19
3. Monotheism not excluding other gods: In more recent years there has been increasing and fruitful discussion of just what the monotheism of Israel actually meant. From a modern perspective we assume that the existence of only one God precludes the existence of any other gods. But it is far from clear that the Israelites held precisely this view in their day. In particular, when we examine the book of Deuteronomy more closely, we see that Israel’s belief in the oneness of God did not necessarily preclude their belief in the possible existence of other gods. If we look at passages such as Deuteronomy 4 and 32:8–9 (mentioned above), we see that the monotheism of this book is really a call to singularity of devotion, worship, love, and affiliation rather than an ontological claim that only Yahweh exists.20
In fact, these texts seem to imply a belief in the “reality” of the existence of other gods. So, it could be argued that the call to monotheism in the Old Testament is actually a call to monolatry (that Yahweh alone is to be worshiped) rather than a statement of abstract ontology (that only Yahweh exists). With this being the case, Psalm 82 would fit well within Israel’s conceptual understanding of monotheism. As far as the psalmist is concerned, other gods may exist in reality, but, if they do exist, they too are under the judgment of the God of Israel just like every other created being.21
What conclusions can we draw from these deliberations? It is highly unlikely that Psalm 82 remains as some relic of a previously polytheistic worldview in Israel. On another level, the poem clearly fills a polemic function. The belief systems of the nations are critiqued in Psalm 82’s presentation of Yahweh as the one who rules in the divine assembly, who delegated authority to the gods, and who ultimately finds them wanting and, therefore, judges them. The Babylonians may have believed that the capture of Jerusalem proved Marduk more powerful than Yahweh, but the psalmist paints a picture of a spiritual reality that goes far beyond geopolitical events. So, polemic is definitely in play in Psalm 82. But we should also bear in mind the possibility that Israel’s understanding of the singularity of Yahweh and the people’s responsibility to worship him alone did not necessarily preclude (in their understanding) the existence of other gods. In fact, if we do ascribe some degree of literality to the psalmist’s understanding of the imagery in Psalm 82, the poem becomes all the more vivid and its lessons all the more pointed. (See Contemporary Significance for further discussion.)22
Psalm 82 in Book 3 of the Psalter. We see a flow of question and response in the psalms of this mini-collection. The compositions from Psalms 79–83 seem to be particularly closely related through the repetition of words and themes and the asking and answering of questions.23
Psalms 79 and 80 ask the questions “Why?” and “How long?” and Psalms 81 and 82 provide the answers to those questions. In Psalm 81 Yahweh reminds the people that they face the crisis of exile because they refused to listen. Psalm 82 continues the voice of Yahweh and responds to both questions asked in the laments of the earlier psalms. Why does Israel face the exile? Like the “gods” of the nations, God’s people also failed to execute justice for the poor and needy, so they too had to face divine judgment. They had refused to listen to the prophetic critique of their society and had to face the consequences. So, Psalm 82 confirms the message of Psalm 81: God’s people had not listened to the challenge to maintain godly justice in their society. But Psalm 82 also answers the “How long?” question of Psalm 80:4. God’s people are reminded that all the gods of the nations are subject to the absolute, sovereign rule of Yahweh. Israel’s God is the undisputed Ruler over every god and therefore over every nation! So, Psalm 82 reminds the community of faith that their exile does not continue because of the strength of nations; rather, it continues according to the will of the God who rules. Exile will end when his purpose is fulfilled.
Psalm 82 in the New Testament. Psalm 82:6 is quoted by Jesus in John 10:34–38 when he is challenged by the Pharisees about his claim to be one with God the Father. Jesus uses the unusual message of this verse to make the point that his claim to divinity—unmistakable, as seen by the reaction of the religious leaders of the day—is not unprecedented within the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Jesus uses the Scriptures to make the very point the psalm itself makes: namely, that true divinity is marked by the characteristics of God. He goes on to point out that the deeds he has done, the miracles he has worked, and the way he has lived in the midst of the people all evidence the true nature of his deity because they are in keeping with the character of God himself. In Psalm 82 the gods come under Yahweh’s judgment because they fail to reflect the priorities and expectations of the High God. The point Jesus makes in John 10 is that his actions precisely mirror the priorities and expectations of Yahweh. He truly is the one and only “son of the Most High” who is faithful to the purposes of his Father.
Contemporary Significance
HOW DO WE JUDGE OUR SOCIETY? While there are undoubtedly complexities in Psalm 82 with regard to its perspective on the existence or nonexistence of other gods, there is absolutely no doubt about the main teaching thrust of the psalm: Yahweh expects nations and societies to be run justly, and if they do not enact justice, they will receive his punishment. The failure of the “gods” to maintain justice for the poor is the sole criterion for the declaration of their mortality. They failed to do that which was expected by Yahweh, and judgment was the consequence. The singularity of God’s assessment should function as a stark warning for all of us as we assess our own societies from the divine perspective. As Crossan says, “Psalm 82 tells us how we are to be judged by God but also how God wants to be judged by us. Everything else that God says or does in the Bible should be judged by that job description.”24
Social justice is properly basic to the nature of the God of the Bible.
We tend to allow other factors to shape our assessment of the world in which we live. Fiscal wealth, economic and political stability, comfort for the majority of people, low crime rates, good housing or public services, or “quality of life” and plenty of entertainment—these are the features constantly used in surveys to discover the best places in the world to live. Psalm 82 is a stark warning to the church today, particularly to the church in the comfortable, developed world. There is only one standard by which our societies are assessed by God—how we care for the weak, the poor, the marginalized, the voiceless, and the disenfranchised. God judges our societies today, and Psalm 82 gives us the standard by which he views the “success” or “failure” of our communities. Whether we have cable or multiplex cinemas is not high on God’s list of priorities, but how we care for the single mother or the troubled teenager is.
So, the challenge for the church today revolves around our influence within our societies. Are we a constant, nagging, prophetic voice that calls out, “Remember the poor!”—or have we been shaped by the standards of our world to such an extent that we are simply happy being comfortable? What are we doing with the money our congregations collect? We are often quick to build new buildings or invest in the fabric of our structures, but what are we doing for the poor? We should not expect the needy to come to us—for too long churches have been disengaged from the needs of the poor; rather, we should seek every opportunity to minister practically and spiritually to all those who have less than we do.
The message of Psalm 82 is unmistakable: Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. How are we, as congregations of God’s people, going to be proactive in delivering social justice to the weak, fatherless, poor, oppressed, and needy of our day? We have no right to delegate this task to the state, for this singular standard is the one by which God will judge us as his representatives on the earth.
Justice in the human realm was a concern of all Near Eastern religions, but in Psalm 82 the cosmic realm also depends upon justice in the social order. Indeed the very foundations of cosmic order are shaken in the presence of injustice. The cosmos, the universe, the divine world, depends upon the maintenance of justice in the human community—not only in Israel’s midst but in all communities. When justice is not maintained, then the very foundations of the earth are shaken, the world threatens to fall apart into chaos once more. That is how much justice matters. It is not just one of the virtues. It is not even a high ethical demand. Justice is the issue on which the very claims of deity are settled. Justice, just rule, is that central activity by which God is God. Without it the very universe cannot survive.25
Original Meaning
The Mortality of the “Gods” (82:6–7)
I SAID, “YOU ARE ‘GODS.’ ” Yahweh’s judgment now returns to addressing the gods directly. Israel’s God has declared to the covenant community the inadequacies of the divine beings (v. 5). Now he once again addresses the gods directly with the pronouncement of judgment. He reminds them that they owe their status to the High God in the first place. By his ordinance alone have they attained their rank. The gods are reminded that whatever authority they command is apportioned to them—it is not theirs by right. Their status as “sons of the Most High” is conferred on them, much as authority was conferred on the king in Israel as the “son” of Yahweh (Ps 2).
But you will die like mere mortals. Yahweh declares his judgment on the inadequacies of the rule of these divine beings. They are no more gods than the rulers of the earth (Ps 82:7) and can face death like anyone else because they too are subject to God’s decree. He conferred status on them and can remove that status just as quickly. In much the same way as immortality was removed from Adam and Eve following their sin in the garden (Gen 3:4–5; cf. 22–24), so the failure of the gods results in the declaration of their mortality.14
Rejection of Yahweh’s standards leads to death—“gods” are subject to the same rules as humans.
Bridging Contexts
ISRAEL’S GOD AND THE GODS. There is a profound question of ontology when we come to Psalm 82, namely, just what did the Israelites believe about the gods of the nations? In particular, were they real or were they not? There seems to be something of a contradiction between the language of Psalm 82 and other references to the gods in the psalms. Perhaps the starkest contrast would be to read this psalm in the light of Psalm 96:5, which reads: “For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.” The psalmist there clearly sees the gods as empty and untrue, so how is it that the poet who penned Psalm 82 appears to place greater credence in the existence of the gods? There are at least three ways to read passages such as Psalm 82.
1. Polemic: Often scholars treat the language of the divine assembly as an example of polemic in the literature of the Old Testament. Clearly, the religious history of the Old Testament points to Israel’s belief in Yahweh as the one true God, so the concept of an assembly of gods seems incongruous. Many readers, therefore, view Psalm 82 as an example of Israelite borrowing from the religious beliefs of the nations and twisting their known ideologies to make a particular point about Yahweh. Many of the nations around Israel—and certainly the Babylonians, who had taken Israel into captivity—believed in a pantheon or assembly of gods. In such an assembly of gods there would be a high god (often called ’el) who ruled over the parliament of deities. It may well be the case that the psalmist is simply borrowing these familiar concepts and figuratively adapting them to point out the absolute, sovereign rule of Yahweh over all things—including the divine assembly. If we read Psalm 82 as a polemic, we do not have to form a conclusion about what the Israelites believed regarding the gods; rather, we are simply saying that polemic makes use of a linguistic and conceptual tradition that is alien to the orthodox religious beliefs of the people in order to emphasize some aspect of their theology. So, if Psalm 82 is polemic, it is not actually addressing the existence or nonexistence of gods, and it merely adopts a common currency in order to say something profound about Yahweh, namely, that if there were a divine assembly, Yahweh would be the absolute Ruler over it.18
2. Progression in Israel’s religious awareness: Some scholars believe that compositions such as Psalm 82 reflect the complex religious history that ultimately resulted in the developed monotheism we now see in the Old Testament. The idea is that in the early days of Israel’s community life, the people were polytheists like all the other people groups of the ancient world. Gradually, with the passage of time, Israel developed a more complex and holistic theological belief system which resulted in the realization that God is singular rather than many. So, some see Psalm 82 as a relic of the ancient, naïve, premonotheistic beliefs adhered to by Israel before belief in Yahweh as the one, real God became the dominant theological view.19
3. Monotheism not excluding other gods: In more recent years there has been increasing and fruitful discussion of just what the monotheism of Israel actually meant. From a modern perspective we assume that the existence of only one God precludes the existence of any other gods. But it is far from clear that the Israelites held precisely this view in their day. In particular, when we examine the book of Deuteronomy more closely, we see that Israel’s belief in the oneness of God did not necessarily preclude their belief in the possible existence of other gods. If we look at passages such as Deuteronomy 4 and 32:8–9 (mentioned above), we see that the monotheism of this book is really a call to singularity of devotion, worship, love, and affiliation rather than an ontological claim that only Yahweh exists.20
In fact, these texts seem to imply a belief in the “reality” of the existence of other gods. So, it could be argued that the call to monotheism in the Old Testament is actually a call to monolatry (that Yahweh alone is to be worshiped) rather than a statement of abstract ontology (that only Yahweh exists). With this being the case, Psalm 82 would fit well within Israel’s conceptual understanding of monotheism. As far as the psalmist is concerned, other gods may exist in reality, but, if they do exist, they too are under the judgment of the God of Israel just like every other created being.21
What conclusions can we draw from these deliberations? It is highly unlikely that Psalm 82 remains as some relic of a previously polytheistic worldview in Israel. On another level, the poem clearly fills a polemic function. The belief systems of the nations are critiqued in Psalm 82’s presentation of Yahweh as the one who rules in the divine assembly, who delegated authority to the gods, and who ultimately finds them wanting and, therefore, judges them. The Babylonians may have believed that the capture of Jerusalem proved Marduk more powerful than Yahweh, but the psalmist paints a picture of a spiritual reality that goes far beyond geopolitical events. So, polemic is definitely in play in Psalm 82. But we should also bear in mind the possibility that Israel’s understanding of the singularity of Yahweh and the people’s responsibility to worship him alone did not necessarily preclude (in their understanding) the existence of other gods. In fact, if we do ascribe some degree of literality to the psalmist’s understanding of the imagery in Psalm 82, the poem becomes all the more vivid and its lessons all the more pointed. (See Contemporary Significance for further discussion.)22
Psalm 82 in Book 3 of the Psalter. We see a flow of question and response in the psalms of this mini-collection. The compositions from Psalms 79–83 seem to be particularly closely related through the repetition of words and themes and the asking and answering of questions.23
Psalms 79 and 80 ask the questions “Why?” and “How long?” and Psalms 81 and 82 provide the answers to those questions. In Psalm 81 Yahweh reminds the people that they face the crisis of exile because they refused to listen. Psalm 82 continues the voice of Yahweh and responds to both questions asked in the laments of the earlier psalms. Why does Israel face the exile? Like the “gods” of the nations, God’s people also failed to execute justice for the poor and needy, so they too had to face divine judgment. They had refused to listen to the prophetic critique of their society and had to face the consequences. So, Psalm 82 confirms the message of Psalm 81: God’s people had not listened to the challenge to maintain godly justice in their society. But Psalm 82 also answers the “How long?” question of Psalm 80:4. God’s people are reminded that all the gods of the nations are subject to the absolute, sovereign rule of Yahweh. Israel’s God is the undisputed Ruler over every god and therefore over every nation! So, Psalm 82 reminds the community of faith that their exile does not continue because of the strength of nations; rather, it continues according to the will of the God who rules. Exile will end when his purpose is fulfilled.
Psalm 82 in the New Testament. Psalm 82:6 is quoted by Jesus in John 10:34–38 when he is challenged by the Pharisees about his claim to be one with God the Father. Jesus uses the unusual message of this verse to make the point that his claim to divinity—unmistakable, as seen by the reaction of the religious leaders of the day—is not unprecedented within the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Jesus uses the Scriptures to make the very point the psalm itself makes: namely, that true divinity is marked by the characteristics of God. He goes on to point out that the deeds he has done, the miracles he has worked, and the way he has lived in the midst of the people all evidence the true nature of his deity because they are in keeping with the character of God himself. In Psalm 82 the gods come under Yahweh’s judgment because they fail to reflect the priorities and expectations of the High God. The point Jesus makes in John 10 is that his actions precisely mirror the priorities and expectations of Yahweh. He truly is the one and only “son of the Most High” who is faithful to the purposes of his Father.
Contemporary Significance
HOW DO WE JUDGE OUR SOCIETY? While there are undoubtedly complexities in Psalm 82 with regard to its perspective on the existence or nonexistence of other gods, there is absolutely no doubt about the main teaching thrust of the psalm: Yahweh expects nations and societies to be run justly, and if they do not enact justice, they will receive his punishment. The failure of the “gods” to maintain justice for the poor is the sole criterion for the declaration of their mortality. They failed to do that which was expected by Yahweh, and judgment was the consequence. The singularity of God’s assessment should function as a stark warning for all of us as we assess our own societies from the divine perspective. As Crossan says, “Psalm 82 tells us how we are to be judged by God but also how God wants to be judged by us. Everything else that God says or does in the Bible should be judged by that job description.”24
Social justice is properly basic to the nature of the God of the Bible.
We tend to allow other factors to shape our assessment of the world in which we live. Fiscal wealth, economic and political stability, comfort for the majority of people, low crime rates, good housing or public services, or “quality of life” and plenty of entertainment—these are the features constantly used in surveys to discover the best places in the world to live. Psalm 82 is a stark warning to the church today, particularly to the church in the comfortable, developed world. There is only one standard by which our societies are assessed by God—how we care for the weak, the poor, the marginalized, the voiceless, and the disenfranchised. God judges our societies today, and Psalm 82 gives us the standard by which he views the “success” or “failure” of our communities. Whether we have cable or multiplex cinemas is not high on God’s list of priorities, but how we care for the single mother or the troubled teenager is.
So, the challenge for the church today revolves around our influence within our societies. Are we a constant, nagging, prophetic voice that calls out, “Remember the poor!”—or have we been shaped by the standards of our world to such an extent that we are simply happy being comfortable? What are we doing with the money our congregations collect? We are often quick to build new buildings or invest in the fabric of our structures, but what are we doing for the poor? We should not expect the needy to come to us—for too long churches have been disengaged from the needs of the poor; rather, we should seek every opportunity to minister practically and spiritually to all those who have less than we do.
The message of Psalm 82 is unmistakable: Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. How are we, as congregations of God’s people, going to be proactive in delivering social justice to the weak, fatherless, poor, oppressed, and needy of our day? We have no right to delegate this task to the state, for this singular standard is the one by which God will judge us as his representatives on the earth.
Justice in the human realm was a concern of all Near Eastern religions, but in Psalm 82 the cosmic realm also depends upon justice in the social order. Indeed the very foundations of cosmic order are shaken in the presence of injustice. The cosmos, the universe, the divine world, depends upon the maintenance of justice in the human community—not only in Israel’s midst but in all communities. When justice is not maintained, then the very foundations of the earth are shaken, the world threatens to fall apart into chaos once more. That is how much justice matters. It is not just one of the virtues. It is not even a high ethical demand. Justice is the issue on which the very claims of deity are settled. Justice, just rule, is that central activity by which God is God. Without it the very universe cannot survive.25
Original Meaning
The Psalmist’s Appeal (82:8)
RISE UP, O GOD, JUDGE THE EARTH. The psalmist closes with a prayer that echoes his declaration in the opening verse. In verse 1, the psalmist presents the God of Israel as presiding over the heavenly assembly, as judging in the midst of the gods. This spiritual reality the psalmist knows to be unchanging—Yahweh rules over all of the gods of the nations. The poet’s concluding prayer calls on Yahweh to make that spiritual reality visible truth once again. From the spiritual perspective of the psalmist, the absolute rule of Israel’s God over the nations is undisputed. From the perspective of the nations, however, Israel’s exilic circumstances point to a different reality. As far as the peoples of the ancient Near East were concerned, a nation defeated means a god defeated. So, Israel and Judah’s defeat means that Yahweh is seen among the nations as being weaker than the gods of the Assyrians and Babylonians. The psalmist prays to Yahweh to address that misperception by judging these gods, by proving himself sovereign over them. The prayer is the logical conclusion that follows from the neutralizing of the gods by Yahweh’s judgment on them (vv. 6–7). They have failed to secure justice, so let Yahweh now arise to do what the gods have not done. “[Yahweh] is the supreme ruler and judge who alone can bring justice to the oppressed peoples of the world. Verse 8 calls for a ‘realignment of world order’ . . . with Yahweh himself assuming the duties of the neutralized gods.”15
For all the nations are your inheritance. The gods of Israel’s neighbors would all be imperialistic. They were based in the land where their temple was located, but, like kings, they sought to expand their sphere of influence through military advancement.16
Yahweh has no need for military expansion because he rules over all the nations—they belong to him as his inheritance to apportion as he wishes. Herein we see the theological backbone of Psalm 82. Gods may quarrel and strive after power, but Yahweh simply rules. As part of that rule, he may apportion authority to lesser divine beings for the purpose of fulfilling his will, but should they fail to do so they, too, will come under Yahweh’s judgment just like the rest of the created order, for the whole universe is his.
Psalm 82:8 is reminiscent of the language and theology of Deuteronomy 32, particularly if we take into account the variant reading of Deuteronomy 32:8 mentioned above. The NIV reads: “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. For the LORD’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance” (Deut 32:8–9). But both the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint, as well as several of the contemporary English translations (e.g., see ESV, NRSV, NET), translate the phrase highlighted “sons of Israel” as the “sons of God.” This seems to be the more likely original reading, and Matitiahu Tsevat explains the idea behind these verses:
In the distant past, Yahweh, the Most High, divided mankind into nations, whose number He determined by the number of the sons of “God/El,” i.e., the minor gods; each of these gods received a nation as his portion. . . . Only one nation was not given over to these gods—Israel; that people Yahweh retained for himself.17
Psalm 82 declares Yahweh’s judgment on the failure of the gods to fulfill the purposes of their Sovereign. The psalmist cries out in prayer to Yahweh, therefore, that he reassume control over all nations as his inheritance, not just Israel. The gods failed to rule justly, so the psalmist calls for Yahweh to reappropriate that which he had delegated in the past. Yahweh is the one true and just King—only he can secure justice for the poor, needy, marginalized, and neglected in any and every society.
Bridging Contexts
ISRAEL’S GOD AND THE GODS. There is a profound question of ontology when we come to Psalm 82, namely, just what did the Israelites believe about the gods of the nations? In particular, were they real or were they not? There seems to be something of a contradiction between the language of Psalm 82 and other references to the gods in the psalms. Perhaps the starkest contrast would be to read this psalm in the light of Psalm 96:5, which reads: “For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.” The psalmist there clearly sees the gods as empty and untrue, so how is it that the poet who penned Psalm 82 appears to place greater credence in the existence of the gods? There are at least three ways to read passages such as Psalm 82.
1. Polemic: Often scholars treat the language of the divine assembly as an example of polemic in the literature of the Old Testament. Clearly, the religious history of the Old Testament points to Israel’s belief in Yahweh as the one true God, so the concept of an assembly of gods seems incongruous. Many readers, therefore, view Psalm 82 as an example of Israelite borrowing from the religious beliefs of the nations and twisting their known ideologies to make a particular point about Yahweh. Many of the nations around Israel—and certainly the Babylonians, who had taken Israel into captivity—believed in a pantheon or assembly of gods. In such an assembly of gods there would be a high god (often called ’el) who ruled over the parliament of deities. It may well be the case that the psalmist is simply borrowing these familiar concepts and figuratively adapting them to point out the absolute, sovereign rule of Yahweh over all things—including the divine assembly. If we read Psalm 82 as a polemic, we do not have to form a conclusion about what the Israelites believed regarding the gods; rather, we are simply saying that polemic makes use of a linguistic and conceptual tradition that is alien to the orthodox religious beliefs of the people in order to emphasize some aspect of their theology. So, if Psalm 82 is polemic, it is not actually addressing the existence or nonexistence of gods, and it merely adopts a common currency in order to say something profound about Yahweh, namely, that if there were a divine assembly, Yahweh would be the absolute Ruler over it.18
2. Progression in Israel’s religious awareness: Some scholars believe that compositions such as Psalm 82 reflect the complex religious history that ultimately resulted in the developed monotheism we now see in the Old Testament. The idea is that in the early days of Israel’s community life, the people were polytheists like all the other people groups of the ancient world. Gradually, with the passage of time, Israel developed a more complex and holistic theological belief system which resulted in the realization that God is singular rather than many. So, some see Psalm 82 as a relic of the ancient, naïve, premonotheistic beliefs adhered to by Israel before belief in Yahweh as the one, real God became the dominant theological view.19
3. Monotheism not excluding other gods: In more recent years there has been increasing and fruitful discussion of just what the monotheism of Israel actually meant. From a modern perspective we assume that the existence of only one God precludes the existence of any other gods. But it is far from clear that the Israelites held precisely this view in their day. In particular, when we examine the book of Deuteronomy more closely, we see that Israel’s belief in the oneness of God did not necessarily preclude their belief in the possible existence of other gods. If we look at passages such as Deuteronomy 4 and 32:8–9 (mentioned above), we see that the monotheism of this book is really a call to singularity of devotion, worship, love, and affiliation rather than an ontological claim that only Yahweh exists.20
In fact, these texts seem to imply a belief in the “reality” of the existence of other gods. So, it could be argued that the call to monotheism in the Old Testament is actually a call to monolatry (that Yahweh alone is to be worshiped) rather than a statement of abstract ontology (that only Yahweh exists). With this being the case, Psalm 82 would fit well within Israel’s conceptual understanding of monotheism. As far as the psalmist is concerned, other gods may exist in reality, but, if they do exist, they too are under the judgment of the God of Israel just like every other created being.21
What conclusions can we draw from these deliberations? It is highly unlikely that Psalm 82 remains as some relic of a previously polytheistic worldview in Israel. On another level, the poem clearly fills a polemic function. The belief systems of the nations are critiqued in Psalm 82’s presentation of Yahweh as the one who rules in the divine assembly, who delegated authority to the gods, and who ultimately finds them wanting and, therefore, judges them. The Babylonians may have believed that the capture of Jerusalem proved Marduk more powerful than Yahweh, but the psalmist paints a picture of a spiritual reality that goes far beyond geopolitical events. So, polemic is definitely in play in Psalm 82. But we should also bear in mind the possibility that Israel’s understanding of the singularity of Yahweh and the people’s responsibility to worship him alone did not necessarily preclude (in their understanding) the existence of other gods. In fact, if we do ascribe some degree of literality to the psalmist’s understanding of the imagery in Psalm 82, the poem becomes all the more vivid and its lessons all the more pointed. (See Contemporary Significance for further discussion.)22
Psalm 82 in Book 3 of the Psalter. We see a flow of question and response in the psalms of this mini-collection. The compositions from Psalms 79–83 seem to be particularly closely related through the repetition of words and themes and the asking and answering of questions.23
Psalms 79 and 80 ask the questions “Why?” and “How long?” and Psalms 81 and 82 provide the answers to those questions. In Psalm 81 Yahweh reminds the people that they face the crisis of exile because they refused to listen. Psalm 82 continues the voice of Yahweh and responds to both questions asked in the laments of the earlier psalms. Why does Israel face the exile? Like the “gods” of the nations, God’s people also failed to execute justice for the poor and needy, so they too had to face divine judgment. They had refused to listen to the prophetic critique of their society and had to face the consequences. So, Psalm 82 confirms the message of Psalm 81: God’s people had not listened to the challenge to maintain godly justice in their society. But Psalm 82 also answers the “How long?” question of Psalm 80:4. God’s people are reminded that all the gods of the nations are subject to the absolute, sovereign rule of Yahweh. Israel’s God is the undisputed Ruler over every god and therefore over every nation! So, Psalm 82 reminds the community of faith that their exile does not continue because of the strength of nations; rather, it continues according to the will of the God who rules. Exile will end when his purpose is fulfilled.
Psalm 82 in the New Testament. Psalm 82:6 is quoted by Jesus in John 10:34–38 when he is challenged by the Pharisees about his claim to be one with God the Father. Jesus uses the unusual message of this verse to make the point that his claim to divinity—unmistakable, as seen by the reaction of the religious leaders of the day—is not unprecedented within the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Jesus uses the Scriptures to make the very point the psalm itself makes: namely, that true divinity is marked by the characteristics of God. He goes on to point out that the deeds he has done, the miracles he has worked, and the way he has lived in the midst of the people all evidence the true nature of his deity because they are in keeping with the character of God himself. In Psalm 82 the gods come under Yahweh’s judgment because they fail to reflect the priorities and expectations of the High God. The point Jesus makes in John 10 is that his actions precisely mirror the priorities and expectations of Yahweh. He truly is the one and only “son of the Most High” who is faithful to the purposes of his Father.
Contemporary Significance
HOW DO WE JUDGE OUR SOCIETY? While there are undoubtedly complexities in Psalm 82 with regard to its perspective on the existence or nonexistence of other gods, there is absolutely no doubt about the main teaching thrust of the psalm: Yahweh expects nations and societies to be run justly, and if they do not enact justice, they will receive his punishment. The failure of the “gods” to maintain justice for the poor is the sole criterion for the declaration of their mortality. They failed to do that which was expected by Yahweh, and judgment was the consequence. The singularity of God’s assessment should function as a stark warning for all of us as we assess our own societies from the divine perspective. As Crossan says, “Psalm 82 tells us how we are to be judged by God but also how God wants to be judged by us. Everything else that God says or does in the Bible should be judged by that job description.”24
Social justice is properly basic to the nature of the God of the Bible.
We tend to allow other factors to shape our assessment of the world in which we live. Fiscal wealth, economic and political stability, comfort for the majority of people, low crime rates, good housing or public services, or “quality of life” and plenty of entertainment—these are the features constantly used in surveys to discover the best places in the world to live. Psalm 82 is a stark warning to the church today, particularly to the church in the comfortable, developed world. There is only one standard by which our societies are assessed by God—how we care for the weak, the poor, the marginalized, the voiceless, and the disenfranchised. God judges our societies today, and Psalm 82 gives us the standard by which he views the “success” or “failure” of our communities. Whether we have cable or multiplex cinemas is not high on God’s list of priorities, but how we care for the single mother or the troubled teenager is.
So, the challenge for the church today revolves around our influence within our societies. Are we a constant, nagging, prophetic voice that calls out, “Remember the poor!”—or have we been shaped by the standards of our world to such an extent that we are simply happy being comfortable? What are we doing with the money our congregations collect? We are often quick to build new buildings or invest in the fabric of our structures, but what are we doing for the poor? We should not expect the needy to come to us—for too long churches have been disengaged from the needs of the poor; rather, we should seek every opportunity to minister practically and spiritually to all those who have less than we do.
The message of Psalm 82 is unmistakable: Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. How are we, as congregations of God’s people, going to be proactive in delivering social justice to the weak, fatherless, poor, oppressed, and needy of our day? We have no right to delegate this task to the state, for this singular standard is the one by which God will judge us as his representatives on the earth.
Justice in the human realm was a concern of all Near Eastern religions, but in Psalm 82 the cosmic realm also depends upon justice in the social order. Indeed the very foundations of cosmic order are shaken in the presence of injustice. The cosmos, the universe, the divine world, depends upon the maintenance of justice in the human community—not only in Israel’s midst but in all communities. When justice is not maintained, then the very foundations of the earth are shaken, the world threatens to fall apart into chaos once more. That is how much justice matters. It is not just one of the virtues. It is not even a high ethical demand. Justice is the issue on which the very claims of deity are settled. Justice, just rule, is that central activity by which God is God. Without it the very universe cannot survive.25
