(A Psalm of Asaph.) God standeth in the assembly of God, he judgeth among the gods.
God takes His stand in a courtroom of His own making, and the ones on trial are the judges themselves. It raises two questions: who are these "gods," and what happens when men who hold power in His name abuse it?
The word does not point to rival deities. It points to men holding office, and the Lord Jesus Himself settled the meaning when He quoted this psalm.
God is presented as standing in the middle of the congregation of His people. He judges among the judges. In New Testament days the Lord tells us who these judges, or "gods," are. They are those "to whom the word of God came." That word gave them authority to act in judgment as His representatives, and so they are called "gods" (John 10:35).
One Hebrew word explains why translations differ. The ESV has "the divine council," others "the congregation of the mighty" or "the assembly of God (El)."
El, "the strong or mighty one." It is often used of God, especially in Job and the Psalms. Job 5:8; Ps. 22:1, etc.; and of the Lord Jesus in Isa. 9:6. It is also used for the false gods, Ps. 81:9; Dan. 11:36; and is translated "mighty" in Ps. 29:1; Ps. 82:1.
The title given to these men was genuine, but it was a loan. It bound them to answer to God for their conduct.
This is not testimony of grace. It is not Christ standing in the middle of the churches. It is Elohim standing in the congregation of power or strength, judging accordingly. He speaks to them in Spirit about their conduct according to His mind, and about the binding righteousness required of them as His representatives. But they do not know, and they do not understand. The Jew was wrong; the Gentile powers were oppressive; no one believed, no one recognised God. They were owned as gods, as bearing His image and expressing the mind of the Most High in title and office — but they would die like men.
He stands in what belongs to Him. The men He judges had to mirror His character, not just His authority.
He stands, therefore, in the middle of what is His own assembly, and which is now to be the seat of power upon earth, the assembly of El, the Mighty One, in truth. He is there for judgment among the "gods" — the judges of Israel, the men commissioned to represent Him. They were identified with the One they represented. So they were responsible in the most solemn way to represent Him in His character too, both in His righteousness and in His love to men.
The claim on rulers did not stop with Israel.
The word "gods" stands for those in high positions — the mighty who have authority and power. The reference in the first place is to the judges in Israel, as the Lord's citation of this psalm shows (John 10:34-35). But the powers that be in all nations are also included, for "there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God" (Rom. 13:3). They are His representatives in government, little as they may realize it. The Bible even calls them His ministers. He will hold them responsible for the way they use the power entrusted to them.
The opening line is not only a warning to those in power. It is meant to steady everyone else.
"He judges among the gods," and He is supreme. We must recognize this and hold it without fear, doubt or hedging, despite all appearances to the contrary. Only as we do this will we have confidence and rest of soul while wrongdoing swirls around us and evil powers succeed. Consider the alternative. Suppose some evil power in the universe could break the bounds of God's permission. Suppose it could act in defiance of His absolute will, so that the final supremacy of that will became impossible. Then there would exist a throne of darkness against which He would have no power, and He would cease to be God. Faith would be vain, and the hope of the complete overthrow of evil would vanish for ever.
The inspection of verse 1 exposes a failure, and that failure drives the psalm to its closing cry.
Psalm 82 gives us the divine challenge to all those who have been set in places of authority… What does He find? Justice and the fear of His name? No; far from it… What, then, is the resource in view of such a humbling state of things? "Arise, O God, judge the earth; for You shall inherit all nations." The Lord Jesus is here presented as the one alone competent to fill the throne according to the thoughts of God.
- Commissioned — the "gods" are judges and rulers. God gave them His word and appointed them to represent Him.
- Identified — the title tied them to God's own character. They owed the people His righteousness and His love, not just His authority.
- Extended — the first reference is to Israel's judges. But every governing power is included. They are His ministers, whether they know it or not.
- Examined — He stands in the assembly He owns. The men who judged others are judged themselves, and borrowed honour ends in dying like men.
- Answered — human rule fails the test. So the psalm ends by asking God to arise, and Christ alone is fit to fill that throne.
How long will ye judge unrighteously, and accept the person of the wicked? Selah.
God takes His stand among the men He set up to judge. His first word to them is a question. It is not an inquiry. It is an accusation. How long will the men who carry His authority keep bending justice toward the guilty? A harder question sits behind that one. What happens when the office God set up to restrain evil starts to shelter it?
The "you" of the verse is not the general public. It is the men who were given God's own name and title, and one commentator points out that the Lord Jesus Himself supplies the definition.
He is there for judgment among the "gods." The Lord defines that term for us from this very psalm (v. 6) as "those to whom the word of God came" (John 10:35) — that is, men He commissioned to represent Him, the judges of Israel. So they were identified with the One they represented. They carried the most solemn responsibility to represent His character too, both His righteousness and His love for people.
The verse names two faults: crooked verdicts, and favour shown to the wicked. Where older translations say "accept the persons of the wicked," the ESV says "show partiality." One writer traces the motive behind it.
These leaders of God's people stand condemned for acting unjustly. They had failed in righteousness, the essential quality in a judge. They should have represented God and judged by the truth, with no favouritism. Instead they gave false verdicts to keep the favour of people. They also showed no regard for the poor, the fatherless, the suffering and the needy. They showed neither righteousness nor mercy.
God starts with unjust judgment. One writer explains why that charge comes first.
Here then is the ground of His challenge to them. He begins with what comes first, the basic thing in judgment: it must be righteous judgment. Righteous judgment must govern even the way love is shown. And so the first appeal is: "How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?" Their conduct openly contradicted their position. They represented the Righteous God, with whom there is "no partiality."
The psalm is not limited to ancient Israel. One writer applies it to the governments of the world, and shows what the office was for.
"The powers that be" have failed, more or less, to maintain justice in the world. The failure would have been complete if God's overruling hand had not held it back… The failure is there however, as the challenge of the second verse of our Psalm shows… Then comes the call that shows the purpose God appointed them for: "Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute." If they had done this they would have rightly represented God, for He cares for the poor and the needy. I dare say that if the governments of the nations had attended to this business God appointed them to, there would have been no war.
Another writer takes the charge beyond the law courts. The same partiality shows up "even in the professing church of God, where those in outward honor are too often guilty of oppressing the common people" (L M Grant).
These men hold a high position, and God gave it to them. It will not save them.
God is not indifferent to this unrighteousness. Those who pervert judgment will themselves come under judgment. The high position that God had given them, as His representatives, will not secure them against His just judgment. They will fall like any other ruler on earth who rules without fear of God.
The question "how long" gets no answer from the judges. So the psalm looks past them altogether.
Psalm 82 gives us God's challenge to all those in places of authority… What does He find? Justice and the fear of His name? Ah! no; far from it. "How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?" That is what man is like… What, then, is the resource in view of such a humiliating state of things? "Arise, O God, judge the earth; for You shall inherit all the nations!" Here the Lord Jesus is shown as the only one able to fill the throne according to the thoughts of God.
- Commissioned. The "you" of verse 2 is the judge God Himself appointed. God's word came to him. He was bound to show God's righteousness and God's love.
- Contradicted. God charges partiality first, because judgment must be righteous. Favouring the wicked denies the God whose seat the judge holds.
- Compromised. The root is fear of people. Judges gave false verdicts to keep human favour, and left the poor and fatherless unprotected.
- Corporate. The same challenge reaches every government and every place of honour — even the professing church.
- Concluded. High position saves no one. The psalm's answer is not better judges, but the One alone able to fill the throne.
Judge the poor and the fatherless, do justice to the afflicted and the destitute;
God stands in the assembly of those He Himself appointed to judge, and puts them on trial for the way they have used their office. Verse 3 is the heart of the charge. It names the work He gave them to do, and so exposes what they left undone.
The "gods" of this psalm are men who held a commission from God. Jesus Himself defined the word when He quoted this psalm:
He is there for judgment among the "gods." The Lord defines that word for us from this very psalm (v. 6) as "those to whom the word of God came" (John 10:35) — that is, the judges of Israel, who held a commission to represent Him. So they were identified with the One they represented. They carried the most solemn responsibility to represent His character too, both His righteousness and His love to men.
The verse asks for justice, and for special care toward those least able to get it. But pity must never bend the verdict:
But once that is cared for, they must show Him on His saving side as well, in His regard for the poor, the weak, the defenceless, and the oppressed: "Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute." It must still be justice. Justice must not be broken, even out of pity for the poor, and there was a special commandment about this (Ex. 23:3). Yet his poverty should still make him an object of special and tender care.
The list is not random. It matches what God Himself is like:
He is high over all, the great, the mighty and the terrible. But He has a heart for the widow and the fatherless. They are helpless ones, stripped of all earthly and natural supports — the poor bereaved and broken-hearted widow, and the desolate orphan. God thinks of, and cares for such, in a very special way; they have a claim on His loving heart and mighty hand. "A Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of the widow is God in His holy habitation."
What if the rulers of the nations had done this work? One writer draws a striking conclusion:
If they had done this they would have rightly represented God, for He cares for the poor and the needy. I venture to say that if the governments of the nations had attended to this business for which God appointed them there would have been no war. They would have had God's approval instead of His chastisement. But often the rulers of this world honour those who rob the widow and the orphan, if they have wealth and power enough to get noticed. Their victims cry in vain, except to God.
The first application is to Israel's judges, but writers do not leave it there:
The judges ought not to favour the wicked. They ought to judge on behalf of the poor and needy, defending them from the persecution of the wicked (v. 3) and delivering them from cruel oppression. We need this same call today in many of our courts of justice. We need it even in the professing church of God, where those in outward honour are too often guilty of oppressing the common people.
Human courts have failed this charge. So who will meet its demand? Not better laws:
All injustice will be put right at once. This is bound up with the Messiah's righteous rule. So we read, "He will deliver the needy when he cries, the poor also, and him who has no helper... He will redeem their souls from deceit and violence, and their blood will be precious in His sight." (Ps. 72:12-14.) Men love to dream that this is the goal of human enlightenment and progress. But they do not know, or they forget, how incurably corrupt human nature is. So they do not consider this: even if the whole world obtained just and equal laws, those laws would fail, either in how they are run or in how they are applied.
- Commissioned — Those called "gods" are men to whom God's word came. Their authority is borrowed, and it carries a duty — to represent Him in righteousness and in love.
- Character — God is "a Father of the fatherless." A judge who ignores them misrepresents the God he serves.
- Careful — The verse asks for justice for the weak, not justice bent for them; pity must not corrupt the verdict.
- Current — Writers apply this beyond Israel's courts — to our courts today, and to places of honour among God's people, where ordinary people are still oppressed.
- Coming — Human government has failed this charge. The psalm's demand waits on the reign of Christ, who delivers the needy with no helper.
Rescue the poor and needy, deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.
This verse is an order, not advice. It is aimed at the judges of Israel — men who held office in God's name, yet failed the very people they ruled. It raises the question of what authority is for, and what happens when the men who hold it take the side of the strong.
The psalm calls these rulers "gods." The Lord Jesus Himself explained that word, using this very psalm.
He is there to judge among the "gods." The Lord defines that word for us from this very psalm (v. 6) as "those to whom the word of God came" (John 10:35) — that is, men commissioned to represent Him. They are the judges of Israel. So they were identified with the One they represented. That laid on them the most solemn responsibility: to represent His character too, both His righteousness and His love to men.
Their rulings were never meant to be their own opinion.
In Scripture the judges of Israel are sometimes given the name of God. That marks out more closely and more strongly where their authority came from, since they were the guides and leaders of His people. The word of God came to them (John 10:35). They sat to hand down justice in the name of Jehovah, and according to His declared mind. The verdict they gave was not their own but His.
"Rescue" here is not favouritism swung the other way. One writer draws a careful line: the weak man's poverty gives him a claim on tenderness, but never on a bent verdict.
Once that is cared for, they must also show Him on His saving side — in His care for the poor, the weak, the defenceless, and the oppressed. "Judge the weak and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and destitute." It must still be justice. Nobody may break that, not even out of pity for the poor, and there was a special commandment about this (Ex. 23:3). Yet his poverty should still make him an object of special and tender interest: "Rescue the weak and needy: deliver him out of the hand of the wicked."
Why should rulers bother with the powerless? Because the God they stand in for does. One writer takes that all the way to the nations and their wars.
Then comes the call that sets out the whole purpose of their appointment: "Defend the poor and the fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and the needy; and rid them out of the hand of the wicked." Had they done this, they would have rightly represented God, for He cares for the poor and the needy. I dare to say that if the governments of the nations had attended to this work God appointed them to, there would have been no war. But those who rob the widow and the orphan are often honoured by the rulers of this world, then as now, if they have wealth and power enough to get noticed. Their victims cry in vain, except to God.
(Older translations read "the poor and needy" where the ESV has "the weak and the needy.")
This is not just an ancient problem. One writer applies it to modern courtrooms, and then to religious life.
Instead of favouring the wicked, the judges ought to judge on behalf of the poor and needy. They should defend them from the persecution of the wicked (v. 3) and deliver them from the hands of cruel oppression. We need this same call today in many of our courts of justice, and even in the professing church of God, where those held in outward honour are too often guilty of oppressing ordinary people.
The psalm does not end with the order of verse 4. It ends with a cry for God Himself to act, because the men He commissioned had failed.
The voice of the Spirit announces that man has failed completely, even with the highest responsibilities and in the most favoured position. So it calls here upon GOD to arise. The foundations of the earth are out of order. No hand but His can set them right again. He will surely do it in the promised day when all things are restored, once He has burned away the impurity from the city that bears His name and that He still loves.
One writer names the only person fit to fill that throne.
What help is there, then, when things are as humbling as this? "Arise, O God, judge the earth; for You shall inherit all the nations!" Here the Lord Jesus is set before us as the only one able to fill the throne according to the thoughts of God.
- Commissioned. Judges were called "gods" because the word of God came to them; their verdicts were meant to be His, not their own.
- Charged. Their job was spelled out: rescue the weak from the grip of the wicked. That is what representing God looks like in office.
- Constrained. Rescue must stay justice. Pity for the poor may never bend a verdict. Poverty earns tender interest, not a rigged case.
- Compromised. Rulers then and now honour the powerful and leave the victims crying to God alone. The same charge falls on our courts and on church leaders.
- Completed. Every appointed rescuer failed, so the psalm asks God Himself to arise. Only Christ can fill that throne.
They know not, neither do they understand; they walk on in darkness all the foundations of the earth are moved.
God stands among the judges, and verse 5 is His verdict on them. The men set up to hold the scales do not know what they are doing. So two questions follow. How can rulers be this blind? And what happens to a world when its foundations give way?
The first half of the verse is not about the poor or the wicked, but about the men on the bench. What should be obvious to them is missing.
These leaders of God's people prove themselves to be without heart or understanding. The state of such leaders is serious indeed. They are so ignorant of God that it can be said of them, "they walk about in darkness." Leaders like this undermine the moral foundations of God's people — righteousness and mercy.
The next writer measures this against the job itself, and shows why darkness suits men with something to hide.
Verses 3 and 4 show what the judges were responsible to do. In contrast, their actual condition was gross ignorance — "they have neither knowledge nor understanding." Is this a normal condition for a judge? Instead of walking in light, open and aboveboard, they walked in darkness. They tried to hide their real condition from men, but that very act exposed it all the more.
Their ignorance never slows them down. They keep walking. One writer explains why, and says what the "foundations" are.
There is no heart, and therefore no knowledge: "they have neither knowledge nor understanding." They are in darkness, because they are not with God, and God is light. But they do not need light for the path they are on. Their lack of knowledge does not bring them to a stop — "they walk about in darkness." So "all the foundations of the earth" — judgment and mercy, the two things that hold it up — "are shaken." Nowhere is there any moral stability.
The phrase sounds geological, but it is not. One writer reads it as moral, and looks ahead to the day God lays those foundations right.
The foundations of the earth will be well and truly laid. Again, this is not the material creation. It is the laying of the moral foundations in righteousness, because at present "all the foundations of the earth are shaken" (Ps. 82:5). Through the centuries men have tried in vain to set up a righteous order of things, and the best of them have failed completely.
The psalm begins with Israel's judges, but the failure in verse 5 is not local. Israel was in the wrong, and the nations were no better.
The Jew was in the wrong, and the Gentile powers were marked by oppression. No one believed. No one recognised God. These rulers were owned as gods, since they bore His image and expressed the mind of the Most High in title and office, yet they would die like men. The sad thing was that no Jewish ruler was any better, so God would take judgment into His own hands.
Another writer traces today's disorder straight back to this one cause.
How true this is of the present state of things! It is the result of one thing: the rulers of this world walk about in darkness instead of in the knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
Verse 5 is a diagnosis. A diagnosis this severe leaves only one remedy, and that is where the psalm ends.
Psalm 82 gives us God's challenge to all those He has set in places of authority. "God has taken His place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods He holds judgment." What does He find? Justice and the fear of His name? No; far from it… What, then, is the resource in the face of such a humiliating state of things? "Arise, O God, judge the earth; for You shall inherit all the nations!" It presents the Lord Jesus as the only one competent to fill the throne according to the thoughts of God.
The same conclusion comes as a question of ability.
The voice of the Spirit pronounces the total failure of man under his highest responsibilities and in his most favoured position. It calls here upon God to arise. The earth's foundations are out of order. No hand but His can restore them again. And He will surely do this (Isa. 51:16) in the promised day when all things are restored.
- Darkness — the failure starts inside the judges. No heart, so no knowledge. And no knowledge, because they are not with God, who is light.
- Walking — the darkness does not stop them. They keep on judging. Men who hide in the dark only expose themselves more.
- Foundations — what is shaken is moral, not physical. Judgment and mercy hold the earth steady, and both have been pulled out.
- Everyone — the ruin is not limited to a few bad judges. Israel failed, and the nations failed. The disorder of the world today still traces back to rulers walking in darkness.
- Arise — no human hand can relay those foundations. So the psalm ends in a prayer, and only Christ is competent to fill that throne.
I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High;
Psalm 82 shows God standing among the rulers He appointed, calling them to account for crooked judgments. Verse 6 gives them a startling title, and the next line takes it away — so what does it mean for God to call a man "god"?
Jesus Himself defined the word "gods" when He quoted this psalm.
He is there for judgment among the "gods." The Lord defines that term for us from this very psalm (v. 6) as "those to whom the word of God came" (John 10:35) — that is, the judges of Israel, commissioned to represent Him. In this way they were identified with the One they represented. They carried the most solemn responsibility: to represent Him in His character too, both in His righteousness and in His love to men.
Calling a judge "god" was not flattery. It pointed past the man to the source of the verdict he handed down.
Scripture sometimes gives the judges of Israel the name of God (see Ex. 22:8-9, 28). This points more closely and strongly to the source of their authority as the guides and directors of His people. The word of God came to them (John 10:35). They sat to administer justice in the name of Jehovah and according to His declared mind. The award they pronounced was not their own but His.
God gave the title, and God can take it back. That shows what the man is worth on his own.
Any honour God confers on men lifts them out of obscurity, and once it is taken away it sinks them back into their own proper nothingness.
The second half of the verse lifts them higher still. The next line brings them down.
God had called these judges "gods," for they had been set to represent Him. In their outward position they were greatly blessed as "sons of the Most High." But they would "die like men," reduced to the level of sinful men. They would fall as princes who dishonour their own position as well as dishonouring God.
High office gives no immunity in God's court.
God is not indifferent to this unrighteousness. Those who pervert judgment will themselves come under judgment. The high position that God had given them, as His representatives, will not protect them from His just judgment. They will fall like any earthly prince who rules without fear of God.
Jesus quoted this line in John 10. What God said of those judges and what is true of Him stand worlds apart.
The word of God had only come to those others: "I said, 'You are gods.'" They had no dignity at all in themselves; they belonged to the earth, and God lifted them into official dignity. But He was the SON. He had been "sanctified and sent into the world." He was "the Lord from heaven." So Jesus the Son of God is infinitely different from all those of whom God has said, "You are gods." The moment their conferred dignity was taken away, they would die like the common run of men. They had no essential, inherent power or dignity.
The Lord rested a whole argument on one clause of one psalm — and stated why He could.
"Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35). Our Lord is quoting what some might be tempted to call an obscure passage from the Psalms (Ps. 82:6). Now our Lord says this Scripture cannot be broken — cannot be set aside. Men might say it is an obvious explanation of no great importance. Yet our Lord declares it cannot be ignored. It is part of a perfect whole.
Does the title stop with Israel's judges? One writer says it reaches every government.
The word "gods" stands for those in high positions — the mighty, who have authority and power. The reference in the first place is to the judges in Israel, as the Lord's citation of this Psalm shows (John 10:34-35). But the powers that be in all nations are also included, for "there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God" (Rom. 13:1). They are His representatives in government, however little they realise it. Scripture calls them His ministers. He will hold them responsible for the way they use the power He entrusted to them.
- Given. The title is a commission, not a nature: God names as "gods" those "to whom the word of God came," set to judge in His place.
- Borrowed. The authority is His, not theirs — "the award they pronounced was not their own but His."
- Tested. Representing God binds them to His character, in righteousness and in love, and He will hold them responsible for the power He entrusted to them.
- Forfeited. Strip the conferred honour away and nothing is left: they die like men and sink back into their own nothingness.
- Fulfilled. The Son needs no borrowed title. The Father sanctified Him and sent Him, and the verse that dignified men only measures the distance between them and Him.
But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
The psalm has just given Israel's judges the highest title a man could carry. Verse 7 now says they will die like anyone else, which leaves two questions: what was that title worth, and who will judge the earth when its judges fail?
The word behind "gods" is not a figure of speech. It is a term the law itself uses for men appointed to settle cases in God's name.
The word for "gods" in Psalm 82:6 is Elohim. In this Psalm, as in other places, it stands for the men God set to judge in Israel (Exodus 21:6; 22:8, 9, 28). They were God's representatives. Their work was to judge for the Lord, in His fear, and to bring the revelation God had given in His Word to bear on each case brought before them.
Does a commission from God protect the man who holds it? The psalm says it does not.
God is not indifferent to this unrighteousness. Those who pervert judgment will themselves come under judgment. The high position that God had given them, as His representatives, will not secure them against His just judgment. They will fall even as any earthly prince who rules without fear of God.
Their dignity was never their own. God placed it on them, and if He takes it back, nothing is left underneath. With the Son it works the other way.
Any honour God gives to men brings them out of obscurity; take it away, and it sinks them into their own proper nothingness. Honour given to the Son, on the other hand, adds nothing to Him. If man takes it from Him or refuses it, that only leads to God exalting Him to every office in which man has failed, "that in everything He might be preeminent."
Two pictures close the verse: dying like men, and falling like princes.
God had called these judges "gods," because He had set them to represent Him. In their outward position they had great blessing as "sons of the Most High." But they would "die like men," brought down to the level of sinful men, falling as princes who dishonour their own position and dishonour God.
Darby reads the fall the same way. He also names what God demands, and what the psalm then asks God to do:
They were men, and would die like men, and fall like one of the princes of this world outside Israel. God, who had given the authority, judged among the gods — He must have righteousness. The Spirit of prophecy then calls for this judgment in the one who understands: "Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!"
This is not only about a few corrupt men. God gave power into human hands, and human hands failed with it.
Take power, for example. God ordained that it should be in the hands of man, who in a certain sense was God's representative... "Like men you shall die, and fall like any prince." Now when God judges among the gods, what does this show? They have failed completely, and God carries out immediate judgment... Christ then, according to the purpose of God, takes the full power of the kingdom.
Jesus faced the charge of blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God. He answered from this psalm.
Quoting from Psalm 82:6, the Lord asks, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'?" God set those men apart as judges in Israel, to stand as His representatives, and His word came to them. If they are called gods, can it be blasphemy for the Son, whom the Father set apart and sent into the world, to claim to be a divine Person?
- Given — the title "gods" was a loan, not a nature. God gave it to men He set to judge in His place, and His word came to them.
- Abused — the men who twisted judgment came under judgment. Their high place did not shield them.
- Withdrawn — honour from God lifts men out of obscurity. Take it away, and they sink back into their own nothingness.
- Fallen — they die like men and fall like the princes of this world.
- Replaced — human authority has failed, so the psalm calls God to arise, and the full power of the kingdom passes to Christ.
Arise, O God, judge the earth; for *thou* shalt inherit all the nations.
The psalm has just exposed judges who failed the poor and walked in darkness. The foundations of the earth were shaken. Now the last line stops speaking to those judges and speaks to God: rise up and judge. The reason given is a promise — the nations will be His.
Every authority God appointed has failed the test. Commentators read the closing cry as the one option left.
Who will take their place? Is there to be only an endless line of men like these? No — the earth groans and longs for God Himself. He must arise; and He will. There is no resource but in Him: no refuge for the creature but in God. "Arise, O God, judge the earth." And that is what will be. The earth is His, and He will take His inheritance — not Israel only, but with Israel, all the nations.
The prayer does not ask God to patch up the present system. It asks Him to set aside the officials He Himself installed and to reign in person.
These judges of the earth will have to give an account of their conduct. "They have neither knowledge nor understanding." "I said, 'You are gods,'" for God Himself had set them in authority over the earth. God has appointed every authority that exists. But God can judge them. It is not Christians who speak this way. It is He who has the right to judge those He has named judges — the right to set aside those lesser powers and take to Himself His great power and reign.
The word "for" links two acts in the verse. They come in a fixed order.
It is God who is to judge the earth, and, as the consequence of this judgment, to become the possessor of all nations.
God is not moving into foreign territory. He is claiming what is already His. One writer traces the claim back to Abraham, who called Him the Judge of all the earth.
How can a condition such as was true in Israel ever continue? Thank God there will be an end to it, but only God Himself can bring about true justice. He will arise and take His own place as Judge of all the earth. Abraham gave Him this place (Gen. 18:25) and God will take it publicly in due time. Indeed, He will "inherit all the nations," not only as Judge, but as "Possessor of heaven and earth."
The inheritance also stretches past the one nation whose judges the psalm has been addressing.
The failure of God's representatives only proves that the earth waits for God Himself to rule in righteousness. So the psalm closes with an appeal to God to "arise" and "judge the earth" as the One who inherits, not only Israel, but "all nations."
Someone must be fit to fill that throne at last. Commentators name Him, and point to another psalm for a picture of the rule He will bring.
What, then, is the resource in the face of such a humiliating state of things? "Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!" The Lord Jesus is presented here as the only one able to fill the throne according to the thoughts of God. Psalm 72 gives us a lovely sketch of what His government will be.
Readers often stumble over prayers in the Psalms that ask God for judgment, not mercy. One writer answers by separating two works of God. He also names who is really asking, and what would happen if judgment never came.
To convert the wicked by announcing the grace of God is the gospel. What we have been reading is something quite different. Once the gospel has run its course, Christ will demand righteous judgment against the world... If God were not to execute judgment, the evil would only grow worse and worse without any comfort for the faithful. God does not execute it until the evil has reached its height... The earth must be cleared of His enemies to make room for the reign of God Himself. It is not David asking to rule over his enemies; it is Christ who demands judgment, because the time has come.
- Failure. Every judge God appointed has gone wrong. The psalm ends with no confidence left in human rule: there is no resource but in God Himself.
- Cry. "Arise" asks God to set aside the lesser powers He once installed and take His great power to reign in person.
- Judgment. He judges the earth first. Becoming possessor of the nations is the result of that judgment, not a separate act.
- Inheritance. The claim reaches beyond Israel to all the nations. He is Judge of all the earth and Possessor of heaven and earth.
- Heir. The Lord Jesus alone is able to fill that throne. A prayer for judgment is a prayer for His righteous government to begin.