Psalms 82

Psalms 82A BRIEF but pregnant statement of the responsibilities attached to the judicial office under the Mosaic dispensation. After declaring the relation which the judges bore to God, Psalms 82:1, he rebukes their malversation, Psalms 82:2, and exhorts them to a better practice, Psalms 82:3-4, and in case of their persistency in evil, Psalms 82:5, notwithstanding their acknowledged dignity, Psalms 82:6, threatens them with condign punishment, Psalms 82 :, to which the church responds by praying God himself to appear as the universal judge and sovereign, Psalms 82:8.

1. (Psalms 82:1) A Psalm. By Asaph. God stands in the assembly of the Mighty; in the midst of the gods he judges. There is no reason for doubting that the Asaph mentioned in this title was the Asaph of the reign of David, in whose times the necessity for such a warning must already have existed, if not in the person of the king, who, perhaps on that account, is not particularly mentioned, yet in his chiefs or nobles, the exalted though inferior magistrates who executed justice under him. The judicial appearance of Jehovah here presented is like that in Psalms 1:1. Stands, or, as the participle strictly means, (is) standing, stationing himself, assuming his position.

The word translated assembly is one commonly applied to the congregation of Israel, as an organised whole or body politic. See Exodus 12:3; Exodus 16:1, Leviticus 4:15, Numbers 27:17.

Mighty is singular, not plural, in Hebrew, being one of the divine names, and qualifies the congregation or assembly as belonging to God himself, i.e. instituted by him, and held under his authority. The parallel expression, in the midst of the gods, superadds to this idea an allusion to a singular usage of the Pentateuch, according to which the theocratical magistrates, as mere representatives of God’s judicial sove reignty, are expressly called Elohim, the plural form of which is peculiarly well suited to this double sense or application. See Exodus 21:6; Exodus 22:8-9, and compare Deuteronomy 1:17; Deuteronomy 19:17, 2 Chronicles 19:6. Even reverence to old age seems to be required on this principle (Leviticus 19:32), and obedience to parents in the fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12), which really applies to all the offices and powers of the patriarchal system, a system founded upon natural relations, and originating in a simple extension of domestic or parental government, in which the human head represents the original and universal parent or progenitor. The remarkable use of the name God in Exodus, above referred to, is concealed from the reader of the English Bible, by the arbitrary use of the word judges, as a translation of the Hebrew, which of course it cannot be. He judges, will judge, is about to judge, The idea is,would be a judge to them. Compare Isaiah 3:13-15, Micah 3:1-4, Jeremiah 22:1-4.

2. (Psalms 82:2) How long will ye judge wrong, and the faces of wicked men accept? Selah. The question implies that they had done so long enough, nay, too long, since it was wrong from the beginning. Wrong, in the strongest moral sense, injustice, wickedness. Wrong, in Hebrew as in English, may be construed either as an adverb or a noun, or both, i.e. as a noun adverbially used to qualify the verb. See the similar construction of its counter-part or converse, Psalms 58:1.

The last clause exemplies one of the most peculiar Hebrew idioms. The combination usually rendered respect persons in the English Bible, and applied to judicial partiality, means literally to take (or take up) faces. Some suppose this to mean the raising of the countenance, or causing to look up from deep dejection. But the highest philological authorities are now agreed, that the primary idea is that of accepting one man’s face or person rather than another’s, the, precise form of expression, though obscure, being probably derived from the practice of admitting suitors to confer with governors or rulers face to face, a privilege which can sometimes only be obtained by bribes, especially though not exclusively in oriental courts. The Selah commends the implied charge of official malversation to the serious reflection of the accused parties.

3. (Psalms 82:3) Judge the weak and fatherless, (to) the sufferer and the poor do justice. The indirect censure of their evil deeds is followed by a direct exhortation to do well. Compare Isaiah 1:16-17. The verb of the first clause is explained by that of the second, which is a technical forensic term, meaningto make innocent or righteous, i.e. to recognise or declare as such by a judicial act. See Exodus 23:7, Deuteronomy 25:1, and compare 2 Samuel 15:4, Isaiah 5:23; Isaiah 5:18. The word translated weak is applied to the defect of bodily strength and of property or substance.

See above, on Psalms 41:1. It is used by Moses in the same connection, Exodus 23:3. The fatherless or orphans are continually spoken of, as proper objects both of mercy and of justice. See above, on Psalms 10:14; Psalms 68:5, and compare Exodus 22:22. The word translated poor seems strictly to denote one who has grown poor or become impoverished. See the verbal root in Psalms 34:10.

4. (Psalms 82:4) Deliver the weak and the needy (man), front the hand of wicked (men) free (him). The first verb means originally to suffer or cause to escape; the second to extricate or disembarrass. From the hand of the wicked implies from their power, as actually exercised for coercion. The structure of the sentence may be made more regular by disregarding the pause-accent and attaching the needy to the last clause, and the poor from the hand of the wicked set free.

5. (Psalms 82:5) They know not and they will not understand; in darkness they will (still) walk; shaken are all the foundations of earth. This is the Lord’s complaint of their incorrigible ignorance and indocility, which rendered even his divine instructions unavailing. The object of the first verbs is suggested by the context, as in Psalms 14:4. What they did not know and would not understand was their judicial duty and responsibility, the end for which they were invested with authority. Darkness is a figure both for ignorance and wickedness. See Proverbs 2:13. The denial or perversion of justice is described as disorganising society. Compare the figures in Psalms 11:3; Psalms 75:3.

6. (Psalms 82:6) I have said, Gods (are) ye, and sons of the Highest all of you. Their sin did not consist in arrogating to themselves too high a dignity, but in abusing it by malversation, and imagining that it relieved them from responsibility, whereas it really enhanced it. They were God’s representatives, but for that very reason they were bound to be pre-eminently just and faithful. I have said, not merely to myself or in secret, but in my law; referring to the passages in Exodus already cited. See above, on Psalms 82:1. Ye are gods, or God, i.e. ye occupy his place and are entrusted with his honour as a just and holy God.

The pregnant significancy of the plural form is here the same as in Psalms 82:1 above. The parallel expression, sons of the Most High, denotes the closest and most intimate relation to Jehovah, as the Supreme or Sovereign God. See above, on Psalms 2:7. This verse is cited by our Lord (John 10:34-35), to shew that if the divine name had been applied by God to mere men, there could be neither blasphemy nor folly in its application to the incarnate Son of God himself.

7. (Psalms 82:7) (Yet) verily like mankind shall ye die, and like one of the princes shall ye fall. Our idiom requires an adversative particle at the beginning, to bring out the antithetical relation of the sentences. But the first word in Hebrew is properly a particle of strong asseveration, certainly, assuredly. See above, on Psalms 31:22, and compare my note on Isaiah 53:4. Like mankind, or men collectively, or like a man indefinitely, i.e. any other man. So in the other clause, like one of the princes, i.e. any other prince, or person holding an exalted station.

The clauses constitute a climax. The first merely describes them as sharers in the general mortality of man. The second threatens them with death, i.e. violent or untimely death, as a special punishment. Ye shall fall, by the sword (Jeremiah 39:18), or in some analogous manner. The verb is often absolutely used in this way to denote a violent and penal loss of life. See above, Psalms 20:8, and below, Psalms 111:7, and compare Exodus 19:21, Jeremiah 8:12.

The general meaning of this verse, when taken in connection with the one before it, is that notwithstanding their exalted dignity, bestowed and recognised by God himself, they were not thereby exempted from the common mortality of men, nor even from those signal and destructive strokes, with which God often visits men as highly favoured and exalted as themselves.

8. (Psalms 82:8) Arise, 0 God, judge the earth; for thou art to possess all nations. This is not, as some interpreters suppose, a mere wish that God would do what he had just threatened; for this would make the psalm end with a feeble anti-climax. It is rather a petition that, since the representative or delegated judges had proved so unfaithful, God would appear in person and reclaim the powers which had been so wickedly abused. And this he is besought to do, not only in Israel, where the proximate occasion of the prayer was furnished, but throughout the earth, over all whose nations he possessed, and was one day to make good, the same hereditary right, i.e. a right continuing unchanged through all successive generations.