Dear Friends,
We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk. We give thanks to Michael Lund, Teacher in Biblical Studies, for writing this devotional. You are welcome to share this and include it in your church newsletters if you wish; we just ask that you please give credit to NTC and the author. Thank you!
Psalm 82 (NRSVUE)
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
2 “How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3 Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding;
they walk around in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I say, “You are gods,
children of the Most High, all of you;
7 nevertheless, you shall die like mortals
and fall like any prince.”
8 Rise up, O God, judge the earth,
for all the nations belong to you!
Devotional
Right from the start, this psalm seems a little unusual for our Christian canon. It’s not just God judging, but God amongst the ‘divine council, in the midst of the gods’. In my research on the divine council, scholars had mixed views on who comprises the divine council: angels, divine beings, other gods, sons of God, kings of nations/regions, on the odd occasion Israel’s leaders (Tate, Psalms, p. 329) or an Israelite prophet (Meier, Themes and Transformations, pp.23-26). This depiction has similarity to the Ugaritic sacred texts’ divine council, a pantheon of gods for which El and Ba‘al were regent and co-regent; except in Psalm 82 it is Israel’s God who fulfils both roles and is the highest judge (Heiser, “Co-regency”, BBR, p. 198). Again, much of this might seem unusual to us, but even in the New Testament we have Jesus quoting part of this Psalm in defence of his claim to be God’s Son (John 10:34-36), and Paul writing of ‘so-called gods’ and ‘rulers and authorities in heavenly places’ (1 Cor. 8:5-6, Eph 3:10, see McAnn, Psalms, NIB, p. 1007).
Psalm 82 doesn’t depict the later prophetic/post-exilic understanding of there being only one God, YHWH, with the other ‘gods’/idols being mocked for their uselessness. Rather it’s situated within the worldview expressed in the Ten Commandments, where YHWH says “you should have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:3). It depicts ‘the gods’/‘children of the Most High’ in the divine council having a commissioned part to play in ruling humanity. They are supposed to judge justly, and without partiality – yet they are guilty in doing the opposite (v. 2). Their unjust ruling has left the weak, the orphan, the lowly and destitute without rights, and in need of ‘rescue’ and ‘deliverance’ (vv. 3-4), wording used to express the marginalised peoples’ life and death situation (McAnn, Psalms, NIB, p. 1006).
God (interestingly, the Hebrew uses the word El, and not the expected YHWH for God) sees this injustice, echoing the people’s cry of lament ‘How long’ as part of his indictment of the gods. The lack of fairness in the gods’ ruling, and their bias towards the wicked at the expense of the lowly shakes the very foundations of the earth. It’s an injustice that goes against YHWH’s actions in ordering creation. For their unfair actions, God deems ‘gods, children of the Most High’ guilty, and they are stripped of their immortality.
Throughout this Psalm, it’s clear that God cares for the marginalised. Which ever way we interpret the divine council, the gods/human rulers of other nations/Israel’s rulers have failed to care for the lowly, the destitute, the orphan, and have ignored their rights in showing favouritism to the wicked. God cannot take this any longer, and steps in with judgement. The Psalmist echoes the lament of ‘How long’ with the final words ‘Rise up, O God, judge the earth’, longing for the justice that Israel’s God is sure to bring.
He will deliver his people, and bring fairness and righteousness. As Bonaventure wrote, God is the ‘fontalis plenitudo’, the fountain overflowing with mercy and justice.
Prayer
How long Lord will injustice continue to prevail? Forgive us the times we have not spoken up against unjust actions, or carried them out ourselves. We pray your kingdom come, a kingdom not of partiality, but of right judgement, of mercy and justice for the marginalised, the weak, the orphan, the helpless, the destitute. Help us to play our part in this, living the Psalmist’s conviction that injustice destroys your creation. Amen.
Kind regards,
Michael Lund
Teacher in Biblical Studies