1 God presides in the great assembly. He judges among the gods.
2 “How long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked?” Selah.
3 “Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
4 Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.”
Free Grace note
What God demands of those who hold power The scene is a courtroom. God presides in the great assembly and puts the judges of the earth themselves on trial. The charge is specific: they judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked, which usually means favoring whoever can pay or threaten. Then comes the standard they were supposed to keep, stated in four commands: defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless; maintain the rights of the oppressed; rescue the needy; deliver them from the wicked. This tells us something important about God's own character. In the ancient world, gods were expected to back the king. Israel's God measures rulers by how the powerless fare under them. Verse 5 says that when justice fails, the very foundations of the earth are shaken; a society that abandons the vulnerable is coming apart at the level of creation itself. For anyone who holds any authority, at work, at home, in a church, the standard has not changed. God is still watching how the people with the least leverage are treated by the people with the most.
5 They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I said, “You are gods, all of you are sons of the Most High.
7 Nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the rulers.”
Free Grace note
You are gods, yet you shall die like men Verse 6 is startling: I said, you are gods, all of you are sons of the Most High. The best reading is that God is addressing the human judges of verses 2 to 4. They are called gods, elohim, because they exercised delegated divine authority; to stand before the judge was, in a real sense, to stand before God's representative. Verse 7 then delivers the sentence: however lofty the title, you shall die like men and fall like any ruler. Authority was loaned; the grave collects it back. Jesus quotes verse 6 in John 10:34-36, arguing that if Scripture could call mere human officials gods, his critics could not stone him for calling himself the Son of God, whom the Father sanctified and sent. The psalm closes with the prayer that answers its whole problem: arise, God, judge the earth, for you inherit all the nations. Corrupt courts do not get the last word. The Judge over the judges will, and that is why the oppressed can hope and the powerful should tremble.
8 Arise, God, judge the earth, for you inherit all of the nations.
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