Ps.82
[0] 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 fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted 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 about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
[6] I say, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you;
[7] nevertheless, you shall die like men,
and fall like any prince.”
[8] Arise, O God, judge the earth;
for to thee belong all the nations!
This psalm is directed to the judges. It has a solemn mood because the psalmist is unhappy with man’s judgments.
v.1 The Hebrew word for “gods” is also translated “judges,” because a judge has authority over a person’s destiny. God will judge the judges.
v.2 “The persons of the wicked” are the unrighteous rich, influential, and prominent.
v.6 Here again “gods” means “judges” (Exodus 22:28). Jesus also quoted this in John 10:34. A god in this sense is anyone or anything having power over your life.
v.8 The only righteous judgment will be executed when God judges the earth.
John 31 - 39
[31] The Jews took up stones again to stone him.
[32] Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?”
[33] The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
[34] Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law,
I said, you are gods'? [35] If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), [36] do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, You are blaspheming,’ because I said, `I am the Son of God’?
[37] If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me;
[38] but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
[39] Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands
Ver. 34. This is addressed to princes established to govern the people of God. They are the image of God on earth by the authority they exercise, and which they have received from Him. — Is it not written in you law, (under which were also comprehended the Psalms) I have said: you are Gods? &c. Christ here stops the mouths of the Jews, by an argument which they could not answer, that sometimes they were called Gods, who acted by God’s authority. I have said: you are Gods. (Psalm lxxxi. 6.) But then he immediately declares, that it is not in this sense only that he is God. 1st, Because he has been sanctified by the Father, which St. Augustine and others understand of that infinite sanctification, which he has necessarily by always proceeding from the Father. Others expound it of a greater sanctity and fulness of grace above all other saints, given to him, even as he was man. But 2ndly, he adds at the same time, and confirms what he had often told them, that he was the Son of God, sent into the world: that his works shew that he was in the Father, and the Father in him. by this they saw that he was far from recalling or contradicting what he had said before. And therefore (ver. 30.) they sought to apprehend him, and put him to death for blasphemy. (Witham) — Eloim, which name of God was so called from judging, and may be interpreted judges. (Menochius)
