Latest / Reformed Thinking / God Stands in the Assembly and Judges the Judges (Psalm 82) | Charles Spurgeon

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God Stands in the Assembly and Judges the Judges (Psalm 82) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Reformed thinking. That's us, and that's what we're
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doing. We're sitting down with the text
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and really looking at it through the lens of, well, a giant of
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the faith. We're in the treasury of David
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today. It's good to be here, and the
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text we're looking at is Psalm 82.
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Psalm 82. Now I have to be honest.
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When I think about the Psalms, my mind goes to a very specific
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place. You know, I'm thinking about
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David Harp, green pastures, still waters, maybe David hiding
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in AK from Saul. It's almost always devotional,
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very personal, sometimes emotional.
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But this one, this is not that. Not at all.
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It's jarring, actually. If you come to Psalm 82
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expecting a, you know, a comforting lullaby or a personal
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lament, you are going to get some serious whiplash.
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This is not a song for your quiet time.
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This is a summons, a subpoena almost.
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Charles Spurgeon in his commentary, he calls it a sermon
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to the bench. And that's a perfect way to put
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it. This is a direct, unfiltered
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admonition to what he calls the Supreme Court of the universe.
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And by extension, it's an indictment of every human court,
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every government that operates under God's authority.
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It's as much a legal text as it is a poetic one.
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We're approaching this as folks who hold to the Westminster
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Confession. So for us, this isn't just nice
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literature. This is the authoritative word
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of God about civil government and about justice.
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And what's really interesting is who wrote it.
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It isn't David. It's Asaf.
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Asaf the musician, the worship leader.
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Right. And Spurgeon picks up on this
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right away. I thought this was just
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fascinating. Asaf is the guy in charge of the
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symbols, the choirs. He's the artist.
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But in this Psalm, he's not singing about the beauty of the
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temple or the glory of God. In a general sense.
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He's acting as A, and this is Spurgeon's phrase, a preacher to
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the court and to the magistracy. It's such a striking change of
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pace, isn't it? Spurgeon has this great little
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thought experiment. He wonders what it would have
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been like if, say, John Milton had stopped writing poetry to
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step into the pulpit. Or if Virgil had become an
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apostle. Right, you have a man who is
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known for one thing, creating beauty, leading worship, and he
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suddenly steps into this incredibly stern prophetic role.
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It would be like if your favorite, I don't know, your
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favorite worship songwriter today suddenly walked onto the
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floor of the Senate, banged his hand on a podium and started
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reading the riot act to the politicians.
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That's the. Energy.
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That's a perfect modern analogy, and Spurgeon's point is that
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Asaph hasn't stopped serving God, he's just serving in a
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different capacity. He says he was still praising
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God when he rebuked the sin that dishonored him.
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So if he wasn't making music, he was.
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He was hushing discord. He was telling the rulers to get
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their act together so that the harmony of society could be
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restored. OK, so the stage is set.
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We are not by the still waters anymore.
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We are in a courtroom and verse one just drops us right into the
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middle of the action. God standeth in the congregation
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of the mighty. He judgeth among the gods.
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Just stop there for a second. Can you visualize that?
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God standeth. You know, my brain, I'll be
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honest, it usually just glides right over words like standeth
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or sitteth in the King James. It just feels like, you know,
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archaic filler. But the notes in the Treasury
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make a huge deal out of God's posture.
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Here it is a huge deal. Think about a courtroom in any
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human court. Who sits?
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The judge The judge sits. All right, the judge sits on the
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bench. The seat, The chair is the
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symbol of authority. The whole idea of speaking ex
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cathedra literally means from the chair everyone else in the
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room stands. The lawyers, the defendant, the
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bailiff, you stand out of respect for the person who's
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sitting. So if God is the ultimate
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authority, the judge of all judges, shouldn't he be sitting
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on some great white throne while everyone else is, you know, face
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down on the ground? That is exactly what you would
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expect, but the text is very specific.
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He stands. Why?
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What's the significance of that? It's because he is not presiding
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passively. He is active.
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He is engaged. The source notes point out that
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standing implies A promptness to act.
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It suggests he is about to do something, maybe something
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decisive or even violent. It's the posture of an accuser
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or an advocate or someone who is about to deliver a verdict that
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has no appeal. It reminds me of that moment in
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the book of Acts with Stephen. Yes, when Stephen is being
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stoned, he looks up to heaven and we confess in the Creed that
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Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father.
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That's his posture of reigning. But Stephen says I see the Son
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of Man standing. Like he got up from his throne
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because of what was happening to his servant.
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It shows this intense engagement, this readiness to
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defend. And there's another layer here
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in Psalm 82. If God is standing and the human
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judges, the congregation of the mighty, are sitting on their
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little benches, the rolls have just been flipped.
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Oh, wow. They think they are the judges.
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They're the ones in charge. But when the high judge of the
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universe enters the room and stands over them, they are
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suddenly the ones on trial. They're the defendants.
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That's a terrifying thought. You're sitting there in your
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robes, feeling all important, banging your gavel.
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And then you look up and the creator of the universe is
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standing over your shoulder checking your work.
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Spurgeon calls him the Overlooker.
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The overlooker. I like that.
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He is the inspector. He sees everything that is done
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by the great ones of the earth. When they sit in their state, he
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stands, which means simply that the judges are being judged.
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It just destroys any idea of privacy or, you know, autonomy
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and leadership. I think there's a tendency for
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people in power, whether you're talking about a small town mayor
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or a Supreme Court Justice, to think that once the door is
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closed, their word is final, their word is law.
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And Asaph, speaking for God, is saying no, there is no such
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thing as a closed session. There is a quorum of one who is
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always present, always observing.
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Spurgeon notes that a higher authority will critique the
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decisions of what he calls petty sessions.
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I like that even the judgments of our most impartial judges
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will one day be revised and reviewed by the High Court of
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Heaven. So that's the visual God
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standing in the courtroom. But then we hit this phrase that
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I think it trips a lot of people up.
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He judgeth among the gods. The Elohim.
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Yeah, I mean, if you didn't know better, if you were just reading
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this cold, it sounds like polytheism.
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God judging among the other gods.
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It sounds like a staff meeting on Mount Olympus.
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Zeus is getting ready to yell at Aries or something.
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How do we square that with a monotheistic, reformed
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worldview? That's a very fair question, and
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it's one that critics have, you know, jumped on for centuries.
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But within the context of the whole of Scripture, it's
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actually quite clear. This is not referring to other
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supernatural deities. It is not an admission that
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there are other gods in the universe.
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OK, so who are the gods? They are the human magistrates,
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They're the judges, the kings, the rulers, the people in
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positions of civil authority. But why call them gods?
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I mean, that seems like a pretty dangerous ego boost to give a
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politician. Hey, did you know the Bible
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calls you a God? It's not a compliment to their
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character, that's the key. It's a description of their
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office. Spurgeon explains this so well,
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He says they are gods to other men.
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Meaning they have power over them like life and death.
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Exactly. They hold the power of life and
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death. They can bind.
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They can loose. When you stand before a human
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judge, that person holds your fate, your property, your
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liberty in their hands in a way that you know usually only God
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does. God has delegated a portion of
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his own authority to them. He has, in a sense, lent them
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his name. So they are acting as his
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representatives on Earth. Precisely.
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They are his deputies. When a judge sits on the bench,
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he's not supposed to be acting on his own whims or his own
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prejudices. He is supposed to be
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administering God's justice. He is an Elohim, a mighty One by
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Commission from the Most High. But the great irony is that
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while they are gods to men, God is God to them.
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Yes, Spurgeon has a very witty line about this.
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He talks about the puny judges, which is an old legal term for
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junior or inferior judges, and he says they are but puny judges
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in the sight of God. I love that word play.
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Puny, puny. It puts them right in their
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place, he says. Their brethren who administer
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common law will one day be tried by the common law of God.
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You know, this whole idea of the gods really sets the stage for
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the divine right discussion that we see later in the Psalm.
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But before we get there, we have to deal with the fact that these
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gods are failing. They are failing spectacularly.
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God is in the room, He is standing over them.
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He looks at these magistrates, and he issues an indictment.
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Verse 2. How long will you judge unjustly
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and accept the persons of the wicked Sela?
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You can just hear the exasperation in that question.
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How long? It's like a parent walking into
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a messy room for the 10th time and just saying, really, how
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long are we going to do this? It implies a patients that is
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wearing very, very thin. This isn't a new problem.
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This has been going on for a while.
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And as Spurgeon says, a little injustice is too much.
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A short time of it is too long, but here it seems like this
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corruption has become the status quo.
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It's just how business is done. And the specific charge is
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accepting the persons of the wicked.
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We really need to unpack that phrase, because in modern
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English, accepting a person sounds like a good thing.
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Right, it sounds inclusive. I accept you for who you are.
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I validate you, but that's not what this means at all, is it?
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Not even close. It's a Hebrew idiom.
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The notes from Joseph Addison Alexander in the Treasury are so
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helpful here. He explains that the phrase
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literally means to take up faces or to lift up the countenance.
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To take up faces. OK, paint a picture for me.
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What does that look like in the ancient world?
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So imagine you're a suitor coming before a king, or your
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defendant coming before a judge in the ancient Near East.
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You would not walk in and make eye contact.
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That would be seen as insolent as a challenge.
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You would walk in with your face cast down.
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You might even prostate yourself on the floor.
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You're physically demonstrating that you are nothing and the
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king is everything. You are completely at his mercy.
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Now if the king or the judge wanted to show you favor, he
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would say something like lift up your face, or he might even
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reach down and physically lift your chin.
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He's sending a signal. He's saying I see you, I am
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granting your request, I am on your side.
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OK, so that gesture itself isn't necessarily bad.
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It could be benevolent. It could be if it's done based
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on the righteousness of the cause.
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But here's the corruption that the Psalm is talking about.
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The judge is lifting the face of the wicked.
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So he's not looking at the evidence, he's looking at the
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person. Exactly.
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He sees that the guy on the floor is his cousin.
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Or he sees that the guy is a wealthy landowner who slipped
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him a bag of gold before the trial.
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Or maybe he sees that the guy is a powerful warlord who might
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have him killed if he rules against him, so he lists his
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face. He grants him favor based on who
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he is, not based on the facts of the case.
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That's the very definition of partiality.
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It's the death of justice. We have that symbol of Lady
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Justice, and she's wearing a blindfold for a reason.
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She isn't supposed to see if you are rich or poor, black or
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white, a friend or an enemy. She's supposed to just weigh the
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evidence in the scales. But these judges are peeking
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under the blindfold. And Virgin points out something
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here. He says the text suggests that
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these magistrates were not just, you know, passively excusing the
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wicked, letting them off the hook.
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They were actively deciding in their favor against the
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righteous. It's active malice.
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It's a conspiracy against the innocent.
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It's not just a blind eye. It's a helping hand to the
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oppressor. Spurgeon compares Asaph's tone
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here to Elijah confronting King Ahab.
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He says it is grandly. Stern.
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And then the verse ends with that one single word, sila.
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The pause. We usually just read right over
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Sila, but it's so important. In a musical performance, it's a
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rest, a seizura. And in a speech like this one,
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it is that moment of dead silence after a bombshell has
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just been dropped. The uncomfortable silence.
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Yes, God asks the searing question.
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How long are you going to keep doing this?
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And then silence. He lets a question hang in the
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oar. He gives them a moment to feel
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the weight of their guilt, a pause for the offenders to
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consider what they've done. So the indictment is laid out.
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They are corrupt. They're playing favorites.
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Then in the next section, verses 3 and 4, God shifts from what
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they are doing to what they should be doing.
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This is the mandate. Defend the poor and fatherless.
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Do justice to the afflicted and needy.
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Deliver the poor needy, Rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
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This is the job description right here.
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If you want to know whether a government is legitimate in
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God's eyes, this is the test. You don't look at its GDP.
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You don't look at its military might.
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You look at how it treats the people at the bottom of the
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ladder. The.
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Poor the fatherless, the afflicted, the needy.
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The ones who can't pay a bribe, the ones who can't afford a
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high-priced lawyer, the ones who have no political connections.
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The magistrate exists to be their voice, their defender.
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But I want to drill down on something Spurgeon says here,
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because I think it's a very be careful, very reformed nuance,
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he says. Do not give the poor more than
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justice. Yes, this is crucial.
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Sometimes in our, you know, our modern desire to correct social
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wrongs, we can swing the pendulum too far the other way.
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We can start to think, oh, well, this person is poor, so they
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must automatically be right. Or this person is wealthy so
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they must automatically be the bad guy.
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Which is just another form of lifting the face.
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Isn't it the same sin, just pointed in a different
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direction? It is Leviticus 19, 18.1.
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Few is so clear on this. It says thou shalt not respect
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the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty.
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Justice is about truth, period. Spurgeon says you shouldn't give
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the poor pity instead of justice, you should simply
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ensure they get full justice. Because the reality most of the
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time is that the poor get less than.
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Justice. That's the historical reality,
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and it's often the modern one. The rich man can afford to delay
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the trial for years. He can bury the poor man in
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legal paperwork. He can hire a whole team of
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lawyers. The poor man runs out of money,
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runs out of time, and just gives up.
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So the judge's job is to put his thumb on the scale just enough
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to balance it back to neutral, to make sure that a lack of
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money doesn't result in a lack of justice.
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Verse 4 uses this really evocative phrase.
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Rid them out of the hand of the wicked and the notes talk about
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breaking the Nets, man. Catchers.
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That sounds like the villain in a horror movie.
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Well, it is a horror for the people caught in those Nets, the
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source notes. Describe these Nets as, you
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know, legal toils, bonds, securities.
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Think about things in our day like predatory lending schemes
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or incredibly complex contracts that are designed to confuse an
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elderly person so you can take their house.
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The fine print. Fine print.
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It is a web and the wicked man is the spider.
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He spins this complex legal web to trap the fly, the poor
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uninformed person, and too often the legal system just watches it
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happen and says, well, sorry, he signed the contract, he's bad.
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But the mandate here is for the judge to the one who rips that
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web apart. Yes, the judge should not be
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helping the spider. He should be the one liberating
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the fly. He should look at that
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exploitative contract and say this is unconscionable, this is
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theft disguised as law and he should have the courage to break
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it. There's a story in the sources
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that I think just illustrates this whole attitude so
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perfectly. It's about King Francis, the
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first of France. Yes, this is a great little
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scene. And you set it up for us.
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So you have a woman, a commoner, who has been wronged in some
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way. She manages, against all odds,
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to get an audience with the king himself.
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And she is, as you can imagine, terrified.
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She kneels down before him, weaving, and she starts begging
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him to help her. She's treating justice like it's
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a charity, you know, something she has to grovel for.
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And. What does the king do?
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King Francis looks at her and his first words are stand up
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woman. Stand up.
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He says, For it is justice that I owe thee, and justice thou
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shalt have. If thou beg anything of me, let
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it be mercy. Wow, it is justice that I owe
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thee that gives me chills. It completely reframes the
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relationship, doesn't it? Justice is a debt.
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The ruler is a debtor to his people.
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He's not doing you a favor by protecting your rights.
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He is paying what he owes. You shouldn't have to beg a
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judge to be fair, any more than you should have to beg a bank to
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give you your own money back. It's a duty, not a gift.
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A debt and the source notes mentioned a writer named William
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Price writing way back in 1642, and he describes the ideal happy
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state as a place where justice drops like honey from the.
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That's a beautiful image. It means it flows naturally,
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it's sweet, and it's free. Price talks about a place where
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there is no sale of offices or trucking for Expedition.
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Trucking for Expedition? I'm guessing that means paying a
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bribe to get your case heard faster.
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That's it, Skipping the line because you paid a fee.
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The notes mention the old phrase giving a SOP to Cerberus.
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You know Cerberus from Greek mythology, the three headed dog
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guarding the underworld. Right, you have to throw him a
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piece of meat to get past him. In a corrupt system, the court
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clerk, the bailiff, the judge, they're all heads of Cerberus.
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You have to feed them all bribes just to get through the door.
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But in a godly state, justice isn't for sale.
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It's a right? But, and this is the tragic turn
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in the Psalm, we don't live in that ideal state.
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And we move to Section 4, verse 5, and the diagnosis is just
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bleak. They know not, neither will they
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understand. They walk on in darkness.
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This is the doctrine of total depravity applied to the
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judicial system. When it says they know not, does
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that mean they're just stupid? Are they just incompetent fools
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who got into power? No, it's worse than that.
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It is far worse than incompetence, the source notes.
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Call it willful blindness. It doesn't just say they don't
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know. It says neither will they
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understand. It's a choice they refuse to
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know. There's this great Latin
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distinction in the notes from a writer named John Boys.
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He talks about Sal CNTA and Sal Conscientia.
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The salt of knowledge and the salt of conscience.
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Let's break that down because I think it explains why so many
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politicians and leaders are so frustrating to us.
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OK, think of it like a surgeon, Sal Santier.
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The salt of knowledge is knowing how to perform the surgery.
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You've been to medical school. You know the anatomy.
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You know where to cut. You've got the technical skill.
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You've got the technical skill, but Sal consciente, the salt of
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conscience, is actually caring whether the patient lives or
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dies. It's the moral component.
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OK, that makes sense. So if you have a surgeon who has
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all the knowledge, all the skill, but he lacks the
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conscience, he knows how to cut, but he doesn't care if he kills
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you on the table. Maybe he just wants the big
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insurance payout. You don't have a doctor, you
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have a butcher. And that's.
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What these judges are they're legal butchers.
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They know the law, they know all the loopholes and the
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technicalities, but they lack the salt of conscience.
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They have no internal desire to do what is right.
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And John Boys says that to lack the desire to know what is right
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is the mark of an incorrigible criminal.
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And because the judges, the pillars of society, are corrupt,
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The consequences are well, they're cosmic, the verse
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continues. All the foundations of the Earth
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are out, of course. This is huge language.
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It's saying that when justice fails at the top, reality itself
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starts to come unhinged at the bottom.
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It feels a little like hyperbole though, doesn't it?
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The foundations of the Earth. I mean, the sun still comes up
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in the morning even if a judge somewhere takes a bribe.
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Physically, yes, the planet still spins, but morally and
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socially, no. Think about what a foundation
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is. It's the thing you build
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everything else on. And society is built on the
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expectation of law and order and fairness.
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If I can't trust that a contract I sign will be upheld in court,
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I stopped doing business. If I can't trust that the police
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will protect me from thieves, I buy a gun and I start my own
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gang for protection. The whole social contract just
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dissolves into chaos. Everyone for themselves.
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Exactly. And Spurgeon uses this vivid
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image. He says when Justices justice
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becomes a byword, meaning it becomes a joke, a synonym for
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corruption. The piles underlying the
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structure of society begin to rot.
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He mentions the horribly unjust game laws of his day in England,
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where a pheasant was literally worth more than a peasant.
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When a bird is valued more highly than a human being made
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in God's image. When that happens, the structure
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sinks. You cannot have peace without
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justice. You might have order for a
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little while, the kind of order you have in a prison, but you
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cannot have a functioning, flourishing society.
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The earth itself shakes. So the earth is shaking, the
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judges are corrupt and willfully blind.
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But then in Section 5 we come back to this God's idea, verse
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6. I have said ye are gods and all
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of you are children of the Most High.
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We touched on this earlier, but now we have to go deeper into
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the political theory that's packed into this verse.
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This is the divine right discussion.
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Divine right? I mean, that's a trigger phrase
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for a lot of people. It makes me think of arrogant
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absolute monarchs. You know, tyrants claiming they
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can do whatever they want because God put them on the
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throne. And that's absolutely how it has
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been abused for centuries. The divine right of kings to
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govern wrong, as the saying goes.
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But the Reformed tradition and the writers that Spurgeon
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gathers in The Treasury of David, they flipped this entire
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idea on its head. A writer named William Binney
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has this fantastic quote. In the notes he talks about the
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divine right of constables. I love that line.
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The divine right of kings is the divine right of constables.
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What does that mean? Unpack that for us.
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It means that the authority doesn't come from the size of
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your office or the fancy title you hold.
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It comes from the God who established the office itself.
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So a constable, a lowly police officer in a small town, has
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just as much divine right to enforce the law in his
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jurisdiction as a king has to rule an entire empire.
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So when that constable is doing his duty properly, he is sitting
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in God's seat. He is a God in that moment.
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Yes, but here is the massive catch.
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He is only a God in so far as he represents God's law.
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And this brings in the great Samuel Rutherford.
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Rutherford, the Scottish Presbyterian who wrote Lex Rex.
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The Law on the Prince or the Law is King.
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A world changing book. Rutherford argues, based on this
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Psalm, that judges are not the creatures of kings.
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What does he mean by that? Creatures of kings.
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He means that they don't get their power merely from the
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monarch. They aren't just the King's
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employees who have to do whatever the king says.
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Their authority comes directly from call.
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So if the king tells the judge to do something, that is unjust.
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The judge has a duty to God to say no.
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Because he has a higher boss. Exactly.
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This is the whole theological basis for resistance to tyranny
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in the Reformed tradition. If the king says condemn this
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innocent man, the judge has to say I cannot because I am an
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Elohim, a representative of the Most High God, and the Most High
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says do not murder. In that moment, the judge who
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disobeys the King is actually being loyal to the ultimate
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authority. That completely changes the
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power dynamic. It destroys the whole I was just
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following orders defense. You cannot just follow orders if
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the orders violate the justice of God.
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Because you are a God, a representative in your own
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sphere, you are accountable directly to the source of all
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authority. So the title Gods isn't a
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license to do whatever you want, it's actually a leash.
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It binds you to God's standard. It's a heavy, heavy burden, not
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a get out of jail free card. And just in case any of them are
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getting a big head about being called gods, verse 7 comes in
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like a sledgehammer. But you shall die like men, and
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fall like one of the Princess. That little word, but it is the
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great equalizer. It snaps the trap shut.
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Ye are gods, that's your glorious title.
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But ye shall die. That's your grim reality.
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It's a memento Mori, a reminder of death right in the middle of
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their power trip. Spurgeon says they must leave
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the bench for the bar. I love that imagery.
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Leave the bench for the bar. The bench is where the judge
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sits in authority. The bar is where the defendant
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stands to be judged. Death forces every judge to
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switch seats. They have to take off off the
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ermine, the fancy robe of their office, to put on the shroud.
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Thomas Adams has this haunting quote in the notes.
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He says death is the damp that puts out the dim lights of
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vanity. That is just incredible writing,
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the damp that puts out the dim lights of vanity.
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It is, he says, whether you are a Prince in a palace or a beggar
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in a cottage. You both meet at the grave, and
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your bodies mingle in the same dust.
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And the text gets even more specific.
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It says they will fall like one of the Princess.
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Is there a special nuance there? Oh yes, it implies a violent or
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sudden or humiliating fall. In the ancient world, Princess
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didn't usually die peacefully in their sleep, surrounded by loved
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ones. They died by assassination in a
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coup on the battlefield. Spurgeon warns that when you
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practice injustice, you withdraw the divine protection that is
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normally afforded to your office.
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So if you're an unjust judge, you're not just sinning against
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God, you're actually putting a target on your own back.
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You are making powerful enemies, you are destabilizing society,
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and eventually that violence and chaos you've unleashed often
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comes back to get you. There is that story in the notes
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that I think just perfectly captures the futility of all
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this earthly power, the story of Saladin.
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Saladin, the Great Sultan, the nemesis of The Crusaders in the
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Third Crusade, the man who conquered Jerusalem.
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The man who had everything a man could want in that world.
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Power. Wealth.
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Fame, everything. But when he was lying on his
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deathbed, he knew it all meant nothing and he gave very
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specific instructions for his funeral procession.
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What did he have them do? He ordered that his standard
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bearer should not carry his usual flag or his banners of
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victory. Instead, he was to take
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Saladin's simple burial, shroud his shirt and hang it on the
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point of a spear. A shirt on a spear.
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And the crier was to walk through the streets of Damascus,
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holding up the spear, shouting. This is all that remains of the
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glory of Saladin, the Conqueror of the East.
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He takes nothing else with him but this shirt.
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Wow. That really puts all the bribes
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and the corruption into perspective, doesn't?
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It it does, you can take the bribe, You can lift the face of
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the wicked, you can build a palace with your I'll gotten
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gains, but you cannot take a single bit of it with you past
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the grave. There's a sermon from Henry
26:08
Smith mentioned and it's so graphic.
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He says look in the grave and show me which was Dives and
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which was Lazarus. Dives being the rich man from
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Jesus parable and Lazarus the poor beggar.
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He says 1 rots, the other rots. It is a grim comfort to those
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who are oppressed, but it is a comfort nonetheless.
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Your oppressor is mortal. He's not actually a God.
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He just borrowed the title for a few years and now he is dust
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just like you will be. So we've walked through this
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whole courtroom drama. We've seen God standing over the
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assembly. We've heard the indictment of
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their corruption. We've seen the mandate to defend
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the poor. We've seen the diagnosis that
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these judges are wilfully blind. And we have seen their
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inevitable equalizing death. It is a tragedy from start to
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finish. And I think that's why the final
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section, the last verse, feels like such a dramatic shift in
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tone and in audience. Verse 8 Arise, Oh God, judge the
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earth, for thou shalt inherit all nations.
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Do you notice what happens there?
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The psalmist Asaph stops talking to the judges.
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He. Gives up on them.
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In a way, yes. He realizes it's futile.
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He's just shown us that they know not, neither will they
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understand. You can preach to them, you can
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warn them, you can tell them they're going to die.
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But their hearts are hard. They won't change.
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So he turns his back on the human bench, and he turns his
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face to God. It's a prayer of desperation,
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almost. God, you have to do it.
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These guys won't. Arise, O God, it calls all the
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way back to verse one. We saw God standing in the
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congregation. Now the psalmist says, OK, you
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are standing, you're ready to act.
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So act, arise, and judge the whole earth.
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And the reason he gives is so interesting, for Thou shalt
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inherit all nations. This is where the Psalm becomes
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eschatological. It's looking forward to the end
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times because clearly perfect justice is not happening now.
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It wasn't in Asaph Day and it isn't in ours, so the hope must
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be in the future. Thou shalt inherit who is the
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heir of all nations. The air is Christ.
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Psalm 2 says to the Son, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the
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heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
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earth for that possession. This is a messianic prayer is a
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prayer for the return of the true King.
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Spurgeon says the king by right divine is on his way.
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And Andrew Bournar, another commentator in the treasury,
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adds this great insight. He says the Saints on earth
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raise this cry to invite the Messiah to come and take up his
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inheritance. He calls Jesus the true Akneil,
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the true Gideon, the true Samson the.
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True judges of Israel. The true judges who will finally
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deliver God's people. And Bonar has this wonderful sad
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phrase. He calls this a mismanaged
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Earth. That might be the understatement
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of the Millennium, a mismanaged Earth.
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But it describes human history perfectly, doesn't it?
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We have had thousands of years of human government, monarchy,
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democracy, oligarchy, communism, you name it.
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And under all of them the foundations shake.
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We have mismanaged the stewardship God gave us.
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So the cry arise, O God is effectively the church on earth
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saying we can't govern ourselves, we failed, we need
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the true King to come back and take the gavel for good.
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It is a prayer for the second Advent.
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It is the Church crying out, Maranatha, come Lord Jesus,
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because only when he inherits the nations will the poor
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finally be defended, and the wicked finally and perfectly be
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judged. It's a heavy but hopeful place
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to end. It acknowledges the brutal
29:26
reality of corruption, but points to the only certain hope.
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But hope is not, in the end, in political reform, though we
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should absolutely strive for that.
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The ultimate hope is in the return of the judge.
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So let's try to pull all of this together.
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We've covered a lot of ground here in this Psalm.
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What is the synthesis? What's the main take away from
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this deep dive? And I think we've seen a
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constant tension running through the whole Psalm.
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It's the tension between the dignity of the office and the
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depravity of the officer. The office is God, like the man
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in the office is a Sinner. Right.
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And so the Reform take away is that we have to do 2 things at
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once. 1st, we must honor the office of the magistrate as an
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ordinance of God. We cannot be anarchists.
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We cannot say all government is evil government.
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The principle of it is God's idea for human flourishing.
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But second, we must hold the magistrate accountable to God's
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law. Because they are God's
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ministers, they are subject to God's standards.
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And when they fail, as they often do, we appeal to the
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Supreme Court of Heaven. And, you know, here's a thought
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I want to leave everyone with. We've been talking this whole
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time about judges and kings and magistrates, these big gods.
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And it is so easy to listen to this and think, yeah, those
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corrupt politicians in Washington, they really need to
30:38
hear this. That is the easy application for
30:40
sure. But the principle of delegated
30:42
authority applies to every single one of us.
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It does. If God judges the gods, the
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civil magistrates this strictly for how they use their delegated
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authority. What does that mean for you in
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your much smaller Kingdom? That is the question that should
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keep us up at night. If you're a parent, God has
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delegated authority to you over your children.
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You are an Elohim to your toddler.
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If you're an employer, you have authority over your employees.
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You hold their livelihood, their ability to feed their families
31:12
in your hands. If you're a church leader, an
31:14
elder, or a pastor, you have a flock entrusted to your care.
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You too have a congregation that God has given you.
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You are a magistrate in your own small sphere.
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And so the question the Psalm believes us with is, are you
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judging justly? Are you lifting the face of your
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favorite child while being harsh with another?
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Are you exploiting your employees because you can get
31:34
away with it? Are you a petty tyrant in your
31:37
own home? Because just like the judges in
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Psalm 82, every one of us will one day stand before the one who
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inherits all nations. And on that day, we will want to
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have judged with the same mercy and justice that we hope to
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receive from him. Amen to that.
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That wraps U, our Dee dive into Psalm 82 from the Treasury of
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David. It's a heavy text, but a very
31:58
necessary one. A sober text, but a glorious 1.
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Thanks for joining us for this. We'll catch you on the next Dee
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dive.