A Plea for Justice

A Plea for Justice

Psalm 82

Main Idea: God is sovereign, just, and merciful, and his people should pray and work for his will to be done and his saving mercy to be made known.

Psalm 82 speaks directly into our context today. The psalmist talks about the weak and the fatherless, the afflicted and the destitute, the poor and the needy, and we live in a world where the following statistics are reported:

• 1 billion people live today in desperate poverty, lacking food, clean water, and simple medicine.
• 153 million orphans need to be protected, provided for, and loved.
• 42 million babies are murdered in their mother’s womb every single year.
• 27 million people live in slavery right now, many of whom are bought, sold, and exploited for sex in a trafficking ring that has become one of the fastest-growing industries on earth.

In short, we live in a world of massive injustice. So, how are we to understand this world given that we are worshipers of the just God over this world? And how are we to live in this world as worshipers of this just God?

This is a question I have found myself wrestling with after a trip to the Himalayas. I saw poverty, heard stories of persecution (of people being stoned for faith in Christ), and came face-to-face with little girls who had been sold into sex slavery, all the while knowing that most of these people had never heard the name of Jesus. I’ve read similar stories of various places around the world. So what do you do? Do you just turn away from it and go on with your comfortable life as if these realities don’t exist? Surely not!

Surely there’s more to understanding this world than turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to injustice around us. And surely there’s something to be done in this world about the injustice we see. Based on Psalm 82, we get a picture of who God is and, in light of that, what we should do in a world filled with massive injustice.

Who God Is

Psalm 82 reveals at least three characteristics, or attributes, or we might even say titles, describing who God is.

He Is the Sovereign King over All

One of the things that makes this psalm difficult to preach and to understand is confusion over who the “gods” are in verse 1. There are two main possibilities. The first option is that these “gods” are demons and evil spirits, what the New Testament calls “the rulers, . . . the authorities, . . . the cosmic powers of this darkness, . . . evil, spiritual forces in the heavens” (Eph 6:12). These are fallen angels and false gods who work to spread evil in the world. The other option is that these “gods” are human judges and rulers in the world who are promoting injustice. This argument is based on instances in the Old Testament when the judges whom God had set up to rule in Israel were (in the original language) referred to as gods.4 This second option is bolstered by Jesus’s words in John 10:35-36.

Ultimately, the answer doesn’t change the primary meaning of the passage. There is one God (capital “G” God) who reigns over all gods. He reigns over all men and women, over all rulers and leaders, and over all the principalities and powers, the devil and his demons who influence men and women. Verse 7 says that these “gods” will “die like humans and fall like any other ruler.” God will outlast them all because he is the sovereign King over all. God alone is on the throne of the world.

He Is the Good Judge of All

From the beginning of this psalm, God is presiding as Judge in the “divine assembly” (v. 1), and his goodness is clearly contrasted with the wickedness of the gods who surround him. He holds judgment over them. So this is not a trial where God is sitting at a court bench, listening to facts, trying to discover who’s right and who’s wrong. No, God alone is right, and all these gods are wrong.

These other “gods” are unjust. They show the wicked “partiality” (v. 2), and with their position they oppress the “needy and the fatherless” (v. 3). They are not maintaining the rights of the “oppressed and the destitute” (v. 3). Instead, they are handing the weak over to the wicked. The result is given at the end of verse 5: “All the foundations of the earth are shaken.”

When the justice of God is not reflected in the judges, rulers, leaders—or the presidents and the politicians of the world in our day—the result is a shaking of the earth’s foundations and a spreading of evil. This is what happens when evil judges on the earth turn away from the good Judge over all. May God help us be warned about this in our own churches and in our own culture and across our world today. The fabric and the foundations of our lives and our families and our culture crumble when we turn away from the one true Judge. The effects are devastating on the poor, the weak, the needy, the afflicted, the fatherless, and the destitute. Injustice spreads when we rebel against the good Judge of all.

He Is the Merciful Savior for All

As a reflection of God’s goodness, we see a picture of God’s mercy. He loves the weak and the fatherless. He cares for the afflicted and the destitute. He rescues the weak and the needy. This psalm is arguably the most spectacular of all because of its definition of God who ties “his divinity to the fate of the poor and dispossessed” (Hossfeld, Lothar, and Zenger, Psalms 2, 337, cited in Goldingay, Psalms 42–89, 570).

There is debate over whether the “they” in verse 5 is referring to the weak and the needy or to the gods (judges). If the reference is to the gods/judges, then this verse is talking about how they don’t have knowledge or understanding, and they walk in moral darkness. If this is a reference to the “poor and needy” in the previous verse, it describes the plight of all humanity living in an unjust world. When judges and rulers and leaders do not judge and rule and lead according to the good judgment, rule, and leadership of God, the result is a lost world, walking about in darkness with no foundation to stand on. In other words, this is a picture of humanity in need, not only of a sovereign King and good Judge but also of a merciful Savior to deliver and rescue from evil and injustice.

The scenario that has been set up in verses 1-7 leads directly to the last verse of this psalm. This final prayer calls us to think about what we must do in response.

What We Do

What do we do in a world of injustice? What do we do when we open our eyes to the world around us and open our ears to the Word before us? There are at least three ways to respond.

We Plead for God’s Justice to Reign

We say with the psalmist, “Rise up, God, judge the earth” (v. 8). We ask God to come and show his good judgment. We ask him to act. We pray and we plead for him to do something—to stop injustice, to show his justice. This is what we do based on what we know. We know God is the King, Judge, and Savior to all. And we know he’s the Father to the fatherless, the defender of the weak, and the provider for the poor, so we plead for God to rise up and judge this earth accordingly.

We Anticipate God’s Kingdom to Come

The psalmist says the nations do belong to God (v. 8). Therefore, we anticipate God’s kingdom to come. Isn’t this precisely what Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s prayer? “Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:9-10).

We ask God to judge, and then we anticipate God to come and claim his inheritance. We look forward to his establishment of a new heaven and a new earth where evil and injustice will be no more, where goodness and justice will reign forever (Isa 65:17-25; 2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1-4). We plead for God’s justice to reign, and we keep pleading with anticipation in our hearts because we want God’s kingdom to come.

We Spread God’s Salvation to the Needy

As important as the first two responses are—pleading and anticipating—we don’t stop there. We also spread God’s salvation to the needy. We do what this psalm says to do.

This psalm was likely addressed to judges in Israel, so there was specific application to them, which in some ways (not every way) applies to those who rule, judge, or lead today. But what God commands here, he also commands his people to do throughout Scripture. We are told over and over to give justice to the “needy and the fatherless,” to maintain the “rights of the oppressed and the destitute,” and to “rescue the poor and needy; save them from the power of the wicked” (vv. 3-4).5

God has not called you and me to sit back in a world of injustice, content to wring our hands in pious concern while praying our prayers in relative comfort. No, he has called us to give our lives spreading the salvation of our good God to those who are in need. We are to lay down our lives, showing his mercy to people in our communities and to people around the world.

This is not just what God calls us to do; this is what Christ compels us to do!

See yourself in the psalm. In our sin we are weak and needy, afflicted and destitute. We are wicked and destined to die. But God in his mercy has sent his Son to die for us in our place. He has pursued us, and he has brought us from death to life. He has become poor so that we might become rich (2 Cor 8:9). He has come to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captive, to set at liberty those who are oppressed (Luke 4:18). Thus, it just makes sense for all those associated with this Christ to spread the salvation we have received to others who are in need.

Micah 6:8 provides us with a concise summary of what the Lord requires of each of us: “Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic 6:8).

Reflect and Discuss

1. What are some recent news headlines that have highlighted injustice in your own community? What about in the world?
2. When you see reports of some of the terrible injustices in the world, what is your typical reaction? Do you tend to get angry? Do you ignore them or simply turn away?
3. What does our view of the character of God have to do with the way we view the injustice we see in the world?
4. Why is it such good news that God is sovereign even over injustice?
5. How does a biblical view of God’s justice affect the way you respond when you are wronged or when others are wronged?
6. Describe the difference between God’s view of the weak and needy and the world’s view of these vulnerable individuals.
7. What are some specific areas of injustice that you can pray about regularly? Make a list.
8. What is the relationship between the gospel and addressing injustice?
9. How can a church ensure that the proclamation of the gospel is not de-emphasized in its efforts to care for the weak and needy?
10. List some specific ways you and your church can engage injustice around you from a gospel-centered perspective.