Psalms 82:1-7

1 God presides over heaven’s court; he pronounces judgment on the heavenly beings:

2 “How long will you hand down unjust decisions by favoring the wicked? Interlude

3 “Give justice to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute.

4 Rescue the poor and helpless; deliver them from the grasp of evil people.

5 But these oppressors know nothing; they are so ignorant! They wander about in darkness, while the whole world is shaken to the core.

6 I say, ‘You are gods; you are all children of the Most High.

7 But you will die like mere mortals and fall like every other ruler.’”

Psalms 82:1-7 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 82

\\<>\\. This psalm was written for the use of persons in power, for the instruction of kings and princes, judges and civil magistrates; according to Kimchi, it was written about the times of Jehoshaphat, who appointed new judges throughout the land; those that were before having been very corrupt, to whom he gave a charge agreeably to the purport of this psalm, 2Ch 19:5-7, but it seems rather to be written by Asaph, in the times of David, under a spirit of prophecy, and has respect to the times of Christ, when there was a great corruption among the judges and rulers of the Jews, both civil and ecclesiastic. The Syriac version calls it, "a reproof of the ungodly Jews"; our Lord cites a passage out of it in vindication of himself from their charge of blasphemy, Joh 10:34-36.