Week 13 Psalm 82
I’ve tended to give verse #1 the once-over-lightly treatment when I’ve read it before: God presides in the great assembly; he gives judgment among the “gods”. [My principle there is that when something is tough to dope out it’s maybe easier not to bother trying.]
But today I’m wondering. It says that the Lord is presiding in an assembly hall of some sort and that there are gods of some sort in that hall and that the Lord is communicating in a formal and judicial way to those assembled gods. It looks like the Lord asks them why they have defended injustice (which if they have would put them in a not-good-god category). Then a couple of verses later it looks like the Lord says to the gods: you are all sons of the Most High. But you will die like mere men.
Gods of some sort. But they’ll die like men die.
Probably the easiest way to manage this verse is to call it an elaborate and imaginary picture that isn’t actually true. If it’s a metaphor I can bring it down-to-earth.
But I’m reluctant to do that too soon.
For now I’ll go with an actual judicial assembly that’s operating in a supra-material dimension where – in addition to the Lord – there’s a group of divinities & angelic beings of some type, some of whom are evil.
I’ll keep looking to see if I can find anything to substantiate this model.
Note: quotes from Psalm 82:1, 3, 6-7 (NIV)