Question 228: “What is your biblical understanding of Psalm 82? What does it mean that there are other gods that are being judged by YHWH?”
Answer: It appears that God is conducting a heavenly council similar to the one in which God and Satan struck up a conversation about the faithfulness of Job and God gives Satan permission to test Job. However, this short Psalm creates a few difficulties that are not easily answered. The biggest problem is the fact that “gods” are mentioned in verse 1 and 6. Every Hebrew word that we translate “god” (lower case) or “God” (upper case) means something. The word “Adonai” means “ruler. “The word “Yahweh” or “YHWH” means “alive,” “to be,” or “I am who I am.” The word “Elohim” means powers. Elohim is the Hebrew word used for gods in verse 1 and verse 6. It might indicate that the council is with angelic beings, some good and some bad but they do have power, but not unlimited power. But the more probable meaning is that God is talking about human judges and civil servants who are acting unjustly. We see in Romans 13 that civil servants are called servants or ministers of God three times. They, like the angelic beings are agents of God for the good of the people. Elohim can refer to our true Devine God or it can refer to false gods as well. That is one of the reason scholars like translations to be done by a group or a committee rather than one single individual. As a group, they can discuss what the writer was trying to communicate and the likelihood of a group of translators getting it translated correctly is much greater that one individual correctly translating it.
A loose paraphrase of this short chapter from my limited perspective could be, “As agents of Almighty God, whether angelic of human, you are to do the right thing, to judge justly and have mercy on the weak and needy. Since you are my agents, I will call you gods with a small “g” and the people may put you on a pedestal, but remember you will die like everyone else and will fall under my judgment. Since you are failing to reflect my justice, I will rise up and do it myself.”
The important thing for us to remember is that no matter how just, fair and compassionate we are or have been, if we do not know God through Jesus Christ, no amount of good works, will get us into heaven. The Apostle Paul tells us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 6:23). That simply means that every human being has sinned and is guilty of breaking God’s law. He goes on to say, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). That verse tells us that God is just and will hold us accountable for our sin, but He is also merciful and offers us a gift of eternal life if we will receive His free gift. He, Paul, tells us that God can give us a free gift because of what Jesus did for us. “But God shows His love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). His finishing touch on telling us how we can have eternal life is to tell us what our appropriate response should be, “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10: 9, 10).
There are two religions in the world, one can be classified as “do” and the other can be classified as “done.” The “do” religion teaches that we must do things to go to heaven. Obey rules, obey laws and give, serve and try harder. We are on our own and must earn our way to heaven. On the other hand, the “done” religion refers only to Christianity. Jesus has done everything that needs to be done. He came to earth to be our substitute. He took all of our sins, past, present and future and paid for them on the cross. He was our substitute; He died the death that we deserve. But that isn’t all, He lived a perfect life, one that we are supposed to live but can’t and his good works, His righteousness has been transferred into our account and we are declared by God as righteous because of our trust in Jesus, our Savior!