Psalm 82 and Its Implications

Our text today is short – Psalm 82 – but to call it short does it injustice because it is like a piece of Uranium in terms of power and insight. Let’s read it and I will try and give a general overview as we go.

Understanding the Scene in Psalm 82

Psalm 82:1 <> God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. 2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.

First, let’s determine location of this scene where “God stands in the congregation of the mighty.” Where is that? Because he adds, “he judges among the gods,” it sounds like a heavenly scene, right? Here is the thing, it could be describing a heavenly scene (we don’t know that it’s not), but the context BETTER proves the Psalmist is saying, “YAHAVAH God stands in the congregation of earthly judges and judges among the earthly gods.” Why? Read the next line where the Psalmist asks, 2 How long will you judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.

It sounds like a modern day rant against the Justice Department or the Supreme court, right? Then, speaking to living judges and magistrates in the Nation the Psalmist adds, 3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. 4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. Then speaking of the Judges (or gods) that the Psalmist says God is standing in the midst of, he adds 5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course. Sound like our day, doesn’t it?

The Identity of Judges as ‘Gods’

Then he drops this bomb on them, and says 6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. You are important powerful magistrates in the Nation, children of the Most High (verse 7) 7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. 8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations. And that is the chappie. Now to flesh this out let’s turn to John chapter 10 and look in on Christ.

He had just opened the eyes of a man born blind and there was much debate over His identity. Let’s read at verse 22 of chapter 10: John 10:22 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. 23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. 24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and my Father are one.

Now at this point I believe that Yeshua was talking about the members of the Bride that came out as lost sheep and believed on Him – and these I suggest were predestined to fill this role for the world. Then Yeshua drops the I and my Father are One bomb. (verse 31) 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

The Key to Understanding Yeshua’s Reference to Psalm 82

THIS IS THE KEY LINE TO UNDERSTANDING YESHUA’s USE OF PSALM 82 – they had said, “For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” So this is the rub – can a man be seen as a god? And

Hierarchy in Creation

God gave man the power to subdue, have dominion over the earth beneath his feet, the animals and the sea. There is an order in his creations – one that appears to arrange all of His species in heaven, earth, under the earth, in the sea and in the skies in ranks. His angels are in ranks of power and purpose. Humans are created with power and purpose.

This caused Paul to write, Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God., crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. 1st Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; To the Bride in Corinth Paul write in 1st Corinthians 11:3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

The Fall and Hierarchy

We know looking at the make up of both God and the first couple, there was only One consisting of two – one God in plural and one Man in plural though our Trinitarians friends say there were three in One. But we see God being one plural, then we see Man being One plural with two autonomous equal components. But because of the fall we see a hierarchy created where the woman becomes subject to the man as part of the curse, and we might see the incarnation as an expression of the same where God’s very word became flesh and wholly subservient, even lesser than the Father.

Paul makes this hierarchy because of the Fall plain when he writes, I would have you know (it’s almost like he is sitting there with some insider information and presents this as a fact) but, “I will have you know that The head of every man is Christ – that was the order in that day of the Bride as a means to reframe the garden setting through Him, then he adds “and the head of the woman is the man,” referring to the order after the fall given by God to the first couple, and then Paul even slides Christ into the hierarchy and concludes with, “and the head of Christ is God.”

The Chronology of Order

Notice the order, please, the chronology because the chronology of the order is very telling in terms of effectiveness, on earth, in marriage, in society. Ready? that the head of every man (is Christ) and the head of the woman (is the man) and the head of Christ (is God). In other words, to reset the Garden to a right hierarchy again, men and males must first submit to being led and discipled by Christ, then a woman would submit to a man who really does that, all because Christ was a man who submitted His will to the will of His Father making the whole system complete were all players but God submit to something other.

In this both genders are submissive because of Christ and the masculine and the feminine union among humanity is restored to the Edenic state by and through Christ. Remember, this is speaking of that special day and age in time where Christ and the Apostles were calling and gathering up a worthy Bride. Today, and because there is no difference between males and females and because Christ is in all, males and females are directly under His headship But I would suggest that in marriage it is a model that works if approached right by both partners in a marriage, I would suggest that there is value in FIRST AND FOREMOST . . .

A man who genuinely submits to Christ and First loves his wife as Christ loved the church and gives His life for her, Secondly, That a woman responds by giving that man respect for the love he adorns her with, all because Christ submitted himself and His will to His Father.

Anyway, back to hierarchy’s – God has them. And for human beings on earth, one of those hierarchal expressions we also have are people in governance over us – Kings, queens, princes, princesses, dukes, officers, judges, magistrates. In ancient Israel, the title for these positions were elohiyms in the plural and elowahh in the singular. Here is where Mormonism really lost some street cred because their founder said that God’s name is elohiym – which would be like saying his name was president, judge, king, or magistrate. Over 2250 times elohiym is used in

Yeshua’s Claim of Divinity

The Old Testament sometimes uses the term “gods” to describe men of position on earth, heavenly beings, and others. Why? Because “a god” is nothing more than a position of power and authority. So, Yeshua replies to their criticism for being a man and “making himself God” when he says at verse 34, “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” That is the passage from our chapter today. And Yeshua adds a mouthful – hang with me, “If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?”

Scriptural Authority

Let’s address this in two parts with the first being verse 34-36 where Yeshua shows that they ought not to object to his use of the word God, even if he were no more than a man. Why? Because that term is applied to men in the Old Testament! Get it? God said to men, Yeshua cites, “Ye are gods,” and it was applied to magistrates on account of the dignity and honor of their office. So all Yeshua is doing is merely proving that the Hebrew term elohiym can rightfully be assigned to man. He could have cited Exodus 7:1 where it says, “And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.” But He chose this Psalm. Then Yeshua goes on reasoning with them and logically steps down the line and says, “And since the scripture cannot be broken,” meaning, it has proven itself true to us. So, if, therefore, the Scripture uses the word god as applied to magistrates, and we trust the scripture, then it may be applied to other people representing power or authority or dominion.

Yeshua’s Position and Authority

And since that is the case, wouldn’t it be entirely appropriate for me, “the one whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into this world,” to use it too? (By the way, the word, sanctified, can mean to make holy but it can also mean to simply elect or designate to a holy office so don’t let that trip you up). In other words, as the Messiah, He held an office or position that far exceeded in authority and power that of human magistrates. But the Jews knew He had literally made Himself God, even equal to God Himself and this is readily apparent when we carefully read what He said before claiming that He and His Father were one. Listen carefully to what Yeshua actually says here: “Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.” This was their request – and I don’t think He held back. “Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” Got all of that? He calls His disciples His – His Sheep – twice. My sheep. My hand, he says. He says that He knows them He says they follow ME And then that HE gives them eternal life And then says that no man can pluck them out of HIS hand.

Unity with the Father

Got all of that? THEN HE brings in His Father and says “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” So now there are two hands involved – singular – one His and the other, His Fathers, right? Now, listen to what He says, “I and my Father are one.” I am laughing here at His wisdom – they said, “tell us plainly who you are,” He told them exactly who He was, He said that if they didn’t believe him believe on His works – but they couldn’t even do that because they were not His Sheep – His Sheep. In His Hand and in the Hand of His Father then in an ingenious move, he adds his father’s hand into the mix and finally tells them.

The Unity of Christ and the Father

that He and His Father are ONE. FORGETABOUT IT. IT IS RIGHT THERE. And guess what? They couldn’t handle it. They came undone. How? Next verse. 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Now watch the genius of our King. When he sees that they want to kill Him because they understood that He clearly and plainly made Himself equal to God – literally giving himself the very same power as God (giving eternal life to some, no man can take them out of HIS hand?, claiming that they are one) He starts to really mess with them and says, 32 Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? He is so wise. I want to be on His side, man. It’s like He doesn’t even hang around on what He just threw at them. He just moves on through reason and appealing to their injustice.

Blasphemy Charges

33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. This was true – it was why they picked up stones – they did not believe God could be in flesh, simple as that. They LOST a remembrance of clues God had given them of His make-up at Genesis with God saying let us – lost it via a overt literalism of the Great Shema missing the nuances. So Yeshua says, “You charge me with blasphemy.” The foundation of that charge is the use of the name “God,” or even “the Son of God,” BUT that same term is applied in the Scriptures you trust to judges and magistrates, proving that elohiym can be applied to men. Notice that Yeshua did not deny that he meant to apply the term to himself. Nor did he deny that it was properly applied to him. He merely affirmed only that they were inconsistent in their thinking and were not authorized to bring a charge of blasphemy for the application of the name God to himself.

The John event wraps up with Yeshua returning BACK to what caused them to pick up stones, and says, 37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. To me His words were like,” neener neener neneer,” and their response is typical.. 39 Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand. So, that is the way to explain, see and understand the link between Psalm 82 and Yeshua’s use of it. We know that there are other places where the term gods and sons of God are used in the Old Testament, and this is not to suggest that there weren’t any such beings in the heavenly realm of old or even presently. But because Christ has had the victory over all such things in heaven, earth and under the earth, I tend to see all of them at least as presently in His full control or dealt with and put away. It could be that with them under His feet that God uses or allows these Gocertain leeway – who knows. But the accuser has been placed in the Lake of Fire created for him and his angels.

Psalm 90

This brings us to Psalm 90. The title of this Psalm is, A Prayer of Moses the man of God. In almost all probability this is untrue causing some scholars to believe that the Moses mentioned may have even been some other Moses. When we get to verse four I’ll explain why it probably was not Moses of Egypt. Ps 90:1 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Instead of dwelling place other versions say, “our place of defense,” or “refuge,” which is the reading of the Vulgate, Septuagint, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. The meaning seems to be “ever since your made a covenant with Abraham you are the Resting-place, the Refuge, and the Defence of the people called the Children of Abraham, specifically Israel. And He adds, “Thy mercy has been lengthened out from generation to generation.” At verse two we have a passage Mallory set to music and it says, 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. To us,

The Concept of Ages in Scripture

The mountains and hills appear to have been around forever, right? They are enormous, appear unmovable, and perhaps were formed from pre-existent matter according to Genesis. Using these emblems the writer says, BEFORE they were brought forth, meaning created or recreated, “or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world . . . “ So, he takes us from “mountains” and then he takes us even before God formed “the earth and the world,” upon which the mountains rest, he takes us to saying, “EVEN from everlasting to everlasting.” Then concludes, “you are God.” First “From the mountains,” second “to the earth and economy under which we currently live,” then finally, “EVEN from everlasting to everlasting,” he proclaims, “you are God.” And here we have the basis for the “uncreated, eternal, before everything, God” in scripture. Without an ability to prove it, I accept it – by faith.

Everlasting to Everlasting

People have a hard time with defining God in this way, but the Psalmist makes the view plain. I do think there is a little clue here about Our eternal God because the writer does not say even from eternity to eternity, but says, even from “everlasting to everlasting.” And this is a theme often ignored in scripture – the idea of ages. See in the Septuagint the phrase is, even from “age to age” which is the longest length a Hebrew or Greek could write out. Why not from eternity to eternity? Well first of all, that would be redundant wouldn’t it? And eternity would never have another eternity. But ages have beginnings and ends, don’t they? And after one age comes another if the period has a beginning and end end.

Some people believe that the Greek word, AION refers to a period of time, an age, or an era. It can be translated as “age,” and ages are not forever. The adjective of aion is aionious and many Greek readers suggest that it means eternal – but I do not understand that leap. Never have. One reason is because there is another Greek term for eternal – unrelated to aion though it sounds like it and its adiodos – It is used twice in the text – once in Romans 1 and once in Jude.

Eternal and Everlasting in Scripture

Jude 1:6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. The other instance is in Romans 1:20 where it reads Romans 1:0 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal (ah-i-dios) power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: The first use of au-diah-dos is to the chains that hold the angels that did not keep their first estate and the second is directly with reference to Gods power and Godhead – eternal/everlasting. The text says it and uses the right word to mean it and so I accept it.

But, the noun “aion” refers to a long period of time, the adverb “ai?nios,” speaks to length of that time being long and everlasting is only used twice, once referring to the chains on fallen angels and the second to God’s power and ontology. And those are the facts. When it comes to every other subject under the sun, whether hell, life, the Old Testament, the time we live in today, the afterlife, and even God within those periods, it is ALL age related and never speaks of eternities. Frankly, even God Himself is described in terms of ages suggesting to me that even He adapts to them – not in terms of character but expressions and modes. To reiterate, an age is a period of time, three times the Psalms uses the term, everlasting to everlasting (which in the septuatint is age to age) and Revelation uses “for ever and ever” thirteen times which in the Greek means “the ages of the ages.” I suggest that the everlasting to everlasting found in Psalm 90:2 is a precursor to the phrase for ever and ever in Revelation.

Verse three brings us to an interesting place as it says of God, 3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. If you are willing, we might see this as one of the most on the nose references to the resurrection in the Old Testament, as he seems to be saying God brings man to the dust but then commands them.

Reflections on Resurrection and Life’s Transience

to return, which I wonder if it means to a resurrected life? And then the next may speak to the former relative to the resurrection as he adds

4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

As if he had said, “though the resurrection of the body may be a thousand years in the future (which, to a Jew was to say, a thousand like we might say, a kajillion meaning an indefinite number of years in the future) but, he adds, “when these years are in the past, they are but as yesterday, or a single watch of the night, to the everlasting God.”

The Fleeting Nature of Life

Then he seems to be speaking of the long period of time when he speaks of man and says

5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. 6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

So in the face of life, time, years waiting, the author now compares it all to a stream, ever gliding away; but sometimes it is as a mighty torrent, when by reason of plague, famine, or war, thousands are swept away at a time and even in a moment. The sentiment is, “people are alive at dawn and cut down by dusk.” The people of Nagasaki understand this, right? War torn areas of the world.

It seems that the Psalmist is saying the next verse in the face of how fast life flees and fades and even the cause of it in his mind, adding

7 For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Again, this was under the Law post fall pre-Christ. 8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. 9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.

The Latin vulgate and other versions liken things here to the emphemerality of a spiders web but the Hebrew is different from all these other versions as it best means, “We consume our years like a groan,” or “we live a dying, whining, complaining life, and at last a groan is its final expression.” Pretty sobering.

Human Life Span and Perception

Then the writer says something that makes scholars reject that this was written by Moses.

10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

The reason they say this is because the term of human life was much longer when Moses was around. Back in Moses day, he lived to 120, Joshua lived one hundred and ten years, Miriam to 130 and Aaron his brother, 123. Even in David’s time many lived one hundred years, and the author of Ecclesiasticus, who lived after the captivity, fixed this term at one hundred years at the most (Ecclesiastes 18:9.) So, it is believed this was written by someone else after the captivity. Verse 11

11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

And in the face of that line listen to what he adds

12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Let us deeply consider our own frailty, and the shortness and uncertainty of life, that we may live for what is eternal by using our time to acquaint ourselves with Him, and to die in peace that we leave this frail existence having come to understand and apply knowledge.

13 Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. Wilt thou continue angry with us for ever? Lord turn, and be comforted, rejoice over them to do them good. Be glorified rather in our salvation than in our destruction.

And the last four verses

14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. 16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. 17 And let the beauty of YAHAVAH our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea,

Establishing the Work

the work of our hands establish thou it. And we will stop here for today.

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