Psalm 82
Have you ever looked at a map of the United States or a map of Israel? Compared to many nations on the earth, our nation is small. China, Russia, even Canada are much larger. What was it that made this nation such a great power in the world? Most would have said it was our industry or our freedom. In truth it was none of those things. What made our nation great was our faith; our faith in God and our surrender to His service.
Until now we have never actively gone against God or suborned His justice. Our elected leaders at the very least paid strong lip service to Him and His word. Now they no longer care, in fact, they feel secure in attacking the very relationship that made us great. God said that He will bless those who bless His children and curse those who curse His children. There are all too many ignorant citizens in this nation that curse their own selves and hold a knife to their own throats. They speak against the church without considering that there is one to takes notice and may well have something to say.
Even Israel, a nation smaller than our state of Rhode Island, is more hated and noticed than any nation on earth. Nations in Africa and other continents have murdered their own citizens and disparate groups with impunity and the world has looked on with a yawn. Let Israel defend herself against rockets and suicidal lunatics and she is cursed by all. Curses. Curses. Curses. What does it matter? Who would know…right?
The first thing you notice here is that God “stands” in the congregation of the mighty. Judges sit in judgment. Moses stood in judgment. The penitent, the weak and needy; they stand before the judge to hear his verdict. Why would God stand? I’d like you to consider that God stands because He stands with the poor, the innocent, the abused. He is upright, active and attentive and stands as one of us to see if we will receive our justice or if we will receive abuse. Jesus stands as our counselor in judgment. This means that God is on one side and the prince is on the other. What if the prince believes he is in control?
The Judge is part of the congregation because God established him. He is supposed to serve with humility because God also stands as the judge of his heart. How will God ultimately rule when that judge abandons his God?
Selah.
Are you a judge? Do you receive bribes? Of the two candidates running for office in this country right now; only one of them is actually being accused of accepting bribes and NOBODY CARES. One is accused of not giving enough respect to women and the other of selling position. Of the two God is most concerned about the latter because it prevents anyone from receiving true justice. Even the unrepentant guilty do not receive justice and this is an abomination to God.
When it says a judge accepts the persons of the wicked it means that he links up with and walks along beside as a paraclete, Just like the Holy Spirit walks with us and supports us. An unjust judge is the UNHOLY spirit of the wicked. He sits and devours the innocent to feed the rich and powerful. God does not let this pass unnoticed.
We are supposed to protect the poor; those who do not have the wherewithal to properly care for themselves. This does not mean the lazy or criminal. Those are the responsibility of the judges to discern and make sure that those who receive help and assistance are truly incapable of helping themselves. We’re also supposed to defend the fatherless.
I read an article yesterday and it bothered me but until I read this Psalm I didn’t know what message God was trying to send me. A Korean man who was brought to this country at the age of three and adopted. His adoptive parents abused and mistreated him and he was placed in foster care. Then he was abused and mistreated by his foster parents. His baby sister was torn from him and sent to another home, eventually to be adopted by someone else. One thing led to another and he got involved in some crime and other petty issues that so many of our youth fall into who are guests of our broken system. He finally got his life together and was working, got married and had children. He discovered his adoptive American parents never bothered to make him a citizen.
When he went to apply for his green card homeland security declared him to be a non-resident alien criminal troublemaker. For the past nine months, he has been locked up in a deportation facility, forced to wear nothing but prison clothes and unable to have physical contact with either his wife or his kids. The judge over his case determined that he was not worth keeping here and has decided to send him back to Korea, a nation where he does not speak the language or understand the culture. He is not a criminal. Somehow he managed to get past OUR failures as a nation and the abuses heaped upon him by an uncaring government, and got his life together. A judge who must answer to God has decided he does not deserve Justice. He is by the very definition one of the poor and the fatherless. We, the people of God, have failed him. The judge who stands in God’s place on the earth has failed him. There was no one to defend him.
Slavery, sex trafficking, the elderly who have lost their retirements due to unscrupulous investors. All these deserve to receive righteous judgment. Those who want to work but cannot find jobs or have no transportation to get to those jobs, they deserve righteous judgment. Judges, you are supposed to rescue them and help them out of the hand of the wicked. Even if the wicked was charged with a crime and ordered to pay back what they stole, the judges allow them to tie those same poor and needy in protracted court battles until they finally give up or simply die. Once that happens the wicked just walk away laughing.
This verse means more than just acknowledging the wrong done them. God expects us to put feet to our actions and literally rescue them. The slaves should be set free, the abused offered counsel and help to establish a better life. Those who have lost their retirement should know the guilty are punished and their finances will be restored.
5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
Verse 5 speaks of the judges. They have no righteousness and no understanding. “The law says,” comes from their mouths but they do not care about the weak or needy or fatherless. They are like the Pharisees who Jesus declared were, “children of their lying father the devil.” They wear robes of honor and sit on a raised dais and say, “Hear ye the judgment of the court!” Even worse, some declare themselves to be judges of the Most High God. They crush the weak and feeble and make ever more wealthy the powerful. Their eyes are dark and filled with death. Their mouths are an open grave and their teeth stained with the blood of their victims. Their pockets are filled with the meager hope of the poor.
They call evil good and good evil. As an example, those who want to murder a baby in the womb are called PRO-choice. Those who want to save the child are called ANTI-woman. How many times have you heard these responses and others that call Christians, who walk and live in the love of God, backward sky fairy worshipping lunatics? The stability of all the earth and its people staggers drunkenly in the face of their decisions. Even nature begins to behave badly.
God is the great judge. It is an unspeakable honor to be made a judge over men. All princes, all judges, all leaders have been placed in that position by God (Psalm 75:7). He expects us to respect that position at least as much as He does. When God says, “Judge righteous judgment,” He means it. When He tells you not to treat those of stature better than the common man, He means it (Philippians 2:3).
Aaron, the brother of Moses, was the first High Priest. He created a golden calf and led Israel into idolatry. In the position of High Priest God saw him through the ephod and turban of office he wore. When he and his sister Miriam mocked Moses’ choice of a wife when Moses married the Ethiopian woman, Miriam was struck with Leprosy. He, wearing the ephod of office, was not. When God determined that he had held that position long enough, he had Moses lead him up Mount Hor (Numbers 20:27-29), strip him of his ephod which he put upon his son who became the next high priest. Once he no longer stood in that God-given position, he dropped dead…on the spot.
Princes were expected to fight for their nation. It was not unusual for a prince to die in a battle like Saul and Jonathan (1 Samuel 31). Judges were not like that. Judges could expect to die in their sleep in peace after a long life of faithful judging. In verse 7 God says that an unrighteous judge could expect to die by violence. In Israel, the Sadducees and Pharisees continued to judge unrighteously until the Romans came in AD 70 and destroyed the city, the temple and the people living there. Not one stone was left upon another…as Jesus had said (Matthew 24:2).
All must die and after this the judgment. Scripture says we will judge the angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). I can imagine those angels are thrilled that this will be after we have been given our glorified bodies and are not subject to the frivolous actions of our moods and whims in this world. We ourselves will be judged by God for our actions and even our intent. Scripture says the meek will inherit the earth. Verse 8 says God will inherit. What does that tell you about God? Does it make Him weak? Jesus was meek and He will judge the earth. Is He weak? No.
God will arise. He holds every card and is the creator of all. We don’t scare Him or make Him nervous. In John 10 Jesus was educating the Jews. Like us today they tried to split hairs with Him and finally asked, “Are you the Messiah!?” It didn’t matter what answer He gave them, it would not be believed. He led them through all He had done in His father’s name and as much as called them hirelings, rented cut-rate security guards without honor or love for the people. They wanted to kill Him when he quoted the Psalm above to them. He wanted them to know they were unjust judges.
We are the children of God. We stand in a place of great honor AND power. We need to respect that position and carry it with honor AND fear.
