Exploring the Meaning of Psalms 82
By New Christian Bible Study Staff, Julian Duckworth
Psalm 82. A plea for justice.
Psalm 82 is a strong plea for true justice, which is God’s justice, not man’s. The psalm begins with the idea of God standing at the centre of everything, in the congregation of the mighty, and he judges among the gods (the word ‘gods’ here means the judges of this world. By God’s position all else is measured and seen for what it really is, good or bad, true, or false.
Spiritually, for us, this is a helpful picture of God at the centre. It asks us to measure all of our intentions, motives, reasons, actions, against the presence of the Lord at the centre of our life, in order to see if they stand comparison and if they are happening from God or from ourselves. (See Arcana Caelestia 4482.3)
The psalm moves on to rebuke the judges of this world for their injustices, favouring what is wicked. It holds up several clear needs for justice among people, to defend the poor and fatherless, give justice to the afflicted and needy, and deliver them, and free them from the hand of the wicked. Literally this is true civil justice; spiritually it is advocating care and consideration for those who are spiritually poor and spiritually fatherless. In other words, those states in people where there is poor understanding and no sense of God as heavenly Father. (Arcana Caelestia 8897)
At a deeper level, these impoverished states apply to ourselves. It is about our own poverty and our sense of being without the Lord and feeling alone. It is about our genuine constant need of the Lord to guide and protect us, even from ourselves and our wilfulness. (Arcana Caelestia 9209.5, 6)
Verse 5 describes the bereftness and deficiency of one who is without any truth or good in their lives to help and lead them. They do not know; they walk in darkness; the foundations of the earth are unstable. The spiritual idea here is that a lack of knowing the truth of the Lord leads to a life in darkness and finally to a lack of any trustworthy foundation in our lives. Foundations are the truths which support and carry us safely in our lives. (Arcana Caelestia 9643)
The psalm closes with a clear statement that while we are children of God, of the Most High, we will die and we are capable of falling; therefore the psalm continues, May God arise and be the judge over all the earth... because everything finally goes back to God.
Deuteronomy 21
1
If one be found slain in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to possess it, lying in the field, and it isn't known who has struck him;
2
then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him who is slain:
3
and it shall be, that the city which is nearest to the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn't been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke;
4
and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley.
5
The priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them Yahweh your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in the name of Yahweh; and according to their word shall every controversy and every stroke be.
6
All the elders of that city, who are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;
7
and they shall answer and say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
8
Forgive, Yahweh, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don't allow innocent blood [to remain] in the midst of your people Israel." The blood shall be forgiven them.
9
So you shall put away the innocent blood from the midst of you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh.
10
When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands, and you carry them away captive,
11
and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have a desire to her, and would take her to you as wife;
12
then you shall bring her home to your house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
13
and she shall put the clothing of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that you shall go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
14
It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she will; but you shall not sell her at all for money, you shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.
15
If a man have two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers who was hated;
16
then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn:
17
but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
18
If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and, though they chasten him, will not listen to them;
19
then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place;
20
and they shall tell the elders of his city, "This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard."
21
All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
22
If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and you hang him on a tree;
23
his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God; that you don't defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.
