Undergods

I. Introduction
A. This year, Sanctity of Human Life Sunday and the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday come on the same weekend, and it’s the same weekend as the inauguration. So, I thought I’d preach on the subject of justice and civil rulers.
1. This is the 40th anniversary of Roe v Wade.
2. Jan.1 was the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
B. Read Psalm 82 (ESV) — A PSALM OF ASAPH. 1 God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: 2 “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah 3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” 5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. 6 I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; 7 nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.” 8 Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!
II. Psalm 82
A. 1Pet.2:13-14 says “Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.”
1. Romans 13 also talks about our duty toward the civil government. It says that all authority is from God, and that we must obey them out of obedience to God.
2. But the message of 1Peter 2 and Romans 13 is not the only thing the Bible says about the civil government.
3. Psalm 82 is like the flip-side of Romans 13. Romans 13 is God’s word to citizens. Psalm 82 (along with Psalm 2) is God’s word to rulers.
B. In terms of style there is no other psalm like 82, though in terms of subject it has a lot of overlap with Psalm 2, v.1-2, for instance: “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed.”
C. Psalm 82 verse-by-verse
1. v.1 God’s council — “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:”
a. They are called gods? Yes, it’s the same word God uses of Himself: ELOHIM, but we should understand it not in the same ultimate sense, of course, as is clear from the passage. But since they stand in place of God in terms of being kings and judges, etc., they are called gods. That’s why I’ve titled the sermon “Undergods.”
b. Though this kind of divine council is found nowhere else in the Book of Psalms, there are several other places we find it in the OT:
(1) 1Kings 22:19-23 Micaiah and Ahab
(2) Job 1:6-12, 2:1-6 God talking about Job with Satan
(3) Zech.1:7-17 Zechariah’s vision of a horseman
(4) Zech. 3:1-5 a vision of Joshua the high priest being accused by Satan
(5) Is.6:1-13 Isaiah’s vision of the Lord in the temple
c. We understand this kind of meeting. The boss calls in his workers to give them assignments or to rebuke them for some failure.
(1) Kings and rulers do this kind of thing a lot. But they’re not used to having it done to them. But in Psalm 82 their Boss has summoned them to a meeting to give them a piece of His holy mind.
d. Are there real meetings like this?
(1) Not necessarily. But they show something important about the order of the universe.
(2) In them we see the supreme place of God among all other powers and authorities.
(3) We see that He is their commander, and their judge.
2. v.2-4 God’s rebuke of the “gods” — “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? 3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
a. What an amazing power and responsibility God has given to civil rulers!
(1) He calls them gods, and sons of the Most High.
(2) He commands men everywhere to obey them and fear them.
b. He assigns them their duties
(1) To judge justly
(2) To be impartial, and, in particular, to not show partiality to the wicked
(3) To give justice to the weak and the fatherless
(4) To maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute
(5) To rescue the weak and the needy from the hand of the wicked
(6) These are not their only jobs. But they are the jobs which get the most attention and emphasis in the Bible.
c. Just as it is the tendency of all mankind to fail in their duties to God, rulers fail in theirs.
(1) But their failure is even more serious, because of the enormity of the responsibility they are given toward others, and how they are called to serve in God’s place.
3. v.5-7 It is not crystal clear who is speaking here, but my take is that these are God’s remarks to the audience — “They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. 6 I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; 7 nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.”
a. These guys don’t know what they’re doing.
b. “I gave them high positions and many blessings, but they have squandered them and proven faithless.”
4. v.8 “Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!”
a. Eventually He will rule them all. Every knee shall bow. People from every nation, tribe and tongue will be singing His praises.
b. The prayer here is for God to deal with the corruption and injustice of earthly rulers, in light of the fact that in the end all the nations will be subjected to Him.
c. This “you shall inherit all the nations” reminds me of what God says to His Son the Messiah in Psalm 2:8-9 “I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
III. How does this apply to us in our day?
A. It teaches us, first of all, to expect rulers to be misguided and foolish, and for their power to go to their heads.
1. This psalm isn’t written about some particularly bad king or group of kings. It is written about rulers in general.
a. This is the natural tendency of those given power.
b. Jesus taught us this. “Not like the kings of the Gentiles” in Luke 22:25.
c. When a wise and God-fearing leader has come along in history, it has been very rare and short-lived. That is the exception. The rule is what we see in Psalm 82.
2. And if you study American history, like any nation’s history, you find lots of this in our leaders down through the centuries.
a. Don’t say “the good old days.”
b. The history of America is rifled with corruption and injustice and oppression and trampling on the weak.
c. Our government has often stood with the strong and shielded them from those who would thwart their deeds of wickedness.
d. We must not act as if abortion is not the first or the only instance of injustice.
e. Examples
(1) Native Americans: over 300 treaties broken
(2) Slavery and Jim Crow
(3) Chinese during the California Gold Rush in the mid-19th century
(4) Assassination of democratically elected leaders and propping up of tyrannical dictators
B. We shouldn’t hide from this. Our children need to learn the history about slavery, colonialism, imperialism, racism, corruption, xenophobia and abortion.
1. There’s more to this nation’s story than these. But they are an important part of our history.
2. There’s nothing wrong with love of country, but it is not a fruit of the Spirit. And it must not be on the same level as our love for God.
3. And it must not be based on lies and falsehoods. One tendency of human nature is to whitewash oneself and blackwash others. Well, we do it with our nations as well.
4. Our job as Christian parents is not to instill love of country but to instill love of God, and love of His truth.
5. We’ve got to be able to face up to the depravities of our national past.
6. Some want to focus only on the good, positive things. The Bible doesn’t do that, does it?
7. Would we support the same notion of omitting the embarrassing aspects of national history in Germany?
8. Psalm 146:3 “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.”
C. This is us. We abuse power too, and use it for self instead of for others.
1. There is no place here for us to look down on our rulers.
D. One of the reasons we have passages like Psalm 82 is so that we can see that God thinks and rules so differently than these oppressive authorities.
1. We see that He is grieved over their failures, and angry over the ways the strong are allowed to take advantage of the weak. And that He will hold them accountable.
2. And that He is not like them, but that He is everything we long for from our leaders.
a. Driven by an extraordinary zeal for our welfare: so much so that, though He has all power and glory, He uses it for and lays it aside for our sake.
b. Look at the extraordinary words of Ezekiel 34:2–16 (abridged) which give us a glimpse God’s zeal for His flock and His indignation toward those who are supposed to reflect His loving care for them and fail to do so:
(1) Thus says the Lord GOD: “Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: ...Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand... No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths... I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out... I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered... I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land... And I will feed them with good pasture... they shall lie down in good grazing land. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep... I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.”
c. The believing jews lived with the expectation that some day God would come and fulfill these promises.
(1) And then Jesus shows up and says, “I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11, 14) And His hearers knew what He was talking about.
3. And that in the meantime, when we are faced with the injustice of earthly rulers, we can pray, “Arise, O God, bring your justice to the earth; for we know that in the end you shall inherit all the nations!”