Psalm 82 - Defend the weak

Read: Psalm 82 vs 1-8

We live in a world where national rulers, be they presidents, prime ministers or monarchs are regularly in the news. They ‘make’ the news, and their decisions, for better or for worse, affect the lives of many many people. I read Psalm 82 and I picture the Psalmist turning on his TV and seeing a gathering of all the most powerful people across the world (he calls them ‘gods’ in vs 1). 

Then a hush descends and the One who presides over all these rulers takes His place. It is God Himself who calls this great assembly to order. God has not come to be photographed with the ‘good and great’, He has not come to exchange pleasant greetings. God has come to judge.

The Bible has a high view of leadership. God is not an anarchist, He is a God of order, and part of His plan for society is that there should be those who hold positions of authority, for the sake of doing people good (Romans 13:4). The New Testament was addressed to Christians who were living in the shadow of a pagan, unelected, Empire, run by dictators. Yet these same Christians are instructed not to rebel against those in authority (Romans 13:2) but to pray for them (1 Timothy 2:2).

This however does not mean that rulers can get away with whatever they want. In Western society we have a deeply ingrained sense that rulers are accountable to the people. Of course there is much good in this, but it masks the biblical truth that actually rulers are ultimately accountable to God.  

We see this played full force in Psalm 82. God stands not to comment, or criticise those who hold power; God stands to judge. He has seen the unjust defended, and the wicked given unfair privilege (vs 2). He demands that those entrusted with power use that power to ‘defend the weak and the fatherless’ and that they ‘uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed’ (vs 3). The weak and the need must be rescued and delivered from the hand of the wicked (vs 4).

Yet these ‘gods’, these people in power just don’t get it. They are walking in darkness, imagining that they are accountable to no-one, or accountable only to the faces they see around them (be that the generals who protect them or the people who elect them). But Psalm 82 says ‘No!’, there is a God, and it is not you! One day you will die like everyone else (vs 7). Psalm 82 is a call not for us to sit in judgment over those who rule us, but rather it is a cry to God, to do what only He can do:

‘Rise up, O God, judge the earth,

For all the nations are your inheritance.’

Prayer: LORD God leaders dominate our daily news. Thank you that You are the judge of all the earth. Help those with great power to us to use that power to defend the most vulnerable in our society. Forgive us for times when we have judged our leaders (something the Bible tells us You will do) and not prayed for them (something the Bible tells us we should do). In Jesus’ Name. Amen.