Psalms 82: The judges are summoned to judgment

Psalm 82 opens a courtroom in which the usual authorities suddenly discover that they are the defendants. God stands among those called “gods” and asks why they judge unjustly, favor the wicked, and fail the poor, fatherless, afflicted, and needy. The identity of these “gods” has been read as human judges or as heavenly beings, but the poem’s direction is clear in either case: elevated status leads to accountability, not immunity. Their refusal of understanding leaves the foundations of the earth out of course. The title “children of the most High” does not protect them from the sentence, “ye shall die like men.” The psalm closes by lifting the matter beyond one failed tribunal and asking God himself to judge the earth, because all nations finally belong to him.