Psalms 82:6

lmist calls upon God for immediate help against a multitude of confederate enemies who had risen up against Judah, Psa 83:1-5 . He mentions them by name, Psa 83:6-8 ; shows how they were to be punished, Psa 83:9-17 ; and that this was to be done for the glory of God, Psa 83:18 . The title, A Song or Psalms of Asaph, contains nothing particular. Among a multitude of conjectures relative to the title and occasion of this Psalm, that which refers it to the confederacy against Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, mentioned 2 Chronicles 20, is the most likely. The following reasons make it probable: 1. The children of Ammon, that is, the Ammonites and Moabites, were the principal movers in the war. 2. The Idumeans came to their assistance, 2Chr 20:22 ; with certain Ammonites or Meonians, referred to here in Psa 83:8 , and in 2Chr 20:1 . 3. There were also in this confederacy many strangers of Syria, and from beyond the sea, most likely the Dead Sea, which seems to indicate the Assyrians, Hagaranes, and Ishmaelites, designed expressly here, Psa 83:7 , Psa 83:8 . 4. In that transaction there was a prophet of the race of Asaph, named Jahaziel, who foretold to Jehoshaphat their total overthrow, 2Chr 20:14 , etc., and probably this Jahaziel is the same with Asaph, the author of this Psalm. In the course of the notes we shall see other circumstances relative to the war of the Moabites and Ammonites against Jehoshaphat, which illustrates several particulars in this Psalm. See Calmet. Verse 1 Keep not thou silence - A strong appeal to God just as the confederacy was discovered. Do not be inactive, do not be neuter. Thy honor and our existence are both at stake. Verse 2 Thine enemies make a tumult - They are not merely the enemies of thy people, but they are the enemies of thyself, thy worship, ordinances, and laws: "They make a tumult," they throng together. They - have lifted up the head - They have made an irruption into the land of Judea, and encamped at En-gedi, by the Dead Sea, 2Chr 20:1 , 2Chr 20:2 . Verse 3 Consulted against thy hidden ones - צפוניך tsephuneycha, Thy hidden things; places; persons. "The hidden things in thy treasures." - Chaldee. "Thy holy ones." - Syriac. "Thy saints." - Vulgate and Septuagint; and so the Ethiopic and Arabic. The people of Israel are probably meant. Or perhaps the temple, the ark, and the treasures of the temple, are intended. Verse 4 Let us cut them off - Let us exterminate the whole race, that there may not be a record of them on the face of the earth. And their scheme was well laid: eight or ten different nations united themselves in a firm bond to do this; and they had kept their purpose so secret that the king of Judah does not appear to have heard of it till his territories were actually invaded, and the different bodies of this coalition had assembled at En-gedi. Never was Judah before in greater danger. Verse 5 They have consulted together with one consent - With a united heart, לב יחדו leb yachdav, Their heart and soul are in the work. They are confederate against thee - "They have made a covenant," ברית יכריתו berith yachrithu, "they have cut the covenant sacrifice." They have slain an animal, divided him in twain, and passed between the pieces of the victim; and have thus bound themselves to accomplish their purpose. Verse 6 The tabernacles of Edom - The tents of these different people are seen in the grand encampment. Tents are probably mentioned because it seas the custom of some of these people, particularly the lshmaelites, to live a migratory or wandering life; having no fixed habitation, but always abiding in tents. Their posterity remain to the present day, and act and live in the same manner. Hagarenes - These people dwelt on the east of Gilead; and were nearly destroyed in the days of Saul, being totally expelled from their c

They have been honoured with the name and title of gods. God himself called them so in the statute against treasonable words Exod. xxii. 28 , Thou shalt not revile the gods. And, if they have this style from the fountain of honour, who can dispute it? But what is man, that he should be thus magnified? He called them gods because unto them the word of God came, so our Saviour expounds it ( John x. 35 ); they had a commission from God, and were delegated and appointed by him to be the shields of the earth, the conservators of the public peace, and revengers to execute wrath upon those that disturb it, Rom. xiii. 4 . All of them are in this sense children of the Most High. God has put some of his honour upon them, and employs them in his providential government of the world, as David made his sons chief rulers. Or, "Because I said, You are gods, you have carried the honour further than was intended and have imagined yourselves to be the children of the Most High, " as the king of Babylon ( Isa. xiv. 14 ), I will be like the Most High, and the king of Tyre ( Ezek. xxviii. 2 ), Thou hast set thy heart as the heart of God. It is a hard thing for men to have so much honour put upon them by the hand of God, and so much honour paid them, as ought to be by the children of men, and not to be proud of it and puffed up with it, and so to think of themselves above what is meet. But here follows a mortifying consideration: You shall die like men. This may be taken either, 1. As the punishment of bad magistrates, such as judged unjustly, and by their misrule put the foundations of the earth out of course. God will reckon with them, and will cut them off in the midst of their pomp and prosperity; they shall die like other wicked men, and fall like one of the heathen princes (and their being Israelites shall not secure them anymore than their being judges) or like one of the angels that sinned, or like one of the giants of the old world. Compare this with that which Elihu observed concerning the mighty oppressors in his time. Job xxxiv. 26 , He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others. Let those that abuse their power know that God will take both it and their lives from them; for wherein they deal proudly he will show himself above them. Or, 2. As the period of the glory of all magistrates in this world. Let them not be puffed up with their honour nor neglect their work, but let the consideration of their mortality be both mortifying to their pride and quickening to their duty. "You are called gods, but you have no patent for immortality; you shall die like men, like common men; and like one of them, you, O princes! shall fall. " Note, Kings and princes, all the judges of the earth, though they are gods to us, are men to God, and shall die like men, and all their honour shall be laid in the dust. Mors sceptra ligonibus æquat—Death mingles sceptres with spades. II. The God of heaven exalted and raised high, v. 8 . The psalmist finds it to little purpose to reason with these proud oppressors; they turned a deaf ear to all he said and walked on in darkness; and therefore he looks up to God, appeals to him, and begs of him to take unto himself his great power: Arise, O God! judge the earth; and, when he prays that he would do it, he believes that he will do it: Thou shalt inherit all nations. This has respect, 1. To the kingdom of providence. God governs the world, sets up and puts down whom he pleases; he inherits all nations, has an absolute dominion over them, to dispose of them as a man does of his inheritance. This we are to believe and to comfort ourselves with, that the earth is not given so much into the hands of the wicked, the wicked rulers, as we are tempted to think it is, Job ix. 24 . But God has reserved the power to himself and overrules them. In this faith we must pray, " Arise, O God! judge the earth, appear against those that judge unjustly, and set shepherds over thy people after thy own heart." There is a righteous God to whom we may have recourse, and on whom we may depend for the effectual relief of all that find themselves aggrieved by unjust judges. 2. To the kingdom of the Messiah. It is a prayer for the hastening of that, that Christ would come, who is to judge the earth, and that promise is pleaded, that God shall give him the heathen for his inheritance. Thou, O Christ! shalt inherit all nations, and be the governor over them, Ps. ii. 8 ; xxii. 28 . Let the second coming of Christ set to-rights all these disorders. There are two words with which we may comfort ourselves and one another in reference to the mismanagements of power among men: one is Rev. xix. 6 , Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth; the other is Rev. xxii. 20 , Surely, I come quickly. This psalm is the last of those that go under the name of Asaph. It is penned, as most of those, upon a public account, with reference to the insults of the church's enemies, who sought its ruin. Some think it was penned upon occasion of the threatening descent which was made upon the land of Judah in Jehoshaphat's time by the Moabites and Ammonites, those children of Lot here spoken of ( ver. 8 ), who were at the head of the alliance and to whom all the other states here mentioned were auxiliaries. We have the story 2 Chron. xx. 1 , where it is said,

do not recognize from whom they have it, and use it as though they had it from themselves, and could do with it what they will, serving with it neither God nor man, and wanting to be free gods, without any god and over every god. Here He has a word to say in this wickedness, and says, “Ye know well that ye are gods and have power; that ye have learned and grasped very quickly. But when will ye learn from whom ye have it? What becomes of Me? What becomes of My commandments, which I have given you? It is not your command, but I, I, I have said that ye are gods. It is My command and My word that makes and ordains you gods, and keeps you gods, and it is not your word or wisdom or might. Ye are gods made by My word, as all creatures are made, and ye are not self-made gods or born gods, as I am. If I had not commanded it, no one of you would have been a god. Mine are all power, rulership, property, honor, lands and peoples, and all that belongs to them. I have given them to you; ye have not acquired them or won them. But what fine thanks do ye give Me for them? Ye reject Me and My Word, and hold Me for no God at all.” “What!” say they, “Do we not recognize that we have this from Thee, and hold Thee for our God! That be far from us! If Thou knowest it not otherwise, look only at our titles in which we publicly boast and confess it, — ‘We, N, by God’s grace King of N’; ‘We, N, by God’s grace Duke of N’; ‘We, N, by God’s grace, Prince of N’; etc. There Thou hearest that we confess our rulership to be received from God’s grace. What wilt Thou more than this?” It is true! The words are right and good! But do you know of a people of whom the prophet says, “This people honoreth Me with the mouth, but their heart is far from Me?” Christ, too, says, in Matthew 7:21, “They will not all come into the kingdom of heaven who say to me Lord, Lord; but he that doeth the will of my Father”; and Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:20, “The kingdom of God is not in words, but in deeds.” What good does it do that with your words you boast and confess that you are lords by God’s grace, when your heart and your whole life show that you would like to have no God, and be a free lord, with all might to act against God’s commandments, according to your own self-will? For he who does not heed and keep God’s Word, sets God Himself at naught, since he who would honor God and have God, must have Him in and through His Word, otherwise it is impossible to get Him, have Him, or know Him. Since, then, the gods neither heed nor have God’s Word and commandment, they have no God; and if they have no God, they must have become gods by themselves, and this verse must be a lie and a falsehood, when it says, “I have said, Ye are gods.” See, then, how many are the princes and lords who bear the title, “By God’s grace,” with a true heart and truthful lips! The majority bear it as a testimony against themselves, as a false and shameful lie about God, by which they blaspheme and dishonor His holy name, wearing it as a cloak for their tyranny and wickedness. Of this much could be said. One might wonder why He calls such wicked people, whom he rebukes so harshly, “children of God,” or “of the Highest,” since it is the holy and believing people who are called children of God in Scripture. Answer: It is just as great a wonder that He calls these wicked people by His own name, gods; indeed, calling them gods is even more than calling them children. But it is all in the word, “I have said.” As we have often said, the Word of God hallows and deifies everything to which it is applied. Therefore those estates that are appointed in God’s Word are all holy, divine estates, even though the persons in them are not holy. Thus father, mother, son, daughter, master, mistress, servant, maid, preacher, pastor, etc., all these are holy and divine positions in life, even though the persons in those positions may be knaves and rascals. So, because He here founds and orders the office of rulership, the rulers are rightly called “gods” and “children of God,” for the sake of the divine office and divine Word; and yet they are wicked knaves, as He here calls them. V.7. Therefore ye shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes. Because they are not willing to honor God with their godhead, as He commands, but act as though they had nothing from God, and everything from themselves, He here threatens that He will punish them, and punish them in such a way that they will lose their godhead. He will depose them and take away t

Have said - I have given you my name and power to rule your people in my stead. All - Not only the rulers of Israel, but of all other nations. Children - Representing my person, and bearing both my name and authority.