The Sons Of God: An Introduction (Psalm 82:1-8) Series

For maybe four or five weeks, we are going to take a break from the gospel of John, and start a new mini-series calls "Sons of God."

My guess is that everything you hear this morning is going to be new to you. And you aren't going to know what to do with it, or how to handle it. It's maybe going to really bother you. I honestly don't know. So I'll just say this at the outset: what I'm teaching this morning is not controversial among OT scholars. If you go to seminary at Dallas, or TEDS, or Fuller, or anywhere as far as I know, OT scholars will argue for the things I'm arguing this morning. But pastors are either too scared to teach this, or don't know how, or haven't been exposed to it. So all of this to say, try to balance discernment, with being open-minded. And understand, that I'm not teaching anything that's fringe. [For those who want a great introduction to this, the best place to look is Michael Heiser's book, The Unseen Realm.]

Verse 1:

God (Elohim) is taking his stand in the community/assembly of God (El),

In the midst of the gods (Elohim) he is exercising authority.

The first line of verse 1 describes God-- Elohim-- in the heavens. We maybe think of God as living in the heavens in isolation-- surrounded by nothing--but here in verse 1 he is described as standing in the community, or assembly, of God.

The second word for God here is "El," which is like the generic name for God in the Ancient Near East. Normally, God is pictured in the OT as seated on his throne, and it's his servants and people making requests of him who stand. But here, God is standing. When God stands in Isaiah 3:13-15, it's because he's about to exercise authority (READ IT).

13 The LORD has taken his place to contend;

he stands to judge peoples.

14 The LORD will enter into judgment

with the elders and princes of his people:

“It is you who have devoured[f] the vineyard,

the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

15 What do you mean by crushing my people,

by grinding the face of the poor?”

declares the Lord GOD of hosts. Isaiah 3:13-15

So when we read that God is standing, it creates an expectation that he is very quickly going to exercise authority over someone. This isn't his normal posture.

The second line is parallel to the first, but we should expect it to in some way build off the first. This is how Hebrew poetry works.

God (Elohim) is taking his stand in the community/assembly of God (El),

In the midst of the gods (Elohim) He is exercising authority.

One of the first things they teach in first year Hebrew is that "Elohim" can mean either God or gods. It can be singular or plural. And the only way to tell is through context. In the second line, Elohim has to be plural because of the prepositional phrase. God isn't standing in the middle of himself. He is standing in the middle of the gods. All of your Bibles should translate this right.

The question is, who are these gods? This bothers the NIV enough that it puts quotes around gods-- "gods." And what does "Elohim" mean, if it can be used for God and gods?

What Elohim means, basically, is "divine being." Divine beings are immortal-- they don't die. And they are beings who live in the spiritual realm-- the spiritual world, that we can't see. We maybe want to say that we are talking about "angels" here, but for now, let's just keep using the language of the OT, calling them gods-- Elohim.

So what we have in verse 1 is God-- Elohim-- standing in the middle of the gods-- Elohim-- and exercising authority over them.

In verse 2, we read God's words to the gods. He is standing, he is exercising authority, and this is what he says:

(2) How long will you exercise authority wrongly,

while the faces of the wicked you lift up?

God has given these gods authority. He has given them some responsibility. God doesn't tell them here what their responsibility is. The psalm assumes that everyone knows what that responsibility is. What is it?

To get our answer, we have to turn to Deuteronomy 32:8-9. And the catch is, we have to read this in one of the newer translations, that takes into account the Dead Sea Scrolls (or that follows the Septuagint).

At the apportioning of the Most High (Elyon) of the nations,

at the dividing of the sons of man,

He established the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God (Elohim),

because the portion of Yahweh is his people,