1 God stands in the congregation of God,
In the midst of the gods He judges.
2 How long win ye judge injustice,
And accept the persons of wicked men? Selah.
3 Right the weak and the orphan,
Vindicate the afflicted and the poor.
4 Rescue the weak and needy,
From the hand of the wicked deliver [them].
5 They know not, they understand not,
In darkness they walk to and fro,
All the foundations of the earth totter.
6 I myself have said, Ye are gods,
And sons of the Most High are ye all.
7 Surely like men shall ye die,
And like one of the princes shall ye fall.
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth,
For Thou, Thou shall inherit all the nations.
In Psalm 1. God is represented as gathering His people together
to be judged; in this psalm He has garnered them together for His
judgment on judges. The former psalm begins at an earlier point of
the great Cause than this one does. In it, unnamed messengers go
forth to summons the nation; in this, the first verse shows us the
assembled congregation, the accused, and the Divine Judge standing
in "the midst" in statuesque immobility. An awe-inspiring pause
intervenes, and then the silence is broken by a mighty voice of
reproof and admonition (vv. 2-4). The speaker may be the psalmist,
but the grand image of God as judging loses much of its solemnity
and appropriateness, unless these stern rebukes and the following
verses till the end of ver. 7 are regarded as His voice of judgment.
Ver. 5 follows these rebukes with "an indignant aside from the Judge"
(Cheyne), evoked by obstinate deafness to His words; and vv. 6, 7,
pronounce the fatal sentence on the accused, who are condemned by
their own refusal to hearken to Divine remonstrances. Then, in ver.
8, after a pause like that which preceded God's voice, the psalmist,
who has been a silent spectator, prays that what he has heard in the
inward ear, and seen with the inward eye, may be done before the
nations of the world, since it all belongs to Him by right.
The scene pictured in ver. 1 has been variously interpreted. "The
congregation of God" is most naturally understood according to the
parallel in Psalm l., and the familiar phrase "the congregation of
Israel" as being the assembled nation. Its interpretation and that
of the "gods" who are judged hang together. If the assembly is the
nation, the persons at the bar can scarcely be other than those who
have exercised injustice on the nation. If, on the other hand, the
"gods" are ideal or real angelic beings, the assembly will necessarily
be a heavenly one. The use of the expressions "The congregation of
Jehovah" (Numb. xxvii. 17, xxxi. 16; Josh. xxii. 16, 17) and "Thy
congregation" (Psalm lxxiv. 2) makes the former interpretation the
more natural, and therefore exercises some influence in determining
the meaning of the other disputed word. The interpretation of "gods"
as angels is maintained by Hupfeld; and Bleek, followed by Cheyne,
goes the fun length of regarding them as patron angels of the nations.
But, as Baethgen says, "that angels should be punished with death
is a thought which lies utterly beyond the Old Testament sphere of
representation," and the incongruity can hardly be reckoned to be
removed by Cheyne's remark, that, since angels are in other places
represented as punished, "it is only a step further" to say that they
are punished with death. If, however, these "gods" are earthly rulers,
the question still remains whether they are Jewish or foreign judges?
The latter opinion is adopted chiefly on the ground of the reference
in ver. 8 to a world-embracing judicial act, which, however, by no
means compels its acceptance, since it is entirely in accordance
with the manner of psalmists to recognise in partial acts of Divine
retribution the operation in miniature of the same Divine power,
which will one day set right all wrongs, and, on occasion of the
smaller manifestation of Divine righteousness, to pray for a universal
judgment. There would be little propriety in summoning the national
assembly to behold judgments wrought on foreign rulers, unless these
alien oppressors were afflicting Israel, of which there is no sure
indications in the psalm. The various expressions for the afflicted
in vv. 3, 4, are taken, by the supporters of the view that the judges
are foreigners, to mean the whole nation as it groaned under their
oppression, but there is nothing to show that they do not rather refer
to the helpless in Israel.
Our Lord's reference to ver. 6 in John x. 34-38 is, by the present
writer, accepted as authoritatively settling both the meaning and the
ground of the remarkable name of "gods" for human judges. It does not
need that we should settle the mystery of His emptying Himself, or trace
the limits of His human knowledge, in order to be sure that He spoke
truth with authority, when He spoke on such a subject as His own Divine
nature, and the analogies and contrasts between it and the highest
human authorities. His whole argument is worthless, unless the "gods"
in the psalm are men. He tells us why that august title is applied
to them--namely, because to them "the word of God came." They were
recipients of a Divine word, constituting them in their office; and,
in so far as they discharged its duties, their decrees were God's word
ministered by them. That is especially true in a theocratic state such
as Israel, where the rulers are, in a direct way, God's vicegerents,
clothed by Him with delegated authority, which they exercise under His
control. But it is also true about all who are set in similar positions
elsewhere. The office is sacred, whatever its holders are.
The contents of the psalm need little remark. In vv. 2-4 God speaks in
stern upbraiding and command. The abrupt pealing forth of the Divine
Voice, without any statement of who speaks, is extremely dramatic
and impressive. The judgment hall is filled with a hushed crowd. No
herald is needed to proclaim silence. Strained expectance sits on
every ear. Then the silence is broken. These authoritative accents
can come but from one speaker. The crimes rebuked are those to which
rulers, in such a state of society as was in Israel, are especially
prone, and such as must have been well-nigh universal at the time of
the psalmist. They were no imaginary evils against which these sharp
arrows were launched. These princes were like those gibbeted for ever
in Isa. 1.--loving gifts and following after rewards, murderers rather
than judges, and fitter to be "rulers of Sodom" than of God's city.
They had prostituted their office by injustice, had favoured the rich
and neglected the poor, had been deaf to the cry of the helpless, had
steeled their hearts against the miseries of the afflicted, and left
them to perish in the gripe of the wicked. Such is the indictment.
Does it sound applicable to angels?
For a moment the Divine Voice pauses. Will its tones reach any
consciences? No. There is no sign of contrition among the judges, who
are thus solemnly being judged. Therefore God speaks again, as if
wondering, grieved, and indignant "at the blindness of their hearts," as
His Son was when His words met the same reception from the same class.
Ver. 5 might almost be called a Divine lament over human impenitence,
ere the Voice swells into the fatal sentence. One remembers Christ's
tears, as He looked across the valley to the city glittering in the
morning sun. His tears did not hinder His pronouncing its doom; nor did
His pronouncing its doom hinder His tears. These judges were without
knowledge. They walked in darkness, because they walked in selfishness,
and never thought of God's judgment. Their gait was insolent, as the
form of the word "walk to and fro" implies. And, since they who were
set to be God's representatives on earth, and to show some gleam of His
justice and compassion, were ministers of injustice and vicegerents
of evil, fostering what they should have crushed, and crushing whom
they should have fostered, the foundations of society were shaken,
and, unless these were swept away, it would be dissolved into chaos.
Therefore the sentence must fall, as it does in vv. 6, 7. The grant of
dignity is withdrawn. They are stripped of their honours, as a soldier
of his uniform before he is driven from his corps. The judge's robe,
which they have smirched, is plucked off their shoulders, and they stand
as common men.