Does Psalm 82:6 Teach that Believers are gods?

DOES PSALM 82:6 AND JOHN 10:34 SUGGEST THAT BELIEVERS ARE GODS?

By Ezekiel Kimosop

INTRODUCTION

In John 10:34 Jesus was quoting Psalm 82:6 while confronting the Jewish leaders who denied His divine nature as both Messiah and God the Son and rejected his works. They had also accused Him of blasphemy (John 10:35). Jesus then reminded them that Scripture speaks of rulers as gods....

INTERPRETATION OF PSALM 82

Now let's rewind to Psalm 82 to better appreciate the context in which Psalm 82:6 lies.

This Psalm was addressed to the evil rulers of the day who oppressed their people. They defended the unjust and showed partiality when making judgment (82:1-2).

The psalmist then makes a plea for the poor and downtrodden (82:3-4).

In Psalm 82:6, which is often quoted out of its passage context, the psalmist mocks the evil rulers.

These rulers, including the religious order, were definitely not acting within the precincts of their covenant relationship with God. They had broken God's moral and civil laws.

The reference to them as "sons of the Most High God"  is purely a mockery and an indictment of their wickedness!

Notice that the succeeding verse of Psalm 82:7 speaks of their fate in their rebellion: they will all fall and die in God's judgment!

The statement in Psalm 82:6 was obviously a mockery of the rulers who esteemed themselves so high in authority yet they were condemned to destruction by God for their excesses!

Were these rulers gods in any essence? Did they possess any divinity?

These rulers only exercised magisterial power donated to them by God who is sovereignly in control of all creation (Psalm 24:1-2). Unfortunately, these leaders were evil stewards over God's people. The context of the Psalm 82 is clear: They were undeserving of any honor!

In Psalm 82:8 the psalmist pleads with God to arise and judge the nation's. This undoubtedly had to do with the wickedness earlier described in Psalm 82:1-4. Context is always key.

The people are here described as knowing nothing and moving aimlessly in darkness. It was a wandering society that is far from the  illumination of God's moral law, people who are lost in sinful depravity. This is a society under a failed leadership!

This is where our society is today because our civic leadership is drawing our society further and further from God's divine principles.

God will definitely judge them for their rebellion notwithstanding their high offices or religious beliefs or ideologies.

These leaders are ultimately answerable to God no matter how powerful they appear in the eyes of this world.

They serve at His divine pleasure and God can and often puts them down when He so chooses (Psalm 75:1-7).

Back to John 10:22-42.

Jesus was rebuking the Jewish religious leaders for their lack of discernment.

He had come as their Messiah but they rejected Him even though the Old Testament Scriptures pointed to His coming. Thankfully some believed in Him just as we do (John 10:40-42).

Was Jesus praising the religious leaders of His day? Absolutely not!

My view is that the use of the word "gods" in Jesus case was in a magisterium sense to refer to the exercise of authority in a stewardship capacity. At one time Jesus spoke of the Pharisees as sitting in Moses' seat, obviously in reference to their religious authority over the people of God (see Matthew 23:2).

The use of this word was never at any time intended to lay claim to any divine essence on those intended.

He, like the psalmist in Psalm 82, was actually mocking them. These leaders were not gods! They were evil and arrogant and unable to discern the new dispensation that God had ushered in by Christ!

This is nothing new to us today.

To teach that Jesus was ascribing divinity to these leaders is to stretch the interpretation of biblical truth beyond the snapping point!

Nothing in Psalm 82 or John 10:22-42 remotely suggests that believers are gods. We are followers of Jesus Christ who redeemed us from sinful condemnation. We are not and will never be worthy of worship in this life or in the life to come.



© Ezekiel Kimosop 2020