I just want to tell you I’ve learned so much from your site! Thank you for your time.
Can you explain to us what Psalm 82 is referring to when it states in verse 1, he gives judgment among the GODS? Also, who is God talking to in verse 7 and 8 when the Bible states, I said you are GODS you are all sons of the Most High. But you will die like mere MEN you will fall like every other RULER?
Sounds like maybe Angelic beings that actually were given something to rule over. But where and when were they ruling? Now this is an interesting Psalm!
There are two schools of thought on this Psalm. One is that God is reprimanding Israel’s neighboring kings who encouraged their subjects to worship them as gods. In other words, He’s letting them know that while they call themselves gods, He really is God. A variant of this is that He’s addressing the demonic forces behind these thrones.
The other opinion is that in those days judges and rulers in Israel allowed themselves to be given the honorary title of god, in a sense being “sons of God” as His representatives on Earth ruling over His people.
I lean toward this one because Jesus quoted from Psalm 82 in John 10:34 saying that if they were called gods and sons of the Most High who were only servants of God, why did they have a problem with Him calling Himself the Son of God when He really was?
In any case, though, the context of the Psalm is that God was reprimanding these judges and rulers for the cruel and unjust way they were treating their subjects. Therefore though they thought of themselves as gods, they would die like the mere men that they really were.