The Great Abdication and the Divine Inheritance Text: Psalm 82:8
Introduction: A Courtroom in the Heavens
We come this morning to the final, climactic verse of Psalm 82. This psalm is a startling piece of literature. It throws open the doors to the celestial courtroom, and it allows us to witness a divine prosecution. God, the ultimate Elohim, stands up in the congregation of the mighty, in the council of the "elohim," and He brings a blistering indictment against them. These "gods" are the delegated authorities, both angelic and human, whom God appointed to govern the affairs of men. In Deuteronomy 32, we are told that the Most High fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. These were the principalities and powers, the celestial princes assigned to the nations.
But the psalm reveals a catastrophic failure of their administration. They judged unjustly. They showed partiality to the wicked. They failed to defend the poor, the fatherless, the afflicted, and the needy. And because of their dereliction of duty, the very "foundations of the earth are out of course." Their wicked rule has put everything out of joint. So God pronounces His sentence upon them: "I said, 'You are gods'... but you shall die like men." Their divine authority will not save them from a very human and very final judgment.
It is in this context of cosmic failure and impending judgment that the psalmist, Asaph, utters the great cry of verse 8. This is not a cry of despair, but a cry of profound hope. It is a plea born from the recognition that all lesser saviors, all delegated authorities, have failed. The whole system is corrupt. The managers have embezzled from the owner. The under-shepherds have fleeced the flock for their own gain. And so, the only recourse is a direct appeal to the Owner, to the Chief Shepherd Himself. This verse is the great pivot of the psalm, turning from the failure of the gods to the ultimate triumph of the one true God.
This is a prayer for the end of all misrule. It is a prayer for God to take back the direct reign that His underlings have so thoroughly botched. And it is a prayer that is answered, definitively and gloriously, in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Text
Arise, O God, judge the earth!
For it is You who will inherit all the nations.
(Psalm 82:8 LSB)
A Cry for True Justice (v. 8a)
The psalm concludes with this urgent petition:
"Arise, O God, judge the earth!" (Psalm 82:8a)
When the psalmist says "Arise, O God," he is not suggesting that God has been asleep or inattentive. This is a common biblical anthropomorphism, a way of pleading for God to move from His posture of patience and longsuffering into a posture of active, visible judgment. It is a cry for God to intervene in history in a decisive way. The earthly and spiritual rulers have been judged and found wanting. Their time is up. The experiment of their delegated authority has proven to be a disaster. Now, it is time for the King to ascend the bench Himself.
The plea is to "judge the earth." This is not merely a call for punitive action, though that is certainly included. The biblical concept of judgment, mishpat, is far richer than that. It means to put things right. It is a call for God to restore order, to bring justice, to vindicate the oppressed, and to set the world back on its foundations. The corrupt elohim had shaken the foundations of the earth with their wicked rulings; this is a prayer for God to come and stabilize what they have destabilized. It is a prayer for the restoration of sanity.
We live in an age that is terrified of the idea of God's judgment. Our sentimental therapeutic culture wants a God who is a divine butler or an cosmic therapist, but never a judge. But for the oppressed, for the afflicted, for those who have been ground down by the unjust systems of this world, the news that God is a judge is the best news there is. It means that the tyrants will not have the last word. It means that all the crooked accounts will one day be made straight. It means that evil has an expiration date. This prayer, "Arise, O God, judge the earth," is the prayer of every believer who longs for righteousness to prevail.
And we should understand that this prayer was answered at the cross. When Jesus was lifted up, He said, "Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out" (John 12:31). The cross was the ultimate judgment, where the prince of this world and all his corrupt underlings were judged, disarmed, and made a public spectacle (Col. 2:15). The resurrection was God's definitive "Arise!" in history. And from that point on, the judgment of the world has been rolling out through the preaching of the gospel.
The Basis for the Plea (v. 8b)
The second half of the verse provides the unshakeable foundation for this bold request.
"For it is You who will inherit all the nations." (Psalm 82:8b LSB)
This is not wishful thinking. This is a statement of fact, a declaration of what is and what will be. The reason the psalmist can confidently call on God to judge the earth is that the earth belongs to Him. He has the title deed. The nations are His rightful inheritance. The other "gods" were merely tenants, stewards who were supposed to manage the property for the true owner. But they tried to seize the inheritance for themselves, like the wicked tenants in Jesus' parable. Their impending eviction is therefore entirely just.
This points us directly to the great post-resurrection promises of the Bible. In Psalm 2, the Father says to the risen Son, "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession." The inheritance of the nations is given to Jesus Christ. He purchased them with His own blood. This is the engine of the Great Commission. Jesus begins by saying, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me," and on that basis, He commands us to go and "make disciples of all nations."
This is the heart of our optimistic, postmillennial eschatology. We believe this verse. We believe that God the Son will, in fact, inherit all the nations. This is not a spiritual metaphor for rescuing a few individuals out of a sinking ship before it goes down in flames. It means the nations, as nations, will be brought under the lordship of Jesus Christ. It means that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. The gospel is not a losing enterprise. The Great Commission is not the Great Suggestion. It is the announcement of an invasion, a victorious campaign that will result in the complete subjugation of every one of Christ's enemies and the full possession of His rightful inheritance.
The corrupt "elohim," the demonic principalities and the wicked human rulers who do their bidding, are squatters on God's property. They are illegal tenants. The prayer "Arise, O God" is a prayer for the great eviction, and the reason given is that the landlord is coming to take possession of what is His. Every time we preach the gospel, every time a soul is converted, every time a Christian family raises their children in the fear of the Lord, every time a Christian magistrate decides a case with biblical wisdom, we are participating in this great inheritance-taking. We are driving the claim stakes of King Jesus deeper into the soil of human history.
Conclusion: From Plea to Proclamation
Psalm 82 begins in a courtroom and ends with a claim of ownership over the entire planet. It begins with a declaration of judgment on corrupt rulers and ends with a declaration of the inheritance of the true King. This is the story of the world in miniature.
The world is full of tinpot tyrants, both in the visible and invisible realms, who imagine they are in charge. They "plot in vain" against the Lord and His Anointed. They run their little protection rackets, they pass their unjust laws, and they oppress the poor. They walk on in darkness, and they have no idea that their doom was written long ago. God has declared that they will die like men.
Our task, as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, is to live in light of this reality. We are not to be intimidated by the bluster of the failing gods of this age. We are not to despair when the foundations of the earth seem to be shaking. They are shaking because God is judging them, and He is preparing to take full possession.
Our prayer should be the same as the psalmist's: "Arise, O God, judge the earth!" We should pray for His kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is not a prayer for escape, but a prayer for conquest. And as we pray it, we must also proclaim the basis for it: "For you will inherit all the nations." We are on the winning side. The outcome is not in doubt. The Father has promised the world to His Son, and the Son does not fail to collect what His Father has given Him. He is inheriting the nations, one soul, one family, one church, one precinct, one city, and one nation at a time. Therefore, let us serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Let us kiss the Son, lest He be angry. For blessed, truly blessed, are all who take refuge in Him.