Psalms 82:8

The poet closes with the prayer for the realization of that which he has beheld in spirit. He implored God Himself to sit in judgment (שׁפטה as in Lam 3:59), since judgment is so badly exercised upon the earth. All peoples are indeed His נחלה, He has an hereditary and proprietary right among (lxx and Vulgate according to Num 18:20, and frequently), or rather in (בּ as in משׁל בּ, instead of the accusative of the object, Zac 2:11), all nations (ἔθνη) - may He then be pleased to maintain it judicially. The inference drawn from this point backwards, that the Psalm is directed against the possessors of power among the Gentiles, is erroneous. Israel itself, in so far as it acts inconsistently with its theocratic character, belies its sanctified nationality, is a גוי like the גוים, and is put into the same category with these. The judgment over the world is also a judgment over the Israel that is become conformed to the world, and its God-estranged chiefs.

This psalm is calculated for the meridian of princes' courts and courts of justice, not in Israel only, but in other nations; yet it was probably penned primarily for the use of the magistrates of Israel, the great Sanhedrim, and their other elders who were in places of power, and perhaps by David's direction. This psalm is designed to make kings wise, and "to instruct the judges of the earth" (as Psa 2:1-12 and Ps. 10), to tell them their duty as (Sa2 23:3), and to tell them of their faults as Psa 58:1. We have here, I. The dignity of magistracy and its dependence upon God (Psa 82:1). II. The duty of magistrates (Psa 82:3, Psa 82:4). III. The degeneracy of bad magistrates and the mischief they do (Psa 82:2, Psa 82:5). IV. Their doom read (Psa 82:6, Psa 82:7). V. The desire and prayer of all good people that the kingdom of God may be set up more and more (Psa 82:8). Though magistrates may most closely apply this psalm to themselves, yet we may any of us sing it with understanding when we give glory to God, in singing it, as presiding in all public affairs, providing for the protection of injured innocency, and ready to punish the most powerful injustice, and when we comfort ourselves with a belief of his present government and with the hopes of his future judgment. A psalm of Asaph.

82:8 The nations belong to God; he will take over the realms formerly ruled by local deities and give them to his people, just as he did with the Promised Land.