Joel M Bradshaw

8Arise, O God, judge the earth;
for you shall inherit all the nations!–Psalm 82

The psalms of David sometimes touch on personal trauma. You can tell David suffers from depression and anxiety. The psalms of Asaph, however, are full of national despair. The enemy nations are surrounding them. Threatening to destroy and overcome. The laments of Asaph are extremely direct at God and how he hopes God will react.

Here Asaph landed the plane with the great perspective. God is Judge and one day he will indeed judge everyone. Since God made the earth (see Genesis 1 if needed), he has every right to judge the earth. It’s as if he owns the earth and we are but renters. Asaph pictured God as inheriting all the nations.

It’s a fascinating image. We save for retirement. Money people tell us to plan so that our finances will outlive us. Parents want to leave behind something for their kids and grandkids. In Asaph’s day, the inheritance was the land itself. It held a spiritual quality to it also because it was given to Israel by God and as it passed to the next generation, it showed God’s faithfulness at work. God preserves, protects, and provides.

God doesn’t inherit like we inherit. All is his. So with that perspective, all the nations that rage against Israel are ultimately his, as well. They can shake their fists and rattle their spears against God, but he will outlast them. He will inherit them. They exist to be one day judged by the very God they rail against.

We need to remember that our God is both King and Judge. He will one day judge the world in a great and dreadful day that will end human history as we know it. All the world becomes his inheritance as it remains in his control. We long for God to judge and to deliver. We are grateful for the grace and mercy he has shown us. We obey him as our King. It’s comforting to know that even though God’s enemies may be many, he is not only their Judge, but will simply inherit them.–JMB