Psalm 82:1 states, “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.” Later in Psalm 82:6-7 we read, “I said, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.'” The identity of the “gods” in Psalm 82 has been interpreted a variety of ways. For sake of brevity, we will cover the two most popular understandings of “gods.” The Gods as Human Judges Interpreting the gods in Psalm 82 as a reference to human judges is very common. Support for this idea is drawn from Exodus 22:8, where someone accused of being an accomplice to a thief comes “near to God” to take an oath about what happened. This is often interpreted as going before the Israelite judges (cf. Exod 21:6, where a master brings his slave before…