Tag: Leaders are Promoted and Demoted by God - Psalm 81-83

Psalms 82:6-7

I said, “You are gods,

sons of the Most High, all of you;

nevertheless, like men you shall die,

and fall like any prince.”

Tag:  Leaders are Promoted and Demoted by God

Psalm 82 was written by Asaph.  He was a royal member of the court and leadership team under the reign of Solomon.   He was a song writer and a poet.  He was a writer of many of the Psalms ... song and poems for worship.  In Psalm 82 we read his philosophy of leadership.   Note what he says about leaders:

1. They are “gods.”    Don’t let it go to your head.   Asaph is NOT saying that leaders are deity.  He is saying they carry a sense of authority.   Note Romans 13 for a similar thoughts process in regard to the authority of leadership.   

2. They are “sons of the Most High.”   This speaks to the fact that leaders are born by God ... He gives them life and all their authority (see again Romans 13).  Leaders are “born” ... by God.  They are made by God and have an obligation but this idea to act and lead as God would lead (that is the essence of Psalm 82).  

3. They are “men.”   Leaders have to remember they are not God and that the “humanness” will keep them humble and level.  They are not to think of themselves more highly than they ought to think.  They owe all to God for their position of authority and must remember they are but dust.  

4. They shall “all die.”   Like any other human, leaders have limited capacity and limited life.  It would be wise to think of Nebuchadnezzar here.   He thought he was a “god” but with a capital “G.”   God showed him his limits and eventually brought him to death.  The same is true of Pharaoh, the King’s of Babylon, Assyria, etc.   All thought they had unlimited capacity and supreme life.  They all die just like all men.  

Leaders over estimate themselves when they do not submit to the authority and sovereignty of God.   He puts up on and puts down another:

Psalms 75:6-7

For not from the east or from the west

and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,

but it is God who executes judgment,

putting down one and lifting up another.

Again, words of Asaph ... part of Solomon’s leadership team.