Psalm 82: God presides in the great assembly; he renders judgments among the “gods.” This is one of several places in the Bible where we read about a collection of divine beings over the earth.26 The NIV translates the Hebrew as “the great assembly,” but a few other translations have “the divine council.”27 The divine council is well-known imagery from the ancient world.28 It is a way of envisioning heaven as an ancient Near Eastern throne room. Yahweh, the king, is there, with all these other spiritual beings around him.
