This is where Trinitarian dogma really fall into the trap of their own nonsense.
Several years ago the verse of the year for me was Psalm 82:6. It was the verse that our lord invoked to defend himself against the charge of calling himself god. (Jesus denied that he was claiming to be God.) I thought deeply about this Psalm and verse 6, in particular, that year. The conclusion is inescapable.
It is not true that when Jesus quoted Psalm 82:6 He was not defending himself against the charge of calling himself God. He was not denying that he was claiming to be God. As we shall see when I give an exposition taken from enduringword.com. (Credit given where credit is due.) Jesus was not "proof texting" when He quoted that as you are, but was using it in its proper place in the entire Psalm.
The verse reveals that once again, Trinitarianism goes against explicit Scripture. YHWH does not make decisions in a vacuum; he consults the REAL and many lowercase gods in the divine council. And on Earth all (those in position of authority that YHWH gave) are also gods, YHWH's sons-plural. It's easier to understand once you begin calling Jesus' God by his divine name, YHWH.
YHWH is not used in that Psalm. Elohim is. Even though it was written by a covenant member (Asaph) and YHWH is a covenant name for Elohim. Elohim is also translated gods in the Psalm. There is a reason for that, and there is also a reason behind YHWH being the covenant name for God for Israel---and the same reason Father is given as the covenant name of God in the new covenant, but long posts stress you out, so I won't make this one even longer.
To understand Jesus invoking this verse, you need to open your mind to the error of your dogma. There is more than one sense of many words, including god. (Abuse of Language, capitalization changes nothing.) In one sense, Jesus is one of many masters or lords but in another, he is never referred to as capital-LORD, God or YHWH.
The different uses of elohim is not denied or ignored by Trinitarians. It is the meaning behind LORD and Lord and lord that need exploring here to support or deny this claim you make concerning Jesus. Not capitalizing Lord when speaking of Jesus in no less a bias than capitalizing it. The difference is that one, L, is based on the whole counsel of God, and l is based on something a religion wants to deny. The first is based on a search for who Jesus is, the second a way of defining who He isn't, at the sacrifice of who God is and who the Redeemer must be that is given in the full counsel of God. Which results in proof texting one's way through the Bible, rather than treating it with honor and reverence.
The rest of your post completely sidestepped any effort to actually exposit the Psalm or John 10 where it is quoted. That is what I mean by not taking into consideration the full counsel of God and proof texting ones way to their beliefs. So let's look at what enduringword.com has to say as one example of doing what needs to be done and we will see that your first premise of what Jesus was doing is wrong. First a simple quote from Derek Kidner.
“It takes us in a few words behind and beyond our present wrongs, to portray God’s unbounded jurisdiction, his delegation of power, his diagnosis of our condition and his drastic intentions.” (Derek Kidner)
A. God summons the judges.
1. (1-2) God questions the unjust judges.
God stands in the congregation of the mighty;
He judges among the gods.
How long will you judge unjustly,
And show partiality to the wicked? Selah
a.
God stands in the congregation of the mighty: Asaph gives us the picture of God in the midst of
the mighty, standing in authority.
i. “
Standeth, as a judge, diligently to observe all that is said or done there; and to give sentence accordingly. The judge sits when he heareth causes, but standeth up when he giveth sentence.” (Poole)
b.
He judges among the gods: God’s standing in the midst of these
mighty ones is to bring judgment
among them. The word
gods here is
Elohim, the plural for the generic word for
god in Hebrew.
·
Elohim is here best taken as a reference to human judges, who stand in the place of God in their ability to determine the fate of others.
i. “Gathered around Him is an assembly of judges who are called elohim, because they are His delegates; they administer His will; they are His executive agents.” (Morgan)
ii. “The judges and magistrates are compared in this psalm to God, because they exercise something of His power in the right ordering of human society.” (Meyer)
iii. Martin Luther “pointed out that
Psalm 82:1,
6 both establishes and limits the authority of princes. It establishes it, because it is God who appoints the authorities; it is he who calls them ‘gods.’ It limits their authority because they are accountable to him, as the psalm shows.” (Boice)
v. “Our Lord’s reference to
Psalm 82:6 in
John 10:34-38 is, by the present writer, accepted as authoritatively settling both the meaning and the ground of the remarkable name of ‘gods’ for human judges.” (Maclaren)
c.
How long will you judge unjustly? As God calls together this assembly of judges, He did not do it to compliment them or pay them honor. He did it to confront them for judging
unjustly and for showing
partiality to the wicked. This confrontation shows that God Himself is the Judge at the ultimate Supreme Court.
3. (5) God exposes the weakness of the unjust judges.
They do not know, nor do they understand;
They walk about in darkness;
All the foundations of the earth are unstable.
b. All the foundations of the earth are unstable: When judges walk in the darkness of their arrogant pride, the lives of everyday people are uncertain and unstable, as if the ground that should be firm under their feet is shaking.
B. God sentences the judges.
1. (6-7) God pronounces judgment on the unjust judges.
I said, “You are gods,
And all of you are children of the Most High.
But you shall die like men,
And fall like one of the princes.”
a.
You are gods: These human judges stood in the place of the gods above other people. They had the opportunity and the authority to change people’s lives with a word, or sometimes even to end a life.
i. In
John 10:34-39 Jesus quoted
Psalm 82:6 in a debate with religious leaders when they accused Him of claiming to be God in a sinful, wrong way. Jesus reasoned, “If God gave these unjust judges the title ‘gods’ because of their office, why do you consider it blasphemy that I call Myself the ‘Son of God’ in light of the testimony of Me and My works?”
John 10:34-39
34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
Don't cut the verse short by stopping before Jesus declares that the Father is in Him and He is in the Faher. It would be one thing to say that the Father is in Him is merely the Father directing and empowering Him as was the case with other representatives of God, but that is not all that Jesus says. He also says that He is in the Father. And take into consideration too, the entire chapter 10 before Jesus even gets to this part. Particularly what immediately preceded Jesus quoting Psalm 82.
24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me,[
a] is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
30 I and the Father are one.”
The only way that verse 30 can be construed in any way other than Jesus is making himself equal to God, is if you want it to.
The full exposition of Psalm 82 can be found at
enduringword.com/bible-commentary/psalm-82/
