Rise up, O God, judge the earth,
Psalms 82:8 (NIV)
for all the nations are your inheritance.
This Psalmist is asking God to judge the earth, especially rulers who are partial to the wicked and support oppressors. Like the Psalmist we all want such practices to end permanently.
Then the Psalmist declares a most encouraging word. “All the nations are your inheritance.” This means that ultimately the nations will belong to God. How will this happen? After he judges the citizens of all nations, those who pass judgment will remain with God. And God will gather members from every nation to himself. These people will be the true representatives of their nations and the truly redeemed and restored citizens of those nations.
At the end of this age all these nations will be reunited with God in his community:
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
Revelation 7:9, (NIV)
We all look forward to the day when every ethnic group is free to bring the best things about their culture to God’s community and we can all live together in harmony. Scripture teaches that this is God’s inheritance, what rightful belongs to him, and will be our great blessing for eternity.
