Psalm 75--God Will Judge with Equity

Psalm 75
World English Bible

For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Psalm by Asaph. A song.
75 We give thanks to you, God.
    We give thanks, for your Name is near.
    Men tell about your wondrous works.

2 When I choose the appointed time,
    I will judge blamelessly.
3 The earth and all its inhabitants quake.
    I firmly hold its pillars. Selah.
4 I said to the arrogant, “Don’t boast!”
    I said to the wicked, “Don’t lift up the horn.
5 Don’t lift up your horn on high.
    Don’t speak with a stiff neck.”
6 For neither from the east, nor from the west,
    nor yet from the south, comes exaltation.
7 But God is the judge.
    He puts down one, and lifts up another.
8 For in Yahweh’s hand there is a cup,
    full of foaming wine mixed with spices.
He pours it out.
    Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs.

9 But I will declare this forever:
    I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
10 I will cut off all the horns of the wicked,
    but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.

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We will get to this more when we study the book of Romans, but we need to have an honest evaluation of ourselves.  We are not good people who sometimes mess up.  Only God is good (Jesus Himself will say this).  We are broken people bent on rebellion and are wicked at heart.  We deserve the judgment and wrath of God.  Everything that we are about to read about in the book of Genesis where God was sorry that He made man and wished to destroy all flesh from the face of the earth  is righteous and consistent with God's nature.  However, that is balanced with the other side of God's character that we love to emphasize--the part that had compassion on Noah and his family, even though Noah did not deserve that compassion.  Why was Noah saved?  Because God had a plan greater than destroying the whole world for their sins--if He had done that, Satan would have won because we all would have died in our trespasses and sins, and no one would have a way back to God.  However, we still have the promise of Genesis 3 to keep in mind.  God, for His own good pleasure, and to the praise of His glory, chose to redeem a people for Himself--a people who would be called by His Name--and to do so by offering His Son as their penal substitutionary atonement.  He will choose Seth and his family and then Noah and his family and then Shem and his family and then Abraham and his family, Isaac and his family, Jacob and his family and Judah and his family to carry on this promise before the book of Genesis is over.  David is one of those in the line of the tribe of Judah and God specifically will choose David and his family to be a part of the family tree for the promised Messiah.  It is this same David who writes this Psalm that we study today.

We start by praising the Name of the LORD--I like how the WEB capitalizes the word "Name" as it is a reference to the divine name of the LORD.  Other men can tell us about the works that God does for them and in past generations, but we know He is near because He is at work in, through, and around us.  It is something we personally experience.  Therefore, we respond in worship for how great and good God is.

There is a day that God has fixed when He will judge the living and the dead and He will do so blamelessly (every judgment He makes will be completely righteous.  No innocent people will be declared guilty and the guilty will not go unpunished).  The world and all its inhabitants rightly shake at the thought of that Day of Judgment which is fixed in the future, for it will be the end of this creation and the end of the kingdom of the wicked.  The Kingdom of God will be all that remains after that Day.

David warns the proud and boastful that he has nothing to boast in and would remind them that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.  Those that stand proudly in opposition to the LORD will be crushed and humiliated.  No one is strong enough to oppose God in that coming Day.  There will be no salvation that comes to the wicked from any direction--everyone great and small, rich and poor, slave and king will all alike face the coming judgment.  They cannot escape it, and they win any fight against it.

Yet, we know that not all men will be destroyed in the coming judgment.   There will be a remnant who will be saved.  How can that be if we realize we are all sinners under the curse of sin and death and in a place where we stand condemned by the Law?  What allows any of us to be saved?  David answers that question by saying that it is the grace of God alone which is able to save those whom He chooses.  He is righteous in His judgment to save some and He is righteous in His judgment to pour out the cup of His wrath on others.  The wicked will drink to the dregs of the bowls of the wrath of God in the last days. when there is total judgment against the wicked.

David knows this judgment is not reserved for him--that He is part of the redeemed remnant.  This drives him once again to give praise to the LORD for who He is and what He has done.  David wishes to be God's chosen instrument to bring righteousness and justice in the here and now.  We too desire this, but this is balanced against a desire fir those who are in darkness to see the light of God's salvation and for God to rescue those who were part of the kingdom of darkness to make them children of His marvelous light.  David finishes with his own version of "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."  Those who think they are something will be made to realize they are nothing, but to the one who humbles himself and gives all glory to God, the LORD will raise such a man up and highly exalt him in the time of judgment that is a time of rewards for the righteous.  The righteous need not fear the coming judgment that is reserved for the wicked.