Psalm 75 To the Chief Musician. Set to “Do Not Destroy.” a Psalm of Asaph. A Song.

 ¹We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks!

For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near.

²“When I choose the proper time,

I will judge uprightly.

³The earth and all its inhabitants are dissolved;

I set up its pillars firmly. Selah

⁴“I said to the boastful, ‘Do not deal boastfully,’

And to the wicked, ‘

Do not lift up the horn.

⁵Do not lift up your horn on high;

Do not speak with a stiff neck.’ ”

⁶For exaltation comes neither from the east

Nor from the west nor from the south.

⁷But God is the Judge: He puts down one,

And exalts another.

⁸For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup,

And the wine is red; It is fully mixed, and He pours it out;

Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth

Drain and drink down.

⁹But I will declare forever,

I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

¹⁰“All the horns of the wicked I will also cut off,

But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.”

Commentary

Vs. 1 “We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks!

For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near.”

Unlike Psalm 74, Psalm 75 is a Psalm of victory, of God triumphing over all His enemies. Therefore, as a worship leader Asaph now leads the congregation in giving all of their thanksgiving towards Him. For it is by His wonderous works that He has made His Name known, that He Himself has now drawn near!

Vs. 2 ²“When I choose the proper time,

I will judge uprightly.

³The earth and all its inhabitants are dissolved;

I set up its pillars firmly. Selah

God Himself now speaks to the people, promising us when He chooses the proper time, He will judge all the world, all nations, all people, with uprightness. As a consequence, no one is able to stand before Him. Even so He will establish its pillars firmly, which maybe indicating that in His Reign and Righteousness He will re-establish a very just and lawful society, all those institutions then that were corrupted by man will be reformed, better transformed, by Him.

Vs. 4-7 ⁴“I said to the boastful, ‘Do not deal boastfully,’

And to the wicked, ‘

Do not lift up the horn.

⁵Do not lift up your horn on high;

Do not speak with a stiff neck.’ ”

⁶For exaltation comes neither from the east

Nor from the west nor from the south.

⁷But God is the Judge: He puts down one,

And exalts another.

The boastful, the arrogant and self assured, the wicked are now all warned. For God now Reigns and He is now ready to repay all their boastful words swiftly. Therefore they are warned not to exalt themselves in their pride. nor speak with a stiff neck neck, that is unrepentantly. For their exaltation by their own hand or anyone else’s will now end. For God is the Judge and He puts down one and exalts another. His Sovereignty over the affairs of mankind then will be known by all!

Vs. 8 “For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup,

And the wine is red; It is fully mixed, and He pours it out;

Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth

Drain and drink down”

The warning continues, now declaring God’s coming judgment upon all the wicked on the earth. For in His hand is a cup that all the wicked of the earth will drink down, (consider Jer. 25:15). And so here the metaphor of a cup filled with red wine is to exemplify the fierceness of His wrath, even the dregs, all the undesirable sediments that fill the bottom of the cup, they will surely drink down! Thus there will be no portion or part of God's judgment that they will all be made to drink down!

Vs. 9-10 ⁹But I will declare forever,

I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

¹⁰“All the horns of the wicked I will also cut off,

But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.”

Here then we get a foretaste of the joy of the redeemed, on God's Day, of everyone who turned from their sins and turned to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, who thus were made and declared righteous by Him. And so there will joy and songs filling our hearts on the Lord’s Day, when all the strength of wicked is cut off, and when all the of righteous are exalted in strength by our God and Savior, amen.

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.