January 16
Reading: Psalm 75
To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.
1 We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks,
for your name is near.
We recount your wondrous deeds.
2 “At the set time that I appoint
I will judge with equity.
3 When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants,
it is I who keep steady its pillars.
Selah
4 I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’
and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn;
5 do not lift up your horn on high,
or speak with haughty neck.'”
6 For not from the east or from the west
and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,
7 but it is God who executes judgment,
putting down one and lifting up another.
8 For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup with foaming wine,
well mixed, and he pours out from it,
and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.
9 But I will declare it forever;
I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
10 All the horns of the wicked I will cut off,
but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.
Psalm 75 is another Psalm of Asaph. It is set according to “Do Not Destroy” which is a translation of the Hebrew “Al-tashheth,” a melody that is now lost to history.
This psalm begins with thanksgiving (vs. 1), continues with God speaking against the boastful (vss. 2-5), moves on to a description of the lifting up of the Lord’s cup of judgment (vss. 6-8), and concludes with praise to God who is just (vss. 9-10) Notice that, according to the final two verses, justice from God means the destruction of the wicked and the lifting up of the righteous. This is what justice means throughout the Bible. It is not the same thing as my idea of fairness, racial equity, or any political agenda. Justice means God vindicating those who trust in Him and punishing those who oppose Him.
The wondrous deeds that we thank God for in verse 1 are detailed in the rest of the psalm. God is being thanked and praised because He opposes the wicked and the boastful and He lifts up the righteous. God speaks against the arrogant in verses 2-5 and then His wrathful judgment is described in verses 6-8.
A vivid metaphor is employed: the foaming cup of God’s wrath. It pictures a cup of wine containing a terrible and deadly poison. This is the first place in the Bible where we find this metaphor for the Lord’s judgment in anger, but it is not the last. It begins a powerful Biblical theme.
You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory! Habakkuk 2:16
Thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.” Jeremiah 25:15-16
If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. Revelation 14:9
The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. Revelation 16:19
Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed. Revelation 18:6
The cup of the wine of God’s wrath is what the arrogant people who live according to this world must drink when the Lord comes in judgment.
Realize that this is the cup that the Lord chose to drink for you in your place on the Cross. According to Matthew 20:22, 26:39 and John 18:11, He thought of it in just these terms.