Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 75:6
For promotion [cometh] neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
6. According to one reading of the Heb. text we must render,
For neither from the east, nor from the west,
Nor yet from the wilderness, (cometh) lifting up.
The wilderness, to the S. of Palestine, stands for the south: and the sense is, Exalt not yourselves, for exaltation comes from no quarter of the compass, but from God. But it is better to follow a slightly different reading, which is that of all the Ancient Versions except the Targum, and render the second line, Nor yet from the wilderness of mountains, (cometh our help). The sentence is an aposiopesis, to be completed with words such as those of Psa 121:1-2. Israel looks not to any quarter of the compass for human help, but to God alone. The North is not mentioned because the Assyrians were approaching from that quarter.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
6 8. The reason for this warning. Israel looks to God alone for help, and He is the supreme arbiter of human destinies.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For promotion – The word used here in the original, and rendered promotion – hariym – is susceptible of two quite different significations. According to one – that which is adopted by our translators – it is the infinitive (Hiphil) of rum, to raise – the word used in Psa 75:5-6, and there rendered lift up. Thus it would mean, that to lift up is not the work of people, or is not originated by the earth – does not originate from any part of it, east, west, or south, but must come from God alone. According to the other view, this word is the plural of har, mountain, and would mean that something – (something understood – as judgment) – comes not from the east, nor the west, nor from the desert of mountains, the mountainous regions of the south, but must come from God. The Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, and the ancient versions generally, adopt the latter interpretation. De Wette renders it as our translators have done. This interpretation – rendering it promotions – seems to be the true one, for in the two previous verses this was the prominent idea – a caution against attempting to lift themselves up, or to exalt themselves, and in this and the following verse a reason is given for this caution, to wit, that the whole question about success or prosperity depends not on anything here below; not on any natural advantages of situation, or on any human skill or power; but on God alone. It was in vain, in regard to such an object, to form human alliances, or to depend on natural advantages; and therefore people should not depend on these things, but only on God.
Neither from the east – literally, from the outgoing; that is, of the sun. The meaning may either be that success would not depend on any natural advantages of country furnished in the East; or that the persons referred to were seeking to form alliances with an Eastern people, and then the statement would be that no such alliances would of themselves secure success.
Nor from the west – The setting; that is, the place where the sun goes down. This also may refer either to the natural advantages of a Western country, or to some alliance which it was intended to form with the people there.
Nor from the south – Margin, as in Hebrew, desert. The reference is to the rocky and barren regions south of Palestine, and the allusion here also may be either to some natural advantages of those regions, or to some alliance which it was proposed to form.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 75:6-7
God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another.
Getting on
It is not a trivial question, whether your life, my young friend, is to be a failure or a success. Everybody is going on. We are all getting through our little span of daylight. But some people are not only going on, they are getting on. Each vocation has its rising men. How is it that men get on? It is a very simple and primary notion, capable of reception only by the most unsophisticated mind, that the most deserving always get on best. Whatever be the law, it is not that. To gain any advantage or eminence, a man must have a certain amount of merit. I am obliged to say, as the result of all my observations of the way in which human beings get on, that they get on mainly by chance or luck, in a fashion that looks fortuitous. There must be merit in walks where men have to make their own way; but that a man may get on, he must be seconded by good luck. We know, of course, that there is a Higher Hand, and we humbly recognize that. I believe that these words of the psalmist give us the entire philosophy of getting on. It is a matter of Gods sovereignty; and Gods sovereignty, as it affects human beings, we speak of as their good or ill luck. Of course, there is really no chance in the matter. Everything is rightly arranged and governed. Still, nothing can be more certain than the fact that there are men who are what we call lucky, and other men who are unlucky. The unlucky, perhaps, need it all; and the lucky can stand it all; but there is the fact. And we know that there are blessed compensations, which may make the crook in the lot a true blessing. Life is a lottery. No doubt, there is no real chance in life; but then there is no real chance in any lottery. Honest industry and perseverance, also resolute selfishness, meanness, toadyism, and unscrupulousness, tend to various forms of worldly success. But you can draw no assurance from these general principles, as to what either may do for yourself. My text is not the resort of soured disappointment: it is the confession of humbled and shamed success. The worthier way of getting on is, when a man, by his doings and character, makes a position important, which in other hands would not be so. In treatises on the arts of self-advancement and self-help, there is a fallacy at the foundation of all their instructions. They all say, Do so and so, and you will get on. But they all fail to allow for chance or Providence. Let us always keep it in our remembrance that there is something far better than any amount of worldly success, which may come of worldly failure. A wise and good man in this world will not set his heart on getting on, and will not push very much to get on. He will do his best, and humbly take, with thankfulness, what the Hand above sends him. It is not worth while to push. Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. It is not worth while. Let us trust in God, and do right, and we shall get on as much as He thinks good for us. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 6. For promotion cometh neither from the east, c.] As if the Lord had said, speaking to the Babylonians, None of all the surrounding powers shall be able to help you none shall pluck you out of my hand. I am the Judge: I will pull you down, and set my afflicted people up, Ps 75:7.
Calmet has observed that the Babylonians had Media, Armenia, and Mesopotamia on the EAST; and thence came Darius the Mede: that it had Arabia, Phoenicia, and Egypt on the WEST; thence came Cyrus, who overthrew the empire of the Chaldeans. And by the mountains of the desert, midbar harim, which we translate SOUTH, Persia, may be meant; which government was established on the ruins of the Babylonish empire. No help came from any of those powers to the sinful Babylonians; they were obliged to drink the cup of the red wine of God’s judgment, even to the very dregs. They were to receive no other punishment; this one was to annihilate them as a people for ever.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For though you envy and oppose my advancement, because I was but a poor shepherd, and of a mean family; yet you ought to know and consider what is notorious and visible in the world, that the dignities and sceptres of the world are not always disposed according to human expectations and probabilities, but by Gods sovereign will and providence, as it follows. It is true, men that expect preferment have their eyes fixed upon the great persons of the world, who are thought to have the disposition of them in their hands, and according to their several inclinations or interests; some look eastward, others westward, and others southward, expecting assistance from some of these quarters; but all in vain.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. promotionliterally, “alifting up.” God is the only right judge of merit.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. It is not from men, from themselves, or others, or from any quarter under the heavens, but from God; it is he that raises men to high places, and sets them there, which are often slippery ones: by him kings reign; they have their crowns and sceptres, thrones and kingdoms from him; there is no power but what is of God; riches and honour come of him, and he can take them away when he pleases; and therefore men should not be proud, haughty, and arrogant: some take these words to be the words of the fools and wicked, when they speak with a stiff neck, either as triumphing over the Messiah, his ministers, cause, and interest, reading the words thus, “neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south, shall there be a lifting up” s, or an exaltation; that is, of Christ and his people, they are low, and shall never rise more; but in this they are mistaken; though now the Son of God is trampled under foot in his person and offices, there is a day coming when the Lord, and he alone, shall be exalted; though his ministers and witnesses prophesy in sackcloth, and shall be slain and lie unburied, yet they will arise again and ascend to heaven, to the great terror and astonishment of those their enemies; though Jacob is small, and it is said, by whom shall he arise? yet he shall become, great and numerous; the mountain of the Lord’s house, the church, shall be established upon the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills; and this enlargement of Christ’s kingdom and interest shall be east, west, north, and south; or else as flattering themselves that no evil shall come to them from any quarter: “neither from the east, nor from the west, nor, from the desert of the mountains” t, cometh evil; meaning to themselves, looking upon themselves as secure, and putting the evil day far from them: but there will be an awful and righteous judgment; there is a Judge ordained, a day appointed, in which the world will be judged in righteousness, and destruction and ruin will come upon the ungodly, and at a time when they are crying Peace, peace; nor shall they escape; and so the Syriac version renders the words, “for there is no escape from the west, nor from the desert of the mountains”; taking the word , not to signify “promotion, elevation”, or “a lifting up”, as Kimchi and others, whom we follow: but Moatanus and R. Aba observe that the word always signifies “mountains” but in this place: the Targum is,
“for there is none besides me from the east to the west, nor from the north of the wildernesses, and from the south, the place of the mountains;”
no Messiah to be expected from any quarter; see Mt 24:23, no God besides him, nor any other Saviour, Isa 44:6 nor any other Judge, as follows.
s “exaltatio”, Tigurine version, Junius Tremellius, Piscator. t “Neque a desertis montibus”, V. L. “neque a deserto montium”, Cocceius “neque a deserto Australi montium”, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The church here takes up the words of God, again beginning with the of Psa 75:3 (cf. the in 1Sa 2:3). A passage of the Midrash says (everywhere where harim is found in Scripture it signifies harim , mountains, with the exception of this passage), and accordingly it is explained by Rashi, Kimchi, Alshch, and others, that man, whithersoever he may turn, cannot by strength and skill attain great exaltation and prosperity.
(Note: E.g., Bamidbar Rabba ch. xxii.; whereas according to Bereshth Rabba ch. lii. is equivalent to .)
Thus it is according to the reading , although Kimchi maintains that it can also be so explained with the reading , by pointing to (Isa 10:6) and the like. It is, however, difficult to see why, in order to express the idea “from anywhere,” three quarters of the heavens should be used and the north left out. These three quarters of the heavens which are said to represent the earthly sources of power (Hupfeld), are a frame without the picture, and the thought, “from no side (viz., of the earth) cometh promotion” – in itself whimsical in expression – offers a wrong confirmation for the dissuasive that has gone before. That, however, which the church longs for is first of all not promotion, but redemption. On the other hand, the lxx, Targum, Syriac, and Vulgate render: a deserto montium (desertis montibus) ; and even Aben-Ezra rightly takes it as a Palestinian designation of the south, when he supplements the aposiopesis by means of (more biblically , cf. Psa 121:1.). The fact that the north is not mentioned at all shows that it is a northern power which arrogantly, even to blasphemy, threatens the small Israelitish nation with destruction, and against which it looks for help neither from the east and west, nor from the reed-staff of Egypt (Isa 36:6) beyond the desert of the mountains of Arabia Petraea, but from Jahve alone, according to the watchword of Isaiah: (Isa 33:22). The negative thought is left unfinished, the discourse hurrying on to the opposite affirmative thought. The close connection of the two thoughts is strikingly expressed by the rhymes and . The of Psa 75:8 gives the confirmation of the negation from the opposite, that which is denied; the of Psa 75:9 confirms this confirmation. If it were to be rendered, “and the wine foams,” it would then have been ; , which is undoubtedly accusative, also shows that yayin is also not considered as anything else: and it (the cup) foams ( like Arab. ‘chtmr , to ferment, effervesce) with wine, is full of mixture. According to the ancient usage of the language, which is also followed by the Arabic, this is wine mixed with water in distinction from merum , Arabic chamr memzug’e . Wine was mixed with water not merely to dilute it, but also to make it more pleasant; hence signifies directly as much as to pour out (vid., Hitzig on Isa 5:22). It is therefore unnecessary to understand spiced wine (Talmudic , conditum ), since the collateral idea of weakening is also not necessarily associated with the admixture of water. refers to , which is used as masculine, as in Jer 25:15; the word is feminine elsewhere, and changes its gender even here in (cf. Eze 23:34). In the fut. consec. the historical signification of the consecutive is softened down, as is frequently the case. affirms the whole assertion that follows. The dregs of the cup – a dira necessitas – all the wicked of the earth shall be compelled to sip (Isa 51:17), to drink out: they shall not be allowed to drink and make a pause, but, compelled by Jahve, who has appeared as Judge, they shall be obliged to drink it out with involuntary eagerness even to the very last (Eze 23:34). We have here the primary passage of a figure, which has been already hinted at in Psa 60:5, and is filled in on a more and more magnificent and terrible scale in the prophets. Whilst Obadiah (Oba 1:16, cf. Job 21:20) contents himself with a mere outline sketch, it is found again, in manifold applications, in Isaiah, Habakkuk, and Ezekiel, and most frequently in Jeremiah (Jer 25:27., Jer 48:26; Jer 49:12), where in Psa 25:15. it is embodied into a symbolical act. Jahve’s cup of intoxication (inasmuch as and , the burning of anger and intoxicating, fiery wine, are put on an equality) is the judgment of wrath which is meted out to sinners and given them to endure to the end.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| God’s Government of the World. | |
6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. 7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another. 8 For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them. 9 But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. 10 All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.
In these verses we have two great doctrines laid down and two good inferences drawn from them, for the confirmation of what he had before said.
I. Here are two great truths laid down concerning God’s government of the world, which we ought to mix faith with, both pertinent to the occasion:–
1. That from God alone kings receive their power (Psa 75:6; Psa 75:7), and therefore to God alone David would give the praise of his advancement; having his power from God he would use it for him, and therefore those were fools that lifted up the horn against him. We see strange revolutions in states and kingdoms, and are surprised at the sudden disgrace of some and elevation of others; we are all full of such changes, when they happen; but here we are directed to look at the author of them, and are taught where the original of power is, and whence promotion comes. Whence comes preferment to kingdoms, to the sovereignty of them? And whence come preferments in kingdoms, to places of power and trust in them? The former depends not upon the will of the people, nor the latter on the will of the prince, but both on the will of God, who has all hearts in his hands; to him therefore those must look who are in pursuit of preferment, and then they begin aright. We are here told, (1.) Negatively, which way we are not to look for the fountain of power: Promotion comes not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert, that is, neither from the desert on the north of Jerusalem nor from that on the south; so that the fair gale of preferment is not to be expected to blow from any point of the compass, but only from above, directly thence. Men cannot gain promotion either by the wisdom or wealth of the children of the east, nor by the numerous forces of the isles of the Gentiles, that lay westward, nor those of Egypt or Arabia, that lay south; no concurring smiles of second causes will raise men to preferment without the first cause. The learned bishop Lloyd (Serm. in loc.) gives this gloss upon it: “All men took the original of power to be from heaven, but from whom there many knew not; the eastern nations, who were generally given to astrology, took it to come from their stars, especially the sun, their god. No, says David, it comes neither from the east nor from the west, neither from the rising nor from the setting of such a planet, or such a constellation, nor from the south, nor from the exaltation of the sun or any star in the mid-heaven.” He mentions not the north, because none supposed it to come thence; or because the same word that signifies the north signifies the secret place, and from the secret of God’s counsel it does come, or from the oracle in Zion, which lay on the north side of Jerusalem. Note, No wind is so good as to blow promotion, but as he directs who has the winds in his fists. (2.) Positively: God is the judge, the governor or umpire. When parties contend for the prize, he puts down one and sets up another as he sees fit, so as to serve his own purposes and bring to pass his own counsels. Herein he acts by prerogative, and is not accountable to us for any of these matters; nor is it any damage, danger, or disgrace that he, who is infinitely wise, holy, and good, has an arbitrary and despotic power to set up and put down whom, and when, and how he pleases. This is a good reason why magistrates should rule for God as those that must give account to him, because it is by him that kings reign.
2. That from God alone all must receive their doom (v. 8): In the hand of the Lord there is a cup, which he puts into the hands of the children of men, a cup of providence, mixed up (as he thinks fit) of many ingredients, a cup of affliction. The sufferings of Christ are called a cup,Mat 20:22; Joh 18:11. The judgments of God upon sinners are the cup of the Lord’s right hand, Hab. ii. 16. The wine is red, denoting the wrath of God, which is infused into the judgments executed on sinners, and is the wormwood and the gall in the affliction and the misery. It is read as fire, red as blood, for it burns, it kills. It is full of mixture, prepared in wisdom, so as to answer the end. There are mixtures of mercy and grace in the cup of affliction when it is put into the hands of God’s own people, mixtures of the curse when it is put into the hands of the wicked; it is wine mingled with gall. These vials, (1.) Are poured out upon all; see Rev 15:7; Rev 16:1; where we read of the angels pouring out the vials of God’s wrath upon the earth. Some drops of this wrath may light on good people; when God’s judgments are abroad, they have their share in common calamities; but, (2.) The dregs of the cup are reserved for the wicked. The calamity itself is but the vehicle into which the wrath and curse is infused, the top of which has little of the infusion; but the sediment is pure wrath, and that shall fall to the share of sinners; they have the dregs of the cup now in the terrors of conscience, and hereafter in the torments of hell. They shall wring them out, that not a drop of the wrath may be left behind, and they shall drink them, for the curse shall enter into their bowels like water and like oil into their bones. The cup of the Lord’s indignation will be to them a cup of trembling, everlasting trembling, Rev. xiv. 10. The wicked man’s cup, while he prospers in the world, is full of mixture, but the worst is at the bottom. The wicked are reserved unto the day of judgment.
II. Here are two good practical inferences drawn from these great truths, and they are the same purposes of duty that he began the psalm with. This being so, 1. He will praise God, and give him glory, for the power to which he has advanced him (v. 9): I will declare for ever that which thy wondrous works declare, v. 1. He will praise God for his elevation, not only at first, while the mercy was fresh, but for ever, so long as he lives. The exaltation of the Son of David will be the subject of the saints’ everlasting praises. He will give glory to God, not only as his God, but as the God of Jacob, knowing it was for Jacob his servant’s sake, and because he loved his people Israel, that he made him king over them. 2. He will use the power with which he is entrusted for the great ends for which it was put into his hands, v. 10, as before, Psa 75:2; Psa 75:4. According to the duty of the higher powers, (1.) He resolves to be a terror to evildoers, to humble their pride and break their power: “Though not all the heads, yet all the horns, of the wicked will I cut off, with which they push their poor neighbours; I will disable them to do mischief.” Thus God promises to raise up carpenters who should fray the horns of the Gentiles that had scattered Judah and Israel, Zech. i. 18-21. (2.) He resolves to be a protection and praise to those that do well: The horns of the righteous shall be exalted; they shall be preferred and be put into places of power; and those that are good, and have hearts to do good, shall not want ability and opportunity for it. This agrees with David’s resolutions, Ps. ci. 3, &c. Herein David was a type of Christ, who with the breath of his mouth shall slay the wicked, but shall exalt with honour the horn of the righteous, Ps. cxii. 9.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
6. For exaltations come neither from the east nor from the west. (258) The prophet here furnishes an admirable remedy for correcting pride, when he teaches us that promotion or advancement proceeds not from the earth but from God alone. That which most frequently blinds the eyes of men is, their gazing about on the right hand and on the left, and their gathering together from all quarters riches and other resources, that, strengthened with these, they may be able to gratify their desires and lusts. The prophet, therefore, affirms, that in not rising above the world, they are laboring under a great mistake, since it is God alone who has the power to exalt and to abase. “This,” it may be said, “seems to be at variance with common experience, it being the fact, that the majority of men who attain to the highest degrees of honor, owe their elevation either to their own policy and underhand dealing, or to popular favor and partiality, or to other means of an earthly kind. What is brought forward as the reason of this assertion, God is judge, seems also to be unsatisfactory.” I answer, that although many attain to exalted stations either by unlawful arts, or by the aid of worldly instrumentality, yet that does not happen by chance; such persons being advanced to their elevated position by the secret purpose of God, that forthwith he may scatter them like refuse or chaff. The prophet does not simply attribute judgment to God. He also defines what kind of judgment it is, affirming it to consist in this, that, casting down one man and elevating another to dignity, he orders the affairs of the human race as seemeth good in his sight. I have stated that the consideration of this is the means by which haughty spirits are most effectually humbled; for the reason why worldly men have the daring to attempt whatever comes into their minds is, because they conceive of God as shut up in heaven, and think not that they are kept under restraint by his secret providence. In short, they would divest him of all sovereign power, that they might find a free and an unimpeded course for the gratification of their lusts. To teach us then, with all moderation and humility, to remain contented with our own condition, the Psalmist clearly defines in what the judgment of God, or the order which he observes in the government of the world, consists, telling us that it belongs to him alone to exalt or to abase those of mankind whom he pleases.
From this it follows that all those who, spreading the wings of their vanity, aspire after any kind of exaltation, without any regard to or dependence upon God, are chargeable with robbing him as much as in them lies of his prerogative and power. This is very apparent, not only from their frantic counsels, but also from the blasphemous boastings in which they indulge, saying, Who shall hinder me? What shall withstand me? as if, forsooth! it were not an easy matter for God, with his nod alone, suddenly to cast a thousand obstacles in their way, with which to render ineffectual all their efforts. As worldly men by their fool-hardihood and perverse devices are chargeable with endeavoring to despoil God of his royal dignity, so whenever we are dismayed at their threatenings, we are guilty of wickedly setting limits to the sovereignty and power of God. If, whenever we hear the wind blowing with any degree of violence, (259) we are as much frightened as if we were stricken with a thunderbolt from heaven, such extreme readiness to be thrown into a state of consternation manifestly shows that we do not as yet thoroughly understand the nature of that government which God exercises over the world. We would, no doubt, be ashamed to rob him of the title of judge; yea, there is almost no individual who would not shrink with horror at the thought of so great a blasphemy; and yet, when our natural understanding has extorted from us the confession that he is the judge and the supreme ruler of the world, we conceive of him as holding only a kind of inactive sovereignty, which I know not how to characterise, as if he did not govern mankind by his power and wisdom. But the man who believes it to be an established principle that God disposes of all men as seemeth good in his sight, and shapes to every man his condition in this world, will not stop at earthly means: he will look above and beyond these to God. The improvement which should be made of this doctrine is, that the godly should submit themselves wholly to God, and beware of being lifted up with vain confidence. When they see the impious waxing proud, let them not hesitate to despise their foolish and infatuated presumption. Again, although God has in his own hand sovereign power and authority, so that he can do whatever he pleases, yet he, is styled judge, to teach us that he governs the affairs of mankind with the most perfect equity. Whence it follows, that every man who abstains from inflicting injuries and committing deeds of mischief, may, when he is injured and treated unjustly, betake himself to the judgment-seat of God.
(258) “ For promotion, etc. The meaning is, the fortunes of men are not governed by planetary influences, but by God’s overruling Providence. The Eastern nations of the world always were, and are at this day, much addicted to judicial astrology.” — Warner.
(259) “ Si tost que nous oyons le vent de quelque esmotion.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) For promotion . . .The Authorised Version has here rightly set aside the pointing of the text, which, as the LXX. and Vulg., reads
For not from the east, nor from the west,
Nor from the wilderness of mountains,
a sentence which has no conclusion. The recurrence also of parts of the verb to lift up in Psa. 75:4-5; Psa. 75:7, makes in favour of taking harm as part of the same verb here, instead of as a noun, mountains. That the word midbar (wilderness) might be used for south, receives support from Act. 8:26.
Ewald thinks the four points of the compass should be completed by inserting a conjunction, and taking the desert and mountains to represent respectively the south and north. He then supplies the conclusion of the sentence from the following verse:
For neither from east nor west,
Neither from desert nor mountains,
Cometh judgment; but God is Judge.
This agrees with 1Sa. 2:10; but it is hardly needful to expect such scientific accuracy as to the points of the compass in Hebrew poetry.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. For promotion Same word as “lift,” in Psa 75:4-5. He warns his enemy not to “lift” up himself in pride and scorn, for the true lifting up, or “promotion,” is from God only. Psa 75:7.
East west south An enumeration, not of the cardinal points of the compass, but of those quarters from whence the contest for supremacy among the nations arose, so far as the Hebrews were affected by it, namely, the Assyrians and Babylonians on the “east;” the Egyptians on the “west,” or southwest as to southern Palestine or the kingdom of Judah, and the Arabians and Ethiopians on the “south.” All these powers had been more or less called into activity by the invasion of Sennacherib, and from time to time warred against Israel.
The south The Hebrew word is wilderness, but is a designation of Arabia.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 75:6. For promotion, &c. For exaltation is not from the east nor west, nor from the wilderness; Psa 75:7 but God is judge: he humbleth one, and exalteth another. Mudge. Dr. Delaney thinks, that this refers to the situation of the tabernacle in the marches of the Israelites; when three of the tribes were to the east of it, three to the west, three to the north, and three to the south. And he apprehends that the prophet’s design is, to inform them, that their exaltation proceeded neither from the people, nor from their own merits, but from God, the center and source of power; and therefore they should be humbled in his presence. Houbigant, after the Syriac, gives the passage a very different turn, and, supposing it addressed to the impious men spoken of above, he renders it, For neither will there be any means of escape from the west, or the desart of mountains. See his note.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 75:6 For promotion [cometh] neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
Ver. 6. For promotion cometh neither from the east ] Dignitatis nullum est emporium. Ambitionists used to look this way and that way how to advance themselves, but all in vain. Hispanis monarchia Catholica debetur divinitus, sed in Utopia, saith one.
Nor from the south
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 75:6-8
6For not from the east, nor from the west,
Nor from the desert comes exaltation;
7But God is the Judge;
He puts down one and exalts another.
8For a cup is in the hand of the Lord, and the wine foams;
It is well mixed, and He pours out of this;
Surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs.
Psa 75:6-8 This strophe reflects the universal presence of YHWH, much like Psalms 139 does, but here the context focuses on His judgment of the wicked (cf. Psa 75:4-5).
Often the wicked seem to have the upper hand but God will set things straight (cf. Psa 146:7; 1Sa 2:7; Romans 9; Jas 4:10). This divine action will be a reversal of expectations.
Psa 75:6 This verse is using Palestinian/Canaanite imagery to assert universality.
1. east – west
2. sunrise – sunset
3. desert (south) – mountains (or uplifting) which would denote the north
Psa 75:8 a cup This is usually an idiom for human destiny and it is usually negative (cf. Isa 51:17; Isa 51:22; Jer 25:15-16; Jer 25:27-28). See full note at Psa 11:6.
It is well mixed This refers to the ancient method of mixing different types of fermented fruits and grains to form more intoxicating drinks. See Special Topic: Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse .
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
south. Therefore it comes from the north. The immediate place of God’s throne, to which Satan aspires. Compare Isa 14:12-14. See Job 26:7. This is where promotion comes from.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
south: Heb. desert
Reciprocal: Num 22:37 – General 2Ki 9:3 – I have anointed 2Ki 9:6 – I have anointed 1Ch 29:12 – riches Est 2:17 – so that he set Psa 78:71 – brought Psa 113:7 – raiseth Isa 22:19 – General Eze 17:24 – have brought Eze 31:9 – made Dan 2:21 – he removeth Dan 4:17 – giveth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 75:6-7. For promotion cometh not, &c. Though you envy and oppose my advancement, because I was but a poor shepherd, and of a mean family; yet you ought to know and consider what is notorious and visible in the world, that the dignities and sceptres of the earth are not always conferred according to human expectations and probabilities, but by Gods sovereign will and providence, as it follows. But God is judge Namely, the righteous Judge, and supreme Lord and Governor of all the kingdoms of the earth; giving them to whomsoever he pleaseth. He putteth down one and setteth up another It is he who hath rejected Saul and his family, and put me in his stead: and who art thou that disputest against God, and resistest his declared will?