Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 75:1
To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, A Psalm [or] Song of Asaph. Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, [unto thee] do we give thanks: for [that] thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.
1. The theme of the Psalm: thanksgiving for the recent manifestation of God’s presence and power among His people.
for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare ] The A.V., retained in R.V. marg., gives a good sense, but such a personification of God’s wondrous works is without analogy, and elsewhere ‘wondrous works’ is always the object to ‘declare’ or similar verbs. Hence it is better to render with R.V.:
We give thanks unto thee, O God;
We give thanks, for thy name is near:
Men tell of thy wondrous works.
God’s ‘Name’ is the compendious expression for His Being as it is revealed to men. Cp. the striking parallel in Isaiah’s prediction of the coming judgement on the Assyrians (Isa 30:27 ff.), a passage which should be carefully studied in connexion with this Psalm, “Behold the name of Jehovah cometh from far.” Though God is always ‘near’ (Deu 4:7), yet in an especial sense He is ‘near’ when He manifests His presence (Psa 34:18; Psa 145:18). men tell &c.] God’s miracles of deliverance (Psa 9:1; Psa 71:17, note) are in every one’s mouth.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks – We, the people; language which would be appropriate to public thanksgiving – showing that the psalm was designed for public use. The reasons for this public thanksgiving are stated in the subsequent part of the psalm.
Do we give thanks – The repetition is emphatic. The idea is, that the occasion was one for special thanksgiving.
For that thy name is near – literally, and near is thy name. The word name is often used to designate the person himself; and the idea here is, that God was near; that he had manifested himself to them in some special manner, and that for this there was occasion of praise. Compare Jer 23:23.
Thy wondrous works declare – Or, They declare thy wondrous works. The Septuagint renders it, I will declare all thy wondrous works. The Latin Vulgate, We will declare thy wonders. Luther, We will declare thy wonders, that thy name is so near. Prof. Alexander, They recount thy wonders. The meaning seems to be, They, that is, the people, declare thy wondrous works. Thy marvelous doings constitute the foundation for praise – for the praise now offered.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 75:1-10
For that Thy name is near Thy wondrous works declare.
Gods nearness to the world
I. He is near as the sustainer of a dissolving system (Psa 75:3). The force of disintegration operates every moment, not only in organized matter, but even in what we call simple substances, if, indeed, such things exist. The mountains falling come to nought. Every plant in the great system of vegetation is dissolving; and the great world of animal life, from the tiniest insect to the hugest monster of the forest or the sea, is ever in the process of dissolution. What prevents the whole universe tumbling to pieces, flying off part from part, particle from particle as a log of wood in the flames? No force short of God. The same principle of disintegration is at work in human society. Families, societies, Churches, nations, are dissolving; kingdoms are constantly breaking into pieces. God alone keeps things together, bears up the pillars of a dissolving universe. He upholds all things by the word of His power.
II. He is near as the rebuker of human wickedness (Psa 75:4-5).
1. Three phases of wickedness are here indicated:—
(1) Folly–Deal not foolishly. Sin is folly. It is against the reason, the interests, the dignity and blessedness of existence. He that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul.
(2) Haughtiness–Lift not up the horn. Pride and arrogance enter into the very essence of wickedness. God resisteth the proud, etc.
(3) Recklessness–Speak not with a stiff neck. Bold, shameless, obstinate disregard to the claims of God and all the moral proprieties.
2. God is present in the world, reproving all the wickedness with the voice of Providence, by the admonitions of conscience, by the ministry of His Word and the stricings of Ills Spirit.
III. He is near as the sovereign disposer of all social changes. For promotion cometh neither from the east, etc. But God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another (1Sa 2:7). He is in the rise and in the fall, not only of empires, but individual men. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, etc.
IV. He is near–administering to all men dispensations from a common source (Psa 75:8). What is that cup? Infinite benevolence; and from this cup He poureth out of the same, great natural blessings. God is good, and His tender mercies are over all the works of His hand.
1. The cup is a mixed cup. Full of mixture. What an infinite variety of blessings are in this cup, this cup of level Something from it falls fresh upon every being every hour.
2. The contents of this cup have a different effect upon different characters. To the righteous it is a pleasant cup. Its blooming, sparkling mixture is delicious and inspiring. Not so to the wicked; what is delicious and sustaining to the good is distasteful and pernicious to the evil. Moral character changes subjectively the very nature of things.
V. He is near to destroy the power of the wicked and to augment the power of the righteous (Psa 75:10). Matthew Arnold has somewhere described God as a stream of tendency that maketh for righteousness. His meaning, I presume, is that the whole procedure of God in the moral world tends to put down the wrong and to raise and glorify the right. (Homilist.)
The nearness of God
God is near–
I. To observe our sins (Job 24:14-15; Psa 139:2-4; Gen 3:9-24; Gen 19:24-28; Jos 7:24-26; Act 5:1-10).
II. To notice our desires after him (Jer 31:18-20; Luk 15:20).
III. To pardon, sanctify, and justify (Isa 50:7-9).
IV. To answer our prayers (Psa 145:18-19; Isa 65:24).
V. To relieve our wants (Psa 34:10; Psa 84:11; Hab 3:17-18).
VI. To succour us in distress (Psa 34:19; Isa 49:10). VII. To save us from danger (Dan 3:27). Job; Peter. From this subject we may derive warning to sinners, an encouragement to the penitent; comfort to believers. (R. Simpson, M. A.)
Gods works declare Him
When that great artist, Dore, was once travelling in Southern Europe, he lost his passport. When he came to the boundary line where he needed to produce it, the official challenged him. Said he, I have lost my passport; but it is all right–I am Dore the artist. Please let me go on. Oh, no, said the officer; we have plenty of people representing themselves as this or that great one. After some conversation the man said, Well, I want you to prove it. Hero is a pencil and some paper. Now, if you are the artist, draw me a picture. Dore took the pencil, and with a few master strokes sketched some of the features of the neighbourhood. Said the man, Now I am perfectly sure of it. You are Dore; no other man could do that. Thus all the works of creation their great Original proclaim, that Thy name is near Thy wondrous works declare.
God revealed in nature
A legend has it that a prophet appealed to God for a sign such as had been granted to other prophets. In response a tuft of moss opened before the man, and from the rock beneath rose a lovely violet. As he looked admiringly on the opening leaves he had no need to ask for signs and wonders, for as he was leaving home his little daughter had given him a violet precisely like the one created before his eyes. We need not ask to see a new star flashing gorgeous lights on the darkness of a wintry night, or oaks to spring in a moment from acorns, as demonstrations of a Divine presence. God is as truly revealed in a little flower as in the most stupendous miracle that could amaze and overwhelm the mind; Archdeacon Farrar tells about a boy who took a flower with him to his work every morning. He put the flower on his desk in the schoolroom, and when asked why he did this, replied that the flower was to remind him of God and keep him from evil thoughts. (The Signal.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM LXXV
The psalmist praises God for present mercies, 1;
the Lord answers, and promises to judge the people righteously,
2, 3;
rebukes the proud and haughty, 4, 5;
shows that all authority comes from himself, 4-7;
that he will punish the wicked, 8;
the psalmist resolves to praise God, 9;
and the Most High promises to cast down the wicked, and raise
up the righteous, 9, 10.
NOTES ON PSALM LXXV
The title is, “To the chief Musician, or conqueror, Al-taschith, destroy not, A Psalm or Song of Asaph.” See this title Al-taschith explained Ps 57:1. The Chaldee supposes that this Psalm was composed at the time of the pestilence, when David prayed the Lord not to destroy the people. Some of the Jews suppose that Al-taschith is the beginning of a Psalm, to the air of which this Psalm was to be set and sung. The Psalm seems to have been composed during the captivity; and appears to be a continuation of the subject in the preceding.
Verse 1. Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks] Thou canst not forget thy people. The numerous manifestations of thy providence and mercy show that thou art not far off, but near: this
Thy wondrous works declare.] These words would make a proper conclusion to the preceding Psalm, which seems to end very abruptly. The second verse is the commencement of the Divine answer to the prayer of Asaph.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Of Asaph; as the author. Or, to or for Asaph; which may be put by way of opposition to the foregoing and general expression,
to the chief Musician, which is here limited to and explained of Asaph. As Psa 62:1, having said to the chief Musician, he adds to Jeduthun; and then follows the author, David. This Psalm was either composed by David, or by Asaph in Davids name and person, as it is not unusual for poets to bring in princes speaking in their poems. It seems to relate to the time when David had entered upon, but not got full possession of, the kingdom.
Do we give thanks; I, in my own and in my peoples name.
Thy name, i.e. thyself; or thy power. Is near; is present with us, and most ready to help us when we cry unto thee, as this phrase is taken, Psa 34:18; 145:18. Thou art not departed from us; thou dost not now stand afar off, as once thou didst, Psa 10:1.
Thy wondrous works, wrought on my behalf, and for the good of thy people.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. God’s name or perfections areset forth by His wondrous works.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks,…. Either David and his men, when he was delivered from Saul, and raised to the kingdom, or the Jews upon their return from the Babylonish captivity; or rather the churches of Christ under the Gospel dispensation, for the coming of Christ and the blessings of grace through him, and in the view of the sure and certain destruction of antichrist and all the wicked of the earth; yea, Christ himself may be considered as at the head of his people, joining with them in thanksgiving, to whom this action is sometimes ascribed, Mt 11:25 and the rather since he is continued all along speaking to the end of the psalm:
unto thee do we give thanks; which is repeated to show the constancy, fervency, and sincerity with which this was performed: it may be rendered, “unto thee do we confess” l; sins committed against God, unworthiness to receive favours from him, and his grace and goodness in bestowing them:
for that thy name is near; or rather, “for thy name is near” m; and so the words are a reason of the above thanksgiving; for they belong not so much to what follows after as to what goes before, since the accent “athnach” is upon , “thy name”; and are to be understood of God himself, for his name is himself; who is near to his people, both in relation, being their Father, and as to presence, communion, and fellowship, which are matter of praise and thanksgiving; or his works and word, by which he is known and made manifest; his works which are throughout the earth, and so near at hand, and his word which is nigh, being in the mouths and in the hearts of his people; or rather his Son, in whom his name is, his nature and divine perfections: he was at a distance in promise and prophecy, and only seen afar off; after the Babylonish captivity, at which time some think this psalm was written, he was near; the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, speak of him as just coming; and when he was made flesh, and dwelt among men, he was near indeed, so as to be found of them, seen, heard, and handled by them; on which account there was and is reason to give thanks to God:
thy wondrous works declare; meaning either the miracles of Christ, which were proofs and evidences of his being come, and of his being the true Messiah; see Mt 11:3 or the wonderful works done by him, which to do were the principal end of his coming; as the work of righteousness, the business of reconciliation, and in general the affair of redemption and salvation; all which were amazing instances of his power, grace, and goodness, and which are declared in the everlasting Gospel by the ministers of it; for the words, I think, may be better rendered, “they declare thy wondrous works” n, or impersonally, “thy wondrous works are declared”.
k “ipsi Asaph”, Pagninus, Montanus; “Asapho”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator. l “confessi sumus”, Montanus “confitemur”, Cocceius, Michaelis. m “nam propiuquum”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator. n “narrant mirabilia tua”, Montanus “enarrant”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The church in anticipation gives thanks for the judicial revelation of its God, the near approach of which He Himself asserts to it. The connection with in presents a difficulty. Neither here nor anywhere else is it to be supposed that is synonymous with ; but at any rate even might stand instead of it. For Hupfeld’s attempt to explain it: and “near is Thy name” Thy wonders have declared; and Hitzig’s: and Thou whose Name is near, they declare Thy wondrous works – are past remedy. Such a personification of wonders does not belong to the spirit of Hebrew poetry, and such a relative clause lies altogether beyond the bounds of syntax. If we would, however, take , after Psa 50:23, as a result of the thanksgiving (Campensis), then that for which thanks are rendered would remain undefined; neither will it do to take as referring to the being inwardly present (Hengstenberg), since this, according to Jer 12:2 (cf. Deu 30:14), would require some addition, which should give to the nearness this reference to the mouth or to the heart. Thus, therefore, nothing remains for us but to connect the nearness of the Name of God as an outward fact with the earnest giving of thanks. The church has received the promise of an approaching judicial, redemptive revelation of God, and now says, “We give Thee thanks, we give thanks and near is Thy Name;” it welcomes the future act of God with heartfelt thanksgiving, all those who belong to it declare beforehand the wonders of God. Such was really the position of matters when in Hezekiah’s time the oppression of the Assyrians had reached its highest point – Isaiah’s promises of a miraculous divine deliverance were at that time before them, and the believing ones saluted beforehand, with thanksgiving, the “coming Name of Jahve” (Isa 30:27). The which was to be expected after (cf. e.g., Psa 100:4.) does not follow until Psa 75:3. God Himself undertakes the confirmation of the forthcoming thanksgiving and praise by a direct announcement of the help that is hailed and near at hand (Psa 85:10). It is not to be rendered, “when I shall seize,” etc., for Psa 75:3 has not the structure of an apodosis. is confirmatory, and whatever interpretation we may give to it, the words of the church suddenly change into the words of God. in the language of prophecy, more especially of the apocalyptic character, is a standing expression fore the appointed time of the final judgment (vid., on Hab 2:3). When this moment or juncture in the lapse of time shall have arrived, then God will seize or take possession of it ( in the unweakened original sense of taking hold of with energy, cf. Psa 18:17; Gen 2:15): He Himself will then interpose and hold judgment according to the strictly observed rule of right ( , adverbial accusative, cf. , Psa 9:9, and frequently). If it even should come to pass that the earth and all its inhabitants are melting away (cf. Isa 14:31; Exo 15:15; Jos 2:9), i.e., under the pressure of injustice (as is to be inferred from Psa 75:3), are disheartened, scattered asunder, and are as it were in the act of dissolution, then He (the absolute I, ) will restrain this melting away: He setteth in their places the pillars, i.e., the internal shafts (Job 9:6), of the earth, or without any figure: He again asserts the laws which lie at the foundation of its stability. is a mood of certainty, and Psa 75:4 is a circumstantial clause placed first, after the manner of the Latin ablative absolute. Hitzig appropriately compares Pro 29:9; Isa 23:15 may also be understood according to this bearing of the case.
The utterance of God is also continued after the Sela. It is not the people of God who turn to the enemies with the language of warning on the ground of the divine promise (Hengstenberg); the poet would then have said , or must at least have said . God Himself speaks, and His words are not yet peremptorily condemning, as in Psa 50:16., cf. Psa 46:11, but admonitory and threatening, because it is not He who has already appeared for the final judgment who speaks, but He who announces His appearing. With He tells the braggarts who are captivated with the madness of supposed greatness, and the evil-doers who lift up the horn or the head,
(Note: The head is called in Sanscrit iras, in Zend aranh, = ; the horn in Sanscrit, ringa, i.e., (according to Burnlouf, Etudes, p. 19) that which proceeds from and projects out of the head ( iras), Zend rva = , ( karn ).)
hat He will have once for all said to them, and what they are to suffer to be said to them for the short space of time till the judgment. The poet, if we have assigned the right date to the Psalm, has Rabshakeh and his colleagues before his mind, cf. Isa 37:23. The , as in that passage, and like in Zec 2:4 (vid., Khler), has the idea of a hostile tendency. rules also over Psa 75:6: “speak not insolence with a raised neck.” It is not to be construed , with a stiff neck. Parallel passages like Psa 31:19; Psa 94:4, and more especially the primary passage 1Sa 5:3, show that is an object-notion, and that by itself (with which, too, the accentuation harmonizes, since Munach here is the vicarius of a distinctive), according to Job 15:26, has the sense of or .
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Magistrate’s Resolution. | |
To the chief musician, Al-taschith. A psalm or song of Asaph.
1 Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare. 2 When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly. 3 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah. 4 I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: 5 Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.
In these verses,
I. The psalmist gives to God the praise of his advancement to honour and power, and the other great things he had done for him and for his people Israel (v. 1): Unto thee, O God! do we give thanks for all the favours thou hast bestowed upon us; and again, unto thee do we give thanks; for our thanksgivings must be often repeated. Did not we often pray for mercy when we were in pursuit of it; and shall we think it will suffice once or twice to give thanks when we have obtained it? Not only I do give thanks, but we do, and I and all my friends. If we share with others in their mercies, we must join with them in their praises. “Unto thee, O God! the author of our mercies (and we will not give that glory to the instruments which is due to thee only), we give thanks; for that thy name is near (that the complete accomplishment of thy promise made to David is not far off) thy wondrous works, which thou hast already done for him, declare.” Note, 1. There are many works which God does for his people that may truly be called wondrous works, out of the common course of providence and quite beyond our expectation. 2. These wondrous works declare the nearness of his name; they show that he himself is at hand, nigh to us in what we call upon him for, and that he is about to do some great things for his people, in pursuance of his purpose and promise. 3. When God’s wondrous works declare the nearness of his name it is our duty to give him thanks, again and again to give him thanks.
II. He lays himself under an obligation to use his power well, pursuant to the great trust reposed in him (v. 2): When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly. Here he takes it for granted that God would, in due time, perfect that which concerned him, that though the congregation was very slow in gathering to him, and great opposition was made to it, yet, at length, he should receive it; for what God has spoken in his holiness he will perform by his wisdom and power. Being thus in expectation of the mercy, he promises to make conscience of his duty: “When I am a judge I will judge, and judge uprightly; not as those that went before me, who either neglected judgment or, which was worse, perverted it, either did no good with their power or did hurt.” Note, 1. Those that are advanced to posts of honour must remember they are posts of service, and must set themselves with diligence and application of mind to do the work to which they are called. He does not say, “When I shall receive the congregation I will take my ease, and take state upon me, and leave the public business to others;” but, “I will mind it myself.” 2. Public trusts are to be managed with great integrity; those that judge must judge uprightly, according to the rules of justice, without respect of persons.
III. He promises himself that his government would be a public blessing to Israel, v. 3. The present state of the kingdom was very bad: The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved; and no marvel, when the former reign was so dissolute that all went to wrack and ruin. There was a general corruption of manners, for want of putting the laws in execution against vice and profaneness. They were divided one from another for want of centering, as they ought to have done, in the government God had appointed. They were all to pieces, two against three and three against two, crumbled into factions and parties, which was likely to issue in their ruin; but I bear up the pillars of it. Even in Saul’s time David did what he could for the public welfare; but he hoped that when he had himself received the congregation he should do much more, and should not only prevent the public ruin, but recover the public strength and beauty. Now, 1. See the mischief of parties; they melt and dissolve a land and the inhabitants of it. 2. See how much one head frequently holds up. The fabric would have sunk if David had not held up the pillars of it. This may well be applied to Christ and his government. The world and all the inhabitants of it were dissolved by sin; man’s apostasy threatened the destruction of the whole creation. But Christ bore up the pillars of it; he saved the whole world from utter ruin by saving his people from their sins, and into his hand the administration of the kingdom of Providence is committed, for he upholds all things by the word of his power, Heb. i. 3.
IV. He checks those that opposed his government, that were against his accession to it and obstructed the administration of it, striving to keep up that vice and profaneness which he had made it his business to suppress (Psa 75:4; Psa 75:5): I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly. He had said so to them in Saul’s time. When he had not power to restrain them, yet he had wisdom and grace to reprove them, and to give them good counsel; though they bore themselves high, upon the favour of that unhappy prince, he cautioned them not to be too presumptuous. Or, rather, he does now say so to them. As soon as he came to the crown he issued out a proclamation against vice and profaneness, and here we have the contents of it. 1. To the simple sneaking sinners, the fools in Israel, that corrupted themselves, to them he said, “Deal not foolishly; do not act so directly contrary both to your reason and to your interest as you do while you walk contrary to the laws God has given to Israel and the promises he has made to David.” Christ, the son of David, gives us this counsel, issues out this edict, Deal not foolishly. He who is made of God to us wisdom bids us be wise for ourselves, and not make fools of ourselves. 2. To the proud daring sinners, the wicked, that set God himself at defiance, he says, “Lift not up the horn; boast not of your power and prerogatives; persist not in your contumacy and contempt of the government set over you; lift not up your horn on high, as though you could have what you will and do what you will; speak not with a stiff neck, in which is an iron sinew, that will never bend to the will of God in the government; for those that will not bend shall break; those whose necks are stiffened are so to their own destruction.” This is Christ’s word of command in his gospel, that every mountain will be brought low before him, Isa. xl. 4. Let not the anti-christian power, with its heads and horns, lift up itself against him, for it shall certainly be broken to pieces; what is said with a stiff neck must be unsaid again with a broken heart, or we are undone. Pharaoh said with a stiff neck, Who is the Lord? But God made him know to his cost.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 75
God Is Supreme Judge
This is a prayer Psalm of anticipatory faith that is to come to Israel, believed to have been made when Shennacherib besieged Jerusalem, 2Ki 19:35. It expresses strong faith that God would send bitter judgment and defeat to the proud and boasting wicked who were oppressing God’s people, thus bringing an happy victory to Israel.
Scripture v. 1-10:
Verse 1 repeats with joy an expression of gratitude to God, for a victory God was about to grant them over a proud, wicked, and boastful heathen enemy. Their faith in the words of God’s prophet Isaiah regarding certain victory over the enemy is expressed “For that thy name (honor) is near thy works declare,” 2Ki 19:35; 2Ch 32:21-22; Psa 20:1. The people seem to have believed the victory was at hand, as prophesied by Isaiah, because of so many past victories he had given them, from the time of their deliverance from Egypt, Exo 13:21-22; Exo 14:13-15; Exo 14:21-31. See also Deu 4:7; Isa 30:27; Psa 119:151; Psa 145:18; 2Ch 20:19-22; Isa 37:21-35.
Verse 2 relates Jehovah God’s instant reply to His people’s prayer of thanksgiving and faith. He pledges that when He shall receive or “take a set time,” at the right moment, He will judge his assembly for rewards and the wicked with retribution uprightly, starting on time, doing the work well, Dan 8:19; Dan 11:27; Dan 11:35; Dan 12:8; Dan 12:12-13; Hab 2:3; Act 1:6-7; Luk 21:24. This both alludes to the judgment of doom upon Sennacherib’s army when 185,000 were supernaturally slain outside Jerusalem in one night, and to our Lord’s final judgment of the wicked of the earth, Isa 65:24; Rev 11:12; Rev 11:15; Rev 11:17; Rev 19:7-16. And His judgment is just.
Verse 3, 4 recount Jehovah’s assertion “the earth and all the inhabitants are dissolved. I bear up (support) the pillars of it. Selah.” Meditate upon and gain nourishment in this assurance. This assured Israel that the Assyrian armies at hand would be defeated, dividing, frustrating the Assyrian armies. Even as Jesus will those of the antichrist when He comes, Psa 46:2; Psa 46:6-7; Luk 21:25-27; Isa 24:19-23. At the hour the Lord will also bear up the pillars of the earth, restoring it to its former state of creation in Eden, before the sin of man, Job 38:4-7; Job 28:25; Isa 40:5; Isa 40:21. See also 1Sa 2:8; 2Sa 5:2; Heb 1:3.
Verse 4 adds “I said (warned) the fools (foolish, stupid acting ones) deal not foolishly, and to the wicked, lift not up the horn,” the insolent, boasting voice of self-glory and power, which the term “horn” symbolized, Psa 5:5; Dan 7:7; Rev 13:1.
Verse 5 adds a further warning “lift not up your horn on high; speak not with a stiff neck,” O Israel, as the Assyrians had done under Sennacherib, 2Ch 32:17-19; 2Ki 19:9-13; Zec 1:21; Isa 37:26. The uplifted neck suggested pride and haughtiness, Job 15:26.
Verses 6, 7 declare that promotion comes not from the south (Heb midbar, meaning the desert), south of Palestine, from other nations; Neither did it come from the east or the west, or Egypt, Isa 36:4-6; From Horeb or Siani, south and east of Palestine, Deu 11:24; Jos 1:4. For “God is (administrative) judge. He putteth down one, (repeatedly) and setteth up another,” for His own sovereign, covenant will purpose, 1Sa 2:7; Dan 5:18-23.
Verse 8 declares , that:
1) “In the hand of the Lord (extended or reaching out) there is (exists) a cup,” a cup (container) of Grace and just judgment, as expressed Job 21:20; Psa 60:3; Jer 25:15; Eze 23:31-33; Mat 20:22-23; Mat 27:46; 1Pe 3:18.
2)The wine is red,” (signifying His shed blood), shed for the sins of all men, for the remission of sins to all who believe, Mar 14:24; Luk 22:20; Rom 3:24; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14.
3) “It is full of mixture,” signifying His red, shed blood, accepted for salvation, brings forgiveness, pardon, reconciliation, peace with God, hope, joy, and eternal life, .
4) “And He poureth out (continually) of the same, repeatedly meeting every need of the believer to sustain him for spiritual service, for which he was saved, Eph 2:10; Tit 2:14.
5) “But the dregs (bitter settlings of the red wine) thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them,” or drink of the bitterness of the cup of His blood which they have rejected, until it is too late! The dregs of the wicked shall exist of: a) God’s laughing at His victory over Satan and his hord of devotees, Pro 1:26-31; Pro 29:1; b) Their memories in hell of rejected calls to salvation, Luk 16:25; c) The cries of their torments echoing through the halls of hell, without any rest, day or night, for ever and ever, Rev 14:11; Mar 16:16.
Verse 9 relates David’s and Israel’s true faith, “But I will declare (witness) forever, I will sing praises to the God of Jacob,” the covenant God of Israel, to the deliverer and redeemer, for His extended cup of wine (sinless, innocent, personal redemption blood) Exo 19:3-18; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14; Rev 5:9-10; Psa 107:2; Mat 5:15-16; Act 1:8.
Verse 10 concludes that “all the horns (proud boasting) of the wicked also will I cut off: ” Psa 101:8; Jer 48:25. In contrast He (Jehovah God) pledges “But the horns (shouts of praise) of the righteous shall be exalted,” lifted high, to the glory of God, personally, and when offered through His church in particular, 1Co 10:31; Eph 3:21; See also Psa 89:17; Psa 148:14; Rev 19:6-10.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. We will praise thee, O God! With respect to the inscription of this psalm, I have sufficiently spoken when explaining the 57 psalm. As to the author of it, this is a point, in the determination of which, I am not inclined to give myself much trouble. Whoever he was, whether David or some other prophet, he breaks forth at the very commencement into the language of joy and thanksgiving: We will praise thee, O God! we will praise thee. The repetition serves the more forcibly to express his strong affection and his ardent zeal in singing the praises of God. The verbs in the Hebrew are in the past tense; but the subject of the psalm requires that they should be translated into the future; which may be done in perfect consistency with the idiom of the Hebrew language. The inspired writer, however, may declare that God had been praised among his people for the benefits which he had bestowed in the times of old, the design being thereby to induce God to persevere in acting in the same manner, that thus continuing like himself, he might from time to time afford his people new matter for celebrating his praises. The change of the person in the concluding part of the verse has led some interpreters to supply the relative pronoun אשר, asher, who, as if the reading were, O Lord! we will praise thee; and thy name is near to those who declare thy wondrous works (252) But the prophet, I have no doubt, puts the verb they will declare, indefinitely, that is to say, without determining the person; (253) and he has used the copula and instead of the causal participle for, as is frequently done. His meaning, then, may be brought out very appropriately th We will praise thee, O God! for thy name is near; and, therefore, thy wondrous works shall be declared. He, no doubt, means that the same persons whom he said would celebrate the praise of God, would be the publishers of his wonderful works. And, certainly, God, in displaying his power, opens the mouths of his servants to recount his works. In short, the design is to intimate that there is just ground for praising God, who shows himself to be at hand to afford succor to his people. The name of God, as is well known, is taken for his power; and his presence, or nearness, is judged of by the assistance which he grants to his people in the time of their need.
(252) This is the reading adopted by Hammond; but instead of making it out by supplying the pronoun אשר, asher, as is done by some, he renders, ספרו, sipperu, as a participle plural in the sense of the dative case. “Thy name is near, ספרו, sipperu, to them that declare thy wondrous works.” He supports this view from the Chaldee, and from the translation of the learned Castellio.
(253) “ C’est a dire, sans determiner personne.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
INTRODUCTION
Superscription.To the chief Musician, Altaschith: see introduction to Psalms 57. A Pslama song of Asaph: see introduction to Psalms 74.
There are, says Perowne, no clearly marked historical allusions in the Psalm. It seems, however, not improbable, as has been conjectured by many commentators, that it may refer to the time of the Assyrian invasion, either as celebrating, or immediately anticipating the defeat of Sennacherib. Like Psalms 46, it bears some resemblance to the prophecies of Isaiah uttered at that time. It seems to us that in this Psalm we have the thank-prayer of the people in confident anticipation of victory over the Assyrians; and, in the following Psalm, we have their exultant and grateful praise for the accomplishment of that victory.
ISRAELS PRAISE FOR THE PROMISED HELP OF GOD
(Psa. 75:1-3.)
In the first verse, the Psalmist speaks as the mouth-piece of the people of Israel; in the second and third verses, he represents Jehovah as addressing them. In these verses we have
I. Heroic anticipation of victory. The people are threatened by Sennacherib. His army is near them even while they chant this prayer-psalm. Yet they are confident of ultimate victory. Around them all was darkness, and to the carnal eye no helper was near, but to the faith-enlightened eye all around them was luminous with the near presence and help of God. They seem to have attained this brave anticipation of victory somewhat in this way.
1. By contemplating the wondrous works of God. In former times He had done great and wondrous things for them. He had repeatedly caused their foes to flee before them, utterly discomfited, in battle. He had done wondrous things in nature on their behalf. And now in the day of their distress the great things which He had done for them pass before them clearly and impressively, and their troubled hearts grow calm and strong.
2. By connecting the wondrous works which He had done for them with promises of wondrous works which He would yet do for them. He had made to them declarations of the stability of the throne of His servant David. He had promised them victory over their foes. Wondrous things He had said He would do for them. They received and interpreted His promises in the light of His former doings for them, and their hearts grew calm and strong, and buoyant with hope.
3. By regarding these wondrous works as signs of the Divine presence. As the threatened Jews contemplated Gods wondrous works, they appear to have felt Him near to them, and, thus realising His presence, they confidently anticipated their release from danger, and their restoration to peace and security. Mark the strength of their assurance. The Assyrians have come against them into their own land; there are no outward and visible signs of deliverance, yet so confident are they of the help of God that they pour out their hearts in this thanksgiving Psalm. Their anticipation was so vivid and eager as to make their deliverance appear to them almost an accomplished thing. It reminds us of our Lords sublime assurance of victory as He entered into the darkness and anguish of His last and fiercest strife. He has forewarned His disciples of the trials and persecutions which await them. And now He would encourage them, and He says, These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. There is much of temptation and grief and terrible battling immediately awaiting Him, yet He regards the victory as so infallibly sure that it seems His already. The faith is grand, heroic, which so trusts Gods promise as to anticipate the victory, as the poet does in this Psalm.
II. Firm ground of confidence. In the second and third verses we understand the poet as representing God as the speaker. The translation of the second verse given in the margin, appears to give the correct idea, When I shall take a set time I will judge uprightly; or, For I shall fix a time when I shall judge righteously. Upon the promise of God to interpose for them, they base their faith and hope as upon a sure foundation.
1. In times of the greatest distress He is all-sufficient. Such a time is indicated in the third verse. The earth, in consequence of the succees of the conqueror of the world, is, as it were, dissolved, sunk back into its ancient chaotic state; but the same omnipotence which at that time brought its dissolution to an end, shall aid it now. In the greatest calamities, such an a dissolution of the earth, God is calm and unmoved in His own conscious sufficiency and sovereignty. When the earth seems to be reeling into ruin He calms His people with the assurance, I have adjusted the pillars of it; and they know that they are secure. Can we conceive any distress which He is unable to cope with and overcome? Is it possible that any evil or misery can be so complicated as to baffle infinite wisdom? Can there be a calamity so appalling and utter as to triumphantly defy omnipotence to remove or relieve it?
2. When He interposes He will judge righteously. He will manifest no unfair partiality or favouritism. He sitteth upon the throne judging in righteousness. This was an encouragement to His menaced and imperilled people. They thought upon it, and lifted up their heads, believing that their redemption drew nigh. Let the oppressed people of God take heart at the remembrance of His upright government. The Lord reigneth to smite down the oppressor and vindicate the oppressed. He will deliver the righteous out of all their troubles, and bring them out into a wealthy place. Let the enemies of God take warning. God is supreme. He is also righteous. You are opposing omnipotence, and must be crushed unless you desist from your insane conduct. Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke, and a great ransom cannot deliver thee.
3. He will interpose in due season. When I shall take a set time I will judge uprightly. Our God, who governs the world by His omnipotence and wisdom, has appointed to all things a boundary, and has also fixed a time and an hour for His judgment, and when this comes, He reveals His judgments, and no man can hinder them. God withholds His punishments for a very long time, but at last it comes with certainty, and makes no delay. Let the much-tried child of God learn to wait patiently and hopefully for His appearing. In infinite wisdom and love He has fixed the time when the night of your mourning shall be ended by the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His wings. He will not come a moment too soon. He will not tarry one moment after the due season. At the best time He will come and judge uprightly.
Surely there is here the firmest ground for the strong confidence which the Psalmist expresses for the people. God is more than sufficient even to their great needs, when He interposes He will judge righteously, and He will interpose in due season.
III. Devout utterance of praise. Unto Thee, O God, do we give thanks, do we give thanks. The thanksgiving of the people was hearty. The Psalm opens with praise, and before it closes it breaks forth into praise again. The praise was emphasised, repeatedWe give thanks, we give thanks. Praise such as this, for a promised blessing, in a special manner honours God by the calm, strong trust in His word which it implies. It rises as an acceptable offering unto Him. Such praise as this also blesses those who offer it. It is indeed a means of grace unto them. By means of it their faith is yet more increased. Their soul is calmed, enriched, and exalted into communion with God.
When gratitude oerflows the swelling heart,
And breathes in free and uncorrupted praise
For benefits received: propitious Heaven
Takes such acknowledgment as fragrant incense,
And doubles all its blessings.
George Lillo.
CONCLUSION.
1. In times of the greatest calamity let us trust in the Lord, and not be afraid. He has adjusted the pillars of the earth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, &c.
2. Let us learn to recognise God in His works, both in nature and in grace. Let us pray that our eyes may be opened to see Him, and our ears to catch the inspiring accents of His voice.
3. Let us cultivate a grateful spirit. Nothing more detestable, said Ausonius, does the earth produce than an ungrateful man.
I hate ingratitude more in a man
Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,
Or any taint of vice, whose strong corruption
Inhabits our frail blood.Shakespeare.
Gratitude is well pleasing to God. It also enriches man. The ungrateful man has his blessings in his hand only; the grateful man has them in his heart and hand. He is thus twice blessed. Let our gratitude rise to God in psalms of praise, and express itself amongst men in kindly deeds.
GODS NEARNESS TO HIS PEOPLE A REASON FOR PRAISING HIM
(Psa. 75:1.)
I. There are times when God specially manifests Himself to His people. Thy name = Thyself. Gods wondrous works led the Psalmist to feel that God Himself was near. God specially manifests Himself to His people
1. In deliverances wrought for them. Cite examples.
2. In judgments inflicted upon them. Cite examples. It is our shame that we sometimes fail to see God in the blessings which He bestows upon us. He must needs visit us in judgment ere we feel Him near.
3. In revivals of His work. What quickening of spiritual life! What increase of spiritual activities! What gracious conversions! What restorations of backsliders!
Thy noblest wonders here we view,
In souls renewed and sins forgiven.
God is near to many objectively, yet not subjectively. He is near to them, yet they do not feel Him near. Let His wondrous works in nature, in providence, and in the human soul be to us a sign, an indication, of His own presence.
II. These manifestations should awaken the praise of His people. Unto Thee, O God, do we give thanks, do we give, &c. Our thanksgiving, like that of the people in this Psalm, should be,
1. Repeated. We give thanks, we give thanks. Stinted gratitude is ingratitude. For infinite goodness there should be measureless thanks.
2. Hearty. God accepts our praise only as it proceeds from the heart.
3. Practical. The people by the poet express their resolve to oppose evil, and favour righteousness. We should praise God not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to His service and by walking before Him in holiness and righteousness all our days.
Let us cultivate fervent gratitude to God. Gratitude is the duty of every one. Let us esteem it a privilege. What shall I render unto the Lord? &c. Bless the Lord, O my soul, &c. While I live will I praise the Lord, &c.
Well praise Him for all that is past,
And trust Him for all thats to come.
ASPECTS OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT
(Psa. 75:4-8.)
In these verses the Poet speaks as the mouth-piece of the people. According to some expositors, the address of God is still continued in this verse; according to others in verse fifth; and according to others even in verse sixth. But verse seventh, where God is spoken of in the third person, hangs together with verse sixth by for, and this verse again with verse five by for, and verses four and five cannot be disjoined from each other. Moreover, the Selah stands at the end of the preceding verse, and the expression, I say, at the beginning of this one, indicates a change of speaker.Hengstenberg.
The Divine government is here regarded
I. As a rebuke to wicked oppressors.
1. The wicked are admonished of the folly of sin. I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly. Sin is folly, and he who acts wickedly deals foolishly. Sin is irrational. All sound reasoning is opposed to moral evil. Conscience condemns it as wrong. Reason pronounces it to be folly. The laws of God in nature all antagonise it. The law of God as revealed in His Word exhibits it as moral insanity. Sin is self-injury. The evil-doer is working his own ruin; he is destroying himself. In this world he is foregoing the most exquisite and exalting joys for the unsatisfying pleasures of sin. In the world to come there is for him a fearful looking for. He that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death. Sinner, Do thyself no harm, deal not foolishly.
2. The proud are counselled to shun insolence. I said unto the wicked, Lift not up the horn. Lift not up, &c. The horn was a symbol of power. And the foes of Israel are here exhorted not to boast insolently of their power. Pride of power is a most absurd thing. In some respects, how insignificant is the greatest of men! how weak the most powerful of men! God is supreme. With what infinite ease can He baffle the most cunningly devised schemes of man! And the strength of the mightiest is utter weakness before Him.
Haughtiness and arrogance ill-become any creature. To boast of power is a sure sign of weakness, and usually heralds a great fall. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. It was pride that led to the expulsion of Lucifer from heaven. Pride ruined King Saul. Pride brought Haman to the gallows. Pride, lifting up of the horn, and speaking with a stiff neck, brought Nebuchadnezzar from his throne, expelled him from his palace, drove him from human society, and sent him to herd with the beasts of the field. The fact of the supremacy of the Divine government should silence all proud boasters.
II. As an encouragement to the righteous. For lifting up, i.e., deliverance from trouble, safety, victory, cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south, &c.
1. There are times of need when all human aids are unavailing. Israel was experiencing such a time. They looked eastward, westward, southward, and could see no signs of deliverance. From the north their adversary approached. There was no help for them in man. If they must look to an arm of flesh for support, then their case seems hopeless. Reliance upon any human assistance is utterly vain. Their case is too extreme to be met by any efforts of their own, or by any alliances which they might form.
Their case is surely a picture of what sometimes happens to the good man. From one quarter the trouble comes, and from all other quarters of the earth no help can reach him. The experience of each man will afford examples of such timestimes when human helpers all fail, when human resources are utterly inadequate to our need, when we look around us for encouragement or hope, but look in vain. May it not be that such seasons of helplessness, and extreme need, and human inability are of Divine arrangement? They certainly have the divinest uses. They tend to teach us our own helplessness, and the vanity of all human beings as objects of trust, and to lead us to place our hope in God.
2. At such times consideration of the Divine government inspires the soul to hope in God. God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another. He ordereth human affairs. Kingdoms shift about like clouds, obedient to His breath. And He is ever on the side of truth and righteousness. So the threatened people of Israel turned confidently to Him when all other helpers failed, and all other resources were inadequate to their need. He could put down their foes, as He had done in past times. He could lift them up into safety and triumph. He could defend their cause, and carry it to glorious victory. And, therefore, they lifted up their hearts and voices in glad thanksgivings to Him. He is ever the hope of His people. He turneth the shadow of death into the morning. In our extremity, when our strength is all spent, and the collied night surrounds us, and the storm is loud and strong, and progress is impossible to us, He cometh to us walking on the boisterous and threatening waves, hushes the thunderous clamours into peace, quells our craven fears, and brings us to the desired haven. Courage, servant of God! The Lord reigneth.
III. As an assurance of the punishment of the wicked. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red, it is full of mixture, &c.
1. The punishment of the wicked is from God. The cup is in His hand. There is a grave tendency in our time to a dangerous sentimentalism which represents God as pitiful, compassionate, and forgiving, and ignores His holiness and justice. God is merciful; He is also righteous. He pardons the penitent; He also punishes the persistently impenitent. There is wrath in Godnot a stormy, passionate, revengeful feeling, as it too often is in man; but a calm, holy, fixed determination to punish those who scorn His reproofs, trample under foot His laws, and reject His salvation. God must wage incessant war against evil. His love burns with unquenchable fire against sin. His laws are all arrayed against it in stern antagonism. Wisely and benevolently He has so ordered His universe that penalty shall ever follow transgression. And if men persist in iniquity, then iniquity will be their ruin.
2. The punishment of the wicked is severe. The cup is full of mixture, an allusion to the custom of mixing roots and spices with the wine to increase its intoxicating power. What a cup is that which is being prepared for the wicked! What blighted hopes, what lost opportunities, what ever-accusing memories, what bitter self-reproaches, what unutterable anguish! Oh! the unfathomable depths of misery involved in the wordsHell fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. They shall drain this cup to the very dregs. The bitter draught cannot be evaded. No part of it may be left undrank. There is no escape from the misery; for the misery is within the guilty breast.
Me miserable! which way shall I flee?
Whereer I am is hell; myself am hell!
3. The punishment of the wicked is without exception. All the wicked. There is no respect of persons with God. He is just in His dealings with all men. Favouritism or partiality is unknown to Him. The finally impenitent, the irreclaimably wicked, of all lands and of all ages, shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God. God will render to every man according to his deeds: unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile.
CONCLUSION.
1. Warning to the wicked. If man will contend with God, he cannot answer Him one of a thousand. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered?
2. Counsel to the wicked. Repent, and turn from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
3. Admonition to those in high stations. Realise your dependence. The most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will.
4. Encouragement for the oppressed righteous. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me.
A MODEL OF DEVOUT PRAISE
(Psa. 75:9-10.)
The Poet still speaks as the mouthpiece of all the people of Israel. And, feeling confident of deliverance, declares their resolution to praise God for ever, to suppress the wicked, and to exalt the righteous. The praise resolved upon here is worthy of our imitation, inasmuch as it
I. Loses sight of self in devout admiration of the character and doings of God.
1. He will praise God for His doings. He resolves to declare for ever the wondrous works of God. God had done great things for them, they were confident that He would again do great things for them, and were determined to praise the Lord, declare His doings among the people, and make mention that His name is exalted. God has done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Shall not we praise Him for His mighty acts? Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul. He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, &c. Considering what God has done for us, especially in giving to us Christ and His salvation, if we were not to praise Him, surely the very stones would cry out. The great things He has done for us were
(1) Undeserved by us. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
(2) Unsought by us. We did not seek God, but He sought us by Jesus Christ.
(3) Freely and heartily given by God out of His own sovereign love. Bless the Lord, O my soul.
2. He will praise God for His faithfulness. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. God had entered into covenant with Jacob, and that covenant He had kept. Through all the vicissitudes of their history, from the time of their father Jacob until the time when this Psalm was sung, God had never abandoned them. They had had their seasons of darkness and trial, but the Lord was their Friend and God in those seasons, though they saw Him not. They praise the God of their fathers, for His faithfulness. For the Lord will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance. We, too, have found Him a covenant-keeping God. We have proved that His promises are reliable, that He ever abideth faithful. With Him there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Shall we not praise Him as we recollect that we have never trusted Him in vain? and that He is the unfailing rock of our heart?
3. He will praise God for ever. Not simply while His gracious interpositions are recent, but for ever. Constant mercies should awaken constant gratitude, and constant gratitude will seek to express itself constantly in some form of praise. In some of the old monasteries it was a rule that the chanting of praise should never be interrupted, and that one choir of monks should relieve another in the sacred service. Let us learn a lesson from this. Let not thy praises be transienta fit of music, and then the instrument hung by the wall till another gaudy day of some remarkable providence makes thee take it down. God comes not guest-wise to His saints house, but to dwell with them. David took this up for a life-work: As long as I live, I will praise Thee.
II. Evinces its reality by resolving to imitate Him. Anticipating their lifting up the people resolve, through the grace of God and in the strength which He grants them, to cut off all the horns of the wicked, and to exalt the horns of the righteous. When they were restored to peace and security they would use their power in putting down wickedness, and upholding and honouring the righteous. These are the very things which, by anticipation, they have beheld God doing, and in this Psalm have praised Him for doing. They resolve that they will imitate Him in these things. It has been well said that, Imitation is the sincerest praise. This praise they here offer to God. Do we know by personal experience this praise? Our praise of the excellences of others is a very hollow affair unless we also cultivate those excellences. We praise God for His unspeakable Gift; are we imitating His pure generosity? We praise Jesus Christ for His great self-sacrifice for us; are we denying ourselves in His spirit that others might be benefited? We bless God for the Gospel; are we exemplifying the spirit of the Gospel? A certain Dr. Whitaker, on reading the fifth chapter of Matthew, brake out, saying, Either this is not the Gospel, or we are not of the Gospel. And is it not to be feared that the spirit of the Gospel for which men praise God, and the spirit of their lives, are often widely different? Let us evince the sincerity of our praise to God by imitating Him in our spirit and life. Let us admire Him, commune with Him, adore Him, until we are transformed into the same image. Let us, like the Psalmist, cultivate such thoroughness and fervency of praise that we shall lose sight of everything but God and His glory. May God so fill the horizon of the soul that we may be filled with admiration and praise of Him.
God! God! God!
Thou fillst our eyes
As were the skies
One burning, boundless sun;
While creature mind,
In path confined,
Passeth a spot thereon.
God! God! God!P. J. Bailey.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 75
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
A Song, Enshrining an Oracular Assurance of Equitable Judgment by the Judge of the Earth.
ANALYSIS
Stanza I., Psa. 75:1, Congregational Thanksgiving, Promising a Rehearsal of Divine Wonders. Stanza II., Psa. 75:2-4, A Divine Oracle: Declaring that, at the Right Time, Justice shall be Done; and Admonishing that Moral Preparations for Judgment be Made. Stanza III., Psa. 75:5-7, Prophetic Exhortation Enforcing the Oracle. Stanza IV., Psa. 75:8, A Prophetic Warning of Coming Wrath. Stanza V., Psa. 75:9-10, With Prophetic Exultation, the Psalmist, in the Name of the Nation, Counts on being Employed in the Judicial Adjustment.
(Lm.) PsalmBy AsaphSong.
1
We give thanks to thee O God we give thanks to thee;
and they who call on thy name[33] tell of all thy wondrous works.
[33] So read probablyDr. And so (?)Gn.
2
Yea! I will seize a right time,
I with equity will judge:
3
Dissolving may be the earth and all the dwellers therein,
I have adjusted the pillars thereof:
4
have said to boastersDo not boast!
and to lawless onesDo not lift up a horn!
5
Do not lift up on high your horn,
nor speak against a Rock[34] with arrogance.
[34] So it shd. be (w. Sep.)Gn.
6
For neither from the east nor from the west,
nor from the wilderness[35] (cometh) lifting up;[36]
[35] Prob.=south. North perh. omitted as quarter whence the enemy was coming.
[36] Heb.: Harim, generally=mountains; but, according to a Heb. tradition, exceptionally here=lifting up (as derived from rum, to be high): which seems to strike the key-note of the psalm, for which cp. Psa. 75:4-5; Psa. 75:7; Psa. 75:10.
7
For God is judge,
this one he putteth down and that one he lifteth up.
8
For a cup is in the hand of Jehovah with wine which foameth,
it is full of spiced-wine which he poureth outfrom one to another,[37]
[37] So it shd. be (w. Sep., Syr., Vul.)Gn.
surely the dregs thereof shall all the lawless of the earth drain out and drink.
9
But I will exult[38] to the ages,
[38] So it shd. be (w. Sep.)Gn.
let me make melody unto the God of Jacob!
10
And all the horns of lawless ones will I hew off,
lifted up shall be the horns of the righteous.
(Lm.) To the Chief Musician.
(CMm.) With stringed instruments.[39]
[39] And therefore with all the choirs in the temple.
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 75
How we thank You Lord! Your mighty miracles give proof that You care.
2 Yes, the Lord replies, And when I am ready, I will punish the wicked!
3 Though the earth shakes and all its people live in turmoil, yet its pillars are firm, for I have set them in place!
4 I warned the proud to cease their arrogance! I told the wicked to lower their insolent gaze,[40]
[40] Literally, lift not up the horn.
5 And to stop being stubborn and proud.
6, 7 For promotion and power come from nowhere on earth, but only from God. He promotes one and deposes another.
8 In Jehovahs hand there is a cup of pale and sparkling wine. It is His judgment, poured out upon the wicked of the earth. They must drain that cup to the dregs.
9 But as for me, I shall forever declare the praises of the God of Jacob.
10 I will cut off the strength of evil men, says the Lord,[41] and increase the power of good men in their place.
[41] Implied.
EXPOSITION
Standing where it does, this psalm requires but a moderate exercise of the historical imagination, to bring out its practical effectiveness. It follows well the outcry of the previous psalm. How long? by declaring that, at the right time, Divine Interposition shall come. With equal fitness, it anticipates the exulting outburst of the psalm which follows it, already claiming the souls of those who are yet waiting, to the sore trial of their faith. It may thus be placed historically anywhere between the invasion of Shishak and the overthrow of Sennacherib the Assyrian, and could, with fine effect, be used in temple worship either during the days of trial which befell Jehoshaphat or during those which came upon Hezekiah.
When the dramatic structure of the psalm is perceived, its dignity and force rise to the sublime. The opening stanza reveals the congregation giving thanks as for an answer received, and as if in anticipation of Divine Wonders to follow.
Then, with an effective change of measure, Jehovah is represented as giving, in the first person, his assurance that in due time he will effectively interpose. Societyand perhaps especially the society of nationsmay appear to be falling to piecesdissolvingfor lack of the effective grip of the bonds of equity; but already Jehovah prophetically declares he has adjusted the pillars of the social structure. That those pillars are to be understood as fundamental moral principles, is at once intimated by the two Divine behestsDo not boast, Do not lift up the horn, which two proclamations may perhaps be distributively applied: the former to Israel and the latter to the nations ready to oppress them; though, indeed, both may well be heeded by all concerned, seeing that boasting and oppression so often go hand in hand.
It is not quite certain at what point the direct Divine address ends; but, having regard to the propriety of letting an oracle appear brief, and to the difficulty of carrying on the direct address to the close of Psa. 75:7, it is probably best to close the quotation at the end of Psa. 75:4. This naturally leads us to take Psa. 75:5-7 as a continuing prophetic address, by the psalmist himself, in enforcement of the Divine Oracle. It seems to be fittingly left to the psalmist to emphasize, in amplified hortatory words (Psa. 75:5 a), the previous briefer oracular words (Psa. 75:4 b); and then that he, the psalmist, should go on (Psa. 75:5 b) to speak of Jehovah as a Rock, in the third person; just as, also, (in Psa. 75:7) he naturally refers to God, in the third person. These niceties may not appear very important, inasmuch as they respect the mere form of what must all, in substance, be regarded as a Divine utterance; but an approximately correct settlement of them, sensibly contributes to the impressiveness of the psalm.
The psalmist now, in Stanza IV., gives a highly figurative but effective reason for the urgency of his exhortations to prepare for judgment. Equitable as is the Divine Rule, in the long run, in dealing with both individuals and nations, it nevertheless is framed upon the pattern of times and seasons,times of delay, in which God as judge is silent and seemingly inactive, as though he were taking no notice of the moral quality of human conduct; and then, seasons of activity, involving the principle of bringing up arrears, and dealing all at once with long series of actions; and implying, where wicked conduct has been in the ascendant, an accumulation of punishment, corresponding with the accumulation of unvisited sin. But an accumulation of punishment implies an accumulation of Divine displeasure, so far as its manifestation is concerned. And so we arrive at the conception of stored-up wrath: arrears of displeasure: intensified punishment, involving stroke upon stroke, when it does come. This is the revealed principle of Divine resentment of sin. No doubt this principle could be philosophically defended: as necessitated, not by infirmity in God, but by the limitation of man. But whether or not we can account for such a method of divine government, and successfully defend it, as probably we may; it suffices to maintain, that such in fact is Gods governmental method of dealing with the moral quality of the actions of men and of nations. This being so, that very fact lies at the root of such representations as that which here confronts us in this psalm: accumulated wrath breaking forth in accumulated punishment, being figuratively represented as a cup in the hand of Jehovah, a cup foaming in the activity of its contents, mixed as with stimulating spices in the intensity of its action, and held forth to the individuals who are to drink, and to be compelled to drain their cup to its dregs. Such is the figure. We may call it oriental. But, instead of therefore under-estimating it, our wisdom is to accept it as a common, and, in the East, most natural as well as effective style of speech; and at once seek to translate it into our own methods of thought. The following list of passages, alluding to the wine-cup. of wrath, will shew how familiar the figure is in the Old Testament, and will suggest the deeper principles to which our thoughts are thereby conducted: Job. 21:20, Psa. 60:3, Isa. 51:17, Jer. 25:15; Jer. 25:27; Jer. 49:12; Jer. 51:7, Oba. 1:16.
Glancing, finally, at Stanza V. (Psa. 75:9-10), and connecting it with Stanza I., as together constituting the devotional framework of the psalm, we recognise the appropriateness of the observations of Delitzsch: The prophetic picture stands upon a lyric background of gold; it rises up out of the depths of emotion and is withdrawn again into these same depths . . . The psalm closes as subjectively as it began. The prophetic picture is set in a lyric frame. This is well said. But when the same expositor, in calling attention to the obvious fact that the psalmist in Psa. 75:10 ascribes to himself what he in Psa. 75:7 sets forth as Gods own doing, associates this human fellowship in the judicial rectification with the reigning Church, we respectfully withhold our consent; preferring to connect the hewing off of the horns of the lawless with the triumphant nation of Israel than with the triumphant ecclesia. The callings of the two communities are distinct, and as such should be carefully preserved
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
This psalm is a revelation of the principle of Gods government of the world, of His action in human history. Please follow this line of reasoning and outline the principles suggested.
2.
This psalm balances well between the two psalms of before and afterexplain how.
3.
There seems to be a dialogue in this psalm. Who speaks? What is said? Discuss.
4.
Jesus who died shall be justified, God is the ruler yetso wrote the song writer. There are at present millions and millions who have never heardnow reconcile this with the rule of God?
5.
America and Israel stand together in Gods Judgment. Explain and discuss.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) For that . . .The wonders just wrought for Israel have repeated the old conviction that Gods name, a word of power to save (comp. Psa. 34:18; Psa. 145:18), is near. (Comp. Psa. 105:1.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Give thanks The first prompting of a pious heart, and the first tribute due to God for his wonders.
Thy name is near Objectively, when faith waits for promised succour, as in Isa 30:27, the anticipated coming “name of Jehovah;” and subjectively, in the consciousness of his presence. The former sense suits historically the state of Hezekiah after Isaiah had delivered the promise, (Isaiah 37,) and the latter such experience as is recorded Psa 65:4
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psalms 74
Historical Background Psalms 74, as in Psalms 79, makes reference to the captivity of Judah and the destruction of the Temple. If this is a post-exile psalm, then it was written by his sons, or his school of composers (Psa 74:7).
Psa 74:7, “They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.”
If it was written by Asaph himself, he is called a seer, or prophet (2Ch 29:30), and he would have written this psalm as a future prophecy.
1Ch 25:1, “Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph , and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals : and the number of the workmen according to their service was:”
1Ch 25:2, “Of the sons of Asaph ; Zaccur, and Joseph, and Nethaniah, and Asarelah, the sons of Asaph under the hands of Asaph, which prophesied according to the order of the king.
2Ch 29:30, “Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the LORD with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer . And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped.”
Psa 74:1 (Maschil of Asaph.) O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
Psa 74:1
Most modern translations do as the KJV and transliterate this Hebrew word as “maschil,” thus avoiding the possibility of a mistranslation. The LXX reads “for instruction.” YLT reads “An Instruction.” Although some of these psalms are didactic in nature, scholars do not feel that all fit this category. The ISBE says, “Briggs suggests ‘a meditation,’ Thirtle and others ‘a psalm of instruction,’ Kirkpatrick ‘a cunning psalm.’” [86]
[86] John Richard Sampey, “Psalms,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c1915, 1939), in The Sword Project, v. 1.5.11 [CD-ROM] (Temple, AZ: CrossWire Bible Society, 1990-2008).
Psa 74:1 “why doth thine anger smoke” – Comments – God’s wrath is often portrayed as fire and smoke. Judgment is also described by fire in the Scriptures.
Psa 106:18, “And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.”
Psa 106:40, “Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.”
2Th 1:7-8, “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:”
Heb 12:29, “For our God is a consuming fire.”
Psa 74:1 “against the sheep of thy pasture” – Comments – In contract to a description of the harsh side of God’s character, the psalmist describes God’s people as sheep, a word that shows them a helpless and in need of a protector.
Psa 74:7 They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.
Psa 74:7
2Ki 25:9, “And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Psalms 75
Psa 75:9-10 Comments – The greatest weapon that we have against the enemy is our praises lifted to God. David tells us in Psa 8:2 that out of the mouth of babes and sucklings God has perfected praise in order to still the enemy. Praise weakens our enemies and strengthens us (Mat 21:16).
Psa 8:2, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.”
Mat 21:16, “And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Church Praises the Nearness of God’s Judgment.
v. 1. Unto Thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto Thee do we give thanks, v. 2. When I shall receive the congregation, v. 3. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved, v. 4. I said unto the fools, v. 5. lift not up your horn on high, v. 6. For promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south, v. 7. But God is the Judge, v. 8. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, v. 9. But I will declare forever, v. 10. All the horns of the wicked,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
This is a hymn of praise in anticipation of a deliverance, which may be from Sennacherib, or from some other dangerous enemy. The actual praise is confined to the first and the last two verses. The remainder of the poem (Psa 75:2-8) sets forth God as a righteous Judge, against whom the ungodly contend in vain, and who will pour out at last the dregs of his vengeance upon them. The author may be Asaph, and the deliverance that from Zerah (2Ch 14:9-13); or the date may be later, and the writer an Asaphite Levite of the time of Jehoshaphat or Hezekiah.
The phrase, “Al-taschith,” in the “title,” is probably a musical term. It occurs also in the titles of Psa 57:1-11; Psa 58:1-11; Psa 59:1-17.
Psa 75:1
Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks; for that thy Name is near thy wondrous works declare; literally, and thy Name is near (i.e. thy providence and care are close to us); this do thy wondrous works declare. The “wondrous works” are those of times past (comp. Psa 74:12-15), whereof the psalmist anticipates a continuance or repetition.
Psa 75:2
When I shall receive the congregation; rather, when I shall have appointed a set time. It is agreed that the speaker, in this verse and the next, is God, who announces that he is about to descend in judgment. This, however, he will do “at his own set time,” for which men must wait patiently (comp. Hab 2:3). I will judge uprightly; or, “with uprightness” (comp. Psa 58:1).
Psa 75:3
The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved. They “melt” with fear (Psa 44:6), either at God’s coming in judgment, or at the dissolution which a hostile invasion is bringing on their land. I bear up the pillars of it. Meanwhile God upholds, and will uphold, both the moral and physical order of things. He will neither suffer the earth to be moved, nor the supports on which society depends to fail and crumble away.
Psa 75:4
I said. It is doubtful who is the speaker. Professor Cheyne regards the entire passage from the beginning of Psa 75:2 to the end of Psa 75:5 as spoken by the Almighty; but most commentators assign Psa 75:4 and Psa 75:5 to the psalmist or the people of Israel. Unto the fools; i.e. to the enemy which was attacking Israel; literally, to the boasters, or to the arrogant ones (see Revised Version). Deal not foolishly; rather, deal not so arrogantly. Do not set yourselves so proudly against the Almighty. And to the wicked, Lift not up the horn; i.e. be not fierce and menacing, like a bull who threatens with his horns.
Psa 75:5
Lift not up your horn on high; speak not with a stiff neck. The phrase, “a stiff neck,” common in the Pentateuch (Exo 32:9; Exo 33:3, Exo 33:5; Exo 34:9; Deu 9:6, Deu 9:13; Deu 10:16; Deu 31:27), is rare elsewhere. It expresses pride, arrogance, and obstinacy.
Psa 75:6
For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. So Hupfeld, Kay, Canon Cook, and the Revised Version Others suggest the meaning to be, “For it is not from the east, nor is it from the west, nor yet from the mountainous desert [that help cometh].” But the ellipse of the main idea is improbable. The address is to the enemies who threaten Israel, “Lift not up your hornsspeak not proudlyfor exaltation comes not from any earthly quartereast, west, north, or south” (“north” being omitted, as sufficiently implied in the others); it is God alone who gives it, and he is not likely to give it to you.”
Psa 75:7
But God is the Judge (comp. Psa 50:6; Psa 82:1; Psa 94:2; and, especially, the original of all the later passages, Gen 18:25). He putteth down one, and setteth up (or, exalteth) another. True equally of nations and of individuals.
Psa 75:8
For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red. The “cup of God’s fury” is a frequent metaphor with the prophets (Isa 51:17, Isa 51:22; Jer 25:15, Jer 25:17, Jer 25:28; Jer 49:12; Lam 4:21; Eze 23:31-33; Hab 2:16, etc.); and is commonly represented as full of wine, which his enemies have to drink. The “redness” of the wine typifies the shedding of blood. It is full of mixture. Mingled, i.e; with spices, and so made stronger and more efficacious (see Pro 9:2; Pro 23:30; So Pro 8:2; Isa 5:22). And he poureth out of the same. God pours out the cup of his fury on all nations, or persons, whom he chooses to afflict, and they are compelled to drink of it (Jer 25:15-28). But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them. To drink a cup, dregs and all, is to empty it wholly, to swallow down all its contents.
Psa 75:9
But I will declare forever; i.e. “I will declare these things”viz. God’s just judgments upon the wicked. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. On the force of the phrase, “God of Jacob,” see the comment upon Psa 20:1.
Psa 75:10
All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off. Besides declaring God’s judgments and singing his praises, the psalmist adds that he will, as far as lies in his power, seek to advance God’s cause, and establish his kingdom, by checking, controlling, and putting down the wicked. This he expresses by the metaphor, “I will cut off their horns;” i.e. bring down their haughtiness, and deprive them of the power of doing mischief. But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted. Then, as a necessary consequence, “the horns of the righteous”their power and might and glorywill be exalted.
HOMILETICS
Psa 75:1
The essence, certainty, and preciousness of Divine revelation.
“Thy Name is nigh.” This rendering is given in the margin of the Revised Version, and another in the text. The difference arises from the exceeding brevity of the Hebrew making the sense doubtful. But the sense given in our Authorized Version is supported by weighty authorities; and has the advantage of being at once full of meaning and full of grandeur. We may regard it as bringing before us the essence, the certainty, and the preciousness of Divine revelation.
I. ESSENCE OF DIVINE REVELATION. The possibility of knowing God, and the possibility of conversing, holding communion, with God are the two fundamental truths of revelation. Apart from these, the Bible would give us nothing but dead history, barren doctrine, baseless imagination. The first is expressed in the Scriptures by the Name of God; the second by his drawing near to us, and bringing us near to him.
1. God‘s Name stands in Scripture for all that we can know and do know of him. Names are the instruments of all our knowledge. What we cannot name, or name wrongly, we do not know. Giving names was the beginning of speech (Gen 2:19). Moses, therefore, asked how he was to name God to Israel (Exo 3:13-15; comp. Exo 33:19; Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7; Exo 23:21; Pro 18:10).
2. Communion with God and enjoyment of his favour are constantly expressed under this image of God‘s nearness (though “in him we live,” etc.) (Deu 4:7; Psa 145:18; Pro 15:29; Jer 12:2; Eph 2:13, Eph 2:17).
II. THE CERTAINTY. How do we know that we know God, and that we can converse with him? By the evidence of experience, historical and personal. “That thy Name is near, thy wondrous works declare.” Divine revelation goes exactly on the lines of human nature and life. We know one anotherour fellow human beings by speech and action. These reveal character. The Bible is the continuous record of God’s manifestation of himself to men by word and by deed. His works of nature reveal him (Psa 19:1; Rom 1:19, Rom 1:20). But he has” magnified his Word above all his Name;” q.d. the living voice of his prophets and the record in Scripture of their message, has brought God near to us, and us to him, as nature never couldyet a very large part of Scripture itself consists in the record of his “wondrous deeds, his dealings with his Church and mankind.” Above all, the incarnation, the personal life, and atonement of the Lord Jesus, reveal God as nothing else can (Joh 17:3; Joh 14:9; 1Jn 4:9; 2Pe 1:16).
III. THE PRECIOUSNESS. “Unto thee do we give thanks.” What blessing, what treasure, is comparable with thisthe certainty that God is near, and is known!not the infinite Unknowable, but our Father in Christ Jesus. We do not pretend to a complete knowledge of God. The Bible, far from professing to give such knowledge, declares it impossible (Job 11:7; Psa 139:6; Isa 55:9). We do not completely know our fellow men or our own selves. But we know all we need to know. Our knowledge, as far as it goes, is real and certain (Joh 1:18; Job 28:28; Jer 9:23, Jer 9:24). It is an ample resting place, both for intellect and heart (Mat 11:28).
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Psa 75:1-10
The undaunted one.
Such is the spirit of this psalm; fearlessness characterizes it throughout, and concerning this spirit it teaches much.
I. ON WHAT SUCH SPIRIT RESTS.
1. On the conviction that God is near at hand for our help. “For that thy Name is near,” etc. (Psa 75:1).
2. On the evidence for this conviction which God’s “wondrous works” supplies: works in nature, providence, grace.
II. THE FRUITS SUCH SPIRIT BEANS.
1. Thankfulness. (Psa 75:1.)
2. Righteous dealing. (Psa 75:2, “I will judge uprightly.”)
3. Clear sightedness as to the reality of things (Psa 75:3). Where this spirit is, there is no fear of man. He shrinks not from facing and confessing the actual truth, however unwelcome it may be.
4. Cheerful toil. “I bear up the pillars of it” (Psa 75:3); cf. St. Paul, “I can do all things through Christ,” etc.
5. Faithful testimony. (Psa 75:4.) Against the wicked. For God (Psa 75:7). Concerning wrath to come (Psa 75:8).
6. Delight in God. (Psa 75:9.)
7. Open siding with the right against the wrong (Psa 75:10).
III. THE GREAT EXEMPLAR AND GIVER OF THIS SPIRITthe Lord Jesus Christ.S.C.
Psa 75:1
The uplifting God.
Such is the theme of this psalm. This we gather from the frequent repetition of the word “uplift.” Like the repeated clear strokes of a boll, it reverberates through the psalm. In Psa 75:4 the wicked are bidden “lift not up the horn,” as doth the fierce bull that, in the pride of his might, tosses his horns defiantly against all comers. Let them not boast themselves in their fancied strength. And Psa 75:5 repeats this warning, and Psa 75:6 tells them that “uplifting””promotion,” our Authorized Version reads it, but it is the same word all throughis neither from the east, nor the west, nor south, butso Psa 75:7 tells themGod is the Judge; he putteth down one and “lifts up” another,again the same word. And then once more in Psa 75:10 God declares that the strength, “the horns,” of the righteous shall be lifted up. Thus over and over again this emphatic word and keynote of the psalm is heard. And this gracious dealing of God with his people is the ground of the earnest thanksgiving with which the psalm opens; and it is the “Name“ of God which it asserts to be so “near,” and which his wondrous works declare. As in Psa 121:1-8, God’s gracious keeping of his people is the theme, and hence the word “keep” is repeated all through the psalm. We do not know for certain when or by whom, or on what occasion, this psalm was written. It is like the song of Hannah echoed in the Magnificat of the mother of our Lord. Or it may celebrate one or all of David’s many deliveranceshow God had “uplifted him” out of all his troubles, and hence his vow of righteousness which in Psa 121:2 and repeatedly, he declares. Or it may celebrate the “uplifting” of Judah and Hezekiah from the peril of Sennacherib. We do not know, nor does it matter. Severed as it is for us from all special circumstances, we are the better able to make application of it according to our individual need. Now, in the text we note
I. ITS EXUBERANT THANKSGIVING. The writer’s heart was full.
1. He repeats his thanksgiving. It is as if he felt himself unable to tell out all his gratitude; as if he had said, “Yea, Lord, unto thee do we give thanks; yea, we do.”
2. And it arises from many hearts, not one alone. It is “we,” not “I.”
3. And it reveals the character of the grace received. That it had been such as was greatly and consciously needed; and could come from no other source (Psa 121:6); and it had been great indeed (Luk 7:47); and both unexpected and undeserved.
II. THE ABUNDANT SEASON FOR IT. “For that thy Name is near.”
1. What are we to understand by “thy Name“? It means that which the name suggests. Names call up in our minds that which we know and feel of those to whom they belong. The Name of God suggests, therefore, to any man his idea of Godone thing to one man, another to another. To the writer of this psalm it is evident what thought of God his Name suggested. God was to him the God who lifts his people up from all their distresses.
2. What he says of this Name. It is “near.” He meant, near in time, in locality,at hand and not afar off, to his consciousness; he realized this nearness of God.
3. And we can still assert the Name. How often and how greatly, and for how many, God has uplifted their souls!from the burden of guilty fear, of sin’s oppression, of earthly care, of death’s terror, and of all forms of Satan’s rage. In all such times of trouble God has been near to his people, and has lifted them up far above and away from all their fear.
III. ITS PERSUASIVE PLEA. Surely testimony such as is here given is a plea unanswerable that we all should put our trust in the uplifting God, and turn to him in every trouble, and abide in him always. For us, too, there is the further argument of God’s grace in Christ, and the infinite love revealed in him. May we hearken and obey!S.C.
Psa 75:3
Help laid on One that is mighty.
Our text and this whole psalm show clearly enough that
I. SUCH HELP WAS NEEDED.
1. Society, order, law, seemed all on the point of dissolution. A condition of affairs is contemplated in which everything seemed rushing ruinwards, and would rapidly have reached such sad ending, had they not been held back by One mightier than they. We cannot say for certain, though we may conjecture, what special age, persons, or events are alluded to. The psalm suits several such, and is capable of many applications. For our own use of its teachings it is well that we are left in ignorance of its actual allusions, and cannot point to the special events which were before the psalmist’s mind.
2. And such conditions are all too common. We see them in nations, Churches, families, individual souls. Everything seems slipping away, all order and strength and well being dissolving. It is as if “the earth and all the inhabitants thereof were dissolved.” It is so in things temporal, and so, too, in things spiritual.
3. The causes that produce such conditions are manifold. Sometimes, in nations, it is war, or political strife, or, and this more commonly, moral corruption. So it seems to have been in the condition contemplated by this psalm (see Psa 75:2, Psa 75:4). And none can read the records of history, whether in the Bible or in other books, but may trace this cause, sin, ever at its deadly work. If a nation, a Church, a city has fallen, we have not far to seek for what has brought it about, The philosophy of history is the tracing out the contrasted effects of righteousness and wrong. And in the dissolution told of here, the solvent that brought it about was certainly sin. And so is it also in the like conditions that are found elsewhere.
4. But wherever found, they are very sad. The groaning and travail of the whole creation, which were so audible and distressing to St. Paul, are the result of such conditions, and the sorrow would have been greater than he could have borne had he not been “saved by hope”the hope suggested by the latter half of our text, of help being laid on One that is mighty. For
II. SUCH HELP IS FORTHCOMING. “I bear up the pillars of it.” The earth is pictured as some vast temple supported on pillars, but which are on the point of giving way, and would were they not upheld by a mighty support. The meaning is plainthat there is One who holds back the ruin which is everywhere threatening, who will interpose and prevent it. Who is this Mighty One? It may be some monarch, statesman, prophet. God has raised up suchlike Moses, David, our own Alfred the Great; like Nehemiah, like William the Silent, and many more. The saying, “I bear up,” etc; is not arrogance, but the simple statement of the duty God has assigned him. The faith in God, and the courage which characterize such men, are evident in this psalm. But in the last resort it is God who is the real Up-bearer. It is he who inspires and qualifies his servants.
III. SUCH HELP, UNDER SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES, IS WAITING FOR US. Seek it.S.C.
Psa 75:5
The uplifted horn and the stiff neck.
These are two formidable enemies of God and the soul. They are generally found together, as in nature, so in the soul. They help one another in doing evil. They are metaphors derived from the tossing horn and the sturdy neck of the fierce wild bull found in the forests of Palestine. They represent severally the haughty spirit,that is the uplifted horn; and the stubborn will,that is the stiff neck. Let us speak of
I. THEIR ORIGINS.
1. The haughty spirit. Many are its roots. The evil heart, seeing the wicked prosper, worldly success, God’s delay of judgment, ill example, and often the possession of a naturally strong will to which other men, as is usual, yield.
2. The stubborn will. This partly natural, partly acquired, and ever fostered by the haughty spirit. Pride cherishes it, and encourages it always.
II. THEIR EVIL WORK. God’s Spirit, his Word, his ministers, his providence, Christ’s love, plead, threaten, and warn in vain, and the man dies in his sins.
III. THEIR DESTRUCTION. This wrought by:
1. The final awful judgment of God.
2. His providence.
3. His Spirit’s power.
They come in reverse order. But they are effectual, one or other of them. Which shall be so with us?S.C.
Psa 75:8
The Lord’s cup for us.
Many will say that the cup told of in this verse is the Lord’s cup of wrath, as in Psa 11:6; Isa 51:17-23, and frequently elsewhere. And if it were here said that the whole cup told of in our text was to be drunk by the wicked, there could be no doubt as to what cup was meant. But it is only “the dregs” thereof that is said to be their portion, not the rich foaming draught that fills the rest of the cup. No doubt there is the cup of God’s wrath, but there is also the cup of salvation, and for his people “the Lord” himself “is the portion of their cup.” And as in the previous verse the diverse dealings of God with men are told of, putting down one and setting up another, so here also we have the main contents of the cup, which are rich and bright and good, declared, and the miserable dregs which the wicked shall drink and drain out to the last. There is the better part for the good, the evil part for the wicked. We therefore take the “cup” here told of, as setting forth human life, our earthly existence allotted to us by the Lord. And thus we learn
I. THAT OUR LIFE IS GIVEN TO US OF THE LORD. It is a cup, a portion, an assigned lot, intended and ordered for us. “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” So said our blessed Saviour of the life allotted to him. Life for us all is in the hand of God, and he gives it to each one as he sees fit. This is a very blessed truth. For we know we have no choice over the main elements of our life; when, where, with what endowments, many or few, or of what parentage we shall be born,all this we have no control over. But it is good to know that not chance, still less ill will, but the Lord, has assigned to each of us the life we have to live, and he, like the master of the feast, deals out to each his cup (cf. Psa 100:1-5,” It is he that hath made us,” etc.). Therefore we may be sure that he means it to be for our good; for
II. HE PURPOSES THAT IT SHOULD BE BRIGHT AND JOYOUS. This, though apparently so contrary to what life is to many, is, nevertheless, what the metaphor employed here means, it tells of the wine which was meant to “make glad the heart of man;” the wine which was the symbol, not of vile debauchery, as it too often is in this country, but of gladness, mirth, joy. And the wine spoken of is of the choicest sortsparkling, foaming, bright, not some common sour beverage, such as the “vinegar” which one of the soldiers at the cross gave to our Lord to drink when he cried, “I thirst.” But the cup which the Lord gives us, as many of his children know, the life which he assigns us, is one that he would have to be rich and bright and glad. Not rich it may beit rarely iswith this world’s wealth, but rich with those “unsearchable riches,” with that “heavenly gift,” which is the perpetual gladness of the soul. Do we all of us know this? We ought to. The fault is our own if we do not. Our Lord would have us all liveand we maybright and blessed and beautiful lives. We thirst for joy, and God gives us, in the gift of life, a cup full of it. But, as in the happiest of homes, the child to be happy must be obedient, so is it with ourselves towards God.
III. NEVERTHELESS, THERE IS MUCH OF DANGER IS IT. “It is full of mixture” (cf. Pro 9:2). As was the wine mingled with myrrh, intended to stupefy the senses, which was given to our Lord on his way to Calvary. This mixture increased the intoxicating power of the wine, or acted as a narcotic to deaden the senses. And in the cup of life there is much to intoxicate, to excite with pride and passion, and to unduly lift up the foolish heart. See Jeshurun, Nebuchadnezzar, the power of wealth, the pride of life, the effects of power, etc. Oh, how many souls have been ruined thus! And there is much to deaden or dull all holy sensibility. Yes, “full of mixture” is this cup of life.
IV. THE WICKED DRINK THE DREGS. They drink so deeply, the world is everything to them, they care for nothing else, and they find that life has its dregs, and they have to drink them. Evil conscience, fear of judgment, disappointment, the future dark, death without hope,these are some of the dregs. Oh for grace that we may use the world, and not abuse it!S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Psa 75:1
A pious rulers purposes and confidences.
The division of the Book of Psalms into five books, and the clear recognition of the historical relations of many of the psalms, have given fresh interest to the study of this book of the Bible. It was usual to seek only for historical associations of the Psalms in the life of David. We now know that many of the later psalms stand related to the succeeding reigns, to the time of the Captivity, and to the renewed national life, on the return from Babylon. The Psalms have wider associations than the records of the experience of any one life. They reflect God’s ways with his people in all the ages, and the ways of God’s people with him. This psalm is often passed over as not being a very striking one, or having in it any very memorable or suggestive sentences. But it gains new interest when we connect it with Hezekiah, and find illustrations for it in the great strain-time of his reign, when Sennacherib put the holy city in peril, and there was a strange and sad strife of parties within the city, making Hezekiah’s position an extremely difficult one. Some pleaded hard for human alliances as defence against the Assyrians; Hezekiah held fast his dependence on God, the God of his fathers, the God of the nation. Disorganization within paralyzed his pious attempts; and the party of Shebna was plotting to secure an alliance with Egypt. The psalm is the expression of steadfast purpose and pious hope in a time of inward trouble. Its refrain is, “God reigneth, God is Judge, God is near. All things will he well, for God is with us.” See what such a cherished conviction can do for a man.
I. IT GIVES HIM A QUIET CONFIDENCE. He can even give thanks, because his trust makes him feel so restful and happy (see Hab 3:17, Hab 3:18).
II. IT HELPS HIM TO STAND FAST TO THE RIGHT, uninfluenced by the mere party contentions of the time. Man’s right is variable in each generation; God’s right is the same throughout all generations. The man whose strength and hope are in God can “judge uprightly.”
III. IT KEEPS HIM STEADFAST IN EVIL TIMES. “I hear up the pillars.” Hezekiah guided the state wisely through that time of commotion and peril. When everything seemed shifting and uncertain, he stood firm to first principles, primary truths, and God. Time always comes round to those who are strong, and stand firm to truth and righteousness.
IV. IT FREES HIM FROM ALL FEAR OF THE WILFUL. He knows that “God is Promoter.” The evil man may push and strive: “God putteth down one, and setteth up another.”
V. IT ASSURES HIM OF FINAL AND IRREVERSIBLE JUDGMENT, God must be against the wicked. God must be for the righteous, And it will be seen at last that he is.R.T.
Psa 75:1
The Divine Name and Names.
“For that thy Name is near, thy wondrous works declare.” Every god worshipped by a people has his own distinctive name among the people. But this is peculiarly true of the nation of Israel. The Divine Name, Jehovah, was given as the seal of the special covenant made with the nation. So the name Jehovah stands ever for God, God’s presence, God’s relations. But we can never be wholly satisfied with any one name for God. Besides it, we must have names of our own for him, which find expression for our sense of his gracious dealings with us, and relations to us. Two points are suggested:
1. God has a Name.
2. God has many Names.
I. GOD HAS A NAME. This helps us to realize that he is a Person, not a mere force or influence. The general name for God is El. The specific name for God, as God of Israel, is Jehovah (see occasion of definitely fixing the name, Exo 3:14). Note that it is the assertion of absolute and independent existence. It works out suggestively in three directions. It asserts
(1) God’s unity;
(2) God’s spirituality;
(3) God’s holiness.
This threefold conception of God lies at the basis of the Mosaic system, and is, therefore, properly gathered up into his Name. But it is striking and impressive to note, that God. was not satisfied with giving his people a name which only dealt with his abstract nature. He added a name which would gather up his relations with his people, and called himself, “The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.” God’s Name is said to be “near,” when men are specially impressed with his wonderful workings. Past dealings and present dealings bring home to men’s hearts the power and justice and grace which are summed up and expressed in his Name (Deu 4:7; Isa 30:27). A remarkable deliverance, such as that from Sennacherib, was poetically spoken of as a “coming near of the Divine Name.”
II. GOD HAS MANY NAMES. In families there are often pet names as well as the fixed names. Those pet names express individual feeling. So each person who gains an individual apprehension of God wants to put his special apprehension into a name. Indicate the variety of names: “God of heaven,” “King,” “Father,” etc.; and poetic figures like “my Rock,” “Refuge,” “Horn,” etc. Impress the point that no man really knows God until he finds he can put his own special meaning into the term he uses for him. Each one of us, reading the story of God’s wondrous works for us and gracious dealings with us, ought to be able to put our impressions into a name of our own.R.T.
Psa 75:1
Reasonings from the Divine activity.
“Thy wondrous works declare.” The thought of the restless activity of God is made by the psalmists, frequently, their ground of confidence. “He that keepeth thee will not slumber; behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep;” “Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders and the judgments of his mouth.” As first introduced to us in the Word, God comes forth into activity as the Creator of the earth; busy for six continuous Divine periods in framing the world of material things to be the trial scene for man, and setting man in his sphere. And all the ages of human history have revealed God working in man’s spheres, providing, correcting, guiding, restoring, delivering; man’s model of unresting activity.
I. THE DIVINE ACTIVITY IMPRESSES ON US THE DIVINE NOBILITY. Contrast the unexpressive, passive faces of idol gods. There is no dignity in listlessness, no honour in doing nothing. He is miserable indeed who has nothing to do; but he is a thousandfold more miserable who wants to do nothing. Among men the workers are the true nobility. And God is exalted to our thought when the Lord Jesus says of him, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”
II. THE DIVINE ACTIVITY CONVINCES US OF THE DIVINE INTEREST. Thinking of God’s wondrous works, the psalmist feels bow near God is to him and to his peoplenear in love and power, near in succour and blessing. How much more impressive this becomes if we apply it to immediate signs of Divine activity in the sudden overthrow of Sennacherib (2Ki 19:35)! Hezekiah could confidently rest in the assurance that God was actively working for him, and the rest of his anxieties would surely be mastered, as this one had been. So we can in a general way assure our hearts by reading of what God has done for our fathers; but the impression of Divine interest comes home to us only when we have been the objects of some gracious deliverance and guidance; then we know God is working for us.
III. THE DIVINE ACTIVITY ASSURES US OF THE DIVINE EFFICIENCY. We can trace the way in which that activity has wrought through long ages; and we can see what it has accomplished. It is not only that “with God all things are possible;” it is that all things are wise, right, good. He canthat is true. “He doeth all things well”that is even more true; and it is a more precious truth. The conviction that God is working, and that God is near, calls for the thanks which would fittingly express our trust in him.R.T.
Psa 75:2
God’s set time for judgment.
It is not certain whether Psa 75:2 and Psa 75:3 are to be taken as an utterance of the psalmist for himself, or whether God is here introduced as speaking. Dean Perowne thinks, “God is abruptly introduced as the speaker. The oracle is thus given as from the month of God himself, to those who may be in doubt or perplexity because their lot is cast in troublous times” But other writers think that Hezekiah is appealing to God, and assuring him that, even amidst the civil commotions and party struggles creating strong feelings, he will hold fast his integrity as chief magistrate, and judge fairly, uprightly, between man and man. “Receiving the congregation” is thus a poetical figure for the king’s daily magistracy. The Revised Version renders, “When I shall find the set time, I will judge uprightly,” and this favours the view that God is the speaker. “Judgment” here probably stands for “active intervention.” God often seems to delay his help; and such delay is a strain on faith and feeling. He never does really delay, because his time is set in infinite wisdom. Illustrate by the waiting at the shores of the Red Sea, for God’s set time to make the pathway through. See also Hezekiah’s waiting for God’s set time before his deliverance from the Assyrians. A “set time” implies
I. THOUGHT BEFOREHAND. God knew all Hezekiah’s anxieties long before he seemed to intervene. He was interested. He watched. God was caring when he did not seem to care. How much better it is that God should observe all circumstances, and decide for the wisest moment in which to act for us! We may wish him to act at once; but in that case he could only alter our circumstances. By thoughtfully deciding on a “set time,” the “best time,” God is able to bless us, to carry on his sanctifying work in us. A set time implies
II. THE SELECTION OF THE BEST TIME. But what is a best time can never be judged from any one point of view. God’s best is the best all round; the best for everybody; and the best in every sense. In connection with the psalm, God’s set time had to be best for Assyria, best for Sennacherib, best for Israel, best for Hezekiah, best for Shebna and his party, and best for us who have to learn from the old world story. We can so seldom make a fair judgment concerning God’s “set times” for us, because we cannot view them all round, and therefore we easily misunderstand them as seen from some point of self-interest. A “set time” implies
III. EFFECTIVE ACTION WHEN THE TIME HAS COME. Illustrate by the attack of Wolseley on Tel-el-Kebir. A set time was fixed, so everything was prepared and adjusted, and the stroke was vigorously delivered. It is well for us to wait God’s time, because his time is a “set time.”R.T.
Psa 75:4
The self-lifted horn.
Perhaps the most suggestive explanation of this figure is that given by Mr. Munro, in his ‘Summer Rambles in Syria.’ He is writing concerning the females in a Maronite village of Mount Lebanon. “The most remarkable peculiarities of their dress are the immense silver earrings hanging forward upon the neck, and the tantoura, or ‘horn,’ which supports the veil. This latter ornament varies in form, material, and position, according to the dignity, taste, and circumstances of the wearer. Horns are of gold, silver-gilt, and silver, and sometimes of wood. The former are either plain or figured in low relief, and occasionally set with jewels; but the length and position of them is that upon which the traveller looks with the greatest interest, as illustrating and explaining a familiar expression of Scripture. The young, the rich, and the vain wear the tantoura of great length, standing straight up from the top of the forehead; whereas the humble, the poor, and the aged place it upon the side of the head, much shorter, and spreading at the end like a trumpet. I do not mean to say that these distinctions are universal, but I was told that they are very general, and thus the ‘exalted horn’ still remains a mark of power and confidence, as it was in the days of Israel’s glory.” The appeal of the text is to those who unduly exalt themselves, as party leaders in times of civil commotion are in constant danger of doing. They “think of themselves above that they ought to think.” This is clearly indicated in the marginal alternative of the Revised Version, “Speak not insolently with a haughty neck” (see Hannah’s song, 1Sa 2:3).
I. THE SELF–IMPORTANT MAN DOES NOT WORTHILY ESTIMATE HIMSELF. The most difficult work for any man to do is honestly to criticize himself. Men shrink from that work. Men incapacitate themselves for it. Men spoil their own vision, and when they look in on themselves only find what they wished to find. “To thine own self be true,” even if the truth humbles you in the dust. Illustrate from the case of Shebna.
II. THE SELF–IMPORTANT MAN TAKES NO ACCOUNT OF GOD‘S ESTIMATE OF HIM. “Be not deceived: God is not mocked.” A man can never delude God with any braggings, or mere appearances. He searcheth the heart and trieth the reins (see Isa 2:10-17). See the confession of a psalmist,” My goodness extendeth not to thee.” Only the humble man can dare to consider the Divine searchings. Of the proud man it must be said, “God is not in all his thoughts.” He would be glad if there were no God.
III. THE SELF–IMPORTANT MAN DELUDES HIMSELF CONCERNING OTHER PEOPLE‘S ESTIMATE OF HIM. Because he will only give heed to the flatterers. He blinds himself to the mistrust and fear all prudent and good men show in relation to him.R.T.
Psa 75:6, Psa 75:7
Divine promotions through Divine providences.
There seems to be a recalling of the sentiments expressed in Hannah’s song (see 1Sa 2:6-8). Keeping to the relations of the psalm with Hezekiah’s trouble, we may understand him as expressing his confidence that the national deliverance would not come by securing any national alliances, either with Egypt, the power of the south, or with the kingdoms of the mountain districts round Palestine. Hezekiah’s assurance was that Divine providence would work out the Divine purpose. He believed God’s purpose was set on his deliverance, therefore he encouraged himself to watch and wait for the working of God’s providence. It is remarkable that no reference is made to the north. This Delitzsch explains: “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 nor west, nor from the reed staff of Egypt, but from Jahve alone.” The word “promotion” should be rendered “lifting up,” and seems to refer to the depression and distress of the people at this time of invasion. The point is thisHe who trusts in God can wait for God‘s workings. Illustrate three ways of trusting God, and find out which of the ways alone can honour him.
I. TRUSTING GOD, AND DOING NOTHING. To this pious people are often tempted. It is a very specious kind of self-delusion. It seems to be a special way of honouring God, to let him do it all. Sometimes this mistake is associated with the Divine promise to give right words when God’s servants have to stand before kings. But a promise specially made for sudden experience must not be forced to apply to ordinary, everyday, and anticipated duty.
II. TRUSTING GOD, AND SEEKING HELP FROM FELLOW MAN. This is an unconscious hypocrisy. The trusting God becomes the unreality, and the reliance on man becomes the practical reality. The condition is indicated in those who “feared the Lord, and served other gods.” It was the special sin of a section of the people in Hezekiah’s time. They said, “Trusting God is all very well, but we had better be doing something for the national deliverance and defence.” It is our peril still. We may really be leaning on man, and think we are leaning on God.
III. TRUSTING GOD, AND DOING THE DUTY OF THE HOUR. This is acceptable to God. Simply doing present duty is leaving God’s providence to work out God’s “upliftings.” The duty of the hour is a step in God’s providence; each duty is a step; and on them we shall certainly rise to the realization of God’s gracious purposes concerning those who thus show their trust.R.T.
Psa 75:8
The dregs for the wicked.
Burder has an interesting note on this verse. “The punishments which Jehovah inflicts upon the wicked are compared to a cupful of fermenting wine, mixed with intoxicating herbs, of which all those to whom it is given must drink the dregs, or sediment. The same image is found, not only frequently in other places of the Old Testament, but also very often in the Arabian poets. Thus Taabbata Scharran, in a passage of an Arabic Anthology, by Albert Schultens: ‘To those of the tribe of Hodail, we gave the cup of death, whose dregs were confusion, shame, and reproach.’ Another poet says, ‘A cup such as they gave us, we gave to them.’ When Calif Almansor had his valiant though dreaded general, Abre-Moslem, murdered, he repeated the following verse, in which he addressed the corpse: ‘A cup such as he gave, gave I to him, bitterer to the taste than wormwood.'” The point to which attention is directed is that all the contents of the cup God offers to his people have more or less bitterness in them. But the good drink the wine, which is mostly sweet, though in some degree bitter; the wicked drink the dregs, which are almost all bitter, and are intensely bitter. And the added bitterness is that they will be obliged to drink these dregs, whether they wish it or not. Probably reference may be to the dreadful fate of Sennacherib’s army, and the humiliation of the general himself; but possibly reference is also intended to the anti-Jehovah party in Israel, who caused so much trouble by their mischievous schemings. A time of bitterest humiliation was before them, when the nation was so gloriously delivered by God.
I. THE MIXED CUP OF A HUMAN LOT. Wine and bitter herbs were in this cup. But the taste of the herbs was only added to the wine, giving it really a tonic value. So the good man’s earthly lot is a mixed one. Much that is pleasant; something afflicting, something humbling; but these things only with tonic power. Good men are bettered by the influence on them of the bitter flavour in God’s cup.
II. THE DREGS IN THE CUP OF A HUMAN LOT. All the strength of the bitter herbs is kept in the dregs. Nobody would drink them if they were not obliged. The wicked man has to drink them. They represent the “after time” of all wilful, untrustful souls. There is a judgment of wrath meted out to sinners, and given them to endure to the end. Compare St. Paul’s figure, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”R.T.
Psa 75:9
The God of Jacob.
It is a singular and suggestive thing that God is not thought of by Hezekiah here as the God of Abraham, but as the God of Jacob. The revelations God makes to men are, partly, general to all men, suitable to man as man; and, partly, special to individuals, precisely adapted to the circumstances and necessities of particular persons. We may therefore profitably study what God was to Abraham, what to Isaac, what to Jacob. And if we can see these three cases to be, in a comprehensive sense, typical cases, we shall have a general sense of God’s relations with men when we call him “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” But the life of Abraham presented no particular likeness to the circumstances of Hezekiah. To Abraham God was the gracious Guide, the near Friend. To Jacob’s troubled, anxious life the king turned, and found similar experiences to his own. God’s ways with Jacob were those of the Redeemer and Deliverer. This probably was more especially in the mind of Hezekiah. Jacob was a man grievously wrongedwronged by Laban, and fearing wrong at the hands of Esau. And God had stood by the wronged man, saw him through, and saw him righted. That came as a Divine comforting to Hezekiah. He too was wronged; he too was misunderstood; be too was in peril But the God of Jacob was his God. The “God of Jacob” is God the Judge. This may be shown to include three things.
I. GOD IS THE ESTIMATOR OF CHARACTER. It is plain that a man’s character can never be safely estimated by a consideration of his circumstances. Job’s could not. Jacob’s could not. David’s could not. Try to read Hezekiah’s character in those times of strain and stress. Ask Shebna’s party their opinion of the king. It is full of comforting to us that we can be sure God is not deceived by circumstances, but knows us altogether. We may be absolutely content with the Divine appraisement. Read Jacob’s life in man‘s light, then try to read it in God‘s light.
II. GOD IS THE VINDICATOR OF THE GOOD. This is absolutely and entirely true of every good man, in what is called the “long run.” As in Jacob’s case, Job’s case, and David’s case, the vindication may be delayed for purposes of Divine training and sanctifying. God never has finally left his faithful servants unvindicated. His witness rested on Hezekiah: the Divine deliverance from Sennacherib proved a Divine witness on behalf of the faithful king.
III. GOD IS THE PUNISHER OF THE WICKED. And the severest punishment to them is the humbling failure of their seemingly well devised schemes.R.T.
Psa 75:10
Horns cut off.
“All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off.” A lifted horn well represents the insolent boasting of Rabshakeh, the Assyrian officer (see Isa 36:1-22). The Divine answer was the cutting off of Rabshakeh’s uplifted horn. God dealt in this way with proud Rabshakeh: “Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land” (Isa 37:7). Or, if Sennacherib be chiefly in mind, we may see that his vain confidences of capturing Jerusalem were destroyed, his “purposes were broken off,” his horn was brought low. “So Sennacherib returned,” a humiliated and disgraced man; “and it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword” (Isa 37:37, Isa 37:38). Some think that Antiochus Epiphanes is in the mind of the psalmist; and, certainly, further illustration may be taken from his case (Dan 8:9). The confidence Hezekiah has in God’s deliverance enables him to declare that he shall humble the pride of his foes. And God’s intervention would confirm the king in his regular work of humbling the wicked and exalting the righteous, in the exercise of his authority.
I. GOD‘S HUMBLING OF THE WICKED. The wicked here are more especially those who scorn his claims and insult his majesty, as did the Assyrian general, saying, “Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the King of Assyria.” God is jealous of the honour of his Name. “The lofty looks of man must be bowed down, and the Lord alone exalted.” Show what state of mind and heart is indicated by the offering of such insult to Jehovah. That state of mind and heart is ruin to any man.
II. GOD‘S HUMBLING, ENCOURAGING GOD‘S PEOPLE TO HUMBLE THE WICKED. Hezekiah will do it, in his official position, because God does it. Apply to all positions of authority. But there is no more difficult duty committed to us than this humbling the proud. It has to be done. It is both right and kind to do it. But we may harden, not humble. We may act in passion rather than in the calmness of holy love. We should humble because God does. But we must only humble as God does; wounding in the hope of healing.R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 75:1-10
The righteous judgment of God.
This psalm celebrates in prophetic strain the righteous judgment of God. The voice of God himself declares from heaven his righteousness; that he is not, as human impertinence has been wont to think, regardless of wrong and suffering, but only waits for the moment which to his infinite wisdom seems best.
I. GOD‘S RIGHTEOUS GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD.
1. God‘s wonderful work in history attests it. (Psa 75:1.) “What nation is there that hath God so near unto them?” (Deu 4:7). He is not separated by distance from the world. His Name, his nature, is near to us.
2. God‘s times of judgment are wisely and divinely chosen. (Psa 75:2, “When the set time is come, I, even I, will judge uprightly.”) He executes his sentence not according to man’s impatient expectations, but at the time which he himself has chosen.
3. When the moral order of the world seems near dissolution, Goers power is the security for its continuance. (Psa 75:3.) The natural and the moral framework of the world are here identified, He sustains the world by the pillars which he has set up.
4. God is the real Source of every righteous revolution in the world. (Psa 75:6, Psa 75:7.) “Glory and power come not from any earthly source, though a man should seek it in every quarter of the globe, but only from God, who lifteth up and casteth down according to his own righteous sentence.”
II. THE ADMONITION WHICH THESE TRUTHS ADMINISTER TO THE WICKED. (Psa 75:4, Psa 75:5.)
1. It is madness to resist God. (Psa 75:4.)
2. No arrogant self-exaltation will avail against God‘s judgments. (Psa 75:5, Psa 75:8.) The poet speaks here as a prophet. That which God threatens he accomplishes by the hands of his servants. “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished”S.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 75.
The prophet praiseth God: he promiseth to judge uprightly: he rebuketh the proud by the consideration of God’s providence: he praiseth God, and promiseth to execute justice.
To the chief musician, Al-taschith, A Psalm or Song of Asaph.
Title lamnatseach al tashchith mizmor leasaph shiir. This psalm is thought, by Bishop Patrick and others, to have been composed on account of the great deliverance of Jerusalem from the numerous and formidable army of Sennacherib, in the time of Hezekiah. The Syriac title asserts, that it treats of Christ and the future judgment. Hence Symmachus calls this psalm, “A triumphal Song concerning Immortality;” which Theodoret supports, by observing, that it contains a prediction of the punishment of the wicked, and the reward of the good.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psalms 75
To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, A Psalm or Song of Asaph
2Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks:
For that thy name is near
Thy wondrous works declare.
3When I shall receive the congregation
I will judge uprightly.
4The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved:
I bear up the pillars of it. Selah:
5I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly:
And to the wicked, Lift not up the horn:
6Lift not up your horn on high:
Speak not with a stiff neck.
7For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west,
Nor from the south.
8But God is the judge:
He putteth down one, and setteth up another.
9For 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.
10But I will declare for ever;
I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
11All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off;
But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition. In the superscription, compare Introd. 12, No. 15; 8, Nos. 1 and 2. The whole Psalm is pervaded by the confident assurance of help against arrogant and impious enemies through Gods judicial intervention. This assurance, however, flows from reliance on a promise of God received just before, and is so strong and lively that the Psalm begins already with the thanks of the Church (Psa 75:2), and not till then is Gods declaration announced (Psa 75:3-5), after which (Psa 75:6) the warning to the enemies is repeated. This is based upon the two truths realized by faith, that Israels deliverance does not proceed from those who were situated round about them on earth, but from God as Judge (Psa 75:7-8), and that God as Jehovah compels all the wicked of the earth to be the instruments of their own righteous punishment (Psa 75:9). The Psalmist finally declares, with the joyfulness of faith, that his praise shall never cease, and that the triumphant power of the righteous shall ever increase (Psa 76:10-11).
No convincing arguments can be adduced to justify us in connecting this and the following Psalm with the victory of the Maccabean princes over the Syrian Gorgias, 1 Maccabees 4 (Rudinger) or with that of the Maccabean general Judas over the Syrian Apollonius, 1Ma 3:10 f. (Hitzig, who refers Psalms 76 to the defeat of Seron). There is no reason even for going down to the age of the Exile, (Hupfeld) or to the times after the Exile generally (Kster, Olshausen). On the other hand there is nothing to contradict the supposition announced already in the superscription of the following Psalm in the Septuagint, which connects it with the Assyrians, that is with the overthrow of Sennacherib before Jerusalem (2 Kings 19). Many arguments may even be adduced in support of it, namely, not only the points of resemblance with Psalms 46, 76 but especially Psa 75:7, and the prophetic declaration of Isaiah 37 along with the exhortation corresponding thereto, addressed to king Hezekiah, 2Ch 32:7-8. Our Psalm is accordingly to be viewed as the lyrical accompaniment of the prophetic utterances which Isaiah gave forth in view of impending destruction by the Assyrians, as an evidence also of the lively faith with which Gods people then received His promise, and as an exhortation to the Church of all ages, through like faith, to seek a share in a like deliverance. (Hengstenberg).
Psa 75:2. And Thy name is near.[E. V.: For that thy name is near.] Since it is not permitted to translate by for (De Wette), the verse does not formally present the ground of thanksgiving, though it is really contained in the nearness of Gods revealed presence and in the might of His name (Deu 4:7; Isa 30:27), by which His salvation comes nigh (Psa 85:10). The subject is continued and has a deeper meaning than when it is said that God is near the heart and the mouth, (Jer 12:12, comp. Deu 30:14). The view of the passage, according to which a colon is put after and, and the nearness of Gods name is regarded as that which His wondrous works declare (Hupfeld) personifies the latter in a manner hardly admissible. [The former construction would necessitate the rendering: We praise thee, O Lord, we give praise; and thy name is near; they recount thy wonders. In favor of this view I would urge further that recounting Gods wonders, etc. was the most usual kind of praise or thanksgiving, as the aspect in which God was viewed by the Israelites was largely that of a Wonder-Worker. The connection with the first member of the verse, then appears natural. The change of person is usual, and as the verb has the masculine termination, the necessity of assuming a neglect of agreement is avoided.J. F. M.]
Psa 75:3-6. Occasion.[Heb.. E.V.: Congregation]. In Hab 2:3; Dan 8:19; Dan 11:27; Dan 11:35; Psa 102:14, the time appointed in Gods counsel for the execution of His judgment, is expressed by this term , that is, . This shall arrive when God shall have finished His work in the Church (Isa 10:12). And God gives the assurance that He will not allow this occasion to pass by disregarded, but that He will seize upon it, and then judge according to the law of right. Accordingly it is not the earthly king David who speaks (Geier and others) but the heavenly King, as in Psa 46:11. The only question is now, how far this declaration continues; whether to Psa 75:7 inclusive (Hitzig) or to Psa 75:6 (Tholuck, Delitzsch) or to Psa 75:5 (Kster) or only to Psa 75:4 (Kimchi and most). In any case the different parts of such propheticolyrical utterances flow easily into one another, and in Psa 75:10, though the Church does not speak (Hengst.) yet it is in her name and as her exponent that the Psalmist does, since the Psalm begins with we, and therefore the use of the first person decides nothing. The musical mark Selah throws no more light upon the question. Announcements from God are given by Isaiah, in which threatenings against His enemies occur, and which bear also the character of warning and exhortation, but such utterances concerning the Assyrians in the mouth of the Psalmist are admitted by none. Besides, the sudden change of the speaker introducing himself with I, would not be without harshness. We are therefore at all events justified in including Psa 75:5 as part of Gods declaration. With regard to Psa 75:6 we have more ground for hesitation. For if we were to consider it as a continuation of the words uttered by God, it would appear to derogate from the conciseness, pregnancy, and force which are conspicuous in them, and render it difficult to assign the true position of Psa 75:7. If, on the other hand, we regard Psa 75:6 as a lyrical response to Gods declaration, in the mouth of the Psalmist, prophecy and poetry would run naturally into one another, and Psa 75:7 be united in conformity to this by the causal . Even in Psa 75:3 this particle is capable of the same meaning. It would in that case introduce the transition from the lyrical to the prophetical style. But a translation, which, beginning with for, must insert a colon immediately after it for the sake of clearness (Delitzsch), is harsh. It is however unnecessary to change the confirmatory into an affirmative: yea (Baur in De Wette). The construction of as a particle of time= (Sept.) is quite correct and expressive; the ambiguous wenn (De Wette and others) is, however, to be avoided. The words scarcely mean that God will choose the proper occasion (Ewald, Maurer, Olshausen), but that He will seize upon an occasion already chosen, Gen 2:15; Psa 18:17 (Kimchi, Calvin, and others, Hupfeld, Delitzsch). In Psa 75:4 it is doubtful whether the dissolving is to be understood of internal melting from fear, while quaking before God as He appears for judgment (Olshausen, Hupfeld) or before the violence of the wicked (Hitzig) or whether it is to be understood of the disturbing influence of the prevailing violence, unrighteousness and sin in the disarrangement of moral forces, symbolized by physical ones, in political confusion and the like events, comp. Psa 46:7 (Geier, Hengst., Del.) In like manner it is doubtful whether the setting upright of the pillars is to be taken in a preterite sense, and referring to Gods original creative acts, from which an assurance of Gods preserving and delivering may be drawn (1Sa 2:8; Job 38:4 ff.) or whether it is to be taken in a present sense with direct reference to the latter. The different allusions merge into one another, and so, to a certain extent, do the expositions of the same.The horn, employed already in Deu 33:17; 1Sa 2:1, as an instrument of victorious aggression, and in Psa 18:3, transferred to Jehovah as the Horn of salvation, is applied in the present Psalm in Psa 76:10 b to the righteous. In Psa 76:10 a, on the contrary, and in Psa 75:5-6, it is applied to the impious enemy. It occurs in such a connection that it is plain horn, does not mean head (Hupfeld) but denotes an instrument of force. And to lift up the horn is not to raise the head, but, according to the context, to display the instruments of force, to brandish them for attack or defense, to increase, or to strengthen them. It is also to be decided by the context alone, whether the accessory idea of confidence and courage, or that of insolence and presumption is to be understood (comp. Psa 89:18; Psa 89:25; Psa 92:11; Psa 112:9; Psa 148:14; 1Ma 2:48). The meaning bear up given to in Psa 75:4 in E. V., is probably not exactly correct. So with the explanation estimate taken from the same sense of weighing. The idea of setting upright is most readily suggested by the context, and is really as near the primary meaning of making level, even, as the other renderings.J. F. M.].
Psa 75:7. From the desert of the mountains.[Heb. . Eng. Ver., Promotion from the south]. This translation is demanded by the present text, and refers to the Arabian desert, bounded by mountains, which lies to the south of Canaan. The sentence which, from the course of thought, is easily completed, means that the foes who oppress Gods people have to expect the Judge neither from the East, nor the West, nor the South, but from heaven. This appears to intimate that the enemy is viewed as approaching from the North, and therefore applies to the Assyrians. A number of good MSS. and editions, and even the Targum, read midhbar, however not with Pattahh, but with Kamets. The question then is, how, according to this word, thus standing in the absolute state, the following is to be understood. Most of those who adopt this reading (Hupfeld also) take it with Kimchi as Hiphil Inf., with the substantive meaning: elevation. It then is understood to mean that exaltation comes from no quarter of the world, that there is no earthly source of power. But even if without any addition the desert can be used to designate the south, it would justly be felt necessary for the full expression of the thought thus presented, that the north should be mentioned. It has been attempted to gain this end, by allowing harim to retain its usual meaning, while the mountains are understood to mean the fertile mountain region of Lebanon and Hermon (Ewald). But this fails in this respect that the repetition of the preposition can scarcely be dispensed with if the thought from the mountains is to be brought out, and the word not be capable of being considered as in apposition; and this is especially necessary if the need of completing the unfinished sentence is taken into account. The words are more suitable in the mouth of God (Hitzig), or of the enemy (Geier, Rosenmller), than in that of the Psalmist.
Psa 75:9-10. A cup is the cup of wrath (Isa 51:17.) with the intoxicating wine (Psa 60:5) which God Himself by mixing it prepares for drinking. He reaches it forth Himself while fermenting, that is, foaming, and full to the brim, and forces the guilty to drain it without intermission and with constrained eagerness, even to the dregs (Job 21:20; Oba 1:16; Hab 2:16; Eze 23:34; Jer 25:15 f; Jer 48:26; Jer 49:12; Jer 51:7). It is not necessary to change Psa 75:9 d into (Olshausen, Baur) for the sake of the thought: even its dregs, instead of: only its dregs (Hengst., Hitzig). The latter rendering is, it is true, the prevailing one, and the sense might be that the heathen who hitherto had not drunk of this cup, receive nothing but the dregs to drain (Hitzig). But this is less suitable in the connection than the thought: there is nothing left, etc. And the particle leads us directly to this, for it expresses not so much limitation as contrast, and therefore gives sometimes to an expression the sense of certainty and indubitableness (Ewald, 105 d, 354 a). Its dregs are not those of the cup, but of the mixture. This reference is favored by the feminine suffix. , indeed, occurs sometimes as feminine, but usually as masculine, and so here. Since is in the accusative, is likewise so to be taken, and the rather that the article is absent. Then it is not red, that is, good wine, that is spoken of (Kimchi, Calvin, J. D. Michaelis, Rosenmueller), nor is it wine, conceived as still fermenting, and therefore turbid (Aben Ezra and others), nor that in which roots have been put, and which has begun to ferment again (De Wette), but it is a cup foaming from a full drawing (Gesenius, Thesaurus). The concluding words, in Psa 76:10, are taken by most as the words of God, and in form and meaning correspond to this view. The change of speakers would, however, be harsh, and there is no sufficient reason for placing the verse immediately after Psa 75:4 (Olshausen). The word all, in Psa 75:9-10 has at all events a strong emphasis.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. It is good for us not only to listen to the voice of men, but also to give ear to God when He speaks. All His words, however, cluster round the Law and the Gospel, and have as their central point His revelation of Himself for mans salvation, or the bringing near of His name.2 The Law shows us chiefly God as Judge; the Gospel God as Saviour. The two aspects, however, are presented in both. It is our part to divide rightly the word of God, and sincerely appropriate it.
2. If we can appropriate in faith Gods gracious word of promise, we will gain that joyful assurance of help and salvation, which cheers us in suffering, makes us courageous in dangers and valiant in temptations, and, through the assurance of Divine intervention, begets that certainty of final victory, before which complaining is stilled, and for which prayer, thanksgiving, and praise resound.
3. The promises which God has given to His covenant people, every believer may appropriate to himself. This is not accomplished, however, with equal success at all times. Through various causes it is sometimes easy, and at other times difficult. It becomes difficult especially through the pressure which in circumstances of extreme distress the thought of Gods tarrying exerts upon the soul. If we were to yield to this pressure, the fear of neglect and the anguish of abandonment by God would take possession of the soul. It is therefore well that, to counteract it, we recount betimes the former wonders and mighty acts of God, and then we will be taught to rely with greater confidence upon the trustworthiness of God, that is, upon His truth and faithfulness, and to be more assured of His power, righteousness, and goodness.
4. God not only knows the right occasion, but avails Himself of it, and His intervention preserves from destruction the world shaken to its foundations, while He maintains, as He has established, in force, efficiency, and due influence, the moral as well as the physical order of the world. Therefore judgment and deliverance are to be expected from Him alone, and not from the world. The attention therefore, both of the Church and of the world, must be earnestly given to serious reflection upon the justice as well as upon the love of God. For God is equally in earnest in both, and none can hinder their complete manifestation at the fit time.
5. When one is abased and another exalted, it is not to be regarded as the sport of fortune, nor as an event of blind necessity, whether it be called nature or destiny, but the controlling hand of God is to be discerned therein, which, according to mens conduct, punishes and blesses, deals out and presents to every one the portion allotted to him. By this men themselves are made to further the execution of the Divine judgments. Yet even so there is an essential difference not to be overlooked. The wicked perform their part by constraint; the righteous willingly. Hence arises the distinction between the instruments and the servants of God.
6. The wicked do not at first perceive that they themselves must bear a part in the execution of judgment upon themselves, and when they do perceive it while exchanging the sweet and intoxicating cup for the bitter dregs, they cannot prevent it. They must drain it without intermission, even to its sediments, and that they all must do without exception. The final ruin of all the ungodly as well as the complete triumph of the righteous and their endless praise to God is a Messianic expectation, theme of announcement, and hope.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The distresses of the pious do not prove that they are forsaken by God, but that the time chosen by Him beforehand has not yet arrived.When the righteous praise God they make known, 1, that Gods name has come nigh them; 2, that they have to talk of His wonders; 3, that they are mindful of His word.Gods word and mans faith bear constantly an intimate relation to each other, therefore the word must be proclaimed, and faith tried.There are commotions in which the world might be crushed and the Church might despair, if God did not preserve the one and comfort the other.God is indeed omnipresent, preserving and governing the world which He has created, but there are times and places in its history in which the presiding hand of the Eternal is clearly displayed, or is veiled from human sight.When distress is the most severe, then is help nearest, but it lies not in us to determine this extremity of need.Before God judges He attempts to save. He therefore not merely threatens to punish, but warns also the presumptuous and secure.The announcement of Gods coming has the power to cheer or to terrify, just according to mens conduct.It is better to take the cup of sorrow from Gods hand than to be obliged to drink the intoxicating cup of His wrath which follows the cup of sin and its pleasures.Not from the powers of the world, but from God in heaven are judgment and deliverance to be expectedGods judgments come irresistibly, but they may be escaped by a genuine repentance.Gods judgments upon the unconverted sinner are inevitable; let no one deceive himself: what is delayed is not revoked.Through Gods delaying nothing is lost; but many may be saved thereby, for space is given them for repentance.Which do you prefer, endless praise or endless groaning? One of the two is thy allotted portion, and Gods hand cannot err.The triumph of the righteous is as certain as the ruin of the wicked, and both of them through Gods judgment, but many find it hard to bide the time.
Luther: God measures out to every one his draught of suffering; but it is the dregs that are left for the ungodly.Starke: The heart of a believer so overflows with gratitude in the contemplation of Gods blessings, that it cannot find words sufficient to express it.The troubles of the righteous last long, as it seems to us, yet they have a certain limit appointed by God, which they cannot pass.When God touches a land everything trembles and melts like wax at the fire.O that men would fall betimes in true penitence at the feet of this Judge!Presumption is the mother of all sins and the road to destruction, and self-security is the strongest chain of hell, Isa 28:15; Pro 16:18.The troubles of the Christian are like the foam of a liquid, which lasts but a short time, but the plagues of the ungodly are like the dregs, which will cause them endless torment.Here the wonderful ways of God are often concealed to us; but there we shall discover that they have been only goodness and truth; what then can they evoke from us but unceasing praise to God?The fall of one must often be the means of the exaltation of another.Synesius (Bp. of Cyrene): There is a life-giving pleasure worthy of being the gift of God, and there is a tumultuous rejoicing. When thou art enjoying the bounteous repast, think of God! For then comes the greatest enticement to sin, and most slip and fall.Osiander: The judgments of God against persecutors we are to await with patience.Selnecker: The world could not last a moment, if God had not preserve it for the sake of His chosen.Renschel: Gods word is the Christians strength, by which he acts in faith as with the strength of God.Frisch: Security is the strongest chain of hell, the largest net of Satan, by which he hunts best and catches the most prey.Arndt: The hope of relief is given to tribulation, and, for all that we know, God may have many means of deliverance.Rieger: It is a great work to strengthen the hands of ourselves and others for good in evil times as Asaph does in this Psalm, so that we testify (1) to the source of our good hope; (2) to our good aims flowing from this source; (3) how we have realized these and maintained at the same time our good hope.Tholuck: God alone is to be Judge and Hiding-place.Richter (Hausbibel): The Revelation of John is the key to and conclusion of all the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning this last time, and they have been given as a warning and consolation, not for carnal abuse.Vaihinger: The judgment of God cannot follow at all times, but mans freedom must have room for exercise, in some cases as hardening into sin, and in others as growing preparedness for Divine help, in order that the actual final decision of God may be emphatic and convincing.Guenther: The higher a man holds himself, the further is he from God.Schaubach (20th Sunday after Trinity): As the Church of the Lord made herself ready to receive Him, so must thou too, O Christian, worthily prepare thyself. For in His own time will He, who now so kindly and lovingly invites thee, become thy Judge, and all the world shall tremble before Him.Taube: We perhaps call often upon God in the hour of anguish and distress, but there scarcely ever goes forth simple, much less frequent, thanksgiving after deliverance.God is Judge! That is the great fact which underlies the history of the world, which pervades in a thousand manifestations all the ways and works of God.Kgel (Thanksgiving service after the battle of Kniggratz) 1. We remind each other of the sustaining pillars; 2. We feel all of us together the trembling of the land, 3. We adore the supporting hand of God.
[Matth. Henry (Psa 75:6-10): Two good practical inferences drawn from these great truths: 1. He will praise God and give Him glory for the elevation to which He had advanced him. 2. He will use the power with which he is entrusted for the great ends for which it was put into his hands, (1) He resolves to be a terror unto evil-doers; (2) He resolves to be a protection and praise to them that do well.J. F. M.]
Footnotes:
[2][According to the biblical, and especially the Old Testament mode of conception the connection generally between the name and the object is very close, differing greatly from that held in the modern consciousness, in which the name has been weakened by a mere conventional sign. The name is the thing itself, in so far as the latter is manifested and knownthe expression of the nature of the object comprehended in the word. Knig, Theologie der Psalmen, p. 266; quoted in the original in Liddons Bampton Lectures, p. 50.J. F. M.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This appears to be a Psalm of praise. The soul rejoicing in the covenant interest of God his Saviour, while he praiseth God, corrects the ungodly, and speaks with holy confidence of what the different ends shall be to the righteous and to the wicked.
To the chief musician, Al-taschith, a Psalm or Song of Asaph.
Psa 75:1
The Psalmist loves to dwell upon the precious name of the Lord. And when we consider the honour due to this holy name, and the regard the Lord hath in all ages manifested towards it, we may well join issue with the Psalmist in celebrating it. See Eze 36:22 . And this is the very argument the Psalmist useth for mercy, Psa 25:11 . Is not this wholly on Christ’s account? and was not Jesus meant in that scripture, Exo 23:20-21 ?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Cup in the Hand of the Lord
Psa 75:8
What is the cup of the Lord in my text? What is the cup of salvation in another Psalm? What is the cup of blessing in St. Paul? Are there two different cups? Are we to distinguish between the cup which Christ drained and the cup which He blessed? Are we to divide the Passion from the Eucharist? Good Friday from Maundy Thursday? no, we are not to divide them. The two are one. The Eucharist is the communion of the Passion. The power of the Passion is the power of the Eucharist.
I. Those who enter into the devout communicant life have found the secret of joy, for they have the life of Christ. But they are also self-consecrated to suffering; for the life of Christ is a dying life; His joy is wrung out of the heart of sorrow. They are dedicated to fellowship in His sufferings, that their fellowship in His glory may be real. This is the dominant conception of the Passion-narrative in St. John. We are not to look upon Good Friday simply as a defeat followed by a victory. The victory was won in and through suffering; it did not simply come after it. All this is in the cup which our Saviour drained, and which He gives us to drink. The red wine with which the cup of the Lord is full mixed, and which He poureth out for us, is His blood. Blood the symbol of life, not of death; but of life poured out, consecrated by dying.
II. What does this challenge mean to us, dropping metaphor and mysticism? ‘Can ye drink of the cup that I shall drink of?’ We know that we must answer, We can, unless we prefer to say that we have neither part nor lot in the life and death of Jesus Christ. But what is involved in our acceptance of the challenge? We are able, at anyrate we wish to try to do what? Surely the cup is the burden of human sorrow and human sin the accumulated results of all the errors and vices and crimes that poor humanity commits every day. A bitter draught it is; ‘Thou hast given us a drink of deadly wine’ we might say when it is put before us. Jesus Christ was willing to drain it as an act of love, and as an act of obedience. He took up the burden of frail humanity. He let it crush Him and by so doing He conquered it. That is the claim, the challenge, that Christ makes to us. We cannot tell what He will require of us, it may be much or it may be little; but have we the spirit of love and the spirit of obedience, in which as I have said, Christ Himself lived and died for man? If we have we may answer humbly but confidently, ‘We are able’; for our great Captain will set us no impossible tasks.
III. You will see now why the cup which our blessed Lord drained and the cup which He blessed are one and the same cup. It is the cup of communion, of brotherhood; the cup of kindness which pledges us to bear each other’s burdens instead of shifting our own; and it is the cup of the red wine poured out, the precious life-blood freely given, the living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.
W. R. Inge, All Saints’ Sermons, p. 153.
Reference. LXXV. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 160.
The Old Testament a History of the Jews
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
XV
PSALM AFTER DAVID PRIOR TO THE BABYLONIAN EXILE
The superscriptions ascribed to Asaph twelve palms (Psa 50 ; 73-83) Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David. Their sons also directed the various bands of musicians (1Ch 25 ). It seems that the family of Asaph for many generations continued to preside over the service of song (Cf. Ezr 3:10 ).
The theme of Psa 50 is “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” or the language of Samuel to Saul when he had committed the awful sin in respect to the Amalekites. This teaching is paralleled in many Old Testament scriptures, for instance, Psa 51:16-17 . For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
The problem of Psa 73 is the problem of why the wicked prosper (Psa 73:1-14 ), and its solution is found in the attitude of God toward the wicked (Psa 73:15-28 ). [For a fine exposition of the other psalms of this section see Kirkpatrick or Maclaren on the Psalms.]
The psalms attributed to the sons of Korah are Psa 42 ; Psa 44 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 ; Psa 49 ; Psa 84 ; Psa 85 ; Psa 87 . The evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem is internal. There are three stanzas, each closing with a refrain. The similarity of structure and thought indicates that they were formerly one psalm. A parallel to these two psalms we find in the escape of Christian from the Castle of Giant Despair in Pilgrim’s Progress .
Only two psalms were ascribed to Solomon, viz: Psa 72 and 127. However, the author believes that there is good reason to attribute Psa 72 to David. If he wrote it, then only one was written by Solomon.
The theme of Psa 72 is the reign of the righteous king, and the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold, is as follows: (1) righteous (Psa 72:1-4 ) ; (2) perpetual (Psa 72:5-7 ); (3) universal (Psa 72:8-11 ); (4) benign (Psa 72:12-14 ); (5) prosperous (Psa 72:15-17 ).
Psa 127 was written when Solomon built the Temple. It is the central psalm of the psalms of the Ascents, which refer to the Temple. It seems fitting that this psalm should occupy the central position in the group, because of the occasion which inspired it and its relation to the other psalms of the group. A brief interpretation of it is as follows: The house here means household. It is a brief lyric, setting forth the lessons of faith and trust. This together with Psa 128 is justly called “A Song of Home.” Once in speaking to Baylor Female College I used this psalm, illustrating the function of a school as a parent sending forth her children into the world as mighty arrows. Again I used this psalm in one of my addresses in our own Seminary in which I made the household to refer to the Seminary sending forth the preachers as her children.
The psalms assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah are Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 . The historical setting is found in the history of the reign of Hezekiel. Their application to Judah at this time is found in the historical connection, in which we have God’s great deliverances from the foreign powers, especially the deliverance from Sennacherib. We find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and in Psa 74 ; Psa 79 .
The radical critics ascribe Psa 74 ; Psa 79 to the Maccabean period, and their argument is based upon the use of the word “synagogues,” in Psa 74:8 . The answer to their contention is found in the marginal rendering which gives “places of assembly” instead of “synagogues.” The word “synagogue” is a Greek word translated from the Hebrew, which has several meanings, and in this place means the “place of assembly” where God met his people.
The silence of the exile period is shown in Psa 137 , in which they respond that they cannot sing a song of Zion in a strange land. Their brightening of hope is seen in Psa 102 . In this we have the brightening of their hope on the eve of their return. In Psa 85:10 we have a great text:
Mercy and truth are met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
The truth here is God’s law demanding justice; mercy is God’s grace meeting justice. This was gloriously fulfilled in Christ on the cross. He met the demands of the law and offers mercy and grace to all who accept them on the terms of repentance and faith.
Three characteristics of Psa 119 are, first, it is an alphabetical psalm; second, it is the longest chapter in the Bible, and third, it is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 . Psalms 146-150 were used for worship in the second temple. The expressions of innocence in the psalms do not refer to original sin, but to a course of conduct in contrast with wicked lives. The psalmists do not claim absolute, but relative sinlessness.
The imprecations in the psalms are real prayers, and are directed against real men who were enemies of David and the Jewish nation, but they are not expressions of personal resentment. They are vigorous expressions of righteous indignation against incorrigible enemies of God and his people and are to be interpreted in the light of progressive revelation. The New Testament contains many exultant expressions of the overthrow of the wicked. (Cf. 1Co 16:22 ; 2Ti 4:14 ; Gal 5:12 ; Rev 16:5-6 ; Rev 18:20 .) These imprecations do not teach that we, even in the worst circumstances, should bear personal malice, nor take vengeance on the enemies of righteousness, but that we should live so close to God that we may acquiesce in the destruction of the wicked and leave the matter of vengeance in the hands of a just God, to whom vengeance belongs (Rom 12:19-21 ).
The clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con, are found in these passages, as follows: Psa 16:10-11 ; Psa 17:15 ; Psa 23:6 ; Psa 49:15 ; Psa 73:23-26 . The passages that are construed to the contrary are found in Psa 6:5 ; Psa 30:9 ; Psa 39:13 ; Psa 88:10-12 ; Psa 115:17 . The student will compare these passages and note carefully their teachings. The first group speaks of the triumph over Sheol (the resurrection) ; about awaking in the likeness of God; about dwelling in the house of the Lord forever; about redemption from the power of Sheol; and God’s guiding counsel and final reception into glory, all of which is very clear and unmistakable teaching as to the future life.
The second group speaks of DO remembrance in death; about no profit to the one when he goes down to the pit; of going hence and being no more; about the dead not being able to praise God and about the grave as being the land of forgetfulness ; and about the dead not praising Jehovah, all of which are spoken from the standpoint of the grave and temporal death.
There is positively no contradiction nor discrepancy in the teaching of these scriptures. One group takes the spirit of man as the viewpoint and teaches the continuity of life, the immortality of the soul; the other group takes the physical being of man as the viewpoint and teaches the dissolution of the body and its absolute unconsciousness in the grave.
QUESTIONS
1. How many and what psalms were ascribed to Asaph?
2. Who presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David?
3. What is the theme of Psa 50 , and where do we find the same teaching in the Old Testament?
4. What is the problem of Psa 73 , and what its solution?
5. What psalms are attributed to the sons of Korah?
6. What is the evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem and what the characteristic of these two taken together?
7. What parallel to these two psalms do we find in modern literature?
8. What psalms were ascribed to Solomon?
9. What is the theme of Psa 72 ?
10. What is the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold?
11. When was Psa 127 written and what the application as a part of the Pilgrim group?
12. Give a brief interpretation of it and the uses made of it by the author on two different occasions.
13. What psalms are assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah, and what their historical setting?
14. What is their application to Judah at this time?
15. Where may we find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem?
16. To what period do radical critics ascribe Psalms 74-79; what is their argument, and what is your answer?
17. Which psalm shows the silence of the exile period and why?
18. Which one shows their brightening of hope?
19. Explain Psa 85:10 .
20. Give three characteristics of Psa 119 .
21. What use was made of Psalms 146-150?
22. Explain the expression of innocence in the psalms in harmony with their teaching of sin.
23. Explain the imprecations in the psalms and show their harmony with New Testament teachings.
24. Cite the clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con.
XV
PSALM AFTER DAVID PRIOR TO THE BABYLONIAN EXILE
The superscriptions ascribed to Asaph twelve palms (Psa 50 ; 73-83) Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David. Their sons also directed the various bands of musicians (1Ch 25 ). It seems that the family of Asaph for many generations continued to preside over the service of song (Cf. Ezr 3:10 ).
The theme of Psa 50 is “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” or the language of Samuel to Saul when he had committed the awful sin in respect to the Amalekites. This teaching is paralleled in many Old Testament scriptures, for instance, Psa 51:16-17 . For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
The problem of Psa 73 is the problem of why the wicked prosper (Psa 73:1-14 ), and its solution is found in the attitude of God toward the wicked (Psa 73:15-28 ). [For a fine exposition of the other psalms of this section see Kirkpatrick or Maclaren on the Psalms.]
The psalms attributed to the sons of Korah are Psa 42 ; Psa 44 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 ; Psa 49 ; Psa 84 ; Psa 85 ; Psa 87 . The evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem is internal. There are three stanzas, each closing with a refrain. The similarity of structure and thought indicates that they were formerly one psalm. A parallel to these two psalms we find in the escape of Christian from the Castle of Giant Despair in Pilgrim’s Progress .
Only two psalms were ascribed to Solomon, viz: Psa 72 and 127. However, the author believes that there is good reason to attribute Psa 72 to David. If he wrote it, then only one was written by Solomon.
The theme of Psa 72 is the reign of the righteous king, and the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold, is as follows: (1) righteous (Psa 72:1-4 ) ; (2) perpetual (Psa 72:5-7 ); (3) universal (Psa 72:8-11 ); (4) benign (Psa 72:12-14 ); (5) prosperous (Psa 72:15-17 ).
Psa 127 was written when Solomon built the Temple. It is the central psalm of the psalms of the Ascents, which refer to the Temple. It seems fitting that this psalm should occupy the central position in the group, because of the occasion which inspired it and its relation to the other psalms of the group. A brief interpretation of it is as follows: The house here means household. It is a brief lyric, setting forth the lessons of faith and trust. This together with Psa 128 is justly called “A Song of Home.” Once in speaking to Baylor Female College I used this psalm, illustrating the function of a school as a parent sending forth her children into the world as mighty arrows. Again I used this psalm in one of my addresses in our own Seminary in which I made the household to refer to the Seminary sending forth the preachers as her children.
The psalms assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah are Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 . The historical setting is found in the history of the reign of Hezekiel. Their application to Judah at this time is found in the historical connection, in which we have God’s great deliverances from the foreign powers, especially the deliverance from Sennacherib. We find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and in Psa 74 ; Psa 79 .
The radical critics ascribe Psa 74 ; Psa 79 to the Maccabean period, and their argument is based upon the use of the word “synagogues,” in Psa 74:8 . The answer to their contention is found in the marginal rendering which gives “places of assembly” instead of “synagogues.” The word “synagogue” is a Greek word translated from the Hebrew, which has several meanings, and in this place means the “place of assembly” where God met his people.
The silence of the exile period is shown in Psa 137 , in which they respond that they cannot sing a song of Zion in a strange land. Their brightening of hope is seen in Psa 102 . In this we have the brightening of their hope on the eve of their return. In Psa 85:10 we have a great text:
Mercy and truth are met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
The truth here is God’s law demanding justice; mercy is God’s grace meeting justice. This was gloriously fulfilled in Christ on the cross. He met the demands of the law and offers mercy and grace to all who accept them on the terms of repentance and faith.
Three characteristics of Psa 119 are, first, it is an alphabetical psalm; second, it is the longest chapter in the Bible, and third, it is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 . Psalms 146-150 were used for worship in the second temple. The expressions of innocence in the psalms do not refer to original sin, but to a course of conduct in contrast with wicked lives. The psalmists do not claim absolute, but relative sinlessness.
The imprecations in the psalms are real prayers, and are directed against real men who were enemies of David and the Jewish nation, but they are not expressions of personal resentment. They are vigorous expressions of righteous indignation against incorrigible enemies of God and his people and are to be interpreted in the light of progressive revelation. The New Testament contains many exultant expressions of the overthrow of the wicked. (Cf. 1Co 16:22 ; 2Ti 4:14 ; Gal 5:12 ; Rev 16:5-6 ; Rev 18:20 .) These imprecations do not teach that we, even in the worst circumstances, should bear personal malice, nor take vengeance on the enemies of righteousness, but that we should live so close to God that we may acquiesce in the destruction of the wicked and leave the matter of vengeance in the hands of a just God, to whom vengeance belongs (Rom 12:19-21 ).
The clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con, are found in these passages, as follows: Psa 16:10-11 ; Psa 17:15 ; Psa 23:6 ; Psa 49:15 ; Psa 73:23-26 . The passages that are construed to the contrary are found in Psa 6:5 ; Psa 30:9 ; Psa 39:13 ; Psa 88:10-12 ; Psa 115:17 . The student will compare these passages and note carefully their teachings. The first group speaks of the triumph over Sheol (the resurrection) ; about awaking in the likeness of God; about dwelling in the house of the Lord forever; about redemption from the power of Sheol; and God’s guiding counsel and final reception into glory, all of which is very clear and unmistakable teaching as to the future life.
The second group speaks of DO remembrance in death; about no profit to the one when he goes down to the pit; of going hence and being no more; about the dead not being able to praise God and about the grave as being the land of forgetfulness ; and about the dead not praising Jehovah, all of which are spoken from the standpoint of the grave and temporal death.
There is positively no contradiction nor discrepancy in the teaching of these scriptures. One group takes the spirit of man as the viewpoint and teaches the continuity of life, the immortality of the soul; the other group takes the physical being of man as the viewpoint and teaches the dissolution of the body and its absolute unconsciousness in the grave.
QUESTIONS
1. How many and what psalms were ascribed to Asaph?
2. Who presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David?
3. What is the theme of Psa 50 , and where do we find the same teaching in the Old Testament?
4. What is the problem of Psa 73 , and what its solution?
5. What psalms are attributed to the sons of Korah?
6. What is the evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem and what the characteristic of these two taken together?
7. What parallel to these two psalms do we find in modern literature?
8. What psalms were ascribed to Solomon?
9. What is the theme of Psa 72 ?
10. What is the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold?
11. When was Psa 127 written and what the application as a part of the Pilgrim group?
12. Give a brief interpretation of it and the uses made of it by the author on two different occasions.
13. What psalms are assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah, and what their historical setting?
14. What is their application to Judah at this time?
15. Where may we find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem?
16. To what period do radical critics ascribe Psalms 74-79; what is their argument, and what is your answer?
17. Which psalm shows the silence of the exile period and why?
18. Which one shows their brightening of hope?
19. Explain Psa 85:10 .
20. Give three characteristics of Psa 119 .
21. What use was made of Psalms 146-150?
22. Explain the expression of innocence in the psalms in harmony with their teaching of sin.
23. Explain the imprecations in the psalms and show their harmony with New Testament teachings.
24. Cite the clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con.
Psa 75:1 To the chief Musician, Altaschith, A Psalm [or] Song of Asaph. Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, [unto thee] do we give thanks: for [that] thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.
To the chief Musician, Al-taschith ] That is, Destroy not; the Chaldee paraphraseth, In the time when David said, Destroy not the people. The psalm seemeth to have been made either by Asaph in David’s name, or by David himself (and by him committed to Asaph), at such time as the difference depending between him and Ishbosheth, many were slain on both sides. This drew from David an Al-taschith, not long before he was anointed king over all Israel. 2Sa 5:1-5
Ver. 1. Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks ] Heb. We celebrate thee, O God, we celebrate thee; viz. both for mercies and crosses sanctified; for these also are to be reckoned upon the score of God’s favours.
For that thy name is near The third is “To the chief musician Al-tascheth [destroy not], a psalm of Asaph, a song.” Very distinct, yet in appreciable sequence, is the faith in this psalm where Messiah’s intervention is anticipated, and His upright judgment it the set time. He alone of men could speak of establishing the pillars of the earth or even land; He alone will cut off all the horns of the wicked or exalt those of the righteous.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 75:1-5
1We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks,
For Your name is near;
Men declare Your wondrous works.
2When I select an appointed time,
It is I who judge with equity.
3The earth and all who dwell in it melt;
It is I who have firmly set its pillars. Selah.
4I said to the boastful, Do not boast,’
And to the wicked, Do not lift up the horn;
5Do not lift up your horn on high,
Do not speak with insolent pride.’
Psa 75:1 We give thanks This verb (BDB 392, KB 389, Hiphil perfect) is repeated twice for emphasis (note Psa 107:1; Psa 107:8; Psa 107:15; Psa 107:21; Psa 107:31). The term in the Hiphil is used often (65 times) in the Psalter. It is translated mostly as praise, but in Psa 32:5 it is translated confess.
NASB, NKJV,
NRSVFor Your name is near
NJB, RSV,
Peshitta, LXXwe call upon your name
JPSOAYour presence is near
The MT is followed by NASB. The UBS Text Project (p. 326) gives the second option a C rating (considerable doubt), but accepts it as the most likely original text.
The problem is, what does and near Your name mean?
1. we tell of Your presence with Your people in acts of deliverance
2. You (i.e., Your name, which equals YHWH’s personal presence) are near now and we can expect You to act (because of Israel’s sin YYWH had not always delivered them)
3. we call on Your name and tell what You have done for the covenant people (two separate acts)
4. AB makes it a title for God, O Near One, as it does
a. the Exalted One in Psa 75:5 a
b. the Victor in Psa 75:6 (twice)
c. the Eternal in Psa 74:9
d. the Just One in Psa 74:10
AB claims there are twelve divine names in this Psalm.
Men declare Your wondrous works As Israel taught her children about their ancestors and God’s promises (cf. Deu 4:9-10; Deu 6:7; Deu 6:20-25; Deu 11:19; Deu 32:46), they were passing on the promises and their fulfillment in the next generation. These wondrous acts (BDB 810, KB 927, see Special Topic: Wonderful Things) were the powerful acts of deliverance, protection, and provision that Israel had experienced throughout her history.
This revelation of the character, promises, and faithful interventions of YHWH were a way to
1. keep Israel in faith
2. bring the nations to faith
The NIDOTTE, vol. 3, p. 284, lists the different words used to describe God’s acts which reveal His character.
1. wonders, cf. Psa 9:1; Psa 26:7; Psa 40:5; Psa 75:1
2. work/acts, cf. Psa 44:1; Psa 73:28; Psa 107:22; Psa 118:17
3. glory, cf. Psa 96:3
4. righteousness, cf. Psa 71:15
5. loyal love, cf. Psa 88:11
6. greatness, cf. Psa 145:6
Psa 75:2-5 When I select an appointed time In these verses, God is the speaker. It is possible this relates to Psa 74:22-23 (i.e., God pleading His case).
Psa 75:2 I select an appointed time This is a literary way of asserting God’s sovereignty. He sets the time and place of all world events (i.e., Psa 74:12-17; Deu 32:8; Romans 9-11).
1. seasons – Gen 1:14-18; Psa 72:17; Psa 74:16-17; Psa 104:19; Psa 136:7-8
2. worship days – Gen 2:3; Exo 20:8-11; Leviticus 23; Numbers 28-29
3. all things are appointed by God – Ecc 3:1-11 (cf. Job 14:5; Psa 31:15; Act 17:31)
God’s people do not understand His timetable. He delivers on His schedule, not His people’s. Often judgment, even invasion, is His will! But one day He will set all things straight!
I who judge with equity Two theological points are asserted.
1. God will judge the earth
2. He will do it fairly based on His revelation (cf. Psa 9:8; Psa 58:11; Psa 67:4; Psa 96:10; Psa 96:13; Psa 98:9)
Psa 75:3 The earth and all who dwell in it melt The verbal (BDB 556, KB 555, Niphal participle, cf. Exo 15:15; Jos 2:9; Jos 2:24; 1Sa 14:16; Isa 14:31; Jer 49:23) denotes the fear of a population.
Not only people’s hearts melt but the earth itself is affected by the presence of its Creator/Judge (cf. Psa 46:6; Isa 24:19-20; Amo 9:5; Mic 1:4; Nah 1:5).
In the NT 2Pe 3:10 predicts the dissolving of this planet (cf. Mat 5:18; Mat 24:35; Rev 21:1).
There is a new heaven and a new earth coming. The new covenant of Jer 31:31-34 will be fully implemented. The Bible describes this new age in terms of Garden of Eden imagery (compare Genesis 1-2 with Revelation 21-22).
It is I who have firmly set its pillars This is a literary way of referring to the foundations of the earth (i.e., initial creation, cf. 1Sa 2:8; Job 38:4-6).
In Jon 2:6 the roots of the mountains is also creation imagery. See my notes below from Jon 2:6.
Jon 2:6 I descended to the roots of the mountains The OT uses the physical direction down to describe Sheol (BDB 432, KB 434, Qal PERFECT, cf. Num 16:30; Num 16:33; Psa 55:15; Isa 5:14; Isa 14:19). The term Sheol and pit (BDB 1001) are parallel (cf. Psa 30:3). It is this metaphorical expression of Jonah’s sense of approaching the underworld that makes his experience the object of Jesus’ comment (cf. Mat 12:40-41; Luk 11:30). Jonah believed he was going to die, but God had mercy on him! God’s judgment was not His last word. There was purpose in the punishment.
The psalmist and the covenant people did not understand why they faced such difficulties when they knew their God was in control of all things! Even amidst chaos, invasion, and injustice God’s sovereignty was stable and sure (cf. Revelation 4-5)! His timetable is geared to His larger redemptive purposes, not our immediate wants/desires/needs!
Selah See note at Psa 3:2 and Introduction VII.
Psa 75:4-5 The Creator speaks as the Moral Guide. YHWH’s laws reflected His character. The ones who face His judgment were those who
1. boast – do not boast, BDB 237, KB 248, Qal imperfect used in a jussive sense
2. wicked – do not lift up your horn, BDB 926, KB 1202 (twice), Hiphil imperfects used in a jussive sense
3. prideful – do not speak. . ., BDB 180, KB 210, Piel imperfect used in a jussive sense
It seems that the wicked, (Psa 7:4) of this Psalm are
1. pagan nations who are attempting an invasion
2. arrogant Israelites (cf. Psa 78:3; Psa 78:8-9; Psa 78:18-19)
Psa 75:4 horn This is an animal symbol of power and preeminence (see SPECIAL TOPIC: HORNS USED BY ISRAEL , cf. Psa 75:10; 1Sa 2:1; 1Sa 2:10; Daniel 7-8).
Psa 75:5
NASBpride
NKJV, NRSV,
PESHITTAneck
NEB, LXXRock
The MT has neck (BDB 848). The REB has rock. The two words are very similar (i.e., rock has one more consonant). Possibly REB reflects the usage of Job 15:26. The UBS Text Project (p. 326) gives neck a C rating (considerable doubt). The JPSOA has in vainglorious bluster.
Title. Psalm. Hebrew. mizmor. See App-65.
Song. Hebrew shir. See App-65.
of Asaph. The fourth of the twelve Asaph Psalms. See App-63. In this Psalm the enemies of the Sanctuary are warned, and God’s People are encouraged.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
Thy name. See note on Psa 20:1. It denotes God’s saving presence. Septuagint, Syr, and Vulg, read “and we shall call on Thy name”.
Thy wondrous works declare = Men tell of Thy wondrous works.
Psa 75:1-10
Psa 75:1-10 :
Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare. When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly ( Psa 75:1-2 ).
This is, of course, God answering now.
The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it ( Psa 75:3 ).
And so many times in the psalms, we find God’s response to the cry of the psalmist. And it is always a beautiful thing when God responds directly to the prayer, to the cry. This happens in many psalms. Psa 32:1-11 , Psa 75:1-10 , Psa 91:1-16 , where God Himself responds.
I said to the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: and he puts down one, and sets up another ( Psa 75:4-7 ).
This to me shows the folly of our endeavor to promote ourselves, or to promote our own efforts, or even to promote the program of God. So many churches have promotional programs. I was in that trap for years. In fact, we were sharing with some pastors in Portland this week, as I was asked to speak at a conference up there. And I had breakfast with some pastors and this one pastor was telling me, we were talking about contests and giveaways and gimmicks and all to get people to church. And he was telling me how this one pastor that pastored the church prior to his moving there advertised that they were going to give a baby chick to everyone that came to church on Easter Sunday morning. And so they brought the chicks there the night before, and they said when came into the church it smelled like a barn on Easter Sunday. And there was one lady whose husband was unsaved, and they had been praying for this man for years. But he was just bitter and stubborn and hard, and he just wouldn’t go to church. But finally, this Easter Sunday he consented to go to church. And, of course, everybody was rejoicing and praising the Lord that her husband finally consented to go to church. So the next week when the pastor saw this lady, he said, “Well, how did your husband enjoy the service?” And she said, “Oh pastor, when we came up to the door, they were having so much problem passing the chicks out, someone asked him if he wouldn’t help pass out chicks. And so he never did get into the service. He spent the whole time passing out chicks.”
How tragic when we try to promote God, or to promote the work of God, or even try to promote ourselves. God said, “Promotion doesn’t come from east, the west, from the south, God is the judge. He is the one that raises up and he is the one that puts down.” And oh, that we would learn to just let the Lord do the promotion if He so desires. That we would not try to promote ourselves or the work of God.
For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he pours out the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them. But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted ( Psa 75:8-10 ).
God’s cup of wrath, the wine is red. In the book of Revelation we read also of that wine cup of God’s wrath in chapter 14, where we read, “The third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, ‘If any man worship the beast, his image, receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.” That wine of the fierceness of God’s wrath that is to be poured out upon the earth. And so referred to here in the psalm, and also made mention of in the Revelation. “
Psa 75:1
Psalms 75
GOD ABASES THE PROUD; BUT HE EXALTS THE RIGHTEOUS
Leupold observed that, “It is particularly meaningful that this Psalm follows Psalms 74. It will be remembered that in Psalms 74, the psalmist was demanding action on God’s part “at once,” “immediately.” Such words, of course, were not used; but the thought of urgency is in every line of that Psalm. “Remember this (Psalms 75:18),” “forget not (Psalms 75:19),” “have respect (Psalms 75:20),” “arise, O God (Psalms 75:22),” “plead thine own cause (Psalms 75:22),” “remember (Psalms 75:22),” and “forget not (Psalms 75:23).”
It seems that Psalms 75 replies to such urgency of human appeals with the revelation that, “In God’s own good time, when conditions are just right, when the fullness of time has come, when the fruit of evil is ripe, when wickedness has reached its full development … then will God order the judgment.
The bold presentation here of God as the Judge seems to caution men against any special urgency calling for God’s intervention. The Judge knows when to intervene.
McCullough remarked that, “It is not clear whether the Psalmist is thinking of God’s constant judgments in this present world, or of a final definitive judgment at the end of the age. However, Halley summarized the teaching of this psalm as, “The certain destruction of the wicked and certain triumph of the righteous in the day when the earth shall be dissolved.” We find no fault with either view, because all earthly judgments of God, such as the Great Deluge, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A. D., and countless other “judgments,” are all tokens and pledges of the ultimate judgment of that Final Day.
The occasion with which this psalm may be identified is unknown, although a number of scholars point out that the time shortly before God’s judgment against Sennacherib as he was preparing to destroy Jerusalem seems particularly appropriate. Certainly, the background reflected in the psalm is that of a great national disaster looming starkly ahead and threatening the destruction of the people.
What an incredible comfort and consolation it must ever be for either nations or individuals confronting disastrous prospects of any kind whatsoever to remember that The Judge is watching, that he will invariably punish the wicked and reward the righteous, and that he can be fully honored and trusted to do what is right for every person.
Psa 75:1
“We give thanks unto thee, O God;
We give thanks for thy name is near;
Men tell of thy wondrous works.”
The psalmist, who may have been Asaph, or one of his descendants, as indicated in the superscription, began a song of praise and thanksgiving to God; but it was interrupted by God himself breaking into the message with a revelation of The Judge and his righteous judgments. Scholars are by no means in agreement regarding exactly what portions of this psalm were spoken by the psalmist and what was spoken by God himself. It is clear, however, that Psa 75:1 and Psa 75:9 belong to the psalmist.
“Thy name is near.” This is equivalent to the nearness of God himself.
“Men shall tell of thy wondrous works.” There were many things to be included in such declarations, such as the wonders of creation, the wonders of God’s dealing with human wickedness on the occasion of the great Deluge, his selection of a Chosen People following the construction of the Tower of Babel, his deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery, his leading them through the wilderness, his settlement of them in Canaan, driving out the sinful nations before them, and many other wonderful things.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 75:1. The existence (not the mere name) of God is the subject of his verse. And the evidence which David cites to prove it is the wonderful works of creation.
If this, and the former psalm, were written by different men and at different periods, then the spiritual sense of the editor is most clearly revealed in their juxtaposition in this book. This is a complete and remarkable answer to that. In form the song is dramatic. It opens with a chorus which is an ascription of praise (verse Psa 75:1). This is answered directly by God Himself. He declares that in the set time He judges. All the appearances of the hour may be perplexing, but the heart may know that He knows, and awaits only the right moment to act. Chaos may characterize the outlook, but order enwraps it all, for God has set up the pillars (verses Psa 75:2-3). Then the solo of the confident soul breaks forth, and, addressing the wicked, charges them not to be confident, because God is the judge. In His hand He holds the cup of judgment. Ultimately He abases the wicked, and lifts up the righteous. Therefore the singer’s song is ceaseless. In experience such a song as this always succeeds an honest declaration of perplexity made directly to God by a tried, but trusting, soul. The prophecy of Habakkuk is another perfect illustration of the fact.
God Putteth down and Lifteth up
Psa 75:1-10
This psalm dates probably from Sennacheribs invasion, and therefore the North is omitted in Psa 75:6, that being the quarter from which the enemy came.
God is near, Psa 75:1-3. There are high moments in life when we realize how real and near God is. The ground on which we stand is holy. We know that we are safe in the pavilion of our Fathers care. Then we give repeated thanks, Psa 75:1. Presently God speaks and assures us that when the earth and its inhabitants dissolve, He will sustain its pillars. What an encouragement is this, when the whole world seems about to be dissolved!
Turning from God to man, the psalmist rebukes his enemies and bids them cease their arrogant talk and behavior, Psa 75:4. The horn is the strength of certain beasts, and is a symbol of power, Deu 33:17; Dan 7:7. But God is the supreme Ruler of men. Our position or promotion in life is His arrangement, to be held as a sacred trust for Him. Let us, amid a world in arms, be light-hearted and sing. God will take care of those who trust Him.
Psalm 75
The Divine Answer
1. Christ the righteous judge (Psa 75:1-5)
2. His judgment (Psa 75:6-10)
It is Christ as King who is pictured in this Psalm coming to answer the pleas of His people in behalf of His sanctuary. The translation in our version of the opening verses is faulty. We give thanks to Thee, O God, we give thanks–Thy Name is near! When I have taken the set time, I, even I, will judge uprightly. Though the earth and all the inhabitants thereof are melting, I myself set up its pillars. Then He executes His judgments. He deals with the wicked, the horn lifted up, the man of sin. He putteth down and lifteth up. The wicked will be cut off and the righteous exalted.
A Psalm: Some consider this Psalm to have been written by David on his accession to the throne over all Israel; others refer it to the time of the captivity, considering it as a continuation of the subject in the preceding; but Bp. Patrick and others are of opinion that it was composed by Asaph to commemorate the overthrow of Sennacherib’s army, 2Ki 19:1.
of Asaph: or, for Asaph
for that: Psa 76:1, Psa 138:2, Exo 23:21, Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7, Jer 10:6
wondrous: Deu 4:7, Deu 4:33, Deu 4:34
Reciprocal: 1Ch 6:39 – Asaph 1Ch 25:2 – Asaph Psa 34:18 – is nigh Psa 101:2 – behave Psa 119:151 – near Isa 55:6 – while he is near Eph 2:17 – that
Christ the Interpreter of God in the day of manifestation.
To the chief musician: Al-tashcheth; a psalm of Asaph, a song.
The seventy-fifth psalm is the announcement of the divine answer to this prayer, presently to be given in the day of manifestation and Christ is the Interpreter of God, upon the throne of the world, -the anti-typical Joseph of days near to come. The psalm is easily understood as “a psalm of Asaph,” and “a song.” The Al-tashcheth “Destroy not,” which we have had also in the title of Psa 58:1-11, I cannot apply with any more certainty here than there.
The ten verses of the psalm divide into two sections of five verses each in the first of which Christ, whose voice is heard throughout the whole, anticipates the kingdom that is to be His at the appointed time. In the second we find Him as the “faithful Witness,” the Representative of God on earth, testifying for God: as Judge exalting and abasing, according to grace and holiness alike. But His heart is only manifest in blessing, and the heart of the saved goes forth to Him in joy and praise.
1. Accordingly in the first verse, as the connection with the second shows, He it is who is the Leader of Israel’s praise. The name of God is near: that is, it is going to be displayed. The wondrous works of His hand are what shall declare it. During all this time, God has been declaring His name in the grace of the gospel, but men at large will not hear: “Let favor (or grace) be shown to the wicked,” says the prophet, “yet will he not learn uprightness;” “when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness (Isa 26:9-10). The gospel dispensation therefore passes away, and with it the day of man: the day of the Lord follows, putting in the dust the glory of man, and forcing his reluctant ear to hear.
Messiah now speaks alone:
“For I will take the set time,” He says: “I will judge uprightly.” The common version has “when I shall receive the congregation;” but the word, though capable of this, is the regular one for Israel’s “seasons” or “appointed times,” and has here the deepest significance. The typical Ruler among men is Himself the obedient One, and as such speaks in the gospel of Mark, -the gospel of the Servant, -as not knowing this “time.” “Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels that are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (Mar 13:32). It is as the Son in service, that He speaks here, and thus the words are omitted in the parallel place in Matthew: for (as His own words are) “the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth.” In this character, His Father’s will is (as it were) not His business: He waits until His enemies are made His footstool. When the appointed hour has struck, He takes it and comes forth: the perfect Servant still, to do the will of God upon the throne now, as He has waited upon it hitherto.
Thus, indeed, will He “judge uprightly.” He has not a separate interest to divert Him from it, -not a thought that is not in harmony with the divine mind. And so, if the earth be in dissolution with its corruption, -men’s hearts away from God, and therefore at strife with one another, He can set up again its pillars in truth and righteousness. Thus the license given to vanity is at an end: “I have said,” -using the prophetic style of anticipation, -“I have said unto the boasters, Boast; and to the wicked, Lift up not your horn.” Man out of his creature place, exalting himself, has led to all the misery in the world. How perfect is the rebuke of it by the One who took up obedience voluntarily in a world which disobedience had ruined, by this to redeem it!
The next verse, though it be so similar, carries this to its necessary issue; and observe with what definite precision the numerical structure emphasizes the point here. The previous verse, as the fourth, simply speaks of the frailty and vanity of this poor creature, boasting himself to be what he is not. The present, as a fifth, shows him in relation to God, and thus points out his lifting his horn on high (comp. Psa 7:7; Psa 68:18), -his exalting himself against God, and his impudent neck. And this, let us remember, is shown out in the fullest way in the man of sin. the wicked one, whom at the very time that He comes forth, “the Lord shall consume with the breath” (not “spirit”) “of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming” (2Th 2:8).
Thus Christ the Lord, then, comes into His kingdom.
2. Now we have His testimony, given in judgment, discriminating and diverse, to destruction or to exaltation, from this throne which He is taking. And first of all, as is clear, the people for whom He interferes is addressed: “For not from the east,” (“the going forth” of the sun,) “and not from the west,” (“the place of evening,”) “and not from the wilderness,” (which lay south of the land,) “is exaltation.” The position of Israel is most plainly marked here, at the time of the attack of the king of the north upon Jerusalem (Dan 11:45). The north, therefore, is not mentioned, because from the north there is no hope. In other directions help might possibly be found; but in fact it is not coming from any point of the compass. God is coming in: “for God it is that judgeth; He abaseth one and exalteth* another.”
{*This word, so often recurring in different forms in this connection (tarimu, 4, 5; marom, 5; harim, 6; jarim, 7) is the key to the meaning of verse 6. which the Septuagint, Targum, Syriac, and Vulgate, with Delitzsch, Moll, Cheyne, etc. translate “not from the desert of the mountains” (harim). The verse in this case would be abruptly broken off. }
But who will be able to stand when God comes in? All the earth will be consumed with the fire of His jealousy: “for a cup is in Jehovah’s hand, and the wine foameth: it is full of mixture, and He poureth out of the same; surely the dregs of it,” -that which remains for the last, and is the strongest part,’` shall all the wicked of the earth drain off and drink.” It is the day of wrath and of the ban upon iniquity, -the day which abases all the pride of man. Abasement one can understand, but how can there be “exaltation?” and is it not written: “the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day?”
Ah, but when the Lord is exalted, all His character must be exalted. If this be the day of the manifestation of His Name, judgment alone can surely not manifest it. Judgment is the strange work to which He is forced, but where He is free to express what is in His heart -what then?
Here then the voice of Christ breaks out into distincter utterance. He must not leave it for a moment doubtful with what the joy of His soul links itself. If the shepherd’s rod has beaten down the enemy, there are sheep of His in whose behalf He has acted, and a people with whom that God whom He represents has linked His Name: “But I will declare forever,” He says; “I will psalm unto the God of Jacob.” Here is a people whose God He is not ashamed to declare Himself. Who, then, is this Jacob? and what is he, that such a portion should be his? Nay, his name speaks of nothing but what is poor and lowly; it speaks not of strength but of weakness. More than this, it speaks of sinfulness; not merely of the weakness of the creature, but of a fallen creature. It speaks of one with whom God had had to strive and to cripple him, and put him into the place of weakness, that, no longer striving but clinging, he might have “power over the angel and prevail,” and acquire that new name “Israel” in which his new link with God could be expressed.
For there is a strange power with God in human weakness, and He who is the Creator has a marvelous respect unto His creature, just in that place of creature. Nor does sin itself affect this, when only the arms of conscious need are flung upwards towards God. Notice again that this is just what the numerical structure once more emphasizes here, the creature weakness which, even in his craft, makes itself felt in him. And this name he must own, to get the blessing: “and he said, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel.” He must acknowledge the name first, that he may lose it. And yet God delights to recall it still, and link Himself with it, and as here, be called the “God of Jacob.” And this is the Name that Messiah now declares, and which He celebrates in psalm -that is, making all nature sympathize with Him. And this as the King in glory.
Righteous and wicked get thus a definition here. The nature of God is not sacrificed, but shown out in His grace; and the work of the Mediator in its necessity and power for men while still the government of God is maintained in its eternal principles: “All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; and the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.”
Psa 75:1. Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks I, in my own, and in thy peoples name; for that thy name Thy self, or thy power; is near That is, is present with us, and most ready to help us when we cry unto thee; thou art not departed from us; thou dost not now stand afar off, as once thou didst, Psa 10:1, as thy wondrous works declare Wrought for the good of thy people. Upon whatever occasion, says Dr. Horne, these words were originally endited, the Christian Church now celebrates in them that great deliverance which, by so many miracles of mercy and power, hath been accomplished for her through the Messiah, who is, in Scripture, frequently styled the NAME of Jehovah.
Title. Al-taschith: do not suffer me to perish. The style indicates that this was a psalm of David, when the courtiers of Saul had pronounced him guilty of high treason for aiming at the throne. He accuses them of dealing foolishly, wickedly, and with a stiff neck, against an innocent man; and of doing it basely to flatter Saul, and obtain promotion. A true portrait of a court-faction. For promotion cometh not from the east, nor west, nor south, but from the Lord, the ultimate judge of men.
Psa 75:3. The earth, the land of Israel, and all its inhabitants are dissolved. The government is without energy, the people without spirit, and the army without strength.I bear up the pillars of it. The hope and stay of Israel is in me, by virtue of the anointing of Samuel.
Psa 75:5. Lift not up your horn. See on Job 15:15 : their horn was soon laid in the dust.
Psa 75:8. A cupthe dregs thereof shall the wicked drink. They drank these dregs on Gilboa; the men who sought Davids life paid for the crime by their own lives. The Lord denied them courage in the day of battle.
REFLECTIONS.
How sweet in trouble to be revived with a living hope. David saw in the Spirit that the political clouds which hovered over the land would all clear up in sunshine. What can be more consolatory to the saints than thus to wait for the righteousness of God?
David, on seeing this, formed the noblest of resolutions, that when he should receive the regal charge of the congregation, and be the shepherd of the sheep, he would judge with equity. He augured happy days, to see the sanctuary full of glory, the land full of righteousness, and the people blessed with peace and bread. Princes should always aim at the happiness of the people. The emperor Probus, who, after many wars, gave peace to the Roman empire, said that after a short time, soldiers would not be necessary; brevi milites necessarios non futuros.
But while David, the Lords anointed, and the hope of the nation rested on the promises for elevation, he saw the horn of the wicked laid low; and besmeared with dust and blood. While the cup of regal bliss was preparing for him, as in Psa 23:5, he saw the red cup, mixed with dregs prepared for his enemies. They were drenched with it on Gilboa; defeated by the Philistines, and pursued with reckless slaughter; roaring with anguish and despair, and falling on their own swords. Their tongues could now speak no more against David; their feet could no more hunt him as a partridge on the mountains. Rejoice then, oh my soul, for thus will the Lord preserve all them that love him.
LXXV. The Inevitable Judgment.The Ps. opens with praise of God and His wondrous works. After Psa 75:1 it is God who speaks. God will surely judge the world, though He waits for His appointed time. He holds the brimming cup of wine, and all must drink.
Psa 75:1. for . . . works: read, We have called on thy name: we have told of thy wondrous works (LXX).
Psa 75:2. For the appointed time long delayed but sure to come, cf. Hab 2:3.
Psa 75:3. Follow mg.
Psa 75:6 b. Read, Nor yet from the wilderness or the mountains (cf. mg.) cometh it (the sentence of exaltation or depression).
Psa 75:8. The imagery of the cup is found in Jer 25:15 ff. and elsewhere.mixture refers to herbs which increased the intoxicating power of the wine.Read, He poureth it out to one after another (LXX).
Psa 75:9. declare: read, rejoice.In Psa 75:9 f. the poet again speaks.
PSALM 75
The announcement that God’s set time for intervention in judgment is near at hand. It is the answer to the appeal of the godly in Psalm 74, who ask, How long (Psa 74:9-10)?
(v. 1) The appeal of Psalm 74 opens with a cry of distress: this psalm opens with praise to God, for His wondrous works declare that the time is near when all that God is, as set forth in His Name, will be displayed in judgment.
(vv. 2-3) The verses that follow give the occasion which calls forth the praise of verse 1. It is the announcement by God Himself that, in His set time, God will judge uprightly. We are often impatient for God to deal with evil. God, however, has His set time – when evil is ripe, and His people have learned their lesson – for intervention in judgment. Then the earth and its inhabitants will be dissolved. The social fabric will be broken up (see Isa 24:19-20); but even so God has established its pillars. God maintains the earth, though the world system formed by man is broken up.
(vv. 4-5) In these verses the psalmist gives a warning rebuke to men, based upon the announcement that God is about to intervene in judgment. The boastfulness of man in himself and his doings, and his rebellion against God, will call down the judgment of God. Hence the psalmist warns man not to boast, and exalt himself in his own strength, symbolized by the figure of a horn (the fighting strength of an animal), nor rebel against God.
(vv. 6-8) Deliverance cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. Promotion is a poor and misleading translation. The word is ‘lifting up,’ and continues the thought of verses 4 and 5. It is not the idea of exalting a person to a place of prominence, but rather deliverance of the crushed by ‘lifting them’ up from the dust. The expression is found again in verse 10, where the word ‘exalted’ should be translated ‘lifted up.’ This thought of ‘lifting up’ is found in verses 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10. The north is not mentioned because, it has been suggested, the enemy that attacks the land of Israel comes from that quarter, and hence there would be no thought of help coming from the North. The people of God have to learn that help does not come from any quarter of the earth. It comes from God: God is the Judge; He puts down one and lifts up another.
In the hand of the Lord there is a cup of judgment. This cup is full of mixture, an allusion to the aromatic herbs mixed with wine to add to its intoxicating qualities. The wicked will be made to drink this cup to its dregs.
75:1 [To the chief Musician, {a} Altaschith, A Psalm [or] Song of Asaph.] Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, [unto thee] do we give thanks: for [that] thy name is near {b} thy wondrous works declare.
(a) Read Psa 57:1.
(b) He declares how the faithful will always have opportunity to praise God, as in their need they will feel his power at hand to help them.
Psalms 75
This communal thanksgiving psalm anticipated a victory in Israel when God as Judge would destroy the wicked and establish the righteous (cf. 1Sa 2:1-10; Luk 1:46-53).
1. God’s appointment of judgment 75:1-3
Asaph gave thanks to God for Israel because God was near His people and had performed wondrous works (Psa 75:1).
He then put words in God’s mouth that were appropriate in view of earlier revelation. God judges when He decides the time is right, and He judges fairly. His judgment can devastate the world, but He sustains it nevertheless.
Psa 75:1-10
THIS psalm deals with the general thought of Gods judgment in history, especially on heathen nations. It has no clear marks of connection with any particular instance of that judgment. The prevalent opinion has been that it refers, like the next psalm, to the destruction of Sennacheribs army. There are in it slight resemblances to Psa 46:1-11, and to Isaiahs prophecies regarding that event, which support the conjecture. Cheyne seems to waver, as on page 148 of “Orig. of Psalt.” he speaks of “the two Maccabean Psa 74:1-23; Psa 75:1-10,” and on page 166 concludes that they “may be Maccabean, but we cannot claim for this view the highest degree of probability, especially as neither psalm refers to any warlike deeds of Israelites. It is safer, I think, to assign them at the earliest to one of the happier parts of the Persian age.” It is apparently still safer to refrain from assigning them to any precise period.
The kernel of the psalm is a majestic Divine utterance, proclaiming Gods judgment as at hand. The limits of that Divine word are doubtful, but it is best taken as occupying two pairs of verses (Psa 75:2-5). It is preceded by one verse of praise, and followed by three (Psa 75:6-8) of warning spoken by the psalmist, and by two (Psa 75:9-10) in which he again praises God the Judge, and stands forth as an instrument of His judicial acts.
In Psa 75:1, which is as a prelude to the great Voice from heaven, we hear the nation giving thanks beforehand for the judgment which is about to fall.
The second part of the verse is doubtful. It may be taken thus: “And Thy name is near; they (i.e., men) declare Thy wondrous works.” So Delitzsch, who comments: The Church “welcomes the future acts of God with fervent thanks, and all they that belong to it declare beforehand Gods wondrous works.” Several modern scholars, among whom are Gratz, Baethgen, and Cheyne, adopt a textual alteration which gives the reading, “They who call upon Thy name declare,” etc. But the rendering of the A.V, which is also that of Hupfeld and Perowne, gives a good meaning. All Gods deeds in history proclaim that He is ever at hand to help. His name is His character as revealed by His self manifestation; and this is the glad thanks-evoking lesson, taught by all the past and by the judicial act of which the psalm is the precursor-that He is near to deliver His people. As Deu 4:7 has it, “What nation is there that hath God so near unto them?” The Divine voice breaks in with majestic abruptness, as in Psa 46:10. It proclaims impending judgment, which will restore society, dissolving in dread or moral corruption, and will abase insolent wickedness, which is therefore exhorted to submission. In Psa 75:2, two great principles are declared-one in regard to the time and the other in regard to the animating spirit of Gods judgment. Literally, the first words of the verse run, “When I lay hold of the appointed time.” The thought is that He has His own appointed time at which His power will flash forth into act, and that till that moment arrives evil is permitted to run its course, and insolent men to play their “fantastic tricks” before an apparently indifferent or unobserving God. His servants are tempted to think that He delays too long; His enemies, that He will never break His silence. But the slow hand traverses the dial in time, and at last the hour strikes and the crash comes punctually at the moment. The purposes of delay are presented in Scripture as twofold: on the one hand, “that the long suffering of God may lead to repentance”; and on the other, that evil may work itself out and show its true character. To learn the lesson that, “when the set time is come,” judgment will fall, would save the oppressed from impatience and despondency and the oppressor from dreams of impunity. It is a law fruitful for the interpretation of the worlds history. The other fundamental truth in this verse is that the principle of Gods judgment is equity, rigid adherence to justice, so that every act of mans shall receive accurately “its just recompense of reward.” The “I” of Psa 75:2 b is emphatic. It brings to view the lofty personality of the Judge, and asserts the operation of a Divine hand in human affairs, while it also lays the basis for the assurance that, the judgment being His, and He being what He is, it must be “according to truth.”
Such a “set time” has arrived, as Psa 75:3 proceeds to declare. Oppression and corruption have gone so far that “the earth and its inhabitants” are as if “dissolved.” All things are rushing to ruin. The psalmist does not distinguish between the physical and the moral here. His figure is employed in reference to both orders, which he regards as indissolubly connected. Possibly he is echoing Psa 46:6, “The earth melted,” though there the “melting” is an expression for dread occasioned by Gods voice, and here rather refers to the results of “the proud mans wrong.” At such a supreme moment, when the solid framework of society and of the world itself seems to be on the point of dissolution, the mighty Divine Personality intervenes; that strong hand is thrust forth to grasp the tottering pillars and stay their fall; or, in plain words, God Himself then intervenes to reestablish the moral order of society, and thus to “save the sufferers.” {Comp. Hannahs song in 1Sa 2:8} That intervention has necessarily two aspects, being on the one hand restorative, and on the other punitive. Therefore in Psa 75:4 and Psa 75:5 follow Divine warnings to the “fools” and “wicked,” whose insolent boasting and tyranny have provoked it. The word rendered “fools” seems to include the idea of boastfulness as well as folly in the Biblical sense of that word, which points to moral rather than to merely intellectual aberration. “Lifting up the horn” is a symbol of arrogance. According to the accents, the word rendered “stiff” is not to be taken as attached to “neck,” but as the object of the verb “speak,” the resulting translation being, “Speak not arrogance with a [stretched out] neck”; and thus Delitzsch would render. But it is more natural to take the word in its usual construction as an epithet of “neck,” expressive of superciliously holding a high head. Cheyne follows Baethgen in altering the text so as to read “rock” for “neck”-a slight change which is supported by the LXX rendering (“Speak not unrighteousness against God”)-and renders “nor speak arrogantly of the rock.” Like the other advocates of a Maceabean date, he finds here a reference to the mad blasphemies of Antiochus Epiphanes; but the words would suit Rabshakehs railings quite as well.
The exact point where the Divine oracle passes into the psalmists own words is doubtful. Psa 75:7 is evidently his; and that verse is so closely connected with Psa 75:6 that it is best to make the break at the end of Psa 75:5, and to suppose that what follows is the singers application of the truths which he has heard. Two renderings of Psa 75:6 b are possible, which, though very different in English, turn on the minute difference in the Hebrew of one vowel sign: The same letters spell the Hebrew word meaning mountains and that meaning lifting up. With one punctuation of the preceding word “wilderness,” we must translate “from the wilderness of mountains”; with another, the two words are less closely connected, and we must render, “from the wilderness is lifting up.” If the former rendering is adopted, the verse is incomplete, and some phrase like “help comes” must be supplied, as Delitzsch suggests. But “lifting up” occurs so often in this psalm, that it is more natural to take the word in that meaning here, especially as the next verse ends with it, in a different tense, and thus makes a sort of rhyme with this verse. “The wilderness of mountains,” too, is a singular designation, either for the Sinaitic peninsula or for Egypt, or for the wilderness of Judah, which have all been suggested as intended here. “The wilderness” stands for the south, and thus three cardinal points are named. Why is the north omitted? If “lifting up” means deliverance, the omission may be due to the fact that Assyria (from which the danger came, if we adopt the usual view of the occasion of the psalm) lay to the north. But the meaning in the rest of the psalm is not deliverance, and the psalmist is addressing the “foolish boasters” here; and that consideration takes away the force of such an explanation of the omission. Probably no significance attaches to it. The general idea is simply that “lifting up” does not come from any quarter of earth, but, as the next verse goes on to say, solely from God. How absurd, then, is the self-sufficient loftiness of godless men! How vain to look along the low levels of earth, when all true elevation and dignity come from God! The very purpose of His judicial energy is to abase the lofty and raise the low. His hand lifts up, and there is no secure or lasting elevation but that which He effects. His hand casts down, and that which attracts His lightnings is “the haughtiness of man.” The outburst of His judgment works like a volcanic eruption, which flings up elevations in valleys and shatters lofty peaks. The features of the country are changed after it, and the world looks new. The metaphor of Psa 75:8, in which judgment is represented as a cup of foaming wine, which God puts to the lips of the nations, receives great expansion in the prophets, especially in Jeremiah, and recurs in the Apocalypse. There is a grim contrast between the images of festivity and hospitality called up by the picture of a host presenting the wine cup to his guests, and the stern compulsion which makes the “wicked” gulp down the nauseous draught held by God to their reluctant lips. The utmost extremity of punitive inflictions, unflinchingly inflicted, is suggested by the terrible imagery. And the judgment is to be world wide; for “all the wicked of the earth” are to drink, and that to the dregs.
And how does the prospect affect the psalmist? It moves him, first, to solemn praise-not only because God has proved Himself by these terrible things in righteousness to be the God of His people, but also because He has thereby manifested His own character as righteous and hating evil. It is no selfish nor cruel joy which stirs in devout hearts, when God comes forth in history and smites oppressing insolence. It is but a spurious benevolence which affects to recoil from the conception of a God who judges and, when needful, smites. This psalmist not only praised, but in his degree vowed to imitate.
The last verse is best understood as his declaration of his own purpose, though some commentators have proposed to transfer it to the earlier part of the psalm, regarding it as part of the Divine oracle. But it is in its right place where it stands. Gods servants are His instruments in carrying out His judgments; and there is a very real sense in which all of them should seek to fight against dominant evil and to cripple the power of tyrannous godlessness.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary