Today’s Passage: Psalm 75
This psalm of Asaph opens at a table full of thanks, and then, before the thanks are even finished, God Himself begins to speak. He tells us the one thing the proud never want to hear, that He has chosen a time, and when it comes He will judge fairly. So He warns the arrogant not to lift up their horn, for the power to raise a man up never came out of the east or the west or the desert. It is God who judges. He brings one down and lifts another up, and the cup of His judgment is already in His hand.
As you read, hold this: When I choose a time, I will judge fairly.
Psalm 75:1-3 (BSB)
For the choirmaster: To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Psalm of Asaph. A song.
¹ We give thanks to You, O God; we give thanks, for Your Name is near. The people declare Your wondrous works. ² “When I choose a time, I will judge fairly. ³ When the earth and all its dwellers quake, it is I who bear up its pillars. Selah
Context "Do Not Destroy"
That same tune-title, “Do Not Destroy,” sits over Psalms 57, 58, and 59, the songs that remember David refusing to destroy Saul when the king lay helpless within his reach. So the heading itself already carries a note of restraint, of power deliberately held back. Then God speaks of a time that He, and not we, will choose, and we begin to see that His judgment is never late because He is weak. The pillars of the earth are still resting in His hand.
Notice how the voice changes in verse 2. The thanksgiving gives way, God Himself takes up the song, and the very first thing He speaks about is timing.
Psalm 75:4-5 (BSB)
⁴ I say to the proud, ‘Do not boast,’ and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn. ⁵ Do not lift up your horn against heaven or speak with an outstretched neck.’”
Psalm 75:6-8 (BSB)
⁶ For exaltation comes neither from east nor west, nor out of the desert, ⁷ but it is God who judges; He brings down one and exalts another. ⁸ For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours from His cup, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to the dregs.
One by one every direction is named and ruled out. Not from the east, not from the west, not out of the desert does a man’s rise ever come. It is God who judges, God who brings one down and lifts another up. The cup is in His hand, and in the end all the wicked of the earth drink it down to the very dregs.
Study notes He repays
Long after Asaph, Paul would say the very same thing, only without the map of east and west.
"God “will repay each one according to his deeds.”" Romans 2:6 (BSB)
No one slips past the judgment by his rank, and no one escapes it by a clock he sets for himself. And no one who trusts God ever needs to fear that the proud horn is the last word, for God chooses the time, and when it comes He will judge fairly.
Psalm 75:9-10 (BSB)
⁹ But I will proclaim Him forever; I will sing praise to the God of Jacob. ¹⁰ “All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous will be exalted.”
And so the psalm ends where it began, in praise, with a promise to proclaim the God of Jacob and to sing His praise forever. Then God speaks His last word over it all: the qeren, pronounced KEH-ren. Strong's H7161, horn, symbol of strength and power. It is the horn of a ram or a bull, the kind of strength you can see and be afraid of. To lift it up is to put that strength on display, to show it off on purpose. The psalm keeps returning to the image until the warning cannot be missed: the strength a man parades before heaven is not the same thing as the strength that God has given him. of the wicked will be cut off, and the horns of the righteous will be lifted high. When He chooses a time, He will judge fairly.