Introduction
My wife Eileen and I have just said “Goodbye” to our three precious, young grandchildren. We spent several weeks with them this past summer.
Now, grandparents and parents know that some of our time is spent administering justice when we watch our grandchildren and children.
“That’s not fair!”
“It’s mine! I had it first! I want it!”
“Ouch! You hit me!”
We have all heard those words from little children.
It is our job to step in and administer justice.
The difficulty, however, is that we often don’t see what happened.
We hear the shout, shriek, or scream, and by the time we look, we have no idea who is guilty or innocent.
That is what makes administering justice so tricky.
As the children grow older and become teenagers, it becomes more challenging to administer justice.
The children are now better able to communicate. But they are also better able to withhold or shade the truth.
As children grow into adults, they develop astonishing skills at shading the truth and deceiving others.
Administering justice to adults requires an entire justice system. Even then, justice is only sometimes administered perfectly.
We might want to give in to despair were it not for the fact that we have been given the word of God to guide us as we think about the administration of justice.
In today’s Psalm, Psalm 75, we learn that God will administer justice perfectly to everyone in the future.
God’s administration of justice so blows away the Psalmist that Psalm 75 is a psalm of thanksgiving for God’s just rule and future judgment.
You will note that the superscription is as follows: “To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.”
We don’t know the context for this Psalm.
Asaph, Heman, and Ethan (also known as Jeduthun) were Levites who served as chief musicians at the sanctuary during King David’s reign (1 Chronicles 15:16-19; 16:4-7, 37-42; 2 Chronicles 5:12-14; 29:13; 35:15). They established guilds for their sons so that they might carry on their worship traditions.
Twelve Psalms are attributed to Asaph(50; 73-83).
Scripture
Let’s read Psalm 75:1-10:
1 We give thanks to you, O God;
we give thanks, for your name is near.
We recount your wondrous deeds.
2 “At the set time that I appoint
I will judge with equity.
3 When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants,
it is I who keep steady its pillars. Selah
4 I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’
and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn;
5 do not lift up your horn on high,
or speak with haughty neck.’ ”
6 For not from the east or from the west
and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,
7 but it is God who executes judgment,
putting down one and lifting up another.
8 For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup
with foaming wine, well mixed,
and he pours out from it,
and all the wicked of the earth
shall drain it down to the dregs.
9 But I will declare it forever;
I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
10 All the horns of the wicked I will cut off,
but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.
Lesson
Psalm 75:1-10 is a psalm of thanksgiving for God’s just rule and future judgment.
Let’s use the following outline:
1. God Will Judge in His Own Time (75:2-3)
2. God Will Eventually Humble the Wicked (75:4-5, 8)
3. God Will Eventually Exalt the Righteous (75:6-7, 9-10)
Asaph begins Psalm 75 with these words in verse 1a: “We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks, for your name is near.”
Asaph begins by thanking God for one thing: “Your name is near.”
Of course, there are innumerable things for which he could have thanked God, but he began by naming just one thing: “Your name is near.”
The “name” stands for God himself. So, “your name is near” means that God himself is near, at hand, and never far away.
What exactly did the Psalmist mean when he said that God is near?
First, he could have meant that God is omnipresent. That is, God is everywhere at the same time.
That is an important truth. The Psalmist wanted to remind his readers that God is everywhere at once. Nothing escapes his sight. He sees all. He knows all.
It reminds God’s people that no one should be deluded into thinking that God does not see or know what a person is thinking or doing.
Second, the Psalmist could have meant that God is near to support and encourage his people.
The Psalmist wanted God’s people to know that God was with them even in the most challenging and trying circumstances. While everyone may abandon God’s people, God will never leave them.
However, in the context of this Psalm, the Psalmist most likely means that God is near in the sense that God rules this universe. God has not looked the other way. He is not busy elsewhere, so he cannot help over here.
God is in sovereign control over the entire universe; nothing has or will escape his attention.
That is why the Psalmist says in verse 1b, “We recount your wondrous deeds.”
Then, in the rest of the Psalm, the Psalmist describes three beautiful ways in which God’s people will recount God’s wondrous deeds.
I. God Will Judge in His Own Time (75:2-3)
First, God will judge in his own time.
God speaks in verses 2-3. He says, “At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity. When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars.”
Believers may sometimes wonder why God does not administer justice immediately.
But God assures his people that he will administer justice at the time of his choosing.
Earlier this week, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran by an explosive device that had been planted by Israelis about two months ago. The bomb was detonated when it was known that Haniyeh was in the room.
A few days later, I heard an interview on the radio about the bombing. The report said one of the things that must now frighten the Hamas terrorist leaders is that the Israelis know where they are hiding and, more importantly, can bomb them at a time of their choosing.
As we look around the world today, believers may sometimes wonder why God seems silent.
But we should remind ourselves that God will bring judgment in his time. God said, “At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity.”
God is the one who sets the time to bring about judgment.
One may ask, “Why does God delay judgment?”
There are two reasons for God’s delayed judgment.
First, God delays judgment so sinners can repent of their sins and be saved.
The Apostle Paul made this clear in Romans 2:3–4, where he wrote, “Do you suppose, O man… that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
If you are not yet a Christian, do not presume on the riches of God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience. Do not squander the opportunity to turn from your sins and believe in Jesus now for the gift of eternal life.
The second reason God delays judgment is that sin’s evil consequences may come to fruition.
Let me explain what I mean by that statement. I have told you this story before. In 1983, I spent about a week in Israel before I came to the United States to begin my theological training.
I visited the Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem. I went through the museum. It was dark and extremely sobering as one learned about the utter atrocities and horrors suffered by six million Jewish people.
I remember coming out of the museum into the bright sunshine.
Many people were in tears. They were crying, perhaps for loved ones or perhaps simply because of the horror experienced by millions of people.
I remember talking to one man. He soon learned that I was a Christian and on my way to study at a seminary in the United States. He became very angry with me and accused me as a Protestant of the atrocities that had happened to his Jewish family.
I quickly removed myself from that conversation. His anger took me aback.
And I certainly did not want him to know my last name was Fritz!
It was then that I remembered a sermon by Dr. Al Martin. In it, he used Adolph Hitler as an example.
He said that God delayed judgment because Adolph Hitler was not only responsible for his sins but also for the consequences of his sins.
Almost forty years after Hitler’s suicide, there was a man in Jerusalem who became angry with me for something that I never did, but that was the consequence of Hitler’s sins.
God delays his judgment until all sins have come to fruition.
Then, when God administers his justice, all of the person’s sins and the consequences of his sins will be under review by God.
So, God will judge in his own time.
II. God Will Eventually Humble the Wicked (75:4-5, 8)
Second, God will eventually humble the wicked.
God noted how horned animals battle against each other.
The proud animals stand off against each other. They lift their horned heads high before lowering and rushing in to butt heads with one another.
Wicked people follow this very same example.
God says in verses 4-5, “I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’ and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn; do not lift up your horn on high, or speak with haughty neck.’ ”
The Hebrew word translated as “lift up” is used twice in these two verses, and it is associated with arrogance that leads to trouble.
A person with a “haughty neck” is insolent, proud, and rebellious and will not submit to the Lord. As we read in verse 8, such a person in Scripture is called “wicked.”
What will God do to wicked people?
The Psalmist tells us in verse 8, “For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.”
In Scripture, the “cup” is sometimes used as an image of judgment (see Job 21:20; Isaiah 51:17, 22; Jeremiah 25:15ff; Revelation 16:19; 18:6).
Jewish people usually drank wine diluted with water.
But the cup of judgment is wine containing strong spices. The Psalmist writes that it is “a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he [that is, God] pours out from it.”
The Psalmist wants God’s people to know that “all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.”
This is a terrible picture of punishment that waits for those who are wicked.
Those who are not Christians will suffer in hell for all eternity. There will never be any peace or pleasure or lack of pain.
It will be hell!
Charles Spurgeon writes so poignantly:
Even to the bitter end, wrath must proceed. They must drink on and on forever, even to the bottom where lie the lees of deep damnation; these they must suck up, and still must they drain the cup. Oh, the anguish and the heartbreak of the day of wrath! (C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David: Psalms 56-87, vol. 3 [London; Edinburgh; New York: Marshall Brothers, n.d.], 295).
In his book on the Psalms, Murdoch Campbell writes about God humbling various wicked people:
Pharaoh reacted to God’s command to let his people go by saying, “Who is God that I should obey him?” Nebuchadnezzar endeavored to set his throne and kingdom above him, whose throne and kingdom will be forever and ever. Herod listened to the adulations of his degenerate admirers: “It is the voice of a god and not of a man.” Coming nearer to our own time, we have read of how Adolf Hitler gazed at a picture of himself riding proudly on a white horse, a picture which bore the blasphemous title: “In the Beginning was the Word.” Then, in a voice that deliberately mocked Christ, the eternal King, he exclaimed, “I am providence.”
But Pharaoh and his hosts are swept to destruction; Nebuchadnezzar becomes a companion of “the beasts of the field”; worms devour Herod; and Hitler becomes a suicide. “Those that walk in pride God can abase.” “He shall cut off the spirit of princes; he is terrible to the kings of the earth.” “All the horns of the wicked will I cut off.” (Murdoch Campbell, From Grace to Glory: Meditations on the Book of Psalms (Carlisle, Pa.: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1970), 123–24).
God will eventually humble the wicked.
III. God Will Eventually Exalt the Righteous (75:6-7, 9-10)
And third, God will eventually exalt the righteous.
The Psalmist reminds his readers of God's work.
In verses 6-7, he writes, “For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.”
Christians know that God will eventually put all things right.
At present, we may be discouraged by what happens in this world. We see the wicked prospering and the righteous suffering for the sake of the gospel.
But our confidence is that a time is coming when God will put all things right.
Why?
Because we know that a day is coming when “it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.”
C. S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. In The Last Battle, Narnia faces its darkest hour. An ape named Shift deceives the Narnians by dressing a donkey named Puzzle in a lion’s skin, pretending that he is Aslan.
This leads to chaos and the eventual summoning of the evil god Tash.
The actual Aslan returns, marking the end of this deception and the beginning of the final judgment in which he sets all things right.
Aslan brings justice by separating the righteous from the wicked, leading the true Narnians to Aslan’s Country, a paradise that represents heaven.
One day, Jesus will return for his bride.
There will be the final judgment.
The wicked will receive their sentence of punishment and be sentenced to hell for all eternity.
The righteous will be rewarded and assigned to paradise for all eternity.
Is it any wonder that the righteous will join the Psalmist and sing, “But I will declare it forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up” (vv. 9-10)?
Conclusion
Therefore, let us thank God for his just rule and future judgment.
Psalm 75 teaches us three important lessons.
First, God will judge in his own time. Billions of people are sinning throughout the world today with apparent impunity. But make no mistake. A time is coming when God will administer justice and set everything right. Unlike grandparents and parents who do not always see what the young children are doing, God sees everything. He will administer justice in his own time.
Second, God will eventually humble the wicked. All non-Christians are called “wicked” in Scripture. All non-Christians will be humbled by going to hell for all eternity.
Jonathan Edwards preached the most famous sermon in America. It was called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He warns sinners of the dreadful situation in which they find themselves. He says:
This that you have heard is the case of everyone out of Christ.—That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor anything to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up (Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2 [Banner of Truth Trust, 1974], 9).
Finally, God will eventually exalt the righteous. The righteous are those who have found refuge in Jesus. They have found safety in Christ. They recognize that their own righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of God and that the perfect righteousness of Jesus is theirs by faith alone in Christ alone by God’s grace alone. They recognize that Jesus drank the cup of foaming wine to the very dregs of the cup on their behalf.
I pray that every one of us may be found to possess Christ's righteousness on the day of God’s judgment. Amen.
