A Daily Devotional And Reading From The Psalms (Reading All the Psalms in 2019)
Psalm 75
To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, A Psalm or Song of Asaph.
1Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: For that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare. 2When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly.3The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah. 4I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: And to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: 5Lift not up your horn on high: Speak not with a stiff neck. 6For promotion cometh neither from the east, Nor from the west, nor from the south. 7But God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another. 8For in the hand of the Lordthere 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. 9But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. 10All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.
Asaph sure has grown in his understanding. In Psalm 73 his concern was that the wicked prosper and seem blessed in spite of their disobedience. The observation that there seemed to be no benefit to living a faithful life almost caused his faith to slip (Ps. 73:2). In today’s Psalm, Asaph has learned his lesson. He understands that God is a righteous judge (vs.2). He sees the Lord as a strong man standing between the pillars of the world, unlike Samson who pushed against the pillars bringing everything crashing down, our Lord is keeping the structure in place until the proper time (vs.3). Back in Psalm 73 Asaph saw faithless folk break the rules to get ahead and seemingly get away with it. Now he understands that true promotion comes only from the Lord. God has a bitter cup of judgement and every drop must be eventually consumed (vs.8). Asaph ends the Psalm with a commitment to praise because he can trust that God is judge and he is good at his job.
God is judge and he is good at his job.
I have always been taught that after finding the proper interpretation of a passage I must eventually find an application. What am I to do with what Asaph wrote? I can take a sigh of relief because I am not in charge. This bald believer is not holding the world together. Someone much stronger and more capable is up to the task. I do not have to judge anyone since one much more qualified is seated behind the heavenly bench. Injustice is not ignored; God is a good judge. He will certainly promote the faithful one day. Oh, and that bitter cup of judgement does indeed have to be drunk down to the last bitter drop. That was the cup that human side of Jesus wanted to avoid when he prayed in the garden, “Let this cup pass”. In order for the righteous judge to not overlook sin and still offer mercy to those worthy of wrath, Jesus took the cup. He swallowed every sip of suffering on my behalf. I like Asaph will sing his praise for ever because God isn’t just a judge and he is good.
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