Psalm 75
Psalm 75
is all about God’s supremacy. There are
some pretty scary images in this psalm.
There are some fairly stern words.
But before we get to those, let’s talk a bit about how those words are
set up.
It is God
who tells the boastful to not boast. It
is God who tells the wicked to quit acting in self-centered ways. Even before we get to the judgment we can see
God’s righteousness in that He gives fair warning. God tells humanity what is bad for us. It is just up to us to listen.
Then we
get to a really scary image. This psalm
contains a version of the “cup of God’s wrath.”
Listen to the words used to talk about this cup. The cup is in God’s hand – He is in
control. The wine in the cup has fermented
– meaning that it has been building up over time. The wine is abundantly mixed – implying that
God will distribute His justice evenly to all who deserve it. It is God who pours out the contents of the
cup – reminding us again that God is in charge and things happen according to
His control. The cup is drunk all the
way down to the dregs – implying that the full measure of God’s wrath will be
made known.
Those
images should haunt us. Do you really
want to drink from the cup of God’s wrath – knowing that you fully deserve to
do so? Do you really want to endure the
complete brunt of God’s wrath? Do you
want to drink in the cup of God’s wrath all the way down to the dregs? No, we should want to do whatever it takes to
avoid that. We should recognize that we
are not perfect and then humble ourselves while turning to God and listening to
His voice.
It may
sound strange to hear Asaph turn from this image of God’s wrath directly into
the praise of God. After all, how many
of us usually feel like praising God immediately after thinking about how much
we could feel His wrath? But on the
other hand, it is through the recognition of His wrath that we come to an
understanding about how wonderful it is to know God’s grace! This is why Asaph can come directly into
giving praise to God immediately after talking about God’s cup of wrath. He knows how fortunate we all are to avoid
having to drink that cup. Our gratitude
alone should cause us to sing the praises of God forever!
Psalm 76
Psalm 76 gives
us a few more images at which we can marvel.
If we look to the beginning of the psalm, we can see that God breaks the
weapons of war. God doesn’t simply avoid
them, or dodge them, or even defend against them. God breaks them. God makes our offenses against Him useless.
The next
great image that we have is the psalmist’s claim that the Lord is more majestic
than mountains full of prey. Think about
this one for a second. What is a
mountain full of prey? A mountain full
of prey is essentially a lifetime of prosperity. A mountain full of prey means that a person
can eat their fill. God is more majestic
than this. Essentially, the psalmist is
saying that God is more majestic than a lifetime of prosperity. Now that’s a bold claim!
If we skip
down to verse 10, we hear that even the wrath of mankind will praise God. When we are at our angriest, even then God
can draw praise out of us. What does God
have to fear from us? Not only does he
break our weapons of war, but even when we do rise up against Him He can work it
out for His glory. He really can wear
our anger like a belt because it turns out to glorify His name.
Indeed, we
can marvel at God’s greatness. We should
give Him praise. He can do incredible
things with us; He can do incredible things even when we are against Him. Why shouldn’t we give glory to His name?
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