Psalm 75 - Give Thanks: God Will Judge

Understanding a psalm's mechanics results in more comfort & confidence.

Psalm 75 (NASB95)

For the choir director; set to Al-tashheth. A Psalm of Asaph, a Song.

¹ We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks,

For Your name is near;

Men declare Your wondrous works.

² “When I select an appointed time,

It is I who judge with equity.

³ “The earth and all who dwell in it melt;

It is I who have firmly set its pillars.

Selah.

⁴ “I said to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’

And to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up the horn;

⁵ Do not lift up your horn on high,

Do not speak with insolent pride.’ ”

⁶ For not from the east, nor from the west,

Nor from the desert comes exaltation;

⁷ But God is the Judge;

He puts down one and exalts another.

⁸ For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, and the wine foams;

It is well mixed, and He pours out of this;

Surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs.

⁹ But as for me, I will declare it forever;

I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

¹⁰ And all the horns of the wicked He will cut off,

But the horns of the righteous will be lifted up.

Heidelberg Catechism

Q&A 52

Q. How does Christ’s return “to judge the living and the dead” comfort you?

A. In all my distress and persecution

I turn my eyes to the heavens

and confidently await as judge the very One

who has already stood trial in my place before God

and so has removed the whole curse from me.

All his enemies and mine

he will condemn to everlasting punishment:

but me and all his chosen ones

he will take along with him

into the joy and the glory of heaven.

Summary

This week's psalm gives us the opportunity to geek out just a bit on some of its technical elements. Don't worry... we won't get too far into the weeds. Besides, understanding how a psalm works will enable you to benefit much more as you read and sing the Psalter yourself.

Let's start with the psalm's heading, or more technically, its title. We're used to seeing headings above nearly every passage in our printed Bibles which help us to quickly locate specific pericopes (the official term for a unit of scripture) and summarize what it's about. But those were added by the Bible translator, not the Biblical authors.

But the titles above many psalms are different — they are part of the Hebrew text itself, not later editorial headings added by modern Bible publishers. For that reason, many theologians treat them as part of the inspired text. Sometimes the title provides the context in which the psalm was written. Today's tells us the author was Asaph, who wrote Psalm 50 & 73-83. David appointed him to lead Israel's worship, and whereas David's psalms are often personally based, Asaph's lean toward national concerns. David favors singular pronouns (The LORD is my shepherd) whereas Asaph mostly uses plural: We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks (although not exclusively - notice the "I" in verse 9).

The title indicates Asaph wrote this psalm for the director of music, and that it's both a psalm and a song. Since all of the psalms are meant to be sung, this seems redundant. What this means here is that Psalm 75 is meant to be both sung and accompanied with stringed instruments playing the specified tune.

Asaph includes one more technical term in Psalm 75: the Hebrew word selah. We're not entirely sure what the word means, but it was likely a notation for the musicians performing the psalm to pause for a moment to add impact to the words just sung. This makes sense in the way it's used here in Psalm 75 right after verses 2-3:

The LORD says:

² “When I select an appointed time,

It is I who judge with equity.

³ “The earth and all who dwell in it melt;

It is I who have firmly set its pillars.

Selah = Let that sink in!

  Dig Deeper  

It can get confusing to talk about a psalm's verses. On one hand, Psalm 75 has 10 verses. These designators, of course, were added centuries after the psalm was written, not by Asaph. But the psalms are poetically versified as well in ways that don't always correspond to the printed verse numbers.

Psalm 75 has four poetic verses, which are more accurately referred to as strophes.

1. communal thanksgiving (75:1),

   1. a divine oracle (75:2–5)

   2. a prophetic oracle (75:6–8)

2. and individual thanksgiving (75:9–10)

Notice the balanced, almost wedge-shaped movement of the psalm. The first and last strophes correspond to one another in thanksgiving, while the two middle strophes focus on God’s judgment against the proud. This kind of mirrored structure is often called a chiasm, and it is common in Hebrew poetry.

The structure draws special attention to the center of the psalm: the proud are warned not to lift themselves up, because exaltation does not come from any earthly direction. God alone is the Judge; He brings one down and lifts another up.

One final technical note that shows up both here in Psalm 75 and also in lots of other places in the Bible: the use of the word horn. Here the word horn does not refer merely to an animal’s horn, but to what that image represents: strength, status, and power. Mark Futato explains, "The horn was primarily a symbol of power. People raising their own horn was a figure for autonomous and defiant self-assertion; here it is defiance against the rule of God, who is enthroned in heaven."

The psalms are written to bring you comfort and confidence as you read, pray and sing them. The more you understand the basic mechanics that lie behind them, the more comfort and confidence you'll gain.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who is the Judge; He puts down one and exults another;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that, like Asaph, you will declare God's praises forever;

  ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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