Psalm LXXV

To the chief Musician. Al-taschith. A Psalm or Song of Asaph.

1 Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: For that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.

2 When I shall receive the congregation, I will judge uprightly.

3 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the

pillars of it. Selah.

4 I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly! and to the wicked, Lift not up

the horn!

5 Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.

6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from

the south.

7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.

8 For in the hand of the Lord there 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.

9 But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. 10 All the homs of the wicked also will I cut off;

But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

The same Asaph takes the harp again, at the bidding of xue titie the Holy Ghost, to write an ode that, like many of David’s (see Psa. lvii.), has been marked “Al-taschith,” and called, “A Song,” lively in theme, and with life in every line.

‘• We have praised thee, 0 God! we have praised thee! And (now at length) thy name is near, Thy wondrous works are telling it.^’’

This is the delighted cry of Messiah’s people, who see Him xi,e pian. near at hand, and could join with Isaiah xxv. 9, “Lo! this is our God!” Their hosannahs are becoming hallelujahs. And Messiah himself responds, as in Isaiah lxiii. 1, 2, explaining his ways. He refers to their words regarding ‘’his name being now near,” his long-hid discovery of his person and promised deeds, “1 will take a set time” (Heng.), or rather thus:

“(It is so) for I noio get the appointed day I (Acts i. 7.) I (>Jy, unlike earth’s usurpers), jttdge uprightly. Eaiih and its inhabitants have melted away. I am he who CDii) have poised its pillars. Selah.’” (Ver. 2, 3.)

He has weighed the pillars and so knows, and has power to order earth. After a pause, Messiah opens his lips to utter the sentences of doom. He addresses the apostate nations, with Antichrist at their head (ver. 4) —

“7 say (“‘inQJ^, the word has passed my lips) to the boastful, Boast no more,’’^ <&c.

No help will come to you from east or west, i. e., from land or

p sea; nay, nor from the wilderness (liap) shall any caravan bring you ought to lift up your head;

“For Ood is judging now /” (ver. 7). (As Psa. lvii. 11,

And the processes of judgment are commenced, the reversal of unrighteous sentences, and the pouring out of that terrible “Cup” (ver. 8). John (Rev. xiv. 10) saw this cup, full of “wine without mixture,” i. e., without one drop of water to alleviate its fierce poison; but here it is “full of mixture,” i.e., of all strong ingredients, that make its taste more bitter, and its wrathful poison more sure. This blood-red wine of vengeance is the measured-out portion of all earth’s wicked, great or small.

At verse 9, Messiah seems to wind up the proceedings by indicating the general result. As in Psa. ii. 7, a full announcement is made of these sentences in their hearing —

“And I C’Ji, who am entitled so to do), declare tJiis a thing eternally fixed r’ and then turning towards his blessed ones, inviting them to join him in praise, he may be said to cry, “Hallelujah!” “Let me sing (^1Siti) to the God ofJadb! And I will cut off all the horns of the wicked’” (while my song ascends).

As the final issue of the whole, lo!

“The horns of the Righteous One are exalted /”

prophecy is fulfilled; what Hannah sang of in 1 Sam. ii 10, and so many others besides, is now come to pass; for his “name is near,” his kingdom is come. And thus, referring all the while to the beseeching prayer of Psalm lxxiv., Asaph has sung

Messiah’s response to his “people luho are expecting His Coming.