GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 75:1-5
PSALM 75
The God of History
This psalm is the fourth by Asaph and the third in this group (Psalms 73-83). Like the rest of Asaph’s psalms, this psalm draws from many of the same themes as the book of Job, and in my opinion this makes Asaph the most likely author of Job. Here in Psalm 75, for example, we will note an emphasis on the name of God (75:1; cp. Job 1:21), the quaking pillars of the earth (75:3; cp. Job 9:6; 26:11), using the compass points east and west to describe people from all over (75:6; cp. Job 18:20) and preaching that God is the one who judges and raises his hand against the wicked (75:7; cp. Job 21:22).
For the choir director:
“Do Not Destroy.”
A psalm of Asaph. A song.
The phrase “For the choir director” probably means that Asaph intended this psalm to be used in public worship. The meaning of some of the phrases in the psalms were not always understood, which shows that the headings themselves are very old and in many ways, obscure. For example, St. Jerome thought that the Hebrew lamnatseah means “for the victor,” although he was aware that the Greek translation (Εἰς τὸ τέλος) means “to the end.”
Martin Luther said that this psalm is a canticle, like the Magnificat, the Benedictus, the Te Deum, and the hymns we sing. Whether by coincidence or intent, Asaph picks up the old tune “Do Not Destroy” just as David sometimes did (Ps. 57, 58, 59). I believe that this tune was written to accompany Moses’ song in Deuteronomy 9:26-29, which begins with the words, “O Sovereign LORD, do not destroy.” The Hebrew phrase (אַל־תַּשְׁחֵת, ‘al tashheth) is the same. I said that this might have been by coincidence or intent, because Asaph’s theme is God as the judge throughout history, and mankind’s plea to our holy Judge can only be, “Do Not Destroy.”
1 We give thanks to you, God;
we give thanks, for your name is near.
People tell about your wondrous deeds.
God’s name is near when it is preached and proclaimed, either by a mother to her little children, by a teacher to her classroom, by men and women studying the word together, and in our pulpits. Christ preached the word to the crowds in Galilee (Mark 2:2), and then his disciples did the same everywhere (Mark 16:20). The scattered Christians preached the word “wherever they went” after Pentecost (Acts 8:4), and we still preach his word today. The name of the God is everything that describes him: Holy, mighty, love, savior, and on. With each of these descriptions comes a story, or ten stories, and in this way the word is preached. Just yesterday a woman asked me about a UFO she and her sister saw when they were children, and I didn’t try to talk her into believing or not believing what she saw. Her mother had thought there was something in the Bible about a round “something” or flying wheel, and I showed her Ezekiel chapter 1 and used the opportunity to point her toward the word of God and what Christ has done for us without insisting that what she saw fifty years ago had to be one thing or another. This is how we proclaim the gospel and the name of our saving God, when “people tell about your wondrous deeds.”
2 I choose a time indeed,
I am the one who judges fairly.
3 The earth and all its inhabitants shake,
But I am the one who steadies its pillars. Selah (Interlude)
God is the one who chooses the time of judgment. For everyone who dies, there are two judgments. First, as Solomon teaches, the soul and body divide at death, the body returning to the dust from where it came, and the soul either returning to God in the case of a Christian (Ecclesiastes 12:7), or descending into eternal agony in the case of an unbeliever (Luke 16:22-23). Then, on the last day, our bodies will rise from our graves. Even though the soul will already be with God, it yearns for the resurrection and the coming of the Lord to raise the dead “more than watchmen wait for the morning” (Psalm 130:6). Then at the resurrection, our bodies and souls will be reunited forever, and then we will be judged, either according to our sins (Job 21:11) or according to our faith in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:2). Those with faith will be carried to heaven forever (1 Peter 1:3-4). Anyone without faith will receive “what his sinful deeds deserve” (Jeremiah 32:19). However a person is judged, God’s judgment is fair and upright.
The word translated “fairly” at the end of verse 2 is mesharim, “evenly.” New Hebrew students are sometimes confused by a word like this, which is plural. Could “evennesses” or “fairnesses” be a concept? Not exactly. This word only occurs in the plural, whether it means an appropriate emotion (Song of Solomon 1:4), a peaceful solution (Daniel 11:6); a just judgment (Psalm 58:1); or a correct statement (Proverbs 8:6). Since the verb yashar in the piel stem means to make something even (perhaps by patting it down again and again and again as with a sculpted lawn), the plural idea comes out here in the adverb. An even, fair judgment is one that has been considered carefully and is not unfair in any way.
Asaph calls on us to consider the Lord’s power by introducing an interlude (selah) after saying that the Lord steadies the world’s pillars. Since the Lord can also shake those pillars (Job 9:6), we realize that he is in control at all times, and that what happens in the natural world is part of his design to focus our trust and our prayers on him.
4 I say to the boastful, “Do not boast,”
and to the wicked, “Do not raise your horn.
5 Do not raise your horns against heaven
or speak arrogantly with an outstretched neck.”
The wicked and the boastful are depicted as having an arrogantly outstretched neck, like some entitled fool who has never done a real day’s work in his life and thinks he better off for it. Raising the horn is not a horn hollowed out to drink from, but the horn an ox lifts before he charges. It is a symbol of strength, and here an indication of obstinacy against God.
When this happens, God is prepared to judge; to condemn. But he is merciful, and so he waits, choosing his time. He is ready to judge fairly. He gives us all, every single one of us, our time of grace in which to come to faith and to know the love of Christ. Not one of us is above God’s law, but as Adam West’s Batman once said, “No man is above the law, and no man is below it” (Episode 88, Batman’s Waterloo). God’s judgment is fair and God’s patience is beyond our understanding. His mercy does not fail. In fact, his mercy endures forever. We can pray, “Do not destroy,” and know with confidence and certainty that because of Christ, he will not destroy us, but he will forgive us. He will invite us into his house and to eat the fattened calf at his own table.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota