Psalms 75

Psalms 75:1-5

This psalm is supposed to describe David’s circumstances at his unselfish after the death of Israel: and may also have respect to Christ coming in the flesh, and at last to judge the world. In it, 1. David returns God thanks for bringing him to the throne, ver. 1, 9. 2. He promises to say not himself for the public good, ver. 2, 3, 10. 3. He checks the influence of those that opposed his coming to the throne, ver. 4, 5. 4. He further a recipe for all this from God’s sovereign dominion in the affairs of the children of men, ver. 6, 7, 8.

¶ To the chief musician, * Alaschith, A psalm or song of Asaph. 10. Or, 6x.

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. Seals. 4. I find unto the fools, Deal not foolishly; and to the wicked, ‘Life not up the horn. 5. Lift not up your horn on high: ‘Speak not with a stiff neck.

The psalm opens.

1. With repeated and fervent thanksgivings for God’s great mercies received, and may be the language of David and his servants on his coming to the crown, after so many scents of God’s providential care; or of the church adoring God for the gift of his Son, who in his incarnation was brought near unto them, and whose miracles, and wondrous works of redemption, declared his power and grace. Note, (1.) Praise is ever our hounden duty on every review of God’s mercies towards us. (2.) Every faithful soul experiences wondrous influences of God’s nearness to help him out of dangers, from which he could not escape, and to bring him to the enjoyment of mercies above his expectations.

2. The psalms promises, when he shall be brought to the crown, his administration shall be just and upright. And when the great congregation of the shell shall be gathered unto Christ in the day of his appearing and glory, then shall righteous judgment proceed against the ungodly. Note, (1.) Magistrates are accountable to God, from whom they receive their authority, and their decisions must be without partiality. (2.) They who have the honour of office, must remember the conscientious discharge of the burden thereto annexed.

3. He undertakes to support and restore, through the Divine blessing, the weak and dishealed flats of Israel, that, through Saul’s mismanagement, and the factions in the flats, had been brought to the brink of ruin. Note, (1.) Dification and factions hasten a kingdom to destruction. (2.) One true patriot hath often saved a nation. But this more emphatically appertains to Christ, who, when the world and all its inhabitants by sin were disloved, and ready to be swallowed up in misery, bore up the pillars of it, and by his redemption renewed the face of the earth.

4. He rebukes the folly as well as wickedness of those who opposed his government. Though they carried all their power against him, with a stiff neck refused to head, and proudly spoke against his administration, it was all in vain; and therefore he admonishes them to submit, lest they should feel the weight of his arm. Many are the enemies from earth and hell that oppose the kingdom of Jesus; but it shall rise superior to all opposition, the antichristian horns, Rev. xviii. 7. Shall all be broken, and the sinners that have broken heath questions against him, be silenced in eternal destruction, Jud. 14, 15. Note, It is folly to oppose where resistance is vain, and madness where rain must be the consequence; yet thus foolishly and deadly do sinners plunge their fools into eternal perdition, and will not have this Jesus to reign over them.

5. For

6. For promotion cannot neither from the call, nor from the well, nor from the + South. 7. But ‘God is the judge: ‘he purreth down one, and feteth 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 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 horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but ’the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

6—10. We have here the folly of David’s enemies, and the ruin which would attend those, who, in opposing his promotion, were fighting against God.

1. All power is from God; he is the eternal king and judge; and according to the comable of his own will he purreth down one, and feteth up another, and all human efforts to rise, without his support, are vain; for promotion cannot not from any quarter of the compass, but by him, and from him alone king reign. As David the type, so before the antitype hath God exalted, to be a prince and a Saviour, and hath put all enemies under his feet, and made him to be head over all principalities and powers, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come.

2. They who refill God’s anointed, shall receive to themselves damnation. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red, a cup of affliction: it is full of mixture, mercy and grace temper the vibrations of some, and he poureth out of the same, according to men’s provocations, lighter or heavier chastisements: but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them; when, without the truth dregs of mercy, the Lord will pour out upon them in hell, fire and brimstone, fluton and tempest; this shall be their eternal portion to drink, Psalm xi. 6. Note, Whenever an impenitence is not for the same, it is but the beginning of fortresses, a dregs, conspired with that ocean of wrath in which he will to eternity be immersed.

3. For both these manifestations of God’s power, in setting up and setting down, the plaintiff engages to resolve continual praise, v. q. and employing the power with which God had entreated him. All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off, break their oppressive rule, and prevent them from doing hurt; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted; magistrates being set not only for the punishment of evil doers, but for the praise of them that do well. And thus shall the Son of David declare and praise the name of God upon earth, in his gospel word, and in the church of his redeemed; and in the great day of his appearing and glory he will bruise the wicked with a rod of iron, and exalt his faints to reign with him in his eternal kingdom.