Psalm 75 - Awaiting Justice: The Assurance of God's Judgment

If you are visiting with us today over these summer weeks, we're

going through the Psalms.

We began this a number of years ago, and we've simply been

taking them each in their turn.

And so we come this morning to Psalm 75.

But last week we looked at Psalm 74 and we considered how often

in life we need to be patient as we wait, and we're honest with

ourselves.

And really we don't like having to wait.

The context of Psalm 74 was waiting on the Lord to act against

his enemies and the enemies of his people, who seem to be succeeding

in their oppression of the faithful.

And it was in verse 11 that gave us the clearest image of how

the psalmist was feeling and how the people of God could cry out

to him.

Where the psalmist wrote, why do you hold back your hand, your

right hand, take it from the folds of your garment, and destroy

them?

And so the psalmist or the congregation of God's people who

would be singing this ancient hymn of Israel, would be asking why

God was standing back, quite literally, with his hands in his

pockets.

Why was he just standing there doing nothing?

And the image is strong because we know that same feeling

today.

And in Psalm 74, the answer came in the following verses, as

the psalmist recounted all that the Lord had done for his people.

And as they knew his faithfulness in the past, so they

would know it again in the future, even if they were not sure

of when God would act.

Now.

Psalm 75 is similar, but different.

It's not asking a grand global question of when will you punish

your enemies and the enemies of your people people?

Nor is it looking for this great sense of a nation.

Psalm 75 builds on Psalm 74 by looking at the individual, by the

individual believer, asking themselves the hard questions that

they want to ask God.

But Psalm 75 is a hymn of praise in all of this, thanking God

for the wondrous deeds that he has done for Israel and celebrating

the fact that he is the judge of all the earth.

And as the judge of all the earth, he will in his own time put

down the wicked, and he will lift up the faithful.

So Psalm 75 is all about a relationship with God.

Now, we don't know if this psalm fits in with a real time situation

that the people knew in particular, or whether it was a general

psalm for them to be able to cry out to God against their enemies.

But the tune, as I mentioned as we read this passage that would

have been used, is simply called do not destroy.

Now, we have no idea what it Sounds like it is interesting if

you go onto YouTube and type in do not destroy.

There are churches that have attempted to try and guess what this

tune might have been like.

But this is the fourth Psalm and the last that this tune is associated

with.

So this is a tune that would have been known well by the people

of God, because the previous three Psalms that was used in were

actually three consecutive Psalms 57, 58 and 59.

And those are all psalms of David, as he wants to pray against

Saul's action against him, the unfairness of Saul.

And the songs are about Saul's unjust rule.

So we get an idea of the tone of this, that there's a sense of

vindication, of personal vindication.

In the earlier Psalms, David saying, saul is saying all this about

me, but it's not true.

So vindicate me, Lord.

And that's what we'll see in Psalm 75.

So in the age in which we live right now, it has never been easier

to keep in touch with family and friends, be they across the street

or across the world.

If you're born after 2006, you quite literally don't know you're

living.

And you see, if you're born after 2015, my goodness.

Many of us here don't even understand how you communicate.

I've heard of this thing called Snapchat.

I've been told don't go anywhere near it.

And I've been obedient and haven't.

So I know that Snapchat, I know that WhatsApp, if you're older

and apparently if you're really old, Facebook messenger is

the ways of communicating.

I'm so old, as many of you will know, text messages are my way

to go.

But it really hasn't been easier.

In an instant, photographs can be sent from one part of the earth

to the other.

We can hear news quite literally in real time because of

audio technology, video technology, and it's instant, with

barely any delay.

But many of you will remember costly telephone calls that were

made because in our day there was no such thing as inclusive minutes.

You paid per minute that you were on the phone.

And of course, the closer the phone call was, the cheaper it was.

Letters took anywhere between five days to two weeks to be delivered

to the furthest parts of the globe.

And there was nothing instant about it.

Communication 30 years ago required a lot of waiting to hear

news or receive information.

And if you were going to spend 20p, that's all it cost back in 1990

on a first class stamp, then you made sure you took the time to

write a full letter giving all the details that were needed.

So again, if you were born after 2006, you really don't know.

You're living in what we had to do in the good old days.

And in one sense, Psalm 75 is a Psalm that is written carefully,

just like you're writing a letter with a 20p stamp, wanting

to give as much as you can.

This is not an instant message to God's people.

This is something that they need to hear and they need time to

ponder on.

And we see that space given right in the heart of this psalm,

and we'll come to it in a few moments.

You see God's wanting to express to them or giving them an

opportunity to express their feelings about who he is and the

situation in which they find themselves.

For them, the people of God, their issue is that they have to

wait on the Lord, and they don't know when he will respond,

nor do they know when he will act.

And they begin in verse one with grateful praise of his name,

because that's where God's people must always begin in reminding

ourselves of who he is, where they say, we give thanks to you,

O God, we give thanks for your name is near.

Men tell of your wonderful deeds.

As God's people sing this song, they identify themselves as

the ones to whom God's name is near.

They are the people on whose account God has performed his, as

they describe it, wondrous deeds.

Now they're not specific here, as they were in Psalm 74 about what

God has done, but as we saw back then, that included the exodus

from Egypt crossing the Red Sea, and the mighty enemies that

they had to defeat to get to the promised land.

But what they are doing here is thinking of him and his goodness

towards them.

And this may simply have been on how he provides for them on a

day to day basis.

Again, how he defeated his enemies, as we just mentioned, or

their appreciation of his covenant love for them, how he's

told them again and again, you're my people, I will love you

no matter what.

And throughout the Psalms, the deeds of the Lord are described in

different words.

They're described as wondrous, as mighty, and as awesome.

Those are powerful words and they express gratitude for the great

acts God has done to guide and guard his people so that they will

flourish in true righteousness or true piety.

And as in Psalm 74, we know that they know what these deeds are

and how God has led them and defeated their enemies.

And this is what they want to tell each other as they sing.

But they also want the nations around them to hear this truth.

They want to declare to themselves and to the nations, as

again we saw in Psalm 74, so that everyone will turn and glorify

God.

So verse one gives us a moment of praise.

But it's in verses two to five that we move into a different way

that this psalm speaks than has been presented in any of the

psalms previously.

Because here we have God speaking through this psalm.

And as he does, he promises to work his judgment over the earth.

And this judgment will be in God's own time.

God will do what is right by his timing and not necessarily when

his people want him to act.

And you know, this often can be perceived as it was then and still

today, as frustrating.

But it is God who gives the promise that he will judge uprightly,

or as the King James Version says, with equity.

In other words, he will judge those who deserve his judgment, because

he is a God who lifts the righteous and he punishes the wicked.

Now, we must know something about God in all of this and who

he is.

See, God doesn't fly into an uncontrollable fit of rage and kind

of dish out punishment on all around him, the innocent then being

collateral damage.

That's how humanity responds in anger and rage.

God knows those who are evil and how they have treated his people

wrongly.

And he will judge them and them alone for this.

That's why God is a righteous judge.

That's why he will judge uprightly and with equity.

Because he is the God who knows who is wicked and he knows

who is righteous.

And the reason why this is affirmed in verse 2 is because of

what the Lord goes on to say in verse three.

He says, when the earth and all its people quake, it is I who

hold its pillars firm.

And this is where the pause comes for God's people, the time

that they need to think through what's just been said with

this one little word, selah.

And if you're here and wondered why, I paused after it,

because that has been our practice, that as we've been going

through the Psalms, we've paused after the word selah so that

we can think or even look at what has been said and know its truth

for us today.

And so what verse three is telling the people as they pause

and as they think about it, that as he judges uprightly, God

will preserve the stability of his creation.

Again, God doesn't fly into fits of rage, uncontrollable rage.

He knows what he's doing.

He keeps all of Creation in its order as he ordained it, while

he punishes the wicked.

This is what's meant in verse three when he speaks of the earth

and its people quaking, even though all around it may feel as

on steady ground, it is the Lord who will keep it, and he will

keep it together, because that's who he is in these moments.

He holds the created world tightly so it doesn't spin out of

control, even though we may feel that it is.

But in verse four, he picks out those who will face his judgment.

And he will rebuke the boastful, and he will rebuke the

wicked.

And these are names for people who don't know God.

But they're also content in their unbelief.

And it beggars belief that there are people in this day and

age, in the world all around us who are content in their unbelief

of God.

They will deny Him.

They will mock Him.

We have seen it even in these past days on our television screens

of how he will be mocked.

And people simply go around boastful, proud and wicked, content

in their unbelief of God.

Now, the psalm doesn't make clear whether the set time for judgment

is the time of the final judgment for all the earth, or any

time in which God chooses to make his justice visible.

Either way works.

But the warning is that he will judge.

And no one should want that judgment to fall on them, for they

will not survive it because of their sin against God.

And there's a phrase in verse four that might cause a bit of a

question in our minds, because it's a bit of a strange one.

We don't use phrases like this today.

The Lord says to the wicked, do not lift up your horns.

I was at a drive in service one time, and the preacher once said,

lift up your horns, and everybody blasted the horn of their

cars.

That's not what we're talking about.

Nor are we talking about the blowing of a trumpet, as we would

known horns in Scripture to be used as a trumpet call.

More, it's symbolic of who these people are and what their instruments

are, because in scripture the horn is a symbol of power.

And so to lift it up is to make a public assertion of power.

God warns the ungodly not to lift up their horn, and he promises

to lift up the horn of the faithful instead, as we'll see in

verse 10 and verse 5 strengthens this image.

When God says, do not lift up your horns against heaven.

Do not speak with outstretched neck.

And here God is warning the wicked not to be defiant against

Him.

He has given his people a way by which they must live.

And it is his way, not one of their own or our own making.

And so humanity is warned that as the wicked of the world are warned

not to be defiant against him and his ways, rather they're to turn

to him to seek his forgiveness and trust in his salvation.

And the one truth that this psalm wants to tell us is that God

has always been a God of salvation.

There is no difference in the God of the Old Testament and the

New Testament.

He demonstrates Himself to be the God of salvation.

And in passages like this we see them pointing us to Christ, in

whom we can only know full salvation.

And so the warning of these verses are still the warning for

us today.

Now we may not like the term wicked.

In fact we may not even like to think that there would be those

who would call us wicked.

But in our sin, that's who we are to God.

Because of our sin.

We are not good in sin.

We are rebellious people who defy God and we defy him and his

ways.

And the warning is clear in these verses that judgment will be

brought on those who rebel.

The only way to know escape from God's judgment is to trust in

the Savior, to trust in him and to know his love.

And as we go into the New Testament, in John's Gospel, it's

actually John the Baptist in his response to an argument between

his disciples and a certain Jew that states this truth.

Because he says in John 3:36, whoever believes in the Son and has

John 3:36

eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life,

for God's wrath remains on him.

This is what Psalm 75 is telling us.

It's telling us that there are those who believe and those who don't

believe, well then God's wrath will be upon them, will remain with

them.

And so it's quite clear cut.

The only way to know salvation is to trust in Jesus and no escape

from God's wrath, which is his judgment on sinful humanity.

But we turn back to Psalm 75 and in verses 68 we see the people

confirm that it is God who lifts up, and it is God who puts

down the lifting up.

Here is a display of authority.

Verse 6 confirms that no one can exalt a man.

That is, no one can lift them up to forgive them or to know forgiveness

from them.

It's only God who can do this.

And that's confirmed first in verse seven.

But it is God who judges.

He brings one down and he exalts another.

God's people sing this verse demonstrating that they are taking

a stand for what they believe, a stance of faith.

And there are many times when God's faithful people must simply

await his timing and not give in to despair.

And that's what they're doing here.

They're demonstrating their faith that God will be who he says

he is, and that he will work in his perfect time, because God

has promised that he will act, and when he does, then he will do

what is right.

And verse 8 describes the judgment of the wicked, using the

image of potent wine that the wicked must drink.

And this is an image that's used throughout the Old Testament.

And it's also used in contrast, because we have, in Psalm

Psalms 116:13

116, verse 13, a contrast to this cup of bitter, potent wine.

And the drink of the righteous is one that brings joy and warmth.

But this one that's mentioned here in Psalm 75, that they will

drink its dregs, is one that produces madness, confusion.

And it creates staggering, in other words, an ability not to walk

in the right ways.

But notice how it ends, as I've mentioned, that he pours it

out and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs.

And saying that the wicked will drink its very dregs tells us

that God's judgment of rebellious people will be complete,

that when that judgment happens, there will be no ability

to turn back.

Just like the Image In Revelation 18, God's judgment will

be final and no one will escape.

Now, this should give us both hope, but it also should be a warning.

And the warning comes that if we're not on the side of the Lord,

and if we're not trusting in Christ for salvation and living for

him, then we will face the judgment and we will face the punishment

that we rightly deserve.

But the hope is that salvation in Christ is enough.

Jesus has done everything that we need for salvation.

And so our response this morning must be that we are to trust

in him or that we will trust in Him.

And this trust in Christ is twofold.

First, we need to know that his salvation is true and that it

will not fail us.

That's what the people in Psalm 75 are telling themselves.

They're believing and continuing from Psalm 74 that even

in their individual moments, where things have not gone as they

wanted, God will not fail them.

They will know his salvation to be true.

And this may then spark a question for us, that if we are to

continue to believe that God's salvation is true and will not fail

us, then how can we be sure of that?

And how can we know that we are saved to continue to believe

it?

And we call this assurance of salvation.

So how can we know of assurance of salvation?

Well, Jesus tells us quite Simply in John 10:27, 28, my sheep

John 10:27

listen to my voice.

I know them and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they shall not perish.

No one can snatch them out of my hand.

My Father, who has given them to me is greater than all.

No one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.

Look at that verse and look at its logic.

Look at where it begins.

How can we know that we're saved for all eternity?

Well, we listen to the voice of the shepherd, and as we do, well,

we are known by the shepherd.

The shepherd knows us, but as we know that he knows us, then we

will want to follow him.

And this is the logic that Jesus gives us because he gives us

eternal life.

And so that assurance of us is that when we know eternal that we

have eternal life, then we'll never perish, because we will be

found with him forever.

No one can snatch us out of his hand.

My Father Jesus goes on to say, who has given them to Me is

greater than all.

And he affirms that no one can snatch his people out of His Father's

hand.

How do we know we're saved?

How can we have assurance of salvation?

We listen to the voice of Jesus as we find it in the word of

God.

We follow his way, and we want to live for Him.

So let me give you a very straight challenge this morning.

If you call yourself a Christian, well, then there's something

that you must do, and that's what Jesus is telling us here in

John's Gospel.

We must read His Word, and we must read it daily.

Whether you as a young person say you're a Christian or you're

an old person who says you're a Christian and everyone in between,

you must be daily reading His Word.

You can't just depend on me to read it for you on a Sunday, nor

can you depend on a YouTube video during the week.

You must read it, and you must go to somewhere else in Scripture

that I'm not reading from.

There's books out there to help you daily read so that you can

know and listen to the voice of the Lord through God's Word, that

you will live his ways, that you will want to live for him, and

that no Christian ever gets it completely right.

Let's be honest about that.

We don't.

But we live desiring to want to do what is right, as Christ tells

us.

And so what we're saying is that our standard of authority doesn't

rest with ourselves, nor does it rest with the opinions of those

around us.

It firmly rests with Jesus Christ and how we read the revealed

word of Scripture each and every day, be it one verse or a hundred

verses.

And so this is what we must do.

And so if you say you're a Christian, then what you must be

doing is reading the word of God, because as Jesus himself says,

my sheep listen to my voice.

So find ways of doing that.

Find a moment in the day where you can read and you can think.

Start out early morning, and if you have a long drive ahead of

you, you have a drive in which you can think of what you've read.

Or maybe the 11 o' clock tea break or the lunchtime where the

tea time is a moment of quietness or a moment where you can

take yourself and read and pray and meditate on the Word.

To be a Christian means we live by God's way, and we, as his

sheep, listen clearly to his voice.

And so that's the first thing we need to know that his salvation

is true and will not fail us.

And so we must have assurance of salvation, which means we listen

to the voice of the Lord Jesus.

And the second part of this response is to trust in Him.

And that means to know that evil will be punished.

All too often we start to balance things as we see them here

on earth.

We begin to want judgments based on what we see in the world

around us.

And you see, this is where Psalm 75 lands for us today.

Perhaps there are things in your life that still haunt you.

You weren't treated well, or you're plagued by animosity from

family members towards you.

Perhaps you feel discouraged when you read or listen to the news

and hear the media and those whom they interview twisting the

truth.

What we need to know from this psalm is God will judge.

And as he does, all will be put right.

You will be vindicated, and those who have perpetrated against

you will face what they deserve in God's judgment.

For a little while on this earth.

It may seem as if they're getting away with it, but they won't

forever.

And this is what Paul assures us in Galatians chapter 6 and verse

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

7.

Do not be deceived.

God cannot be mocked.

A man reaps what he sows.

So if you are haunted by things of the past, if you're facing

that animosity of today, or what you see on the news send you

into despair.

Take heart.

These days of sorrow and injustice will pass, and it is God

who will have the final word.

But there's another side to this.

Maybe you're here and you find yourself tormented by a conscience

that knows you yourself to be the perpetrator of evil, of selfishness,

of mean words or relational withdrawal of deceit.

If so, repent.

Repent and seek restitution with those whom you have wronged.

But beneath it all, take heart.

In the greatest truth of God's judgment, God judges his own righteous

Son in place of us on righteous rebels.

So that any who turn to take, who want him as their Savior, to

take him as their Savior, gets the future, gets that future that

Jesus gave his life for.

This, above all else, is the reason to give thanks to God for

His wondrous deeds.

And that's how this psalm ends.

As for me, I will declare this forever.

I will sing praise to the God of Jacob.

I will cut off the horns of all the wicked, but the horns of

the righteous will be lifted up.

This is the declaration that these people finish on even in the

midst of their cry for vindication.

The psalm ends as it begins with praise of God for who he is,

but also an affirmation that they will do what is right and they

will stay away from sin and evil and seek to live righteous lives.

Is this your desire?

Do you desire to live a righteous life?

Do you desire to have the name Christian upon you and actually live

like it?

Because it's so easy to call ourselves Christians and do nothing

when God's word tells us that as his people, we must walk in his

way, otherwise we are making a mockery of Him.

And as Paul says in Galatians 6, God cannot be mocked.

A man reaps what he sows.

Do you want to stay away from sin and from evil?

Do you want to have assurance of salvation?

Well, the only one who can strengthen us to do this is the Lord

Jesus.

And so each of us today must trust in Him.

Trust that he can and will save you, but also trust that he

will vindicate you, that he will judge in his time, and he will

keep us away from evil.

So that as we look ever to Jesus to listen to his voice, then

the gracious Savior will truly lead us home.

Turn to Christ this day, truly in your heart, and know him to be

the greatest we can ever know.

Our Redeemer, our defender, our Savior, our friend.

Look ever to him and respond well to him this day.

Let's pray our Father God, we thank you for your word that directs

us.

It helps us to see what the truth is.

Even though in this world all around us, the truth that we see

is not real truth.

It's all a screen.

It's all what the devil wants to put before us so that we will

turn away from Christ.

So help us to be faithful.

If we profess the name of Christ, if we call ourselves a Christian,

help us first and foremost to look ever to him and listen to his

voice as we read it in Scripture.

Then help us to respond in prayer, in worship and in fellowship.

So that indeed we will continue to grow as a community of

your people who truly love you and truly love one another and want

what is best for each other.

As we outshine Christ before each other, so that they will know

truly what it is to live for Him.

So help us to.

To live in this way.

To know what it means to have Christ living in us and through us,

that all will see and place their trust in him as they respond

to his great word.

So hear us as we pray and as we respond.

In Jesus name, Amen.