Psalms · Chapter 75

V. 1. Thy name-Thy self; art present with us, and ready to help.

Verse 1. Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks] Thou canst not forget thy people. The numerous manifestations of thy providence and mercy show that thou art not far off, but near: this

Thy wondrous works declare.] These words would make a proper conclusion to the preceding Psalm, which seems to end very abruptly. The second verse is the commencement of the Divine answer to the prayer of Asaph.

1. Declares his resolution of executing justice and judgment in his kingdom, 2. Which had been in disorder and confusion, 3. He rebukes the wicked, 4-7. Reminds them of the power, providence, and judgments of God 6, 8. Concludes with repeating his resolution to praise God, to break the power of wickedness, and to establish righteousness.

NOTES ON PSALM 75.

Verse 1. Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks — I, in my own, and in thy people’s name; for that thy name — Thy self, or thy power; is near — That is, is present with us, and most ready to help us when we cry unto thee; thou art not departed from us; thou dost not now stand afar off, as once thou didst, Psalm 10:1, as thy wondrous works declare — Wrought for the good of thy people. “Upon whatever occasion,” says Dr. Horne, “these words were originally endited, the Christian Church now celebrates in them that great deliverance which, by so many miracles of mercy and power, hath been accomplished for her through the Messiah, who is, in Scripture, frequently styled the NAME of Jehovah.”

1. Give thanks—The first prompting of a pious heart, and the first tribute due to God for his wonders. Thy name is near—Objectively, when faith waits for promised succour, as in Isaiah 30:27, the anticipated coming “name of Jehovah;” and subjectively, in the consciousness of his presence. The former sense suits historically the state of Hezekiah after Isaiah had delivered the promise, (Isaiah 37,) and the latter such experience as is recorded Psalm 65:4.

V. 2. Receive-The whole congregation, all the tribes.

Verse 2. When I shall receive the congregation] When the proper time is come that the congregation, my people of Israel, should be brought out of captivity, and received back into favour, I shall not only enlarge them, but punish their enemies. They shall be cut off and cast out, and become a more miserable people than those whom they now insult. I will destroy them as a nation, so that they shall never more be numbered among the empires of the earth.

Verse 2. When I shall receive the congregation — The first verse was spoken by many persons, We give thanks, &c.; here the speaker is one, and that one is plainly a ruler, who promises that when he shall have received the congregation, or, as d[wm may be properly rendered, an appointed, or fit time, or season; that is, when he shall be established in power and authority, at a fit time and place, he will judge uprightly, and introduce a thorough reformation into a kingdom which, as the following verse makes manifest, stood greatly in need of it. From these circumstances Dr. Horne, with several other commentators, thinks it probable “David is speaking here of his advancement to the throne of Israel, and the intended rectitude of his administration when he should be settled thereon.”

2. When I shall receive the congregation—We must certainly recognise the historic ground of verses 2 and 3, before any spiritual or prophetic sense is admissible. The king is speaking to God. He states what he will do when he shall take his seat in the assembly, namely, perform the highest function of his office faithfully. “When I shall receive,” or take the place of authority in the stated assembly for the administration of justice, I will judge uprightly. He first thanks God for deliverance, then his heart turns to his distracted people, and, as God’s minister to them, he pledges uprightness of decision. This is part of his gratitude offering. All nations have had their times of restoring order and prosperity after the shattering effects of war, and this example of the pious king of Judah is worthy of universal adoption as the soundest state policy.

V. 3. Dissolved-Or, destroyed; by intestine divisions and wars. I hear-I support it, by maintaining religion and justice, by setting up good magistrates, and encouraging good ministers, and good men, who are indeed the pillars of a nation.

Verse 3. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved] They all depend on me; and whenever I withdraw the power by which they exist and live, they are immediately dissolved.

I bear up the pillars of it.] By the word of my power all things are upheld, and without me nothing can subsist. Those who consider this Psalm to have been written by David before he was anointed king over ALL Israel, understand the words thus: “All is at present in a state of confusion; violence and injustice reign: but when ‘I shall receive the whole congregation,’ when all the tribes shall acknowledge me as king, I will reorganize the whole constitution. It is true that the land and all its inhabitants are dissolved-unsettled and unconnected by the bands of civil interest. The whole system is disorganized: ‘I bear up the pillars of it;’ the expectation of the chief people is placed upon me; and it is the hope they have of my coming speedily to the throne of all Israel that prevents them from breaking out into actual rebellion.”

Verse 3. The earth — Or land; and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved — Or melted, as µygmn, nemogim, may be rendered. It seems to mean, either that the Israelitish affairs were thrown into confusion, and the frame of the government dissolved by their civil distractions, or that the people were consumed and destroyed by the continual irruptions of foreign enemies. I bear up the pillars of it — How much soever I am traduced by mine enemies, as the great disturber of the land, I must do myself this right to affirm that, under God, I do support and establish it, by maintaining religion and justice, by appointing, countenancing, and supporting good magistrates, and by encouraging the Lord’s prophets and servants, and all good men, who are indeed the pillars of a nation.

Verse 3. The earth, the land of Israel, and all its inhabitants are dissolved. The government is without energy, the people without spirit, and the army without strength.—I bear up the pillars of it. The hope and stay of Israel is in me, by virtue of the anointing of Samuel.

3. The earth and all the inhabitants… are dissolved—A figurative description of a wasted country and a dispirited people. Dissolved— Melted, become faint with fear and discouragement. Psalm 107:26; Ezekiel 21:15. Isaiah 14:31, “Thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved:” this latter is spoken of this same or a subsequent Assyrian invasion. Earth—The land—the “earth” so far as relates to Hebrew territory. To the eye the desolation seemed world wide. I bear up the pillars of it—I adjust its pillars. The king still speaks in the name of God. Every thing in the kingdom is shaken and thrown out of order except the throne. From this solid centre and basis the reconstruction of government and the restoration of order and prosperity must proceed. “The pillars and foundations of the earth signify those fundamental laws which are essential to the existence and well being of society.”—French and Skinner. The lofty image here employed is often used to denote the shaking or overthrow of governments. Psalm 46:2; 82:5; Jeremiah 4:23-27. It is quite common for interpreters to apply this to God, or to Christ as king, as speaking of himself and of mankind; but it is a safer method of interpretation to follow the historic and literal sense where it adequately meets the import of the language. To spiritualize historic facts does not interpret them; but the underlying moral of history is of universal application, and both fact and moral are given in holy Scripture to illustrate the divine government.

V. 4. I said-I charged them. Deal not-Desist from your practices. Lift not up-Do not carry yourselves scornfully and maliciously.

Verse 4. I said unto the fools] I have given the idolatrous Chaldeans sufficient warning to abandon their idols, and worship the true God; but they would not. I have also charged the wicked, to whom for a season I have delivered you because of your transgressions, not to lift up their horn-not to use their power to oppress and destroy. They have, notwithstanding, abused their power in the persecutions with which they have afflicted you. For all these things they shall shortly be brought to an awful account. On the term horn, see Clarke’s note on “Luke 1:69”.

Verses 4, 5. I said — With authority and command; unto the fools — The wicked: I charged them; Deal not foolishly — Desist from your impious and injurious practices, which shall not now go unpunished as they have done. Lift not up your horn, &c. — Do not carry yourselves with pride and arrogance, boasting of your own strength; or with scorn and contempt toward me or any others of God’s people. It is a metaphor taken from untamed oxen, which will not bow their heads to receive the yoke, but lift up their heads and horns to avoid it. Or, µwrml, lammarom, rendered, on high, means, against the high one, that is, against God, who is mentioned under this same title, Psalm 56:2; Isaiah 57:15. Speak not — Against me and my government; with a stiff neck — With pride and contempt of my person, and with rebellion against God’s will declared concerning my advancement, of which you are not ignorant: see 2 Samuel 3:17, 18.

4. I said unto the fools—The king still speaks as God’s vicar. I said to the haughty, who by reason of their successes had grown insolent. Deal not foolishly—Scornfully, boastfully. Lift not up the horn—Toss not high your horn defiantly, as the infuriated bull, “from a sense of your strength, and with intention to strike.”—Hengstenberg. Speak not with a stiff neck—With an arrogant neck, a hard neck, a neck of impudence. The allusion is to the lofty tossing of the head of the bison, (when brought to bay,) displaying the pride and strength of his powerful neck.

V. 5. Lift not-A metaphor from untamed oxen, which will not bow their heads to receive the yoke. Stiff neck-With pride and contempt.

Verse 5. Speak not with a stiff neck.] Mr. Bruce has observed that the Abyssinian kings have a horn on their diadem; and that the keeping it erect, or in a projecting form, makes them appear as if they had a stiff neck; and refers to this passage for the antiquity of the usage, and the appearance also.

Verses 4, 5. I said — With authority and command; unto the fools — The wicked: I charged them; Deal not foolishly — Desist from your impious and injurious practices, which shall not now go unpunished as they have done. Lift not up your horn, &c. — Do not carry yourselves with pride and arrogance, boasting of your own strength; or with scorn and contempt toward me or any others of God’s people. It is a metaphor taken from untamed oxen, which will not bow their heads to receive the yoke, but lift up their heads and horns to avoid it. Or, µwrml, lammarom, rendered, on high, means, against the high one, that is, against God, who is mentioned under this same title, Psalm 56:2; Isaiah 57:15. Speak not — Against me and my government; with a stiff neck — With pride and contempt of my person, and with rebellion against God’s will declared concerning my advancement, of which you are not ignorant: see 2 Samuel 3:17, 18.

Ver. 5. Lift not up your horn. See on Job 15:15: their horn was soon laid in the dust.

Verse 6. For promotion cometh neither from the east, &c.] As if the Lord had said, speaking to the Babylonians, None of all the surrounding powers shall be able to help you; none shall pluck you out of my hand. I am the Judge: I will pull you down, and set my afflicted people up, Psalm 75:7.

Calmet has observed that the Babylonians had Media, Armenia, and Mesopotamia on the EAST; and thence came Darius the Mede: that it had Arabia, Phœnicia, and Egypt on the WEST; thence came Cyrus, who overthrew the empire of the Chaldeans. And by the mountains of the desert, הרים מדבר midbar harim, which we translate SOUTH, Persia, may be meant; which government was established on the ruins of the Babylonish empire. No help came from any of those powers to the sinful Babylonians; they were obliged to drink the cup of the red wine of God’s judgment, even to the very dregs. They were to receive no other punishment; this one was to annihilate them as a people for ever.

Verses 6, 7. For promotion cometh not, &c. — Though you envy and oppose my advancement, because I was but a poor shepherd, and of a mean family; yet you ought to know and consider what is notorious and visible in the world, that the dignities and sceptres of the earth are not always conferred according to human expectations and probabilities, but by God’s sovereign will and providence, as it follows. But God is judge — Namely, the righteous Judge, and supreme Lord and Governor of all the kingdoms of the earth; giving them to whomsoever he pleaseth. He putteth down one and setteth up another — It is he who hath rejected Saul and his family, and put me in his stead: and who art thou that disputest against God, and resistest his declared will?

6. For promotion—Same word as “lift,” in verses 4 and 5. He warns his enemy not to “lift” up himself in pride and scorn, for the true lifting up, or “promotion,” is from God only. Verse 7. East… west… south—An enumeration, not of the cardinal points of the compass, but of those quarters from whence the contest for supremacy among the nations arose, so far as the Hebrews were affected by it, namely, the Assyrians and Babylonians on the “east;” the Egyptians on the “west,” or southwest as to southern Palestine or the kingdom of Judah, and the Arabians and Ethiopians on the “south.” All these powers had been more or less called into activity by the invasion of Sennacherib, and from time to time warred against Israel. The south—The Hebrew word is wilderness, but is a designation of Arabia.

Verses 6, 7. For promotion cometh not, &c. — Though you envy and oppose my advancement, because I was but a poor shepherd, and of a mean family; yet you ought to know and consider what is notorious and visible in the world, that the dignities and sceptres of the earth are not always conferred according to human expectations and probabilities, but by God’s sovereign will and providence, as it follows. But God is judge — Namely, the righteous Judge, and supreme Lord and Governor of all the kingdoms of the earth; giving them to whomsoever he pleaseth. He putteth down one and setteth up another — It is he who hath rejected Saul and his family, and put me in his stead: and who art thou that disputest against God, and resistest his declared will?

7. God is… judge—Comp. 1 Samuel 2:6-8.

V. 8. For-God is here compared to the master of a feast, who then used to distribute portions of meat and drink to the several guests. A cup-Of vengeance. Red-Such as the best wine of Judea was. Mixture-The wine is mingled not with water, but with strengthening and intoxicating ingredients. Dregs-The worst and most dreadful part of those tribulations. Shall wring-This dreadful draught was brought upon them by their own choice and wickedness.

Verse 8. It is full of mixture] Alluding to that mingled potion of stupefying drugs given to criminals to drink previously to their execution. See a parallel passage to this, Jeremiah 25:15-26.

Verse 8. For, &c. — This verse is added, either, 1st, As a reason or confirmation of the assertion, verse 7, and to show that God, in removing one king to make way for another, did not proceed in a way of absolute sovereignty, but in a way of justice and equity. Or, 2d, As another argument to enforce his advice given verses 4, 5, which he had already pressed by one argument, verses 6, 7. In the hand of the Lord there is a cup — God is here compared to the master of a feast, who, in those days, used to distribute portions of meats or drinks to the several guests, as he thought fit. A cup, in Scripture, is sometimes taken in a good sense for God’s blessings, as Psalm 16:5, and 23:5, and sometimes, and more frequently, in a bad sense, for his vengeance and judgments, Psalm 11:6; Isaiah 51:22; Jeremiah 49:12; Matthew 20:23; and so it is here understood, as the following words show. And the wine is red — Such as the best wine in Judea was, (Deuteronomy 32:14; Proverbs 23:31,) and therefore strong and intoxicating. Or, is troubled, as rmj, chamar, more properly signifies, and is rendered by divers learned men. Thus he expresses the power and fierceness of God’s wrath and judgments. It is full of mixture — The wine is mingled, not with water, but with strengthening and intoxicating ingredients. “Calamity and sorrow, fear and trembling, infatuation and despair, the evils of the present life, and of that which is to come, are the bitter ingredients of this cup of mixture.” And he poureth out of the same — As it is entirely in the hand and disposal of God, so, through every age, he has been pouring out, and administering of its contents, more or less, in proportion to the sins of men; but the dregs thereof — The worst and most dreadful part of those tribulations; all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out — Shall be compelled to squeeze out every drop of wrath and misery which they contain; and drink them — For the curse shall enter into their bowels like water, and like oil into their bones. They shall be compelled to endure the utmost effects of the divine vengeance upon their sins, partly in this life, but more fully in the life to come, when the cup of the Lord’s indignation will be to them in an especial manner a cup of trembling, of everlasting trembling; when burning coals, fire and brimstone, and a horrible eternal tempest shall be the portion of their cup, Psalm 11:6. And they shall be thus tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb, and shall have no rest day nor night, and the smoke of their torment shall ascend up for ever and ever, Revelation 14:10, 11.

Ver. 8. A cup—the dregs thereof shall the wicked drink. They drank these dregs on Gilboa; the men who sought David’s life paid for the crime by their own lives. The Lord denied them courage in the day of battle.

8. A cup… red—The emblem of wrath. Psalm 60:3; Revelation 14:10. Mixture—Alluding to the practice of drugging wine to make it more intoxicating. Isaiah 5:11, 22. Wring… out—That is, shall press the dregs, or lees, at the bottom of the cup, to extract the last drop. See Isaiah 51:17, 22.

V. 9. Declare-The praises of God.

Verse 9. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.] These are the words of the psalmist, who magnifies the Lord for the promise of deliverance from their enemies.

Verses 9, 10. But I will declare for ever — These dispensations of mercy and judgment to the world. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob — He will praise God, and give him glory for the power to which he had advanced him, and that not only at first, while the mercy was fresh, but for ever; as long as he lives he will remember, and be grateful for, this instance of the Lord’s goodness. Thus the exaltation of the Son of David will be the subject of the saints’ everlasting praises. And he will give glory to God, not only as his God, but as the God of Jacob, knowing it was for his servant Jacob’s sake, and because he loved his people Israel, that he made him king over them. All the horns of the wicked — Their honour and power, which they made instruments of mischief to oppress good men; a metaphor taken from horned and mischievous beasts; will I cut off — I will humble their pride and break their power; I will disable them to do mischief. But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted — Good men shall be encouraged and promoted, and intrusted with the management of all public affairs, which will be a great blessing to all my people. Thus he determines to use the power wherewith he was intrusted for the great ends for which it was put into his hands, as every governor ought to do, and as every good governor will do. And herein David was a type of Christ, who, with the breath of his lips, slays the wicked, Isaiah 11:4; but exalts with honour the horn of the righteous, Psalm 112:9.

9. I will declare—I will make public; it shall be the prominent fact of my reign and the confession of my lips.

V. 10. Horns-Their honour and power, which they made an instrument of mischief. Will-When I shall be advanced to the throne. But-Good men shall be encouraged and promoted.

Verse 10. All the horns of the wicked] All their power and influence, will I cut off; and will exalt and extend the power of the righteous. The psalmist is said to do these things, because he is as the mouth of God to denounce them. All was punctually fulfilled: the wicked-the Babylonians, were all cut off; the righteous-the Jews, called so from the holy covenant, which required righteousness, were delivered and exalted.

Verses 9, 10. But I will declare for ever — These dispensations of mercy and judgment to the world. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob — He will praise God, and give him glory for the power to which he had advanced him, and that not only at first, while the mercy was fresh, but for ever; as long as he lives he will remember, and be grateful for, this instance of the Lord’s goodness. Thus the exaltation of the Son of David will be the subject of the saints’ everlasting praises. And he will give glory to God, not only as his God, but as the God of Jacob, knowing it was for his servant Jacob’s sake, and because he loved his people Israel, that he made him king over them. All the horns of the wicked — Their honour and power, which they made instruments of mischief to oppress good men; a metaphor taken from horned and mischievous beasts; will I cut off — I will humble their pride and break their power; I will disable them to do mischief. But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted — Good men shall be encouraged and promoted, and intrusted with the management of all public affairs, which will be a great blessing to all my people. Thus he determines to use the power wherewith he was intrusted for the great ends for which it was put into his hands, as every governor ought to do, and as every good governor will do. And herein David was a type of Christ, who, with the breath of his lips, slays the wicked, Isaiah 11:4; but exalts with honour the horn of the righteous, Psalm 112:9.

10. All the horns of the wicked… will I cut off—Conforming my administration to thine, I also will break off “the horns”—destroy the official power of such wicked persons as rise contemptuously against thee, thus setting at defiance all the laws of the commonwealth, as well as the religion established by thy authority, and will cherish and promote such as faithfully keep thy laws. This breaking the horns of the wicked and setting up the righteous, is a Davidic vow and maxim of government, (see Psalm 101,) and purely theocratic. The reader must not take this as a declared purpose to persecute men for want of religious faith, but a statement of the psalmist’s settled policy not to honour with office in the government, men whose loose principles and vicious habits will make them hurtful to the liberty and virtue of others, and unfit them to administer impartial law.