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75 We give thanks to you, O God;
we give thanks, for your name is near.
We recount your wondrous deeds.
“At the set time that I appoint
I will judge with equity.
When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants,
it is I who keep steady its pillars. Selah
I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’
and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn;
do not lift up your horn on high,
or speak with haughty neck.’”
For not from the east or from the west
and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,
but it is God who executes judgment,
putting down one and lifting up another.
For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup
with foaming wine, well mixed,
and he pours out from it,
and all the wicked of the earth
shall drain it down to the dregs.
But I will declare it forever;
I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
All the horns of the wicked I will cut off,
but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.
(ESV)
Psalm 75 is a plea for justice.
The dilemma with justice is that many of us want it to reign down on those around us but fail to take a look in the mirror. Who decides between good and evil and by what standard will they judge?
“When I select an appointed time, It is I who judge with equity. 3 “The earth and all who dwell in it melt; It is I who have firmly set its pillars. Selah.
Psalms 75:2-3 NASB
God will one day judge His creation. It will not primarily be measured by how much good or evil was done because no one has done good in the eyes of God. We all struggle and fail. We all stumble and sin. The standard is set too high. Psalm 75 gives only two categories for this judgment – wicked or righteous. Again, under our New Covenant theology, we understand this to be an issue of faith rather than an issue of our actions being “good” or “bad.”
This brings up two foundational points that are so easy to overlook.
The first point is that we are not the judge of humanity. Though we would love to see our enemies trampled by God one day, this is not the kind of vengeance which is being described. Those who oppose God will suffer the fate of His wrath outside of repentance of sin and faith in Jesus. Since we are not the judge, as hard as this sounds, we should be praying for repentant hearts of our enemies. We do play a role in that. We can love them and share Christ with them until their time comes. I am not saying that we should continue to engage with those who are hostile to Jesus, but, we should also not allow our hearts to judge them as impossible to reach or only doomed to eternal separation from God. Grace is never too far away.
The second point is that believers are only called righteous because of what Christ accomplished. Yes, I know this seems like Sunday School 101. But, in our pride, we are so prone to overestimating our flesh. When we become lazy in our attitude and behavior, temptation and sin rush in like a tidal wave. In our pride, we think we have wrestled down our old flesh only to find ourselves back to a familiar place. The enemy knows this. He prowls around, ready to devour us. This is why we have to be vigilant in cooperating with the Spirit. We don’t have the power… Christ does. So, when we lean too much into our own strength and start to neglect Jesus, we set ourselves up to backslide.
The simplicity of Psalm 75 is that we are either living according to one path or the other. Yes, we will have victory and also backslide at times. However, the bottom line is that those who are walking with Jesus are persevering down a path to righteousness and everyone else is just waiting for their judgment to come. Are you intentionally pursuing the path Jesus is walking or are you casually hanging out on the sidelines? The scary part about judgment is that Jesus doesn’t tell us exactly where the line is clearly marked. Those who comfortably put forth a “bare-minimum” effort may find themselves horrified one day.