Latest / Reformed Thinking / God Is the Judge Who Raises Up and Brings Down (Psalm 75) | Charles Spurgeon

Transcript

God Is the Judge Who Raises Up and Brings Down (Psalm 75) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
• 0:02
  It's good to be here. If you're joining us for the
• 0:04
  first time, you basically walked into our study.
• 0:06
  We take a stack of theological and historical sources, you
• 0:10
  know, old commentaries, heavy theology books, and we just try
• 0:15
  to pull out the most critical insights we can for the
• 0:17
  Christian life. Right.
• 0:19
  The goal isn't to skim. We're here to understand the
• 0:22
  depths of what we believe, and today, well, today we have quite
• 0:28
  the stack on the table. We really do.
• 0:30
  We're. Looking at a text that deals
• 0:31
  with some retty heavy realities in Scripture, we're talking
• 0:34
  about judgment, the wrath of God, but also this incredible
• 0:38
  stability that comes from knowing God is in control.
• 0:41
  We are doing a deep dive today into Psalm 75, and to guide us,
• 0:45
  we've got, well, the Prince of preachers himself, Charles
• 0:48
  Spurgeon, specifically his enormous work, The Treasury of
• 0:51
  David. A classic.
• 0:52
  You could spend a lifetime in that book.
• 0:54
  You really could. But we also have notes here from
• 0:57
  a whole cast of heavy hitters. We've got Joseph Carroll, the
• 1:00
  Puritan, who's famous for that massive commentary on jug.
• 1:03
  We have Adam Clark, the great Linguist, Barton Bouchier a a
• 1:08
  few others. It's a really solid lineup.
• 1:10
  It is, and it's for a song that it sings, but it sings about a
• 1:14
  battle. Most commentators, Spurgeon
• 1:17
  included, tie this Psalm to a very specific, very dramatic
• 1:21
  historical moment. The destruction of Sinakrig's
• 1:24
  army. That's the one.
• 1:25
  We should probably set the scene for the listener, because that
• 1:28
  context really does change everything.
• 1:30
  We're talking about the Assyrian army.
• 1:31
  Correct, Correct. And you can't overstate this.
• 1:33
  This was the superpower of the day.
• 1:35
  They had just swept through the entire region.
• 1:37
  And they were notoriously brutal.
• 1:39
  Absolutely brutal, efficient, and they were parked right
• 1:41
  outside the gates of Jerusalem. I mean, from a human
• 1:44
  perspective, it was over. The people of God were trapped.
• 1:47
  And then in a single night, God intervenes.
• 1:50
  And that really brings us to the mission of this whole
• 1:52
  discussion. We want to understand God's
• 1:55
  sovereignty when everything, and I mean everything, looks like it
• 1:59
  is falling apart. We're going to move from
• 2:01
  Thanksgiving to the specific timing of God, to a very, very
• 2:06
  sharp rebuke of human pride, and then finally to this, well, this
• 2:10
  terrifying metaphor of the cup of wrath.
• 2:12
  And we're going to look at all of this through a reformed lens.
• 2:16
  That's key. We're not just reading poetry
• 2:18
  here. No, we're looking at the
• 2:19
  sovereignty of God, the absolute seriousness of sin, and the
• 2:24
  comfort that comes from the covenant.
• 2:26
  Because if you don't have that theological framework, Psalm 75
• 2:29
  is, well, it's just a scary song, right?
• 2:31
  But with that framework, it is a rock to stand on.
• 2:35
  OK, so let's unpack this. We can start right at the top
• 2:38
  with the title of the Psalm. It says to the chief musician
• 2:40
  Altashif. That phrase Altashif.
• 2:44
  What are we dealing with here? It's a Hebrew phrase, and it
• 2:46
  literally translates to destroy, not.
• 2:49
  Destroy not yes. And fascinating because it pops
• 2:52
  up in a few other psalms as well.
• 2:53
  Swarjin, in his commentary, points out that there are really
• 2:57
  two ways you can look at this. On one hand, it could be a check
• 3:01
  on the natural fierceness of the oppressed.
• 3:03
  You know when you're under attack, when you're backed into
• 3:05
  a corner, your gut instinct is to destroy, to lash out.
• 3:09
  Total War. Exactly.
• 3:10
  And this could be a reminder to the people of God.
• 3:13
  Hold your hand. Vengeance is mine.
• 3:16
  Let God handle this. But there's another angle to it,
• 3:19
  isn't there? Something a little more defiant.
• 3:22
  Yes, and I think this is brilliant, Spurgeon suggests.
• 3:25
  It could be a taunt to the savage foe.
• 3:27
  A taunt? Think about it.
• 3:29
  The Assyrians are outside the walls, They're shouting we are
• 3:31
  going to wipe you from the face of the earth.
• 3:33
  And the faith of Israel replies from behind the walls.
• 3:37
  Altasheth destroy not you can't destroy us.
• 3:40
  Go go ahead and try. You can't touch us because we
• 3:43
  belong to God. Yeah, Spurgeon says.
• 3:45
  It's like the sucking child playing at the hole of the ASP.
• 3:48
  It's this incredible declaration of absolute safety in the face
• 3:52
  of what looks like certain death.
• 3:54
  That is incredibly bold. It reminds me of that image from
• 3:56
  Ilgrim's Progress, where the lions are roaring by the path,
• 3:59
  but they're chained. They can make a lot of noise,
• 4:01
  but they can't actually touch you if you stay on the path.
• 4:05
  Now, the author here is listed as Asaf.
• 4:07
  We, you know, we usually talk about David when we're in the
• 4:09
  Psalms, but Asaf is a major figure.
• 4:11
  Oh, he is a huge figure. Our source material calls Asaf
• 4:15
  and David equal songsters. It says they both drank from the
• 4:19
  found of every blessing. Equal songsters.
• 4:22
  I like that. And Asaf Psalms often deal with
• 4:25
  these big national corporate themes.
• 4:27
  God's dealing with the entire assembly of his people, and that
• 4:31
  is exactly what we're getting into here.
• 4:33
  So Asaph opens verse one with this line.
• 4:36
  Unto the O God, do we give thanks?
• 4:38
  Unto thee, do we give thanks? He says it twice, He does.
• 4:41
  Do we give thanks? It feels very intentional, like
• 4:43
  he's trying to drive a point home.
• 4:44
  He is. And, you know, Joseph Carroll,
• 4:46
  the Puritan, has a great note on this repetition.
• 4:49
  He says the text implies we give thanks.
• 4:51
  We do it as if to say maybe nobody else in the world is
• 4:55
  doing it right now, so we must. Pick up the slack.
• 4:57
  Right. Or, as Carol also suggests, it's
• 5:00
  as if we have nothing else to do but give thanks.
• 5:02
  It's our sole occupation in this moment.
• 5:04
  I like that idea. It's like our primary job
• 5:06
  description as believers is just gratitude.
• 5:10
  Precisely. And Spurgeon has a line here
• 5:12
  that I mean, I underlined it three times in my copy, he says.
• 5:15
  Stinted gratitude is ingratitude.
• 5:18
  Wow, say that again. Stinted gratitude is
• 5:21
  ingratitude. That is a strong statement.
• 5:24
  So if you give a little sort of half hearted thanks for an
• 5:27
  infinite blessing, you're not just giving a little gratitude,
• 5:30
  you're actually being ungrateful.
• 5:32
  That's it. For infinite goodness, there has
• 5:34
  to be measureless. Thanks.
• 5:36
  Spurgeon's logic is if I save your life from a burning
• 5:38
  building and you just sort of nod me and say cheers, that's
• 5:41
  not a small thank you. That's a huge insult.
• 5:44
  Asaf is saying we need to double down on the Thanksgiving to
• 5:47
  press into it because of the magnitude of what God has done.
• 5:50
  That really challenges the way we usually pray, doesn't it?
• 5:52
  You know, the quick thanks for the food.
• 5:54
  Amen. But Asaf is saying no, stop.
• 5:56
  Look at what God has actually done.
• 5:58
  And he connects this gratitude to a specific idea that God is
• 6:02
  near. The text says For that by name
• 6:06
  is near thy wondrous works declare.
• 6:08
  This is the anti deism verse right here.
• 6:10
  Explain that. Well, deism is that old idea
• 6:13
  that God created the world like a watchmaker.
• 6:15
  You know, he wounded up, set it on the table, and then just
• 6:18
  walked away. He's distant, he's sleeping.
• 6:22
  He isn't involved in the day-to-day.
• 6:23
  The clockmaker God. It's a very cold, impersonal
• 6:27
  idea. It is, but Asaph says thy name
• 6:30
  is near Spurgeon. Contrast this so beautifully
• 6:34
  with the Pagan gods of the nations around Israel.
• 6:37
  He says Baal is on a journey, but Jehovah dwells in his
• 6:40
  church. I love that.
• 6:41
  He's a present help. We're not singing to some hidden
• 6:45
  deity who's, you know, taking a nap while the Assyrian army is
• 6:47
  at the gate. We are singing to a God who is
• 6:50
  right there in the city with us. There's a beautiful image in the
• 6:53
  notes about flowers that really stuck with me.
• 6:55
  It says as a smiling flowers gratefully reflect in their
• 6:58
  lovely colors the various constituents of the solar ray.
• 7:01
  So should gratitude spring up in our hearts.
• 7:04
  It's a standard of nature, isn't it?
• 7:06
  The flower can't help but reflect the sun is what it was
• 7:09
  made to do. In the same way, the believer
• 7:11
  should reflect the Providence of God.
• 7:13
  So if God smiles on us with his Providence.
• 7:16
  We should naturally smile back with our gratitude.
• 7:19
  If we don't, it's like we're broken mirrors.
• 7:21
  We're not functioning as designed.
• 7:22
  OK, so we have this powerful context of gratitude for a God
• 7:25
  who is near. But then in verse 2 the tone
• 7:28
  just shifts completely. It feels like the camera angle
• 7:31
  changes. Who is speaking now?
• 7:34
  The speaker changes, it moves from the congregation, the we,
• 7:38
  to God himself, the I. And this is such a dramatic
• 7:42
  moment in the Psalm. God steps forward and takes over
• 7:46
  the song and. What does he say?
• 7:48
  He says when I shall receive the congregation, I will judge
• 7:51
  uprightly. Now that phrase receive the
• 7:53
  congregation. That's an interesting
• 7:55
  translation. I've seen other versions that
• 7:56
  say something more, like when I shall seize the moment or when I
• 8:00
  take a set time. That's right.
• 8:02
  And that's really the better sense of the Hebrew here.
• 8:04
  It's not about receiving a group of people, it's about seizing a
• 8:06
  specific point in time. It's the Kairos moment, the
• 8:09
  appointed time, and the theological implication of that
• 8:13
  is massive. It means God has a calendar.
• 8:15
  He has a calendar. He is not winging it.
• 8:17
  Yeah, he's not making it up as he goes along.
• 8:19
  We get anxious, right? We won't got to act now.
• 8:22
  Of course we see the Assyrians at the gate, we see the culture
• 8:26
  collapsing around us, we see the crisis in our own lives, and we
• 8:29
  scream. Do something and God's calm
• 8:33
  reply in the Psalm is I have a set time.
• 8:36
  There's a little couplet that Spurgeon quotes here.
• 8:39
  God never is before his time. He is never too late.
• 8:43
  That's the logic of faith. It reminds me of the raising of
• 8:46
  Lazarus in John's Gospel. Jesus intentionally waits two
• 8:50
  more days where he was. From a human perspective, He was
• 8:53
  late. Martha and Mary both thought he
• 8:55
  was late Lord. If you've been here.
• 8:57
  Exactly, but he was perfectly on time for the greater glory of
• 9:00
  God to be displayed and our. Source material here uses some
• 9:03
  very specific legal language to describe this moment.
• 9:06
  Calls it the appointed a size and a size.
• 9:09
  That's an old legal term, right? For a court sitting, yes.
• 9:11
  Exactly. Yeah, the picture is that the
• 9:13
  court has been in recess, or maybe the judge just hasn't
• 9:16
  entered the chamber yet, and all the criminals and fools are
• 9:19
  running wild in the lobby thinking they've gotten away
• 9:22
  with it because the. Judge isn't on the bench, right?
• 9:25
  But God says when the set time comes, I will melt the judgement
• 9:29
  seat. And when he does, the verdict is
• 9:31
  swift. He doesn't need to deliberate
• 9:33
  with a jury. He judges uprightly instantly
• 9:37
  for the. Believer, especially coming from
• 9:39
  a Reformed tradition where we really emphasize God's
• 9:41
  sovereignty, this should be a huge comfort.
• 9:44
  We don't have to panic. We don't have to rush God, No
• 9:46
  we. Don't.
• 9:47
  And we don't have to fear that he is forgotten or that evil is
• 9:50
  winning. The docket is set, the court
• 9:53
  date is fixed. Sinacrip thinks he's in charge
• 9:55
  because the judge hasn't banged the gavel yet.
• 9:58
  But the gavel is coming, and that.
• 10:00
  Leads us right into verse 3, which describes the situation on
• 10:03
  the ground and it looks absolutely chaotic.
• 10:06
  It says the earth and all the inhabitants thereof are
• 10:09
  dissolved. Dissolved.
• 10:10
  What a terrifying word needs a melting away, a liquefaction.
• 10:14
  It paints a picture of total anarchy.
• 10:16
  It's like the. Structures of society,
• 10:17
  government, law, order, common decency, they're all just
• 10:20
  melting like wax in a fire. And we've seen.
• 10:22
  That in history haven't we moments of revolution or
• 10:25
  collapse. We even see glimpses of it in
• 10:28
  our own time, where it feels like the glue that holds society
• 10:31
  together is just gone. So in that moment when the whole
• 10:35
  earth is melting, God speaks again.
• 10:37
  He says I bear up the pillars of it.
• 10:40
  I bear up. The pillars so while.
• 10:42
  Everything on the surface is turning to liquid chaos
• 10:46
  underneath. God is holding the foundational
• 10:48
  structure. This is the stability in the
• 10:50
  anarchy Who is keeping the world from dissolving into absolute
• 10:55
  primordial chaos? It's not the United Nations.
• 10:58
  It's not any particular government or military.
• 11:00
  It's got there's a. Note here from a writer named
• 11:02
  Barton Bouchier that I found really, really insightful.
• 11:05
  He asked us a simple question. Who could actually say this?
• 11:08
  Who has the authority to say I bear up the pillars of the
• 11:11
  earth? It's a great.
• 11:11
  Question could David. Say it.
• 11:13
  I mean, he was a great king, but could he say that?
• 11:15
  Could Hezekiah, who was king during the Assyrian crisis?
• 11:19
  No. Human monarch could say that
• 11:21
  without being completely insane, and Bushia points out that this
• 11:25
  voice, this I has to be Christ. It points directly to the one
• 11:29
  who, as the book of Hebrews says, upholds all things by the
• 11:32
  word of his power. It's the.
• 11:34
  True Atlas, yes. Thomas Crane uses that exact
• 11:37
  image in the notes. You know, the Greek myth of
• 11:39
  Atlas, the Titan who holds the world on his shoulders?
• 11:42
  Crane says God's Providence is the true Atlas.
• 11:46
  And then he adds this staggering thought.
• 11:48
  God is shouldering the world even while the world treads on
• 11:52
  sin. Think about that for a second.
• 11:55
  The world is using the very ground that God is upholding to
• 11:58
  commit sin against Him. And yet His common grace is so
• 12:01
  vast rap that he keeps holding it all up, that is.
• 12:04
  Just staggering patience. But that patience won't last
• 12:08
  forever. Which brings us right to verses
• 12:10
  4:00 and 5:00. God turns His attention to the
• 12:13
  people who are actually causing this dissolution.
• 12:16
  He addresses the fools, and we have to.
• 12:18
  Be really clear about the biblical definition of a fool
• 12:20
  here. This isn't about someone with a
• 12:22
  low IQ. It's not about mental deficiency
• 12:24
  in Scripture. The fool is the one who says in
• 12:26
  his heart there is no God. So it's a.
• 12:28
  Moral and spiritual category. It's spiritual.
• 12:30
  Insanity. The fool is the atheist, the
• 12:33
  boaster, the person who lives as if God doesn't exist or doesn't
• 12:37
  matter. The Puritan.
• 12:38
  Thomas Watson has a typically biting comment on this.
• 12:41
  He says better to be a fool void of reason than a fool void of
• 12:45
  grace. And he calls the Sinner the
• 12:47
  devil's fool. It's a tragic image, he asks.
• 12:51
  Is he not a fool who refuses a rich portion of inheritance for
• 12:54
  a bowl of soup? Is he not a fool who prefers a
• 12:57
  temporary annuity to a permanent inheritance?
• 13:00
  It's just spiritual madness to rebel against the very one who
• 13:04
  is holding up the pillars you're standing on and the.
• 13:06
  Specific metaphor the Psalm uses for this arrogant rebellion is
• 13:10
  the horn. Lift not up the horn and then
• 13:12
  lift not up your horn on high. Help us understand the cultural
• 13:15
  background of that. We don't usually talk about
• 13:17
  people having horn right it's. An agricultural metaphor that
• 13:20
  became a political one in the ancient world, the horn is the
• 13:23
  primary symbol of strength and honor in animals think of a
• 13:26
  Buffalo or a wild ox the. Weapon and the crown all in one.
• 13:30
  Exactly. And what a bull is confident
• 13:33
  when he's dominant. He lifts his head high, he
• 13:36
  displays his horn. It becomes a symbol of dominion
• 13:39
  and power. So.
• 13:40
  Lifting up the horn is basically strutting your stuff, showing
• 13:44
  off your power. It's.
• 13:45
  Arrogant, boasting. It's tossing your head like a
• 13:47
  wild beast in a field, saying I am the strongest thing here, no
• 13:52
  one can challenge me. But Adam Clark, the linguist,
• 13:55
  gives us this fascinating historical footnote that makes
• 13:58
  the image even more vivid. Oh, this was the bit about the
• 14:01
  Abyssinian kings. Yes, apparently.
• 14:04
  The kings of Abyssinia, which is modern day Ethiopia, would wear
• 14:08
  a silver or gold horn on their diadem, right on their forehead.
• 14:11
  It was part of the royal regalia, so they.
• 14:13
  Literally wore a horn. Literally.
• 14:15
  And to keep this heavy ornament balance invisible, they had to
• 14:17
  walk with a stiff neck. They had to hold their head back
• 14:21
  in this very unnatural, haughty, proud posture.
• 14:24
  So when the. Bible talks about a stiff necked
• 14:26
  people. It's not just a metaphor for
• 14:28
  being stubborn. It could be pointing to this
• 14:30
  literal posture of artificial pride.
• 14:33
  You're trying to balance your little crown.
• 14:34
  Precisely. And so, the Psalm warns, speak
• 14:38
  not with a stiff neck, because that kind of impedance before
• 14:41
  the living God is absolute madness.
• 14:44
  If you carry your head that high, you're just making it an
• 14:46
  easier target for the axe. The notes remind us of Haman
• 14:49
  from the Book of Esther. He lifted his horns so high he
• 14:53
  built a gallows for Mordecai, and in the end he was the one
• 14:56
  who was lifted up on that very gallows that.
• 14:58
  Is the terrible irony of sin. The higher you lift yourself in
• 15:02
  pride, the longer and harder the fall.
• 15:04
  God hates pride. It's the one sin that directly
• 15:07
  competes with his own glory. So.
• 15:09
  If we are not supposed to lift up our own horn, if self
• 15:12
  promotion is forbidden, then where does legitimate promotion
• 15:15
  come from? Verse 6 gives us this really
• 15:18
  interesting geography lesson for promotion cometh neither from
• 15:21
  the east, nor from the West nor from the South.
• 15:24
  This is. One of those verses that people
• 15:26
  often quote. But the breakdown in our
• 15:28
  sources, especially from a commentator named Gregory
• 15:30
  Bateman, is really, really interesting.
• 15:32
  He goes to the directions 1 by 1.
• 15:34
  OK, Yeah. Let's walk through that.
• 15:35
  Why not the East? What does the East represent?
• 15:37
  The. East is the direction of the
• 15:39
  rising sun, so it represents youth.
• 15:42
  A good start early hope the beginning of the day we tend to
• 15:45
  think, well, if I get a good start in life, if I go to the
• 15:47
  right school, get the right first job, I'm set for success
• 15:51
  but the. Psalmist says no, true promotion
• 15:53
  doesn't just come because you had a bright morning.
• 15:55
  Exactly. OK, so.
• 15:56
  What about the West? The.
• 15:58
  West is the setting sun, so that represents experience, age, the
• 16:03
  accumulated wisdom of a long career.
• 16:07
  You might think I deserve this promotion because I've put in
• 16:09
  the time, I have the tenure, but that's.
• 16:10
  Not the source either. Not the ultimate source and the
• 16:12
  South. That one seems less obvious in
• 16:15
  the. Geography of ancient Israel.
• 16:16
  The South is the wilderness, the Negev desert.
• 16:19
  It represents dry, uncultivated places, Bateman suggests.
• 16:24
  This could symbolize the uncultivated intellect or just
• 16:27
  wild, chaotic human passions. You're not going to find true,
• 16:31
  lasting success in the heated, shifting sands of the desert,
• 16:35
  but the. Listener will notice and I
• 16:36
  definitely noticed reading this One Direction is missing.
• 16:39
  He lists East, West, South. Where is the North, that is.
• 16:42
  The $1,000,000 question and Joseph Carroll the Puritan
• 16:45
  provides the key. He points out that in Hebrew,
• 16:49
  the word for north is linguistically related to the
• 16:51
  word for hidden or secret. Oh, that's.
• 16:54
  Good, that is really good, is it?
• 16:56
  Brilliant. The ancients often associated
• 16:59
  the north with the unknown, the mysterious, the dark place on
• 17:02
  the map where the divine Council met.
• 17:05
  So Carroll argues that the Saunas intentionally omits the
• 17:08
  north to make a profound theological point.
• 17:11
  Promotion does come from the north.
• 17:13
  Figuratively. It comes from the hidden secret
• 17:15
  counsel of God. There's.
• 17:16
  That verse in Joe Bright fair weather cometh out of the North.
• 17:19
  Exactly. Promotion is visible.
• 17:21
  We see a king rise to power, we see Aceo get appointed.
• 17:24
  But the cause of that promotion is secret.
• 17:27
  It comes from the hidden, invisible, sovereign Providence
• 17:30
  of God. We should.
• 17:31
  Probably also clarify what we mean by promotion here.
• 17:34
  The Hebrew word is harem. It's not just about getting a
• 17:37
  corner office, no. Not at all.
• 17:39
  Kara means lifting up. It can mean deliverance,
• 17:42
  victory, salvation. It's the divine answer to the
• 17:45
  arrogant lifting up of a horn by the wicked.
• 17:48
  The wicked try to lift themselves up.
• 17:50
  But true, lasting lifting up comes only from God's secret
• 17:53
  place. Spurgeon mentions a book title
• 17:55
  in his notes that just made me laugh out loud.
• 17:57
  It was called Historic 9 pins, yes.
• 18:01
  It is a perfect image for this explain.
• 18:03
  It well 9. Pins is just an old form of
• 18:05
  bowling. Spurgeon says That from God's
• 18:08
  perspective, the great ones of the earth, the emperors, the
• 18:11
  kings, the great empires like Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Rome,
• 18:15
  they're all just bowling pins in a cosmic alley.
• 18:17
  God. Sets one up and he knocks
• 18:19
  another one down. Assyria yields to Babylon,
• 18:21
  Babylon to the Medes. It's not a random sequence of
• 18:24
  events, it's not determined by military might alone, and it's
• 18:27
  certainly not hustle or luck. And by the way, the Reform view
• 18:31
  is strictly, vehemently against the concept of fortune.
• 18:34
  Fortune is a Pagan idol. There is no such thing as luck
• 18:36
  in God's universe. There's only the judge who puts
• 18:38
  down one and sets up another. So.
• 18:40
  Success, ultimately, is God acting as the judge.
• 18:44
  That really changes how you view your career, your ministry, your
• 18:48
  whole life. It has.
• 18:49
  To it takes all the pressure off of you making it happen and puts
• 18:53
  the focus squarely on faithfulness before the judge.
• 18:55
  It does. But now and now we have to turn
• 18:59
  the corner, because if God is the judge, he doesn't just
• 19:02
  promote, He also has a sentence to execute.
• 19:07
  And that brings us to the most solemn and terrifying part of
• 19:10
  this Psalm, verse 8. For in the.
• 19:11
  Hand of the Lord, there is a cup this.
• 19:14
  Is the imagery of the Cup of Wrath, and it's a metaphor that
• 19:16
  runs like a dark red thread all through scripture, from Isaiah
• 19:19
  and Jeremiah, right into the Garden of Gethsemane and all the
• 19:22
  way the Book of Revelation. Let's breakdown.
• 19:24
  The contents this cup, the text says the wine is red.
• 19:27
  It's red. The color of blood.
• 19:28
  It signifies the terrible nature of divine wrath.
• 19:31
  Adjust retaliation blood for blood, the source notes say it
• 19:34
  represents foaming vengeance for foaming malice and it.
• 19:38
  Says it is full of mixture. That sounds a little
• 19:40
  paradoxical. Usually when we think of mixed
• 19:43
  wine we think of it being watered down.
• 19:45
  But that is not what this means, is it?
• 19:46
  No. It's the exact opposite.
• 19:48
  In the ancient world, you would mix wine with potent spices and
• 19:51
  even drugs to make it stronger, more intoxicating, more deadly,
• 19:55
  Spurgeon says. This mixture contains the spices
• 19:58
  of anger, justice and incensed mercy.
• 20:01
  Incensed mercy. That is a frightening phrase.
• 20:04
  It is. It's the idea of mercy that has
• 20:06
  been offered and rejected and spat upon so many times that it
• 20:10
  is finally turned to burning indignation and the.
• 20:13
  Source material adds another ingredient to this mixture,
• 20:15
  doesn't it it? Does it says the misdeeds and
• 20:18
  blasphemies of the wicked themselves act as the potent
• 20:20
  drugs that strengthen the liquor?
• 20:23
  So in a terrifying sense, the Sinner is preparing his own cup
• 20:27
  of judgement, their own sins of the spices that make the wrath
• 20:30
  unbearable and the drinking. Of it, is it optional?
• 20:33
  Can you refuse? No.
• 20:34
  The text says he poureth out of the same God is the one who
• 20:37
  pours, and the wicked must drink.
• 20:40
  You cannot refuse the bartender when the bartender is God
• 20:42
  Almighty. Spurgeon says they scoffed at
• 20:44
  the Feast of Love, so now they are dragged by force to the
• 20:47
  table of justice then. Comes the detail that honestly
• 20:50
  it chills me to the bone every time I read it.
• 20:53
  But the drags thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring
• 20:57
  them out, and drink them the. Drags the Lees.
• 21:02
  It's the solid sediment at the bottom of the wine cup, the
• 21:05
  bitterest, filthiest, most concentrated part of the drink.
• 21:09
  And the imagery here is one of total consumption.
• 21:11
  They don't just sip the cup, they have to drain it all the
• 21:14
  way down to the solids at the bottom.
• 21:16
  What does? That signify theologically
• 21:18
  regarding the nature of the punishment it.
• 21:19
  Signifies its totality and its eternity.
• 21:22
  Spurgeon and the other commentators are very clear on
• 21:24
  this. The drinking of the dregs
• 21:26
  signifies drinking on and on and on forever.
• 21:29
  You swallow the dregs, but the cup is somehow never empty.
• 21:32
  It is the bitter end that has no end.
• 21:35
  This is. Hard theology.
• 21:36
  It's heavy stuff. So why is it so necessary to
• 21:38
  talk about this, to stare this reality in the face?
• 21:41
  Because. Without the cup of wrath, we can
• 21:43
  never ever understand the cup of salvation.
• 21:46
  We have to remember that Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
• 21:48
  prayed. Father, if it be possible, let
• 21:50
  this cup pass from me. What cup was he looking at?
• 21:54
  It was. This cup it was.
• 21:56
  This cup from Psalm 75, he was staring into this red foaming
• 22:00
  mixed wine of God's justice against sin, and he drank it.
• 22:06
  He drank it all. He drank the dregs for his
• 22:09
  people so that they wouldn't have to that.
• 22:11
  Is the Reformed understanding of penal substitutionary atonement
• 22:14
  right there? He took the punishment we
• 22:16
  deserved. He drank our cup and that.
• 22:18
  Contrast is absolutely vital. If you don't see the horror of
• 22:22
  the judgement that awaits the wicked, you will never
• 22:24
  appreciate the sheer breathtaking magnitude of the
• 22:27
  grace that has been shown to the righteous Which?
• 22:30
  Brings us perfectly to the response of the believer in
• 22:32
  verses 9 and 10. While the wicked are being
• 22:35
  forced to drink this cup of judgement, what is the psalmist
• 22:37
  doing? He says.
• 22:38
  But I will declare forever. He's singing.
• 22:40
  It's like a split screen in a movie.
• 22:42
  On one side of the screen you have this terrible scene of
• 22:44
  judgement, and on the other you have the Saint engaged in
• 22:46
  perpetual praise. And he?
• 22:48
  Specifically calls God the God of Jacob.
• 22:50
  Why that name that is? Rich covenant language.
• 22:53
  Think about who Jacob was. He was a supplanter, A deceiver.
• 22:56
  He was a mess not. Exactly a moral hero not at.
• 22:59
  All but God in his sovereign grace made a covenant with him.
• 23:03
  He wrestled with him and blessed him.
• 23:05
  He delivered him from all his afflictions.
• 23:07
  So by invoking the God of Jacob, the psalmist is saying I am
• 23:11
  safe, not because I am perfect or morally superior, but because
• 23:15
  God keeps his promises to his chosen, flawed people.
• 23:19
  And then? Comes the great reversal, the
• 23:21
  final word in verse 10. All the horns of the wicked also
• 23:24
  will I cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.
• 23:27
  This is the. Final restructuring of the
• 23:28
  universe. We talk about those horns, the
• 23:31
  symbols of power and pride and dominion.
• 23:33
  God says I am doing some landscaping.
• 23:35
  He's going to lop off the tall, proud horns of the godless.
• 23:39
  The church, and ultimately the Kingdom of God will not tolerate
• 23:41
  proud, arrogant domination forever.
• 23:43
  And the. Horns of the righteous they
• 23:45
  shall. Be exalted.
• 23:46
  But notice the grammar. It's passive.
• 23:48
  They are exalted by God. They didn't lift up their own
• 23:51
  horn. They were humble and they
• 23:52
  waited. In a rightly ordered society,
• 23:54
  which we will only see fully in the new heavens and the new
• 23:57
  earth, it is virtue that confers rank.
• 24:00
  Grace is esteemed more than gold.
• 24:02
  Humility is the true path to honor Spurgeon.
• 24:05
  Connects this entire song to the second Advent, doesn't he?
• 24:08
  He sees it as looking forward. He.
• 24:10
  Does he sees this Psalm as a song of the second coming?
• 24:14
  The newness of the judge is the return of Christ.
• 24:17
  The cup of wrath is being prepared for the final
• 24:19
  judgement, the final victory. The righteous is the
• 24:23
  establishment of His Kingdom. It's a deeply eschatological
• 24:26
  song. It looks forward to the day when
• 24:28
  the pillars are fully and finally restored and all the
• 24:31
  fools are silenced for good. O We've traveled this incredible
• 24:35
  arc from Altasha, that defiant cry of destroy, not through the
• 24:40
  chaos of a dissolving Earth, past the sharp rebuke of the
• 24:43
  proud with their stiff necks, all the way to the final
• 24:46
  terrifying justice of the cup and the exaltation of the
• 24:49
  humble. It's a.
• 24:49
  Complete worldview packed into 10 short verses.
• 24:52
  It really. Is.
• 24:53
  So let's try to synthesize this for the listener.
• 24:54
  What's the big take away from our deep dive today?
• 24:57
  I think. The progression is the key, you
• 24:59
  see. We start with gratitude because
• 25:00
  we know God is near. That gratitude leads to trust
• 25:04
  because we know His timing is set.
• 25:06
  He is never late. That trust gives us stability
• 25:09
  because we know He holds the pillars of reality itself.
• 25:13
  That stability allows us to abandon our own pride because we
• 25:16
  know true promotion comes from His secret counsel.
• 25:19
  And all of that lets us rest in His justice, because we know He
• 25:23
  holds the cup and will one day make all things right.
• 25:26
  It changes. How you watch the news, doesn't
• 25:27
  it? When you look out at the world
• 25:29
  and you see the earth dissolving, when you see anarchy
• 25:31
  or tyranny on the rise, you have.
• 25:33
  To train yourself to look for the pillars, you remind yourself
• 25:36
  of that voice that says, I bear up the pillars.
• 25:39
  The structural integrity of reality depends on the character
• 25:42
  of God, not on the competence of our politicians or the stability
• 25:45
  of the economy and that. Leads right to the application.
• 25:48
  The Lord reigneth. That is the great biblical
• 25:50
  antidote to fear. Sennacherib is at the gate.
• 25:53
  The Lord reigneth. The stock market is shaking.
• 25:56
  The Lord reigneth. And we?
• 25:57
  Have to constantly check our own hearts for that horn.
• 26:01
  Are we trying to lift ourselves up?
• 26:03
  Are we trying to force our own promotion from the east to the
• 26:05
  West to the South? Or are we content to wait on the
• 26:08
  North, on the hidden, secret, wise Providence of God that
• 26:13
  brings? Me to a final thought.
• 26:14
  I'd like to leave with everyone listening.
• 26:16
  We talked a lot about the North, that amazing idea from Carol,
• 26:19
  about the hidden secret place of God's Providence.
• 26:22
  Yes. The place of mystery.
• 26:23
  I want you. To think about that in your own
• 26:25
  life. We spend so much of our energy
• 26:27
  looking at the visible sources of help, right?
• 26:30
  Our bank accounts, our connections, our five year
• 26:32
  plans, our visible prospects. That's all the East, the West
• 26:35
  and the South. But if real promotion, real
• 26:39
  deliverance, real victory comes from the North, from a place
• 26:42
  that is by definition hidden from you, then perhaps the most
• 26:46
  significant and important things happening in your life right now
• 26:49
  are the ones that are currently completely invisible to you.
• 26:52
  That's a striking thought. God is at work in the dark room
• 26:56
  of His Providence. You can't see the picture being
• 26:59
  developed yet, but he is there and He is working.
• 27:02
  He is at. Work behind the cloud.
• 27:04
  So our job is to trust the North, to trust the hidden God
• 27:08
  who, as this song reminds us, is actually very, very near.
• 27:13
  Amen. To that, thank you.
• 27:14
  So much for walking us through this text today.
• 27:16
  It has been a real feast. It has been a.
• 27:18
  Pleasure and thank. You for listening to reformed
• 27:20
  thinking. Until next time, keep digging
• 27:22
  deep.