Psalms 75:1-10 - Homilies By C. Short

The righteous judgment of God.

This psalm celebrates in prophetic strain the righteous judgment of God. The voice of God himself declares from heaven his righteousness; that he is not, as human impertinence has been wont to think, regardless of wrong and suffering, but only waits for the moment which to his infinite wisdom seems best.

I. GOD 'S RIGHTEOUS GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD .

1 . God ' s wonderful work in history attests it. ( Psalms 75:1 .) "What nation is there that hath God so near unto them?" ( Deuteronomy 4:7 ). He is not separated by distance from the world. His Name, his nature, is near to us.

2 . God ' s times of judgment are wisely and divinely chosen. ( Psalms 75:2 , "When the set time is come, I, even I, will judge uprightly.") He executes his sentence not according to man's impatient expectations, but at the time which he himself has chosen.

3 . When the moral order of the world seems near dissolution, Goers power is the security for its continuance. ( Psalms 75:3 .) The natural and the moral framework of the world are here identified, He sustains the world by the pillars which he has set up.

4 . God is the real Source of every righteous revolution in the world. ( Psalms 75:6 , Psalms 75:7 .) "Glory and power come not from any earthly source, though a man should seek it in every quarter of the globe, but only from God, who lifteth up and casteth down according to his own righteous sentence."

II. THE ADMONITION WHICH THESE TRUTHS ADMINISTER TO THE WICKED . ( Psalms 75:4 , Psalms 75:5 .)

1 . It is madness to resist God. ( Psalms 75:4 .)

2 . No arrogant self-exaltation will avail against God ' s judgments. ( Psalms 75:5 , Psalms 75:8 .) The poet speaks here as a prophet. That which God threatens he accomplishes by the hands of his servants. "Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished"—S.