You know, you start reading some of the, and they're powerful. They're just powerful poems. I mean, how these guys put the Psalter into meter and rhymed it and all that. I mean, it's very, very edifying. But the thing about it is, is it was interesting that Isaac Watts, a great hymn writer, published a Psalter in light of the New Testament. And that's how we got the Christmas song, Joy to the World. That's one of the songs that he set to meter in light of the New Testament. And yet these really strict Presbyterians, they, you know, like Stillwater Revival books up and wear red barrels and so on. They want to paint him as a heretic, you know. really try to throw him underneath the bus because he had the audacity to go beyond what they call inspired hymns. And you know, it's not like I don't have a conviction that they really, really wanted to guard the hymnology by just publishing the Psalter. But I'm telling you, there's something about a good hymnal with the light of New Testament redemption revelation. And so after I I looked at a couple of them. There's a number of different ones. And I said, we'll just pass tonight from singing. And so there's only 10 verses. This doesn't have to really be very long, but that's the reason that we won't be singing tonight. And I had four weeks to prepare for this. Usually I get right on it. And I really never started to get in earnest until three or four days ago. And it clicked. that these are the Psalms of Asaph. The last time I taught to you guys was Psalm 73, which is Asaph. And it was such an interesting psalm because Asaph is saying, how did the wicked get away with this? How did the wicked prosper? And he's exasperated until you get to verse 17 of Psalm 73. And then he says, I went into the sanctuary and I considered their latter in and I put everything into perspective. But what clicked here, because these are the songs of Asaph as well, and that is that there is a common theme of the history and the enemies of Psalm 74 and Psalm 75, and I'm looking at this, and if I just was to read just the very first verse of Psalm 74, and then you see the contrast with Psalm 75 and the hope that is in there, but Joe Wilson, He taught us on Psalm 74 last time. Listen to this first verse. Oh God, why have you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pastor? There's an element of despair in there, there's an element of despondency, and yet you get to Psalm 75 in the very first verses, unto thee, O Lord, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks. So the answer in the meantime must have come that the revelation came that though these enemies are embattled against us. And we don't know how we're going to survive that the revelation that came in Psalm 75 has a whole different tenor. It has a whole different almost rejoicing, especially compared to Psalm 74. So, there's only ten verses, so I'll read those. God will judge righteously, Psalm 75. We give thanks unto You, O God, we give thanks, for Your name is near. Men, tell of your wondrous works. When shall I find a set time? I will judge uprightly. The earth and all the inhabitants there are are dissolved. I have set up the pillars of it. And I said to the arrogant, do not deal arrogantly, and to the wicked, lift not up your horn. So it's a hymn of praise that acknowledges God's divine judgment and sovereignty. And the psalmist describes a time of upheaval and turmoil, yet remains hopeful because of his deep-seated belief in the ultimate righteousness and fairness of God's judgment. That's the thing about God being a judge, is he's fair. Everything is perfectly equitable. Everything is equal. There's no respecter of persons. So in the first verse, let me pray first, and then I'll get into the actual exposition, because we never want to presume on God's help. You know what? Holy Father, Pray you'd help this small handful of people and the feeble efforts that I'm able to communicate here. There are still things here that are very, very edifying, and we pray that it could be for our well-being as well as our edification. We commit this time to you in Jesus' name, amen. So in the first verse, thanksgiving to God for his righteous judgment, and if you're really familiar with some of the prayers of the Old Testament and the stories, remember that Hannah in 1 Samuel 2 wasn't able to have any children, and the other woman that was the wife of the same husband is poking at her and putting her down because she was barren. And then God revealed to her that she would have a son. And if you read the prayer of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2, you get a lot out of it that's so parallel to what it says here in this psalm. Hannah prayed and said, my heart exalts in God. My horn is exalted in God. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. There is no one as holy as God, for there is no one besides you, nor is there any rock like our God. Don't keep talking so exceedingly proudly. You'll see that same kind of language in this song. Don't let arrogance come out of your mouth, for God is a God of knowledge. So it says, for your name is near. I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice, and He gave ear unto me in a day of trouble. To thee, O God, do we give thanks, and to thee do we give thanks, for your name is near." Why did God say His name is near? Why didn't He just say God is near? We have His felt presence here. Why mention His name? Because His name indicates all of the attributes who he is, therefore, is very edifying to think about what it means for God's name and who he stands for, and this is the one who is near to us. By reading our confession on the doctrine of God, so God's name is all that he has revealed about his essential character. Infinite in being and perfection, our confession says, whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself, a most pure spirit, invisible without body, parts, or passions, who only has immortality, dwelling in a light which no man can approach unto, who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory." So, our confession sums up what the Bible says about the name of God, and that God, with these attributes, is near, gave the psalmist a great deal of comfort, because the enemies were the same, but now the answer had come that God is near, He is not far off, He has not forsaken us. One of the most abounding notes you have in the Old Testament is when God did not seem near to his people and they cry out in a prayer, Oh God, do not hide. Why have you hidden yourself in the fear of you from us? That he seemed at a distance, but here his name is near and that gave the psalmist comfort. Psalm 75, 2 and 3, God's sovereign timing. He says, when I shall receive the congregation, I will judge uprightly. A lot of people say that that's better rendered. He has His set time, and He will judge uprightly. There is a time coming, and for God it is that perfect time, but that time that no man knows. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved. I bear up the pillars of it. The language therefore, according to this interpretation, is not the language of God, but that of a prince having a right to the throne. Well, that may be true. This could be David in a time when he's ascending to the throne and he's talking about all the trouble he had with Saul and so on. And it could be prophetic and it could be talking about the Babylonian captivity in 586, or it could be the Assyrian thing. But the fact is, that's interesting historically, but how does that psalm help us? It helps us because God doesn't change, though our trials are sometimes very, very intense. John Calvin says, although the earth may be dissolved, God has the props or supports of it in his own hand. The verse is connected with the proceeding, for it confirms the truth that God in due time will manifest himself to an impartial, as an impartial and righteous judge. It'd be in an easy manner for him, although the whole fabric of the world were to fall into ruins and everything was to turn to dust. And there's this great cataclysmic event that God is able still to hold the pillars of it and hold it all together. But this verse really caught my eye. The earth and all of its inhabitants quake. They're afraid. And you try to communicate to people, how could I get that over to you about what it means to be afraid of this God? And I thought back to a illustration that was used by William Hughes when he was preaching one time. And do you remember in Daniel 5, when the sacred vessels were taken down and the king, who usually wasn't in the public anyway, showing off his wares in that hand starts to write upon the wall and it's Belshazzar, correct it, he is just trembling. But I want to bring out to you what it means to be this afraid. When God rises up to judge, it says in Daniel 5, he was so scared that the joints of his loins were loosed, or the girdles of his loins, which were loosed or broke, Through the agitation he was in, or he was all over, in a sweat. So that he was obliged to loose his girdle, or as persons of great fear and consternation, he was seized with pain in his back. It opened as it were, and the idea in the Hebrew, as Gil points this out in Grotius or whatever, this king is so afraid. You ever seen a dog, and he's really scared and somebody is approaching him, he cannot control his bladder. Well, this is what's going on here. He becomes incontinent. It says he could not hold his urine as Grotius and others say, where this seems to be prophesied of in Isaiah 45 verse 1. Brethren, that's a phrase. when the wrath of God comes upon the wicked who are defying him. In the case of Belshazzar, it was so presumptuous. He sees his hand writing on the wall and he is so trembling, his knees are shaking together, but the Hebrew indicates that he becomes incontinent. Psalm 75 verse 6, for promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. Now, promotion, that could mean a couple of different things, but the promotion could mean, as some people say, is you want to be recognized. You want to be promoted. You want to be lifted up in the eyes of other people. And the psalmist is saying it doesn't come from the East or the West or the South. Now, it's pure conjecture as to why he didn't include the North. I was interested in reading the Puritan Joseph Kirill on this. And what's so amazing is almost everything they get from Kirill, is from preaching on the book of Job for 24 years, but they take all of the stuff and he has commentaries on so much of the Bible and so on, but he says, it isn't for us to pry into why God didn't say the North. But he says in the Hebrew, the idea is the North is where the secret comes from. The judgment is going to come and it's known only to God. And man can't get his help from anywhere else but from the north. This section serves as a reminder of God's disdain for arrogance and pride. Similar warnings against pride are found in Proverbs 8, verse 13. To fear the Lord is to hate evil. I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior, and perverse speech. James 4, verse 6, God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. In 1 Peter 5, 6, humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time. So the earth and all the inhabitants there are dissolved, they are dissolved, but he still bears the pillars of it up. I said unto the fools, deal not foolishly unto the wicked, lift not up the Now a horn is a symbol of strength. But notice in verse 10, there's a difference between the horn of the righteous and the horn of the wicked. The problem with the horn of the wicked and the boastfulness is they try to derive their boasting from themselves and not from God. It says, so don't lift your horn on high. Don't protrude yourself in arrogance, nor speak with a stiff neck, a stiff neck. Now that could be the idea in the day when you had oxen and you had an oxen that needed to be broken in and they tried to put something around the neck to bring him in line and he's new and he just stiffens his neck and he turns his head every which way so that you can't take advantage of his power to plow or anything. And the picture is, as a wicked, it's the idea of a contorted neck that just is arrogance and pride that is being spoken of here. For God is the judge, he puts down one and he sets up another. Now, I said there's only Ten verses. And I want to focus on verse 8 because it just reminded me of a number of different things. And it was interesting as I was talking to Pastor Wilson about it this morning, because he, like me, will go through sermon audio and find sermons to listen to to give him a little bit of light on this. And he saw what I had already seen. A sermon by Andrew Bonar called The Cup of the Lord. And I'd like to tell you guys People are, in case you've never heard of him. Andrew Bonar was a brother of Horatius Bonar, whose hymns we often sing, not what my hands have done, and so on. But Andrew Bonar is known for something else that's pretty interesting, and that is that he published the biography of Robert Murray McChain, who died about the same time as David Brainerd. They lived all of 28, 29 years of age. And we probably wouldn't know who Robert Murray McChain was. And it's worth your knowing that if you ever want to read a very, very edifying diary, it'd be that of McChain and Brainerd. And Bonar had this sermon on this verse and it's on the cup. But what I want to do is I want to show you a distinction by quoting a paragraph from Bonar's sermon. What is it like for the wicked to drink that cup? And it doesn't say just drink the cup of God. It says they drink it down to the dregs. At the bottom of the wine, the dregs would settle to the bottom. It usually wasn't drank, but they were going to drink it to the bottom. And when we talk about dregs, we think of the dregs of society. That's the bottom of the cup. And this is what Bonar says, this is a powerful, I did narrate this, somebody else had narrated this too, but sometimes when something grips me, I gotta read it out loud. But Andrew Bonar says, for a cup is in the hand of the Lord full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours from his cup and all the wicked of the earth, drink it down to the dregs. Andrew Bonar says, can words be found more emphatic to express God's indignation at man's sin? A cup is spoken of. A measured out portion, Psalm 11 verse 6 and Psalm 16 verse 5. The Lord is a portion of my cup. It is frequently used to express a full amount as when fulfillment of curse is called the cup of trembling. Isaiah 51 verse 22 and Ezekiel 23, 31 to 33, wrath upon Samaria is called a cup. of Samaria. God's wrath shall be given forth in a measured portion, deliberately, fairly considered. There shall be nothing of caprice, nothing arbitrary in God's judgment on sin. All shall be fairly adjusted. Hear the sins. There is a cup of a size proportion to the sin, in full. God's perfections direct and dictate the filling of it. It is a cup of red wine. He elsewhere calls it the wine of my fury, Revelation 16 verse 19. It is a wine of the fierceness of his wrath. In the East, red wine was usually the strongest. But besides, the fiery nature of the contents is indicated by the color. This red wine is pressed out of the grapes by the divine attributes. It must be the concentrated essence of wrath. No weak potion, but one like that in Jeremiah 25 verse 16, where they drink and are moved and are mad, or that in Ezekiel 32, 23, 32 to 33, a cup deep and large. It contains much, a cup of astonishment and desolation, filled with drunkenness and sorrow. It is mixed with spices. This signifies that the wine's natural quality has been strengthened. Its force has been intensified by various ingredients cast into it, such as the sense of mingled wine in Isaiah 5 verse 22 and in Proverbs 9 verse 5. Calm, drink of the wine which I have mingled. We must distinguish this from the expression without mixture in Revelation 14.10 where the speaker there means to say that there is no infusion of water to weaken the strength of the wine. Sometimes people would dilute the wine with water. but here it is in its full strength. Well, we don't have to think about that for a long time. We get somewhat of the picture that whatever this is, it's going to come upon the wicked. It is terrible. But the reason I wanted to bring this out was to say that either the wicked are going to drink it to its dregs, or where else in the Bible does it say that somebody drank a cup and they drank it to the bottom? Of course it was our Lord Jesus, and this reminded me of the sermon by Jonathan Edwards called the agony in the garden. And this is just a small portion of that. It's such a powerful sermon about Jesus saying, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. What was that cup? Of course, it's a wrath of God poured out upon him as our substitute. But I'll read Edwards because this is very, very interesting. Jesus in the garden, comprehending the cup, He had a lively apprehension of it impressed at that time on his mind. He had an apprehension of the cup that he was to drink before. His principle erring into the world was to drink that cup, and he therefore was never unthoughtful of it, but always bore it in his mind and often spoken of it to his disciples. Thus Matthew 16, 21, from that time forth, began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things. of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again on the third day. Again in chapter 20 verses 17 to 19, and Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the 12 disciples apart in the way and said to them, behold, we go up to Jerusalem and the son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes and they shall condemn him to death. and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify him, and the third day he shall rise again." The same thing, but it's subject to conversation on the mount with Moses and Elias when he was transfigured. He speaks of his bloody baptism, Luke 12 verse 50. But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straight? I mean, the worst study you could do Benjamin Warfield wrote an article that got published on the doctrine of Christ called The Emotional Life of Our Lord. But the study that you could do, what did it mean for Jesus to be straightened? And this was well before the fact. He's really just a thought of it. How am I straightened until this be accomplished? He speaks of it again to Zebedee's children in Matthew 20 verse 22. Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? We are able, he spake of his being lifted up, John 8, 28. Then Jesus said unto them, when you have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall you know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father has taught me, I speak these things. The people answered him, we have heard out of the law that Christ abides forever, and how, sayest thou, the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? So he spoke of destroying the temple of his body. Jesus then answered and said to them, Destroy this temple in the three days. I will raise it up and he was very much in speaking of it a little before his Agony in his dying counsels to his disciples in the 12th and the 13th chapter of John Thus this was not the first time that Christ had this bitter cup in his view on the contrary He seems always to have had it in view, but it seems that at that time in the garden Like no other time, God gave him an extraordinary view of it. Edwards paints the picture that he allows Jesus by faith to see something of what he had to suffer that was so intense that of course it caused a bloody sweat, the cup. A sense of that wrath that was to be poured out upon him of those amazing sufferings that he was to undergo, was strongly impressed on his mind by the immediate power of God, so that he had far more full and lively apprehensions of the bitterness of the cup. which he was to drink than he ever had before. And these apprehensions were so terrible that his feeble human nature shrunk into sight and was ready to sink. And that's just a small portion of that sermon. You ever want to be affected by what our Lord felt in the garden and what he was facing that no man ever came close to filling anything like that for. But the point obviously that you want to take away from this is that if he had a drink that cup to the drapes. What is waiting the wicked would have been waiting for us, but because we have believed on Him, our lives, our songs, our prayers should be full of thanksgiving and praise. And that's why I say when you're singing hymns, I cannot just sing hymns that don't mention the redemption of Christ and the price that He paid. Verse 8, For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red, it is full of mixture, and he pours out of the same. But the dregs are off, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them. But, verse 9, I will declare forever, I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the horns of the wicked also will be cut off. But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted. I will make known at all times the character of God and will declare the truth respecting his works and ways. A particular mode is referred to here was praise. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. to God whom Jacob worshiped, to God who proved himself to be his friend, thus showing that he is a friend of all that trust in him. Let me read Psalm 74 verse 1 so you can get the contrast. Where he came after he was enlightened from the first Psalm to the next. Oh God, why have you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pastor? And God says, my judgment is one of equity. And it is fair, but it says it will come at His time. But just the hope of it, that they aren't going to be left alone, that the enemy isn't going to be able to conquer them, but in the end that God will show Himself strong on behalf of those who are His own. Just 10 verses, but 10 verses of hope compared to Psalm 74. And brethren, you can make your own applications. I mean, we see things going on around us, and it's very easy to think that God is too far off, but God is near. And if we're not aware of the nearness, it's not on His part, though He may hide His face for other than our sins to teach us not to depend upon our frames, not to depend upon our feelings, but If you're going a long time without a feeling that God in His attributes and in His person and the things that He has promised is near, you just don't want to stay there. We've got to get to the place where we are praising Him and hoping in His mercy because dark days, brethren, I believe dark days may well be ahead. I mean, you think of just what's happened in the last couple of days between Israel and Hezbollah and so on, the things that are going on, would have never even ended in our mind five years ago. We're going to need this assurance once again, that God is the God of justice and equity. A lot of people says, well, I want God's mercy. I don't want his justice. Well, we don't want it to fall upon us, but we beg for his justice to make right what has gone wrong in this world. I'll close with a prayer and then I'll sit here and we'll take some prayer requests, all right? Before I do that, I mean, I can just tell Chris has four questions. Anything stand out to you, Bryce, here? No, I appreciate what you said about verse 8. And I was just saying amen, because I love this psalm. I love singing psalms, but the whole counsel of God sheds so much light on this verse, the borderline of revelation. And I think it's glorious to sing about that, too. So glad our book's not limited to the Psalms, in that sense. Yeah. And believe me, I love the Psalter. I read it and it's very, very edifying. But I look at the hymns, for example, of Thomas Kelly, 1804, stricken, smitten, and afflicted. See him dying on a tree. You know, I was so impressed with that one hymn by Thomas Kelly, 1804, that I said, how can I get all, because they're all written as scripture songs and there's 765 of them. So I had to write to a standard, uh, English particular Baptist in England that carried the hymnal, but man, where would we be with that? And Oh, sacred head now wounded, which was translated. for the third time by James Waddell Alexander to English. First it was Paul Gerhardt in German, excuse me, Bernardo Clairvaux in Latin, and then Paul Gerhardt in German, and then J.A. Alexander. And I thank God for the gifts that he's given some of these hymn writers. And I've told people a lot of times, if you're in a spirit of bondage and fear, if you're really struggling and need something to give you a good assurance, get you a good hymnal and just read the hymns. You can sing them, but if you just read them, they're going to be of great application to you. What do you think, Michael? What's so amazing as well is the willingness of it, because He was innocent. The wicked deserve this wrath. Our Lord Jesus took it upon Himself so that we would not have to endure it. The more you look into these things, the more you realize it's going to be an eternity of marveling and wondering at the amazing message of the gospel, but substitutionary curse bearing is an amazing, no way did somebody just make that up, that Jesus Christ would take upon himself, not just the wrath of God, and that was the worst part of it, but the crucifixion was the most ignominious martyrdom that anybody had ever invented. It was such an abomination that the Romans weren't allowed to put anybody to death that way. I mean, you think about how just terrible the crucifixion was, and then to have the wrath of God upon you. And this should never get old to us. Never, never should this get old to us. We should always be thankful. And if we are struggling with assurance and so on, we need to deal with that so that we have the highest assurance of the reality of our faith, so that our thanksgiving and our praise would be The more pronounced, the more vocal, and so on. A symbol of strength. And when it is lifted up... In this case, it's lifted up, this symbol of strength. It's against God. In other words, I don't need you. I will get along just fine by the strength of my horn or whatever. You know, it's not a literal horn, but it's a symbolism. And then the stiff neck on top of that, that's arrogance, it's pride, it's disenmity against God. I don't know how well I answered that, but.