Sermon: Judgement and Rejoicing

Tonight, we continue our evening series through the third book of the Psalms with Psalm 75. If you would turn there in your Bibles now. If you're using the pew Bible, you can find it on page 487. Before we read it, let's pray together.

Lord, as we come to this portion of our service of worship, we are seeking to hear from you. You have spoken to us by your word. You have revealed to us your will for us and for the world within your word. We ask that you would give us hearts and minds that are ready to hear what you have said and what you expect of us. We ask that you would grant to us comfort and peace by the grace that is revealed there. We pray and thank you that you are a God who has spoken, and we ask that you

would help us to listen. It's in the name of Christ that we pray. Amen. Psalm 75, to the choirmaster, according to Do Not Destroy, a psalm of Asaph, a song. 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. 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. 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. Amen. Well, as you know, the Book of Psalms is a divinely inspired hymnbook for God's covenant people. It's a book of songs, and it's written by a few different authors over Israel's history. These songs are expressions of emotion and truth, praise and lament, communicated back to God in the form of sung prayers. Since these songs are a part of the canon, they're instructive to us regarding

how we ourselves might cry out to God. They offer a pattern for our prayer and for our sung worship, and these lyrics we just read have been sung by God's people for millennia. Now, a song may have within it multiple ideas, any song, but you can often summarize the theme of a song somewhat simply. Most often in our modern songs, modern music, the chorus or title of the song lends a summarizing function. It tends to function as a summary of the theme.

Now, psalms don't usually have this kind of summarizing chorus, but occasionally they do. Tonight's psalm does not, but if I were to simply summarize the theme, I would say it this way. Our God is a sovereign and perfectly righteous judge, and we rejoice that he will vindicate the righteous and pour out his wrath on the wicked. Now, this is a song of expression, of praise. It's a reminder to our own souls of the character and nature of the God we worship.

We are to rejoice because God is the objective moral standard behind all of reality, and he will ultimately execute perfect justice upon all people. So using that thesis statement, I want to look at three things this evening, three parts. First, our God is the sovereign and just judge. Second, our God brings wrath upon the wicked but lifts up the righteous. And finally, for those reasons, we should rejoice. So first, our God is the sovereign and just judge.

The psalmist reminds us that our God has done wondrous deeds. Surely in his mind is our God's miraculous delivery of his people from Egypt, of the giving of the law, the leading of the people into the Promised Land, creation itself, the flood. The psalmist begins by reminding us that our God is a God who has done amazing, astounding, and wondrous things. Verse three, we are reminded that when everything goes wrong, whether it be

when we're in physical peril or when everything seems to go wrong in our inner selves, it is God himself who keeps us steady and safe. The metaphor of the pillars puts us in mind of a huge structure with supports. An earthquake or something might shake them, and if they were to come down, the whole building would fall. And God tells us that the pillars that hold up the world, that hold up your life, are his hands. The God who is able to deliver by miracle, and he is powerful

enough to create and deliver. He is the God who is able to sustain and preserve creation itself. He is the God who is able to preserve your life in every way. What is more, the psalm says there will come a time and place in God's sovereign accounting, appointing, that he will judge the world according to his holy standard. Verse two says that at that time, he will judge with equity, which here should not be understood with any of its modern

political baggage. It simply means with complete fairness and perfect impartiality. This judge is not only all-powerful, he is all good. He is able to hold out before us a perfect moral standard by which we will be judged. He is qualified to do so in a way that no other judge could possibly be qualified. The concepts that we have of goodness, truth, and beauty find their origin, find their true meaning in his person and character. Think of the list of the fruit of the spirit from Galatians

5. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These are virtues and graces that the Spirit works in his people during the process of sanctification. The Spirit in our sanctification is working to make us more like Christ, to become in our inner selves more like God himself. These, in a real way, are the ways that God himself is supremely loving, endlessly joyful, perfectly peaceful, unfailingly patient,

wonderfully kind, et cetera. He is the definition of righteousness, and he is the only one who is able to claim the title Righteous Judge. When he judges, he will not render judgment arbitrarily or with sinful partiality. He's not attempting to apply some laws that someone else wrote with imperfect knowledge. The best of human judges possesses imperfect knowledge and hold in themselves the guilt and stain of sin. Our God is not, indeed cannot be, limited in these ways.

Finally, in verse six, we are rhetorically invited to consider where else we might find a judge like this, who can judge fairly and who can lift up. Can such a one be found among the men of earth or among their so-called gods? Where else might we find one who is perfect like this, sovereign like this, and qualified to judge like this? Certainly not among mankind can such a judge with such impartiality and goodness be found. Sin and self-interest, as we said, corrupt the best of human

judges. Certainly not in the gods of the ancient world, who were more fickle and capricious than the humans that worshiped them. They are simply imagined authorities made in the image of sinful man, and so they could not provide any real justice. If we were to, as an exercise, contrast the doctrines of sin and judgment in Islam and in Christianity, the depth and the beauty of the justice of our God is emphasized. According to the Quran, Allah is merciful to those who perform the prescribed

religious duties, but there is no surety in Islam even if you follow the program of salvation. What is more, Allah is said to overlook and even forgive sin, but there is no atonement for the sins of the people in Islam. Without an atonement, how can full justice be said to have been satisfied? In this way, the holiness of God and the offense of sin is treated lightly. In biblical Christianity, what we are shown is that

every sin is a great offense to our perfect and holy creator, and even that every sin is deserving of his just wrath. There is a real breach because of sin that cannot be mended by our effort and nor can God simply overlook it. No one deserves to be insulted less than God does, and every sin is an insult to him. What we are shown clearly in the Bible is that sin deserves wrath. God does not merely overlook the injustices and self-worship that we commit.

He punishes them to the fullest extent because that is what a perfectly just judge does. And when I walk in the fellowship hall and I clumsily bump into you and make you drop your coffee, and I say, "Oh, I'm sorry," even though you may be a little annoyed, you say to yourself, "It's not such a big deal," and you let it go, and you forget it because it was an accident, and you are a nice person. I'm sorry, man. No worries, bro.

This is not how the God of the Bible sees your sin. Your sin is a real crime for which there must be a real penalty. If he were to just say, "No worries, bro," he would be unjust. Small sins and grievous sins both merit the wrath of God. Sin is of infinite weight and offense because the holiness and purity of the God who is sinned against, and so the wrath that is deserved is equal. That is true justice, that every sin would

receive its punishment. I hope that you can see in this comparison that unlike Islam, indeed, unlike any other religion or worldview, the true and real justice is accomplished in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not merely that sin is overlooked, and so he forbears wrath against you. It is that your sin, if you belong to Christ, has received the wrath that it justly deserved. Allah overlooks sin. Christ atoned for your sin.

Christian, do you realize the depth and weight of the grace that you have been shown? Your sin is not merely overlooked or ignored. It is expunged. It is paid for with the blood of Christ. The promise of the new covenant is that if you trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, those sins have been paid for in his death, and the death of Christ is the surety of God's love for you and redemption of you. Instead of standing in a place where you work your hardest to accomplish

religious duties in hopes that God will have mercy upon you, will have favor upon you, will offer you forgiveness, instead of that, salvation has been accomplished on your behalf by Christ. Nowhere but the gospel do you find perfect justice satisfied, even while perfect mercy is shown. This is the God that we worship, brothers and sisters. Second, our God brings wrath upon the wicked but lifts up the righteous. In addition to being the perfect judge, Psalm 75 tells us that our God

is the one who brings the punishment to the wicked and the reward to the righteous. He graciously warns the wicked and the boastful who arrogantly think that they are something. The root of sin is the rejection of the authority of God and the desire for authority in ourselves, to lift ourselves up, to think of ourselves more highly than we ought. Psalm 75 teaches us that those who lift themselves up will be put down by God. He is the one who exalts and who brings low.

The horn that is referred to in verses four and five is a common biblical metaphor for power and authority. The wicked are warned not to place too much confidence in their own strength, not to speak arrogantly. I love the phrase haughty neck. It's such an evocative description. Haven't we all known someone, or sadly, at times, been someone who is so proud and haughty that even it shows in your posture? Even it shows in your non-verbal communication.

Arrogant and self-justifying, asserting their power and dominance over those whom they should respect. The wicked and the boastful declare their own greatness, and God will make a mockery of these declarations. Think of Pharaoh, who refused to let God's people go and brought judgment down upon his whole nation. Think of when the Philistines captured the Ark and set it at the feet of their idol, Dagon, and then found the idol broken in front of the Ark

Think of the Rabshakeh telling Judah not to trust in God because none of the other gods of the nations have been able to protect them from Assyria. Think of Nebuchadnezzar saying to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that no god will be able to deliver them from his hands. The horn of the wicked, we are told, will be cut off. That is, they will not be allowed to prosper in the ultimate sense. They may seem to be winning, but they will not win. God will put them down.

God will remove their power and bring them to shame. The righteous, on the other hand, although they seem powerless, will be exalted. Although they seem to be losing, they will be vindicated by God himself, the righteous and sovereign judge. And the punishment that the wicked receive, we see in verse eight, is superlative punishment. The cup of wrath is a common biblical metaphor. We see it in Isaiah 51 and Jeremiah 25.

The wrath of God is like the wine in the cup, and the wicked of the earth will not stop receiving the wrath that has been planned until all that he intends to give has been given. They will drink the whole cup down to the dregs.

Frankly, brothers and sisters, this cup metaphor is where this psalm gets really exciting. But before we go any further with that, let's address a question that I think should probably be in our minds. It's probably the case that as we read this psalm, the words righteous and wicked give us a little bit of a pause. We read these words here with any amount of self-awareness and any amount of context for the rest of the Bible, we are forced,

I think, to ask, who are these righteous and wicked, and which one am I? Look no further than Psalm 14 and 53, which say in verses two and three, "The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, and to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside. Together, they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one." Psalm 130 in verse three, "If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?"

Psalm 143 verse two, "Enter not into judgment with your servant, Lord, for no one living is righteous before you." Not to mention Ecclesiastes 7:20, Isaiah 64:6, Jesus teaching on the Sermon on the Mount, Romans 3:23, and on we could go.

So how are we to understand this psalm in the light of the clear biblical testimony that apart from God's saving grace, all of us belong among the wicked? We stand deserving the judgment and wrath of the perfectly just God. Consider that Jesus himself read and sung this psalm, and that this psalm expresses a part of his mission in such a way that he remembered and used the metaphor of the cup on more than one occasion.

In Mark 10 or Matthew 20, Jesus asked the disciples if they were able to drink the cup that he would drink. As Jesus agonized in the garden in Mark 14, he asked in prayer that the cup would pass from him while simultaneously resolving to follow his father's will, and he demonstrated that resolve in John 18, Jesus rebuking Peter for drawing his sword, "Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?" Apart from Christ, you and I stand before God as the wicked of Psalm

75, arrogant in our sin, self-driven, haughty-necked, and a fully potent and prepared cup is there for us, and we would have to drink it. We would have drunk it down to the dregs forever in hell, except that our great savior drank it on our behalf. This cup of wrath in Psalm 75 is foaming, well-spiced. It is the cup that Jesus drank by being nailed to the tree and dying the death that we deserved, and he drank it in full.

There is none left to be drunk.

By faith in Christ, you and I are counted as the righteous whom God has lifted up. You and I are the ones who have the breach with God healed and the offense of our sin atoned for, washed away, gone. Not just overlooked, gone. Because our God is both the just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus Christ. Romans 3:21 through 25, "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the

law and prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith." The righteousness that we possess is through the faith in Jesus

Christ. That faith has been given to us by grace as a gift. The righteous one was brought low for us so that we, sinners, united to him, might be lifted up. What is this lifting up? It is the ultimate deliverance and vindication that we long for. It does not mean that we will never face trial, or persecution, or death. It means that the thing that really matters, the final blessing and salvation of God rests upon us because of the accomplished work of

Jesus.

However, just to be clear, when the Bible declares us righteous in Christ, this does not mean that how we live doesn't matter. Understanding our positional righteousness allows us to rejoice, rest, and thank God for His grace. And in that state of thankfulness, blessedness, we work hard to show Him our love and gratitude by keeping His commandments. The overwhelming response of a human heart to the gospel is love for this savior, and this savior said to us, "If you

love me, keep my commandments." In that light, we read this psalm and resolve to fight pride and fight boastfulness. 1 Peter 5, verses five and six seems to be a paraphrase of these truths. "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you." Finally, for all these reasons, we rejoice. We rejoice because evil will not triumph in this

world. Evil, although present and harmful today, has an expiration date.

On the cross, perfect justice and mercy met and broke the power of sin and death, broke the sway and the chain of evil in this world. Evil may seem like it's winning, but it has a mortal wound. The psalmist knew God would put down the wicked and lift up the righteous, but he did not have the privilege that you and I have to know the story of how the Son of God crushed the serpent's head. Only our God could have devised such a glorious and magnificent plan

without compromising perfect justice, without overlooking the real offense, without overlooking the real weight of sin, without ignoring the breach that was made between the holy God and sinful man. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus satisfied perfect justice, accomplished the salvation of his people, and began the remaking of all things. We rejoice because we can leave justice in our God's hands. Our Savior, amazingly, said as

he was being crucified, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." The same Savior commanded us to turn the other cheek when wronged, to love our enemies, and to bless those who persecute us. We are freed to obey those commands knowing that God does not regard injury to his people lightly, and he will repay the wicked who oppress his people. A terrible fate awaits such sinners. By the miracle of the gospel and the indwelling of God's Spirit, we are actually

moved to compassion toward those who have hurt us, knowing that we have been spared from the same fate that currently, as far as we know, awaits them. Spared only by the mercy of God, not by anything in us. And like Paul sharing the gospel with his jailers and the rulers who kept him in chains, we can even hope for the repentance and salvation of those who hurt us. We, following our Savior, are moved to mercy toward those who oppress us,

and we even ask the Lord for their forgiveness. And finally, we rejoice because we no longer need to fear this judge. As we have seen, Jesus has accomplished for us a restoration with the Father that is full and complete. There is no remaining debt to pay. There is no outstanding wrath that is due to you. The righteous judge has declared us more than innocent. We are blessed, we are adopted, we are welcomed because of our union

by faith with Christ and what he has done. Our God is both just and justifier. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Let's pray together.

We give thanks to you, O God. We give thanks for your name is near. We rejoice to belong to you and to be united to our Savior, Christ, in whom we are counted righteous. Words cannot capture the glory and praise that you deserve for your great mercy and kindness to us. We are in awe of perfect love and perfect mercy meeting at the cross. Truly, those who belong to you by faith in Jesus' name are above all people blessed. We will declare it forever.

We will sing praises to you, for you are worthy of all our praise. It is in the great name of Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen.