Psalms 75:6 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, we see two great truths about God’s rule over the world, and two helpful lessons that follow from them. David uses them to confirm what he has already said. Both truths fit the situation well, and both call for faith.

First, power comes from God alone, so only God deserves praise for a king’s rise to power (Psalm 75:6, Psalm 75:7). David would give God the credit for his own advancement, because his authority came from God. Since God gave him power, David meant to use that power for God. That is why it was foolish for anyone to lift up their horn against him, which means to act proudly against him.

We often see sudden changes in nations and kingdoms. One person is brought low, and another is raised up, and we are surprised by it. But this passage tells us to look past the visible causes and see the One who is really behind it. We are taught where power begins, and where promotion comes from.

Where does advancement to a kingdom come from, or to places of authority and trust within a kingdom? It does not depend on the people’s will alone, nor on the prince’s will alone. Both are under God’s will, because he holds all hearts in his hand. So anyone seeking promotion should begin by looking to God.

The psalm first tells us negatively where power does not come from: promotion does not come from the east, or from the west, or from the desert. That is, it does not come from any direction on earth. No favorable wind can raise a person up unless God sends it from above. Human skill, wealth, armies, or alliances cannot secure promotion unless the first cause, God himself, gives it.

The point is not that human means never matter. It is that they cannot succeed by themselves. No amount of help from the east, west, or south can lift a person up unless God opens the way. No second causes can produce honor without the first cause.

The bishop Lloyd explained it this way, in substance: people knew power came from heaven, but many did not know from whom in heaven. Some eastern peoples, who often trusted astrology, thought power came from the stars, especially the sun. David says it comes from neither the rising nor the setting of any star, nor from any other heavenly body. It comes from God’s secret purpose.

He does not mention the north, perhaps because no one expected power to come from there. Or the word for “north” may also mean “secret place,” which points to God’s hidden counsel. In any case, no wind is right for promotion unless he who holds the winds directs it.

The verse also says this positively: God is the judge, the ruler, and the umpire. When people contend for honor, he puts one down and sets another up as he sees fit. He does this to carry out his own plans and bring his own purposes to pass. He acts by his own right, and he does not have to answer to us for these matters.

This is not a problem, because he is infinitely wise, holy, and good. If he has the right to set up and bring down whomever he pleases, that is no harm to us. In fact, it is the very reason rulers should govern for God, since they themselves must answer to him. It is by God that kings reign.

Second, all people must receive their judgment from God too (Psalm 75:8). In the Lord’s hand is a cup, and he gives it to the children of men. It is a cup of providence, meaning God’s ordering of events, mixed with whatever he chooses. Often it is a cup of affliction. Christ’s sufferings are also called a cup (Matthew 20:22; John 18:11). God’s judgments on sinners are called the cup of the Lord’s right hand (Habakkuk 2:16).

The wine is red, which points to God’s wrath in the judgments he sends on sinners. That wrath is the bitter part, the wormwood and gall in their suffering and misery. It is red like fire and blood, because it burns and destroys. It is full of mixture, carefully prepared in wisdom so that it will accomplish its purpose.

When God gives this cup to his own people, it has mercy and grace mixed into it. When he gives it to the wicked, it has the curse mixed in. It is wine mingled with gall. These judgments are poured out on all in some measure, as we also read in Revelation 15:7 and Revelation 16:1. Even good people may feel some of these drops in common troubles.

But the dregs of the cup are kept for the wicked. The outward trouble is only the vessel that carries the wrath within it. At the top, there may be little of that wrath felt, but the sediment at the bottom is pure judgment. That is what sinners will receive. They already taste it now in the fear of conscience, and later in the torments of hell.

They will have to wring out the cup until not a drop remains. They will drink it fully, because the curse will sink deep into them, like water into the body and oil into the bones. The cup of God’s anger will become a cup of trembling, and that trembling will last forever (Revelation 14:10). While the wicked prosper in this world, their cup may seem mixed and pleasant, but the worst lies at the bottom. The wicked are being kept for the day of judgment.

From these truths, David draws two good practical lessons, and they match the duty he spoke of at the start of the psalm. Since this is so, he will praise God and give him glory for the power God has given him (Psalm 75:9). He will keep declaring, as long as he lives, what God’s wonderful works declare (Psalm 75:1). The exaltation of David’s royal Son, the Messiah, will one day be part of the saints’ everlasting praise.

He will praise God not only as his own God, but as the God of Jacob. He knows that God raised him for Jacob’s servant’s sake, and because he loved his people Israel. David’s place of honor was a gift of mercy to the covenant people.

He will also use the power entrusted to him for the purposes God intended, as he had said before (Psalm 75:2, Psalm 75:4). As one in authority should do, he plans to be a terror to evildoers, to humble their pride and break their power. Though he will not strike every head, he will cut off all the horns of the wicked, the powers by which they harm their neighbors. In other words, he will make them unable to do mischief.

This agrees with God’s promise to raise up craftsmen who would strike down the horns of the nations that had scattered Judah and Israel (Zechariah 1:18-21). At the same time, David resolves to protect and honor those who do what is right. The horns of the righteous will be lifted up, which means they will be advanced and given places of responsibility. Those who are good, and have hearts to do good, will not lack the ability or opportunity to serve well.

This fits David’s own purpose in Psalm 101:3 and following.

In this, David acted as a type of Christ, meaning his life pointed ahead to Jesus. Christ will destroy the wicked with the breath of his mouth, and he will lift up the power and honor of the righteous (Psalm 112:9).