Psalm 75: of the coming judgment
There are certain clear prophetic elements in this psalm that make me believe the author was inspired by God when he wrote it. However, there are also certain phrases that make me think he corrupted the message with his own weak thoughts instead of relying solely on God for inspiration. Let’s have a look at it.
The beginning is formulaic, and the author then writes in God’s voice from verses 2-5. I have no quarrel with verses 2 and 3: “At the appointed time I myself shall dispense justice. The earth quakes and all its inhabitants; it is I who hold its pillars firm.” The language sounds right, and refers directly to prophecies made in Daniel and the Revelation. God promises that He will hold the final judgment. We know not the hour. Only He knows when that will be. Furthermore, at that time, the earth will quake in a very specific way, as described in Revelation 6:12-17:
“In my vision, when He broke the sixth seal, there was a violent earthquake and the sun went as black as coarse sackcloth; the moon turned red as blood all over, and the stars of the sky fell onto the earth like figs dropping from a fig tre when a high wind shakes it; the sky disappeared like a scroll rolling up and all the mountains and islands were shaken from their places. Then all the kings of the earth, the governors and the commanders, the rich people and the men of influence, the whole population, slaves and citizens, hid in caverns and among the rocks of the mountains. They said to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us away from the One who sits on the throne and from the retribution of the Lamb. For the Great Day of His retribution has come, and who can face it?’”
Unfortunately, I think the psalm’s author improvises in verses 4 and 5. Here he supposedly continues to speak in God’s voice: “‘I said to the boastful, “Do not boast!” to the wicked, “Do not flaunt your strength! Do not flaunt your strength so proudly, do not talk with that arrogant stance.”‘” Given the strength and calamity of those end-time events, do you really think that’s all that God will say to the wicked? Do you think He’ll bother to open His mouth to say such things? Sure, clearly this is symbolic language, but it’s so weak in its strength, so lacking in authority when compared with what will happen, that I have to believe the psalm’s author made it up by himself.
Verses 6 and 7 establish that God’s judgment will extend to the entire earth, and won’t just stop at the heathen nations surrounding Israel, which is once again inspired, and furthermore, verse 8 is clearly prophetic, because it refers to the cup of indignation that God will pour out over the entire earth (metaphorically speaking) during the time of the end. Here’s what Revelation says about this. Keep in mind that while God is described as holding the cup here, the “great prostitute” is shown as holding that cup in Revelation. This is because God knows the exact moment when that will happen, and will allow it to happen, in order for prophecy to be fulfilled. But He is not causing it to happen. The people, fallen into apostasy, are doing it on their own. Here is the passage:
“One of the seven angels that had the seven bowls came to speak to me, and said, ‘Come here and I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute who is enthroned beside abundant waters, with whom all the kings of the earth have prostituted themselves, and who has made all the population of the world drunk with the wine of her adultery.’ He took me in spirit to a desert, and there I saw a woman riding a scarlet beast which had seven heads and ten horns and had blasphemous titles written all over it. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet and glittered with gold and jewels and pearls, and she was holding a gold winecup filled with the disgusting filth of her prostitution; on her forehead was written a name, a cryptic name: ‘Babylon the Great, the mother of all the prostitutes and all the filthy practices on earth.’ I saw that she was drunk, drunk with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and when I saw her, I was completely mystified. The angel said to me, ‘Do you not understand? I will tell you the meaning of this woman, and of the beast she is riding, with the seven heads and the ten horns…” (Revelation 17:1-7)
The author of the psalm then goes on to proclaim his faithfulness in verse 9, then messes up again in verse 10: “I shall break down all the strength of the wicked, and the strength of the upright will rise high.” There is no indication that he is writing in God’s voice again, since there are no quotes around that verse. So I have to assume that he means to do that himself, although we all know that a single human being has no such powers. Either the quotes were lost as this psalm was transcribed through the centuries, or the author of this psalm is pulling words out of his pocket again, and managing to sound awful, just like he did in verses 4 and 5.
