God is judge; He will judge with uprightness.

Psalm 75

To the victor, al-tashcheth⁵; a psalm of Asaph, a song.

We confess Thee, O God;

We confess, and Thy name is near;

They recount Thy wonders.

When I shall take the appointed time,

With uprightness I will judge.

The earth and all who dwell in her are dissolved;

I make firm her pillars. Selah.

I said to those who praise themselves,

Do not praise yourselves;

And to the wicked, Do not exalt the horn,

Do not exalt your horn on high;

Do not speak with a stiff neck.

For it is not from the coming out of the sun nor from the sunset,

Nor from the wilderness of the mountains.

For God is judge;

This one He brings low, and that one He exalts.

For a cup is in the hand of Jehovah,

And He churned the wine, full of what was mingled,

And He makes it to flow down from this;

Surely they shall suck out its lees⁶,

All the wicked of the earth shall drink.

But I will tell it to eternity,

I will sing psalms to the God of Jacob.

And all the horns of the wicked I will hew off;

The horns of the just shall be exalted.

verses	topic	Summary of the Spiritual Sense
title, 1-3	1,11	When the Lord comes, He will raise up the fallen church.
4-6	3	Let not the evil exalt themselves above the good,
7	15,17	for the judgment is coming, in which the evil perish and the good are saved.
8,10	15	The evil will then perish through direful falsities,
9	11	but the good will worship the Lord.

The Lord redeems each of us individually as well as all of us together.

TCR 599. In the conflicts or temptations of men the Lord works a particular redemption, as He wrought a total redemption when in the world. By conflicts and temptations in the world the Lord glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine; in like manner now with man individually, when he is in temptations, the Lord fights for him, conquers the evil spirits who are infesting him, and after temptation glorifies him, that is, renders him spiritual.

After His universal redemption the Lord reduced to order all things in heaven and in hell; with man after temptation He does in like manner, that is, He reduces to order all the things of heaven and the world that are in him.

After redemption the Lord established a new church; in like manner He also establishes what pertains to the church in man, and makes him to be a church in particular.

After redemption the Lord bestowed peace upon those who believed on Him, for He said:

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world gives do I give unto you (John 14:27).

I make firm her pillars.

AE 219:4. “The earth dissolving” signifies those [people] of the church who are not in truths but yet long for them. “To make firm its pillars” signifies to sustain the church by those truths upon which it is founded.

The horns of the just shall be exalted.

AE 316:22. “Lifting up the horn on high” signifies vigorously to defend falsity against truth; therefore it is also said, “Do not speak with a stiff neck.” “To hew [or cut] off their horns” signifies to destroy their falsities; and “to exalt the horns of the just” signifies to make the truths of good powerful and strong.

⁵“Al-tashcheth” means “destroy not.”

⁶sediment from fermentation that settles on the bottom of the wine barrel

Questions and Comments

Why is the Lord’s coming so closely associated with judgment in these psalms? Is that how you tend to think of the Lord’s coming? Knowing that the Lord is Love itself, how is judgment a sign of His love? (See TCR 599.)
How can the teachings about the Lord’s coming and redemption help us in our practice of charity?
Compare this psalm, especially verses 4-7, with the Magnificat, Mary’s prayer in Luke 1:46-55. What similarities do you notice?
Can you think of examples of how the Lord firmed up the pillars of the church by His teaching? The scribes and Pharisees had made the Ten Commandments of no effect by their traditions, but the Lord restored them. The Hebrew verb here also means “fix precisely.” The Lord greatly clarified the meaning and application of the Commandments.

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