The Days of the King

From Lamentation to Songs of Joy

It is not an easy thing to live in troubled times.  If we reflect upon the history of Old Covenant Israel we learn that after the high-water mark of Israel under David and Solomon, a declension followed which lasted for nigh on eight hundred years.   This means that almost all of the prophets and many of the Psalms were written in deeply troubled times.  Anguish and hope wrestle against each other throughout the pages and chapters.

Western Christians are starting to learning about what it means to live in similar times.  The First Christendom has ended; apostasy and Unbelief now reigns throughout the West.  The way back will not be easy, nor will it be quick.  The challenge all Christians face in such times is to hold the competing poles firmly in place.  We will (and must) experience the anguish of a Jeremiah (the weeping prophet) or Ezekiel (the tortured prophet).  There is no place for saccharin Pollyannas.  On the other hand, we know with the utmost certainty that our eventual victory is sure.

One challenge to meet is learning to live amidst spiritual declension and death with hearts and lips full of praise and thankfulness to God.
  Asaph was a psalmist who lived under David and Solomon and yet saw the long dark falling.  In Psalm 75 he shows us how to live with praise upon our lips and with hope in our hearts.

The psalm takes the form of a dialogue between God and Asaph.

Asaph:
We give thanks to you, O God;
    we give thanks, for your name is near.
We recount your wondrous deeds.

The Lord:
“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. Selah
 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.’”

Asaph:
For not from the east or from the west
    and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,
but it is God who executes judgement,
    putting down one and lifting up another.
For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup
    with foaming wine, well mixed,
and he pours out from it,
    and all the wicked of the earth
    shall drain it down to the dregs.
But I will declare it for ever;
    I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

The Lord:
All the horns of the wicked I will cut off,
    but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.

God remains completely in control.  His wondrous deeds in the past give us ground to worship Him and maintain a lively hope.  

The Lord responds by vowing to punish the wicked and powerful who boast against Him.  There are plenty of such petty tyrants about these days.  

Asaph then reminds himself and us that our hope does not to lie in the powers of the age.  Lifting up does not come from the east nor the west nor from the desert.  It is God who lifts up and He will pour out the cup of His wrath upon the wicked of the earth.  Asaph vows in turn to declare these truths forever and to sing praises to the God of Jacob.  

God then adds His Amen to Asaph's declaration:  "All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up".

Now, if these things were infallibly true for Asaph, how much more certain are they in our day.  For we have seen the coming  of Messiah and His resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God.  We have seen Him invested with all power and authority over all things in the heavens and on the earth.  The time is set (the days of Messiah the Prince); the place is set (the right hand of God); and the outcome is inevitable (the righteous shall be lifted up). 

Sorrow and joy must remain our constant companions.