A Drinking Song

Psalm 75

Asaph wrote a great drinking song. We call it “Psalm 75,” but it really is a drinking song. Let me explain.

First, this is a song. The subtitle makes that clear: “A Psalm of Asaph. A song.” Scholars debate the meaning of the word the ESV and CSB translate “choirmaster” and the NIV “director of music.” Many of the words in the superscripts are unclear, even to Hebrew scholars. But the word translated “song” (shir) means “song.” Of that there is no debate. Asaph intended God’s people to sing it over and over again.

Second, bar patrons and tavern goers have been singing songs like this for ages, all over the world. The words are different, but the essence is the same: bad people make life bad for the rest of us. This song speaks of the boastful (4), wicked (4), and haughty (5), but not in a vacuum. There is grave need for God to judge the wicked, to set the world right, to put down the boastful, to be the God who executes judgment (7). Wicked and violent people inflict the same pain everywhere, whether we sing of modern-day slavery, human traffickers, or the warlords of eastern Congo. While the power of the wicked grows, the suffering gather together, lifting a glass in hope that one day the wicked will get what they deserve.

Third, the song of pain breeds hope. Just like the broken-heart songs of country music somehow soothe the wounded soul, this song of thanksgiving ends with a vow to sing praises to God forever (9). It begins with thanksgiving: “We give thanks to You, O God” (1). Asaph leads the crowd in a rousing rendition of “we give thanks, for Your name is near” (1). Asaph weaves this thanksgiving, this hope, through the fabric of the wicked’s power and prosperity. As the wicked boast, the righteous know that God will judge with equity (2) in His time (2) and in His way. Wounded souls need this tune playing in the background of life.

Fourth, the song is poetic. Good drinking songs need a metaphor, even if the metaphor is nothing more than the bottle. For example, “Ice cold beer never broke my heart.” Asaph chose the image of a “horn,” and it resonates all through this song. The wicked should not lift up their horn (4 and 5), for God will cut off their horns (10). Instead, God will lift up the horns of the righteous (10). Four “horns” in only ten verses.

Scholars tell us that the horn symbolizes strength, a metaphor drawn from a powerful animal with threatening horns. But the horn also symbolizes political strength and power, especially in the visions of Daniel. That makes the imagery even harsher. They are strong and powerful, wicked and boastful. When will God rise up, cut off their horn, and lift up the horn of the righteous? Drinking songs need a good metaphor to hang our pain on.

Fifth, the song has a time signature, like all songs do. I might be pushing the envelope here, but time runs all through this song, the time of waiting on the Judge to rise up and do His thing. There is an appointed time for judgment (2), but God sets the time, not us. We know what will happen when that time comes, but in the moment, the earth totters (3). Yes, Asaph reminds us that God holds the earth steady while it totters (3), but the earth still totters while we wait. We want the waiting in sixteenth notes; it comes in whole notes.

Sixth, there is a cup. All good drinking songs need a cup, a cup the whole room raises at once. But this cup, this foaming wine, is not one we want to drink. It brims with the wrath of God, and one day, when the time comes, the wicked will “drain it down to the dregs” (8).

This image of a cup filled with the wrath of God is not unique to Asaph. The prophet Jeremiah spoke of it: “Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: ‘Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it’” (Jeremiah 25.15). The prophet Isaiah spoke of it: “Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of His wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering” (Isaiah 51.17). The Judge will force His cup of wrath upon the wicked.

This image also shows up in the vision God gave to John, the vision of what is yet to come. Those who worship the beast will drink “the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of His anger” (Revelation 14.10). Add to that the vision of the returning, victorious Christ, who will “tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Revelation 19.15).

There is a cup in the hand of the Lord filled with the wrath of God. He has mixed it well, and He will pour it out upon all the wicked of the earth, at the time of His choosing, and they will drink it down to the dregs. Down to the last drop. Fully and completely. Thank the Lord.

This is a great drinking song, but come to think of it, it belongs not in a bar or tavern. It belongs around the Lord’s Supper table, where believers gather to give thanks to the Lord for the redeeming and atoning blood of Jesus that satisfies the wrath of God. We lift up our cup and rejoice that we are chosen in Christ, adopted into His family through Christ, forgiven by the riches of His grace, and redeemed by His blood (see Ephesians 1). We rejoice that God will lift up the horns of the righteous (10).

But we also gather around the table to lift up our cup and rejoice that one day, in God’s time and in God’s way, the Judge will cut off the horns of the wicked (10).

One day, we will lift up our cup in the land where righteousness dwells, and we will sing this drinking song.