Psalms 75 – Promotion Cometh Neither From the East

A reminder that God alone raises up and puts down.

Psalms 75: Unto Thee O God We Give Thanks

This chapter of the Psalms overview answers the lament of Psalms 74 with confident thanksgiving, declaring that God alone decides who is put down and who is set up, since promotion comes from Him and not from any direction on earth.


To the Overseer. -- `Destroy not.' -- A Psalm of Asaph. -- A Song. We have given thanks to Thee, O God, We have given thanks, and near `is' Thy name, They have recounted Thy wonders.

When I receive an appointment, I -- I do judge uprightly.

Melted is the earth and all its inhabitants, I -- I have pondered its pillars. Selah.

I have said to the boastful, `Be not boastful,' And to the wicked, `Raise not up a horn.'

Raise not up on high your horn, (Ye speak with a stiff neck.)

For not from the east, or from the west, Nor from the wilderness -- `is' elevation.

But God `is' judge, This He maketh low -- and this He lifteth up.

For a cup `is' in the hand of Jehovah, And the wine hath foamed, It is full of mixture, and He poureth out of it, Only its dregs wring out, and drink, Do all the wicked of the earth,

And I -- I declare `it' to the age, I sing praise to the God of Jacob.

And all horns of the wicked I cut off, Exalted are the horns of the righteous!

Its image of a cup of judgment poured out for the wicked to drink to the dregs parallels the fate described in <a href="/bible/ylt/job/chapter-21/20">Job 21:20</a>. The psalm closes with the righteous exalted, leading into the victory hymn of <a href="/bible/ylt/psalms/chapter-76">Psalms 76</a>.