God the Judge

[Psalm 75]

Yesterday, Tuesday morning, I was reading CNN online news and came across a testimony from a firefighter who described the recent wildfires in Southern California by saying, “It felt like witnessing the end of the world.”
How intense must the fire have been for him to say something like that? According to current reports, fires are burning in about 16 locations, and approximately one million people have been ordered to evacuate their homes.
This morning’s news also reported that in San Diego alone, the fire has destroyed so many homes that the damages have reached around 1 billion dollars.

Yesterday, our church hosted a presbytery meeting, and I had the opportunity to meet several pastors. One of them, who lives in Santa Clarita, shared that he had to evacuate and is currently staying at his in-laws’ house.
Another pastor mentioned that one of his church members had also fled their home and later returned to check on it. When they arrived, they found that firefighters had extinguished the fire either in the backyard or very close to the front yard, preventing the house from burning down.
A cousin of my wife also evacuated from San Diego and is now staying at her sister’s house.
Yesterday on NBC News, I saw just how intense the flames were: a steel part of a car parked in front of a house had melted from the heat. After the fire passed through, the melted steel had solidified into a flat, knife-like shape.

As I saw all this, I, too, like that firefighter, thought about the end of the world.
His words made me reflect: What will the end of the world be like?
In Luke 17:29–30, the Bible says,
“But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.”
The Bible clearly prophesies that there will be destruction of the world and judgment by fire.

I thought about this judgment in light of Acts 17:31, which teaches that God raised Jesus from the dead and appointed Him as the Judge of the whole world.
God has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed—Jesus.
There are two key lessons this truth teaches us:
First, “Repent!”
Second, “Believe in Jesus and be saved!”

In today’s passage, Psalm 75:7, the psalmist also speaks of God as the Judge:
“But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.”
Our righteous God is one who “judges with equity at the appointed time” (verse 2).

Today, I would like to reflect on two aspects of God, the righteous Judge, and receive the message that God wants to give to you and me.

First, God the Judge is the One who humbles.

Whom does God the Judge humble?
The Bible tells us He humbles the boastful and the wicked.
Look at Psalm 75:4:
"I said to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’ and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn.’"
These boastful and wicked people can also be described with another word: the proud.
Therefore, the psalmist says to them in verse 5:
"Do not lift up your horn on high, or speak with a haughty neck."
The problem with the proud is that they exalt themselves (v.6).
The apostle Paul said that in the last days, people would be “boastful” (2 Timothy 3:2).
In those days, people will glorify themselves more than God and seek to elevate their own name above the glory of the Lord (Jeremiah 9:23–24).
They think more highly of themselves than they ought (Romans 12:3), and they praise themselves with their own lips (Proverbs 27:2), lifting themselves up.

So what is God’s attitude toward pride?
Look at Proverbs 8:13:
"The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate."
The Bible clearly says that God hates pride.
Therefore, God pours out His wrath on those who are arrogant, proud, and do evil.
The psalmist describes it this way in Psalm 75:8:
"For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is fully mixed, and He pours it out; surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down."
God will pour out the cup of His wrath completely upon the proud and wicked.
He will cut off “the horns of the wicked”—in other words, their power and strength (v.10)—and ultimately cause them to melt away (v.3).

Second, God the Judge is the One who exalts.

Whom does God the Judge exalt?
He exalts those who humble themselves, those who are humble before the Lord.
That’s why the apostle James says:
"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you" (James 4:10).
Look also at James 4:6:
"But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.'"

So then, what is a person like who humbles themselves before the Lord—one who is truly humble?

(1) Thanks be to the Lord.

Look at the first half of Psalm 75:1:
“O God, we give thanks to you, we give thanks, for your name is near...”
The reason the psalmist and the people of Israel gave thanks to God was because “your name is near” (v. 1).
In other words, experiencing the Lord’s presence, the psalmist and the Israelites gave thanks to God.
For them, God’s presence pointed to salvation, so they were thankful.
The fact that God, the righteous Judge, was present meant the destruction of the wicked and the salvation of the righteous.
Therefore, the psalmist humbly gave thanks to God along with the people of Israel.

(2) The humble praise the Lord.

Look at Psalm 75:9:
“I will proclaim the name of Jacob’s God with praise.”
The psalmist was confident that God, the righteous Judge, would come to destroy the proud wicked and save the humble righteous, so he decided and committed to praise God in faith.

(3) The humble proclaim the Lord’s wonders.

Look at the second half of Psalm 75:1:
“... people proclaim your wondrous deeds.”
The psalmist says that because of God’s presence, who pours out His wrath on the proud and judges them, God’s people—the humble—will proclaim God’s amazing works (“wondrous deeds”) of salvation.

How does God exalt those humble ones who thank Him, praise Him, and proclaim His wonders?
The Lord raises them up.
Look at the first half of Psalm 75:3:
“I have set the earth’s pillars firmly...”
The Lord sets up the humble.
The proud are brought down by the Lord, but the humble are established and firmly upheld by Him.
Therefore, even when the day of judgment comes in the presence of the Judge, God will keep His humble people unshaken.

Our God, the Judge, “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness,” and “humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross,” and so God highly exalted Him:
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:7-11)
Therefore, as disciples of Jesus, we too must imitate Him by emptying ourselves and humbling ourselves.
And we must humbly “submit” to God just as Jesus did.
When the time comes, God will exalt us as He exalted Jesus.

Wanting to follow the humility of Jesus, who humbled Himself for the proud and obeyed to the point of death on the cross,

Pastor James Kim shares
(Praying that we may thank the Lord, praise the Lord, and proclaim the Lord’s amazing works)