Psalms 75

Wesley: Name—thy self; God’s name is near when he shows power on our behalf; Wondrous works wrought for his people. Double thanks meet a near name and recounted deeds.

Thanks and recounting are the congregation’s answerable praise. Grace that draws near still invites the telling; silence would waste the nearness.

Calvin: the faithful give thanks because God’s name is near—he is present to help. Wondrous deeds are remembered as God’s works, not self-made fortune.

Nearness of the name grounds thanksgiving. Presence is gift before it is feeling.

Wesley: Receive—the government of the world, as following verses show. God speaks: set time, appointed judgment, equity.

Equity is promised at God’s set time—not ours. Shared confession—judgment is grave and timed; hearers must not seize the bench.

Calvin: God declares he will take government into his own hand and judge uprightly at the appointed time. Delay is not abdication; the set time belongs to him.

Equity is God’s. Impatience for vengeance is rebuked by the appointment.

Wesley: Congregation—of the world; Pillars—the whole frame of the world. When earth and people reel, God steadies the pillars.

Social and cosmic totter do not cancel divine holding. Faith may still trust the One who keeps pillars steady while answering the call to uprightness.

Calvin: when earth and inhabitants are dissolved, it is he who bears up the pillars. Providence underwrites order; chaos is not final.

God alone holds the earth steady. Selah invites pause before the boast is rebuked.

Wesley: Lift not up—do not speak or act insolently against God or his people. Boast and horn-lifting are forbidden speech and posture.

The command addresses the wicked as accountable agents. Grace warns; they must still drop the boast.

Calvin hears God silencing arrogant self-exaltation. Horns raised against heaven invite the later cutting-off.

Do not boast is divine speech. Pride is not a private quirk; it is rebellion against the Judge of v. 2.

Wesley continues the insolence theme: horn on high and stiff neck are the same pride in gesture and speech.

Haughty neck can still bow. The warning is mercy before the cup of v. 8.

Calvin: repeated prohibition drives home that proud speech and elevated horn are under sentence. God will not share glory with the stiff-necked.

Haughty neck is named to be stopped. Judgment’s set time answers arrogance.

Wesley: Promotion—advancement of any person—comes neither from east nor west nor south (deserts south of Canaan). Directions do not confer exaltation.

Career and power are not compass-gifts. Seekers of lifting-up must look past geography to God.

Calvin: promotion comes neither from east nor west; human quarters cannot manufacture true exaltation.

Lifting-up is not climate or chance. The next verse names the source.

Wesley’s line: God putteth down one and setteth up another. Judgment is personal divine action.

Put-down and lift-up are God’s equity at work. Shared—neither camp credits blind fate; both warn against self-made thrones.

Calvin: it is God who putteth down one and setteth up another. Providence rules preferment; boasting is theft of that glory.

Execution of judgment is God’s. Humility is fitting, because God alone decides who is brought down and who is lifted up.

Wesley: Cup—of vengeance; Red/full of mixture—of God’s wrath; Wicked—who provoke him; Dregs—worst and most bitter part. The cup is poured; the wicked drain it.

Shared seriousness—wrath’s cup is not metaphor for mood. Provocation meets dregs; the warning aims at turning from wickedness while the pour is announced.

Calvin: in the LORD’s hand a cup… the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink. Foaming mixture is judicial wrath fully assigned.

Dregs are drained, not sipped politely. God’s hand holds the cup; no wicked escape by geography.

Asaph answers the cup with endless declaration and song to Jacob’s God. Wesley’s thanksgiving frame (v. 1) continues in vow.

Declare and sing are chosen praise. Grace enables; the psalmist still commits to forever-witness.

Calvin: the Psalmist will declare forever and sing praises to the God of Jacob. Doxology outlasts the wicked’s foam.

Praise is the righteous response while judgment stands. Jacob’s God is covenant name under threat.

Wesley’s trajectory: insolent horns fall; righteous horns rise. Cutting off answers vv. 4–5; lifting answers God’s equity.

Shared moral reversal—pride’s horns cut, righteousness exalted. The congregation may trust the outcome without seizing the axe themselves.

Calvin: all horns of the wicked cut off; horns of the righteous exalted. God completes what vv. 6–7 began.

Final horn-policy is God’s. Boastful lift meets cut-off; the righteous are lifted by the same Judge.