Psalm 75: The Cup in the LORD's Hand

"Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare. When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah."

"I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another."

"For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them. But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted."

Horns and the cup

The horn is an image of strength and pride (an animal raising its head); to "lift the horn" is to be arrogant. The cup of wine "full of mixture" (spiced and strong) is the cup of God's judgment, which the nations must drink to the dregs (Isaiah 51:17; Jeremiah 25:15–29; Revelation 14:10).

Pillars of the earth

"I bear up the pillars of it" is poetry, not geology: when the social order is shaken ("dissolved," melting), God holds the world steady. Ancient Near Eastern texts and the Bible picture the earth on foundations or pillars (1 Samuel 2:8; Job 9:6) as a way of speaking about stability.

"Neither from the east… nor from the south"

75:6 lists east, west and south, and leaves out the north. The Hebrew for "south" here is midbar harim, "the wilderness of mountains," or, read differently, "the wilderness, lifting up": a pun on "lift up" that runs through the psalm. Interpreters suggest that the north, the home of the divine mountain (Psalm 48:2), is deliberately omitted, or that the missing direction is simply poetic economy.

The heading

"To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, A Psalm or Song of Asaph" (on al-tashheth see Psalm 57). The library's Vulgate keeps the cup: "calix in manu Domini vini meri, plenus misto." Hannah's song (1 Samuel 2:7–8) has the same theme: "he bringeth low, and lifteth up."