God is Judge

Altaschith (Do not destroy)
A Psalm or Song of Asaph.

This title altaschith can be seen as a plea from the psalmist to the divine judge for mercy and deliverance.

Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.

The psalmist then thanks God for ‘thy wondrous works’, but doesn’t elaborate.

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.

Here God himself speaks of the certainty of judgment at a set time.

I said unto the fools … Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.

In view of the certainty of divine judgment the psalmist now warns the proud & foolish to humble their hearts before God.

For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor the west, nor the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.

The reason that such pride is foolish is because of the sovereign hand of God, who presently judges is the affairs of men. Consider Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:28-37)

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.

This cup refers to the fullness of divine indignation (Rev14:10), the fierceness of His wrath on our sin & idolatry (Rev16:19) that will be poured out at the time of judgment (v2), but we cannot leave it without remembering that this cup in the hand of the Lord, is the very cup that the Lord Himself drunk to its bitterest dregs taking our place under the wrath and judgment of God (Matt26:39).

This is indeed a wondrous work and the psalmist continues, saying:

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.

What a wondrous story this is (John 3:36) and like the psalmist I will sing of it and declare it forever.