Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb19970629.htm

PSALMS: DIARIES OF GODLY OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS
Psalm Seventy-Five - Learning To Rest In God's TIMING Of Deliverance
(Psalm 75:1-10)
  1. Introduction
    1. Many times in the stresses of life's crises, when the believer calls out in prayer for God's help, there is no immediate deliverance! In fact, sometimes our prayers for help are met with a worsening of the crisis!
    2. Psalm Seventy-Five explains why the delay, and what the believer should do in such cases as follows:
  2. Learning To Rest In God's TIMING Of Deliverance, Psalm 75:1-10.
    1. The historical setting of Psalm 75 was the crisis of cruel, haughty Assyria's Isaiah 36-37 invasion of Judah:
      1. As signaled in the reference of verse 6 to no one from the east, west or south being able to exalt a man, a reference that left out the north, some believe that this psalm indicates trouble was brewing by an invading force coming from the north, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV ftn., Ps. 75:6.
      2. The enemies of God were seen to be particularly haughty and boastful against God, Ps. 75:4-5, 7.
      3. Since both of these elements were present in the invasion of Assyria against Jerusalem (Isa. 36-37), Ryrie (Ibid., loc. cit.) & Leupold (Psalms, p. 850) believe Ps. 75 is set against the invasion of Assyria!
    2. With this historical setting, the psalm's message bears a lesson in trusting God's timing of deliverance:
      1. When Assyria invaded the land of Judah in the days of king Hezekiah, Assyria's general, Rabshakeh sent word from his king, Sennacherib to give in public at the wall of Jerusalem, Isa. 36:1-2.
      2. There, he publicly ridiculed Judah's king, Hezekiah for trusting in God for deliverance, Is. 36:13f, 18ff.
      3. When he ridiculed such trust in God, the people were afraid to speak up in his presence due to his great army, and the blasphemy rang in their ears, creating great distress, Isa. 36:21-22.
      4. Thus, Ps. 75, written in view of this crisis, explains why God had allowed things to get so bad:
        1. The psalmist began the psalm with a thanksgiving to God for His past deliverances for Judah, 75:1.
        2. Then, for the present crisis, the psalmist noted that God is always the Supreme Judge over men, but that He sets the appointed TIME to judge the wicked, Ps. 75:2.
        3. Though the crisis may get critical, and all its people quake in fear and distress, God holds the pillars of the earth firm and judges the boastful sinners to back down from their threats, Ps. 75:3-5.
        4. Indeed, in this case of Assyria's invasion from the north, no one but God in the south, east or west could stand up against Assyria, and God alone would exalt and dethrone all leaders among men, 6-7.
        5. God had a cup of wrath, and it was He who would cause the wicked Assyrians to drink it all down to its very dregs in the bottom of the cup to feel the full brunt of His wrath, Ps. 75: 8.
        6. With this hope, the psalmist vowed to declare this divine judgeship forever, and praise God, Ps. 75:9.
        7. He also hoped in God's judgment to turn the tables on the wicked and to establish the upright, 75:10.
      5. As it turned out, God waited to TIME His deliverance to have its most telling EFFECT as follows:
        1. In answer to Hezekiah's prayer (Isa. 37:15-20), God promised to deliver Judah, Isa. 37:21-35.
        2. Later, God struck the Assyrian army surrounding Jerusalem with a plague, and 185,000 Assyrian soldiers died overnight, Isa. 37:36. Rattled, Sennacherib went back to Nineveh, and was killed by his sons as he worshipped his own false gods in his own TEMPLE in Nineveh, Isa. 37:37-38.
        3. It was a fitting end: in contrast to Hezekiah who gained the true God's great help by praying in Jerusalem's temple, arrogant Sennacherib was struck dead in his false god's temple by his own sons, and that after boasting of the power of his gods to subdue Israel's God and His people, Is. 36:18-20!
        4. However, only when TIME could pass to get Sennacherib BACK HOME for this fitting demise of the boastful king did God get the most mileage out of His judgment of the Assyrian!
        5. Secular historian, Herodotus "records that the (Assyrian) army camp was infected with mice", Ibid., Ryrie, p. 1011. Sennacherib's records show he never took Jerusalem. After boasting of his devastations to others, he wrote that he had shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem "like a bird in a cage." (Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, p. 288) Then his account stops!! As J. P. Free wrote, "Actually, Hezekiah was reposing quite safely in his 'cage'." (Unger, Arch. and the O. T., p. 269)
Lesson: As in the case of God's deliverance of Jerusalem in Hezekiah's day, God sometimes lets crises get WORSE just BEFORE things get BETTER as this makes for greater GLORY to His deliverance. Thus, in crises, we must rest in God's TIMING of deli verance to make the greatest long-term IMPACT!