Psalm 75:8
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.
Today’s verse is a stark reminder that in the hand of the LORD are not only pleasant things but terrible. This is a picture of the wrath of God, often in the OT testament his judgment was likened to a cup that men would be forced to drink. Even in Revelation, the same analogy is made. Here we have a detailed description of the cup that is only alluded to in several other places.
What is God’s wrath likened to? Wine. Wine is not something that is prepared in an hour, it is something that has fermented over long periods. It was once pleasant and fresh, but through the addition of bacteria it turns from fresh to fermented and the longer it sits the stronger it becomes. So it is with God’s wrath God has no ill will toward man, he loves mankind, but mankind has spoiled God’s pleasant intentions with their evil deeds, what would have been a blessing poured out upon mankind, through our wicked deeds God’s blessings have become his righteous indignation. In that great day of wrath in the last day, men will drink of the fierceness of the wrath of almighty God, whose righteous indignation has been strengthening from the first day of sin until the last.
It is a spiced wine, “It is full of mixture.” God’s wrath is not like man's, mankind often sees red and reacts and forgets why he should be mad and just knows that he is mad. God never forgets any deed, His wrath will be mingled with all his wisdom, all his judgment, all his knowledge, and perhaps most disturbingly with all his power. The almighty God has prepared for the wicked a cup mingled with terrors unimaginable, fire and brimstone, separation from God, an eternity with every wicked man and spirit that was ever created, even Satan himself will be there. His wrath will be mingled with all his knowledge, there won’t be a single deed that goes unpunished, not anything hidden from his sight. With all his power, the same God that spoke the worlds into existence has prepared a habitation to punish evil. We can't begin to imagine the horrible things that await those who drink of this cup that is mingled with all the power of God against sin.
Notice though that the wicked are not doing their best to withhold this cup but “All the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them.” Of everything said in this psalm this is perhaps the most shocking. God is not longing for the day he pours this out, it won’t be with great pleasure but actually, they will wring it out upon themselves. That is by their wicked works they squeeze out the wrath of a righteous God. Yes, it will be God’s wrath they drink up, but their hands wrung it out into their own mouths. They continue in their sins, growing harder and colder every day, each day their hands wring more and more into that cup until the day their cup is full and now they must drink what they have filled it with. What took mankind thousands of years to wring out will be drank up in a day, the great day of his wrath. O the horrors of that day when all the murders, rapes, lies, abuses, and every sin will be poured out for men to consume what they have wrung into the cup. Even death and hell have a place that will swallow them up, the lake of fire. Men by their wicked deeds are every day wringing into the cup that they will drink on the judgment day.
Lastly, we must visit Gethsemane and see the man who drank down this cup for every penitent believer. “Let this cup pass from me.” What cup was that? Surely it was this same cup, the cup of God’s wrath. We had wrung into that cup all manner of judgment, every lie, every murder, every abuse, the wrath of God against all sin was wrung into that cup and as Jesus peered into the cup I don’t think it was his reflection he could see but ours. A horrible, terrible, unimaginable disfigurement of mankind, it was sin and it’s righteous judgment. “Nevertheless not my will but thine,” He drank every drop, from Gethsemane to Golgatha, he drank down every dreg, and not even a trace of judgment was left in that cup, he cried it is finished! He had drank down all the drops of judgment. Dear reader, Christ has drank this horrible cup on your behalf. You wrung it out with every sin you have ever committed, we filled up that cup but he drank it down, Hallelujah! What a Savior! Won’t you come to him today, before it is everlasting too late? He became sin for us, that we might be made the righteous of God in him. Believe on him today before your day of judgment comes and you drink of this cup.
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