Psalm 75:6-10. 6 No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt themselves. 7 It is God who judges: he brings one down, he exalts another. 8 In the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs. 9 As for me, I will declare this for ever; I will sing praise to the God of Jacob, 10 who says, ‘I will cut off the horns of all the wicked, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.’
In Biblical imagery a cup was an ordeal. The cup “full of foaming wine” is the cup of divine anger on evildoers (verse 8), the ultimate ordeal of infinite punishment that made even the Son of God quail (Matthew 26:42).Yet on the cross Jesus embraced God’s will and drank this cup on our behalf, knowing that no matter how dreadful, on the other side would lie the joy of being with us. We are his reward (Isaiah 40:10). When faced with an aspect of God’s will in our life that we want to run from, we must cling closely to Jesus and whisper, “Thy will be done”. Then we can expect the joy of being with him.
Prayer: Father, I cannot begin to praise and thank you for your inestimable gift. “For Christ, my loving Saviour, has drunk up the wine of your fierce anger. What bitter cups were due to me had he not drunk them up for me” (poem of Robert Herrick). Amen
Timothy Keller.