Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
5/22 Reading Portions: Numbers 31; Psalms 75-76; Isaiah 23; 1 John 1
Psalm 76:10, KJV
Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain.
EXECUTION
The wrath and violent anger of man may seem to erupt around us. Yet our sovereign God is in such control of things, seen and unseen, that even the rage of iniquitous workers will bring God praise. We see this most definitely and most especially in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The anger and jealous rage of the chief priests and elders boiled within them, causing them to trump up false charges against God’s Messiah and send Him to Pilate to be hung upon a tree. While executed by the Romans, Father God poured out His infinite and eternal wrath upon His one and only Son. The psalmist describes God’s wrath in this way:
For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and He pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs. Psalm 75:8
Jesus emptied that cup when He hung upon that cross from noon to three the day; and His substitutionary atonement, by His death after suffering God’s wrath, became the source of utmost praise to God as faith in Christ’s sacrifice pardons sinners and gives us eternal life. Although Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, fallen men still fume with wrath and wicked temper. Nevertheless, our King of kings is still in control from His heavenly throne. As rampant as sin and iniquity may be, the Holy Spirit restrains its effects and girds the extremity of its reach around His holy waist like a belt, a belt of truth, so that the gospel of Christ, by God’s sovereign grace and design, will accomplish all the heavenly Father’s will and good pleasure. Hallelujah! Yes, praise the Lord!
Though mean men may get mad and stew,
God still receives His praise;
The gospel truth, like sweet perfume,
Does fill His children’s days.