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Singing Psalm 75 you worry less
Singing Psalm 75 you worry less about impression management
It is easy to spend time worrying about the impression you are giving and how to manage it. You worry less about that when you are laid bare before the eyes of him to whom you must give an account in every area of your life and relationships.
When you know that the one who made you sees not only your every move but your every thought and the inclination of your heart, it is even more easy to worry. You find many ways to distract yourself from this in order to worry less, but it’s like squeezing a balloon. The worry surfaces somewhere else. In order to truly worry less, you need Jesus to speak to the storm of your worry: “Hush. Be still.”
The compassion of God gives you reason to worry less
Singing Psalm 75 offers you a perspective that will transform your worry into sincere gratitude that this One whose eye is always on you is not far off. The triune God who made you is not only the most truthful about who you are but also he is the most compassionate toward you. “The Lord is near.”
The truth of God replaces your illusion of control and you worry less
Singing Psalm 75 also wakes you up to the discerning distinctions that the Lord makes, meting out right judgments in line with his perfect law. He richly supplied you with central and peripheral nervous system so that you can engage him with every working part of your brain and spinal cord, with every functional neuron and axon. You freely fall back into the arms of the One you can trust.
“All horns of sinners he’ll cut off, the righteous’ horns are raised.” ~ Psalm 75:10
Understanding this verse as two different groups of people or nations would be a misunderstanding. It would be wrong to say that there are those people who are righteous in and of themselves and then there are other people who are sinners.
This doesn’t make sense since all, except Jesus, have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Yet in his great glory, he has made a way to show mercy to sinners.
Those sinners who have no desire to seek and love God and continue to love their sin until their death or until Jesus comes again, their horns will simply be cut off. You ask the Lord of mercy to transform their motives and turn the inclination of their desires and choices to him.
On the other hand, those sinners whom God draws to himself, marks their debt of sin as paid in Christ, and at the time that he chooses, gives them the gift of repentance, he considers them as “the righteous.” In Psalm 75, they are differentiated into ‘sinners’ and ‘the righteous.’
What can be confusing is that in one area of your life you are one way but in another area you are a different way. Perhaps outwardly you are reticent to obey God but inwardly you hasten to obey him or the other way around.
Those areas where God gives insight into his Word and how to apply it to your life and relationships, you hasten to obey.
Those areas where God leaves you in confusion longer where it is not clear on how to apply God’s Word to your life and relationships, you delay to obey.
In some areas, it’s not only easier to delay than to hasten, but it is impossible to do otherwise. The triune God uses delays to bring about the time that he is ready to act through you. Then, and only then, can you hasten to act.
Sooner or later, you learn to worry less over time as an image bearer of the triune God as you learn to walk with him. You get to judge with equity by reflecting on where you find yourself in the various aspects of your life and relationships. You trust that he is in control and will bring it all together just right at the time that he appoints.
Let’s explore the muddy camps, ‘Camp Delay’ and ‘Camp Hasten’ for motivation to sing the psalms and meditate on God’s Word to come to truly know and trust the One who made you and that you will, in turn, worry less.
You worry less in Camp Delay
‘Camp Delay’ corresponds with the first phrase, ”All horns of sinners he’ll cut off” and belongs to prospective repentant sinners before the Lord changes them and transforms them. Even when you aim to hasten to obey, there are often roadblocks, confusion, or troubles of one kind or another that waylay your efforts.
Watch. Pray. Wait.
You will worry less about the trajectory of your life when you trust the Lord to change you on the inside from proud to humble, from self-reliant to dependent upon him alone.
It is good and right to seek after what God can give you and to care about securing a spot in heaven when you die. You will worry less about your future possessions and eternal real estate when you consider that you are under his tutelage and that moment-by-moment, he is leading you in the present to the promised land.
Going deeper, you are concerned with the weightier matter of desiring his saving presence continually here and now that will extend into eternity and loving him simply for who he is whether or not there are tangible blessings given to you now.
You worry less about the suffering he brings and care more to be one who desires to draw near to him even in those sufferings because you believe that God not only exists but also that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
You move from one who primarily trusts in yourself and in other people to trusting most in the Lord. You worry less about what man can do to you and are more focused on becoming one whose only fear is not trusting God.
You boast not in what you will accomplish but in the Lord and what he has already accomplished in you by making his home with you.
Because God graciously rewards you for what you would do as you seek him, the Lord will cut off the parts of you that are unworthy of his kingdom, pruning you, and remaking you, circumcising your heart.
What you most desire is not to delay to obey him but to hasten to obey him if you could. In the waiting process, your horn, your pride, will be cut off but you yourself will be raised in Christ.
You worry less in Camp Hasten
‘Camp Hasten’ corresponds to the second phrase “the righteous’ horns are raised” which describes sinners after the Lord has changed them and transformed them from trusting themselves to trusting him in areas that they are aware of in life and in their relationships.
You worry less since when he does this is up to him and the timing does not make anyone any more worthy than anyone else. It is all done through the grace and mercy of the triune God.
Both camps, though, God brings from ‘not his people’ to ‘his people’ (Hosea 1:9-10; 1 Peter 2:10) when he chooses to bring them intending to bring good through both those who hasten and those who delay to obey him.
Those in ‘Camp Hasten’ have more joy right here and now as they eagerly wait for and look forward to the new heavens and the new earth.
Those in ‘Camp Delay’ are more burdened from not being able to at once conceive how to give over to Jesus their heavy yoke. They can take heart that God’s light shines in the darkness.
“For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” ~ 1 Samuel 16:7b
The gap between them might seem wide now, but when the Lord comes again all those who trust him whether much or little will be amazed at what he has prepared for them, more wonderful than any of us could ask or imagine, for all eternity.
When God gave his people bread from heaven, “As it is written [Exodus 16:18], “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.” ~ 2 Corinthians 8:15
You worry less since his grace is sufficient for both those in ‘Camp Delay’ and for those in ‘Camp Hasten’ as his power is what makes both camps perfect in their weakness.
He knows your frame. He knows you are weak. Jesus drank the cup of wrath down to the dregs so you don’t have to.
He is most patient and merciful as you share in both his sufferings until the appointed time for them to end and in his glory without end.
You are free to take off the mask and be the person God made you to be. You don’t have to make yourself. God made you and is remaking you, transforming you. You can worry less about finding yourself. “You are already found.”
Singing Psalm 75 you worry less about yourself and your own happiness
When the people were worried about what to think when John the Baptist was proclaiming the kingdom of God and making way for the king of that kingdom, they asked what they should do.
He told them to be honest in their dealings and to be content with their pay.
When you find yourself in ‘Camp Hasten’ you are protected from self-righteousness. What is required but a mustard seed of faith? When you find yourself in ‘Camp Delay’ you are protected from feeling inferior. Who can boast but in the cross of Christ?
By his grace and mercy, the triune God has you covered both coming and going. Both are protected from condemnation, welcomed with open arms by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit due to the righteousness of Jesus imputed to them. The curse that they all deserve was taken by Jesus in their place.
Without the cross, the two groups would be made up of Jesus in ‘Camp Right’ and everyone else in ‘Camp Wrong.’
Because of the cross, Jesus saves the people who would have been cut off and puts them in his group (both ‘Camp Delay’ and ‘Camp Hasten’) along with him and the Father and the Holy Spirit who come to them. The triune God makes his home with you and the rest of his people.
You worry less because by trusting in him righteousness is credited to you that strive to love him and keep his word. (John 14:23)
Jesus’ group falls into two camps right now. Those in ‘Camp Hasten’ who acknowledge and sense God’s presence each moment and experience the joy of their salvation even through their suffering now and those in ‘Camp Delay’ who don’t yet sense this and are more burdened now.
But in the twinkling of an eye, Jesus will turn the muddy waters into a clear stream. Those two camps will be one and will know the joy and presence of their Lord forever.
You will no longer feel split in two or more pieces, fractured, or shattered, divided between two camps. You will be whole and one with your God and will be more yourself than you ever could be before.
Unlike here when we look at our gifts and diminish them in our own eyes when standing them up next to the gifts we see that others have been given, you and I will be perfectly happy with the way the Lord apportions his gracious gifts to those he exalts and to those he humbles.
You worry less knowing he will do it just right both now and then.
Singing Psalm 75 you worry less about measuring up and comparing yourself to others
“When they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.” ~ 2 Corinthians 10:12b
The beauty of these two camps is that one doesn’t look down on the other and one isn’t envious of the other but reaches out the right hand of fellowship to the other whenever there is opportunity. Each one is to help the other worry less and to point the other to the source of their joy.
You bring one another along in word and deed with hope in him alone to close the gap between you as much as possible until Jesus comes for them all to God’s glory.
You worry less when you extend a hand of mercy to those who suffer. You worry less when you have a desire to lighten their suffering while at the same time not think too highly of yourself while doing it.
You worry less in hope that you will be able to continue this compassionate work somehow in the new heavens and the new earth. You worry less as you continue experiencing the joy of the Lord in acts of mercy (Galatians 6:1-10) by his grace and to his glory.
Those who thought too much of themselves, will repent of this and give glory to God in the ways that God has planned for them to emulate his mercy and compassion and will have learned to treat others with dignity, becoming gentle and lowly like Jesus, their Lord, redeemer, and great shepherd of the sheep.
Perhaps then, those who humbly accepted the hand of the merciful who wanted to ease their suffering and eventually made the Lord their comfort will have a role in leading others in whatever way the Lord sees fit.
When in Camp Delay, you are the recipient of lovingkindness by your brothers and sisters on earth who are also dabbling in both camps. The Lord will provide you opportunities when your appointed time comes to give in the ways your heart always wanted to.
He will make you forget, as he has, how you were hindered by adverse circumstances, burdens placed on you by others, habits unconsciously ingrained, and the sin that so easily entangles despite your best efforts to lay it aside.
You will worry less in light of the new heavens and the new earth by his grace and to his glory. Those who bitterly or proudly rejected the help offered them will repent of this, becoming thankful for the grace that is sufficient for them. And that gives glory to the triune God too.
“God allows evil just enough space so it will defeat itself…[and] will allow evil only to the degree that it brings about the very opposite of what it intends.”*
The owner of the vineyard paid fair wages for a full day’s work to those who worked an hour the same as those who worked the full day because he is generous, compassionate, and merciful, which is his glory. (Matthew 20:1-16)
We share in his glory when we are generous, compassionate, and merciful too. When you come to realize that we are all at the same level at the foot of the cross, you are more inclined to want to give in the same measure as you have received.
At different seasons in our lives here on earth and in different areas, you might find yourself predominantly in ‘Camp Delay’ or in ‘Camp Hasten.’ Perhaps you spend about an equal amount of time in each camp while the various areas of your life and relationships might be split to some degree between the two camps as well.
If you remember that these camps are muddy until the Lord makes them clear, you will be more understanding of others and earnest to point them to the only One who provides sure rescue from the slimy pits where we will sometimes find ourselves. That One will help them worry less too.
In whichever camp you find yourself, you worry less, resting in him the best you can each moment he gives you and leaving everything to follow him.
You wait for him. Jesus will make it right starting now and into forever.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” ~ 2 Corinthians 5:21
Jesus did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
“All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” ~ Matthew 11:27-30
You believe him whom you don’t yet see and can laugh at the days to come. Trusting him the best you can without comparing yourself to anybody else is trusting him enough.
“To You, O God, we render thanks,
To You give thanks sincere,
Because Your wondrous works declare
That Your great name is near.” ~ Psalm 75:1
When you know this One is near you, you also come near to glorify. You can finally worry less, and one day, you will not worry at all.
*Tim Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, p. 284
September 29, 2021 – March 17, 2023