What Do I Do Now?
“What do I do now?”
You ever asked that question?
You’re in a situation, big or small, and you’ve taken some step — you’ve done something — but then you’re not sure what to do next, so you have this moment when everything sorta freezes and you think: “What do I do now?” …
I think that we all ask that question way more than we realize. Unless you’re following a super detailed script or you’re only doing one thing for an entire day, you probably ask “What do I do now?” countless times, even if it’s just in your head. This is the question that moves us from one thing to the next, and not just in our lives in general, but also in our spiritual lives.
Christian, think about this with me: In your pursuit of Jesus, as you press on in the journey of the Christian life, as you seek to know God more and you pray that he do things in this world, you’re constantly asking “What do I do now?”
Look, if we’re honest, we’re all asking that question this morning. It’s part of the reason we’re here.
And so I think we should just say it altogether, out loud. We’re gonna try this. It’s just five words — what-do-I-do-now? — and let’s own the question. Let’s hear ourselves say it together. Ready? Say it out loud with me…”What do I do now?”
Well I’m glad you asked, because Psalm 75 gives us the answer.
In today’s sermon, we’re gonna look at this psalm and see three next steps for anytime we’re asking What-do-I-do-now?
Let’s pray:
Father, your word is open and your Spirit is at work. Please open our hearts to receive what you have for us, in Jesus’s name, amen.
What do I do now?
1) Worship God. (verse 1)
We see this right away in verse 1, but before we look there, let’s back up for a second and see that Psalm 75 is meant to be a response to Psalm 74.
Something that we’ve seen over and over again in the Book of Psalms is that although each psalm can stand alone in terms of its content, all the psalms stand together in terms of their message. One of the best ways to understand any individual psalm is to look at the psalms before and after it. So let’s look back to Psalm 74 for a minute.
The Prayer of 74
In Psalm 74, verse 1, the psalmist says:
O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
Now this is not good. Psalm 74 is a lament. The psalmist (and the people) are languishing and they feel rejected by God. It feels like God is far away from them and they want to know where he is! Listen to verses 10–11. This is an amazing image. The psalmist says:
“10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!”
It’s like the psalmist is saying:
Hey, God, we’re getting crushed over here and you’re standing over there with your hands in your pockets! Please do something!
It’s a desperate prayer. I imagine the psalmist felt like I’ve felt a few times coaching youth baseball this summer. There’ve been moments when I’ve looked out in the middle of the game, and I see my third baseman with his glove on the ground and his hands folded behind his back and he’s staring off into space, and I’m like Whoa whoa hey!
That’s what the psalmist is doing here, about God, and it’s much more serious. He needs God to pay attention, but it looks like he’s not. And Psalm 74 ends on that note. The last two verses of Psalm 74 end like this:
“22 Arise, O God, defend your cause;
remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!”
Psalm 74 is pleading with God to do something, and now Psalm 75 is going to show us God’s answer. And the answer really comes in Psalm 75, verse 2, where God speaks directly and he tells us what he’s doing, but first there’s verse 1.
The Answer of 75
Look at verse 1 — I want you to see this. Sandwiched between the psalmist praying for God to do something (in Psalm 74), and then God answering that prayer (in 75, verse 2), there’s verse 1, and verse 1 is worship. The psalmist says:
“We give thanks to you, O God;
we give thanks, for your name is near.
We recount your wondrous deeds.”
So after we’ve asked God to help, before God has answered us, in the in-between, in the waiting — what do we do now? First, we worship God.
We don’t wait to thank God until after he gives us what we want, but we thank him now. We thank him today. We thank him in this moment. Even in the hurt, even when there’s pain. That’s what it means to be mainly thankful.
To Be Mainly Thankful
To be mainly thankful is something we’ve talked about a lot over the years, and I want it so badly in my life and in my home. I want it to be deep in the culture of our church. To be mainly thankful is a way of being — and it doesn’t mean that we ignore hardships; in fact, it requires that we be fully aware of hardships — we have to know where the hurt is — but instead of letting the hurt become our story — instead of letting the hurt define us — we drill down past the hurt and we open our eyes to the goodness of God, and we recognize that when it’s all said and done, at the end of the day, our entire existence is saturated by the grace of God and he loves us more than we could ever deserve … and so we’re thankful, mainly. Mainly thankful.
I think that’s what the psalmist is getting at here. He says, “We recount your wondrous deeds.” So maybe God has not answered my most recent prayer; maybe God hasn’t “come through yet,” but I know what he can do because I can remember what he has done.
I recount.
And maybe that means sometimes we need to seriously count. Sit down, get out a piece of paper, and start writing down the evidence of God’s goodness in your life. And that could just be in your life, but then there’s God’s goodness in the whole world, and then there’s his goodness throughout human history, and then, in particular, there’s God’s ultimate goodness to save sinners through the death of his Son — and there’s a whole book about that!
The goodness of God abounds, and the proof of his goodness is overwhelming, period. We should be clear about this: whatever we have going on in our lives, whatever we’re praying for God to do, God does not have to do a single thing more to be worthy of our worship … He doesn’t have to answer another prayer, or provide another meal, he doesn’t have to speak another sunrise, to be worthy of our eternal worship.
God is enough in himself, and he has shown us enough, for us to spend eternity giving him thanks. So we do that now.
Whenever we’re asking “What do I do now?” — First, worship God.
Here’s the second thing. … “What do I do now?” …
2) Remember God is God, not us. (verses 2–7)
We see this starting in verse 2, and this is where God is directly answering the psalmist in Psalm 74.
And there’s a little bit of a debate here about God’s direct speech. Psalm 75 is mainly a conversation between the psalmist and God, but it’s also in front of the reader, and at one point the boastful are being addressed — so imagine for Psalm 75 that there’s a lot of people in the room, and it’s not totally clear who is saying what.
But let’s focus now on God’s direct speech, and you can see the front quotation mark in verse 2.
Okay, well in verse 2 the “I” is God. “At the set time that I appoint.” This is God himself speaking, but where does he stop speaking? Where should we put the ending quotation mark? Is it at the end of verse 5 or does it come after verse 3?
In a lot of English translations, the quotation marks come at the end of verse 5, but I’ve been convinced to see that God’s direct speech most likely ends with verse 3 and that’s why the Selah comes there. The word “Selah” in the Psalms was added by the very first readers to mark off and highlight certain parts.
It’s like a pause in the text, and we’re not 100% sure what it means exactly, but it probably means something like: Ponder this! Note this! And it makes sense in Psalm 75 if the psalmist is doing that with God’s direct speech.
Now regardless of where exactly the quotation marks go, the message of what’s said here stays the same, but we’re gonna look at it in two parts: first, verses 2–3, is God’s direct answer to Psalm 74; and then second, verses 4–7, there’s what that means.
The Direct Answer
Remember the psalmist had asked in Psalm 74, Why do you cast us off? How much longer is it gonna be? What’s with your hands in your pockets?
In verse 2 God speaks:
At the set time that I appoint
I will judge with equity.
When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants,
it is I who keep steady its pillars. Selah
So in one swift reply, God assures us that he is both sovereign and righteous. And this is exactly the answer that we need to hear, because in our waiting, in the in-between where it hurts sometimes, not only can we grow impatient with God, but we can also start to think that God’s delay in answering us is unjust.
We pray; God doesn’t immediately answer; and then we start to think something is wrong with God.
And here, God directly targets that thinking by telling us that at the set time that he appoints, he is going to judge.
God is saying that he will answer us in his timing, not ours. He has made his own appointment. He has a plan that he has determined in himself from all eternity, according to the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably — and whenever that is, whenever the appointment comes, it’s in perfect harmony with his righteousness. His actions and his timing are always right.
And that’s just verse 2. In verse 3, God doubles down on this idea. He says:
“When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars.”
This world as we know it — the earth and moon and sun and stars and gravity, the whole hog of space and time — did you know that it’s God who holds it altogether? God is the one who keeps all of this steady …
This past Friday night at sunset my whole family was driving west on 94, and the sky had this brush of pink and orange, and it looked amazing, and we were all enjoying it, and I said to Melissa: Hey, just a reminder that we live on a giant ball in outer space. … because of God.
The ground beneath our feet is because of God. The reason the sun does not incinerate us is because of God. Our entire existence is owed to God’s control, and to his unswerving commitment to uphold the glory of his name.
And in the in-betweens of our life, to our waiting, God gives us this word. He speaks directly to us and he says: I am sovereign and I am righteous. Or in other words, in verses 2–3, God is saying, I am God.
What It Means
Then in verses 4–7 we see this has an effect. Check out what’s going on here. In response to what God has said about himself, as the psalmist has mulled this over, he says, with an implied “therefore” — verses 4-7:
I say to the boastful, “Do not boast,”
and to the wicked, “Do not lift up your horn;
do not lift up your horn on high,
or speak with haughty neck.”
For not from the east or from the west
and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,
but it is God who executes judgment,
putting down one and lifting up another.
This is the same idea we see in verse 2–3, but this is a human response and one we can sum up with a simple sentence that goes like this: “We are not God.”
That’s what it means that God is sovereign and righteous. It means that we are put in our place — he’s God, not us. Not you. So don’t boast. Don’t lift up your horn.
The “horn” in the Old Testament is a symbol of power and strength, so the psalmist is saying don’t lift up your own power and strength. Don’t lift up your horn. Or we might say, Don’t toot your horn. Same idea.
And man, do we have a problem here as a society! Tooting your horn — Isn’t that basically what social media is?
We all know that Twitter is called “X” now, that’s old news, but if I was Elon I would have changed the name to “Tooter.”
So many people get on there to toot their horn. Because that’s the spirit of our age — and it kind of makes sense when you have a societal mindset that thinks the self is god. If you think “there’s no real god, but that you yourself are god,” then who is there to lift you up but yourself?
If there’s no God then you better speak up, and speak louder, and wave your hands, cause a scene, get attention — at least pretend that you’re a mover and a shaker and that you pull the strings.
See, shameless human boasting — also known as expressive individualism — is a symptom of exclusive humanism. People think that they are god. And even if most people wouldn’t outright say that, a lot of people still try to live this way.
But Psalm 75 does not allow it.
If we’re listening to this psalm, whatever you’re in the middle of, whenever you’re asking “What do I do now?” — Psalm 75 says remember God is God, not us.
Don’t think that you’re in control, or that you have to be. Don’t think that you’re alone. It is God who executes judgment (verse 7) — he lifts up and he puts down — he is sovereign and righteous. God is God, not us. Remember that.
Here’s the final point. “What do I do now?” …
3) Press on to know Jesus more. (verses 8–10)
Look at verse 8. Verse 8 supports what’s said in verse 7. In verse 7, the psalmist says that, because God is God, he’s the one who executes judgment. That means he puts down one and lifts up another, which means there are two outcomes here, and verses 8–9 elaborate on this.
Verse 8:
“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.”
Now this image is intense. This cup of foaming wine is a symbol of God’s wrath. We see this several times throughout the Bible (in Isaiah and Jeremiah, and in the Book of Revelation). In this cup is the wrath of God, and one day, all the wicked will drink it and they will drink the whole thing, all the foam at the bottom, even the little pieces of sediment. Not a particle of God’s wrath will be held back from the wicked.
That’s one outcome.
But then verse 9, the psalmist says:
“But I will declare it forever;
I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.”
That’s the other outcome.
So there are two possible outcomes that come at the end of two paths. What’s behind verses 8 and 9 are two ways to live: you either live a life of rejecting God or of worshiping God.
A life of rejecting God ends in God’s wrath.
A life of worshiping God ends in God’s joy.
And right now, we’re all on one of those two paths headed to one of those two outcomes.
Fact. I’m speaking facts here.
And verse 10 is another instance of God’s direct speech. It’s like God interjects and concludes the psalm by making this clear. He says:
All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.
And so, what this does is that it puts before the readers a choice. Verse 10 leaves us with the question: Where are you?
Will you be cut off … or lifted up?
Will you be the wicked … or the righteous?
Which really is the question:
Will you reject Jesus or worship him?
In the Book of Psalms, the righteous are those who have faith, and those who have faith are trusting in the promise of the Messiah, so this becomes about Jesus and everyone makes a choice here. And Psalm 75, and all of the psalms, and the whole Bible, tell us, Choose Jesus. And keep choosing Jesus. Press on to choose Jesus again and again. That’s what you do now, wherever you’re at, whatever you have going on — If you’re here this morning and you’re not a Christian, if you don’t trust Jesus, I want to tell you something.
First, just showing up here every week doesn’t necessarily mean that you trust Jesus. The question is: Do you trust him from your heart with your whole life?
And if you don’t, then it means that you reject him. There’s no neutral ground here. You either bow your heart and life before Jesus, or you are turning away from him. And this morning, if you’re here and you’ve been turning away from him, it’s not too late to bow. You can bow before Jesus today. You can put your faith in Jesus right now.
Jesus saves any and all who trust in him. That’s why he came. Jesus came into this world as the Lamb of God to bear our sin. He took all of our wrongs and our guilt upon himself and he suffered in our place — he drank the cup of God’s wrath so that we wouldn’t have to. Jesus conquered sin and death for us, and right now he reigns over his kingdom that is coming. Today is the day of salvation. Right now the invitation is offered. Trust him. Bow your heart to Jesus Christ.
And for so many of us in here who have bowed to him, for those of us who know Jesus, press on to know him more — more clearly and fully.
What do I do now?
First, Worship God.
Remember God is God, not us.
Press on to know Jesus more.
And that’s what brings us to the Table.
The Table
Coming to this Table each week is meant to be a holy recalibration for us. Each of us as Christians come to this table from different places, and yet, when we get here, we’re all the same. We’re all sinners saved by grace and we know that our only hope is Jesus.
If you’ve felt a little stuck lately, if you’ve felt a little confused in the in-between, if you’ve been hurting, let this table be a reminder: God loves you. Jesus Christ has died for you.
So if you trust him this morning, if you’ve bowed your heart to Jesus, eat and drink with us, and let’s give him thanks forever.
