For, &c. This verse is added, either, 1st, As a reason or confirmation of the assertion, Psalms 75:7, and to show that God, in removing one king to make way for another, did not proceed in a way of absolute sovereignty, but in a way of justice and equity. Or, 2d, As another argument to enforce his advice given Psalms 75:4-5, which he had already pressed by one argument, Psalms 75:6-7. In the hand of the Lord there is a cup God is here compared to the master of a feast, who, in those days, used to distribute portions of meats or drinks to the several guests, as he thought fit. A cup, in Scripture, is sometimes taken in a good sense for God's blessings, as Psalms 16:5; Psalms 23:5, and sometimes, and more frequently, in a bad sense, for his vengeance and judgments, Psalms 11:6; Isaiah 51:22; Jeremiah 49:12; Matthew 20:23; and so it is here understood, as the following words show. And the wine is red
Such as the best wine in Judea was, (Deuteronomy 32:14; Proverbs 23:31,) and therefore strong and intoxicating. Or, is troubled, as חמר, chamar, more properly signifies, and is rendered by divers learned men. Thus he expresses the power and fierceness of God's wrath and judgments. It is full of mixture The wine is mingled, not with water, but with strengthening and intoxicating ingredients. “Calamity and sorrow, fear and trembling, infatuation and despair, the evils of the present life, and of that which is to come, are the bitter ingredients of this cup of mixture.” And he poureth out of the same As it is entirely in the hand and disposal of God, so, through every age, he has been pouring out, and administering of its contents, more or less, in proportion to the sins of men; but the dregs thereof The worst and most dreadful part of those tribulations; all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out Shall be compelled to squeeze out every drop of wrath and misery which they contain; and drink them For the curse shall enter into their bowels like water, and like oil into their bones. They shall be compelled to endure the utmost effects of the divine vengeance upon their sins, partly in this life, but more fully in the life to come, when the cup of the Lord's indignation will be to them in an especial manner a cup of trembling, of everlasting trembling; when burning coals, fire and brimstone, and a horrible eternal tempest shall be the portion of their cup, Psalms 11:6. And they shall be thus tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb, and shall have no rest day nor night, and the smoke of their torment shall ascend up for ever and ever, Revelation 14:10-11.