Do Not Lift Up Your Horns

Razorback fans are still on an emotional high from the shellacking placed on the formerly #15 ranked Texas Longhorns on Saturday. One Christian Razorback fan lovingly ribbed a Christian Longhorn fan with a verse out of Psalm 75 and showed the infamous horns down sign in the process.

"Do not lift up your horn against heaven." Ps. 75:5a

Of course, it was the rankest prooftext imaginable; all in good fun. But what the Psalmist is saying here is exactly opposite to the attitude that frequently accompanies horns down and scores of other derogatory signs and symbols out there today. God says there will come a time of His choosing during which He will make fair judgments (v. 2). When we read about the times when God makes judgments in Scripture, those aren't the best of times. Then God shows His seemingly paradoxical greatness: in the worst of times He is the one who steadies the shaking earth (v. 3). Skip a few verses and we see more of the same. God is the judge. He exalts. He brings down (vv. 6-7).

So where is our ability to boast in anything when He is the one who does it all? Where is our ability to boast when, as Paul says, "You are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift - not from works, so that no one can boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). Even our good works are like filthy rags according to Isaiah (Is. 64:6). So of course we cannot lift our horns to the Lord or speak arrogantly (Ps. 75:5).

The Psalmist gives us two alternatives. First, we should be grateful and praise God for His perfection. Secondly, we should tell others about him (see Ps. 75:1, 9).

And in that gratitude and spirit of evangelism, because of God's goodness and grace we can still say...

... GO HOGS!

- N.N.