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When I was a boy I used to participate (watched mostly) a ritual that was…well, it was a little gross. My father and uncle had a feedlot. They bought steers at about 400 pounds and fed them in corrals until they were over 1,000 pounds and then sold them. When the steers arrived there was always a flurry of activity. They would arrive on cattle trucks from Texas or Mississippi. We would meet the truck at the feedlot, usually very early in the morning. The gates would open and the cattle would come down a loading shoot into sorting pens. Often they would be doctored immediately. They might receive a shot. And many of them would have their horns cut off so they wouldn’t injure their corral mates.

Yep. They would go into a squeeze shoot. Someone would take a pair of very large loppers and cut off their relatively small horns—which would squirt blood for a while. The stumps would be treated so no infection would set in and then the bulls were let go, kicking and hollering. Quite a spectacle for a young lad.

Did you know that God himself cuts off horns? “I will cut off the horns of all the wicked, but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up” (Psalm 75:10).

Horns in the scriptures are an indication of strength. So God’s direct admonition to the boastful and wicked  is “Do not lift up your horns” (verses 4 and 5)—don’t boast in your own strength and lord it over others out of strength.

It is comforting to hear God say, “I choose the appointed time; it is I who judge uprightly” (verse 2). We (at least I) like to hear that others are going to get their due at the proper time.

Whenever I catch myself saying that I tend to get a bit puffed up, like I know something the wicked don’t know. That is not a good sign. My heart really doesn’t desire to see the wicked repent; just their recompense. That’s pretty ugly.

But this statement in verses 2 and 3 is God speaking: “I choose the appointed time; it is I who judge uprightly. When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm.”  God has the authority to declare both His character and His deeds.

I’m quick to want others to be judged and for myself to be exalted. “But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another ” (verse 7).

Oops. The verse doesn’t saying anything about using this to my advantage. These words aren’t for someone else, but for me! I’m the one who is not to boast. I’m not to use strength to my advantage and the disadvantage of others. God can and does put me down. If there is any exalting to be done it will be done by the will of the Ultimate Judge, not because I’ve earned it. The qualifier is righteousness (verse 10), so my only hope is found, not in myself, but in God who “made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

♪My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.♪

We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks, for your Name is near; men tell of your wonderful deeds. You say, “I choose the appointed time; it is I who judge uprightly. When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm. Selah To the arrogant I say, ‘Boast no more,’ and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horns. Do not lift your horns against heaven; do not speak with outstretched neck.’”  No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man. But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another. In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs. As for me, I will declare this forever; I will sing praise to the God of Jacob. I will cut off the horns of all the wicked, but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up.
— Psalm 75

Howard Morrison is a partner in Arizona’s Morrison Ranch. He resides with his family in Austin, Texas.