The divine judge brings down and raises up

Thanks names a near Name, then God speaks as the one who holds the pillars

Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare. Repeated thanks is not filler. Nearness is argued from works already done.

When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Divine speech interrupts the hymn. The Judge does not need a human horn section in order to keep the world from dissolving. Selah marks the claim before the warning.

Horns, compass points, and a mixed cup refuse self-promotion

I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.

In the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them. The speaker will declare for ever and sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted. Cutting horns is the poem's image for ending arrogant power. It does not license public humiliation, partisan certainty about whom God has already poured, or violence done in the hymn's name.