Or, Our Hope in His Righteous Judgment
Scripture: Psalm 9:1-20
Date: October 26, 2014
Speaker: Sean Higgins
The torrent of uninterrupted, unceasing, and ubiquitous news helps us to misplace one of our most valuable weapons. I’m not talking about the remote control, or the off button in particular. I’m talking about the weapon of our memory. Google may (or may not) be making us stupid, but first, Google is teaching us where to look. We look not just for the sensational, but for the new, the current, the recently updated.
Technology lets us act as if we can answer the problem after a few minutes of research. Yes, in certain situations technology can help us communicated more quickly, but there are some other substantial things it can’t do, such as make corn grow overnight, or guarantee that law enforcement and government officials will act more justly. Having access to information doesn’t mean that it is the right information, or that a person knows how to act on that information.
Take us Christians for example. Technologies like the printing press have enabled us to have access to our own copies of God’s Word. Technologies such as cassette tapes (back in the day), and, I suppose, even the Internet, have enabled us to have access to meaty sermons and great stories of God’s work around the world. Technology has given us access to archaeological evidences and the work of scientists measuring so many amazing things in God’s creation. And yet we still struggle to remember God’s goodness, His righteousness, His wonderful deeds, and His inevitable judgment of the wicked.
This is one of the reasons why we need to gather together, at least once a week, and worship Him. It’s why we need His Word to be read and the bread and cup to be shared. It is also a reason why we should sing certain sorts of songs, including ones such as the Psalms. Learned lyrics groove our memories. That doesn’t merely help us sing better the next time it comes up in the Sunday rotation, it helps us be more hopeful in the meantime.
Psalm 9 certainly carries that effect. The details are just general enough to have application for a variety of problems. It is another Psalm of David , given To the Choir Director for all to sing, According to the Muth-Labben , which probably (though not certainly) provides the melody. The NIV translates, “To the tune of ‘The Death of the Son,’” which you can imagine would have been quite a catchy jingle.
What we don’t see in our English translations is that Psalm 9 is an acrostic following the first 11 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, from aleph to kaph in sequence, missing only dalet. It’s the equivalent for us of A B C to K (missing D). Kids, maybe you could write a short poem to share at lunch following this pattern about something you’re thankful for or about something you want God to fix.
Also unseen in our English copies is that Psalm 10 picks up a few letters later (with pe, so missing lamed, mem, nun, and samek) and finishes the Hebrew alphabet (though with a few other letters missing). Note also that Psalm 10 has no heading. Not only that, but the Septuagint combines them as one song. Perhaps, as happens a few more times in the Psalter, both psalms were originally one poem, and perhaps the Choir Director arranged them separately for the sake of singing.
Though things aren’t resolved, as the prayers for help in verses 11-20 show, David starts with thanksgiving and praise. Other psalms reverse the order, so there’s more than one method to Sing Psalms God’s Way.
Even though the new lines started by new letters is an obvious way to divide the psalm, and I’ve followed those breaks with the second-level headings, we can also observe two broad divisions between “I will sing” (verse 2) and “sing praises” (verse 11). The first ten verses tend to lean back on God’s work providing reasons for praise and the last ten verses tend to look forward for God’s work, urging God to act.
(Aleph)
I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
(Psalm 9:1–2)
David begins with giving thanks. Thanksgiving is like the lazy Susan of faith, looking back and looking forward. Thanksgiving swivels between acknowledgement and anticipation.
Worship is active: give thanks , recount , be glad , exult , sing praise . David said he will do it with my whole heart as if to say he would do it with his whole self. He is not merely going through the motions of the liturgy; he’s in to it. The objects of his praise are all of [God’s] wonderful deeds , God’s character ( in you ), and God’s name .
The last phrase in verse 2, O Most High , puts Yahweh (the LORD), above every other god/idol. Satan got himself in trouble wanting to make himself like the Most High (if you think Isaiah 14:14 is a reference to him).
The following four sets of verses provide four categories of wonderful deeds that David recounts for sake of his confidence.
Though David doesn’t identify which enemies he’s referring to, it doesn’t really matter. In the following verses it could be nations of wicked, or anyone causing trouble.
(Bet)
When my enemies turn back,
they stumble and perish before your presence.
For you have maintained my just cause;
you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.
(Psalm 9:3–4)
Turn back is retreat; stumble and perish means that they lose. They are defeated before your presence . Whatever soldiers or swords, or even stones and a sling, God may have used, God Himself makes the difference.
The key for the song is to remember where God sits: you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment . To sit is to rule and reign. It is a royal throne, a sovereign’s throne, a judge’s throne. It is the place where the one with authority pronounces guilt. Psalm 9 is in “throne sharp.”
Because God sits on the throne, everything must be interpreted in that light. We may get a status update about yet another state legalizing homosexual marriage, we may turn on the news and see live helicopter video of our local high school, we may get a text from a friend who says she needs to start radiation and chemo therapy for cancer. But as we encounter new and difficult things we must remember the truth: God still sits on His throne.
The wicked can’t win. They can’t even live on in infamy without God.
(Gimel)
You have rebuked the nations;
you have made the wicked perish;
you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins;
their cities you rooted out;
the very memory of them has perished.
(Psalm 9:5–6)
There are two types of perishing here: in body and in thought. The Lord does both to those who fight Him and His people. You have blotted out their name forever and ever . Blotted out means that no one will remember them. We could talk about who they were except that we don’t know who they are; they’ve been blotted out. Memory of them has been eradicated, and that’s a reason to thank God and trust Him.
We see again where God sits.
(He)
But the LORD sits enthroned forever;
he has established his throne for justice,
and he judges the world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with uprightness.
(Psalm 9:7–8)
He sits enthroned , he has established his throne . How long does He judge: forever , that is, without end. Who does He judge: He judges the world , he judges the peoples , that is, everyone. How does He judge: with righteousness and uprightness , that is, impartially. He doesn’t miss anything and He doesn’t miss any decisions.
The fourth reason for praise is that God is a non-forsaking fortress.
(Vav)
The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
(Psalm 9:9–10)
Oppression and trouble come in many flavors: foreign nations, national leader-tyrants and over-reaching laws, upset neighbors, enduring sickness, even spiritual forces (cf. Ephesians 6). The LORD is a stronghold , mentioned twice, a word for a fortress, a bastion. In Him we are protected regardless of the times of trouble . He doesn’t abandon ship or run away. That’s why we praise Him.
David switches from personal praise (“I will give thanks” in verse 1) to corporate praise. He also switches from remembrance to dependence. He just said, “those who know your name put their trust in you,” and here is that trust in action.
(Zayin)
Sing praises to the LORD, who sits enthroned in Zion!
Tell among the peoples his deeds!
For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;
he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
(Psalm 9:11–12)
The LORD is The Sitting One, so sing! Zion refers to Jerusalem, the place that represents God’s presence on earth. So tell among the peoples his deeds! It isn’t for one nation alone.
Verse 12 gives more reason for praise: The LORD is mindful . He does not forget the needy. He avenges blood . Doesn’t this mean that He will avenge the slaughter of the unborn in our land? Won’t He judge those who murder the undeserving? Yes. He cares for the afflicted . And the following four stanzas are four requests for help.
David prays according to his own desire for salvation.
(Ḥet)
Be gracious to me, O LORD!
See my affliction from those who hate me,
O you who lift me up from the gates of death,
that I may recount all your praises,
that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
I may rejoice in your salvation.
(Psalm 9:13–14)
There are two sets of gates: the gates of death and the gates of the daughter of Zion . Both sets are figurative. The first is as if he were being trapped in death, swallowed by the jaws of death. The second refers to the people of Jerusalem. “In Jewish culture, cities were often regarded as mothers of their people, and their inhabitants as sons and daughters” (Donald Williams, The Preacher’s Commentary Series). David desired to tell the stories of deliverance among the people who (presumably) would gladly receive the recounting. Be gracious, O you who lift me up!
This is both a reminder and a tacit request.
(Tet)
The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
The LORD has made himself known; he has executed judgment;
the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.
Higgaion. Selah
(Psalm 9:15–16)
Retribution happens to individuals and also to groups: their plans for harm come back to bite them. This isn’t just because God made the world to work that way but it’s because that’s how God works. The LORD has made himself known . How? Because he has executed judgment . How? As the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands , like the pit that they made and the net they hid . It wasn’t unlucky, or ironic, it was revelation.
Higgaion. Selah are musical notations, at least requiring some sort of interlude or change in the song. The NKJV translates Higgaion as “Meditation.”
Selah is used seventy-plus times in Psalms, always at the end of a stanza. No one knows for certain what it means. Most think it has to do with the musical element of the song, and the two most popular approaches see Selah as either a pause for reflection (from the root salah “to suspend”) or a forte or crescendo (from the root selal “to lift up”) for emphasis. Either way, it is a “musical nota bene” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament), a Latin phrase meaning “note well” or pay careful attention.
Here are two groups, one judged for forgetting and the other not forgotten by the Judge.
(Yod)
The wicked shall return to Sheol,
all the nations that forget God.For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
(Psalm 9:17–18)
The wicked shall return to Sheol , to the dust, to death, to hell. These are peoples that forget God , so it isn’t merely the end of physical life, but the end of rebellion. That end is eternal destruction.
On the other hand, the needy shall not always be forgotten . That is, God remembers them. The poor and troubled can depend on Him. “[T]here is not a moment in which he ceases to take a deep interest in them” (Calvin).
God is seated on the throne and that’s good. So is calling Him to action.
(Kaph)
Arise, O LORD! Let not man prevail;
let the nations be judged before you!
Put them in fear, O LORD!
Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah
(Psalm 9:19–20)
Arise does not mean that God is physically laying down. It’s a call to action. “God, get up and do Your work now. Make it happen. Bring about Your judgment. So let it be. Amen.”
Let men be humbled. Let not men get carried away in their pride that leads to their fall. Put them in fear . Put them in their place. Judge them.
We may appreciate a song like this because, even though men should judge justly, they often/usually don’t. There is still a lot of trouble, a lot of evil, and all Google can do is help us search for and sort out the details. But more information about the incident by itself can’t give us perspective, patience, or hope.
For Christians, the lyrics of Psalm 9 are no less helpful or hopeful. We have seen even more of the Lord’s wondrous works and we have even more revelation on which and for which to hope.
The Lord sits on His throne. He has taken His position through death and resurrection. He is coming again to rule on earth, to judge in righteousness.
How are you letting these truths “age” in the wine cellar of your mind? Or perhaps your mind is more like a compost pile. Mediate (Psalm 1:2). How are you letting your roots go deep (Psalm 1:3)?
Is your hope in Him? Are you taking your distress about current events to Him in praise? Are you praying for Him to arise? Let us sing praise to the Lord who sits enthroned. Let us tell among the peoples His deeds.
[I]f we measure the help of God according to our senses, our courage will ever and anon fail us, and in the end our hope will be entirely extinguished, and will give place to despondency and despair. (Calvin)
May we measure the help of God according to our Psalms instead.
We cannot predict our lives. We do not know for sure if we’ll make it home today, or if our neighbors will. We do not know if we’ll become national news. We do not know if the problems we face can be fixed by surgeons or law officers or politicians. But we do know where God sits. He sits enthroned and we can trust Him. Let Psalm 9, or something like it, play as a soundtrack behind your news watching and neighbor-talking and praying this week.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (Galatians 1:3–5)