Psalms 9

Psalms 9:1

Psalm 9: The Day of RetributionIf the inscription in the Chaldee Version is correct, David is here celebrating his victory over Goliath. But he is obviously looking beyond this triumph to God’s final victory over His enemies. The Psalm is an acrostic, based on the first half of the Hebrew alphabet. 9:1, 2 The sweet singer of Israel is ecstatic over all God’s marvelous works. Here he is not thinking so much of His deeds in creation or redemption but of His spectacular feats in crushing the nation’s foes. David gives all the glory to Godnone to himself and none to man’s weapons or skill. With every fiber of his being he honors and magnifies the name of the Most High. The example of his love and devotion to the Lord makes many of us realize how cold and unresponsive we often are. 9:3, 4 Then he reminisces about God’s epic battle, though the final fulfillment of his words will not come to pass until the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. One sight of Him will cause the enemies to turn back and flee. They shall fall in panicky disarray and perish before they can escape. The righteous will be vindicated in that day by the King on His glorious throne. Finally the earth will taste what righteous judgment is really like. 9:5, 6 Gentile oppressors will be sharply rebuked, and all Israel’s enemies will sink into perpetual oblivion. They will be buried in the ruins of their vaunted civilization. Cities that now seem to be timeless will be completely uprooted. Names like Washington, Moscow, or Ottawa will be forgotten forever. 9:7, 8 The adversaries will all be gone, but the LORD shall endure forever, as righteous and trustworthy as He has always been. Resplendent in glory on His throne, He will rule the world in absolute righteousness. Everyone will get a square deal from Him. Paul used the first part of verse 8 in his message at Athens, explaining that the active Agent in this future judgment will be the risen Lord Jesus Christ: Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead (Act_17:30-31). 9:9, 10 Earth’s oppressed masses will find Him to be their high tower and unfailing refuge. All who know Him will put their trust in Him, realizing that He has never disappointed the confidence of His people. 9:11, 12 Israel will not only sing praises to the LORD but she will also fulfill a missionary role to the Gentile people, rehearsing the wonderful deliverances of the Lord and pointing out that He who avenges the blood of His people was not indifferent to their sufferings after allthat their prayers did not go unanswered. 9:13, 14 But millennial conditions have not yet come. Verses 13 and 14 bring us back with a jolt to the distressing present! David still needs God’s mercy to protect him from the enemy, so that the gates of Zion will again echo to his happy songs of praise. 9:15 Then he leaps forward once more to the time when the anti-Semitic nations will fall into the pit which they dug for the Jews and be trampled in the net which they intended for God’s ancient people. It is history repeating itselfanother instance of Haman being hanged on the gallows he made for Mordecai. 9:16 Once again the LORD will reveal Himself as the One who evens the score by causing the ungodly to reap what they have sown. God is not mocked. The meaning of “Selah” is uncertain. It may mean an intensification (see notes on Psalms 3). 9:17 When David says that the wicked shall be turned into hell (Heb., Sheol), he does not restrict the word to the disembodied state or to the grave. Here the context demands that it mean hell itself. This is the fate of all the nations that forget God. 9:18 Equally certain is the fact that the needy shall not always be forgotten. As Knox translates, “The patience of the afflicted will not go for nothing.” All that they hoped for will be fulfilled in that Millennial day. 9:19, 20 David’s thoughts of the coming reign of righteousness arouse longings for its arrival. The prayer is born that the LORD will arise to foil man’s plans and to judge the nations. As they stand in the presence of the Almighty Judge, they will realize in terror what puny, mortal men they really are.