Psalm Nine.
- Geraldo Alonso II
- Dec 10, 2017
- 6 min read
Psalm Nine.
For the director of music.
To the tune of “The Death of the Son.”
A psalm of David.
1 I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonders.
2 I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
3 My enemies turn back;
they stumble and perish before you.
4 For you have upheld my right and my cause;
you have sat on your throne, judging righteously.
5 You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.
6 Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy,
you have uprooted their cities;
even the memory of them has perished.
7 The Lord reigns forever;
he has established his throne for judgment.
8 He will judge the world in righteousness;
he will govern the peoples with justice.
9 The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 Those who know your name will trust in you,
for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
11 Sing praises to the Lord, enthroned in Zion;
proclaim among the nations what he has done.
12 For he who avenges blood remembers;
he does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.
13 O Lord, see how my enemies persecute me!
Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death,
14 that I may declare your praises
in the gates of the Daughter of Zion
and there rejoice in your salvation.
15 The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug;
their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.
16 The Lord is known by his justice;
the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. Selah
17 The wicked return to the grave,
all the nations that forget God.
18 But the needy will not always be forgotten,
nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish.
19 Arise, O Lord, let not man triumph;
let the nations be judged in your presence.
20 Strike them with terror, O Lord;
let the nations know they are but men. Selah
[Endnote 1]
The Background and Theme.
This Psalm is considered one of the first of what’s called the “Praise Psalms”. The previous psalms have been dealing with the complexities of life and the challenges that occur. Psalm Eight shows the beginnings of praising where it seems to focus more intently on God’s grandeur. Psalm Nine picks up where the previous Psalm left off [Endnote 2].
The Literary Structure.
A — Praise
1 I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonders.
2 I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
B — God judged the enemy
3 My enemies turn back;
they stumble and perish before you.
4 For you have upheld my right and my cause;
you have sat on your throne, judging righteously.
5 You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.
6 Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy,
you have uprooted their cities;
even the memory of them has perished.
C — Testimony that God saves the righteous
7 The Lord reigns forever;
he has established his throne for judgment.
8 He will judge the world in righteousness;
he will govern the peoples with justice.
9 The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 Those who know your name will trust in you,
for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
D — Praise
11 Sing praises to the Lord, enthroned in Zion;
proclaim among the nations what he has done.
C — Prayer that God will save the righteous
12 For he who avenges blood remembers;
he does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.
13 O Lord, see how my enemies persecute me!
Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death,
14 that I may declare your praises
in the gates of the Daughter of Zion
and there rejoice in your salvation.
B — God judges the wicked
15 The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug;
their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.
16 The Lord is known by his justice;
the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. Higgaion. Selah
17 The wicked return to the grave,
all the nations that forget God.
18 But the needy will not always be forgotten,
nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish.
A — Prayer
19 Arise, O Lord, let not man triumph;
let the nations be judged in your presence.
20 Strike them with terror, O Lord;
let the nations know they are but men. Selah
[Endnote 3]
The Impact.
One of the most striking things of Psalm Nine is that this psalm ends the way that most of my prayers begin. It ends with requests that David has for God. My prayers tend to start with the things that I want from God. My selfishness tends to take me in the direction of begging and/or demanding things from God. David continues to show us that a true relationship with God requires praise for our awesome God [Endnote 4]!
This reminds me of a beautiful lesson that Timothy Keller conveys when he teaches on the importance of praising God in our prayer time. Timothy Keller mentions that when we focus on God’s greatness, power and love then we don’t need to have any anxiety regarding our problems. This anxiety fades because God becomes big enough to hand them all. Our prayers will change from being frail words of panic to prayers of relationship and hope in an all powerful God [Endnote 5].
Psalm Nine also introduces us to a new concept in our understanding of praise in the psalms. David tells us that he will praise God with all his heart ( or the Hebrew word leb). The Old Testament concept of the heart is much different than ours. Where we advocate that the heart is where our desires come from we know that the brain is where these decisions are made. We also talk about feelings being a driving force in our lives especially when relating to love.
For many of us the heart is the driving force of all life matters.
In the heart we make decisions of passion.
In the heart we make decisions of relationships.
In the heart we make decisions about God.
The Old Testament understanding of life is different. For the Hebrew mind the driving force of life was dust combined with he breath of life [Endnote 6]. The heart was considered as a lesser part of life and not the driving force. In fact, for the Hebrew mind the gut was considered the heart. In the Old Testament world God was at the center of everything!
However, “the early wisdom of Proverbs knows the central importance of leb: ‘Keep your leg with all vigilance; for from it flow the springs of life’ (Prov. 4:23; cf. 25:13) [Endnote 7]”. The heart would slowly become an important part of the human existence. And David develops the notion that our heart is important when it comes to worship.
We need to worship God with all of our heart.
David does more than just introduce the notion of a full heart worship. David introduces what’s called the “Todah Formula” when he writes verse one. In Hebrew the first verse starts with, “Todah YHWH bekol-leb.” This best translates as, “I will give thanks to the LORD with all of my heart”. For David the formula is simple. Thankfulness leads to a whole hearted worship of God.
Thankfulness is key.
It really made me analyze my life. If I’m honest, because I want something that I don’t have I’m not always thankful. And since I don’t have what I want my heart is never focused on God. The object of my heart is a foreign substance that takes the place of God. It becomes a false god that occupies my heart all while crowding God out of this space.
We need to become more intentional in our thanksgiving. I’m working on this. I’m learning to recognize the greatness of God and all the things that He is doing. May we have a heart full of thanksgiving that allows God to reside in that space.
Grace and Peace,
Geraldo
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Endnotes:
1. The Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984. Print.
2. Boice, James Montgomery. Psalms 1–41: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005. Print.
I found this commentary and I highly recommend it to anyone that wants to further their studies of the Psalms. I used this commentary to condense the thoughts of the background and theme.
3. Witthoff, David, Kristopher A. Lyle, and Matt Nerdahl. Psalms Form and Structure. Ed. Eli Evans. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2014. Print.
4. For further thoughts about our symbiotic relationship with God check out my comments on Psalm Eight.
5. For more insight on prayer read “Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God” by Timothy Keller.
6. Genesis 1 & 2. God forms man (specifically Adam) from the dust of the earth and then breaths life into Adam. This is more than a story of mechanics. This is a story that highlights a beautiful intimacy with God and humanity from our origins.
7. This quote and also my thoughts on the heart comes from:
Fabry, Heinz-Josef. “לֵב.” Ed. G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren. Trans. David E. Green. Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament 1995 : 413. Print. 15 vols.
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