To the musician on muth-labben, a psalm of David
9:Title Muth-labben probably indicated the tune to be used, The Death of a Son.⚜
9
📚I will praise you, O LORD,
with my whole heart.
I will tell of all your marvellous
works.
2 📚I will be glad and rejoice in you.
I will sing praise to your name,
O Most High.
3 📚When my enemies turn back,
they will fall and perish
at your presence.
4 📚For you have maintained
my right and my cause.
You sat on the throne judging 📖
righteously.
5 📚You have rebuked the heathen.
You have destroyed the wicked;
You have blotted out their
name forever and ever.
6 📚O enemy, endless destructions
have come!
And you have destroyed cities;
their remembrance has perished
with them.
9:5-6 Compare Gen 6:7.⚜
7 📚But the LORD remains forever.
He has prepared his throne
for judgment.
8 📚And he will judge the world
in righteousness.
He will administer judgment
to the people in uprightness.
9:7-8 David goes from the particular victory he has experienced to a general truth. What God did in helping David and destroying his enemies He will do to the whole world. He is the eternal King Who will punish the wicked and reward the righteous (Ps 47:2; 96:13; 98:9; John 5:22; Acts 10:42; 17:31; Rev 20:11-15).⚜
9 📚The LORD also will be a refuge
for the oppressed,
a refuge in times of trouble.
10 📚And those who know
your name will put
their trust in you;
for you, LORD, have not forsaken
those who seek you.
9:9-10 In the meantime, before God arises to judge the whole world, He is the refuge for His people (see Ps 7:1-2). He will never forsake the person who sincerely seeks Him, never. Let us encourage ourselves with this truth when our seeking does not seem to bring any results, when our experience tempts us to give in to discouragement and depression, and when our enemy Satan suggests that God, at least for the time, refuses to hear us, or has even forsaken us.⚜
11 📚Sing praises to the LORD,
who dwells in Zion.
Proclaim his deeds among
the peoples.
12 📚When he takes vengeance
for blood,
he remembers them.
He does not forget the cry
of the humble.
13 📚Have mercy on me, O LORD.
Consider my trouble which I suffer
from those who hate me,
you who lift me up
from the gates of death,
14 📚So that I may tell all your praise
in the gates of the daughter 📖
of Zion.
I will rejoice in your salvation.
9:13-14 In the midst of David’s song of joy a dark note creeps in. He is not fully triumphant and knows his enemies will attack again.⚜
15 📚The nations have sunk down
in the pit that they made.
Their own foot has been taken
in the net which they hid.
16 📚The LORD is known
by the judgment
which he executes.
The wicked are ensnared
in the work of his
own hands. Higgaion. Selah
9:15-16 See Ps 7:14-16. The meaning of the Hebrew word “higgaion” is not now known.⚜
17 📚The wicked will be turned
into hell 📖,
and all the nations
that forget God.
18 📚For the needy will not always
be forgotten.
The expectation of the poor will not
perish forever.
9:17-18 Though it was not very clear to believers in Old Testament times how God would reward the righteous and punish the wicked, there was the confidence that He would surely do so.⚜
19 📚Arise, O LORD! Do not let
man prevail.
Let the nations be judged in your sight.
9:19 Sinful men are at war with justice and they must not be allowed to triumph (Num 10:35).⚜
20 📚Put them in fear, O LORD,
so that the nations
may know themselves
to be but men. Selah
9:1-2 This psalm of triumph and joy was written probably after one of David’s many victories in battle. He knows it was God who gave the victory and not his own skill or might (vs 3-6). Therefore he gives all the glory to God. In these opening verses he uses four words to express his delight in God – praise, tell, rejoice, and sing. This psalm is also a declaration that Jehovah, the one true God, reigns over the world and executes judgment. When He destroys the wicked and rescues the righteous he is displaying perfect justice.⚜
9:20 Note at 35:8. Men may like to think they are like God, incarnations of God, or a part of God. They very much need to know they are mere creatures, and very sinful creatures at that (Ps 14:2-3; Rom 3:9, 19, 23).⚜