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9. Psalm 9

¹ I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
² I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing the praises of 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,
   sitting enthroned as the righteous judge.
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 my enemies,
   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 rules the world in righteousness
   and judges the peoples with equity.
⁹ The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
   a stronghold in times of trouble.
¹⁰ Those who know your name trust in you,
   for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.

    ¹¹ Sing the praises of 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 cries of the afflicted.

    ¹³ 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 Daughter 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 acts of justice;
   the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. The Hebrew has Higgaion and Selah (words of uncertain meaning) here; Selah occurs also at the end of verse 20.
¹⁷ The wicked go down to the realm of the dead,
   all the nations that forget God.
¹⁸ But God will never forget the needy;
   the hope of the afflicted will never perish.

    ¹⁹ Arise, LORD, do not let mortals triumph;
   let the nations be judged in your presence.
²⁰ Strike them with terror, LORD;
   let the nations know they are only mortal.

16. The Lord is known in executing judgment. The reading of the words literally is this, The known Lord has done judgment. This manner of speech is abrupt, and its very brevity renders it obscure. It is therefore explained in two ways. Some explain it thus:- God begins then to be known when he punishes the wicked. But the other sense suits the passage better, namely, that it is a thing obvious and manifest to all that God executes the office of judge, as often as he ensnares the wicked in their own maliciousness. In short, whenever God turns back upon themselves whatever schemes of mischief they devise, David declares that in this case the divine judgment is so evident, that what happens can be ascribed neither to nature nor to fortune. If God, therefore, in this way manifestly display, at any time, the power of his hand, let us learn to open our eyes, that from the judgments which he executes upon the enemies of his Church our faith may be confirmed more and more. As to the word Higgaion, which properly signifies meditation, I cannot at present assign a better reason why it has been inserted than this, that David intended to fix the minds of the godly in meditation upon the judgments of God. The word Selah was intended to answer the same purpose, and as I have said before, regulated the singing in such a manner as to make the music correspond to the words and the sentiment.