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Psalm 9

God’s Power and Justice

To the leader: according to Muth-labben. A Psalm of David.

1

I will give thanks to the L ord with my whole heart;

I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

2

I will be glad and exult in you;

I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

 

3

When my enemies turned back,

they stumbled and perished before you.

4

For you have maintained my just cause;

you have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment.

 

5

You have rebuked the nations, you have destroyed the wicked;

you have blotted out their name forever and ever.

6

The enemies have vanished in everlasting ruins;

their cities you have rooted out;

the very memory of them has perished.

 

7

But the L ord sits enthroned forever,

he has established his throne for judgment.

8

He judges the world with righteousness;

he judges the peoples with equity.

 

9

The L ord is a stronghold for the oppressed,

a stronghold in times of trouble.

10

And those who know your name put their trust in you,

for you, O L ord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

 

11

Sing praises to the L ord, who dwells in Zion.

Declare his deeds among the peoples.

12

For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;

he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

 

13

Be gracious to me, O L ord.

See what I suffer from those who hate me;

you are the one who lifts me up from the gates of death,

14

so that I may recount all your praises,

and, in the gates of daughter Zion,

rejoice in your deliverance.

 

15

The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;

in the net that they hid has their own foot been caught.

16

The L ord has made himself known, he has executed judgment;

the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah

 

17

The wicked shall depart to Sheol,

all the nations that forget God.

 

18

For the needy shall not always be forgotten,

nor the hope of the poor perish forever.

 

19

Rise up, O L ord! Do not let mortals prevail;

let the nations be judged before you.

20

Put them in fear, O L ord;

let the nations know that they are only human. Selah


1. I will praise the Lord. David begins the psalm in this way, to induce God to succor him in the calamities with which he was now afflicted. As God continues his favor towards his own people without intermission, all the good he has hitherto done to us should serve to inspire us with confidence and hope, that he will be gracious and merciful to us in the time to come. 158158     “Doit servir pour nous asseurer et faire esperer qu’il nous sera propice et debonnaire, l’advenir.” — Fr. There is, indeed, in these words a profession of gratitude for the favors which he has received from God; 159159     “De la faveur qu’il a receu, de Dieu.” — Fr. but, in remembering his past mercies, he encourages himself to expect succor and aid in future emergencies; and by this means he opens the gate of prayer. The whole heart is taken for an upright or sincere heart, which is opposed to a double heart. Thus he distinguishes himself not only from gross hypocrites, who praise God only with their lips outwardly, without having their hearts in any way affected, but also acknowledges that whatever he had hitherto done which was commendable, proceeded entirely from the pure grace of God. Even irreligious men, I admit, when they have obtained some memorable victory, are ashamed to defraud God of the praise which is due to him; but we see that as soon as they have uttered a single expression in acknowledgement of the assistance God has afforded them, they immediately begin to boast loudly, and to sing triumphs in honor of their own valor, as if they were under no obligations whatever to God. In short, it is a piece of pure mockery when they profess that their exploits have been done by the help of God; for, after having made oblation to Him, they sacrifice to their own counsels, skill, courage, and resources. Observe how the prophet Habakkuk, under the person of one presumptuous king, wisely reproves the ambition which is common to all, (Habakkuk 1:16.) Yea, we see that the famous generals of antiquity, who, upon returning victorious from some battle, desired public and solemn thanksgivings 160160     “Processions.” — Fr. to be decreed in their name to the gods, thought of nothing less than of doing honor to their false deities; but only abused their names under a false pretense, in order thereby to obtain an opportunity of indulging in vain boasting, that their own superior prowess might be acknowledged. 161161     “Afin que leurs belles prouesses veissent en cognaissance.” — Fr. David, therefore, with good reason, affirms that he is unlike the children of this world, whose hypocrisy or fraud is discovered by the wicked and dishonest distribution which they make between God and themselves, 162162     “Qu’ils sont entre Dieu et eux.” — Fr. arrogating to themselves the greater part of the praise which they pretended to ascribe to God. He praised God with his whole heart, which they did not; for certainly it is not praising God with the whole heart when a mortal man dares to appropriate the smallest portion of the glory which God claims for himself. God cannot bear with seeing his glory appropriated by the creature in even the smallest degree, so intolerable to him is the sacrilegious arrogance of those who by praising themselves, obscure his glory as far as they can.

I will tell of all thy marvellous works. Here David confirms what I have already said, that he does not treat in this psalm of one victory or one deliverance only; for he proposes to himself in general all the miracles which God had wrought in his behalf, as subjects of meditation. He applies the term marvellous not to all the benefits which he had received from God, but to those more signal and memorable deliverances in which was exhibited a bright and striking manifestation of the divine power. God would have us to acknowledge him as the author of all our blessings; but on some of his gifts he has engraven more evident marks in order the more effectually to awaken our senses, which are otherwise as if asleep or dead. David’s language, therefore, is an acknowledgement that he was preserved of God, not by ordinary means, but by the special power of God, which was conspicuously displayed in this matter; inasmuch as he had stretched forth his hand in a miraculous manner, and above the common and usual way.

2. I will rejoice and exult in thee. Observe how the faithful praise God sincerely and without hypocrisy, when they do not rest on themselves for happiness, and are not intoxicated with foolish and carnal presumption, but rejoice in God alone; which is nothing else than to seek the matter of their joy from the favor of God, and from no other source, since in it perfect happiness consists. I will rejoice in thee We ought to consider how great is the difference and opposition between the character of the joy which men endeavor to find in themselves, and the character of the joy which they seek in God. David, the more forcibly to express how he renounces every thing which may keep hold of or occupy him with vain delight, adds the word exult, by which he means that he finds in God a full and an overflowing abundance of joy, so that he is not under the necessity of seeking even the smallest drop in any other quarter. Moreover, it is of importance to remember what I have previously observed, that David sets before himself the testimonies of the divine goodness which he had formerly experienced, in order to encourage himself with the more alacrity to lay open his heart 163163     “Afin de deseouvrir son coeur a Dieu plus alaigrement.” — Fr. to God, and to present his prayers before him. He who begins his prayer by affirming that God is the great source and object of his joy, fortifies himself before-hand with the strongest confidence, in presenting his supplications to the hearer of prayer.


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