Reflections on Psalms 9

 Psalms 09(Contemporary English Version)

1. (A psalm by David for the music leader. To the tune "The Death of the Son.") I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart and tell about the wonders you have worked.
   
2. God Most High, I will rejoice; I will celebrate and sing because of you.
   
3. When my enemies face you, they run away and stumble and are destroyed.
   
4. You take your seat as judge, and your fair decisions prove that I was in the right.
   
5. You warn the nations and destroy evil people; you wipe out their names forever and ever.
   
6. Our enemies are destroyed completely for all time. Their cities are torn down, and they will never be remembered again.
   
7. You rule forever, LORD, and you are on your throne, ready for judgment.
   
8. You judge the world fairly and treat all nations with justice.
   
9. The poor can run to you because you are a fortress in times of trouble.
   
10. Everyone who honors your name can trust you, because you are faithful to all who depend on you.
    
11. You rule from Zion, LORD, and we sing about you to let the nations know everything you have done.
    
12. You did not forget to punish the guilty or listen to the cries of those in need.
    
13. Please have mercy, LORD! My enemies mistreat me. Keep me from the gates that lead to death,
    
14. and I will sing about you at the gate to Zion. I will be happy there because you rescued me.
    
15. Our LORD, the nations fell into their own pits, and their feet were caught in their own traps.
    
16. You showed what you are like, and you made certain that justice is done, but evil people are trapped by their own evil deeds.
    
17. The wicked will go down to the world of the dead to be with those nations that forgot about you.
    
18. The poor and the homeless won't always be forgotten and without hope.
    
19. Do something, LORD! Don't let the nations win. Make them stand trial in your court of law.
    
20. Make the nations afraid and let them all discover just how weak they are.

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David is prompted to write yet another Psalm praising God for again delivering him from his enemies. According to the Chaldee Version of this Psalm, David is here celebrating his victory over Goliath. David knows from first-hand experience of God's righteous judgment, upholding the cause of the just and destroying the wicked. God is a refuge for the oppressed and a judge of the oppressors.

If there seems to be a tone of a harsh God of judgment in this Psalm it will seem this way only to those who have forgotten the Lord. Those who remember the Lord and take pleasure in His ways will find only a loving and merciful God in these verses. A God who does not forget those who place their trust in Him. In this Psalm and in scripture as a whole there is the presumption that one who does not seek the Lord, and thus has forgotten Him, is equivalent with being wicked. Either one desires the things of God and takes pleasure in righteousness or they desire to fulfill their own pleasures which ultimately goes contrary to what is good and just and righteous. Such people will find God to be a God of judgment bringing them eventually to ruin.

One who functions apart from God, desiring to fulfill their own desires thinking they can fulfill their own destiny presume to be their own god in place of the God who is their Creator and maker of everything they have. David's closing request of God is that He will let such people know that "they are only men." (9:20)