Psalm 9

 To the Chief Musician. To The Tune of “Death of the Son.” A Psalm of David.

¹I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart;

I will tell of all Your marvelous works.

²I will be glad and rejoice in You;

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

³When my enemies turn back,

They shall fall and perish at Your presence.

⁴For You have maintained my right and my cause;

You sat on the throne judging in righteousness.

⁵You have rebuked the nations,

You have destroyed the wicked;

You have blotted out their name forever and ever.

⁶O enemy, destructions are finished forever!

And you have destroyed cities;

Even their memory has perished.

⁷But the Lord shall endure forever;

He has prepared His throne for judgment.

⁸He shall judge the world in righteousness,

And He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness.

⁹The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed,

A refuge in times of trouble.

¹⁰And those who know Your name will put their trust in You;

For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.

¹¹Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion!

Declare His deeds among the people.

¹²When He avenges blood,

He remembers them;

He does not forget the cry of the humble.

¹³Have mercy on me, O Lord!

Consider my trouble from those who hate me,

You who lift me up from the gates of death,

¹⁴That I may tell of all Your praise

In the gates of the daughter of Zion.

I will rejoice in Your salvation.

¹⁵The nations have sunk down in the pit which they made;

In the net which they hid, their own foot is caught.

¹⁶The Lord is known by the judgment He executes;

The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah

¹⁷The wicked shall be turned into hell,

And all the nations that forget God.

¹⁸For the needy shall not always be forgotten;

The expectation of the poor shall not perish forever.

¹⁹Arise, O Lord,

Do not let man prevail;

Let the nations be judged in Your sight.

²⁰Put them in fear, O Lord,

That the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah

Commentary 

Vs. 1-2 ¹I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart;

I will tell of all Your marvelous works.

²I will be glad and rejoice in You;

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

David’s heartfelt rejoicing and delighting himself in the Lord here is the precursor to his absolute faith in, and declaration of the Lord's Victory over all of his enemies. For His maintaining his right and his cause; which itself is symbolic of His doing so for the entire redeemed Nation. For in trusting in the Lord our Lord who is the Most High God, we too can have the same confidence and assured faith of our own victorious outcomes.  

Vs. 3-4 ³When my enemies turn back,

They shall fall and perish at Your presence.

⁴For You have maintained my right and my cause;

You sat on the throne judging in righteousness.

Therefore, David’s victorious words here are born out of his knowing the Lord, knowing that it is the Lord who upholds him, who preserves and keeps him, (just as He keeps and preserves all who are faithful to Him), for the Lord will never allow the righteous to be moved (Ps. 55:22). David's confidence in the Lord then is born out of his having already experienced the Lord's Help many times before. Therefore he knows that the Lord will once again turn back his enemies, that they shall all fall and perish at His Presence. For the Lord has maintained his right and cause, because the Lord always judges from His Throne in righteousness, and he knows what His servant has done, and what His enemies have done and are plotting against him. Therefore in David's victorious declaration we also see his foreshadowing the Lord’s own Victory. For just as the Lord will turn back his enemies when they are about to overwhelm him, so He will on His Day do so for all the saints when He returns! For His enemies shall all fall and perish at the His Presence. In a moment they shall all be destroyed who have risen up against Him. For the Lord Jesus Christ has maintained our right and our cause before the accuser of the brethren down through history. And He will at His Second Coming, when he has vanquished him, sit on His Rightful Throne and Judge the world in Righteousness, and on that Day He will vindicate everyone who believes in Him, while repaying everyone who does not.

Vs. 5-6 ⁵You have rebuked the nations,

You have destroyed the wicked;

You have blotted out their name forever and ever.

⁶O enemy, destructions are finished forever!

And you have destroyed cities;

Even their memory has perished.

All peoples and nations then who set themselves against God's chosen, against His nation and His people will be destroyed, on that day they will be as though they had never been (Joel 3:14-17; Obadiah 16). For God Himself guarantees that there will be no more trace, nor remembrance of them, forever and ever! Even their cities that they have built for themselves will be destroyed and forgotten forever! Everything that they prided themselves in shall never be seen or heard about again (Consider Isaiah 13:11-13; 26:20-27:1; 65:17-19; 66:22; Hab. 2:13-14; 2 Peter 3:13; Rev. 21:1 etc.).

Vs. 7-8 ⁷But the Lord shall endure forever;

He has prepared His throne for judgment.

⁸He shall judge the world in righteousness,

And He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness.

Therefore it is the Lord alone who shall endure forever! Long after all the memories of all of His enemies and their works have perished. For He shall reign forever and ever, and of His Kingdom there shall be no end! Therefore He has prepared His Throne for Judgment for from it He shall render His verdict on the nations! For He will judge the world in righteousness, He will administer judgment for all peoples in uprightness. Finally, there will be truth and justice in the earth! The wicked will no longer prosper, nor will the rich and powerful anymore have the scales tilted in their favor. No more will there be in power those who misuse or abuse authority, power, or privilege! Official will no longer watch over official to preserve and protect each other while they are acting corruptly or doing unjustly. The schemer and the lair, the manipulator and the deceiver will find no more ways in which to forward their evil plots, schemes, and plans. For the Lord’s all-seeing eyes will make sure of it. All people will be judged in righteousness, and all people will be treated with equality and fairness. There will be no more showing of partiality, no more influence buying and peddling! No more condemning the righteous and justifying the wicked, no more putting evil for good and good for evil, For the Lord does no unrighteousness in judgment, His favor cannot be bought, His truth, and His justice, cannot be sold!

Vs. 9-10 “The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, A refuge in times of trouble. ¹⁰And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.” 

When the Lord Jesus Christ Reigns He will be a refuge for all the oppressed of the earth, just as He is our refuge in times of trouble now. All of His people then who had to endure the hostility of this world will find the everlasting peace and safety for which we long and yearn! No longer then will our meekness be an open invitation to aggression and abuse by them. Therefore, those who know Your Name Lord will put their trust in You, For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.” 

Vs. 11-12 ¹¹Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion!

Declare His deeds among the people.

¹²When He avenges blood,

He remembers them;

He does not forget the cry of the humble. start here 

In seeing the Lord's future Reign of Justice and Righteousness one cannot but sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion (that is His Heavenly City, His Holy Temple, which culminates with the New Jerusalem). Therefore, we are all exhorted to sing His praises hear and now in anticipation of what is coming, to declare His deeds among the people, for not only does He save us who believe in Him, but He also avenges us, for He remembers the cry of the humble. All of our cry's for help have been heard (Rev. 6:11; 7:9-17)! (Jeremiah 30:10; Ezekiel 34:28; Micah 4:4; Zephaniah 3:13; Zechariah 3:10; 8:3).

Vs. 13-14 ¹³Have mercy on me, O Lord!

Consider my trouble from those who hate me,

You who lift me up from the gates of death,

¹⁴That I may tell of all Your praise

In the gates of the daughter of Zion.

I will rejoice in Your salvation. 

Having seen God’s big picture plans, David now returns to his own plight, calling on the Lord to have mercy on him, (and here not for his sin), but from the troubles that those who hate him are causing him. Now in one sense his cry for help is the cry of the nation of Israel, of all of God’s oppressed and persecuted people. For David knows that it is the Lord who lifts him up from the gates of death, (that it is He alone who keeps us alive and preserves us; for neither the nation of Israel nor God’s chosen people in Christ will ever cease to be no matter how great or fierce or numerous the opposition; now David does this so that he may declare the Lord’s praise, and so he concludes this psalm by confidently saying. “In the gates of the daughter of Zion. I will rejoice in Your salvation.” Daughter of Zion then is not the then Zion, but the heavenly one, the New Jerusalem that is to come! 

Vs. 15 “The nations have sunk down in the pit which they made;

In the net which they hid, their own foot is caught.” 

Though the nations seek to snare and entrap God’s people, they will all find themselves falling by their own schemes! For the Lord Himself will see to it, to bring about their end through their own works and ways! 

Vs. 16 “The Lord is known by the judgment He executes;

The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah” 

Because of this God Himself will become known to the nations; but not known as those who believe in Him; but known as the One who truly Reigns and Rules and whose Judgment is over everyone! Therefore, David recalls this universal fact that the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Something that he (and we) can mediate on, when we are frustrated in seeing their “success and prosperity.” 

Vs. 17 “The wicked shall be turned into hell,

And all the nations that forget God.” 

Indeed, the wicked shall be turned into hell, along with all the nations that forgot God, who also live by their own degenerate morality, who live according to Sodom and Gomorrah’s vileness and violence will thus all reap the same fate as they did (consider Jude 5-7). And so, though they speak so boldly now, brazenly and fearlessly declaring their sin, and exalting their vileness openly before all, how proud of their wickedness will they be on the Day when God Judges and Repays them, and everyone according to their works and ways. Far better then to repent and believe now, while one can, then to continue on in a sinful and wicked manner of life that will only end in ones own eternal ruin, and thus being sentenced to hell! 

Vs. 18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten;

The expectation of the poor shall not perish forever. 

For the Lord will not only deal with all the wicked of the earth, but He will end all the tenures of the unjust peoples and nations, all who used and abused their power, privilege, and might to exploit and run rough shot over the poor. All the oppressed of the earth who turn to Him will find the Lord to be their everlasting refuge! 

Vs. 19-20 ¹⁹Arise, O Lord,

Do not let man prevail;

Let the nations be judged in Your sight.

²⁰Put them in fear, O Lord,

That the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah 

In concluding there is the call and cry for the Lord to Rise! To rise up and take His Sovereign place as the Ruler and Judge of all the earth, and to not let man prevail against Him. For He shall Judge all the nations in His sight (Matt 25:31-46). And on that Day those who opposed Him and were willingly negligent towards all of His people will fear when they see Him seated on His Throne, and they will know that they themselves are mere men, when they see the Immortal and Everlasting God, Amen!

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982):Thomas Nelson.