Psalm 9
Okay, let’s hear from God’s word
from Psalm 9. It says, I will recount your
wonderful deeds. And then it says to the choir
master, according to the Muth Laban, a Psalm of David, where
he says, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult
in you. I will sing praise to your name,
O Most High. When my enemies turn back, they
stumble and they perish before your presence. For you have maintained
my just cause. You have sat on the throne giving
righteous judgment. You have rebuked the nations.
You have made the wicked perish. You have blotted out their name
forever and ever. The enemy came to an end in everlasting
ruins. Their cities you rooted out.
The very memory of them has perished. But the Lord sits enthroned forever.
He has established his throne for justice. He judges the world
with righteousness. He judges the people with uprightness. The Lord is a stronghold for
the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who
know your name put their trust in you. For you, O Lord, have
not forsaken those who seek you. Sing praises to the Lord who
sits enthroned in Zion. Tell among the peoples his deeds,
for he who avenges blood is mindful of them. He does not forget the
cry of the afflicted. Be gracious to me, O Lord. See
my affliction from those who hate me. O you who lift me up
from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises,
that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your
salvation. The nations have sunk in the
pit that they made, in the net that they have hid their own
foot. has been caught. The Lord has made himself known.
He has executed judgment. The wicked are snared in the
works of their own hands. The wicked shall return to shield
all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always
be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
Arise, O Lord, and let not man prevail. Let the nations be judged
before you. Put them in fear, O Lord, and
let the nations know that they are but men. This is God’s holy
word. Let’s pray for just a moment.
Our God, we pray now that the light of your Holy Spirit would
shine into these passages that we might see clearly who we are
and who you are and what the world around us is like and that
we might know very clearly our position in the world because
of our position spiritually and even our Inheritance which is
kept for us in heaven and help us to live out of that grace
this week in Christ’s name we pray amen In some sense you might
could call this psalm the ABCs of praises this this psalm along
with Psalm 10 together go through the ABCs of the Hebrew alphabet
and Minus or plus a few letters and a few switcheroo’s of order
and it gives us It gives us that what we might say are the ABCs
of praise now, you know, Psalm 119 very well And I keep getting
asked at home. Am I going to do Psalm 119 in
one night? I said if you keep asking I’m
gonna do a 26 week series on it But we have the ABCs of Psalm
119, where each letter of the Hebrew alphabet gets a section
of verses, two or three verses, and the beginning of each of
those sections begins with a word that starts with that letter.
Well, that’s the same thing here in Psalms 9 and 10. And so it
does make some think that Psalm 9 and 10 were at some point one
verse, but that doesn’t seem to be the case in the Hebrew
Bible, and it’s not the case in our English Bibles. And so
we’ll take them separate, but we’ll also do theologically what
we should do is take God’s word as it has come to us. And we
believe if you’ve read chapter one of the confession of faith,
that God has preserved his word for us, even here in April of
2016. and whatever version you have,
that insofar as it’s been faithfully translated, you have the very
word of God. And if we have a Psalm 9 and a Psalm 10, we’ll take
it that way and not get overly technical about it. But we have
what we might call the ABCs of God’s praises. And so here’s
a question for you. And if you’re like me, the answer
is probably not so great, but here’s the question anyway. How
often is praise on your lips? And there should be stunning
silence, right? I mean, you know, we’re a people who know where
the complaint department is. You know, we know where the little
box is where we can write our little slip of paper and put
the complaint in the complaint box. We know what phone number
to call. We know how to complain, right? We know how to fuss about
something. We know how to stick our tongue out. We know how to
say it’s not what it should be. And there’s a time and place
for that, correct? We are people who are made in God’s image and
we should expect and even demand quality. But how often are we
thankful for what we got? More often than we used to be.
Hey, that’s good. Praise the Lord for that. Bottle that up
and pass it around. But how often is praise on our
lips? And what I mean by that is sincere
praise, real praise, moment-by-moment praise. Now, you know, there’s
some people, they walk around and, you know, you get a little
weird feeling around them because they’re praise the Lord and,
you know, a little little funny about it. I don’t mean that.
I mean, sometimes that’s contrived or a little fake. But I mean,
you say, isn’t it a gorgeous day? Isn’t the God of creation
good? That’s good stuff, isn’t it?
Or do you know how good God has been to me today? I used to,
when I was in seminary, there was an old professor there who’s
now 101 and been married 76 years, I think, I just saw. But he used
to say, we used to say, oh, Dr. Norton, how are ya? And he’d
say, I’m vertical. He was 86 at the time. And then
my neighbor who used to live, I used to live beside, down in
Huntersville in the Charlotte area, I used to say, Banks, good
morning. How are ya? He’d say, I woke up. But you
know, what’s on a lot of people’s minds is something grumpy. And maybe not grumpy in the sense
of mean or nasty, but just it’s not thanks. And so there’s a
question for you. How long is praise, or how often
is praise on your lips? Do you see God at work in every
moment of the day? And I don’t mean go to the kitchen
cabinet and holler out, praise the Lord, there’s Cheerios. I
mean, that can be a little obnoxious. So don’t go home and do that.
Praise the Lord, there are Cheerios. Because there’s a lot of people
in the world that would like a bowl of Cheerios, and even that second
one that you’re having, and even that third one that you’re dumping
in the trash because the milk soured it. We’re a very privileged
people. But we need to be thankful seeing
God at work moment by moment in our lives. But when appropriate,
saying something about it. Not obnoxiously so, but in the
right way. And friends, that’s a conditional
thing, right? We need to condition ourselves
for that, to see and say the things that we are thankful for.
So in this psalm, in Psalm 9, David speaks about past blessings
or deliverances, and then he asks for future deliverances.
But notice how he starts the psalm. He says, I will give thanks
to the Lord with my whole heart. Not half his heart, not a portion
of his heart, not out of drudgery or because I got to, but because
that’s how he feels. He really feels blessed by God.
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. And how
will he do that? I will recount all of your wonderful deeds and
I will be glad and exult in you. How does that old song go? Count
your blessings? one by one, name them. Do any of you write your prayers
or your Thanksgiving God or keep a little journal? Sometimes that’s
a good thing to do. If you’re not good at these things,
that can be a good thing. I think just back over the last
nine or so months that we’ve been praying together on Sunday
night, how God has answered prayer. That’s a wonderful thing to see.
But he begins saying, I’ll give thanks to the whole to the Lord
with my whole heart, I will recount all your wonderful deeds, I will
be glad and exult in you, and then I will sing praise to your
name, O Most High.” And so there’s this sense of his heart is in
a posture to see blessings, and to name those blessings, and
to be thankful to God for them, and also to sing about them.
I don’t know if y’all noticed today, during our middle hymn,
we sang that one pretty good, right? All the parts were going,
and which one was that? The forgiveness one? Which which
one was that called? Marvelous the wonderful grace
of Jesus yeah Covers all my sin and shame, but everybody seemed
to be singing about that, but you know it Singing is one thing,
but it’s coming to church ready to sing That’s another like saved
people sing saved people who are thankful really sing. Even if you can’t sing, you sing.
And you let it all hang out, so to speak. But he says, I’m
going to give thanks with my whole heart. I’m going to name
God’s deeds. I’m going to be glad. And I’ll
sing praise to your name. So if you want to be a thankful,
happy person, your heart’s got to be right. Your list ought
to be long. And then when it’s time to sing,
we really sing. And so that’s how David eases
into this psalm. But what’s he thankful for? Well,
we get into that in verses three through 12, where he looks at
God’s past deliverance. And he says that God’s enemies
have been on the march, and God has taken care of it. So here’s
the king of Israel. And enemies have surrounded,
and there’s some pretty treacherous, dangerous language there. My
enemies have turned back. They’ve stumbled and they’ve
perished before the presence of God. You have maintained my
just cause. You’ve sat on the throne giving
righteous judgment. You’ve rebuked the nations. You’ve
made the wicked perish. You’ve blotted out their name
forever. The enemy came to an end.” And
so David has had these enemies approach him, but God has taken
care of it. Now we can’t sit here tonight
and say, God took care of David’s enemies, and so therefore, if
you have an enemy, God’s gonna take care of them the exact same
way. Remember who David is. He’s the Messiah, right? Not
the capital M, Messiah, but he’s the Messiah. He’s the promised
king of Israel. And so when enemies attack Israel,
guess who they’re really attacking? They’re attacking God. And so
when somebody mouths off at you and the, line at Walmart or cut
you off in traffic or whatever. You can’t exactly equate your
problem to David’s here, right? David, God is not going to bury
your traffic enemy, okay? It’s not quite worth that. But
God will take care of Satan, right? Who hates your spiritual
guts. And that’s pretty Important, isn’t it? That’s a pretty big
deal. We are surrounded by enemies, and guess what? God sees it.
He knows it. He knows all the crazies out
there who hate God and his people. He knows all the attacks on the
church. He knows all the op-ed pieces you’re reading in the
paper, like the one we were discussing this morning, where people take
and twist and bend up and abuse God’s word to make it say what
it doesn’t say and give a new message. God knows all that,
and so when we face those kind of enemies, God God knows, he
sees, and he will take care of and avenge those. But here’s
David, a king, he’s probably been in some sort of impossible
situation. I’ve been surrounded, I’ve been
nearly ready to be swallowed up, and guess what? God lets
his enemies fall into their own traps. The snares they have set
for David have actually ensnared them. And so God has delivered
him from a very treacherous situation. So when David then says, I will
give thanks with my whole heart, he can do that because his heart
is no longer weighed down by enemies. His heart is no longer
weighed down by sudden and certain death. And so he sees God’s deliverance. Notice also what he says, we
find it in verse seven through eight, he speaks of God’s justice.
The Lord sits enthroned forever He has established his throne
for justice. He judges the world with righteousness.
He judges the peoples with equity. One of the huge and important
features of the kingdom of Israel was a place of justice. Why did
David sit on a throne? It was to hear and judge cases.
Remember when Absalom came along and said, well, if I were king
and judge, you people would get justice. Remember that? And he
set up a little mini kingdom for himself. The throne of the
king was for justice. What does it say here? Does it
say David’s throne was for justice? No, here it says God’s throne
is for justice. And so we can think, brothers
and sisters, as long as God is on his throne, and how long will
that be? Forever. We have justice. Now we may not get it in this
life. have several injustices in this life. You may go to your
grave with several injustices against you, but at the end,
when we appear before God’s throne, it’s gonna get fixed in the final
estimation. But can justice be found? Yes,
it can. In Israel, in a small way, through
David’s throne, but ultimately in God’s throne. But how do we
think and pray about that in this life? Every person deserves
justice, right? How does our, Supreme Court signify
itself, it’s through the lady justice who’s, what are her eyes?
She’s blindfolded and are the scales tipped or even? They’re
even. Now is that the reality we face?
Maybe 50-50, who knows? We live in a pretty corrupt world
and so we may not get justice in this life, but as Christians
we should pray for it, we should fight for it. and we should ultimately
live for the justice of God, because he is not blindfolded. He sees, and he will deal with
things, and he will act with them. But in David’s case here,
he’s been delivered from an enemy that encamped around him and
gave him some sort of trouble, and now he also sees, I got justice. These people were wicked. They
came after me, but I get some justice. And then finally, he
speaks in another category in verses nine through 10, not just
of an enemy surrounding, or injustice, but he speaks of those who are
oppressed. Remember how God cares for the
oppressed. He cares for those who injustice
is seeking to destroy, and he cares when the enemies attack.
But here we see the oppression in verse nine through 10. The
Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed. He’s a stronghold
in times of trouble, and those who know his name, they put their
trust in you. For you, O Lord, have not forsaken,
those who seek you. So we may live in a world where
we are surrounded by enemies, we may live in a world where
there’s injustice, but guess what? God sits on his throne,
he’ll take care of it. God comes and rescues and delivers
those who are attacked. But here it says, you know and
you see and you’re a stronghold for the oppressed. How do we
hear that in other places? Under his wings, we sing that
sometimes, don’t we? Under his wings. under the shadow
or the shelter of the Almighty. He wraps his arms around us,
he loves us. And that’s something we shouldn’t
forget. Sometimes we forget how much God loves us and cares for
us and how he that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.
And so we must remember that God does not forget us. How does
Hebrews put it? He will never, it’s a never,
never, never leave you or forsake you. Remember Jesus, I care for
the sparrow, I care for the lilies of the field, and I will not
forsake those who love me. Remember in our reading tonight
of Romans 8, what can separate us from the love of God? Nothing. And then he lists some things.
Some things that if he really thought about it, might could.
Could it be enemies that surround you? Or oppressors of the oppressed
or injustice? you know, wrongly accused, wrongly
jailed, that sort of thing. What does he say? Neither life
nor death nor thrones or principalities, things past, things present,
things future, nothing can separate. And then he goes on to say it
even more emphatically, no, we are more than conquerors. Now, how good is that? That’s
a pretty sure thing. I mean, the bullets may be flying,
There may be blood and stabs and, you know, we may come out
maimed and marred, but we’re going to get to heaven safely
one way or the other. Isn’t that the case? And so what
does he say? We should sing about it. We should
list it. We should worship for it. We
should bless God for these things. And so these are some difficulties
that come on David. God has delivered him. And so
he says, I’m going to give thanks with my whole heart. I’m going
to list these things. I’m going to tell others about
it. One of the commentaries I was reading on this said that we
should sing and preach, sing and preach, sing and preach.
We should sing of the goodness of God and preach the goodness
of God to others. And that’s often how it is, isn’t
it? You know, we go through a hardship and somebody knows of our sickness
or our infirmity or the difficulty we’ve endured. and maybe you
go have coffee or lunch, or you bump into a friend out in the
community, and they say, how are you doing? And you say, you
know, I was sick, but now I’m well. And they look at you amazed,
how did you do it? And you can say, God was good
to me. He never left me, he didn’t forsake me, and he saw me through
to the end. So David here gives thanks for
past mercies, but he also, in verses 13 to 20, looks to the
future. He looks to the future that God
will be gracious again. Notice how he says in verse 13,
be gracious to me, O Lord. Look at my affliction, see my
affliction from those who hate me. You who lift me up from the
gates of death, that I may recount your praises, that in the gates
of the daughter of Zion, I may rejoice in your salvation. So
he’s looking forward to future problems, but also future deliverances. And notice how in verse 19 he
puts it in the imperative. When you come in the Psalms to
the word, arise, O Lord, okay, that’s the panic button. That’s
the nuclear button. That’s the button where you gotta
pull the cover off and you gotta punch in the secret code so that
when you hit the launch, it’s because of all the appropriate
security protocols, because this is the command, the prayer to
God that says, arise, get up, God. Not get up because you’re
lazy or sitting back, but get up and go take care of my enemies.
Anytime you see that in the Psalms, that’s the psalmist saying, go
take care of business. Or as we might say, walk tall
and carry a big stick, God, and go deal with my enemies in such
a way that they will know that they have messed with the wrong
God of the universe. And notice how he speaks of the
future deliverance. Let them fall in the pit they’ve
made. Let their nets catch them. You know, we watch cat and mouse
movies sometimes, right? Robin Hood. stealing back from
the prince and giving to the poor what was taken from them
and we sit and watch those movies and read those stories and we
say, you know, we want the good guys to win and the bad guys
evil. We want them to fall in their
own hole, to be in the bottom of the pit that they themselves
dug, or at least ordered to be dug. Let them be ensnared by
their own snare, that’s what he’s saying. And so we see Thanksgiving
for deliverance, prayer for future deliverance, but look at verse
14. Here’s the real reason for it all. Why does he want God
to be gracious? Why does he want deliverance?
So that I may recount your praises. So that when I go to the gates
of Zion, when I go to church, when I go to temple, I may rejoice
in your salvation. There’s a good motivation as
if God needs one, but there’s a good motivation when you pray.
God, take care of my sickness. God, take care of my family.
Bring another loved one to faith. Whatever your prayer is, fill
in the blank, and then your reason is this, that I may sing of it,
that I may tell of it, and that the whole world may know that
you’re a good and gracious prayer-answering, delivering God, and that the
whole church might know of your goodness. Isn’t that a good motivation? Help me, God, so I can praise
you better. And so there’s encouragement
in this psalm for us. And so what do we do with this?
Well, we preach God’s goodness. We tell of God’s goodness, but
especially we sing of it. So here’s a little challenge
for you as you go through the week, particularly if you have
a family. Count your blessings and together
name them. one by one, do it over coffee,
do it at the dinner table, do it with a coworker or a friend
this week, but count your blessings and name them one by one and
begin to live a life of outward, out loud thanksgiving. I want
that to be an encouragement to others, but won’t it be an encouragement
to God to know that you’re thankful for all he’s done? Let’s pray
together. Our God, we thank you that you are good to us and we
thank you that you have saved us for your glory And we pray,
Father, that we would glorify you in all that we say and do,
especially as we recount your goodness and kindness to us.
In Jesus’ name, amen. Let’s stand together in our conclusion
and sing from Psalm 9. This is four stanzas of the 20
verses, so it’s maybe a fourth of the whole psalm, but I think
you’ll recognize the tune. Thanks to the Lord. And all of your marvelous works
will record. And you will be glad and exultingly
pride. And praise to your kingdom, I
sing, O Most High. Backward my foes were all turned
in despair They stumbled and perished because you were there
For you have defended my judgment and cause You set in just judgment Christ, Lord, that mere man made Let nations be judged in your
presence for all. Strike terror within them, O
Lord, always then. Let nations know truly that they
are here in heaven.