Psalm 9
“Where do you feel most safe and secure in the world?” How would you answer that question?
As Christians, I think we would first ask for the question to be rephrased to, “With whom do you feel most safe and secure in the world?” For our confidence is not rooted in a place but with a person, Jesus.
For he is our refuge and stronghold. This truth ignites our praise and is the firm foundation for our prayers in the furnace of affliction.
For the director of music. To the tune of ‘The Death of the Son’. A psalm of David.
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 for ever;
he has established his throne for judgment.
8 He rules the world in righteousness
and judges the peoples with equity.
This Psalm opens with heart-deep gratitude, joy and praise as David looks to God, who sits enthroned as the righteous judge (v4), having established his throne for judgement (v7).
David knows evil and corruption. We have seen that throughout Psalms 3-7. But he knows a truth truer than his suffering. For in his darkest moments, he has glimpsed the light of God’s righteousness break through. In the face of God’s awesome power and authority, the enemies of God’s people have scarpered and their schemes skewered. As they sought to overcome David and his people, God overwhelmed them in his justice, leaving them under the rubble of their pride.
We do not live in a cold, indifferent universe where only the strong and conniving survive. Just as those who try to break the law of gravity will themselves be broken by a hard fall, those who try to break the laws of God will be broken as they fall.
But it is not just God’s justice that soothes the heart of God’s people, but his concern and compassion for those who have been trodden down and cast out by the unjust.
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.
These four verses are the heart of the Psalm. In the struggles, challenges and conflicts of this life, as we seek to practise the ways of Jesus, he is himself our refuge.
Remember that David, the author of this Psalm, has been afflicted for his obedience to God. But God does not ignore the cries of those afflicted for his name. He will not only judge justly, but certainly protect his people.
When we flee to God as our stronghold, we stand behind impenetrable walls, that the enemy could hammer and battle against for eternity yet not remove one atom from it. And so we sing the words of the hymn, “Rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.”
In the New Testament, this is fleshed out in Jesus’s invite to abide in him (John 15.1-8). When we abide in Christ, we are “strong in the Lord and his mighty power” (Eph 6.10). The heavenly powers are neutered, standing impotent, as we are now hidden with Christ in God’s unfathomable and unbreakable power.
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.
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.
Knowing God’s concern for justice and for those struggling because of the unjust, the King calls on God to intervene and indict the nations who refuse his word.
Notice in particular the culmination of the Psalm and the climax of the prayer in vv19-20. Essentially the prayer David prays is “Let God show that he alone is God” and “remind mortal humanity that they are merely mortal.” The essence of sin is rejecting God as King and seeking to rule our own lives. And so we pray for God to reassert the natural order, where creation sits under the rule and reign of God alone.
The hope of the justice in this world can only happen when the truly righteous one steps in. We are called to “do justice” (Micah 6.8), but only God can establish justice. So we rejoice that his plan is to restore peace, to protect the needy and punish evil. And we rejoice that the Lord Jesus Christ is risen, and that he will judge the world justly (Acts 17.31). But also that he will gather in his people to his eternal stronghold of peace.
Glory be to the Father, the one who establishes the throne of justice, which purges evil from his world.
Glory be to the Son, the strength and stronghold of his stricken people.
Glory be to the Spirit, who pours the hope of justice and peace into the hearts of the weary.