Psalms 9:1

The Bible says in Psalms 9:1-2, “I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.[2] I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.” His is another Psalm about praising God. The more that David thought about God, the more that David praised God for who God was, for what God’s name meant, and for all the things that God had done that David could think about. David said that he praised God with his “whole heart.” The Bible is not big on half-hearted worship. God loves us with His great eternal love, and so He wants to see us love Him in return with a great love of our own. Jesus said in Revelation 2:4-5, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”

The Bible says in Psalms 9:3-4, “When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. [4] For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.” If you serve the Lord Jesus, you will have enemies in this life. David had enemies too. But David praised God because David knew that God would take care of him and that God would take care of the enemies too. The enemies would “fall and perish.” If God decides your time has come, you will not stand. God takes care of his children, although there is one small requirement: notice that the word “right” is used twice in verse four. Make sure you are on the side of that which is right. “Do right until the stars fall.” That is what Bob Jones Sr. would say. God is “judging right.” And so, if you are doing right while your enemies are doing wrong, God sees and God judges. Do the right thing and miracles will happen, and your enemies will be crushed. Pray for them, and leave them in God’s hands. They are in big trouble.

David talked about God’s judgments and David said in Psalms 9:5, “Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name forever and ever.” God is the Judge. God gives a certain amount of time even to the wicked and unbelievers to figure things out, and to surrender to the working of the Spirit. But their time is limited to whatever time God sets for them. Unless they repent and turn to Jesus, they will be “rebuked” and they will be “destroyed.” David is using the past tense and thus is saying that God has already rebuked and already destroyed the heathen and the wicked. If you look at history, that is the only conclusion that you can come to. A real good example of this for the twentieth Century is Hitler. Look how he ended up. Did God destroy the wicked? Yes. God used the greatest generation in America and the Allies, but God did it.

Notice that this rebuke and this destruction will be “forever and ever.” The stakes are really high. We are talking about eternity. What is your eternal destiny? Are you one hundred percent sure that if you died today, you would go to heaven? If you do not have that assurance, make sure that you repent and turn to Jesus. Jesus can save your soul so that you will go to heaven. Jesus said, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

David speaks to the enemies of God, and the Bible says in Psalms 9:6-7, “O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end; and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them. [7] But the LORD shall endure forever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment.” God gives free will to man. Some have used that free will to harm and to destroy. The wicked ones have “destroyed cities” and done even worse than that. But David is happy to point out that “destructions are come to a perpetual end.” Whenever a believer wants to, a believer can look to the future and know certain things about the future: this time will end when the wicked have their free will and their opportunities to destroy. We live in an age that will end. We are not in the eternal state: we are in a temporary state. But we know the end is coming. The destructions will end when Jesus comes back.

God has a plan. God’s “perpetual” plan involves the end of the age, the return of Christ, and the judgment. This is what God is always planning for: the end. People plan for life. Sometimes they even plan for the end of life. But how many people are planning for the judgment and for what will take place there at the throne of God? We can imagine that the judgment will take a very long time. It will be a great event. Every person from the beginning of creation until the end of time will stand before God. The living and the dead will stand before Him. A lot more will be decided than who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. Those who know Jesus as Savior will go to heaven. Those who do not know Jesus will go to hell. But the rewards must also be decided for those who go to heaven, and so every detail of a Christian’s life will be examined to see if they have earned any rewards or not to be enjoyed and used for their eternal existence in heaven. That is what First Corinthians 3:11-15 says, “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.[12] Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;[13] Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.[14] If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.[15] If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” Heaven will not be the same for everyone. Yes, everyone there will enjoy the peace and the beauty and the holiness. But some will have greater opportunity and authority dependent upon the crowns that have been won or lost. Unbelievers will also be judged for every detail of their lives to determine what punishments they will have forever in hell. Yes, everyone in hell will suffer the fire, and the darkness, and the loneliness, and the torment of a guilty conscience. But somehow the more evil that you have done will mean the greater that those sufferings will be felt. That is a lot of details that will have to be judged: every thought, every word, every deed, every motivation, every result, and every decision of every person whether saved or lost. That might take thousands of years or longer. No problem there: we will have the time. And it will all take place at the throne of God and of Jesus. We will all be there. It will be a great event. The name of Jesus will be glorified in the eternal existence of each soul, whether that soul goes to heaven or hell; and we will all say, “Amen.” All this will happen because God has an “end” event planned. Part of that judgment is described in Revelation 20:11-12, “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.[12] And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” God has a plan for the future. As it says in Psalms 9:7, God “hath prepared his throne for judgment.”

What kind of judgment will it be? The Bible says in Psalms 9:8, “And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.” One thing can we can be sure of: the judgment that God hands out will be fair and true and right. Some people ask, “How can God send people to hell?” this we know: whatever God decides with each person will be the right decision. God will do the right thing. “He shall judge the world in righteousness.”

The Bible says in Psalms 9:9, “The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.” You are “oppressed” when spiritual darkness attacks you, and often they use unspiritual people to do their work. Where should you go in such situations? Go to the Lord. Every Christian will have “times of trouble.” Some times are times of peace and blessing, but other times are times of trouble. Where do you go in a time of trouble? Go to the Lord. Twice in this verse God is called “a refuge.” When you need a place of safety, make sure you know how to trust in the Lord Jesus and find refuge in Him.

The Bible says in Psalms 9:10, “And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.” If you know the Lord, you will trust in Him. That is what is expected. If someone claims to know the Lord, but is not trusting in Him, then something is very wrong. That is not normal. That does not make sense. That should not happen. God will never forsake us, and so we should not forsake Him. One way to make sure that you are trusting in the Lord is to make sure that you are seeking the Lord. You know that no one can help you except Jesus, and so you seek Him out. You go to Him to find the help that you need and that He alone can give.

Once you have trusted in the Lord, and He has delivered you, make sure that you have the same response as King David as it says in Psalms 9:11, “Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings.” God wants us to use our voices to sing to Him. That will prove that we are thankful. If you do something for someone, you want them to be thankful and to show some kind of gratitude. God also wants us to use our voice to tell others what the Lord has done for us: “declare among the people his doings.” The way to be a testimony verbally is to simply tell others what the Lord Jesus has done for you.

The Bible says in Psalms 9:12, “When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.” The phrase that is translated “inquisition for blood” could more literally be translated “seeks for blood.” The wicked people who attack believers and who hate God will have a time when God goes on the offensive. God will seek their blood and will find it. God remembers the wicked and their evil deeds. God remembers what the wicked ones have done against believers. And God “forgetteth not the cry of the humble.” Just make sure that you are humble and not proud, and make sure that you cry out to the Lord instead of striking out against your enemies.

King David shows us what to say and how to say it when we cry out to the Lord. The Bible says in Psalms 9:13-14, “Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death:[14] That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation.” The first thing to ask for is mercy. We are still sinners too. We have access to the Lord because of His mercy, and He has mercy available for us because of Jesus and His death on the cross. We can appeal to God’s sense of justice when we are treated wrongly. God is on the side of the right. Look at the words used in verse thirteen concerning a believer: “trouble,” “suffer,” “hate,” and “death.” The wicked ones might hate us and cause us trouble and suffering and even death, but God is on our side. Guess who will ultimately win that one? That is why we can “praise” the Lord and “rejoice” in his salvation.

The Bible says in Psalms 9:15-16, “The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. [16] The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.” “The heathen” are those who do not have a personal belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because they have not become honest with God about their own sins, they often are dishonest about many of their ways in life. They think they are smarter than others, and they are laying nets and snares to fool people and use them. The same thing is said three times in three different ways about what the result will be. 1. They “are sunk down in the pit that they made.” 2. “in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.” 3. “the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.” Why do the wicked fall into their own pit and into their own net, and why are they snared in the work of their own hands? The first part of verse 16 tells us the answer: God makes it happen that way. God turns the tables for the sake of His name and His righteousness. No one knows the full consequences of anything that they do, but Jesus makes things work out the way He wants it to work based upon God’s judgments of what should happen. Judas betrayed Christ for a few pieces of silver. Judas thought the result would be that he would have more money to enjoy his life the way he wanted to live it. The real result was that he was so overcome with shame and guilt that he lost the desire to live life, and Judas killed himself.

Just a note about the Hebrew words “Higgaion” and “Selah” that are used in verse sixteen. The Psalms were designed originally to be sung to music, and these two words appear to be musical instructions such as a pause or a change in intensity.

The Bible says in Psalms 9:17, “The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God.” There is a hell, and many people will go there. The Bible speaks about hell, the place of the dead where the wicked will be forever. There are two places for the dead: heaven and hell. Since we are talking about forever, obviously we want to end up in heaven instead of hell. God did the heavy lifting for us: He sent His Son Jesus to suffer in our place. We only need to repent of our sins and turn to Jesus and find forgiveness for our sins. Sadly, many will refuse to repent. They are the “wicked,” because they choose to keep their sins. We are all sinners, but some have chosen to humble themselves and ask Jesus for forgiveness and some have not. Judgment will fall upon individual wicked people, but judgment will also fall upon nations. This verse speaks of “nations that forget God.” You cannot forget God unless once you knew Him. God reveals Himself to every person on this earth. The Spirit moves. God is known by His creation. The heaven shows forth His handiwork. It says about Jesus in John 1:9, “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” People have a basic knowledge of God that they can build upon by seeking Jesus or that they can put out of their minds, thus forgetting God. A nation that becomes secular by instituting rules and laws and customs that push the idea of God out of the public square will be forgetting God because there becomes less and less of an opportunity to remind the citizens of God’s existence and of man’s responsibility to God. God knows and God sees, and judgment will come. Jesus is Jealous. He does not want to be forgotten.

The Bible says in Psalms 9:18, “For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever.” God does not forget. But sometimes it appears to humans that God is not in a hurry. After all, God has all eternity to fulfill His plans: He has “forever.” The wheels of God may appear to turn slowly, but they turn ever so finely. God sees and God knows. Jesus cares about the “poor” and the “needy,” and God is able to turn the tables. The powerful can be turned out of the way by the mighty hand of Christ and the oppressed can be lifted up. Maybe that is what happened with the American Revolution when the citizens were given the victory and their freedom over the mighty British Empire. Maybe that is what happened when the slaves were given their freedom and now have the opportunity to rise to places of power and authority. But God is watching: do not abuse that new authority. God can take away that which He has given.

The Bible says in Psalms 9:19-20, “Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight.[20] Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.” Of course, as followers of Christ, we would like to see the wrongs righted as soon as possible. We do not like seeing evil and foolishness progress. We look forward to the appearing of the King of kings and until then we enjoy every incident where God’s hand of justice and fairness is manifested. What do people need to know? They need to know that they “be but men.” We are talking about the limitations of human beings. Humans have many limitations. One obvious limitation is the fact that we are all going to die. Life is very short compared to eternity, but many people live as if they are not going to die. Another limitation of human beings is how little we know. And yet people think they are so smart: how foolish that is. Another limitation of human beings is that we are sinful. In other words we often do the wrong thing and make the wrong decision because of our selfishness and spiritual and moral weakness. Only God can convince people that they “be but men.” That takes the power of the Holy Spirit to touch people’s hearts. And so that needs to be part of our prayers: that God would get through to people that they would see their need and their real spiritual condition. If you know Jesus as Savior, how fortunate you are because the Holy Spirit reached you, and you saw your need of Jesus.

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