Psalm 9 ~ 20250525 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org
2025.05/25 Psalm 9; God Enthroned in Justice; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20250525_psalm-9.mp3
Psalm 9 and 10 are a pair; together they make up a partial acrostic poem in the Hebrew, they share some unique vocabulary, and look at the issue of God’s seeming injustice and failure to act from different angles. We will look at this more next week when we look at Psalm 10.
The Psalms teach us how to pray. They give us examples of how to pray in different circumstances. They get us started when we struggle to pray.
Recounting God’s Works, Enjoying His Person
Psalm 9
To the choirmaster: according to Muth-Labben. A Psalm of David
1 I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart;
I
will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
2 I will be glad
and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
Giving thanks is a great place to anchor yourself in God. The resolve to worship precedes the request. In verse 13 David appeals to YHWH for grace in the middle of his affliction. But his prayer is anchored in God. YHWH is the giver of every good, and the Psalmist is resolved to give appropriate thanks with his whole heart. He is resolved to recount the wonders of God, wonders like God’s historic and supernatural deliverance of his people time and time again. But even more than the works of God, he will find joy and reason to worship in the very person of God himself, who he is. His mighty works flow out of his identity, his character, so David resolves to sing praise to the name of the Most high.
Start here. If you get nothing else, do this. Give him the thanks he is due, remember his past deeds of power, find your joy and contentment in his person, his character, his nature, his name, who he is. If you resolve to do this, it will change your attitude, your outlook, everything!
Recounting God’s Justice
3 When my enemies turn back,
they
stumble and perish before your presence.
4 For you have
maintained my just cause;
you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.
5 You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish;
you
have blotted out their name forever and ever.
6 The enemy
came to an end in everlasting ruins;
their cities you rooted out;
the very memory of them has perished.
Here David is doing just that. He is recounting God’s past faithfulness to him. God is a just judge, he maintains a just cause, he gives righteous judgments. He rebukes, he punishes the wicked; he gives them what they deserve.
We don’t know when in David’s life he penned this, but whenever it was, there were events he could look back on that displayed that God was on his throne, maintaining a just cause and giving the enemy what they deserve. In my own personal history, God has always been faithful.
Praising God’s Position of Power
7 But the LORD sits enthroned forever;
he
has established his throne for justice,
8 and he judges the
world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with uprightness.
9 The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a
stronghold in times of trouble.
10 And those who know your
name put their trust in you,
for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
YHWH’s position is unmovable. He is seated, not fretting, not pacing, but enthroned. Sure, constant, reliable, unchanging. He is perfectly just, and his jurisdiction is not limited; he judges the whole world, all peoples. He is a just judge, all seeing, all knowing, all powerful, everywhere present; and that ought to be a terrifying prospect for lawbreakers.
But he is also a stronghold, a refuge, a hiding place for the oppressed. Those who know his character run not away from him, but right into his merciful and compassionate arms. He will never forsake his people, those who seek his face.
Invitation To Evangelistic Worship
11 Sing praises to the LORD, who sits enthroned in Zion!
Tell
among the peoples his deeds!
12 For he who avenges blood is
mindful of them;
he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
YHWH is worthy of worship, and David’s worship overflows in an invitation to others to join him in worship. YHWH is enthroned forever, and YHWH is enthroned in Zion, among his people. David invites his fellow Israelites to sing praise to YHWH because the judge of all the earth has made his dwelling place among them. They of all people ought to be able to proclaim his wonderful works among the nations. They have personally experienced his care for them, and so are uniquely equipped to declare among other people groups both his overwhelming power and his tender care, inviting the afflicted from every nation to cry out to him.
Prayer For Salvation
David has recognized the Lord’s works and his person as worthy of praise and thanksgiving. He has praised God’s justice, and his mercy to the oppressed. He has invited others to join in worship, evangelistically proclaiming the mighty works of God among the nations and inviting their afflicted to call out to him. Now David himself as one of the afflicted cries out to God for salvation.
13 Be gracious to me, O LORD! Be gracious, see me in my affliction.
See my affliction from those who hate me,
O
you who lift me up from the gates of death,
14 that I may
recount all your praises,
that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
I may rejoice in your salvation.
He is confident that the Lord is the one who lifts him up from the gates of death, and this is an invitation to do so again. And he gives God a reason; be gracious, that I may recount all your praises, publicly in the gates, enjoying your salvation.
David is inviting God to save him, and he is telling the Lord, ‘here’s what’s in it for you, Lord; if you have mercy on me, this will ultimately benefit you. You should rescue me, not only for my sake, but for the sake of your own reputation, for your own glory.’ That may sound like a bold move, but this is not the only place we see the Lord’s people praying like that. Abraham (Gen.18:25), Moses (Num.14:15-20), Daniel (9:17,19) all pray that way. God himself argues this way in Isaiah (48:11) and Ezekiel (36:21-23). God is pleased when we begin to pursue his glory as our greatest goal.
Wicked Snared
15 The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
in
the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
16 The
LORD has made himself known; he has executed judgment;
the
wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.
—
Higgaion. Selah
We saw similar language in Psalm 7, where the wicked man makes a pit and falls into it himself. Here it is the nations who have set themselves against the Lord and his anointed (Ps.2). YHWH makes himself known in his righteous judgment when he returns the evil that a man intends for others back on his own head. God’s justice and righteousness is seen by the nations, his character is made known.
It is important to note that YHWH has made himself known. What can be known about God through his creation is real, but severely limited. It is enough to leave us without excuse (Rom.1:19-20):, but it is not enough really to know him. We can’t really know him unless he chooses to reveal himself to us. And this is what God is happy to do. He makes himself known because he wants us to know him.
The Needy Not Forgotten
17 The wicked shall return to Sheol,
all the nations that forget God.
18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
In verses 11-12 There is an invitation to the afflicted of the nations to cry out to the Lord and receive his care and concern. Here there is a warning to the God-ignoring nations who oppress the weak and helpless. He says the wicked will return to Sheol because ‘death is their native element’ (Kidner, p.70).
The nations who forget God are those who choose to act as if God did not exist. It may seem as if God is acting like he has forgotten the poor and needy, but he has not. He will demonstrate that he is just and mindful of them, and those who treat them as if God did not exist will be returned to the place of forgetfulness.
Arise, O LORD!
19 Arise, O LORD! Let not man prevail;
let
the nations be judged before you!
20 Put them in fear, O
LORD!
Let
the nations know that they are but men!
— Selah
Again there is an echo here of Psalm 7 where God is called on to awake and spring into action; Arise, O YHWH. Get up and defend the honor of your name. Man is pretending to be God. Teach them what it means to be man, let them not prevail, but grant them the fear of YHWH.
Jesus in Psalm 9
David is confident of God’s justice but also cries out for justice, he is confident that God sits enthroned, but calls YHWH to arise and judge the nations. He calls for God to remember the needy, the poor, the oppressed, the afflicted. What David cries out for is realized in the greater David; the enthroned Son of God.
God makes himself know in his justice, but he is most fully made known in the person of Jesus.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
...18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
John 14:7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” ...9 ...Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. ...
It is in Jesus that the needy and poor are not forgotten.
Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
It is also in Jesus that the wicked oppressors are exposed for what they truly are;
Matthew 23:27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
It is in Jesus that God’s throne of justice will be fully established;
John 5:22 The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
Matthew 25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.
When we call for the LORD to arise and judge the nations, we are really anticipating the return of Jesus,
2 Thessalonians 1:7 ...when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.
Jesus is also the hope for the nations
Matthew 12:18 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. 19 He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; 20 a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; 21 and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”
Today when we give thanks to YHWH with our whole heart, when we recount his wonderful deeds, we can recount the wonderful deeds of Jesus. We can be glad and exult in Jesus, because he has shown us the Father, and through his death and resurrection, he has brought us near. We can sing praise to the name above all names, the name of Jesus.
***
2025.05.25 Sermon Notes
Psalm 9; God Enthroned in Justice
Psalm 9:1-2
Recount God’s works; enjoy his person
Psalm 9:3-6
Recount God’s past faithfulness
Psalm 9:7-10
Praise God’s position of power
-enthroned in justice
-a stronghold in times of trouble
Psalm 9:11-12
An invitation to evangelistic worship
Psalm 9:13-14
The afflicted one cries out for salvation
-for the sake of your name (Gen.18:25; Num.14:15-20;
Dan.9:17,19; Is.48:11; Ezek.36:21-23)
Psalm 9:15-16
The wicked are snared in their own traps
-The LORD has made himself known (Rom.1:19-20)
Psalm 9:17-18
The needy will not be forgotten
Psalm 9:19-20
Arise O LORD! Bring justice and fear of the LORD
Jesus in Psalm 9
John 1:14, 18; 14:7-9
Luke 4:18-19; Matthew 23:27
John 5:22-23; Matthew 25:31-33
2 Thessalonians 1:7-10
Matthew 12:18-21
***
Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org