Psalm 9

The Song of the Afflicted (Part 1)

[18] For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

Introduction

The Psalms are often written from the perspective of the sufferers and the oppressed. We are given an opportunity to hear the cries of the victims, and when we ourselves are victims to injustice and evil, we can find comfort in these ancient prayers that give voice to our pain.

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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[13] 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,
[14] that I may recount all your praises,
that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
I may rejoice in your salvation.

[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

[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.

[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

Commentary

Psalm 9 is a psalm of David that has some curious features. It is one of eight acrostic poems in the Psalms, meaning the first letters of each line follow the order of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. But here it’s only a partial acrostic; there are missing letters — like David wanted to use a loose framework but didn’t want to be bound by a rigid structure — and the latter part of the alphabet is found in the next psalm. In fact, there have been some throughout history that combined Psalms 9 and 10 into one (which is why the numbering of Psalms is different in some versions of the Bible). And indeed, there are some clues that may indicate they were originally together, like the fact that Psalm 10 has no title but the previous seven psalms had one or the common vocabulary that Psalms 9 and 10 share (words like seek, forget, man, and so on). But there are also important differences between Psalms 9 and 10 that shouldn’t be ignored, so I think it’s best to consider them companion pieces (which is why I’ve labeled them part 1 and part 2). Both of them address the triumph of God over the wicked on behalf of the weak. Both of them are meditations on the eternal nature of God as opposed to the short-lived, temporary power of God’s enemies. And both of them explore how God uses his power not for his own gain but for the benefit of the powerless. Even so, David writes Psalms 9 and 10 from very different states of mind. In Psalm 10, he is suffering and lamenting the present evil he is experiencing. But in Psalm 9, he is thankful and confident. These two tones mirror how we experience the world. Sometimes we are filled with sorrow over the cruelty of human beings toward one another. At other times, we are filled with joyful peace that no matter what happens, God is in control, and he is the only one who can bring final judgment on the wicked and complete justice for the oppressed.

Commentary

Psalm 9 opens with thanksgiving: “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.” Notice that David rejoices not just in what God has done but also in who God is (“I will be glad and exult in you”). That’s a significant theme that runs throughout the psalm (and throughout the whole Bible). God does wonderful, mighty works for his people, but we don’t simply worship him for what he does for us; we worship him because he does these things out of his character, out of his innate goodness and justice and kindness. The next part of the psalm describes a time when God saved David from some crisis, causing his enemies to flee and perish. This prompts David to reflect on the temporary nature of evil and the eternal nature of God. Verse 6: “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.” If God is the only one who exists for all eternity and God is the source of all that is good, then evil, by its definition, can’t last forever. The wicked will never win. Any victory for the enemies of God is just a small, insignificant pause in their long defeat. This is a profound reframing for any evil that we experience in this life, because no matter what horrendous and awful things people do — and people can do some absolutely horrifying to each other — God’s judgment on them is so powerful that the very memory of the wicked will perish. And this is why David says in verse 10 that “The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.” He has not forsaken those who seek him. He does not forget the cry of the afflicted. The people who get crushed by the powerful, the forgotten victims of history, the silent stories of suffering — God knows them all. He offers to be their champion against those who would destroy them. He is everything we would want in a king: strong against evil, noble and just, and a defender for the poor, the humble, the afflicted.

Commentary

The last part of Psalm 9 ties all of these themes together in a prayer for God to do what he has promised to do. David prays, “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.” No matter how confident we may be in the final victory of God, we are still in the midst of the war. The threat of death is still around us, the wicked are still at work, and the poor are still oppressed, so David prays, “Keep working, LORD.” The last verses of the psalm are a bold request: “Arise, O LORD! Let not man prevail; let the nations be judged before you! Put them in fear, O LORD! Let the nations know that they are but men!” That last line is really the heart of the matter: human beings like to pretend that we are gods, that we have the authority and power to do what we want to do, even if it means we need to step on a few people to get our way. But in the Bible, there’s not a hierarchy from lesser humans to higher humans to God; there’s just the Creator and us, creatures made in his image. It’s no coincidence that this psalm comes after Psalm 8, where David wondered, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” We are meant to serve the King in reverent fear, to find our refuge and stronghold in his power, to live according to his ways. But like Psalm 2 describes, when we break against the boundaries who we are meant to be, we inevitably delude ourselves into thinking that we are gods and we inevitably hurt others in our grab for power. What the powerful need most is to be reminded that they are but human beings and that every moment of their lives is held in the King’s hands.

Gospel

The opening title of Psalm 9 says, “according to Muth-labben,” which was likely a musical tune that translates to “the death of the son.” The theme of mortality runs throughout the psalm. No matter the way it looks in the present, the wicked will perish. “Let the nations know that they are but men.” By contrast, the LORD sits enthroned forever, and in his protection, those who are perishing can find life. When Jesus came into the world, he picked up these themes in his own teachings because it was a common question of the day. Rulers and scholars came to him asking, “What must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus’ consistent answer was that he was the source of eternal life, like a spring of water that never runs dry. Jesus regularly went not to the strong and mighty but to the lowly and poor, seeing their affliction and giving them good news of hope. In John 5, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” All that is required to live forever is to hear and believe in Jesus, the one who called himself a King but who stepped down from the throne to become human, the one who knew that all of us deserve to perish but who offered up his perfect life for ours, the one who stumbled and perished and came to ruin under the just wrath of God, the one who was afflicted on a criminal’s cross. But the name of Jesus was not forgotten. He did not stay in everlasting ruin but rose again, lifted from the gates of death and placed on the throne forever and ever. Jesus is the stronghold for the oppressed, and those who know his name and put their trust in him will share in his eternal life, known by God and protected by him forever and ever.

Praying This Psalm

Let’s ponder some of the times in which you could read and pray Psalm 9:

When you have been delivered from a time of trouble and can look back in gratitude.
When you see an evil person stumble and fall into the consequences of their own wickedness.
When you’ve forgotten something, which can remind you that the very memory of evil will one day perish.
When you want to do justice and social good in the world on behalf of the most needy and vulnerable.
When you are poor with too many needs stacking higher and higher until you feel like you’re losing it all.
When you are oppressed, a victim of unjust circumstances and wicked people.
When you feel forgotten and forsaken, like no one hears the cries of your affliction.
When you want to rejoice in the salvation that God offers us in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
When you’re still holding onto the delusion that you will live forever, that you want to be forever young.
When you’re keenly aware of your own mortality and you wonder where you’ll go after death.
When it looks like the wicked are winning and you want to remember the victory of the eternal God who sits on the throne.