Psalm 9
Date: March 3rd, 2023
Speaker: Sam Crites
Scripture: Psalm 9
Exegetical Outline
MIT: There will always be a testimony of God’s wonderful deeds, because his people sing his praises and he testifies to himself.
1-2: David makes God known by thanking him and recounting his wonderful deeds.
3-12: David testifies to God’s wonderful deeds.
i. 3-4: God has maintained David’s just cause and dealt justice from his throne so that his enemies stumble and perish.
ii. 5-6: God has rebuked the nations and made the wicked perish so that even their memory has perished.
iii. 7-8: The Lord establishes his throne and judges the world with righteousness.
iv. 9-10: The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed and he does not forsake those that seek him.
v. 11-12: The Lord is mindful of his people and remembers their cry, so sing praises to him.
13-16: There will always be a testimony to God’s deeds.
1. 13-14: David pleads for grace so that he can be a witness to all the Lords marvelous deeds.
2. 15-16: The Lord witnesses to himself by judging the wicked who have fallen into their own pits and traps.
17-18: The Lord testifies to himself through judgment.
vi. 17: The wicked will return to Sheol because they forget God.
vii. 18: The poor shall not perish because they will not be forgotten.
19-20: The Lord judges the nations so that they will fear the Lord and know that they are merely men.
Homiletical Outline
MIS: The wonderful deeds of God are his eternal testimony.
God’s people testify to the world of his wonderful deeds. (1-14)
God’s people receive grace so they can be a testimony to his salvation. (13-14)
The wonderful deeds of the Lord.
God upholds the righteous. (3-4)
God makes the wicked perish. (5-6)
God judges the people with righteousness. (7-8)
God is a protector. (9-10)
God remembers those that are afflicted and avenges them. (11-12)
God testifies to the world about himself. (15-20)
Introduction:
What is the greatest commandment? This question is put to Jesus in Matthew 22:36-40. Jesus answers the young lawyer by saying:
Matthew 22:37-38
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.
I have spent a majority of my academic research considering this question. I understand that this is the great commandment, but how do we accomplish it? I am not in control of my heart. It loves what it wants. It is attracted to all kinds of useless and nonsensical bobbles and trinkets. How can I train my heart toward the right loves and away from the wrong loves?
David gives us a very tangible and relevant answer to this question right at the beginning of Psalm 9. Let’s read it together:
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
David answers our question in the first couple verses. We can train our hearts to love God recounting God’s wonderful deeds that he has done for us and cultivating a heart of thanksgiving. David has been delivered by God and he is singing his praises and his thanksgivings to a God that has demonstrated that he is a righteous judge. He has delivered David from the unjust persecution of his enemies and he has shown all involved that he is a God that is powerful and capable to saving his anointed king.
This psalm is a testimony to all that God has done for David and his kingdom. The interesting thing is that David is not the only witness that is called upon to share what he has seen. In the second half of the psalm, God himself testifies to his own deeds. Whether God’s people are testifying to what God has done or if God is testifying about himself, God will be seen for the good and righteous king that he is. Which brings us to the main idea of the sermon: the wonderful deeds of God are his eternal testimony.
In Psalm 9, we are going to see two different testimonies to the wonderful deeds of God. The first testimony is seen in the first half of the psalm. The first point of our sermon is that God’s people testify to the world of the wonderful deeds of God. We are a living and breathing testimony to the kindness and the justice of God. We can see this in verses 13-14. David pleads for the Lord’s grace so that he can recount all the praises of God in the gates of Jerusalem. From verses 3-12, David gives us 5 examples of the grace he pleads for in verse 13. We will look at all of these in turn and consider how the Church, as the people of God, are to be a living witness and testimony to the world of the wonderful works of God that we have experienced in our own lives.
But we are not the only, and not even the primary, witness to the wonderful deeds of God. In the second half of Psalm 9, we are going to see that God himself testifies to the world of his wonderful deeds. Even if every Christian was instantaneously silenced on this earth, God would still maintain his own testimony through his dealings with the righteous and the wicked. Verse 16 says the Lord has made himself known through executing judgment against the wicked. The righteousness of God is put on display by the way that he rightly punishes the wicked and graciously vindicates the righteous.
The majesty and splendor of God cannot be ignored. It must be proclaimed. Psalm 9 reminds us that the glory and beauty of God will never lack a witness. His throne is established and his wonderful deeds proclaim his grandeur through his people and through his self-revelation.
God’s people testify to the world of his wonderful deeds.
Let’s look at the first testimony in Psalm 9 to the wonderful deeds of God, namely, the testimony of David. Let’s reread Psalm 9:1-14:
Psalm 9:1-14
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.
We have finally come to the end of Absalom’s rebellion against David. The superscription at the beginning of the psalm in the ESV says To the choirmaster: according to Muth-labben. A Psalm of David. The exact translation of muth-labben is debated, but it is possible for it to be rendered, “upon the death of the son.” Leading some scholars to believe that Psalm 9 is David’s song of thanksgiving to God after he has been delivered from Absalom.
This is my understanding of Psalm 9, because it not only makes the best sense of Psalm 9, but it also makes the best sense of the entire arch of psalms from Psalm 3-9. We have seen David’s prayers to God throughout this trial and we have seen him not only sing a very diverse set of songs to the Lord, but we have seen him call upon the justice of God to deal rightly between the righteous and the wicked. As David processed his own role in these events, one theme has become completely clear, God is just and he deals out justice to both the righteous and the wicked.
Psalm 3 took place the night after Absalom ran David out of Jerusalem. David pleads for God to be his shield against his enemies. In Psalm 4, David prays to God for grace and peace in this tumultuous situation. In Psalm 5, David asks the Lord to lead him in righteousness and to take up his case against those that are doing evil to him. Psalm 6 is the climax of this arc as David pleas with the Lord not to give him what he deserves but to deliver him so that he can testify to the world of the Lord’s goodness. In Psalm 7, David puts himself on trial and pleads his case before the throne of God, asking the Lord to judge him according to the false accusations that have been made against him by Shimei the Benjamite. In Psalm 8, David praises the majesty of God in the earth as seen in the only begotten Son that was promised in Psalm 2. Finally, we come to the end of the first section in the first book of the psalter and we hear David’s praises and thanksgivings to God for delivering him from his son. David testifies to all that God has done in upholding justice and protecting the righteous from the wicked.
This is a longer Psalm. To understand this first half, we must first look at verses 13-14. David reiterates the central idea of Psalm 6, which we have already said is the climax of this first section. Look back at Psalm 6:4-5:
Psalm 6:4-5
4 Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;
save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of you;
in Sheol who will give you praise?
Remember, in Psalm 6, David pleads with the Lord not to give him what he deserved but to deliver him so that David would be able to sing the praises of God. If he died, he would be silenced and unable to tell the world of God saving power. This is the same thing David says in Psalm 9:13-14.
Psalm 9:13-14
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.
David again asks to be rescued from destruction so that he can proclaim the praises of God and rejoice in the salvation of the Lord.
This is what the entire first half of the psalm is meant to be. It is David’s recitation of all the wonderful deeds of God. In the first two verses, David says:
Psalm 9:1-2
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.
And he does. In verses 3-12, David recounts for us at least 5 actions that the Lord has performed on David’s behalf. All of which are meant to testify to the glory and splendor of God. David is testifying to the world of God’s saving power and righteous judgment.
First, in verses 3-4, David says that God defends the righteous. He is a God of justice because he find in favor of the righteous.
Psalm 9:3-4
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.
The righteous judgment that David has in mind is the unlawful rebellion of Absalom. When deciding between David and his son, God heard the case and ruled on behalf of David. He is the true anointed king over Israel. For David to be usurped by his son would mean that the throne was established by power and not by sovereign choice of God.
Second, in verses 5-6, David proclaims that God punishes the wicked. Not only does he uphold the cause of the righteous, but he punished the wicked and makes them perish. Look at verses 5-6:
Psalm 9:5-6
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.
We have seen this theme consistently throughout Psalms 1-9. Remember Psalm 1:4-6:
Psalm 1:4-6
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
God’s justice is not complete by merely vindicating the righteous. He must also rid the world of the wicked. David says in Psalm 9:6 that they be rooted out so that their very memory is forgotten. The justice of God requires the eradication of the wicked.
Third, God establishes his throne for justice. Meaning, vindicating the righteous and punishing the wicked is why God is king, it is why he reigns. Look at verses 7 and 8:
Psalm 9:7-8
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.
If God does not bring about justice, he should not be king. This is the job of the sovereign. The good news is that we have a benevolent monarch that does judge the world with righteousness. He is both just and the justifier of the one that has faith in Jesus. The beauty of the Gospel is that God is able to deal with everyone in accordance with their righteousness. For the one that relies on his own works, God will hold him accountable based on his sin. For the one that relies on Christ’s works, his sin have been paid for by the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. There is nothing that he can be held accountable to. In both scenarios, God is just because he deals with people according to what they deserve.
Fourth, in verses 9-10, God is a protector.
Psalm 9:9-10
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.
The Lord is a stronghold and a shield for those that are oppressed. They are right to put their trust in him, because he has shown himself to be trustworthy. He does not forsake them.
This has been David’s experience throughout this entire episode with Absalom. David did not lift a finger to defend or deliver himself from the malicious intentions of his son. Remember what David said on the night that Absalom drove him out of Jerusalem in Psalm 3:3-4:
Psalm 3:3-4
3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.
4 I cried aloud to the Lord,
and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah
God answered David and saved him from the counsel of Ahithophel through Hushai. God showed himself faithful to David, so David trusted him and sings in Psalm 9 of God’s power to protect and deliver his people. David is singing about what he has personally experienced.
Finally, God is an avenger. He will not let sin go unpunished nor will he forget the wrongs done against his people. He is not merely an impartial judge, calculating justice based on facts. He is a zealous avenger of his people. Look at verses 11-12:
Psalm 9:11-12
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.
This means that God is for his people. He is mindful of all that is going on in David’s life and intimately cares about all that is taking place in his life. He does not forget when his people cry to him. He hears them, remembers their troubles, and avenges their wrongs, bringing justice to those that have been wronged.
So what is the picture David has painted of God by recounting his wonderful deeds? God is for you. If you are his people, he is actively on your side defending you, protecting you, fighting for your cause, and dealing with you enemies. David’s cry to sing praises to the Lord should resonate in the hearts of his people, because they know from personal experience that their God is for them.
How has God been for you in your life? For some of you that is a hard question. Not because he has not been on your side, but because you have never thought about it. You have never reflected on God’s wonderful deeds in your life. According to Psalm 9, not only should we know them, but we should be speaking of them. We should be telling them to the world. Not generic praises of what God has always done for all of his people, but the specific ways that he has been faithful to you.
This is a great exercise for the children in the room to do. This afternoon, when you go home, ask your parents about what God has done for them. Parents, tell your children the stories of God’s faithfulness. If you are single, you can do it with your roommates. If you have grandchildren you can do it with them. This will do two things.
First, it will remind you of what God has done and it will cultivate in you a heart of thankfulness. Like David in verses 1 & 2, you will give thanks to the Lord and your heart will be gladdened. No matter what is going on, remembering God’s passed faithfulness can lift the spirits of God’s people.
Second, it will shine light on the wonderful deeds that God has done in your life and allow other people to appreciate him for his faithfulness. Like a monument reminds us of the deeds of our heroes, the stories of God’s faithfulness will remind the next generation that God has a history of showing up on behalf of his people. When that next generation goes through the dark night of the soul, they will not only have their own personal experience to draw on, they will have the experiences of the generations that have come before them. They will remember how God saved their parents and they will have confidence that he will save them.
God will have a testimony to his wonderful deeds. They will not go unnoticed. He will have a testimony to his magnificence because his people, who see and remember his deeds, will speak of them to the world, especially the generations that come after them. When they do, the hearts of God’s people are encouraged and the world is left with irrefutable evidence that God is who he says he is and does what he says he will do.
God testifies to the world about himself.
But God’s people are not the only testimony that God has in the world. His deeds are so wonderful and so undeniable, that David says God himself will testify to the world about himself. Let’s reread Psalm 9:15-20:
Psalm 9:15-20
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
While our first point is true, God’s people should testify to the majesty and splendor of God, the reality is, we often fail. David failed to testify to the God who had been so faithful to him for the majority of his adult life. For the entire last half of his reign, David testified to David, not God. He followed his own desires and forgot the God that had been so faithful to him.
Could this be true for some of us in the room? As you have become more stable in your life, you have made more money and grown in wisdom and discernment, you have become comfortable. You have become confident that you kind of have this life thing figured out. This is not a problem for some of our college students because they don’t know what the next couple years will hold or where they will be in five years. But our older members might really resonate with David. His external enemies had been subdued, his kingdom was prosperous, and he could basically do as he pleased. And so he did. He did what pleased him but was evil in the sight of God. And so he forgot the God that had been so faithful in his younger years. He forgot the God that slew Goliath, and protected him from Saul, and gave him an almost superhuman ability to win victories over his enemies. He failed to remember or give thanks. He exchanged the glory of God for the glory of men, and God was left without a witness to his wonderful deeds.
But God will not be left without a witness. When his people fail to remember what he has done for him, he will testify about himself, and this is exactly what he has done in David’s life. By defending David and dealing with his enemies, God has testified to himself through his righteous judgment against the wicked. Look at verses 15-16:
Psalm 9:15-16
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
It might first appear that the nations failure is accidental. That they are so clumsy and foolish that even when they attempt to lay traps and snares for God’s people that they end up pulling a Wile E. Coyote and snaring themselves.
But verse 16 makes it clear that this is not the case. The reason that David’s enemies have become ensnared in their own evil machinations is that God has judged them. And this is the amazing mystery of what David is saying. In judging them by turning their own evil desires back onto them, God has made himself known to the world, not only to his people that are saved but to the wicked that have received the evil they meant for others.
How does that work? How does turning the evil that the wicked meant for others back on them testify to the wonderful deeds of God and make him known, not just to the righteous, but also to the wicked? The answer is in verses 17-20.
Psalm 9:17-20
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
The wicked lays traps for the righteous because they have forgotten God. They do not desire him nor want him, so God gives them over to a judgment that is exactly what their heart desires, a world without God. The tragedy is that when God gives them what they think they want, it is an act of profound judgement on his part and the worst punishment that could be imagined.
The day that men will be profoundly aware of the fact that they are merely men, meaning they are not God, is the day that God gives them exactly what they want and removes his benevolent presence from their lives. In that moment, the wicked will have a perfect understanding of the one that they lost. The fear of the Lord, which they never felt in life, will be forever sealed on their hearts in death.
All men will know God. They can either know him as a benevolent savior or as a righteous judge. They can either be like David, trusting in God, or they can be like David’s enemies, trusting in themselves. Regardless, in the end, he will be known. He will be acknowledged and worshipped by all of his creation, both the righteous and the wicked.
Conclusion
As we close, let me read for you Revelation 20:11-21:4.
Revelation 20:11-21:4
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
This is what David is singing about in Psalm 9. There will be a testimony to God’s glory and splendor. He will either be recognized for his unmeasurable kindness in Christ to all that put their faith in the only begotten Son or he will be recognized for the infinite emptiness that is left behind when he removes his presence from the wicked in judgement. Either way, God will be known by all.
Let’s pray.