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P S A L M S
PSALM IX.
In this psalm,
I. David praises God for pleading his cause, and giving him victory
over his enemies and the enemies of his country
(ver. 1-6),
and calls upon others to join with him in his songs of praise,
II. He prays to God that he might have still further occasion to praise
him, for his own deliverances and the confusion of his enemies,
III. He triumphs in the assurance he had of God’s judging the world
(ver. 7, 8),
protecting his oppressed people
and bringing his and their implacable enemies to ruin,
This is very applicable to the kingdom of the Messiah, the enemies of
which have been in part destroyed already, and shall be yet more and
more till they all be made his footstool, which we are to assure
ourselves of, that God may have the glory and we may take the
comfort.
| Devout Acknowledgments. | |
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To the chief musician upon Muth-labben. A psalm of David.
1 I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will show
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.
3 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.
5 Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the
wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.
6 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 for ever: he hath prepared his
throne for judgment.
8 And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall
minister judgment to the people in uprightness.
9 The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in
times of trouble.
10 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee:
for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
The title of this psalm gives a very uncertain sound concerning the
occasion of penning it. It is upon Muth-labben, which some make
to refer to the death of Goliath, others of Nabal, others of Absalom;
but I incline to think it signifies only some tone, or some musical
instrument, to which this psalm was intended to be sung; and that the
enemies David is here triumphing in the defeat of are the Philistines,
and the other neighbouring nations that opposed his settlement in the
throne, whom he contested with and subdued in the beginning of his
reign,
In these verses,
I. David excites and engages himself to praise God for his mercies and
the great things he had of late done for him and his government,
Note,
1. God expects suitable returns of praise from those for whom
he has done marvellous works.
2. If we would praise God acceptably, we must praise him in sincerity,
with our hearts, and not only with our lips, and be lively and fervent
in the duty, with our whole heart.
3. When we give thanks for some one particular mercy we should take
occasion thence to remember former mercies and so to show forth all
his marvellous works.
4. Holy joy is the life of thankful praise, as thankful praise is the
language of holy joy: I will be glad and rejoice in thee.
5. Whatever occurs to make us glad, our joy must pass through it, and
terminate in God only: I will be glad and rejoice in thee, not
in the gift so much as in the giver.
6. Joy and praise are properly expressed by singing psalms.
7. When God has shown himself to be above the proud enemies of the
church we must take occasion thence to give glory to him as the Most
High.
8. The triumphs of the Redeemer ought to be the triumphs of the
redeemed; see
xix. 5; xv. 3, 4.
II. He acknowledges the almighty power of God as that which the
strongest and stoutest of his enemies were no way able to contest with
or stand before,
v. 3.
But,
1. They are forced to turn back. Their policy and their courage fail
them, so that they cannot, they dare not, push forward in their
enterprises, but retire with precipitation.
2. When once they turn back, they fall and perish; even their retreat
will be their ruin, and they will save themselves no more by flying
than by fighting. If Haman begin to fall before Mordecai, he is a lost
man, and shall prevail no more; see
3. The presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power, are sufficient
for the destruction of his and his people’s enemies. That is easily
done which a man does with his very presence; with that God
confounds his enemies, such a presence has he. This was fulfilled when
our Lord Jesus, with one word, I am he, made his enemies to
fall back at his presence
and he could, at the same time, have made them perish.
4. When the enemies of God’s church are put to confusion we must
ascribe their discomfiture to the power, not of instruments, but of his
presence, and give him all the glory.
III. He gives to God the glory of his righteousness, in his appearing
on his behalf
(v. 4):
“Thou hast maintained my right and my cause, that is, my
righteous cause; when that came on, thou satest in the throne,
judging right.” Observe,
1. God sits in the throne of judgment. To him it belongs to decide
controversies, to determine appeals, to avenge the injured, and to
punish the injurious; for he has said, Vengeance is mine.
2. We are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth and that
with him there is no unrighteousness. Far be it from God that he should
pervert justice. If there seem to us to be some irregularity in the
present decisions of Providence, yet these, instead of shaking our
belief of God’s justice, may serve to strengthen our belief of the
judgment to come, which will set all to-rights.
3. Whoever disown and desert a just and injured cause, we may be sure
that the righteous God will maintain it and plead it with jealousy, and
will never suffer it to be run down.
IV. He records, with joy, the triumphs of the God of heaven over all
the powers of hell and attends those triumphs with his praises,
v. 5.
By three steps the power and justice of God had proceeded against the
heathen, and wicked people, who were enemies to the king God had lately
set up upon his holy hill of Zion.
1. He had checked them: “Thou hast rebuked the heathen, hast
given them real proofs of thy displeasure against them.” This he did
before he destroyed them, that they might take warning by the rebukes
of Providence and so prevent their own destruction.
2. He had cut them off: Thou hast destroyed the wicked. The
wicked are marked for destruction, and some are made monuments of God’s
vindictive justice and destructive power in this world.
3. He had buried them in oblivion and perpetual infamy, had put out
their name for ever, that they should never be remembered with any
respect.
V. He exults over the enemy whom God thus appears against
(v. 6):
Thou hast destroyed cities. Either, “Thou, O enemy! hast
destroyed our cities, at least in intention and imagination,” or “Thou,
O God! hast destroyed their cities by the desolation brought upon their
country.” It may be taken either way; for the psalmist will have the
enemy to know,
1. That their destruction is just and that God was but reckoning with
them for all the mischief which they had done and designed against his
people. The malicious and vexatious neighbours of Israel, as the
Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, and Syrians, had made
incursions upon them (when there was no king in Israel to fight their
battles), had destroyed their cities and done what they could to make
their memorial perish with them. But now the wheel was turned upon
them; their destructions of Israel had come to a perpetual end; they
shall now cease to spoil and must themselves be spoiled,
2. That it is total and final, such a destruction as should make a
perpetual end of them, so that the very memorial of their cities should
perish with them, So devouring a thing is time, and much more such
desolations do the righteous judgments of God make upon sinners, that
great and populous cities have been reduced to such ruins that their
very memorial has perished, and those who have sought them could not
find where they stood; but we look for a city that has stronger
foundations.
VI. He comforts himself and others in God, and pleases himself with the
thoughts of him.
1. With the thoughts of his eternity. On this earth we see nothing
durable, even strong cities are buried in rubbish and forgotten; but
the Lord shall endure for ever,
v. 7.
There is no change of his being; his felicity, power, and perfection,
are out of the reach of all the combined forces of hell and earth; they
may put an end to our liberties, our privileges, our lives, but our God
is still the same, and sits even upon the floods, unshaken,
undisturbed,
2. With the thoughts of his sovereignty both in government and
judgment: He has prepared his throne, has fixed it by his
infinite wisdom, has fixed it by his immutable counsel. It is the great
support and comfort of good people, when the power of the church’s
enemies is threatening and the posture of its affairs melancholy and
perplexed, that God now rules the world and will shortly judge the
world.
3. With the thoughts of his justice and righteousness in all the
administrations of his government. He does all every day, he will do
all at the last day, according to the eternal unalterable rules of
equity
(v. 8):
He shall judge the world, all persons and all controversies,
shall minister judgment to the people (shall determine their lot
both in this and in the future state) in righteousness and in
uprightness, so that there shall not be the least colour of
exception against it.
4. With the thoughts of that peculiar favour which God bears to his own
people and the special protection which he takes them under. The Lord,
who endures for ever, is their everlasting strength and protection; he
that judges the world will be sure to judge for them, when at any time
they are injured or distressed
(v. 9):
He will be a refuge for the oppressed, a high place, a strong
place, for the oppressed, in times of trouble. It is the lot of
God’s people to be oppressed in this world and to have troublous times
appointed to them. Perhaps God may not immediately appear for them as
their deliverer and avenger; but, in the midst of their distresses,
they may by faith flee to him as their refuge and may depend upon his
power and promise for their safety, so that no real hurt shall be done
them.
5. With the thoughts of that sweet satisfaction and repose of mind
which those have that make God their refuge
(v. 10):
“Those that know thy name will put their trust in thee, as I
have done” (for the grace of God is the same in all the saints), “and
then they will find, as I have found, that thou dost not forsake those
that seek thee;” for the favour of God is the same towards all the
saints. Note,
(1.) The better God is known the more he is trusted. Those who know him
to be a God of infinite wisdom will trust him further than they can
see him
(Job xxxv. 14);
those who know him to be a God of almighty power will trust him when
creature-confidences fail and they have nothing else to trust to
and those who know him to be a God of infinite grace and goodness will
trust him though he slay them,
Job xiii. 15.
Those who know him to be a God of inviolable truth and faithfulness
will rejoice in his word of promise, and rest upon that, though the
performance be deferred and intermediate providences seem to contradict
it. Those who know him to be the Father of spirits, and an everlasting
Father, will trust him with their souls as their main care and trust in
him at all times, even to the end.
(2.) The more God is trusted the more he is sought unto. If we trust
God we shall seek him by faithful and fervent prayer, and by a constant
care to approve ourselves to him in the whole course of our
conversations.
(3.) God never did, nor ever will, disown or desert any that duly seek
to him and trust in him. Though he afflict them, he will not leave
them comfortless; though he seem to forsake them for a while, yet he
will gather them with everlasting mercies.
| A Call to Praise God; Certain Ruin of the Wicked. | |
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11 Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: declare
among the people his doings.
12 When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them:
he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.
13 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 show forth all thy praise in the gates of the
daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation.
15 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.
17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations
that forget God.
18 For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation
of the poor shall not perish for ever.
19 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.
In these verses,
I. David, having praised God himself, calls upon and invites others to
praise him likewise,
Those who believe God is greatly to be praised not only desire to do
that work better themselves, but desire that others also may join with
them in it and would gladly be instrumental to bring them to it:
Sing praises to the Lord who dwelleth in Zion. As the special
residence of his glory is in heaven, so the special residence of his
grace is in his church, of which Zion was a type. There he meets his
people with his promises and graces, and there he expects they should
meet him with their praises and services. In all our praises we should
have an eye to God as dwelling in Zion, in a special manner present in
the assemblies of his people, as their protector and patron. He
resolved himself to show forth God’s marvellous works
(v. 1),
and here he calls upon others to declare among the people his
doings. He commands his own subjects to do it, for the honour of
God, of their country, and of their holy religion; he courts his
neighbours to do it, to sing praises, not, as hitherto, to their false
gods, but to Jehovah who dwelleth in Zion, to the God of Israel, and to
own among the heathen that the Lord has done great things for his
people Israel,
Ps. cxxvi. 3, 4.
Let them particularly take notice of the justice of God in avenging the
blood of his people Israel on the Philistines and their other wicked
neighbours, who had, in making war upon them, used them barbarously and
given them no quarter,
When God comes to make inquisition for blood by his judgments on
earth, before he comes to do it by the judgment of the great day, he
remembers them, remembers every drop of the innocent blood which
they have shed, and will return it sevenfold upon the head of the
blood-thirsty; he will give them blood to drink, for they are worthy.
This assurance he might well build upon that word
He will avenge the blood of his servants. Note, There is a day
coming when God will make inquisition for blood, when he will discover
what has been shed secretly, and avenge what has been shed unjustly;
see
In that day it will appear how precious the blood of God’s people is to
him
when it must all be accounted for. It will then appear that he has not
forgotten the cry of the humble, neither the cry of their blood
nor the cry of their prayers, but that both are sealed up among his
treasures.
II. David, having praised God for former mercies and deliverances,
earnestly prays that God would still appear for him; for he sees not
all things put under him.
1. He prays,
(1.) That God would be compassionate to him
(v. 13):
“Have mercy upon me, who, having misery only, and no merit, to
speak for me, must depend upon mercy for relief.”
(2.) That he would be concerned for him. He is not particular in his
request, lest he should seem to prescribe to God; but submits himself
to the wisdom and will of God in this modest request, “Lord,
consider my trouble, and do for me as thou thinkest fit.”
2. He pleads,
(1.) The malice of his enemies, the trouble which he suffered from
those that hated him, and hatred is a cruel passion.
(2.) The experience he had had of divine succours and the expectation
he now had of the continuance of them, as the necessity of his case
required: “O thou that liftest me up, that canst do it, that
hast done it, that wilt do it, whose prerogative it is to lift up thy
people from the gates of death!” We are never brought so low, so
near to death, but God can raise us up. If he has saved us from
spiritual and eternal death, we may thence take encouragement to hope
that in all our distresses he will be a very present help to us.
(3.) His sincere purpose to praise God when his victories should be
completed
(v. 14):
“Lord, save me, not that I may have the comfort and credit of the
deliverance, but that thou mayest have the glory, that I may show
forth all thy praise, and that publicly, in the gates of the
daughter of Zion;” there God was said to dwell
(v. 11)
and there David would attend him, with joy in God’s salvation, typical
of the great salvation which was to be wrought out by the Son of
David.
III. David by faith foresees and foretels the certain ruin of all
wicked people, both in this world and in that to come.
1. In this world,
God executes judgment upon them when the measure of their iniquities is
full, and does it,
(1.) So as to put shame upon them and make their fall inglorious; for
they sink into the pit which they themselves digged
(Ps. vii. 15),
they are taken in the net which they themselves laid for the ensnaring
of God’s people, and they are snared in the work of their own hands. In
all the struggles David had with the Philistines they were the
aggressors,
And other nations were subdued by those ward in which they embroiled
themselves. The overruling providence of God frequently so orders it
that persecutors and oppressors are brought to ruin by those very
projects which they intended to be destructive to the people of God.
Drunkards kill themselves; prodigals beggar themselves; the contentious
bring mischief upon themselves. Thus men’s sins may be read in their
punishment, and it becomes visible to all that the destruction of
sinners is not only meritoriously, but efficiently, of themselves,
which will fill them with the utmost confusion.
(2.) So as to get honour to himself: The Lord is known, that is,
he makes himself known, by these judgments which he executes. It is
known that there is a God who judges in the earth, that he is a
righteous God, and one that hates sin and will punish it. In these
judgments the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. The psalmist therefore adds
here a note extraordinary, commanding special regard, Higgaion;
it is a thing to be carefully observed and meditated upon. What we see
of present judgments, and what we believe of the judgment to come,
ought to be the subject of our frequent and serious meditations.
2. In the other world
(v. 17):
The wicked shall be turned into hell, as captives into the
prison-house, even all the nations that forget God. Note,
(1.) Forgetfulness of God is the cause of all the wickedness of the
wicked.
(2.) There are nations of those that forget God, multitudes that live
without God in the world, many great and many mighty nations, that
never regard him nor desire the knowledge of his ways.
(3.) Hell will, at last, be the portion of such, a state of everlasting
misery and torment–Sheol, a pit of destruction, in which they
and all their comforts will be for ever lost and buried. Though there
be nations of them, yet they shall be turned into hell, like sheep into
the slaughter-house
(Ps. xlix. 14),
and their being so numerous will not be any security or ease to them,
nor any loss to God or the least impeachment of his goodness.
IV. David encourages the people of God to wait for his salvation,
though it should be long deferred,
The needy may think themselves, and others may think them, forgotten
for a while, and their expectation of help from God may seem to have
perished and to have been for ever frustrated. But he that believes
does not make haste; the vision is for an appointed time, and at the
end it shall speak. We may build upon it as undoubtedly true that God’s
people, God’s elect, shall not always be forgotten, nor shall they be
disappointed of their hopes from the promise. God will not only
remember them, at last, but will make it to appear that he never did
forget them; it is impossible he should, though a woman may forget her
sucking child.
V. He concludes with prayer that God would humble the pride, break the
power, and blast the projects, of all the wicked enemies of his church:
“Arise, O Lord!
(v. 19),
stir up thy self, exert thy power, take thy seat, and deal with all
these proud and daring enemies of thy name, and cause, and people.”
1. “Lord, restrain them, and set bounds to their malice: Let not man
prevail; consult thy own honour, and let not weak and mortal men
prevail against the kingdom and interest of the almighty and immortal
God. Shall mortal man be too hard for God, too strong for his
Maker?”
2. “Lord, reckon with them: Let the heathen be judges in thy
sight, that is, let them be plainly called to an account for all
the dishonour done to thee and the mischief done to thy people.”
Impenitent sinners will be punished in God’s sight; and, when their day
of grace is over, the bowels even of infinite mercy will not relent
towards them,
3. “Lord, frighten them: Put them in fear, O Lord!
(v. 20),
strike a terror upon them, make them afraid with thy judgments.” God
knows how to make the strongest and stoutest of men to tremble and to
flee when none pursues, and thereby he makes them know and own that
they are but men; they are but weak men, unable to stand before the
holy God–sinful men, the guilt of whose consciences make them subject
to alarms. Note, It is a very desirable thing, much for the glory of
God and the peace and welfare of the universe, that men should know and
consider themselves to be but men, depending creatures, mutable,
mortal, and accountable.
In singing this psalm we must give to God the glory of his justice in
pleading his people’s cause against his and their enemies, and
encourage ourselves to wait for the year of the redeemed and the year
of recompences for the controversy of Zion, even the final destruction
of all anti-christian powers and factions, to which many of the
ancients apply this psalm.
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