Psalms 9 KJV
Praise for God's Justice
About This Psalm
Thanksgiving for justice done. When the oppressed finally see wrongs made right, this is their victory song.
1 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.
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.
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 shew 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.
โ โ arrow keys to navigate chapters ยท spacebar to play/pause audio
Did You Know?
Psalm 9 forms the opening half of a single broken acrostic with Psalm 10, the Hebrew initial letters running from aleph through tav but with several letters absent, hinting at an early textual fracture rather than two independent compositions.
The superscription 'upon Muth-labben' most plausibly denotes a now-lost melody titled 'Death of the Son,' a cryptic musical cue that may echo either the death of Goliath or a royal lament, thereby framing the entire psalm as a victory song set to a dirge tune.
Verse 12's image of God 'making inquisition for blood' casts YHWH explicitly as the divine go'el, the kinsman-avenger who actively investigates and requites bloodshed, a legal-theological motif drawn from Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19 yet applied here to international rather than clan justice.
The psalm's movement from singular thanksgiving (vv. 1-2) to plural imperatives calling the nations to account (vv. 11, 19-20) enacts a theological progression in which personal deliverance is understood as the first installment of universal judgment, a pattern later echoed in prophetic eschatology.
By contrasting the 'gates of death' from which the psalmist is lifted (v. 13) with the wicked being 'turned into Sheol' (v. 17), the poem draws on Canaanite underworld topography while subverting it: death's portal becomes a one-way passage only for the arrogant, underscoring a distinctly Israelite reversal of ancient Near Eastern fate.
Commentary & Study Notes
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) ยท Public Domain
Classic verse-by-verse commentary on Psalms 9 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: Upon Muthlabben, Or, After The Manner According To "Death To The Son," By Which Some Song Was Known, To Whose Air Or Melody The Musician Is Directed To Perform This Psalm. This Mode Of Denoting A Song By Some Prominent Word Or Words Is Still Common (Compare Ps 22:1). The Psalmist Praises God For Deliverance From His Enemies And Celebrates The Divine Government, For Providing Security To God's People And Punishment To The Wicked. Thus Encouraging Himself, He Prays For New Occasions To Recount God's Mercies, And Confident Of His Continued Judgment On The Wicked And Vindication Of The Oppressed, He Implores A Prompt And Efficient Manifestation Of The Divine Sovereignty.
Upon Muthlabben, Or, After The Manner According To "Death To The Son," By Which Some Song Was Known, To Whose Air Or Melody The Musician Is Directed To Perform This Psalm. This Mode Of Denoting A Song By Some Prominent Word Or Words Is Still Common (Compare Ps 22:1). The Psalmist Praises God For Deliverance From His Enemies And Celebrates The Divine Government, For Providing Security To God's People And Punishment To The Wicked. Thus Encouraging Himself, He Prays For New Occasions To Recount God's Mercies, And Confident Of His Continued Judgment On The Wicked And Vindication Of The Oppressed, He Implores A Prompt And Efficient Manifestation Of The Divine Sovereignty v1-20
1. Heartfelt gratitude will find utterance. 3-5. When . . . are turned back--It is the result of God's power alone. He, as a righteous Judge (Ps 7:11), vindicates His people. He rebukes by acts as well as words (Ps 6:1; 18:15), and so effectually as to destroy the names of nations as well as persons. 6. Literally, "As to the enemy finished are his ruins for ever. Thou [God] hast destroyed," &c. (1Sa 15:3, 7; 27:8, 9). The wicked are utterly undone. Their ruins shall never be repaired. 7, 8. God's eternal possession of a throne of justice is contrasted with the ruin of the wicked. 9, 10. The oppressed, and all who know Him (Ps 5:3; 7:1), find Him a sure refuge. 11. (Compare Ps 2:6; 3:4). 12. for blood--that is, murders (Ps 5:6), including all the oppressions of His people. maketh inquisition--(compare Ge 9:5). He will avenge their cause. 13. gates--or, "regions." of death--Gates being the entrance is put for the bounds. 14. gates . . . Zion--The enclosure of the city (compare Ps 48:12; Isa 23:12), or, church, as denoted by this phrase contrasted with that of death, carries out the idea of exaltation as well as deliverance. Signal favors should lead us to render signal and public thanks. 15, 16. The undesigned results of the devices of the wicked prove them to be of God's overruling or ordering, especially when those results are destructive to the wicked themselves. 16. Higgaion--means "meditation," and, combined with Selah, seems to denote a pause of unusual solemnity and emphasis (compare Ps 3:2). Though Selah occurs seventy-three times, this is the only case in which Higgaion is found. In the view which is given here of the retribution on the wicked as an instance of God's wise and holy ordering, we may well pause in adoring wonder and faith. 17. shall be turned--or, "shall turn," retreating under God's vengeance, and driven by Him to the extreme of destruction, even hell itself. Those who forget God are classed with the depraved and openly profane. 18. (Compare Ps 13:1-6). the needy--literally, "poor," as deprived of anything; hence miserable. expectation of the poor--or, "meek," "humble," made so by affliction. 19. Arise--(compare Ps 4:7). let not man-- (Ps 8:4). let . . . be judged--and of course condemned. 20. By their effectual subjection, make them to realize their frail nature (Ps 8:4), and deter them from all conceit and future rebellion.