AUTHOR:  This psalm is ascribed to David in the title and in all the versions, and there is no reason to doubt this.

OCCASION:  There is nothing expressly stated in the psalm as to the events occasioning this work, nor are we able to determine such from any legend or tradition.  Barnes offers the following in this connection:  1) It was composed in view of enemies of the writer... 2) These were foreign enemies, or those who are called heathen... 3) They were desolating foes -- invading foes -- those who laid a land waste in their marches... 4) The writer had achieved a victory over them, and he praises God for this... 5) Yet, he was still surrounded by his enemies and he still asks God's interposition in his behalf.

OUTLINE:  It naturally divides itself into 2 parts:  Verses 1-12 and verses 13-20.  The first part relates to deliverance from enemies, and the second part to a continued need for and reliance on the help of God.  It sings mans song of dependence upon Divine Providence beautifully.

TITLE:  The psalm is directed to THE CHIEF MUSICIAN UPON MUTH-LABBEN.  Unclear and entirely too insignificant for consideration here.

1     "I will praise thee"   -- In view of the consideration of the merciful interposition of God on behalf of the psalmist, the content of the psalm itself, the psalmist offers praise to God.  "With my whole heart" -- An undivided and completely devoted offering of the heart of the psalmist in the praise of God.  He owed his entire existence to the God whom he praised, and he therefore withholds nothing from Him in praising Him.  "I will show forth" -- I will recount, or narrate, as in the words of this psalm.  "All thy marvelous works" -- The reference here is to those works specifically under consideration here, but may be more broadly applied.  The psalmist is declaring his intent to fully reveal what God had done for him.

2     "I will be glad" -- I will be joyous and express my joy.  "And rejoice in thee" -- He points here to the victory he had already enjoyed from God's hand and the further victories he expected to receive.  "I will sing praise to thy name" -- He would continue to praise the God of his salvation.  "O thou Most High" -- He points to the One who is supreme--the God over all.

3     "When mine enemies are turned back" -- We do not know just who these enemies were, as the psalmist does not say.  It is clear that he knew who they were, and that he had in the past gained victories over them, and that he was then surrounded by them, and that  he  expected  to  be  delivered  from them again.  "They shall fall and perish" -- Based on the past, the psalmist confidently concludes that his surrounding enemies would fall and die.  "At thy presence" -- That is, Before thee.  God would make short order of David's enemies.

4     "For thou hast maintained my right and my cause" -- When his enemies were outnumbering him, God upheld him in a righteous effort.  David was not in the wrong, and therefore God allowed the lesser to defeat the greater.  "Thou satest in the throne judging right" -- As a judge on the bench, God considered the matter and found David to be innocent of wrong and fighting a righteous battle and helped him in his battle.

5     "Thou hast rebuked the heathen" -- He here points to the enemies of the case at hand.  God had sided with David and brought defeat to David's enemies.  "Thou hast destroyed the wicked" -- The same ones referred to by the word "heathen" above.  "Thou hast put out their name for ever and ever" -- As a conquered nation loses its independence, government, and history; so these enemies would suffer the loss of all in this unjust pursuit of David.

6     "O thou enemy! Destructions are come to a perpetual end" -- The destructions wrought by the enemy were over!  "And thou hast destroyed cities" -- That is, in the course of their career they had destroyed not only individuals, but entire cities.  "Their memorial is perished with them" -- They had dealt so harshly and barbarously with the cities they had destroyed that there was no more record of some of them.

7     "But the Lord shall endure for ever" -- Despite the seeming success you enjoyed in your dealings with the "cities", you will find no such fortune when dealing with the Lord.  "He hath prepared his throne for judgment" -- He sits on the throne as the just judge of the world, and your (the enemies of the psalmist) actions will be condemned by Him.

8     "And he shall judge the world in righteousness" -- All men have to do with God...  "He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness" -- This was a warning to the enemies, whose actions were not in "uprightness".  All men, including them, would stand before God; but only the righteous would find salvation.

9     "The   Lord also will be a refuge" -- He will offer a place of safety.  We may turn to Him from the fray of life and confidently trust in the protection He affords the redeemed.  The word "refuge" properly means "an high place".  More specifically, the idea is a cleft in a rock high on a mountain, difficult for the enemy to locate and impossible for him to reach.  FOR THE OPPRESSED  Literally, for the broken, the afflicted, the crushed.  The idea is that of individuals who have been mistreated, subjected to tyranny, abuse.  The Lord will come to the aid of the mistreated ones and hide them from the oppressors and afford them safety in the cleft of the Rock of Ages.  A REFUGE IN TIMES OF TROUBLE  The same word for "refuge" appears here again, and it still offers a cleft in a rock high above.  Those who will be offered this protection are now identified as ones suffering "trouble", thus broadening the scope of God's protection.  Not only will He afford safety to those who are being afflicted or oppressed, but He will be an ever present comforter to all who are in trouble.  When troubled men turn to Him, as He directs in the Word, He provides that which they lack:  salvation, succor, direction.

10    AND THEY THAT KNOW THY NAME  Those who are acquainted with Him, ultimately by means of the Word.  WILL PUT THEIR TRUST IN THEE  God is trustworthy, He warrants our faith.  Those who are familiar with God, by hearing and believing and obeying His will, know His fidelity and reliability and fully trust in Him.  They have found Him such as to inspire their confidence in Him.  What better measure of His worth could be taken than by looking at those who know Him the best?  They have found Him worthy of their trust.  FOR THOU, LORD, HAST NOT FORSAKEN THEM THAT SEEK THEE  This would be the leading reason for faith on the part of those who know Him:  He does not leave His children.  David doubtless has reference to the protection he expected to receive from the Father in the present trouble based on the protection he had received in the past.  We know this characteristic is still true of God for us:  "LET YOUR CONVERSATION BE WITHOUT COVETOUSNESS; AND BE CONTENT WITH SUCH THINGS AS YE HAVE:  FOR HE HATH SAID, I WILL NEVER LEAVE THEE, NOR FORSAKE THEE.  SO THAT WE MAY BOLDLY SAY, THE LORD IS MY HELPER, AND I WILL NOT FEAR WHAT MAN SHALL DO UNTO ME" (Hebrews 13:5-6).  Our God remembers those that "seek" him and will not leave them in their hour of need.

11    SING PRAISES TO THE LORD  Based on the enduring and faithful character of God, His abiding presence and blessings, sing praises to Him.  This is as much an  emotional  outburst  as  anything else.  It is as though the Psalmist is overcome with emotion as he considers all that God has done for him.  He calls on others to join him in praising his Mighty Protector.  WHICH DWELLETH IN ZION:  Zion was one of the hills on which the City of Peace (Jeru- city, Salem- peace, thus:  Jerusalem), stood.  II Samuel 5:7 and I Chronicles 11:5 tell us that it was captured by David when it was a Jebusite stronghold and its name changed to the city of David.  It was     to this place that he brought the ark of the covenant, and the hill from that time became a sacred spot to the Jews (I Kings 8:1; II Chronicles 3:1; 5:2).  After the building of the temple on mount Moriah and the transfer of the ark to it, the name "Zion" was extended to comprehend the temple (Isaiah 8:18, 18:7, 24:23; Joel 3:17; Micah 4:7).  (SOURCE:  Davis Dictionary of the Bible).  By New Testament times the term "Zion" was broadened in its scope to refer generally to   the eternal city of God, or heaven (Hebrews 12:22, Revelation 14:1).  As David used the word in this text, he had reference first to the City of Jerusalem, as the symbolic residence of God on earth, and then secondly to heaven itself, as the literal dwelling place of God.  DECLARE AMONG THE PEOPLE HIS DOINGS  Tell everyone of the things God has done.  Let His wonders be known among yourselves and all the world.  We do not take this to be an evangelistic order so much as an order to declare God's power to His people (the Jews) in order that their confidence might be bolstered, and among the heathen in order that they might come to fear God and leave His people alone.

12    WHEN HE MAKETH INQUISITION FOR BLOOD  When He comes to bring punishment to the guilty.  The reference is based on an allusion to the promised "blood for blood" laws of God, but applies more generally to sin at large.  God is depicted as seeking out the violator, in the capacity of an executioner, to bring retribution to that one who has spurned His laws.  HE REMEMBERETH THEM  The idea seems to be that when God goes about to punish the guilty He will remember, or mark as innocent, the righteous.  He will not destroy the innocent with the guilty when executing this punishment.  The whole argument of the passage is that God is faithful and merciful to the just while at the same time just to the wicked.  HE FORGETTETH NOT THE CRY OF THE HUMBLE  Instead of "humble", it should read "afflicted, oppressed, troubled".  He will bring to His Mind the cry of those who have long called on Him for help when He executes justice on the wicked.

13    HAVE MERCY  UPON  ME,  O  LORD   God  had  helped  David innumerable times in the past, but despite these instances of deliverance, David still finds himself in need of help.  He pleads with God to intervene yet again on his behalf.  CONSIDER MY TROUBLE  It is as though David is asking God to look deeper within his troubles, consider or take another look at my difficulties.  He is praying for more help.  WHICH I SUFFER OF THEM THAT HATE ME   This called attention to the source of David's trouble:  his enemies.  Those that hated David were still at large and unpunished, and David seems to be calling God into action against them.  THOU THAT LIFTEST ME UP FROM THE GATES OF DEATH  The "thou" was God, and David is making reference to the many times God had formerly delivered him.  He looked around at his enemies and considered himself to be at or near the gates of death.  The reference to the "gates of death" comes from the idea of the unseen world, HADES, as being "beneath".  David feared that his enemies, despite past protection from God, might yet gain the victory over him, absent further deliverance.  He seems to be fearing that unless God intervened he would fall to his enemies.

14    THAT I MAY SHEW FORTH ALL THY PRAISE  David is saying that he seeks the solicited deliverance in order that he might be able to finish, or complete (shew forth all) the praise due unto the Lord.  He considers death as being void of opportunities for praising God.  We take this to be the common view of man, that death ends all of mans plans and pursuits and there would be afforded in death no opportunity for praising God.  David is asking for deliverance on the grounds of his "unfinished praise".  IN THE GATES OF THE DAUGHTER OF ZION  As opposed to the gates of death from verse 13, David asks for an opportunity to praise God in the gates of Zion.  "Gates" were places of concourse, where important transactions took place.  They represented very public places, as they would have to be passed through to enter or leave the city; taken with this in mind, the Psalmist seems to be asking for deliverance that he might, in the most public of places, praise and honor God.  I WILL REJOICE IN THY SALVATION  Specifically, David would rejoice in the deliverance for which he was asking.  Generally, David would rejoice in the provisions of His God on all fronts and at all times.

15    THE HEATHEN  Literally, the nations, the idol worshipping neighbors of Israel.  ARE SUNK DOWN  This is a reference to the ones over whom God had granted David deliverance in the past.  They were fully defeated.  IN THE PIT THAT THEY MADE  The very thing they looked to upon to save them became their  death:   the  pit they dug for others entrapped them.  IN THE NET WHICH THEY HID  This referred to a "spring net" designed to entrap birds or wild beasts.  IS THEIR OWN FOOT TAKEN  Not unlike a modern trap, this net seems to have caught the foot of the animal sought.  They find themselves caught in the very net laid for others.  Their evil became their own downfall.

16    THE LORD IS KNOWN BY THE JUDGMENT WHICH HE EXECUTETH  We learn His Will from studying His Word, and that word tells what kind of a God He is:  He is a just and holy God which requires punishment for wickedness.  To allow evil to go unchecked would indicate either weakness on His part or wickedness.  THE WICKED IS SNARED IN THE WORK OF HIS OWN HANDS  He, that is God, cannot allow the wicked to succeed, He brings them to naught by means of their own offense -- their own trap.  He uses their evil to destroy them.  HIGGAION  This word is rendered MEDITATION in Psalm 19:14, SOLEMN SOUND in Psalm 42:3, and DEVICE in Lamentations 3:62, and occurs nowhere else in the Bible.  It means a low muttering, a soft sound, such as would be unconsciously made by one in deep meditation.  It may have reference to a musical instruction (i.e. David may be instructing the player of the instrument to play softly for a little time to allow these thoughts to sink in).  SELAH  Probable reference to a musical instruction also, another pause.  This may be taken to be a general pause, and the former (HIGGAION) a specific kind of pause.

17    THE WICKED  All of the wicked, each of those whose lives are not in accord with the Will of God.  The specific intent of David was probably to indicate the ones presently troubling him, but to limit this truth to that category is to miss the point:  All of the wicked shall come to no good end, and certainly the present wicked would do no better.  SHALL BE TURNED  Literally, shall turn back, or be turned from their present course.  They may have planned for victory, but they would not be allowed to pursue a course which, in their wickedness, allowed them to find victory.  INTO HELL  Sheol.  This word originally indicated the grave, the abode of the dead.  As used here (and elsewhere, largely) it seems to indicate that there was a distinction between the abode of the wicked dead and the righteous dead.  The righteous dead would come to rest and peace, so as to indicate a victory in death; whereas the wicked dead would come to punishment in death.  There will be no winning for the sinner.  AND ALL THE NATIONS THAT FORGET GOD  That is, all who were strangers   to  Him.    To  "forget"  God  indicated  that  one  was  not disposed to remembering or honoring Him.

18    FOR THE NEEDY  The poor and helpless.  SHALL NOT ALWAY BE FORGOTTEN  God will interfere in the affairs of men in order that they might be delivered from their enemies.  The wicked will not always be allowed to overrun the helpless.  THE EXPECTATION OF THE POOR  Their hope is here considered, the long sought after deliverance.  SHALL NOT PERISH FOR EVER.  That is, they will not always live destitute of the realization of their hopes and desires.  God will grant them rest in the end, if not sooner.

19    ARISE, O LORD  Spring into action, as though He had been waiting for something to happen before starting His work of deliverance.  LET NOT MAN PREVAIL  It is as though a war was taking place between the enemies of God and God himself, and David is the recipient of the enemies attacks.  He prays here that God would not allow his enemies to win, or prevail.  LET THE HEATHEN BE JUDGED IN THY SIGHT  He prays that, in the context of this great battle, God would grant deliverance to the righteous and destruction to the heathen, or "the nations", that were arrayed against David.

20    PUT THEM IN FEAR, O LORD  Though then they were oblivious to the danger in which they stood, David prays that they might lose their confidence by a demonstration of God's power.  THAT THE NATIONS MAY KNOW  Specifically, the "nations" referred here to those arrayed against David.  THEMSELVES TO BE BUT MEN  Let them come to know the nature of man, and, implicitly the nature of God.  Men are weak, subject to the frailties of life, and ultimately subject to death, whereas God cannot be defeated, nor shall He ever die.  David prays that his enemies might come to understand that they cannot possibly defeat God, and it seems that he is praying also that God would quickly and manifestly demonstrate this to them.

  QUESTIONS:  PSALM 9

1. Whom would David praise?
2. With what would he praise Him?
3. What would David "shew forth"?
4. In whom would the psalmist rejoice and be glad?
5. At what would David's enemies fall and perish?
6. What had God maintained for David?
7. Whom had God rebuked?
8. Whom had He destroyed?
9. What had He put out for ever and ever?
10. What had come to a perpetual end?
11. Who had destroyed the cities of verse 6?
12. What had perished with them?
13. For how long would the Lord endure?
14. What had been prepared for judgment?
15. In what will He judge the world?
16. In what will He minister judgment?
17. For whom will the Lord be a refuge?
18. What does "refuge" mean, as used here?
19. Who put their trust in God?
20. What had God not done to those that trusted Him?
21. Whose cry is not forgotten by God?
22. What did David ask God to consider?
23. Of whom did he suffer trouble?
24. What did David wish to shew forth?
25. In what would he rejoice?
26. Into what had the heathen sunk down?
27. What was taken in the net the wicked had laid?
28. By what is the Lord known?
29. In what is the wicked snared?
30. Where shall the wicked be turned?
31. What about the nations that forget God?
32. Who would not always be forgotten?
33. What, of the poor, would not perish for ever?
34. __________, O Lord, let ______ ______ prevail:  let the _______ be ____________ in ______ __________.
35. In what did David ask God to put the heathen?
36. For what reason did he ask this?
37. What does "heathen" indicate? ___________________________ ____________________________________________________