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A hymn of praise to God for deliverance so far, Psalm 9 is also a plea that the deliverance may continue.
The psalm is attributed to David, who certainly had enough occasions in his long conflict with Saul to thank God for saving him, while at the same time he realized that he wasn’t out of the woods yet.
To the choirmaster: according to Muth-labben. A Psalm of David.
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will tell of all thy wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and exult in thee,
I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High.
When my enemies turned back,
they stumbled and perished before thee.
For thou hast maintained my just cause;
thou hast sat on the throne giving righteous judgment.
Thou hast rebuked the nations, thou hast destroyed the wicked;
thou hast blotted out their name for ever and ever.
The enemy have vanished in everlasting ruins;
their cities thou hast rooted out;
the very memory of them has perished.
But the Lord sits enthroned for ever,
he has established his throne for judgment;
and he judges the world with righteousness,
he judges the peoples with equity.
The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know thy name put their trust in thee,
for thou, O Lord, hast not forsaken those who seek thee.
Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion!
Tell among the peoples his deeds!
For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;
he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
Be gracious to me, O Lord!
Behold what I suffer from those who hate me,
O thou who liftest me up from the gates of death,
that I may recount all thy praises,
that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
I may rejoice in thy deliverance.
The nations have sunk in the pit which they made;
in the net which they hid has their own foot been caught.
The Lord has made himself known, he has executed judgment;
the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. [Higgaion. Selah]
The wicked shall depart to Sheol,
all the nations that forget God.
For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
and the hope of the poor shall not perish for ever.
Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail;
let the nations be judged before thee!
Put them in fear, O Lord!
Let the nations know that they are but men! [Selah]
Words to Remember
The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know thy name put their trust in thee,
for thou, O Lord, hast not forsaken those who seek thee.
How Anyone Can “Forget” and Still Remember God
St. Augustine explains what it means for nations to have “forgotten” God by giving us a familiar example. We all know what it’s like when someone recognizes us right away—even though we have no idea who he or she is. If that person reminds us of the circumstances under which we knew him, suddenly we find that the memory isn’t really gone at all. It was still there, somewhere, waiting to be drawn out.
Somebody you don’t recognize says to you, “You know me”; and in order to remind you, tells you where, when, and how you got to know him. And if, after he’s told you everything he can think of to make you remember him, you still don’t recognize him, then you’ve forgotten so completely that all that knowledge is altogether blotted out of your mind. There is nothing else for you to do but take his word for it when he tells you that you once knew him—or not even that, if you don’t think the person speaking to you can be trusted.
But if you do remember him, then no doubt you return to your own memory and find that the knowledge had not been altogether blotted out by forgetfulness.
Now, back to the passage that brought up the subject in the first place. Among other things, the ninth psalm says, “The wicked shall depart to Sheol, all the nations that forget God”; and again the twenty-second psalm, “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord.”
These nations, then, will not have forgotten God so much that they can’t remember him when reminded of him. Yet by forgetting God, as though forgetting their own life, they had been turned into death; that is, into hell. But when reminded, they turn back to the Lord, as though coming to life again by remembering their real life, which they had forgotten.
—St. Augustine, On the Holy Trinity
Questions to Think About
1. How often do I remember to thank God for the safety I have now—even when I’m not out of the woods yet?
2. Why would praise be an appropriate response to God’s protection of me? Have I remembered that one of the reasons for God’s protection is so that I can praise God to the whole world?
Forgetfulness is one aspect of this topic-of ‘praising God’. How about my shame of holding back, or even denying Him when it comes to ‘praising God to the whole world’? How do I get over that? I even ‘feel’ (bristle) when someone says ‘praise god’ or ‘thank you Jesus’, or ‘have a blessed day’ even though I rejoice with them secretly to myself. How ungrateful is that? Such hypocrisy on my part. I feel like Peter when he’s denying him to the server girl in the courtyard.
I love David, and thus the Psalms, b/c such a sinner he was-albeit a humble, honest, remorseful, exuberant one--he ran the gamut on human emotions. This will sound wierd but I always thought he deserved to be honored (for lack of a better word) as Peter and Paul are by our Catholic faith. He is/was so real to me...so sincere to his creator despite his many, (grave) misgivings (sins).
Ok, I’m done ‘blagging’ (bloggging & blabbing). Thanks
I praise God for His protection of me. That is not to say that I neither suffer nor sorrow, because I do both. Without God’s protection, my suffering and sorrow would be meaningless. Instead I rejoice that he has more for me to do here on earth.