Psalms 9:11,12

‘Sing praises to YHWH, who dwells in Zion:

Declare among the peoples his doings.

For he who makes official enquiry for blood remembers them;

He does not forget the cry of the poor.'

Indeed all the peoples, and not only Israel, are to know the praises of the One Who dwells in Zion, where His earthly Dwellingplace (Tabernacle) has been set up. For His doings are to be declared to them, that they may do so. And these doings encompass His enquiries into all crimes committed against them, especially crimes of blood (Genesis 9:5). For he does not forget the cry of the poor. So they learn that God is personally concerned about their welfare, sufficiently to act on their behalf. In Israel the oppressed and the poor were regularly associated with the righteous. It was mainly they who in the trials of life kept close to YHWH. And we are assured that He remembers them, and keeps an eye on their affairs.

‘Who dwells in Zion.' From the beginning they were well aware that this Dwellingplace (the Tabernacle/Temple) was but an earthly shadow of His greater Dwellingplace in Heaven (1 Kings 8:27; 1 Kings 8:29 etc.). But the latter was seen as their point of contact with Him, as Solomon makes clear.

‘For he who makes official enquiry (or ‘requisition') for blood remembers them.' YHWH is hear seen as acting either as judicial examiner on behalf of the cities of refuge (Numbers 35:24) where an innocent killer could escape from the avengers of blood, revealing Him as enquiring into whether a killing was deliberate or accidental, looking into every case of violent death. Or it could signify that He will in fact be the avenger of blood Himself for those who suffer deliberate violent death. Either way He is acting as protector of His true people.

In those days it was the responsibility of the family of the dead man to pursue a case of homicide, and they had the right to a life for a life. They were to be the ‘avengers of blood'. In a time when there were no police and no local prisons it was an attempt to ensure justice, and to ensure that murder was punished. But an innocent man could flee to a city of refuge, and while there he could not be touched. However, if the family claimed that he was guilty of deliberate murder the case would be examined and if proven the man would be rejected by the city to face the avengers.

‘He does not forget the cry of the poor.' God hears those whom no one else listens to, those who have little influence, who are downtrodden and forgotten. The poor are often synonymous with the righteous, for they have nowhere else to turn but God. They are the humble seekers of God who bow down before Him.

(This is one of those few cases where the Massoretic Text offer two alternatives, the kethib being the textual reading, ‘what is written', the qere being a correction, ‘that which is to be read'. This arose because so sacred was the text seen to be that once written it could not be altered. Thus where the experts considered that rarely the text had been corrupted by error (for they knew the text by heart and knew what it should be) they would append the correction without changing the text back to what they considered it should be. It was not done lightly. The kethib here is ‘anniyim and the qere ‘anavim (a yod for a waw - they were very similar in written Hebrew, often almost indistinguishable). Both are derived from the root ‘bend or bow down', denoting either those who are bowed down (the poor), or those who bow down (the humble)).