Psalms 9:1-20

Psalms 1:41

Gordon Churchyard

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God will Always Remember you

Psalms 9 and 10

Gordon Churchyard

Jesus said, "I did not come to judge the world. I came to save the world". (John 12:47) (Judge here means say who is wrong.)

The stories of Psalms 9 and 10

David probably wrote Psalms 9 and 10 as one psalm. The Jews thought that he wrote it after he killed Goliath. The first part says that God beat the foreign enemy (Psalms 9). The second part says that wicked men in Israel are making the helpless into oppressed people. (Psalms 10)

The reasons for thinking that it was one psalm are:

• Psalms 10 has no words at the top about David or music. This is not usual in a psalm by David.

• Hebrew words that David did not often use are in Psalms 9 and 10.

• Psalms 9 and 10 make one acrostic.

Acrostic psalms use the Hebrew alphabet. The first bit starts with the first letter. The second bit starts with the second letter. This happens until the alphabet finishes. Look at Psalms 9 below. Then you will understand. We have used English letters. These are not the same as Hebrew ones. After a time some of the letters became lost or mixed up! Also, the Jews decided to make them into 2 psalms. Some Christians have put them back together as one psalm, for example, some Roman Catholics.

It is difficult to write an acrostic psalm. The words sometimes go in a strange order. This makes them hard to understand. It may give you help if you change the order of the words. In verse 3 you could say "My enemies went back" instead of "Back my enemies went". It means the same.

Psalms 9

The leader (must use the music) "Death to the son".
(This is) a song of David

v1 All my heart sings 'thank you' to the LORD.
I will tell (people) of all your wonderful work.

v2 I will be very happy with you, (LORD). I will rejoice in you.
I will sing praises to your name, Most High God.

v3 Back my enemies went,
they fell down. They died in front of you,

v4 because you judged that what I did was right.
You sat on your throne. You made a righteous judgment.

v5 Clearly you judged the nations and destroyed the wicked.
People will never remember their names.

v6 You caught the enemy. You killed them.
You knocked down their cities. People will just forget them.

v7 *Evermore the LORD will rule.
He has built his throne. On it, he will make his judgments.

v8 He will make righteous judgments for the world.
His government will give justice to the people.

v9 For the LORD is a place where the *oppressed can hide.
He will be a fortress in times of trouble.

v10 Everyone that knows your name (LORD) will put their trust in you.
LORD, you will never turn away from anyone that looks for you.

v11 Go to the LORD with praises. His throne is in Zion.
Tell all the nations all that he has done.

v12 (God) will remember the people that somebody murdered.
He will not forget the *oppressed people that cry to him.

v13 Have mercy on me, LORD.
See how my enemies make my life very difficult.
Make me safe from the gates of death.

v14 Then I will tell your praises in the gates of Jerusalem.
I will rejoice that I am safe with you.

v15 Into the hole that they dug the nations fell.
They caught their own feet in the net that they hid.

v16 You will recognise the LORD by his justice.
The enemies of God will catch themselves in their own nets.
*HIGGAION SELAH

v17 Just as the enemies of God go to Sheol,
so will all the nations that forget him.

v18 Know this: God will not always forget the poor.
The *oppressed will not have to hope for *evermore.

v19 LORD, stand up! Do not let men become too powerful.
Let the nations find justice before you.

v20 LORD, make them afraid.
Make the nations know that they are only human. SELAH

Other Acrostic Psalms

The psalms are Hebrew poetry. Poetry is when people write the words in a special way. They sound very beautiful. The Jews had a lot of rules for writing poetry. One was to make the ends of the words sound like each other. We call this "rhyming". Another rule was to make the ideas sound like each other. Look at Psalms 9: 8. The 2 parts of the verse mean the same. This often gives us help to understand and to translate a psalm.

Another way the Jews wrote poetry was to use an acrostic. This often caused the words to be in the wrong order, like Psalms 9: 3. Not many of the psalms are acrostics. The most famous one is Psalms 119. The others are 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, and 145. We do not usually translate them into English as acrostics, because there are 26 letters in the English alphabet. There are only 22 in the Hebrew alphabet. We have done it with psalms 9 and 10 because some of the letters are missing. This makes it easier for us!

What Psalms 9 means

Not all the letters of the acrostic are here! D is not here. Perhaps somebody changed some words into other words that meant the same.

If you find the acrostic difficult, here is some help.

• Psalms 9:3 - my enemies went back

• Psalms 9:5 - you judged the nations clearly

• Psalms 9:7 - the LORD will rule evermore (or always)

• Psalms 9:15 - the nations fell into the hole that they dug

Psalms 9:1–6: David is very happy. He says, "thank you" to the LORD. Why? Because David beat his enemies. David knew that God gave him help. It was God that really beat the enemies, not David on his own! God judged that David was right and the enemies wrong. The enemies were probably the Philistines. Goliath was a Philistine.

Psalms 9:7–10: God is always ruling the world. Sometimes it is hard to believe this, but it is true. Sometimes we must wait a long time for his righteous judgments. Righteous here means this: the judgments of God are the best judgments. While we wait for his judgments, what can we do? Psalms 9:9-10 tells us! We can:

• look for the LORD: if we do this, the LORD will find us!

• trust in the LORD: if we do this, the LORD will give us help

• hide in the LORD: if we do this, the LORD will make us safe

Psalms 9:11–14: When God finds us, gives us help and makes us safe, that is not the end. We must:

• always give praises to the LORD: on our own, and in Church

• tell people about God: our family, our friends, those we work with

Many people will not like this! As they made life difficult for David, so they will for us. So we must pray, "Have mercy on me, LORD". These are the words that some Churches still pray in Greek: KYRIE ELEISON. God's mercy is when he is loving and kind to us, and not angry.

Psalms 9:15–20: In Psalms 9:6 we read, "You killed them". In Psalms 9:15-16 we read how God does this. Often, people kill themselves, or each other! The plan that they made to kill their enemies kills them. They go to Sheol. The Jews thought that Sheol was a dark place. It was under the ground. The psalm finishes by telling us 2 things:

• God will remember the oppressed, even if they have to wait a long time

• God will teach men and women that they are only human. It is only God that is really powerful

Something to do

When there is trouble in your country, pray to God about it. Your country may fight another country. Pray to God about it. Pray for your government and your soldiers. Some of them may be Christians. Pray for justice. It may not matter which country wins. What matters is that God still rules the world. When you pray, talk to God in your own words.

oppressed ~ helpless people that wicked people hurt
HIGGAION ~ a place for happy music
evermore ~ another word for always