Psalm 9

1 I 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. For the needy shall not always 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.

Key Verse:
17The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.

Key Outline:
1. v. 1-2 Praise to the Lord
2. v. 3-17 Judgment of the wicked
3. v. 18-19 Petition for God to make it so

Key Observation:
A Messianic psalm: “he shall judge to world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.

Memory Verse:
8 And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.

Devotion:
To be part of this world is to suffer wickedness at the hands of evil man. How good it is for me to realize the Lord has a time limit, that He shall be “known by the judgment”, that wickedness is coming to a time when it shall no longer prevail.

God takes the time to tell us three times in Ezekiel that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but would rather that he turn from his wicked ways. Strong proof that God has given choices to men for which He is going to hold them responsible.

I remember Joseph and his brothers, who sold him into slavery, hoping to be rid of him forever. Joseph declares the sovereignty of God, saying, “because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” (NIV) The wicked, as we learned first in Psalm 2 are always in the hands of a sovereign God, and will never ever succeed. Those who wait on him in faith must but wait a little longer “that the nations may know themselves to be but men.”

2 Timothy 2:24 says that we Christians should “patiently endure evil” and that we should be “apt to teach” that the wicked might be brought to repentance. John Piper has said that one way Satan enslaves people “is with the misery and suffering that comes from making us think there is no good God worth trusting.” I have been a Christian for nearly 40 years now, but it is not so long ago that I cannot remember discovering that there was a God personally interested in my life, and who had many times, unseen by my ignorant self, intervened in my young life (19) already. To find that God was Truth was a turning point in my life, and if I am patient with others (as 2 Timothy would direct me) perhaps they themselves will “be led to a knowledge of the truth”.

I think of the third verse of the song Martin Luther gave us:
And though this world,
with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo, his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.

May God make us willing to be patient and give “an answer to every man that asketh” that we might see some snatched from the fires of judgment as even David foresaw so long ago. Even so, come Lord Jesus.