Psalm 9

Invocation

Our father, Rich in mercy, splendid in grace, wisdom, and justice go before you; peace and righteousness are at your right hand. Lord of heaven above, you are God and you alone. Give ear to our prayer in the name of Jesus, for we would worship you in him. He is our great high priest; he is our intercessor and mediator. Give her to our prayer that we might serve you as a royal priesthood, your own people, for you are our God and you alone. To you be all honor, all praise and glory, father, son, and Holy Spirit, one God for all eternity. Amen.

New Testament Lesson

John 15:18–25 ESV

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

Pastoral Prayer

Grant, Almighty God, that as you constantly remind us in your word, and have taught us by so many examples, that there is nothing permanent in this world, but that the things which seem the firmest tend to ruin, and instantly fall and of themselves vanish away, when by your breath you shake your strength in which men trust—O grant that we, being really subdued and humbled, may not rely on earthly things, but raise up our hearts and our thoughts to heaven, and there fix the anchor of our hope; and may all our thoughts abide there until at length, when you have led us through our course on earth, we shall be gathered into that celestial kingdom which has been obtained for us by the blood of your only begotten Son. Until then, teach us to rest and trust in you.

To see your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Great thanks for the purchase of this building

Make us effective witnesses in Green Ridge and beyond

Families of Hope

Pregnant mothers

Unemployed, or under employed

Missions of Hope

Luke & Rebecca Bert (Harvey Cedars for Summer, seeknig call at First Pres in Ocean City, NJ)

For our denomination (PCA) as many prepare to meet for GA in a few weeks.

Nation (president, etc.)

For our daily bread.

For forgiveness of sins

For deliverance from our enemies, the World, the flesh, and the devil.

Including deliverance from sickness:

Olivia Bartoli (Goleneski) (Brain surgery to correct CM1 in July)

Receive the Word.

Sing Praises to God Who Saves!

Big Idea: Since God, the Righteous judge, has delivered us in the past, we must praise and trust in Him with our whole heart, especially for future deliverance.

Intro

Often when things don’t go our way, we are prone to blame others, and when things work out in our favor, we take all the credit. When we need God, we cry out for Him to deliver us, but when he does, we often forget to stop and praise Him, acknowledging that we owe our success to His gracious care. The psalmist provides a pattern for us to follow when in prayer we seek God’s justice. So often we come straight into the presence of God with our prayers and concerns without spending anytime rehearsing all that God has already done.

Recalling God's character and past deliverances fuels our praise and grounds our trust, giving us confidence to then plead with God for deliverance. It has been two years since we were last in the psalms, so let me remind you that the psalms are hymns which were composed to be sung in the corporate worship of the people of God. Some have their origins in prayer, but have taken on a much broader use when employed as songs to be sung by God’s people. As Calvin has rightly noted, the psalms are “an anatomy of all the parts of the soul.” Their function is to shape the hearts of the people of God through their worship. By singing the psalter, our likes and dislikes are shaped to conform to what God loves and what God hates.

So as we continue through the Psalter this summer, we pick up where we left off at Psalm 9.

Psalm 9

Summary of the Text

The Psalms structure is fairly straightforward, being easily broken into two parts. The first begins with David’s confident assertion that he will praise God with his whole heart. He then recalls how God has delivered him from the gentile enemies and has brought justice to those they oppressed. God’s past deeds form the basis of his call for all the saints to join with him in singing God’s praise. He then pivots in v. 13 to ask God to see and judge those who continue to oppress him so that he may again praise God for His deliverance. His trust in God’s ability to save has been tested and been found praiseworthy. Singing this psalm does the same for us, bolstering our faith as we rehearse the mighty deeds of God, giving us confidence to trust in Him for all future deliverance. For God is a righteous judge who does not forget the needy and poor who cry to Him for deliverance.

So let us consider how this Psalm might shape our approach to God by learning to praise God for past deliverances and trust God for the future

Praise God for past deliverances (1-12).

David begins his prayer by giving thanks with his whole heart. The Lord deserves nothing less, half-hearted worship is no worship. God will have all of your devotion, for He will not share His glory with another. As we sing this song, we are reminded and encouraged to worship God with our whole heart.

And part of this worship consists in recounting all the LORD’s wonderful deeds. This word comes up over and over again to describe God’s acts of redemption. The Lord tells Moses, “So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.” (Ex 3:20). “Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”” (Jos 3:5). When God saves His people, it is wonderful. When he brings them out of Egypt in the Exodus, it is wonderful. It is the Lord’s mighty deeds that inform the praise David issues with His whole heart.

Chief among them, at least for this psalm is His judgements to deliver David from foreign enemies. David recalls the victories the Lord gave him in battle when His enemies turned back in retreat. He is not so proud or arrogant to think somehow because he was great his enemies are on the run. But David looks up to acknowledge that God brings victory. For the thing David’s enemies don’t recognize is that David is fighting the Lord’s battles, and when he comes against the nations, he does so accompanied by the personal presence of the Lord who goes with them.

So, the wonderful deeds that fill David’s praise are first God’s act to save David from His enemies. Now we are not David, who as the LORD’s anointed stands as covenant head leading the people of God in physical battles against real physical enemies. But make no mistake, we are still at war, we still have enemies. Paul says this in Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 6:10–13 (ESV) — 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

So we continue to wage war against the world, the flesh, and the devil. When the Lord gives us the victory, we recount that in praise, giving thanks for His beneficence. When God enables you to overcome temptation, you praise; when he delivers you from your fleshly desires, you give him whole-hearted thanksgiving. So God’s wonderful deeds in your life become fodder for your praise and thanksgiving.

But chiefly as we sing to God’s victory over our enemies we think of the Lord Jesus, who echoing the triumphant tone of David, shouts at death, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Co 15:55). David’s victories against the nations can only approximate the victory Jesus brings, when the smoke of those wicked nations goes up forever and ever while they perish. But the wonder of Christ’s work is surprising, since only those who reject the LORD will perish. But others, who accept Christ as king, those nations will be redeemed. “the kings of the earth will bring their glory into [the kingdom of God] it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Re 21:24–27).

So we sing the triumph of Christ who has delivered us from the greatest of enemies–sin and death. And that strain will go on and on into eternity as we together join with all the saints to sing the praise of Christ.

Second, the wonderful deeds that fill David’s praise are God’s righteous judgements. We too often think of God as Judge in negative terms, as if we are the defendants and God is a judge who seeks to condemn us. But it is better in this instance to think of David as the plaintiff pleading with the judge to render a just judgment in his case against the wicked nations.

As was often the case in the ancient world, and even sometimes today, judges operated on bribes. If you had the money to grease the right wheels, you could get “justice” for your case. But David reminds us that God is a judge who always renders righteous judgements. His very throne is established in justice, meaning he has the authority to render just verdicts. What’s even more comforting is God never forgets the needy and poor. Since they are most often oppressed and taken advantage of because they cannot defend themselves.

As David sings the wonderful deeds of the LORD to render just judgments and maintain the cause of righteousness, he finds ample reason to praise the justice of God.

So we also as we look out at the injustice of our topsy-turvy world, where evil is called good and good evil; where justice is what you feel is right, with no recourse to the law of God, singing psalm 9 reminds us that God has vindicated the righteous. Think of David with Saul, and how he hunted him down out of jealousy and envy, but for no real wrong. But the Lord vindicated David on multiple occasions from Saul’s wicked schemes to oppress and kill him. If you cannot draw from your own experience of God rendering righteous judgement in your just cause, then you can at least draw from the experience of other saints who have gone before.

It is the character of God to show lovingkindness to a thousand generations of those who love Him, and who will by no means clear the guilty (Ex. 34:7). And so he is worthy of our praise, for here we sit, receiving the blessings of that lovingkindness through Jesus Christ. Who although he knew no sin, became sin for us, so that he could receive the guilty verdict you deserved, and so free you from sin and death by exchanging places with you. For just like the wicked nations, you stood guilty before God, but instead of rendering to you that verdict, he said, “not guilty” because of His Son. Because of Christ, you are able to approach God, the righteous Judge, without fear, praising him for his just judgments.

So this first section ends with a command to “sing praise to the LORD,” in which we recount in as much detail as possible, and with thanksgiving all of God’s wonderful deeds done for us in the past. So that we can come also, with pleas of mercy for the future.

Trust God for the future (13-20).

David moves in the second half to ask God, based on how He has acted in the past, to deliver him from future oppression and from his enemies. David’s confidence that his cause is just, and God will find him in the right and judge his enemies, is tempered with a sober reflection that David depends on God’s grace. Notice with me v. 13-14.

“Be gracious to me, O LORD! See my affliction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation.” (Ps 9:13–14).

The beauty of the gospel is that we are no longer God’s enemies, but the sober reality also of the gospel is that we have this favored status by grace alone. We call God Lord, because he first called us His people. But lest we ever think we have received God’s favor because of something we have done, or some inherently good quality we possess, we must constantly be reminded that it is only by God’s grace that we are saved. So as David does here, the preface to our plea for God to judge our enemies must start with be gracious to me, O Lord!

The confidence that undergirds David’s trust in God begins first with a right understanding of who he is, a sinner saved by grace. But what I want us to see is the basis for this confidence, which leads David to cry out to God for future deliverance is seen in the futility of his enemies efforts, since they go not just against David and Israel but against God, and the ordered nature of the world.

Courage is often found in numbers. Gather a large group and they will do things that on their own they would not think of doing. A mob, for instance, is likely to pillage and steal and burn, but get those people out on their own and it’s doubtful they will engage in such reckless behavior. The impetus to rally together against God is as old as Babel, and its result is just as predictably the same as then.

Nations dig pits for Israel to fall into and they end up falling into them themselves. Their own works become the snare that catches and holds them fast. David knows that the wicked schemes of the nations only really have one outcome–death. “The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God.” (Ps 9:17).

We recently concluded our study through the book of Revelation in Sunday School and one of the surprising things that happens to the harlot city Babylon is that she is devoured by the beast. Meaning the same thing that animated her rebellion against God would also be her ruin. In other words she would eat herself. The heart of the babel project, the thing that drives it forward with what seems like ruthless energy, is her hatred of God, which turns out also to be the very cause of her ruin. For to hate God is to love death (Pr. 8:36).

When you trace the storyline of Revelation, which is just the storyline of the redemption of Christ, you find that the judgment of the beast devouring the harlot Babylon is actually a response to the prayers of the saints from Ch. 6.

“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.” (Re 6:9–11).

Christ has defeated the greatest enemy you will ever face: sin and death. But that doesn’t mean you won’t encounter enemies in the Christian life. When we sing Psalm 9, we are reminded that there is a natural course to the world, that in the end the wicked will be hoisted upon their own petard. Social Justice warriors such as Martin Luther King Jr. use this quote to capture the idea the psalmist captures: “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

So when we face the world, the flesh, and the devil, we do so armed with the words of this psalm, confidently trusting in the God who is our righteous judge, who will vindicate the righteous, and see that the wicked get their just deserts.

There are two present things the psalmist does while he waits for God to judge his enemies. Both come by way of reminder. First, he reminds himself that God does not forget. Second, he reminds himself that his enemies are just men.

““Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.” (Is 49:15–16).

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Lk 12:6–7).

God’s memory is not short like ours. We say one thing one day, and another the next. We forget our promises, forget our obligations, forget even when we try so hard not too. But God never forgets. Every moment is present to God. He is not searching through his memory bank to find something he has lost. It’s important to remind ourselves of this when we face the affliction of the wicked. Why? Because when we do, it feels as if God has forgotten. That text I just read from Isaiah God, never forgetting you, of having engraved you in the palms of His hands comes after Israel said, “The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” (Is 49:14). And David cries out on Psalm 13:

“How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?” (Ps 13:1–2).

When we suffer and justice doesn’t come immediately, we think that somehow God has forgotten us. So we sing “For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.” (Ps 9:18).

But David also reminds himself that his enemies are mere mortals–they are men.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Ro 8:31).

“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 Jn 4:4).

““I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Lk 12:4–5).

If God is for you, what can man do against you? David ends this psalm saying, “Arise, O LORD! Let not man prevail; let the nations be judged before you! Put them in fear, O LORD! Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah” (Ps 9:19–20). David calls on God to show his enemies who He is, that he is God, and they are not. By vindicating David, by rendering righteous judgement against the wicked the LORD would put them in their place and teach the wicked that they are mere mortals.

But as we sing this psalm, we are reminded that as long as we are in covenant with God, then our enemies are men. As Jesus said in Luke 12, we are not to fear those who can only hurt the body, but the one who can cast body and soul into hell, namely God. Even our enemies are under the sovereign control of the LORD, who will not allow them to go beyond their allotted bounds. If God is on your side, what can man do to you?

So, while we wait for God to vindicate the righteous, to put down our enmies and deliver us from their oppression we remind ourselves, that God has not forgotten, even if he seems slow to act, and so long as we maintain our faith, then we can be confident that God is on our side and our enemies are men. So we call on God and say with the words of this psalm:

“Be gracious to me, O LORD! See my affliction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation.” (Ps 9:13–14).

Amen! Let’s pray: O Gracious Father, have mercy on us, to those who are afflicted here today, hear our cry and defend your heritage against our enemies. O you who have done wonderful things, who have freed us from death and hell, liberating us from its power through the sacrifice of your Son, arise O LORD! let not man prevail; let the nations be judged before you, let them know that they are but men! For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. The LORD sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness. The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you. And so we will sing your praise, and with our whole heart we will recount all your wonderful deeds. Through Jesus Christ our LORD, amen.

Lord’s Supper Meditation

Jesus reminds you of two things when he invites you to this meal with him. First, that you are not His enemy. We try our best to make sure that we pick the right battles to fight in, don’t we? We want our cause to have the blessing of God, to be assured that we will succeed. But more important than choosing the right battles to fight in is choosing the right side, or rather, being chosen. It’s true that because of sin, we are at enmity with one another, but this is only because we are first enemies of God. From that enmity comes all wars and murder and strife. But that enmity has been dealt with on the cross. There, the justice and the mercy of God meet. Now Jesus, who paid the price for your sins, calls you friend, and the father adopts you into His family, calling you son. This meal is a reminder that you are at peace with God, that there is no more enmity. But it is also a reminder that the Lord will not forsake you; a reminder that Christ is a refuge and stronghold for the oppressed, that we can run to and find rest from the assaults of our enemies. We come and we eat a delightful meal of bread and wine, remembering that he has set the table in the presence of our enemies. We eat in peace because God is on our side, so what can man do to us; we eat knowing that the nations will sink in the pit that they made, that the wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God. So we remember Christ, we remember our status before, and we look in hope to when He will come and vindicate the righteous from their suffering. So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

Charge

Since God, the Righteous judge, has delivered us in the past, we must praise and trust in Him with our whole heart, especially for future deliverance.