Psalm 9

This morning I want to talk about core beliefs. A person’s core beliefs are their most central ideas about themselves, others, and the world. They act as a lens by which we see and understand our life experiences, and they go a long way towards informing how we think, feel, and behave in our every day lives.

Let me give you an example. Suppose you’re a student, and you get your exam back from the teacher and it’s not a good grade. Depending on your core beliefs, you may react in a number of different ways. If you believe that at your core, you are a failure and a poor excuse for a human being, you’ll respond by thinking to yourself, “Of course I failed, it’s what I do best.” You’ll grow depressed and feel very little motivation to change anything about your study habits. Contrast that with the person who has a core belief that they are a perfectly capable person. Such a person will respond to the poor grade with the thought that they should have prepared more for the exam. They may feel disappointed, but not ashamed, and they’ll be motivated to change their study practices before the next test.

Now, this is a simplified example, but you can see how a person’s core beliefs shape how they think, feel, and act. They wield incredible power over our lives. We’ve all met the person who’s core belief is that nothing ever goes right. Maybe we are that person! We’ve all met the person who’s core belief is that world is a dangerous place and people can’t be trusted. Core beliefs are not benign or inert, but rather they manifest in our lives by regularly overflowing into our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Now, why do I want to talk about core beliefs today? Well, because the psalmist of Psalm 9 presents a core belief that is foundational for every Christian. In this poem, we hear the psalmist highlight a core belief that is of incredible significance for shaping the thoughts and actions of every Christian in the world.

What is this core beliefs? We find it in in verse 7, “The Lord sits enthroned forever.” The Lord sits enthroned forever. This central belief shaped the life of the psalmist; and through this poem, he urges us to take it to heart as well.

So let’s dive into the text. Psalm 9 begins with a moment of thankful praise. Look with me at verse 1-2.

1 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;

I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

2 I will be glad and exult in you;

I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

Now, we’ll return to this introduction in a moment, but I want us to notice that the psalmist is very excited about what he calls the Lord’s “wonderful deeds.” But, we have to ask the question: These wonderful deeds that have drawn such praise from the psalmist, are they things that God has done in the past, or is doing presently, or will do one day in the future? Well, if we look closely, there are hints that the psalmist is actually praising God for something that God has not yet done. While this psalm begins with praise and acclamation, it is actually a prayer for help. We can see that clearly in verse 13:

13 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,

And even look at how the psalm ends in verse 19:

19 Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail;

let the nations be judged before you!

20 Put them in fear, O Lord!

Let the nations know that they are but men!

Psalm 9 has all the makings of a prayer for help. David is beset on all sides by enemies, and yet he begins with thankful praise - thankful praise that is given even in the midst of a problem that has not been resolved.

It’s important that we recognize that. Even though parts of this psalm are written in the past tense, it’s really what scholars call the prophetic perfect tense. This is a feature of the Old Testament, and seen quite frequently in the psalms. Biblical authors will sometimes describe future events as if they’ve already happened, so as to communicate the certainty of their future fulfillment.

So, when David writes in verse 5 that the Lord blotted out the name of the wicked forever, we should infer that he is speaking about a future event - but it is a future event that David is whole heartedly convinced will come to fruition, which is why he speaks of it as if it has already happened.

So what wonderful deed is David looking forward to? Well let’s pick it back up in verse 3-8:

3 When my enemies turn back,

they stumble and perish before your presence.

4 For you have maintained my just cause;

you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.

5 You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish;

you have blotted out their name forever and ever.

6 The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins;

their cities you rooted out;

the very memory of them has perished.

So what are the future wonderful deeds of the Lord that has David rejoicing? David is certain that God will decisively defeat his enemies. The imagery is so vivid and extensive in this passage. We’re not just talking about a military defeat of God’s enemies - but rather a complete deconstruction of evil and wickedness to the point that they will no longer be remembered anywhere on the earth. David is rejoicing over a future where wickedness isn’t a distant memory - it is no memory at all.

That’s an experience that is really hard to imagine for those of us who’s daily experience is marred by scars and wounds that we’ve received from our interactions with wickedness in the world. We all carry memories of sins that we’ve committed in the past, or sins that others have committed against us. And these experiences have had lasting repercussions in our lives, even if we’re talking about something that happened years and years ago! It is so hard for us to shake that memory.

I’m reminded of the character of Jenny from Forrest Gump. Jenny’s childhood was unimaginably awful, raised as she was by an abusive father. One night, a terrified little Jenny flees from her drunken father, into the forest, where she drops to her knees and begs the Lord to make her a bird so she could fly far away from all danger. That experience marked Jenny for the rest of her life. As the movie follows her story - she can never settle down. She is always on the move, flying away from every place and everyone, even those who want only to support her and love her. She couldn’t shake the memory of her wicked father.

But what David is certain about is this: in a way that only he can, the Lord will wipe away all memory of sin. One day, God’s people will live in a world free from the threat of violence, oppression, hostility, injustice, death, and disease. It will all be as if it never existed!

And why is David certain of this future, even if it is not descriptive of his present circumstances, which we know to be quite difficult. But why is David certain that God will decisively rescue his people and free them from all wickedness? Because of his core belief which he describes in verses 7-8.

7 But the Lord sits enthroned forever;

he has established his throne for justice,

8 and he judges the world with righteousness;

he judges the peoples with uprightness.

Question: How can David, whilst in the midst of great affliction - I mean he says that he is at the gates of death - so in such a dire place, how can David have full assurance that God will not only bring justice to his particular situation, but that God will ultimately bring justice to all the earth? How can he be so sure? How can he be rejoicing right now?

Answer: because David believes with his whole heart that the Lord sits enthroned forever, and he has established his throne for justice.

The Lord sits enthroned forever. Let’s not breeze over that. This is one of those lines in the bible that we might blow past, but let’s stop and consider what this means. The Lord sits enthroned - sits as King, as Lord, as the Sovereign One over all the earth…forever.

In our world we understand power and authority as something that must be earned or given or taken by force, and then it must be guarded and maintained because there is always the threat that you’ll be unseated. In our country, the leaders of the nation have to be regularly elected to be given the authority to govern, which means every few years they have to raise funds, and go campaigning, and kiss babies, and run the polls, and change their positions, all in the hopes that they will be given the opportunity to continue their governance. Every leader of every nation on earth lives under the constant threat that they will lose their power and authority to enact their will and their agenda.

But it is not so with God, because the Lord sits enthroned forever. His power to achieve his goals is never in question and is never threatened. In Psalm 115, a text that we’ll get to probably in the year 2035, the psalmist succinctly describes this idea when he writes, “Our God is in heaven, he does all that he pleases.” God does all that he pleases - without obstruction, because he sits enthroned forever.

This core belief is the reason why David can rejoice and give thanks even while at the gates of death and suffering great affliction; because he is confident that God will right every wrong and will achieve his goals for David’s life. And David trusts that the Lord’s goals for his life are good, for the reasons we see in verse 9:

9 The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,

a stronghold in times of trouble.

10 And those who know your name put their trust in you,

for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

How good is it that the Lord who is enthroned forever, is also a stronghold for the oppressed - a stronghold for those who feel crushed by the brokenness of the world? Is it any wonder that when this God put on human flesh and walked around the earth - is it any wonder that those who flocked to him, those who hung on his every word, those that followed him from city to city, is it any wonder that they were the poor, the sick, the hungry, and the outcast? What they saw in Jesus was the very same thing that David describes here about God - he is a stronghold for the oppressed. He is safety and security and strength for those who have been ground down by life.

When Jesus was once in the midst of a large crowd of people who had come to be healed of various diseases, Jesus went up a small hill and gathered his closest circle of disciples around him to teach them about the Kingdom of God that he was to establish on earth, he began by teaching them who that Kingdom was for. And in view of this crowd filled with the poor and sick and cripple, Jesus began his teaching in this way...

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, and he is enthroned forever. This is David’s core belief, and it allowed him to maintain hope and even joy during some really challenging seasons of life. And it can do the same for you.

We have a name for this core belief: We call it the gospel. This is the gospel: that Christ sits enthroned forever, and he is a stronghold for all who have been crushed by the weight of sin. And when this becomes the central idea that informs how you see yourself and the world around you, you will discover the hope and joy that is evident in Psalm 9. You will no longer be held captive to the mistakes that you’ve made in the past, because you’ll know the forgiveness that is offered in Jesus. Nor will you be chained to the memory of sins that have been committed against you, because you’ll know that when Christ returns, every tear will be wiped away, and the memory of evil will perish. When this gospel takes root in your heart, you’ll find that you can weather all kinds of difficult circumstances, just as the saints before you have done for two thousand years, because you’ll trust that these challenging seasons of life can in no way obstruct the work that God intends to do in you and through you and for you.

This core belief is the gospel. Now, if you struggle to take this to heart, you’ve come to the right place. We all struggle with this. We all hold these beliefs imperfectly and inconsistently…so if you are struggling this morning to believe with your whole heart that the Lord is enthroned forever and that he is a stronghold for the oppressed, that’s okay. I’m glad you’re here.

Rather than becoming overwhelmed with the idea of changing your core beliefs overnight to be more in line with Jesus, I simply want you to think about what might be your next step? What is the next step towards embracing Jesus and embracing the gospel so that Jesus might begin to change your heart? What’s a next step that you can take to move towards Jesus today? This week? As the psalmist says, “Those who know your name put their trust in you.” What’s the next step you can take to press into the name and character of God? Whatever it is: do it. Take that next step in faith that the Holy Spirit will do a work in your heart that you cannot do. That he will soften it to embrace this gospel to a greater degree, so that your central ideas about yourself, others, and the world will be colored by the sovereign grace of God.