Psalm 9

Psalm 9:1:
I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.

I will show forth — אספרה asapperah, "I will number out, or reckon up;" a very difficult task, נפלאותיך niphleotheycha, "thy miracles;" supernatural interventions of thy power and goodness. He whose eye is attentive to the operation of God's hand will find many of these. In the Vulgate this Psalm begins with Confitebor tibi, Domine, "I will confess unto thee, O Lord," which my old MS. above quoted translates thus: I sal schrife Lard, til the, in al my hert, I sal tel al twi wonders. On which we find the following curious paraphrase: "Here the prophete spekes agaynes that grucches with ese of il men: and the travel and anguis of gude men. I sal schrife til the Lard; that is, I sal lufe the in al my hert, hally gederant it til thi luf: and gyfand na party tharof tyl errour, na to covatyse: ne til fleschly luf. A vile errour it is that some men says, that God dose unrightwisly in mani thinges in erthe: for tham thynk that tay sold noght be done. Als I hard say noght lang sythem, of a man of religyon, and of grete fame, that qwen he was in the see, in poynte to peryshe, he said tyl Gode: Lard thu dos unryghtwysly if thou sofyr us to perysch here. God myght haf answered and said, My rightwysnes reches to sofer a beter man than thou ert to perisse here: for I hope, had he ben a ryghtwyse man, he had noght sayd swa: for al ar unryghtwyse, that hopes that any unrightwysnes may be in Godes wylle. Bot I sal luf the in al thi workes; and tel al thy wonders; that is, bathe that er sene, and that ar noght sene; visibels and invisibels." -Study Light

Psalm 9:7:
But the Lord sits enthroned forever;
He has established His throne for judgment.

In American church culture many shy away from talking about God establishing His throne for judgment. Judgment is perceived all too often as a bad thing (and it can be if we are talking about evil human judgments). But judgment, righteous and just judgments, are a good thing, a wonderful thing for the oppressed—those who are being unjustly treated and harmed. Real justice is the answer to the cry of the person wronged when he cries out, “It’s not fair.” It fixes that situation. God’s rule, His Kingship (throne) is established to right the wrongs. -Jerry Cisar; Gulf Coast Community Church

Psalm 9:8:
And He will judge the world in righteousness;
He will execute judgment for the peoples fairly.

The word equity in Psalm 9:8 is the Hebrew noun meyshar (מֵישָׁר). It is an architectural term that denotes straightness, levelness, and evenness in measurement.

The word carries with it the concept of judging with a straight line, one that is devoid of ethical or moral defects, irregularities, or deformities, such as partiality, prejudice, or bias. As John Calvin states in his Institutes of the Christian Religion:

“In all laws we must bear these two things in mind: what the law prescribes, and how equitable it is, for it is on equity that the law’s prescription rests. Since equity is natural it is inevitably the same for all peoples. Thus all the laws on earth, whatever their particular concern, should be about equity. As for the law’s regulations or prescriptions, because they are conditioned by circumstances on which they partly depend, there is no reason why they should not be different, provided they are all directed to the goal of equity. Now as God’s law, which we call moral, essentially bears witness to the natural law and to conscience which our Lord has imprinted on the hearts of all men—Romans 1:19—there is no doubt that the equity of which we now speak is wholly revealed in natural law. That is why equity must be the goal, the rule, and the finality of all laws.”

There are professing Christians today, particularly in America, who, under the guise of “justice,” are proffering a “gospel” of equality over and above a gospel of equity. That reality has become increasingly evident given the current socio-political milieu in which equality, not equity, is regarded as the highest standard of biblical probity and virtue.

Psalm 9: 13-14:
Lord, see how my enemies persecute me! Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death, 14 that I may declare your praises in the gates of Daughter Zion, and there rejoice in your salvation.

By this the Psalmist,
– in the first place, strengthens his faith from his past experience, inasmuch as he had often been delivered from the greatest dangers.
– in the second place, assures himself of deliverance, even in the very jaws of death; because God is accustomed not only to succor his servants, and to deliver them from their calamities by ordinary means, but also to bring them from the grave, even after all hope of life is cut off. The gates of death is a metaphorical expression, denoting the utmost perils which threaten destruction, or , which lay the grave open before us.
So that neither the weight of the calamities which we presently endure, nor the fear of those which we see impending over us, may overwhelm our faith, or interrupt our prayers, let us call to our remembrance that the office of lifting up his people from the gates of death is not left to God in vain. -Christian Blessings

Psalm 9:17:
The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God

It was George Washington who observed:

"I am sure there never was a people who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that Agency which was so often manifested during our revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them."