Psalm IX
To tliP Chief Musician upon Muth-labben, A Psalm of Pavid.
1 I wii.L praise thee, O Lord, with my whole hcjut; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.
2 I will be glad and rejoice in thee: — I will sing prai.sc to thy name, 0 tlmn
Most High.
3 When mine enemies arc turned Imck, — thoy shall fall and perish at thy
])rescnce.
PSALM IX. — ANTICIPATING THE THRONE OF JUDGMENT. ol
4 For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; — thou sattest in tho
throne judging right.
5 Thou hast rebuked the heathen, — thon 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 forever: — 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.
If) 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.
15 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
Ijut men. Selah.
The position of the Psalms in their relation to each other is rositmnnfti;
often remarkable. It is questioned whether the present arrangement of them was the order in which they were given forth to Israel, or whether some later compiler, perhaps Ezra, was inspired to attend to this matter, as well as to other points connected with the Canon. Without attempting to decide this point, it is enough to remark that we have proof that the order of the Psalms is as ancient as the completing of the canon; and if so, it seems obvious that the Holy Spirit wished this book to come down to us in its present order.
PSALM IX. — THE RIGHTEOUS ONE ANTICIPATING
We make these remarks, in order to invite attention to the fact, that as the eighth caught up the last line of the seventh, this ninth Psalm opens with an apparent reference to the eighth: —
“I will praise thee, 0 Lord, with my ichole heart.
I will showfurtli all thy marvellous works.
I will be glad and rejoice in thee. (Comp. Song i. 4; Piev. xix. 7.) I toill sing to thy name, 0 thou Most High.” (Ver. 1, 2.)
As if “The Name” so highly praised in the former Psalm, were still ringing in the ear of the sweet singer of Israel. And in ver. 10, he returns to it, celebrating their confidence who “know” that “name,” as if its fragrance still breathed in the atmosphere around.
There is a considerable resemblance, in the commencement, to the song in Isaiah xxv. 1-5. In both we have ‘praise — praise to his name — wonderful things — enemies, and nations, and cities destroyed — and the Lord a refuge for the needy, a refuge in times of trouble. The period in prophetic history, before the view of the prophetic Spirit, is the same in both cases; the same scene of the final ruin of God’s enemies, and of Antichrist, is exhibited; and the language of our Psalm, like that of Isaiah xxv. 1-5, is that of the past, because the future is to the Lord as sure as if already come and gone.
There is an approach to the alphabetic form in the verses of this Psalm, but only in part. We shall have occasion to remark on this point again in Psalm x. and elsewhere.
It may be in connection with the subject of the Psalm, that it is inscribed “To the Chief Musician upon Muth-lahben.” None of the titles in this whole book is so obscure as this one. There is a plausible conjecture that riu^V should be the pointing, in which case it might be connected with “the psalteries on Alamolh,” 1 Chron. xv. 20; and “Ben,” of 1 Chron. xv. 18, be referred to in “Lab-hen;” but then the omission of by is unaccountable, were this sense intended. There has been an attempt by Grotius, and others, to regard it as an anagram,” bi b)y,’’ on the death of Nabal, or, on the dying of the fool — but this is wholly gratuitous. Probably the title refers to something in the sacred music now unknown, the appropriateness of which to the subject of this Psalm can be conjectured only; the word rfD, death, occurring in it, suggests something sombre and solemn.
From vers. 1-8, there is a sketch of what the Lord is to do The plan when he rises up. “0 enemy,” — as if like Hos. xiiL 14, looking in the face of Satan, and all that follow him on earth, from Saul down to the last Antichrist. “0 enemy, destructions are at an end.” The memory of the foe perishes, like the cities which they destroy. In vers. 9-12, we hear what the Lord has been, and is, and shall be to his own, onward to the day when he remembers the cry of souls under the altar (Rev. vi. 10.) Then a cry, like that of the martyrs, arises, vers. 13, 14, and the answer is given in vers. 15-17. After all which, vers. 18-20, sing confidently, and pray boldly to him who is to do such things on behalf of his saints.
The speaker may be any member of Christ’s body in Sympa- Christ and his thy with his Head; but Christ himself could utter it as no ™ ™ ^^^’ other could. Hence Augustine, on ver. 13, asks, “Quare non dixit, ‘Miserere nostri, Domine V An quia unus interpellat pro Sanctis qui primus pauper pro nobis factus est.” Christ on earth delighted to commend his Father’s name, as ver. 10 does, and to assure disciples that with God there is no casting out of one that has once come in.
But to all this every believer responds, and even in ver. 16, every member of Christ may, in full sympathy with the feelings of justice and holiness in our Head, enter into the awful scene. They see the event as if it were already come: —
“The Jieathen are sunk dotvn into the pit that they made; In the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The Lord is knoion by the judgment he executeth! The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands! Higgaion! Selah!
We hear a voice, as from the Holiest, uttering the words, Higgaion- ‘’ Higgaion,” a call to deep reflection or solemn musing,* ^*^’’^’ and ‘’Selah,’” a call to the Chief Musician to pause, that, the
* So in Buchanan’s version in Latin metre: —” O res pectoris altis
Condenda in penetralibus!”
music ceasing, the worshippers might for a time meditate and adore. With such silent awe, we may suppose, the hosts of Israel stood for a time, gazing on the dead bodies of the Egyptians, when morning light unveiled them floating on the wave, or cast up as sea-weed on the shore. Not less than this shall be the intensity of interest and awe felt by the saints, when from their cloud they look down on the overwhelmed hosts of Babylon.
In ver. 18 there is an interesting rendering of D’IS? -H^pri, in the English Prayer-book version, “the patient abiding of the poor.” It reminds us of James v. 7, “Be patient, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” At the same time, the words more properly express the earnest expectation of God’s poor ones, who are looking from their state of “oppression” and “trouble” (ver. 9), for the coming of him whose “name they know” (ver. 10), to be the Judge of a disordered world. Then truly shall they sing: —
“The Lord is enthroned for ever. (lit. 7ias sat down, i.e., on 7ds throne.) He has prepared his throne for judgment. He judges the world in uprightness: He ministers judgment to the people in uprightness (v. 7, 8).
Of this Psalm, then, we may say that in it we see — The Righteous One avticipating the setting up of the throne of judgment.