Psalm 9 Praise Him for His Justice

 

Introduction

Kwame Ajamu, from Cleveland, Ohio, was sentenced to death in 1975 for murder; he was just 17 years old.

Ajamu was found guilty primarily because of the testimony of a 13-year-old boy, who said he saw Ajamu commit the crime. However, no physical evidence connected Ajamu to the crime and he had no prior criminal record. Another witness testified that Ajamu was not at the scene of the crime. Yet mere months after his arrest, he was condemned to die.

It would be publicly revealed 39 years later that the boy who testified against him had immediately tried to withdraw his statement. But detectives told the boy they would charge his parents with perjury if he changed his story. Ajamu was released on parole in 2003 after 27 years in prison, but the state of Ohio would not declare him innocent of the murder for another 12 years.

This is the story of one man, but there are many thousands of similar stories across our world and throughout time- innocent people sentenced to death for crimes they didn’t commit. How does a story like this make you feel?

 

Probably, if you are like me, you will want to declare, ‘That’s not fair!’. You will probably wonder how such a thing could happen and hope that it won’t happen again.

You see, we long for justice and hate any sense of injustice.This longing is buried deep in every human heart. Ultimately this longing leads us to God because He is the perfectJudge of the universe and the source of all justice.

Psalm 9 is a celebration of God’s perfect justice. The title tells us that this is a Psalm of praise written by David. David is moved to praise God with his whole heart for God has delivered David and displayed His righteous judgment on his enemies.

In Psalm 9 David speaks of God’s infinite greatness and wonderful gentleness. The Lord is supreme in glory and might- a ruler on His throne judging with righteousness. And yet He cares- He is a refuge for the oppressed and needy. For these reasons God is worthy of praise.

As we work through this Psalm, ultimately it will lead us to Christ and the Cross. In Christ God’s justice was brought about most wonderfully as the enemies of God’s People were defeated at the Cross. So, we praise God for the justice He has worked through His Son.

 

Turning to Psalm 9 we see, firstly, David’s Wholehearted Praise.

The psalm opens with David’s desire to praise God; in verses 1 and 2:

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
 I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.

From the way David writes it is clear his whole being is involved in praising God.

His mind is engaged: he knows what God has done and wants to tell of God’s wonderful deeds. His body is engaged- he wants to use his mouth to sing God’s praise. His soul is engaged- his heart is filled with joy that overflows into worship.

David praise is wholehearted. This is not someone who is merely paying lip service to the idea of worship. No, David is engaging with the living God from the bottom of his heart- and calling all God’s People to do the same.

And notice that David’s praise is grounded in reality. By using the term, ‘wonderful deeds’, David is recognising God as Creator and Redeemer, Sovereign Lord and Righteous Judge. He is the majestic and mighty creator of the constellations. He is the loving Savior who has delivered His People at great cost.

God’s wonderful deeds in creation and history are truly awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping; they should cause us to cry out as David did in Psalm 8:

Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

David knew the majesty of God- His glory and His grace- and it caused David to worship from the very depths of his being.

David knew this at a personal as well as theological level. God had gloriously entered his life situation and graciously turned it around for the better. As a result, David was moved to praise God’s name from the very depths of his heart.

 

Does what God has done excite us?

Does the wonders of God’s deeds and the beauty of who He is cause us joy that overflows into how we speak and act?

And if not, then what is it that makes our heart overflow with praise, excitement and joy?

When our hearts belong to the Lord, and His wonderful deeds have captured our hearts, then it will cause us to praise our God. David breaks out in a song of joy to God Most High because he belongs to the Lord.

Indeed, we can only break out in true praise and rejoicing when we belong to the Lord- when we have humbly and joyfully received Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and resolved to have Him as our all in all. True joy can only come when we make God the focus and goal of our lives- our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

David was determined to meet with God and praise Him with his whole heart. David calls all God’s People to engage in worship in a way that truly glorifies God and blesses His People.

So, how do we engage in worship in a way that glorifies God?

Well, we can’t just turn up.

And we can’t try to get ourselves worked up.

No, we must look up.

We must engage our minds and prepare to meet with God in His Word. We must behold God’s glory and grace- think about who God is and what He has done as we come to meet with Him. We must study the passage that the sermon will be on and come ready to engage with the preaching.

We must prepare our souls as we meet with God in prayer and pour out our hearts to Him. We must be praying for the service and who will be taking part. We must be asking the Spirit to prepare us to receive from God’s Word and to be free from distraction so that we might give God the worship He deserves.

We must remember that when we gather on the Lord’s Day, we are anticipating that time when we will be dwelling with Him in His perfection. We must remember that when we gather to tell of God’s wonderful deeds then we are engaged in the most glorious form of evangelism- we are witnessing to the world around us that we belong to the Living God; Creator, Sustainer, and Deliverer.

Is this how we approach worship?

 

We move on from David’s ‘wholehearted hearted worship’ to ponder… The Celebration of God’s Justice.

Looking out at the world today, how do you feel?

Hopeful that a peace deal can be brokered between warring nations? Trusting in your own brand of politics to improve society? Or, have you lost all hope and wonder what’s next?

In troubling circumstances David does not look within or around. Instead, David looks up and rejoices. In verses 3 to 14 David celebrates God’s infinite greatness and wonderful gentleness. The Lord is supreme in glory and might- a ruler on His throne judging with righteousness- and He cares for the needy and the oppressed.

In his celebration of God’s justice David reminds all God’s People to look up and rejoice in who God is and what He does. First, David praises God for delivering him personally; in verses 3 and 4:

My enemies turn back; they stumble and perish before you.

For you have upheld my right and my cause; you have sat on your throne, judging righteously.

David pictures God delivering His People and their king from the evil scheme of their enemies. In verses 5 and 6 we see the victory is decisive:

You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked; you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.

Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy, you have uprooted their cities; even the memory of them has perished.

These words may make us wonder: Does David hate foreigners and want God to destroy these people simply because they are a different nationality?

Well, no, of course not.

Turning to Psalm 2 we find help to understand. There we see ‘the nations’ rage against God and His Chosen King- they are not just any foreigners, but wicked nations who oppose God and His King.

So, David speaks as God’s chosen king. Through David, and his descendants, God promised an everlasting Kingdom and a Saviour for all the earth. This is not just about a disagreement between two opposing nations. This is about those who would resist God’s eternal purposes.

As God’s king, David had many enemies seeking his destruction. And as God’s king David had the Enemy who sought the end of his promised line. But as God’s king David could also praise God for His deliverance and the destruction of his enemies.

And so David rejoices in God’s decisive victory over these enemies. David rejoices in the ruin of the enemies’ schemes and, in verses 7 and 8, he looks beyond his own deliverance:

The Lord reigns forever; he has established his throne for judgment.

He will judge the world in righteousness; he will govern the peoples with justice.

David is looking to a glorious future when God will reign and all will be as it is supposed to be- when God’s True King, Jesus, returns in triumphant glory and exercises ultimate justice.

And so, as those living this side of the Cross, we are to live in joyful expectation. We know that at the CrossGod has displayed His ultimate justice and delivered His People from the wickedness of the Enemy.

At the Cross the atonement for sin was made in Christ’s perfect sacrifice. And in His glorious resurrection Jesus defeated sin and Satan and death for His Chosen Ones. So we can rejoice that at this very moment Our King Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand- the position of all authority- and He reigns overall. And we can live with true hope because we know One Day He will return to exercise final judgement and establish of His Throne of righteousness and justice.

When we read about the majesty of God’s judgment in Psalm 9, we are ultimately reading about the reign and rule of Jesus Christ. God displays His glory in the world through His True King: Jesus.

But God also displays His grace and His gentleness in Christ and in His perfect reign. In verses 9 and 10 we read:

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.

 Those who know your name trust in you,
for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

God is the hope of all peoples. He cares for everyone who is beaten down and oppressed.

He is a refuge for those trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty. He cares for girls caught in human trafficking. He doesn’t forget the atrocities of war across the globe. He is a good and just ruler who cares for everyone trampled and abused in this world.

God is the hope of all the oppressed. He cares for the weak and vulnerable. If He cares for all peoples, how much more will He care for His own People who know Him and call on Him by name.

God’s purpose is to bless the whole world. In verses 11 and 12 David calls everyone who hears and reads this psalm to praise God along with him. God’s salvation will be proclaimed from Zion, the city of God, to the whole world.

Every human life is precious to God because every human being is a picture of God. God remembers every man and woman, every boy and girl because he or she bears His image. God will demand an accounting for the way they are treated, and His justice will be done in His good time.

Ultimately, God will judge the world in righteousness by the man He appointed, the Lord Jesus Christ. As God’s People we can look forward to the Day when we will fully enjoy God’s rule. For now, we are to seek justice, love mercy, live humbly and come before our God in prayer.

And so, we close with David’s Prayer and God’s Answer.

In the final verses we hear David’s prayer. Prayer will always reveal the heart of the one praying. So notice that David’s prayer centres on the glory of God in judging the world with justice.

David first petitions God to deliver him personally; in verses 13 and 14:

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

David wants God to rescue him so that he can bring God glory.

The ‘gates’ of the city were a public place where people gathered. David wants to sing his praise before all the people of God. David’s desire is to tell what God had done so that the people would praise God for themselves.

David’s motivation for deliverance calls us to consider our own motivations in prayer. Is our desire for God’s glory or for our own comfort? Are our hearts captured by the beauty of God’s glory or the comforts of this world?

David also calls on God to make Himself known in the world by bringing justice in the course of everyday life. In verses 15 and 16 we see that God weaves His justice into the fabric of everyday life. Those who dig a pit to trap others fall into it themselves. God is not mocked: sin carries its own punishment. Violent men tend to die by violence. The greedy suffer the discontent that comes with their greed. Gossips tear down their own character- as they spread stories, others think less of them.

Finally, David asks God to put man in his place in verses 17 to 20; notice verse 20 in particular:

Strike them with terror, Lord;
let the nations know they are only mortal.

The psalmist closes with a final appeal for God to display His superiority and show the nations His glory.

David again expressed his confidence in God’s judgment of the wicked. Yet this did not lead David to hatred or unhealthy joy in judgment. His real hope was that the display of God’s judgment would teach the nations their proper place before God.

Let this be our prayer for all in power and for all her perpetrate injustice in our day: Let them know that they are only mortal.

 

Conclusion

When we think about praising God, we probably don’t immediately think about His justice as a reason for praising Him. But within all of us there is a longing for justice- both in our own lives and in the world around us.

Our longing for justice is an echo of our deeper longing for God’s righteous reign. In Psalm 9 we are reminded of God’s perfect justice, infinite righteousness, and gentle concern. And we are called to rejoice that, in Christ, God’s perfect justice has been accomplished at the Cross and will be ultimately achieved on His Glorious return. So let us rejoice in the justice of our God and seek His righteous rule in our lives.