Psalm 9 (& 10), Justice!

Psalms 9 and 10 appear in the old Hebrew texts as a single psalm, forming an acrostic, each stanza beginning with a different Hebrew letter.   The acrostic breaks down at the beginning of Psalm 10 and then returns towards the end of Psalm 10.  The Greek Septuagint translates this pair (from Hebrew to Greek) as a single chapter.

For the director of music. To [the tune of] "The Death of the Son." A psalm of David.

Presumably "The Death of the Son" was a known song of the time?  (Just as Luther took popular beer-drinking songs for his hymns ... maybe David did something similar?)  On a different tack, Alter suggests that the Hebrew laben (with consonants l-b-n and no vowels) might have originally been nevel (n-b-l), a type of lyre or harp.

Psalm 9: 1-2, I will praise you

I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; 

I will tell of all your wonders.

I will be glad and rejoice in you; 

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

We begin with a declaration of praise.

Psalm 9: 3-6, Enemies stumble, nations rebuked

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.

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.

... and then turn to recounting things which the Righteous Judge has done in the past.  This is a mixture of praise, emphasizing God's character and past actions.

Psalm 9: 7-9, A throne for judgment

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.  

The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,

a stronghold in times of trouble.

Once again David leans on God's righteousness and interest in justice.  As C. S. Lewis points out in his essays on the psalms, the view of God as Judge and the request for Justice and Judgment is an Old Testament concept, in which a judge is the defender of the oppressed; it is before a judge that one gets their case finally heard.

I am reminded of the recent event in which a Cleveland police officer killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice. (One version of the story is here.)  City officials, in their desire to get the case before a judge, took the unprecedented step of going directly to a judge (using an obscure Ohio law) instead of the traditional route through the local prosecutor.  The officials apparently feared that the local prosecutor was too close to the police and would not be fair.  That is the Old Testament demand for a hearing before a judge!

Psalm 9: 10-12, YHWH remembers those who trust Him

Those who know your name will trust in you, 

for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.  

Sing praises to the LORD, enthroned in Zion; 

proclaim among the nations what he has done.  

For he who avenges blood remembers; 

he does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.

This plea is now a bit more personal, less historical than the previous lines. In the next stanza it indeed becomes quite personal, as David, as an individual, gives a personal plea for justice.

Verse 12 ("he who avenges blood") looks back to Genesis 9:5-6, to God's covenant with Noah.

Psalm 9: 13-14, Lift me up!

O 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 the Daughter of Zion 

and there rejoice in your salvation.

We now alternate between personal appeals and appeals to general justice, national justice.  David asks that, instead of being at the gates of death, he be allowed to return to the gates of Jerusalem (the Daughter of Zion) where he can praise God in public!

Psalm 9: 15-18, Wicked ensnare themselved

The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug; 

their feet are caught in the net they have hidden. 

The LORD is known by his justice; 

the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. 

Higgiaon. Selah.

The wicked return to the grave, 

all the nations that forget God.  

But the needy will not always be forgotten, 

nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish.

As is common in David's songs, at the end he turns his attention to his nation.  A possible message to Israel is implied here -- that nation should be known by its justice.  (But recall Nathan's chastisement of David in 2 Samuel 12!)

As in Psalm 7, David emphasizes the "reflection" of evil, how it rebounds upon the evil-doer.  A form of divine karma....

Psalm 9: 19-20, They are but men

Arise, O LORD, let not man triumph; 

let the nations be judged in your presence.

Strike them with terror, O LORD; 

let the nations know they are but men.

Selah.

This is a final appeal, a national one.

Summary.  New Testament readers tend to view judgment as bad, as something scary for all of us, and tend to assume the "judgment" refers to some final Day of Judgment (as in Hebrews 9:27.)  But the psalmist's view of judgment is that judgment is a good thing, a time when things are made right, when the oppressed are defended and uplifted.  In this psalm, David delights in God's protection and judgment.