SOTD Psalm 9
How to Approach this Psalm
Ask God to give you a desire and a delight for His word before you read it (Psalm 1:3). Ask God to help you to understand the meaning of His Word and how it should apply to your life. Ask God to search your heart (Psalm 139:23) and help you see your life clearly and to enable you put His Word into practice in your life.
How to Think Through this Psalm
Ask questions about the situation of the Psalm
Questions like- who wrote this Psalm?, was there a particular situation that the author was writing in?, are any particular circumstances mentioned in this Psalm?
Ask questions about the content of the Psalm
Questions like- what does this Psalm say about God? What does it say about man? What does it say about the way that God wants man to live? Does the Psalm give any commands? What principles does the Psalm portray? Does this Psalm speak at all about the problems men are in? Does this Psalm say anything about God’s solution to these problems? Does the writer say anything about what He trusts in or believes in this Psalm? Does the writer compare/contrast anything in this Psalm?
Ask questions about how this Psalm applies to your life
Is there anything in this Psalm that you need to remember and fight to believe? Does this Psalm give any commands that you need to live by? If so, are you submitting to God’s authority in that area of your life? What Scriptural principles can you learn from this Psalm that apply to your life? Does the way that you think/believe about anything need to change? What is one very specific way that you can put into practice something that you have learned from this Psalm?
After reading this Psalm
Think about it! Keep mentally chewing on it throughout the day. If you read your Bible in the morning, find ways to remind yourself of this Psalm throughout the day. If you read your Bible at night, think about this Psalm the next day. Maybe try to memorize one of the verses. Talk about this Psalm with other people. Leave a comment with questions that you have about the Psalm and with things that God has taught you from His Word and things you are thinking through. Let’s encourage each other with what God is teaching us in His Word.
Psalm 9
I Will Recount Your Wonderful Deeds
To the choirmaster: according to Muth-labben. A Psalm of David.
1I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
2I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
3When my enemies turn back,
they stumble and perish before your presence.
4For you have maintained my just cause;
you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.
5You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish;
you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
6The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins;
their cities you rooted out;
the very memory of them has perished.
7But the LORD sits enthroned forever;
he has established his throne for justice,
8and he judges the world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with uprightness.
9The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
10And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
11Sing praises to the LORD, who sits enthroned in Zion!
Tell among the peoples his deeds!
12For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;
he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
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,
14that I may recount all your praises,
that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
I may rejoice in your salvation.
15The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
16The LORD has made himself known; he has executed judgment;
the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.
Higgaion. Selah
17The wicked shall return to Sheol,
all the nations that forget God.
18For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
19 Arise, O LORD! Let not man prevail;
let the nations be judged before you!
20Put them in fear, O LORD!
Let the nations know that they are but men!
Selah