Psalm 9

In a world where injustice seems to be the norm, can we find genuine peace that withstands all of that?  David's world was as chaotic as anyone's and yet there was still a trust that God understood all of that. 

Transcript

Tempo: 120.0

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Welcome. I'm really looking forward to today, and we're trying something new. For the first time, I've gone ahead and turned on the camera and taken some of that mystery away from what's happening. Now, if you're listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or some other just audio platform, then you won't notice any difference, I hope. But if you are one of those YouTube people, first of all, thanks for listening in already up to this point and up until now, if you've been following on YouTube, it's just been like a still shot on the screen. And I thought, let's try this. Let's try and make this a little bit more engaging on that level. By the way, if you are a YouTube music, I think I've said the right thing there, you can still transition from the video experience of this to just purely audio if you're kind of transitioning from one thing to the next. So that's kind of cool, and you should still be able to find all of what's all of what's going on. All right, enough of that explanation. Today is Monday, which means we're in Psalms. And Psalm chapter 9 is another psalm by David, and it's another one of those psalms that really has a bunch of things going on in it, including this desire for justice, this desire to see God's righteous hand come down on David's enemies. That's really kind of what's what's happening here, amongst other things along the way. But I do find this to be relatable. For me, it's not about having enemies that I need to see thwarted, but it's really just about connecting with who God is and what he's done and is doing in my life and just in the context of life in general. So let's go ahead and pray together, and then we'll be in Psalm 9. If you have a copy of God's word, go ahead and open that up and join in. Jesus, thank you so much for today. God thank you that even on a Monday, we can come and we can gather here to take in your word and to let it change us. Jesus, we're here to meet with you. Would you meet with us? All right, let's go ahead and read this together. Psalm nine, and it again it starts off with that instruction to the director of music. It says to the tune of the death of the sun, or your translation might say Math Laban. I'm not sure if I said that correctly, but Math Laban means the death of the sun, and it's a Psalm of David. I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart. I will tell all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you. I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High. My enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before you, for you have upheld my right and my cause. Sitting enthroned as the righteous judge, you have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked. You have blotted out their name for ever and ever. Endless ruin has overtaken my enemies, you have uprooted their cities, even the memory of them has perished. The Lord reigns forever, he has established his throne for judgment, he rules the world in righteousness and judges the people with equity. 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. Sing the praises of the Lord enthroned in Zion, proclaim among the nations what he has done. For he who avenges blood remembers, he does not ignore the cities of the afflicted, or sorry, the cries of the afflicted. 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. 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 acts of justice. The wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. The wicked go down to the realm of the dead, all the nations that forget God. But God will never forget the needy. The hope of the afflicted will never perish. Arise, Lord, do not let mortals triumph. Let the nations be judged in your presence. Strike them with terror, Lord, let the nations know they are only mortal. Did you feel those movements along the way? Those transitions between praise and petition, moments of declaration, of God's inherent goodness and demands for those for justice to take place? What sections or sections stood out to you as you read it or listened to me reading it just now? So take a moment and go ahead and feel free to pause this if you just want to be quiet before the Lord and and just kind of listen to him and then come back and we'll continue through this together. I have two kind of bigger observations I wanted to make, and kind of underneath each of those, there are kind of some more details that I've fleshed out. So for me, and this might be a little bit subjective, and and yet I think it's it's worth kind of pointing out, I see two sets of three movements, and they mirror each other in a certain sense. So let me explain what I mean. The first movement or the first kind of feeling that we get as we go through this is one of praise and proclamation. And we see that pretty clearly right there at the beginning, verses one and two. I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart. I'll tell of your wonderful deeds, I'll be glad, I'll rejoice in you, I'll sing praises in your name or of your name most high. And then again, in verses 11 through 15, it moves, and it's not just I'm doing it, but it's y'all join join in here. Sing the praises of the Lord enthroned in Zion, proclaim among the nations. We hear that language of of just exalting and appreciating and enjoying what the Lord has done and what he's doing, that that because he is who he is, and certainly because of what he's done, we can look at at God in these moments, even in moments of distress, which this does seem to be one of those psalms where there is a a sense of maybe not like imminent, like it's not right in his space right then and there, but there is this sense of bad things are happening in the world around him, and it's certainly causing him some angst and some distress. In the midst of that, he's praising God, and he's inviting those who are under his authority, those who are around him to praise as as well. So just recognizing that praise and proclamation, and we see those kind of two portions of that right at the very beginning of the Psalm, and then into verses eleven through fifteen. The second piece, again, it gets repeated, is this focus or this emphasis on his enemies and the response or the anticipated response to what's taking place? And we see that there in verses three through six, and then again in fifteen through seventeen. And we can really sense that when we kind of pull out some of these words that David is using. In verse four, there's that sense of you have upheld my right. So, what's God doing in these in these moments in response to what's taking place? He's upholding the right, the right or the rightness, I guess, of of David. In verse five, then we can see this movement towards towards David's enemies. You have rebuked the nations, so we can we've blotted out their name, and then you have uprooted their cities, even the memory of them has perished. And then again in verses 15 through 17, it's it's a little bit different, but the nations have fallen into the pit. They're caught in the net that that they made for themselves, and the Lord is known by his acts of justice. The wicked are ensnared, right, by the works of their hands. We just recognize that that God in this psalm, just kind of keeping it here for for the moment, that he does recognize the wickedness that's taking place, and there is a God response to that. And and David is all about it, right? So then finally we see just this real focus on the Lord's unique position of authority and power. So God's unique position of authority and power. And I like to use colors when I'm preparing and just kind of thinking through the scriptures. So, you know, I read, I read it with a physical, like a physical Bible. That's how I start my my day off, my morning off, is I read it there and just kind of take it in. And then as I'm unpacking it, I begin to one, I put it onto the computer, it just helps me out a little bit, and then I use colors to help me really see these different moments along the way. So this part, just in case you're wondering, is highlighted in in like a purple, a good royal color. But again, we hear the royalty, the uniqueness, the authority of God. The Lord reigns forever in verse 7. He has established his throne for judgment. He rules the world in righteousness and he judges the people with equity equity. And then we see this compassion from that position of power. He's a refuge for the oppressed, he's a stronghold, a place for us to go in times of trouble. And then finally, we see that those who trust in the Lord, it says he's never forsaken those who seek you. And then again, this comes out in verses 18 through the end, and this part really kind of comes out of that response to the enemies and the injustice. But verse 18, God will never forget the needy. I love that part, by the way. Just he never forgets, he never moves his gaze from us, never forgets the needy, and and the hope of the afflicted will never perish. And then again, this almost appeal to God's sovereignty. Don't let those mortals triumph, right? Don't let the nations who have rejected you win is kind of what he's what he's getting at. So all of that is there. So for me, I just kind of I appreciate uh I appreciate that movement that happens along the way. And and so seeing, kind of recognizing A, B, and C, like three different movements there, and then repeat it again throughout this. And then secondly, I wanted to make sure that we talked about some of the truths that are coming out and declared in this psalm. The first one is that God seeks out those who trust him. He he looks uh to them. He's these I there's a sense here that that God is interested in what we're interested in, and when we're invested or interested or seeking him out, he delights in that and he looks out for us, right? It says there, he has never forsaken those who seek you. And so there's that sense of when we when we go all in on this and we seek the Lord, he seeks us back. There's a strong sense there. And then God seeks to protect those who are oppressed. Again, just taking comfort in that. God judges rightly. We can trust him. And there are a lot of things, by the way, that I don't totally understand. I don't get why certain things are happening in our world the way that they are. Not although that makes sense to me or even feels right to me, but at some point I come and sit and rest in this idea that God does judge rightly. And then finally, God is worthy of praise and honor, both privately and publicly. That there is moments, or there should be moments, when in our own quiet space, we're looking to God and just declaring to him his goodness, his faithfulness, we're talking to him in a way that's just very, very personal. And that's important for us, but then also to have moments where we we do that together. Part of the reason, church, like on a Sunday or a Saturday or whatever, part of the reason that's important is so that we can express adoration and praise to the Lord with other people and to do that as a collective. So, what can we carry with us from this passage today, from this psalm today? How can we apply it today? And for me, the the biggest thing, and it's really kind of just the one thing, but it's that that bit about just declaring back to God and recognizing his sovereignty. It's finding rest in the goodness and the justice of God, particularly as we look at the multitude of injustices around the world today. And you know, a lot of times, and and like the focus of this podcast is not to solve world issues, right? Like that's not what this is all about. It's really about us drawing near to God. And yet, when we draw near to God, sometimes he brings to our hearts and to our minds the stuff that's happening all around us. And you can look at it from a local perspective, from a national perspective, from a global perspective, at any of those things. You can look at them and just recognize that injustice has permeated all over the place. And so what do we do about it? And the the answer to that question could be myriad, right? Like there could be a whole bunch of different things. We can become active in in being part of the solution to that, but it begins with seeking the Lord and and to come to that place where we recognize that ultimate authority rests with him, that ultimate peace comes through God and not through the devices of people that we look to him and just finding that sense of of calm amidst the storm in verses like seven through ten, the Lord reigns forever. There's no president or king or prime minister or anybody else, right? You know, there's no there's no one who usurps God's authority. He he is there and his throne is established forever, and he is good, and so we can come to him. Our world continues to get messy, but we can find that steadfastness, that hope, and that peace when we turn ourselves to the Lord. I hope that encourages you today. Let's pray together. Jesus, again, we just say thank you for giving us an opportunity to to be with you and to glean from your word. God, thank you that you are good, and Lord, nothing escapes your notice. And so we can rest and trust in that. God, would you be our strength and our courage today? Amen.