Praying the Psalms: Psalm 9

So Psalm 9 is a cry for justice.

It’s a cry for justice that begins with David pledging himself to praise, which is a good but challenging model: most of the time, I want to get right to my complaint. Instead, David begins by reminding himself that the God he is calling out to is the Most High who does wonderful things. Psalm 9 unpacks for us the fact that one of the wonderful things He does is justice. A God who does not do justice is not a good God. But the God David praises? He’s just and He’s good.

The image in verse 7 is of a fierce warrior, teeth bared, letting loose a battle cry that leaves the enemy fading and failing. When God takes on an enemy, their defeat is so comprehensive they are destroyed beyond remembrance. That’s a promise to take hold of: the sin that has a hold on you, that you can’t seem to get beyond? God can deal with that, and thoroughly.

Now, you wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that battle cry. In fact, I get a bit uncomfortable thinking of David calling God in like an airstrike to take out his enemies. But then: imagine if someone deliberately hurt one of the kids we’re growing up at The Big Table? Imagine a God whose response was to minimize and ignore, to tuck the offender away and pretend it hadn’t happened? That’s not a God who can be trusted. We might not want to be on the receiving end of justice, but we do want justice to be done.

The fact is, God is trustworthy and His trustworthiness is, in part, a function of His justice. David says that God is a refuge for the oppressed, that He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted, that He ensures that their hope does not perish. Because he judges rightly, the weak and poor and vulnerable can know that they won’t always lose out to the strong and rich and powerful. David points out that God’s justice is so neat that a lot of the time, it doesn’t even take active judgement on His part. He just lets the natural consequences of sin overtake people (v15-16; 1 Tim 1:20).

The insane beauty of the New Covenant that Jesus has won for us is that God accomplishes everything, all at the same time. Justice is done: the appropriate penalty for sin has been paid. There’s no sense that, in sending Jesus to die in our place, God was minimizing the sins we have committed, the ways we have hurt each other and refused to acknowledge Him. But grace has also been done, and we’re the beneficiaries. God is an incredible designer. David is right to begin by praising Him. And David is also right to end by reminding himself, and us, that we’re but created ones.

– Karyn Lochore