Psalm 9 jottings

Last week's Psalm of the week was Psalm 9. I actually tried to concentrate on reading, listening to and praying it rather than simply making notes about it!

Psalm 9 / & 10 ? notes

Summary: Praise God for his justice and judgement, for punishing his enemies and delivering his people

Uses:

Praising / trusting God especially in the face of enemies / injustice

Seeking God’s justice and deliverance

Outlines / structure:

Expositor’s Bible:

Prayer and Praise for God’s Just Rule of the Nations

A Individual praise (vv1-2)

B Judgement on the wicked (vv3-6)

C Hope in God’s Just Rule (vv7-10)

A’ Communal praise and individual prayer (vv11-14)

B’ Judgement on the wicked (vv15-18)

C’ Hope in God’s Just Rule (vv19-20)

Wilson, NIV Application Commentary

Anticipation of thanksgiving (9:1-3)

Judge of the nations (9:4-8)

A Refuge for the Oppressed (9:9-14)

Judgement on the Nations (9:15-20)

The Arrogant wicked (10:1-11)

Plea for Deliverance (10:12-15)

Yahweh as Eternal King (10:16-18)

Goldingay, Baker Commentary

Wilcock, BST:

1. Something familiar

2. Something new

3. Technique and inspiration

4. Grammar and facts (9:1-12)

5. The other side of the picture (10:1-11)

6. A prayer in the light (9:13-20)

7. A prayer in the dark (10:12-18)

Kidner, Tyndale:

God: Judge and King

9:1-12 Vision after victory

1, 2 – Thankful praise

3-8 – Thine is the kingdom

9-12 – The champion of the weak

13-20 – Vision in adversity

13, 14 – One man’s plight

15-18 – Justice for the world

19, 20 – Put man in his place!

Dale Ralph Davis, The Way of the Righteous in the Muck of Life

Throne control

Pray in remembrance

Pray in context

Pray in anticipation

What I have been through (vv1-6)

Praise (vv1-2)

Rehearsal of God’s deliverance (vv3-6)

Where it’s going (vv7-8)

What you can count on (vv9-12)

What the Psalmist learns from it all (vv10b, 12)

Pray for the kingdom (vv19-20)

Notes:

Acrostic poem together with Psalm 10. Pss 9 & 10 = one Ps in LXX.

See Goldingay p162 for how the acrostic works – v1, v3, v5, v7 etc.

Or Wilcock p42, footnote 73

Title:

For the director of music / choirmaster / The leader’s

The girls / Secrets / Eternities / On dying / The son’s

To Muth-labben - “The Death of the Son”

Composition

A Psalm of David / David’s

Ps 10 has no title, strengthening the idea that they should be taken together

Ps 10 follows on from Ps 9 beginning with the 12^th letter but then drops the alphabetic scheme until vv12-18 where the last 4 letters reappear (Kidner) – Psalm 10 a broken acrostic

Also change of mood in Ps 10v1

Ps 9 and 10 like a diptych

Davis: vv7-8 the key verses of the Psalm

Vv1-12 – all affirmation, the fruit of reflection on a great deliverance

Vv13-20 – prayer, arising out of suffering

9vv1-12 answer to 10vv1-11

9vv13-20 answer to 10vv12-18

9vv1-12 chiastic pattern with the Lord judging at the centre 9:5-8 (Wilcock, p42)

The opening echoes the final v of Ps 7:17

V1b – God’s actions

V2a – God’s person

God’s wonders his great redemptive miracles – 106:7, 22 but also 71:17 and 119:18

What david has seen and what the prophets have foreseen (Wilcock, p42f)

The big picture – the nations mentioned 5 times vv5, 15, 17, 19, 20 – and v8, the world / peoples

V5f = past tenses prophetic perfects anticipating certain future judgement – as good as done

V7f – present or future?

Vv9-10 actually in the form of an exhortation – let the lord be a stronghold, let those who know…

V9 – times of trouble also 10v1

V12 – he who avenges, lit. seeks / requires – denied by the wicked in 10v13b – God won’t call me to account – Gen 9:5; Dt 18:19; 2 Chron 24:22; Ez 33:6

V13 – change of tone

Vv13-20 from personal entreaty to confident prophecy then bold appeal for action

Vv13-14 – the gates of death cannot keep him from the gates of Zion

V14 – lit. daughter Zion not daughter of Zion

V16 = higgayon from haga, 1:2, 2:1 – plot - cf. 19:15; 92:4. Recitation / meditation

Vv19 – 20 – man suggests frailty

V20 – appoint someone fearful mora, object of fear / moreh, teacher