Psalms 9:11 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, David has already praised God himself, and now he calls on others to do the same. Those who know God deserves great praise do not want to praise him alone. They want others to join them and would gladly help bring them to it: “Sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion” (Psalm 9:11). God’s special dwelling place in heaven is the place of his glory, and his special dwelling place in his church, which Zion pointed to, is the place of his grace. There he meets his people with his promises and gifts, and there he expects them to meet him with praise and service.

When we praise God, we should think of him as dwelling in Zion, specially present in the gatherings of his people as their protector and patron. David had said he would tell of God’s wonderful works (Psalm 9:1), and here he invites others to declare his deeds among the people. He calls on his own people to do this for God’s honor, for their country’s good, and for the honor of their true religion. He also urges the surrounding nations to sing praise, not to false gods as they had done before, but to the Lord who dwells in Zion, the God of Israel. They should openly admit among the nations that the Lord has done great things for his people Israel (Psalm 126:3, Psalm 126:4).

David especially points to God’s justice in avenging the blood of his people on the Philistines and other cruel neighbors. These enemies had fought against Israel with great brutality and showed no mercy (Psalm 9:12). When God comes to investigate bloodshed in his judgments on earth, before the final judgment day, he remembers every drop of innocent blood. He will repay it fully on the heads of those who love violence. He will give them blood to drink, because they deserve it. David could rest on that promise: “He will avenge the blood of his servants” (Deuteronomy 32:43).

There is a day coming when God will call bloodshed to account. He will uncover what was hidden and punish what was done unfairly, whether by secret murder or open violence (Isaiah 26:21; Jeremiah 51:35). Then it will be clear how precious the blood of God’s people is to him (Psalm 72:14). It will also be clear that he has not forgotten the cry of the humble, whether that cry rose from their prayers or from their blood. Both are kept safe before him.

David then turns from praise to prayer. He has thanked God for past mercies and rescues, and now he earnestly asks God to continue helping him, because he does not yet see everything brought under him. He asks for mercy, because he has no merit to claim, only misery to present. So he depends on God’s compassion for relief (Psalm 9:13). He also asks God to be concerned for him, but he does not try to direct God too closely. He simply says, “Lord, look on my trouble, and do for me as you think best.”

He gives reasons for this request. First, his enemies are cruel, and the trouble they bring comes from hatred, which is a harsh and destructive force. Second, he remembers how God has helped him before, and he trusts that God will continue to do so as his need requires: “You who lift me up.” God is able to do it, has done it, and will do it. It belongs to him to lift his people from the gates of death. We are never so low, never so near death, that God cannot raise us up. If he has saved us from spiritual death and eternal death, we may trust him to be a very present help in every distress.

David also promises that when God completes the victory, he will praise him for it. He does not ask to be saved so that he can enjoy the credit or comfort of deliverance, but so that God may receive the glory. He wants to show forth all God’s praise, and to do it publicly, in the gates of the daughter of Zion (Psalm 9:14). There God was said to dwell (Psalm 9:11), and there David would come before him with joy in God’s salvation. This pointed ahead to the great salvation that would come through the Son of David.

David then looks ahead by faith and declares the certain ruin of all wicked people, both in this life and in the life to come. In this world, God brings judgment on them when their wickedness is full (Psalm 9:15, Psalm 9:16). He does it in a way that shames them and makes their fall dishonorable. They fall into the pit they dug themselves (Psalm 7:15), are caught in the net they set for God’s people, and are trapped by the work of their own hands. In David’s struggles with the Philistines, they were often the aggressors (2 Samuel 5:17, 2 Samuel 5:22). Other nations also brought ruin on themselves through the wars they started.

God’s rule often orders things so that persecutors and oppressors are ruined by the very plans they designed to destroy God’s people. Drunkards ruin themselves. Wasteful people become poor. Quarrelsome people bring trouble on their own heads. In this way, people’s sins can be seen in their punishment. It becomes plain that the destruction of sinners comes from themselves, not only as the cause that deserved it, but as the means that brought it about. That fills them with shame.

At the same time, God gains honor. “The Lord is known” means that he makes himself known through the judgments he carries out. People see that there is a God who judges on the earth, that he is righteous, and that he hates sin and will punish it. In these judgments, God’s anger against all godlessness and unrighteousness is made clear from heaven. The psalmist adds the word “Higgaion,” which means this is something to think over carefully. What we see in present judgments, and what we believe about the final judgment, should often be in our minds.

David also speaks of the next world: “The wicked shall be turned into hell” (Psalm 9:17). This is like captives being taken into prison, and it includes all the nations that forget God. Forgetting God lies at the root of all wickedness. There are whole nations of people who live without God in the world, great and powerful numbers who do not care about him or want to learn his ways. In the end, hell will be their portion, a state of lasting misery and torment, a place of ruin where they and all their comforts are lost forever.

Even though there are many such people, they will still be turned into hell, like sheep led to the slaughterhouse (Psalm 49:14). Their numbers will not protect them or ease their suffering, and their ruin will take nothing from God or lessen his goodness. David then encourages God’s people to wait for his salvation, even if it seems delayed (Psalm 9:18).

The needy may feel forgotten for a time, and others may think the same. Their hope in God’s help may seem lost, and their expectations may look completely disappointed. But the one who believes does not need to rush. The vision is for its appointed time, and in the end it will speak.

We can trust this as true: God’s people, his chosen ones, will not always be forgotten, and they will not be disappointed in the promises they have hoped for. God will not only remember them in the end, but will show plainly that he never forgot them at all. That may seem impossible to us, but it is not impossible for him, even though a mother may forget her nursing child.

The psalm then ends with prayer that God would humble the pride of all the wicked enemies of his church, break their power, and ruin their plans. “Arise, O Lord” (Psalm 9:19), means, “Stir yourself, show your power, take your place, and deal with these proud and bold enemies of your name, your cause, and your people.”

The prayer asks, first, that God would hold them back and set limits on their evil. “Do not let man prevail” means, “For the honor of your own name, do not let weak, mortal people win against the kingdom and interests of almighty and everlasting God.” Can mere human beings be too strong for God, their Maker?

Second, the prayer asks that God would call them to account. “Let the nations be judged in your sight” means, “Bring them plainly before you, and deal with them for all the dishonor they have done to you and the harm they have done to your people.” Unrepentant sinners will be judged before God’s eyes, and when their time of mercy is over, even infinite mercy will not soften toward them (Revelation 14:10).

Third, the prayer asks that God would terrify them. “Put them in fear, O Lord” (Psalm 9:20) means, “Strike them with fear, and make them tremble under your judgments.” God knows how to make the strongest and boldest people shake and run when no one is chasing them. In that way he shows them that they are only human, weak people, unable to stand before the holy God, and sinful people whose guilty consciences make them easily alarmed.

It is a good and necessary thing, for God’s glory and for the peace and good of the world, that people should know they are only human. They are dependent, changeable, mortal, and accountable. As we sing this psalm, we should give God the honor due to his justice as he pleads for his people against their enemies. We should also encourage ourselves to wait for the year of the redeemed and the year of repayment for Zion’s cause, including the final ruin of all anti-Christian powers and groups, which many early writers believed this psalm pointed toward.