Psalms 9

I will praise you, LORD, with my whole heart. I will tell about all the wonderful things you have done.

1I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.

NoteIn Hebrew, Psalms 9 and 10 share a single alphabetical pattern: successive sections begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The pattern is broken in places, and the two psalms were counted as one in the ancient Greek and Latin versions. That is why the argument here can seem to jump from praise to complaint and back.

2I will be glad and full of joy because of you. I will sing praise to your name, Most High.

2I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.

3When my enemies turn back, they stumble and die in front of you.

3When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence.

4You have stood up for my rights and my case. You sat on your throne and judged fairly.

4For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.

NoteIn the ancient Near East a king was also the supreme judge, and to "sit on the throne" was the posture of hearing a case and giving a verdict, not simply of reigning.

5You have rebuked the nations. You have destroyed wicked people. You have wiped out their name forever and ever.

5Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.

Note"Nations" translates a Hebrew word (goyim) meaning the peoples other than Israel; the King James renders it "heathen," which in 1611 carried the same neutral sense of "foreign nations" rather than the insult it suggests today. To "wipe out their name" meant to end a family or people so completely that no descendants remained to carry the name and no one remembered it.

6Enemy, the destroying has come to an end, and the end is forever. Cities were torn down, and even the memory of them died with them.

6O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.

NoteThis verse is broken and disputed in the Hebrew, and translators divide it differently: it can be read as an address to the enemy ("Enemy, your ruins are finished forever"), or as a statement about the enemy ("The enemy has come to everlasting ruin"). Who tore down the cities, God or the enemy, is likewise unclear in the original.

7But the LORD lasts forever. He has set up his throne to judge.

7But the LORD shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment.

8He will judge the world fairly. He will settle the cases of the peoples honestly.

8And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.

9The LORD will also be a safe place for people who are crushed, a safe place in times of trouble.

9The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

NoteThe word rendered "safe place" means a height or hilltop stronghold, the kind of fortified high ground people fled to when raiders came.

10People who know your name will trust you, because you, LORD, have never walked away from those who look for you.

10And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.

NoteIn Hebrew usage a person's "name" stands for their known character and reputation, so knowing God's name means knowing what he is like, not merely what he is called.

11Sing praises to the LORD, who lives in Zion. Tell the peoples what he has done.

11Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings.

NoteZion was originally the fortified hill David captured in Jerusalem; the word came to stand for the temple mount, and then for Jerusalem and its people as a whole. Saying God "lives" there refers to the temple as his earthly dwelling.

12When he looks into who has spilled blood, he remembers them. He does not forget the cry of people who are beaten down.

12When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.

NoteIsraelite law gave a murdered person's nearest relative the duty of pursuing the killer and seeing justice done; he was called the avenger of blood. The verse pictures God taking that role himself, investigating a killing and not letting it go unanswered.

13Have mercy on me, LORD. Look at the trouble I go through from the people who hate me. You are the one who lifts me up from the gates of death.

13Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death:

NoteDeath is pictured as a walled city with gates. To be at its gates is to be on the point of dying; to be lifted up from them is to be pulled back from that entrance.

14Then I can tell all your praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion, the city of Jerusalem. I will be glad that you saved me.

14That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation.

Note"Daughter of Zion" is a Hebrew way of speaking of a city as a woman, standing for Jerusalem and its inhabitants together. The gates were the open space where the townspeople gathered, business was done and legal cases were heard, so to say something "in the gates" was to say it in public.

15The nations have sunk down into the pit they dug themselves. Their own feet are caught in the net they hid.

15The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.

NoteThe images come from hunting: a pit dug and covered over so an animal falls in, and a net spread and concealed on the ground to catch the feet.

16The LORD is known by the justice he carries out. The wicked are trapped by the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah.

16The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.

Note"Higgaion" and "Selah" are technical terms whose meaning was already lost by ancient times. Both appear to be directions for the musicians rather than part of the poem: Higgaion may mark a musical interlude or a low murmur of strings, and Selah, which recurs at the end of verse 20, may mark a pause, a change of volume, or a place for instruments to sound.

17The wicked will be turned back to the place of the dead, and so will all the nations that forget God.

17The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

NoteThe Hebrew word is Sheol, the underworld where all the dead were thought to go, good and bad alike, a shadowy place of silence rather than a place of punishment. The King James "hell" carried the older, broader sense of the realm of the dead. The verb can mean either "return" or "turn back," so the line may picture the wicked going back to the dust they came from.

18For the needy will not be forgotten forever. What the poor are hoping for will not be lost for all time.

18For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.

19Get up, LORD. Do not let mere people win. Let the nations be judged in front of you.

19Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight.

NoteThe word translated "mere people" here, and "only human" in the next verse, means humankind as frail and mortal; the point of the request is that the nations be made to recognize what they actually are.

20Make them afraid, LORD, so the nations will know that they are only human. Selah.

20Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.