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Well, we're turning to Psalm
9 and we'll commence our reading there at the verse 1. Notice
the title of this psalm. It says to the chief musician,
upon Muthliban, a psalm of David. Verse 1 says, I will praise thee,
O Lord, with my whole heart. I will show forth all thy marvellous
works. I will be glad and rejoice in
thee. I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most high. When
mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at
thy presence. For thou hast maintained my right
and my cause. Thou saddest in the throne judging
right. Thou hast rebuked the heathen.
Thou hast destroyed the wicked. Thou hast put out their name
forever and ever. O thou enemy, destructions are
come to our perpetual end. and thou hast destroyed cities,
their memorial is perished with them. But the Lord shall endure
forever. He hath prepared his throne for
judgment, and he shall judge the world in righteousness. He
shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. The Lord
also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times
of trouble. And they that know thy name will
put their trust in thee, for thou, Lord, has not forsaken
them that seek thee. Sing praises to the Lord, which
dwelleth in Zion. Declare among the people his
doings. When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them. He forgetteth not the cry of
the humble. Have 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. that I may show forth all thy
praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion, I will rejoice in thy
salvation. The heathen are sunk down in
the pit that they made, and the net which they hid is their own
foot taken. The Lord is known by the judgment
which he executeth. The wicked is snared in the work
of his own hands, hyggean selah. The wicked shall be turned into
hell, and all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall
not always be forgotten, the expectation of the poor shall
not perish forever. Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail,
let the heathen be judged in thy sight. Put them in fear,
O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah. Amen and we trust the
Lord will bless the reading of this particular psalm for his
name's sake this evening. In coming to Psalm 9 The title
indicates that this psalm, as were many of our previous psalms,
they were penned by David. The title also contains the term
muthlaban, which like some other terms that we have considered,
has caused some discussion amongst commentators and scholars. There
are three opinions here that I have put down. And there is
discussion whether or not these are the reasons or the meaning
behind this particular term. Some make it to refer to the
death of Goliath or Nabal or Absalom. Some would say that
it is a tone of musical instrument. This would be the favourite opinion
of Matthew Henry. Spurgeon refers to a man called Ben in 1 Chronicles
15 verse 18 who was one of the Levitical singers and implies
a connection between him and this particular psalm. However
Spurgeon does say in regard to the last two points there, points
B and C, that if either of these conjectures should be correct
the title of Muthlaban has no teaching for us except it is
meant to show us how careful David was that in the worship
of God all things should be done according to due order. Certainly when we come to worship
the Lord it should not be something that has been put together, something
that I suppose when you Open a bag of sweets or a bag, perhaps,
of jelly beans or jelly babies. I assume that you have sweets
like that here in Australia, like we do in the United Kingdom.
It's all a mixture. There's different colours. When
you come to Liquorice Allsorts, there's different shapes, different
sizes, different flavours, different colours. Everything is all mixed
together. When we come to the worship of
God, While we have different backgrounds, while we have different
personalities, our actual order of worship ought not to be mixed
together, ought not to be all over the place, but there ought
to be an order found in it. In this psalm we see David praising
God for his marvellous works and he has a confidence that
the wicked will be defeated by the Lord. Certainly we can pray
for God's help and blessing but we must never forget to praise
his name with thankfulness upon the answering of our prayers.
And David here is praising the Lord for his marvellous works,
all that he has done in the past, all that he has perhaps done
personally for his servant. It was William Plumer, the American
preacher of the 1800s who said, an occasional God I thank thee
is no fit return for a perpetual stream of rich benefits. And what he means by that is
that we very often can thank the Lord, it's occasional, It's
maybe a one-off, but when we consider all that the Lord does
for us, His benefits, His blessings to us, His people, are perpetual. They're continuous. There is
no end in sight. And the Lord blesses us. probably
many a time without us even knowing it, without us even recognising
it. And therefore we ought to be
in continuous praise of the Lord. We ought to be perpetually thankful
to the Lord for all that he has done for us. Notice the key theme
in this psalm. David praises the Lord for judging
the wicked and preserving the righteous. The general outline
is there as follows, verses 1-6, we have David praising God for
pleading his cause. Verses 7-12, David's declaration
of faith for future days. Verses 13-14, David prays for
his deliverance. And the last number of verses
there, verses 15-20, David prays regarding the justice of the
Lord. Notice in regard to the psalm
of David, there are a number of thoughts. His specific praise
of God. His specific praise of God. We have considered David's praise
of God before, but the psalm here focuses upon the enemies
of the psalmist. Yet with a strong resolution,
David praises the Lord. He is praising Jehovah, we see
that in verse 1. Oh Lord, Lord is in capital letters,
therefore it is Jehovah in view and he's praising Jehovah, the
name of God that shows forth his perfections. The Lord ought
to be the only object of our praise. Certainly, we can praise
things in this world. We can rejoice in things in this
world. We can rejoice and praise our family members. We can praise
those connected with us. But even the blessing that a
person is in our lives, even the blessing that some particular
thing is in our lives, comes to us from the Lord. And
therefore is something for which we ought to praise God our families. Or something which we ought to
praise God for. He has given families to us. He has blessed us in that regard. And therefore that is something
that we can praise Him for. We can praise our families. We
can rejoice in family members. But at the centre of it. Those people, those things come
from the God of heaven. But notice some things regarding
David's prayer or David's praise here. Notice firstly that he
praises God with his whole heart. We see this in verse 1. He says,
I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart. And David here
is making a melody in his heart. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
5. And we will see something here
regarding our praise of the Lord. Ephesians 5 and the verse 19
says here, speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing. and making melody in your heart
to the Lord. When we praise the Lord, we must
truly and completely praise Him with our whole heart. And Paul
here is saying to the church at Ephesus, when they come before
the Lord, there's psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, there's singing,
there's making melody in your heart to the Lord. The heart
is involved in praising the Lord. We should never praise God with
half-heartedness, yet so often this can be the very state of
our hearts in worship. We perhaps don't want to be there,
we don't want to praise the Lord. We want the time in worship to
come to an end. We are directed when it comes
to praising the Lord to make melody in our hearts to praise
him with our whole heart. And certainly the Greek words
here that the Greek word translated Psalms is Psalmos and the Greek
word that is translated melody has a connection as well. with
the term Samos and the scholars would say that those two particular
terms imply not only singing but instruments in the praise
of God and we can praise the Lord With our instruments we
can praise the Lord with our singing. Of course, certainly,
and from our perspective when we come to worship the Lord,
we have that simple piano accompaniment. that helps our singing, that
aids our singing, and when it comes to myself, I'm certainly
very thankful for it, because you wouldn't want to rely on
me to start the singing of any hymn, because it wouldn't start
overly well, and if you're relying on me to lead the singing, just
myself, well... whether we would sing to the
best of our ability, relying on me, is questionable. But certainly when we think of
instruments and music here, making melody in our hearts to the Lord,
we're not thinking of bringing all sorts of instruments in.
We're not thinking of bringing in the rock band or the drums
or the instruments that the world will play centre stage in their
worship, but those things that are simple, those things that
can help in worship, those instruments that do not take away from the
words that are sung. If we had, and I am getting sidetracked
here, but if we had some sort of loud music to sing along to,
well that would be what we would hear, that would be what we would
be focused upon. It would take away, it would
drown out the words that are sung. In the past, I've been
to meetings and the music has been loud. And, well, the words,
I hadn't a clue what was being sung, although it was up on the
screen. And this is going back to my
teenage years. And I was in a couple of meetings to that record. I
was never happy in them. I was never happy with the style
of music and praise. But it was all about the music,
it was all about the instruments, it was all about the noise and
the words that ought to be important. And when we come to the Psalms,
the words are important. The words mean something. They're
set aside, they're taken away, the focus is upon the beat or
the music. But when we praise the Lord,
we ought to praise him with our whole heart, even as we've seen
there by being sidetracked We ought to praise him in such a
way that what we're saying is clear and plain and can be understood.
That the music doesn't take over and what we're saying is set
to the side. It should be there plainly for
others to hear, for us to understand what we are singing unto the
Lord. But notice here that David recounts God's marvellous works. He recounts God's marvellous
works. In verse 1 we see that. I will show forth all thy marvellous
works. And from verse 3 down to the verse 6 we see that as
well as some of those works are specifically mentioned. But there
are two particular thoughts that I want to draw to your attention
regarding this particular point. Firstly, we ought to show forth
the marvellous works of God. David here said, I will show
forth all thy marvellous works. It was Spurgeon who said there
is true praise to the telling forth to others of our Heavenly
Father's dealings with us. This is one of the themes upon
which the godly should speak, often one to another. and it
will not be casting pearls before swine if we make even the ungodly
hear of the loving kindness of God to us. How true that is! We can tell others, other believers,
of how God has dealt with us and it can thrill our hearts,
it can encourage us. We can tell those outside of
Christ what God has done for us. We can show forth his marvellous
works. And that is something that they
need to hear because they're outside of Christ. We ought to
show forth, proclaim the marvellous works of God. But notice also,
secondly, that the Hebrew word that is translated here is I
will show, I will show forth. It's one Hebrew word. It can
also refer to recounting or remembering. The works of God ought to be
brought afresh to our minds so that we can praise his marvellous
name and also declared to others. so that they will also praise
the Lord. And we'll see that in a moment or two. We ought
to remember, we ought to recount what God has done. It was John
Gill who summed it up well when he refers to works of God such
as the creation of all things out of nothing, the bringing
them into the form and order in which they are by the word
of God. I won't read that whole quotation. It is quite lengthy. I thought it was certainly beneficial
I put it in but you can read that yourselves. He goes through
the various works of God. He comes to the Savior. He comes to Salvation. He comes to Redemption and Regeneration. And he speaks of all those wondrous
works of God, works that he has done, works that are marvellous,
works that we ought to show forth and praise God for. Such works
ought to compel us to praise our God and our Saviour. As we
look upon the heavens, they declare the glory of God. Do they not
compel us to praise Him? When we think upon our redemption,
our regeneration, our salvation, when we think of what the Saviour
has done for us, does that not compel us to praise Him, to rejoice
in Him, to praise the name of our God for plucking us like
a brand from the burning, saving our souls, stepping into our
lives. We ought to consider what the Lord has done for us and
the praise that ought to be given for all his marvellous works
concerning ourselves. Notice here Job 5 verse 9 Job
5 verse 9 it says here speaking of the Lord which do with great
things and unsearchable marvellous things without number and if
we were this evening to say well we're going to Change my notes. We're going to write down all
the things personal to ourselves that God has done. Those great
things, those unsearchable things. We would need more than one double-sided
piece of paper to write on, to record all that God has done
for us. We can think of what God has
done in our personal lives. We can think of what God has
done In our church here, we can think of what God has done in
our denomination, and there are things that are without number.
The Lord has done great things, the Lord has done unsearchable
things, marvellous things, without number. And if we were to truly
testify of everything which God has done for us, things that
we perhaps knew nothing about, They would certainly be marvellous
things without number. Verses 3 to 6 show us the marvellous
works of God in relation to the enemies of the psalmist. David
has been maintained by the Lord, but if we consider verse 5 and
verse 6, we see that the enemy will be utterly destroyed. There
will be a perpetual end. It is a complete end. Even the
memory of them is destroyed. There will be new return for
them. And that is something that we always ought to remember.
One of the works of God will be the destruction of the wicked.
It has happened before. God judged the world in the days
of Noah. The wicked. The wicked. perished, the righteous were
safe and secure in the ark. The Lord Jesus Christ referred
to that event. He spoke of the last days being
like the days of Noah. And certainly the implication
there was that the righteous would be safe, the wicked would
perish. And that is something that is
going to happen. Utterly and completely, the wicked
will be destroyed. There will be no return for them. Also, in this psalm, this song
of praise of David, he acknowledges the eternal and unchangeable
nature of his God. The power of God is praised in
this psalm. Verse 3 indicates that the enemy
cannot stand against the power and presence of the Lord. But
notice verse 7. But the Lord shall endure forever. The wicked will perish. We see
that in the previous verses. But the Lord will endure. That word endure means to continue
or to be established forever. There is no end to God. He is
eternal. He does not change. And when
we think of these aspects or these perfections of God, do
we continually have them before us when we worship Him? When
we come before the Lord and we praise Him, when we come before
the Lord to worship Him, do we think upon His power? Do we think upon His eternity? Do we think about that great
truth that our God is unchangeable? He's unchangeable in many ways. Certainly the Lord, and we can
see in scripture even in Jonah, the Lord sent Jonah with a message
of judgment, but the Lord was gracious to the people. We could certainly delve into
the eternal decree of God. We could consider the sovereignty
of God. We won't do that. But the Lord
is unchangeable. He can be trusted. The salvation
offered to us in the gospel is unchangeable. Those in the times
of the New Testament church Those who were saved then, those who
were saved in the record of church history. were redeemed by the
grace of God. They were redeemed because they
trusted in the finished work of Christ, the same way in which
we are saved today. God's plan of salvation is unchangeable. That is something that many in
this world feel to grasp. Many who hold the office of a
minister or a religious worker feel to grasp that God is unchangeable,
that the plan of God regarding the redemption of man is a plan
that is unchangeable. Christ alone saves, but many
have took their eye off that. Many think that we will all be
found in heaven. Many think that we do not need
to rest on Christ alone for salvation. The gospel has changed, but yet
it is unchangeable. It is unchangeable. He acknowledges
the eternal and unchangeable nature of his God. Notice here,
our final point in regard to this, that he encourages others
to praise God. Verse 11. Sing praises to the
Lord which dwelleth in Zion. Declare among the people his
doings. It's a plea by the psalmist that
encourages others to do the same thing in which he is engaged. To declare the marvellous works
of God and to praise Him. And this is something that every
believer ought to do. We ought to sing praises to the
Lord. We ought to declare among the
people His doings. David is doing this. And he is
telling others to do the same. And this is something every believer
ought to engage in. This is the mission of the Church
of Christ. This is the mission of our Church. To praise God
and to declare His marvellous works. for the edification of
his people and to the salvation of souls. Notice secondly here
his solemn declaration of faith in God. His solemn declaration
of faith in God. Verses 7 to 12 make it clear
that the faith that David had in God was a faith that looked
beyond the present to the future as well. Today may be a day of
blessing but tomorrow could be a day of trouble. And so our
faith in God ought to be present not only in the day of blessing,
not only today, but also tomorrow and in future days when trouble
comes. Verse nine gives us a great comfort
to our souls. It says, there the Lord also
will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. The Hebrew word for refuge indicates
altitude. a lofty cliff, an inaccessible
place, a place of defense, a high tower or fort. And when the day of trouble comes,
the Lord has a place of safety for us that is inaccessible to
the enemy. inaccessible to the enemy. A
place that is high up. A place that is secure. The Romans
built a fortress at Masada on a mountain overlooking the Dead
Sea. Why? Because it was secure. Because
it was hard to access. Because when they looked around
they could see any enemy approaching. It was a place that was secure. And the same thought applies
here. The Lord is a refuge for us, indicating altitude, a lofty
place, an inaccessible place, a place that man cannot enter,
a place that is secure. When we have trouble, when we
have sorrow, the Lord will be a refuge for us. We'll be in a place that is inaccessible
to the enemy. Verse 10 drives home the truth,
it says there, and they that know thy name will put their
trust in thee, for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek
thee. The Lord here is praised by David for not forsaking his people,
that truth is driven home. The Lord's people are not cast
off. The Lord's people are not left destitute. Many today, even
in the Church of Christ, will follow a particular man. Many
in this world, in the varying walks of life, will follow a
particular man or a particular cause, a particular group of
people. But sadly, The time sometimes
happens whenever those people are cast off, whenever those
people are forsaken, whenever those people are left destitute
because the one in whom they put their trust is an all that
they were made out to be. But when we come to the Lord,
the Lord will not forsake his people. He will not forsake those
that seek him. He will not cast us off. He will
not leave us destitute. We can trust in him. We can have
that assurance. that when we place our faith
and trust in the Lord, we will not be forsaken. He will be a
refuge for us. The hymn writer said, O for a
faith that will not shrink, though pressed by many a foe, that will
not tremble on the brink of poverty or woe. Notice here finally his
supplications for deliverance and justice. His supplications
for deliverance and justice, verses 13 to 20 consist of David's
prayers for deliverance and God's justice upon the wicked. This being a psalm of 20 verses
it is difficult to get a view of this psalm that is in depth
and to some extent complete. But this is just a glance at
this and certainly there's a group here of 7 verses, verses 13 to
20. There are a lot of things here that could be considered
individually. But for our study, for the outline we're doing,
for time's sake and space on paper, we're bringing these things
together and we're going to say a number of thoughts about them.
But verse 13 is a prayer which ought to strike chords with us.
Have mercy upon me, O Lord. Have mercy upon me, O Lord. Has
there not been a time within our life that we have prayed
that very same prayer. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, a
time that has troubled us, a time in which we have thought that
all was lost. And we cry to the Lord, have
mercy upon me, O Lord. David here considers that the
Lord is the one who lifts him up from the gates of death. All
looks hopeless, the end is in sight. But his God steps in,
consider my trouble, which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that
liftest me up from the gates of death. David Psalms a fool
of looking to pass mercies and blessings to encourage him in
prayer for present and future situations. And David here again
is emphasizing the Lord has helped in the past, the same God will
help in the future. David's desire or David's object
in desiring this deliverance is seen in verse 14. He wants
delivered from this trouble. He wants lifted up. Why? That
I may show forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter
of Zion. I will rejoice in thy salvation. David wanted to be
delivered so he could praise the Lord because he could declare
and rejoice in God's salvation. This is not a selfish reason
for deliverance. It is a reason that glorifies
God. A reason that glorifies God.
We do pray to the Lord for deliverance. We pray for the Lord to help
us, to deliver us from times of trouble. But may the primary
reason be that in the Lord's deliverance of us, we can show
forth and declare his wonders. We can praise and glorify him. Notice the simple word all in
verse 14. All thy praise, it's found in
verse one as well. All thy marvellous works. David
wasn't going to forget anything. He was going to declare All. He was going to declare all.
In regard to God's justice upon the wicked, we see verse 15 and
16. It says there, The heathen are
sunk down in the pit that they made, and the net which they
hid is their own foot taken. The Lord is known by the judgment
which he executed. The wicked is snared in the work
of his own hands. Higgien. Selah. Notice that term Hyggean in verse
16 and the Sela that follows it. The psalmist here is saying,
The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth. The wicked
is snared in the work of his own hands. Meditate on this. That's what Hyggean means. Meditate
on this. Pause the music. The instruments
that are playing, pause the music. That's what Sela means. And this is something that those
outside of Christ ought to consider. The wicked is snurred in the
work of his own hands. Meditate upon this, think in
this, pause the music. This is something important that
needs to be considered. The wicked is snurred in the
work of his own hands. If we turn back to Psalm 7 and
the verses 15 to 16, we see here verse 15, he made a pit and digged
it and has fallen into the ditch which he made. And there is a
similar thought here in verse 15. The heathen are sunk down
in the pit that they made. Many in this world will blame
God for sending sinners to hell. But yet, it is their own actions
that cause their fall. It is their own actions that
cause the judgment of God to come down upon them. The heathen
are sunk in, down in the pit that they made. They made the
pit because of their sin and because of their rebellion. Verse
20 is a prayer that we ought to pray Many nations think themselves
to be above God and His law, yet they ought to see themselves
as mere men. Put them in fear, O Lord, that
the nations may know themselves to be but men. Again, an emphasis to think in
these things, put them in fear, O Lord, that the nations may
know themselves to be but men. And the word man here is enosh,
which we considered in relation to psalm 8, implies the weakness,
the frailty and the mortality of men. God is praised in this
psalm for all his wonders, and it closes with a prayer that
the nations would know themselves to be frail, to be weak, to be
mortal. the sight of God. They would
realise who they are and who God is. Matthew Henry said in singing
this psalm, we must give to God the glory of his justice and
pleading his people's cause against his or her or their enemies and
encourage ourselves to wait for the year of the redeemed and
the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion, even the
final destruction of all anti-Christian powers and factions to which
many of the ancients apply this psalm. Notice here Christ in
Psalm 9. When we praise the Lord, we are
able to praise him because of the Lord Jesus Christ. We could not praise the Lord
except for Christ and what he has done for us. When we praise the Lord it is
because of Christ's salvation. Henry Law spoke of God's marvellous
works as seen in the psalm. He said, from the cradle to the sore.
Christ died for us. Christ lives for us. Christ will
soon come again to receive us unto himself that where he is
there we may be also. Let us praise with our whole
hearts. Let us be glad and rejoice in him. The greatest work of
God, the most marvellous work of God was the work of redemption,
focused and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 6 refers to the final defeat
of the enemy and the Savior will utterly and eternally defeat
the great enemy of God, the devil. And we ought to be aware of Satan
and his devices but we ought not to be afraid of him. We ought
to be wary of him. We ought to be wary of his devices
but not afraid because he is a foe of that is defeated. He is a foe that will face a
perpetual end. He is a foe that cannot stand
against Christ Jesus, for the Saviour has the victory. May the Lord bless these thoughts
this evening to our hearts on this particular psalm. Amen.
David praises the Lord for judging the wicked & preserving the righteous
| Sermon ID | 32215247310 |
| Duration | 37:17 |
| Date | |
| Category | Prayer Meeting |
| Bible Text | Psalm 9 |
| Language | English |
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