Latest / A Tithe of Time Podcast / Psalm 9:1–20 — The LORD Is a Stronghold in Times of Trouble | Bible Commentary

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Psalm 9:1–20 — The LORD Is a Stronghold in Times of Trouble | Bible Commentary · A Tithe of Time Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to A Tithe of Time, Rooted in Wisdom, Growing Wiser, one passage at a time.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Today we'll be looking at Psalm 9, 1-20, reading from the ESV.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I will be glad and exult in you.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: For you have maintained my just cause.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: You have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: You have rebuked the nations, you have made the wicked perish.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: You have blotted out their name for ever and ever.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Their cities you rooted out.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: The very memory of them has perished.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: But the Lord sits enthroned forever.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: He has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: He judges the peoples with uprightness.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble, and those who know your name put their trust in you.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: For you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Tell among the peoples his deeds.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: For he who avenges blood is mindful of them, he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Be gracious to me, O Lord, see my affliction from those who hate me.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: The nations have sunk in the pit that they made.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: In the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord has made himself known, he has executed judgment.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Higaon, Selah.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let the nations be judged before you.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Put them in fear, O Lord.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let the nations know that they are but men.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Selah.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's look closer.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 9 begins with David remembering.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: That matters because remembering what God has already done becomes part of how David faces what is still happening.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: The Psalm keeps moving between two realities.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Human power looks strong for a time, but God sits enthroned forever.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Cities can fall, enemies can rise and disappear, nations can seem untouchable.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: But God's throne is not temporary.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Then David gives us one of the clearest pictures in the Psalm.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: A stronghold is a place of protection when danger is near.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Notice David does not say trouble never comes.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: He says God is a refuge in the middle of it.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: That leads to an important line.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Those who know your name put their trust in you.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: In Scripture, knowing God's name is more than knowing what he is called.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: It points to knowing who he is, his character, his faithfulness, and the way he has acted.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Then David says something easy to miss.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Earlier he says God has not forsaken those who seek him.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Later he says the needy will not always be forgotten.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: The repeated idea is that people who seem overlooked by the world are not overlooked by God.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then we get a picture we have seen before.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: The nations fall into the pit they dug, and their own foot is caught in the net they hid.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Evil turns back on itself.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the ending gives the whole psalm another layer.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: David says, Let the nations know that they are but men.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: That is not an insult.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: It is a reminder of limits.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Human beings can become so impressed with their own power that they forget they are still human.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 9 brings everything back into perspective.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: God sits enthroned, people do not.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the picture Psalm 9 1-20 leaves us with.