Sermon text
Psalm 9
¹ I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
² I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
³ When my enemies turn back,
they stumble and perish before your presence.
⁴ For you have maintained my just cause;
you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.
⁵ You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish;
you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
⁶ The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins;
their cities you rooted out;
the very memory of them has perished.
⁷ But the LORD sits enthroned forever;
he has established his throne for justice,
⁸ and he judges the world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with uprightness.
⁹ The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
¹⁰ And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
¹¹ Sing praises to the LORD, who sits enthroned in Zion!
Tell among the peoples his deeds!
¹² For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;
he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
¹³ Be gracious to me, O LORD!
See my affliction from those who hate me,
O you who lift me up from the gates of death,
¹⁴ that I may recount all your praises,
that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
I may rejoice in your salvation.
¹⁵ The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
¹⁶ The LORD has made himself known; he has executed judgment;
the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah
¹⁷ The wicked shall return to Sheol,
all the nations that forget God.
¹⁸ For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
¹⁹ Arise, O LORD! Let not man prevail;
let the nations be judged before you!
²⁰ Put them in fear, O LORD!
Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah
Applying the text
- Who or what are the enemies in your life that challenge you to despair?
- What could you recount about God’s wonderful deeds in your own life?
- How does the relationship between God’s great deeds and the suffering of the poor and needy work?
- Using the formative structure of Psalm 9, If you could write an anthem for your life, what would it say?
