Psalms 9 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Traditionally the reign of David, roughly 1010 to 970 BC, with the song later fixed in Israel's temple hymn collection
Location
Jerusalem, the hill city David captured and made his capital, where the ark of the covenant was kept and public worship was held
Audience
Worshipping Israelites who sang and heard these songs at the sanctuary, and later Jewish readers of the completed book of Psalms
Situation
A song of thanks after God has beaten back hostile nations, praising him as a judge who has overturned enemy cities and defended the poor. The singer moves between celebrating a victory already won and asking for rescue from those still pressing in.
Key Background
Psalms 9 and 10 were almost certainly one poem originally, built as an alphabet acrostic in which successive sections begin with successive Hebrew letters, and the Greek translation of the Old Testament still counts them as a single psalm. The heading names a tune, a common practice in a collection meant to be sung rather than read silently. Ancient Near Eastern kings routinely claimed their gods had crushed enemy nations, but this psalm turns the claim toward God's care for the oppressed and the fatherless rather than the glory of the king.
I will you, Yahweh, with in me. I will tell the story of every you have done.
I will be glad and because of you. I will sing your name, Most
When my enemies retreated, they stumbled and were right in front of you.
Because you have my and my case. You sat on your throne, with
You confronted the and destroyed the wicked. You their forever and ever.
The enemy is finished — ruined forever. You uprooted their cities, and every trace of them has vanished.
But Yahweh sits forever. He has set up his throne for
He judges the with what is right. He governs the peoples with perfect fairness.
Yahweh is a for the crushed, a in times of trouble.
Those who put their in you, because you, Yahweh, have never abandoned anyone who looks for you.
to Yahweh, who lives in Zion! Tell the peoples what he has done!
Because the one who an for remembers them. He does not ignore the cry of the
me Yahweh! See how much I am suffering at the hands of those who hate me. Lift me up from the of
so I can declare you to hear in the gates of Zion, and celebrate your of me!
The nations have sunk into the they dug. Their own feet are caught in the they
Yahweh has — he has justice. The wicked are by the of their own
The wicked will go down to the — every nation that forgets God.
Because the will not always be forgotten, and the of the suffering will not be lost forever.
up, Yahweh! Do not let prevail. Let the nations be judged in your presence.
them, Yahweh. Let the nations know they are only