Why read Psalm 9? What is the interpretation of the Psalm and what do its verses mean? You can listen online or read the text of the prayer Psalm 9 in Russian on our website.
1 I will praise You, O Lord, with all my heart, I will proclaim all Your wonders, 2 I will rejoice and rejoice in You, I will sing praises to Your name, O Most High! 3 When my enemy is turned back, they will faint and perish before You, 4 for You have completed my judgment and my litigation, You have sat on the throne, a righteous Judge. 5 You threatened the nations, and the wicked perished; blotted out his name forever, and forever and ever. 6 The enemy had no weapons left at all, and You destroyed the cities, the memory of him perished with a noise! 7 And the Lord abides forever; He has prepared His throne for judgment. 8 And He will judge the world with righteousness, He will judge the nations with righteousness. 9 And the Lord became a refuge for the poor, a helper in prosperity and in sorrow, 10 and let those who know Your name trust in You, for You have not forsaken those who seek You, O Lord. 11 Sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion; make known His deeds among the nations, 12 for He, who exacts their blood, has remembered, and has not forgotten the cry of the poor. 13 Have mercy on me, O Lord, look at my humiliation from my enemies, You lift me up from the gates of death, 14 so that I may proclaim all Your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in Your salvation. 15 The nations are sank in the destruction that they have created; their feet are caught in the snare that they have hidden. 16 The Lord who executes judgments is known: the sinner is lost in the work of his own hands. 17 Let sinners return to hell, all nations who forget God, 18 for the poor will not be completely forgotten, the patience of the poor will not be completely lost. 19 Arise, O Lord, let not man be strong, let the nations be judged before Thee. 20 Set, O Lord, a lawgiver over them, that the nations may know that they are men. 21 Why, O Lord, have you stood afar off, not noticing prosperity and sorrow? 22 When the wicked are puffed up, and the poor are arrogant, they are entangled in the plans that they devise. 23 For the sinner boasts in the desires of his soul, and the unjust is blessed. 24 The sinner angered the Lord: “Because of the multitude of His wrath He will not require”—there is no God before him. 25 His ways are defiled at all times, he puts Your judgments away from his face, he takes possession of all his enemies. 26 After all, he said in his heart: “I will not be moved, from generation to generation I will remain without evil,” 27 he whose mouth is full of curses, and bitterness, and deceit, under his tongue is trouble and grief; 28 He sits in ambush with the rich in secret places to kill the innocent; his eyes watch the poor. 29 He lies in wait in secret, like a lion in his den; lies in wait to grab the beggar, grab the beggar when he lures him. 30 In his snare he will humble him, but he will bend and fall when he has gained the upper hand over the poor. 31 For he said in his heart: “God has forgotten, He has turned away His face, so as not to see until the end!” 32 Arise, O Lord my God, may Thy hand be exalted; do not forget Thy poor to the end! 33 Why did the wicked provoke God? After all, he said in his heart: “He will not require it.” 34 You see, for You notice grief and wrath, so as to deliver him into Your hands; The needy was left for You, You were the helper of the orphan. 35 Break the arm of the sinner and the evil one, and they will look for his sin and not find it. 36 The Lord is King forever and ever; Perish, O pagans, from His land! 37 Thou hast heard the desire of the poor, O Lord; Thy ear has heard the desire of their hearts; 38 bring justice to the fatherless and the humble, so that man may no longer be magnified on earth.
Detailed interpretation
The ninth Psalm of the Old Testament can be divided into 10 parts:
- David glorifies the Lord, rejoices and triumphs in Him (verses 1-3)
- God executes judgment on David's enemies (verses 4 and 5)
- The Lord not only destroys the king’s opponents, but completely destroys the memory of them from the earth. Makes it as if they never existed (verses 6 and 7)
- God becomes the refuge of all the oppressed and those who mourn (verses 8-11)
- David encourages people to glorify the Lord because He does not forget those who need protection. Asks the Lord to have mercy on him and protect him from all enemies (verses 12-15)
- The nations who dug pits for other people and laid nets for them to catch and destroy, fell into their own traps (verses 16-19)
- David asks God to rise up against the proud so that they will remember that they are just people and nothing more (verses 20-21)
- An insolent and wicked man, feeling his impunity, says that God does not see him and will not punish him, that God’s judgment simply does not exist (verses 22-31)
- David asks the Lord to rebel against them so that they will no longer abuse the poor and orphans (verses 33-36)
- God will judge every wicked person and His punishment will be just (verses 37-39).
There is no such division in the Bible itself. It was made in order to better highlight the semantic parts of the chapter and more deeply understand its main idea.
Part 1 – “I will praise you, Lord”
Verse 1
David performs the Psalm after the death of Laben. It is not known for certain who the deceased was to the king, because this name is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. Based on the content of the Psalm, it can be assumed that Labenus’ death was violent. The reason could be David's enemies, because many times in the Psalm he asks the Lord for retribution. We can only guess who Laben was and what role he played in David’s life.
There are no parallel Bible verses.
Verses 2 and 3
David promises to glorify the Lord always, to “proclaim”, that is, to tell everyone about what miracles God worked in his life. The king praise God with all his heart, honestly and without embellishment. David promises to continue to glorify the Lord and sing songs to Him. He calls him the Almighty - the one who is above everyone and controls everything.
There are no parallel verses from the Word of God.
Part 2 – “You carried out my judgment and my litigation”
Verses 4 and 5
David tells God that his enemies perish when the Lord intercedes for the king. They stumble and don't know how to proceed. Why do enemies behave this way? Because God himself enters the fight for David. He sits on his throne and judges all who are at enmity with the righteous. And His judgment is fair and righteous.
There are no parallel Bible verses.
Part 3 – “The enemy has no weapons at all”
Verses 6 and 7
God was indignant at those nations who took up arms against David. He not only destroyed the wicked, but blotted out their names forever. He made sure that the memory of them was not preserved, he destroyed them. God deprived the enemies of their own weapons, destroyed the cities in which they lived, and completely erased the memory of them. He made it as if they didn’t exist at all. Without God's help, David would not have been able to resist the nations that took up arms against him. And the king understands this very well.
There are no parallel verses from the Word of God.
Part 4 – “He will judge the universe with righteousness”
Verses 8 and 9
God will prepare a throne for himself to judge all nations and nations. His judgment will be righteous, as fair as He himself is. But not only the nations will be judged by Him, but also the whole universe.
Parallel verse:
- Psalm 95:13 – God comes to judge the earth. He will judge the universe according to truth, and people according to his truth. In truth - according to how the inhabitants of the universe fulfilled God's instructions. According to the truth - according to the Word of God. Did people follow what is written in the Bible, did they fulfill the commandments of God?
Verse 10 and 11
God is described as a refuge for the oppressed. Refuge - a place to hide from persecutors or to survive times of trouble (war and turmoil). David says that those who know the name of God (He himself is considered obedient to the Lord), He will never leave. He will not abandon those who seek Him. People know this and therefore trust in God.
There are no parallel Bible verses.
Part 5 – “He demands blood”
Verses 12 and 13
David calls not just to praise the Lord, but to sing to him. To the one who lives on Zion (holy mountain). And the king is not only talking about glorification. He also exhorts all who know the Lord to tell others about His works, to tell others what God has done in their lives, and not to be ashamed or embarrassed about it. Why is God worthy of all this? Because he himself takes revenge for those who are offended, and does not forget those who ask Him for help. If a person is oppressed, he can turn to the Lord, and He will definitely help him.
There are no parallel verses of Scripture.
Verses 14 and 15
David asks God for mercy. So that the Creator can see what suffering is caused to him by people who hate him. The king is sure that it is only thanks to God that he has remained alive until now, because the Lord protects him, “to lift him up ... from the gates of death.” Why does God keep David? The man believes that in order for him to glorify God and rejoice in how He will save him from his enemies time after time. There are more than once verses in the Bible that say that God saves people so that they glorify Him - they did not say that they themselves were able to overcome their enemies, but gave all the glory to God.
There are no parallel verses from the Word of God.
Part 6 – “Let the wicked go to hell”
Verses 16 and 17
David describes the nations who were his enemies - they dug a hole for him, but they themselves fell into it. The same fate of the wicked was shown in detail in the seventh Psalm. It also describes the nets that the wicked pulled in order to catch the righteous in them, but they themselves became entangled in them. It is in this that God’s judgment is recognized - sinners fall into their own traps. They want to hurt and hurt the righteous, but then they themselves suffer from their actions. They are caught with their own hands.
Parallel verses:
- Psalm 7:16 – The wicked fall into their own pits and into their own snares.
- Psalm 56:7 – David says that his enemies prepared a snare for his feet, so his soul sank; they dug a hole for him, but they themselves fell into it.
Verse 18
The king wishes all those who have forgotten about God and his commandments to go to hell. Convert - get there, stay there forever.
There are no parallel Bible verses.
Verse 19
David is confident that God will never forget the poor, the needy, and those who need Him. And even if such people do not see a good life on earth, they will be fully blessed after death, in paradise. A similar thing is described in Proverbs, when poor Lazarus, who ate crumbs from his master's table, went to heaven and rejoiced there, living with God. And his owner, who did not take care of Lazarus and did not take care of him, although he could have done so, ended up in hell.
There are no parallel verses from the Word of God.
Part 7 – “Lord, bring fear upon them”
Verses 20 and 21
David calls on God to rise up so that man does not consider himself omnipotent and unpunished. The king wants God himself to judge the nations and bring fear to them. Only in this way, the man is sure, will they understand that they do not have sufficient strength to compete with their Creator.
There are no parallel Bible verses.
Part 8 – “The Wicked Boasts in the Lust of His Soul”
Verse 22
David groans and cries to God because he believes that He is delaying judgment, as if he is hiding and is not in a hurry to help those who ask Him about it. Sometimes it seems like this to people, especially in difficult moments of their lives. But the Lord has his own timing and times. Only He knows when to enter into litigation and when to hold off. However, this time is not wasted for the wicked; they do not sleep. What they do is described in detail in the following verses of the Psalm.
There are no parallel verses from the Word of God.
Verses 23-25
Because the wicked go unpunished for so long, they become overly proud and oppress the poor. But David wants them to be caught in their own traps. The sinner is overly lustful and always follows his own desires, which often go against the commandments of God. He is selfish and praises himself. The wicked does not consider it necessary to trust in God and thinks that He will never punish him or that the Lord does not exist at all. This happens because God is slow to reward him for his deeds, to punish him so that he can no longer rely on his strength or position in society.
Parallel verse:
- Psalm 52:2 – David calls people who are sure that there is no God foolish. Because they have become corrupted and can no longer reason soberly about what awaits them in the future for the crimes they have committed.
Verses 26-28
The wicked is confident that God's judgment will not affect him, thinking that there is no God. Therefore, the sinner looks disdainfully and arrogantly at his enemies - he can do whatever he wants to them. He doesn't have anyone to hold him back. I am sure that nothing bad will happen to his generation. Only an intelligent person understands that such thoughts are stupid and naive. A person does not know what will happen to him tomorrow and whether he will wake up in the morning. And the sinner is confident that from generation to generation everything will be fine with him and his descendants. Why is he so arrogant? Because God's judgment has not yet touched him.
A sinner always says only three things - deceit, lies and a curse. Deceit is speech that may carry good in itself, but it is deceptive; with such words he “builds” a trap for a person. A lie is an elementary lie. A curse is a wish for something bad (death or illness).
Parallel verse:
- Rom 3:14 – The mouth of the wicked is still full of bitterness and slander.
Verses 29-32
The wicked, like a predator, sits in a hidden place and lies in wait for his prey, which is the poor or the orphan. He kills an innocent and is not ashamed of it. David compares such a person to a lion who sits in his den as if in ambush in order to grab the poor and drag him to himself. And the unfortunate person who fell for him cannot resist his sharp claws. That is why the sinner says that God has hidden His face and sees nothing. Therefore, he will not be punished. He can do whatever he wants.
There are no parallel Bible verses.
Part 9 – “You are an orphan’s helper”
Verses 34 and 35
David refuses to understand why the wicked man is so stupid and therefore never ceases to ask himself and God why he does this, and is also confident that he will always remain unpunished. The king asks God to raise his hand, not to forget about those who are oppressed by such a wicked one, which is described above and looks like a predator. David is confident that God sees all the atrocities that the sinner commits against other people, the poor and disadvantaged. The man knows that the Lord will always help the poor and the orphan and will not leave them alone in trouble.
There are no parallel verses from the Word of God.
Verse 36
David asks the Lord to “break the arm” of the evil and wicked, which means to defeat him, overpower him, overcome him, weaken him. The man asks God to deal with the sinner so that he simply does not remain on this earth. And so that no one else remembers what they did.
There are no parallel Bible verses.
Part 10 – “You hear the desires of the humble”
Verse 37
David triumphs and proclaims in his song that God reigns forever and His glory will have no end. All the pagans will disappear from God's earth because they will not be able to be in the presence of a holy God. Also because they will be destroyed for their wickedness, lies, destruction, rapacity and deceit.
There are no parallel verses from the Word of God.
Verse 38
David turns to the Lord with the words that He hears those who have a humble heart and consider it necessary to obey Him and His commandments. The king prays for people who obey God, so that the Lord will strengthen their hearts, and His ear will be open to what they say and what they ask of Him. Often the oppressed call upon Torts and ask Him for help. Therefore, David prays that God will always hear their voice and come to the rescue when necessary.
There are no parallel Bible verses.
Verse 39
David asks for speedy judgment from God over the wicked, so that life will be easier for the orphan and the oppressed. To ease the burden they carry. The king is confident that with God's help the wicked will no longer frighten and lie in wait for the poor like a predatory beast, but will turn away from his path or will be punished by God so that he will no longer be on earth and his memory will also disappear.
There are no parallel verses from the Word of God.
Psalm 9 read:
1 Finally, about the secret things of the Son, a psalm to David
2 I will confess to You, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders. 3 I will rejoice and rejoice in You, I will sing to Your name, O Most High. 4 Whenever my enemy turns back, they will faint and perish before Your presence. 5 Because you have executed my judgment and my judgment, you have sat on the Throne, judging righteousness. 6 He rebuked you with your tongue, and the wicked perished; you took his name for ever and ever. 7 The enemy has run out of weapons to the end, and you have destroyed the cities, and his memory perished with noise. 8 And the Lord abides forever, preparing His Throne for judgment, 9 and He is to judge the world in righteousness, to judge people in righteousness. 10 And the Lord was a refuge for the needy, a helper in good times and in tribulations. 11 And let those who know Your name trust in You, for You have not forsaken those who seek You, O Lord. 12 Sing to the Lord who dwells in Zion, proclaim His works among the nations, 13 for I will remember their blood, not forgetting the calling of the needy. 14 Have mercy on me, Lord, see my humility from my enemies, lift me up from the gates of death, 15 For I will proclaim all Your praise in the gates of the daughter Zion, we will rejoice in Your salvation. 16 The coal miners of the nations are in the destruction, having created the same, in this net, even as the roof is hidden, their foot is stuck. 17 We know that the Lord creates destiny; the sinner binds his hand in affairs. 18 Let sinners return to hell, all the nations who forget God. 19 Because the poor will not be completely forgotten, the patience of the needy will not be completely destroyed. 20 Arise, Lord, let no man be strong, and let the nations be judged before You. 21 Set, O Lord, a giver of the law over them, that the Gentiles may understand that they are men. 22 How, O Lord, do you stand afar off, despised in good times, in times of trouble? 23 The wicked are always proud, the poor are inflamed, they get caught up in the advice of those who think. 24 For a sinner is to praise in the desires of his soul, and to bless an offender is. 25 A sinner who provokes the Lord, because of the abundance of his wrath, will not seek it; he has no God before him. 26 His ways are defiled for all time, Your fortunes are taken away from before him, he has all his enemies. 27 Saying in my heart, I will not move from generation to generation without evil, 28 whose mouth is full of oaths, and sorrow and flattery, under his tongue is labor and illness. 29 He sits down to hunt with the rich in secret places, even if he kills the innocent, and looks upon him as a beggar. 30 He catches in secret like a lion in his fence, he catches the poor, he catches the poor, and at some time he attracts him in his net. 31 He will humble him, bow down and fall, never having the power of the poor. 32 He said in his heart: Forget God, turn away His face, so that He does not see to the end. 33 Arise, Lord my God, may Your hand be exalted, do not forget Your poor to the end. 34 What do you do to anger the wicked God? Speech in your heart: it will not require. 35 See how You look upon sickness and rage, so that He may be faithful in Your hand, The beggar has been left for You, You will be a helper to the sire. 36 Break the arm of the sinner and the evil one, his sin will be exacted and will not be found. 37 The Lord is King forever and ever, you nations will perish from His land. 38 Thou hast heard the desire of the poor, O Lord; Thy ear hath heard the plan of their hearts. 39 Judge the lowly and the lowly, lest any man make himself great upon the earth.
Brief interpretation
Briefly, the ninth Psalm of the Old Testament can be interpreted as follows:
- “I will tell everyone about what You have done in my life, God, I will praise You and not be ashamed of it.”
- “I will triumph and rejoice that You exist, I will sing and shout to You.”
- “Because you yourself fight my enemies instead of me, you yourself judge them and take revenge on them.”
- “You destroyed those nations who did not bow down and submit to You, you completely destroyed them from the face of the earth.”
- “You deprived my enemies of weapons, now they have nothing to fight against me, You destroyed their cities, so that they had nowhere to live.”
- God has prepared for himself a throne for judgment, on which he will sit and judge all nations.
- For the oppressed and oppressed, He will always be a refuge - a place to which he can run, take refuge and feel safe.
- “Those who seek Your face and do Your will, You do not abandon.”
- Therefore, David does not tire of praising the Lord for this and talking about how God is good to his people and all people. The king is not ashamed of his faith, but proud of it.
- David asks that God will have mercy on him when the time comes. saved him from enemies and enemies, from those who wished him death.
- The king describes those who wanted to catch him, dug a hole for him, but they themselves fell into it. And they became entangled in the net that they laid for David.
- The man asks the Lord to arise in judgment so that the wicked do not exalt themselves over the poor and orphans.
- “God, make sure that they are in fear and understand that they are just people, and not omnipotent gods.”
- Because the wicked have become too proud, persecute the poor, and contrive to do as much evil as possible.
- They do not see retribution for their actions, so they say that there is no God, and are not afraid that they will ever be punished for their actions.
- If the wicked says anything, it is either a lie, or a curse, or deceit.
- He sits in ambush like a predatory animal, lying in wait for the poor or the orphan. It lurks in a place from which it cannot be seen, and suddenly grabs the victim. And she cannot escape from his clutches, because the wicked has sharp claws.
- Such a person is sure that God does not see what is happening on earth, as if the Lord had closed his ears and eyes.
- But David asks the Lord to arise and judge the wicked with truth and justice.
- So that he would not say that there is no God, he stopped doing so many iniquities towards those who are weaker than him.
- David asks to destroy all evil people, so that no memory of them and their bad deeds remains on earth.
- The king glorifies God and states that the Lord hears all the complaints of the orphans and the poor, as well as those who have a humble heart.
- “Judge with justice the orphan, the poor, and the wicked, so that the common man can no longer frighten and intimidate people who are weaker than himself.”
The ninth Psalm consists of 39 verses of the Bible. Found on pages 571 and 572. Four verses of the Psalm have parallel locations that help to more accurately understand the meaning of the written words.
