Scholars debate whether Psalm 9 and
10 were originally one psalm or two, but they agree that these two
psalms are clearly intertwined. These psalms use consecutive letters
of the Hebrew alphabet, beginning in Psalm 9 and finishing in Psalm
10. Viewed this way, we can see two sides of the same coin, so to
speak. Although these psalms seem very different, they are very
closely related. In Psalm 9 the Lord appears very
much in charge; In Psalm 10 the wicked rule the day. Which is it?
The Bible doesn't ignore
or shrink back from the difficult realities of life in a fallen
world. Though we may view these two sides as a contradiction, the
Bible takes these two very different realities and places them right
together in tension. Why? Why is God's rule over the affairs of the
world set in tension with the prosperity and scheming of the wicked?
What is God's intention for us in these psalms?
Psalm 9: God Rules
Over the World
In the Holman Christian Standard
Bible, the heading above Psalm 9 reads, Celebration of God's
Justice. Here we see God executing his rule over the nations
of the world, over the wicked, over the oppressors of the world.
3My
enemies turn back; they stumble and perish before you. 4For
you have upheld my right and my cause; you have sat on your throne,
judging righteously. 5You
have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked; you have blotted
out their name for ever and ever. 6Endless
ruin has overtaken the enemy, you have uprooted their cities; even
the memory of them has perished.
(Psalm 9:3-6)
This
is the world when everything goes as it ought to go—at least as it
ought to go in a fallen, broken world.
Bad things happen to bad people. Good things happen to good people.
When the bad people do bad to good
people, God deals with it. “The
Lord
sits
enthroned forever; He has established His throne for judgment.”
(Psalm 9:7 HCSB)
In
American church culture many shy away from talking about God
establishing His throne for judgment. Judgment is perceived all too
often as a bad thing (and it can be if we are talking about evil
human judgments). But judgment, righteous and just judgments, are a
good thing, a wonderful thing for the oppressed—those who are being
unjustly treated and harmed. Real justice is the answer to the cry
of the person wronged when he cries out, “It's not fair.” It
fixes that situation. God's rule,
His Kingship (throne) is established to right the wrongs.
Not
only does God sit enthroned forever, not only is He enthroned in
heaven (Psalm 2:4); God sits enthroned in Zion—in the midst of His
people (Psalm 9:11). God doesn't just rule from a distance; God rule is close and personal, He is
ruling not from a ivory tower far away, but from a throne in the
middle of “our city,”
right where we live!
Zion is the city of the Living God, the dwelling place of the
Almighty. Here the Lord
is
called, “he
who avenges blood.” (Psalm
9:12). The wicked shed the blood of the innocent, but God doesn't
give them a pass; He takes up the cause of the innocent.
This
is encouraging news in a day that the innocent are being slaughtered
by the millions in our own cities and towns across this nation in
abortion clinics. God will deal with the manipulating doctors and
nurses who, using the fears of young and naive pregnant women, pressure them into killing their children. God will deal with the
politicians who for the sake of personal gain manipulate the voters
to keep this slaughter going. God
is the One Who avenges blood.
This
psalm looks at the brokenness of the world from one side of the coin.
It ends (Psalm 9:17-20), however, reminding us how God's rule often comes. We get a hint that sometimes justice
delays until the grave, but are reminded that the needy will not
always be forgotten—which means they sometimes appear to be
forgotten. Then it ends with a cry to God to arise and not allow man in his
wickedness to triumph.
This is a cry of “Your
kingdom come; Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven.”
Psalm
10: The Wicked Rules Over the Powerless
In
Psalm 10, the coin is flipped and we see the same world from the
other side.
Why,
O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of
trouble? (Psalm 10:1)
There
are days when we see the world through the eyes of Psalm 9 and days
we see it through the eyes of Psalm 10. What kind of day have
you been experiencing lately? Does your soul celebrate with
confidence that truth that God will right every wrong? Or does your
soul cry out, “Why are you so distant? Why have you taken a
vacation in a time of trouble?” God has given us ways to
communicate with Him, to pray, in each of these places.
This
psalm continues for 10 verses describing the observable rule of the
wicked. The kingdom of the wicked seems firmly in place. The
wicked one...
“hunts
down the weak... boasts... blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD...
does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God. Yet,
“His ways are always prosperous... your laws are far from
him; he sneers at all his enemies
(who are the righteous)... He says to himself, "Nothing
will shake me; I'll always be happy and never have trouble."
His mouth is full of curses, lies, and threats... from ambush he
murders the innocent, watching in secret for his victims... he lies
in wait to catch the helpless; he catches the helpless and drags them
off in his net. His victims are crushed, they collapse; they fall
under his strength. He says to himself, "God has forgotten; he
covers his face and never sees.”
(Psalm 10:2-11)
What
is the psalmists response?
Does
he give up and decide that God must have died or not exist because
the world feels out of control? Does he simply utter a pious
platitude about how God is in control and he trusts that God is wiser
than we are? While God is certainly wiser than we are, that is not
what the psalmist does. The
psalmist refuses to accept the world this way.
Psalm 10:12-18 are the response of the psalmist, and teach us what
our response is to be when God seems to have taken a vacation. He
cries out in response with what may be summed up as a prayer saying,
“Your Kingdom come; Your will be done in earth as it is
in heaven.” The words are
different, but the meaning is the same.
Arise,
LORD! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless....The
victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked and evil man; call him to account for his
wickedness that would not be found out.
The
psalmist teaches us to cry out to God against the injustice of this
fallen world. God calls
us to pray that this injustice would be overturned, and He will
answer (Luke 18:8). God is no more delighted by the wickedness and
brokenness of this fallen world than we are—indeed He is more
grieved than we are. Speaking of our call to petition God to bring
about His justice, His kingdom rule, in this unjust world where the
wicked rule, David Wells says it well,
…petitionary
prayer only flourishes where there is a twofold belief: first, that
God's name is hallowed too irregularly, his kingdom has come too
little, and his will is done too infrequently; second, that God
himself can change this situation. Petitionary prayer, therefore, is
the expression of the hope that life as we meet it, on the one hand,
can be otherwise and, on the other hand, that it ought to
be otherwise.
Always pray
and do not lose heart! (Luke 18:1)
Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel,
Advance the Gospel,
Jerry
