Continuing a chronological Bible study:
(Psalm 9:1) (To the chief musician upon Muthlabben, a psalm of David) I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all Your marvelous works.
There is no consensus for the meaning of "Muthlabben." Some assume it was an unknown instrument upon which the psalm was to be played, as other psalms have noted. Some think it might have been the name of a song to the tune of which this psalm was to be sung. The meaning of "muth" is "to die," and the root of "labben" means "son," or in a wider sense, perhaps "people" or "nation." Of course, "die" and "son" immediately make me think of Christ dying for us. Could this be another prophetic psalm about Christ?
David started his psalm by determining to praise the Lord with all his whole heart and to tell of all the marvelous things He had done. In the last post, David had just conquered many nations that had infringed on Israel's territory, so he could have very definitely written a psalm of praise and thanksgiving for delivering him through his battles.
(2) I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O You most high.
David would rejoice in the Lord, not in himself or his army or in any instruments of war, but he would sing praises to the most high God from whom all victories came.
(3) When my enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at Your presence.
All of David's enemies had been recently turned back, and they fell and perished as they could not stand in the presence of the Lord and His will, and this would always be the case.
(4) For You have maintained my right and my cause; You sat in the throne judging right.
The Lord had defended and vindicated David's cause, clearly indicating that his cause was just and good. The Lord as the righteous judge would always judge rightly and could do nothing but. Although His judgments might not be immediately manifest in the present state of things, David had full faith in His righteous judgment.
(5) You have rebuked the heathen, You have destroyed the wicked, You have put out their name forever and ever.
The Lord Himself had destroyed the enemies of Israel. David did not claim that the victory was his. He gave all credit to the Lord. These may be prophetic words about Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, the Lord destroyed the wicked forever.
(6) O you enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end; and you have destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.
David made his comments to his enemies, telling them their destructions had come to an end forever. They had destroyed cities that would never be rebuilt or remembered. Though their wickedness would seem to prevail for a season, through Jesus's death and resurrection, their destructions had a permanent end.
(7) But the Lord shall endure forever; He has prepared His throne for judgment. (8) And He shall judge the world in righteousness; He shall administer judgment to the people in uprightness.
However, the Lord endured forever, and He would righteously judge the wicked. In fact, He would judge the whole world; He would righteously judge the good and the wicked.
(9) The Lord will also be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. (10) And they who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You, Lord, have not forsaken them who seek You.
The Lord would be a safe refuge for the people who were oppressed by the wicked. Those who knew the Lord would put their trust in Him because He had never forsaken those who sought Him. Whether in this life or the next, the Lord would righteously judge the wicked and the oppressed. The most the wicked can do to us is take our earthly lives, but as Paul said in Philippians 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Dying on earth is actually an advantage in that one's soul goes to a glorious eternal life in heaven. "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18)
(11) Sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion; declare among the people His doings.
David exhorted the people to sing the praises of their Lord who then dwelt in Zion. They should declare to all the nations the wonderful works of the Lord.
(12) When He makes inquisition for blood, He remembers them; He does not forget the cry of the humble.
Being on this side of Christ, it sometimes makes me uncomfortable to read of vengeance and blood. Because we have Jesus, we forgive our enemies, because without Him, we would be just as they are, lost souls looking forward to an eternal life in hell. And that is a very terrible thing to wish on anyone. However, God can only be righteous and just. We need to acknowledge that all sins against the innocent are sins against Him! When evil is done to our Lord, when people blaspheme and do cruel things against Him personally, that is when I get my ire up. That is when I am most upset, when I see our country doing wickedness in the world and against the innocent, against the laws of God. That is when I am the most sorry to our Lord. But vengeance is rightfully the Lord's, and He will be just and right. There is not a soul on earth who does not have multiple chances to accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. Once they have made their ultimate decision to follow Satan rather than Jesus, they have chosen to follow him into eternity in hell, and God honors that decision and righteously judges them.
(13) Have mercy on me, O Lord; consider my trouble from those who hate me, You who lifts me up from the gates of death, (14) That I may show forth all Your praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion; I will rejoice in Your salvation.
After declaring all the marvelous works of the Lord for His people, David made it personal and asked that the Lord have mercy on him and consider his personal trials. Again, we see glimpses of Christ. Through His sacrifice, death, and resurrection, He is the One who lifts us up from the gates of hell; He is the one who gives us salvation. And in that, David rejoiced and praised the Lord publicly in the gates of Jerusalem. Note the contrast between the "gates of death" and the "gates of the daughter of Zion," personifying Jerusalem or the people of Israel as God’s cherished daughter.
(15) The heathen are sunk down in the pit they made; in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. (16) The Lord is known by the judgment He executes; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.
In general, the sense of these two verses is that the wicked would be ensnared in the traps they had set for others. However, "wicked" is not used in verse 15, but "heathen." While the words might be interchangeable in the eyes of the children of Israel at the time, a heathen was a Gentile, one who did not acknowledge the God of the Bible. The heathen might not start out as wicked, but without God to fill the spiritual void, they allow demons to creep in, and then they create idols and worship pagan gods and become ensnared by Satan and his demons, by means of those false idols they created with their own hands. The Lord is known by the judgment He executes. His very nature and character is righteous judgment. A ruler who winked at evil would soon be known by all his subjects to be evil himself, but God is known as a holy and righteous judge. "Higgaion" means "meditate," and then "selah," pause. Pause and reflect on the seriousness of the judgment and consequences administered to the heathen. Jesus Christ came to save heathens from their fate.
(17) The wicked shall be turned into hell, all the nations that forget God.
The wicked will be sent to hell, all those who "forget" God. To forget God is only possible if one has once known Him. If they have never been taught and have never known God, such nations cannot forget Him. Jesus came to save those lost sheep. But the wicked, it would seem, are those who know God but reject Him, choosing instead to follow antichrists. Anti-Christ would be anyone or anything that is contrary to or the opposite of Christ. Wow! That is worth reflection, that if we aren't following Jesus Christ, we are following the antichrist, and we know where that leads!
(18) For the needy shall not always be forgotten; nor the expectation of the poor perished forever.
I feel like this verse must be viewed in context of Christ. The fact that we are called to pause and reflect on the serious consequences of being lost to God, being sunk into that terrible pit of hell, but that the poor and needy will not always be forgotten, has to point to the mercy and salvation of David's coming Messiah, Jesus Christ.
(19) Arise, O Lord; do not let man prevail; let the heathen be judged in Your sight.
David called on the Lord to rise up and not let man prevail, that man of sin, that antichrist. Although David's meaning may have been righteous judgment on the wicked, the prophetic meaning perhaps unbeknownst to him, might have been that the lost nations be righteously judged when given their freewill choice in the Messiah.
(20) Put them in fear, O Lord, that the nations may know themselves as only men. Selah.
Whether of his own heart, or by inspiration of God, David seemed to have supposed that if the nations understood that they were only men, they would be humbled and would refrain from wickedness. He prayed that God would give them reverential fear and show them precisely what they were. If men truly understood this, they would not dare to array themselves against their Maker. Jesus Christ came that sinful men might have life. Muthlabben? The Son died that we might have life!
(Psalm 60:1) (To the chief musician upon Shushaneduth, michtam of David to teach, when he strove with Aram Naharaim and Aram Zobah, when Joab returned and struck of Edom in the valley of salt twelve thousand) O God, You have cast us off, You have scattered us, You have been displeased; O turn Yourself to us again.
David's references appear to place this psalm chronologically after his recent victories, but with some variances and difficulties. The titles of David's psalms are often mysteries as the meanings are unclear. Shushaneduth might be a title, or it might be how the psalm was to be played. The meaning of the original Hebrew is "lily or trumpet (because it is lily-shaped) of testimony." It was another michtam of David, something of importance he wanted kept, in this case, to teach. He referenced the time he fought with Aram Naharaim and Aram Zobah. Aram referred to Syria. David had just fought in Syria of Zobah. "Naharaim" means "two rivers;" Syria of the two rivers, said to be the Euphrates and Tigris, does agree with the location of what had just taken place in 2 Samuel 8 and 1 Chronicles 18. However, we were told in those accounts that it was Abishai who had killed 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. Abishai and Joab were brothers, so perhaps they fought together in the Valley of Salt, but I can't reconcile the difference in the number of men killed.
We were told in the accounts in 2 Samuel 8 and 1 Chronicles 18 that the Lord preserved David wherever he went; as a matter of fact, we were told of that fact four times. Therefore, it doesn't make sense that David would reflect on that time as a time when the Lord had been displeased and cast off the children of Israel. To presume that David might have been referencing a different time means that it would not chronologically fit here, but this is the order of my study. Perhaps David spoke of a former time when the Lord appeared to have cast them off because they had failed to occupy the lands He had given them and told them to possess. They had also fought a civil war among themselves. Now that David had united the nation of Israel and was attempting to fulfill the Lord's will that they occupy those lands, He desired that the Lord be pleased and turn to His people again. The Lord preserved David wherever he went, but I suppose scripture didn't specifically speak of what God felt about His people at that time. He had been disappointed with their lack of faith and with the reign of Saul, but He had now placed His chosen king on the throne, one who desired to do His will.
(2) You have made the earth tremble; You have broken it; heal its breaches, for it shakes.
This may have been a poetical way of saying that the Lord had shaken things up by bringing great changes to the people.
(3) You have shown Your people hard things; You have made us to drink the wine of astonishment.
The Lord had shown His people hard things. The original Hebrew word "tarelah" that was translated as "astonishment" meant more precisely "reeling, trembling" which might imply astonishment. The people were reeling with the way the Lord was shaking things up.
(4) You have given a banner to them who fear You, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.
The people who feared God, who had been recently divided, had been united under one banner by Him, that it might be displayed because of His own truth and faithfulness in the performance of His promises.
(5) That Your beloved may be delivered, save with Your right hand and hear me.
David's prayer was for God's people to be delivered, and he asked that He save them with His power and might, represented by His right hand.
(6) God has spoken in His holiness, I will rejoice, "I will divide Shechem and measure out the valley of Succoth. (7) Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the strength of My head; Judah is My lawgiver; (8) Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out My shoe: Philistia, triumph you because of Me."
David would rejoice that God had spoken, determining that all the land He had originally promised would be brought together under His rule and the rule of His chosen king, David. That included lands yet to be conquered.
(9) Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom? (10) Will not You, O God, who had cast us off? And You, O God, who did not go out with our armies?
David asked the rhetorical question of who would lead him to Edom to take it. There was no one who could do it but God. In the past God might have cast His people off and not been with their armies, but David was confident that God would do it as He was the only one who could, and it was His will that all the promised land be subdued.
(11) Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man. (12) Through God we shall do valiantly, for He shall tread down our enemies.
David prayed for the Lord's help as men alone could not do what was needed. He was confident that with God, they would be valiant as it would be God Himself who mowed down their enemies.
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