A PRAYER ON PSALM 9

Julie (aka Cookie) has added her voice to those calling for prayer. She has written What say you my friends? and and the winner is… asking her readers questions.

What shall we pray for…precisely?

Shall we pray about this third term abortion debacle?
Shall we pray about our loss of morality?

Shall we pray about our oppressed Christian faith?

Shall we pray about our divided Nation?

What shall be our precise prayer?
When shall it be prayed?
And how often shall it be prayed?

We all need to be in agreement on a specific prayer, a specific day and a specific time…
and then we need to join together in that prayer.

And so I ask each of your—what shall we, the faithful, be about?

Offer your thoughts and we’ll sort out our direction. (from here)

Here is a suggestion for a prayer.

Psalm 9 New King James Version (NKJV)

Prayer and Thanksgiving for the Lord’s Righteous Judgments

To the Chief Musician. To the tune of ^[a]“Death of the Son.” A Psalm of David.

9 I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart;
I will tell of all Your marvelous works.
² I will be glad and rejoice in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.

³ When my enemies turn back,
They shall fall and perish at Your presence.
⁴ For You have maintained my right and my cause;
You sat on the throne judging in righteousness.
⁵ You have rebuked the ^[b]nations,
You have destroyed the wicked;
You have blotted out their name forever and ever.

⁶ O enemy, destructions are finished forever!
And you have destroyed cities;
Even their memory has perished.
⁷ But the Lord shall endure forever;
He has prepared His throne for judgment.
⁸ He shall judge the world in righteousness,
And He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness.

⁹ The Lord also will be a refuge^[c] for the oppressed,
A refuge in times of trouble.
¹⁰ And those who know Your name will put their trust in You;
For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.

¹¹ Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion!
Declare His deeds among the people.
¹² When He avenges blood, He remembers them;
He does not forget the cry of the ^[d]humble.

¹³ Have mercy on me, O Lord!
Consider my trouble from those who hate me,
You who lift me up from the gates of death,
¹⁴ That I may tell of all Your praise
In the gates of ^[e]the daughter of Zion.
I will rejoice in Your salvation.

¹⁵ The ^[f]nations have sunk down in the pit which they made;
In the net which they hid, their own foot is caught.
¹⁶ The Lord is known by the judgment He executes;
The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.
Meditation.^[g] Selah

¹⁷ The wicked shall be turned into hell,
And all the ^[h]nations that forget God.
¹⁸ For the needy shall not always be forgotten;
The expectation of the poor shall not perish forever.

¹⁹ Arise, O Lord,
Do not let man prevail;
Let the ^[i]nations be judged in Your sight.
²⁰ Put them in fear, O Lord,
That the ^[j]nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah

What does this psalm tell us? I don’t think the meaning obscure. Still, we must remember how the serpent began the temptation of Adam and Eve.

Genesis 3:1 New King James Version (NKJV)

3 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

We must seek the knowledge of God’s Word and put our trust in it. When we doubt, or we are uncertain of the meaning of scripture, perhaps the best thing we can do is compare different translations. If that does not work, then we should seek the help of Christians we trust, including those who have written thoughtful commentaries.

Here are some commentaries on Psalm 9.

• Psalm 9 Bible Commentary: Charles H. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David (www.christianity.com): Note the comment on prayer.
  

  Verse 19. Prayers are the believer’s weapons of war. When the battle is too hard for us, we call in our great ally, who, as it were, lies in ambush until faith gives the signal by crying out, “Arise, O Lord.” Although our cause be all but lost, it shall be soon won again, if the Almighty doth but bestir himself. He will not suffer man to prevail over God, but with swift judgments will confound their gloryings. In the very sight of God the wicked will be punished, and he who is now all tenderness will have no bowels of compassion for them, since they had no tears of repentance while their day of grace endured.

• Psalm 9 Bible Commentary: Matthew Henry’s Bible Commentary (christianity.com)
• PSALM 9 – GOD REMEMBERS, MAN FORGETS (enduringword.com)