Psalm 9: I'll praise you with all of my heart
Jeff Lowe: lead vocal, backing vocals, electric piano, keys, guitars, bass guitar, percussion, drums
Richard Nelmes: electric guitar
Colin Wood, Alison Attwood & Sarah Cambridge:BVs
I’ll praise you LORD with all my heart,
Tell of your wonders abroad.
I will be glad, rejoicing in you;
Sing praise to our God Most High,
Sing praise to our God Most High.
My enemies turn and stumble,
They perish, you uphold my cause.
From your throne you judge rightly,
Rebuked, the wicked nations fall:
Destroyed and blotted out for ever,
Endless ruin falls on them,
For you uproot their towns and cities,
And knowledge of their time’s soon dead.
The LORD reigns forever,
Sits on his judgement throne.
He will judge men most rightly,
His governance is just and strong;
His governance is just and strong.
The LORD he is a stronghold,
For those oppressed, in troubled times,
For those who know you name will trust you,
And you will not forget their lives.
The LORD he is a stronghold,
For those oppressed, in troubled times,
For those who know you name will trust you,
And you will not forget their lives.
So to the LORD sing praises.
In Zion he’s enthroned above.
Proclaim him in the nations;
All that he has done in love;
All that he has done in love.
He avenges blood, remembers;
Does not ignore the victim’s cries.
LORD, see how my foes abuse me,
Have mercy, lift me, save my life.
Then I will declare your praises
Within the gates of Zion’s hill;
There rejoice in your salvation,
And sing of your redeeming will.
Nations they fall in pits that they’ve dug;
Their feet are caught in nets
The Lord’s known by his righteous acts;
The wicked snared by his own hands;
The wicked snared by his own hands.
The wicked go down to the depths,
With all those who forget our God.
But God will not forget the needy;
The hope they have in him’s not lost.
Arise, LORD, don’t let mortals triumph;
In your presence, nations judge,
Strike them down O LORD with terror,
Let nations know they’re mortal men.
Listen on Spotify, Amazon or Apple Music
Comments
Like a pendulum swinging on a grandfather clock, the Psalmist’s thoughts swing first one way – the wonderful deeds of our God that fill us with thankfulness; then the other – how punishment and destruction will meet the enemies who blight us. And so we sing praises to the Most High God one moment and the next contemplate Nazi Stormtroopers or the cancerous sin that the Lord is uprooting from the city of our heart.
The Lord reigns forever and every Philistine warlord or bomb planting terrorist will stand before his throne of judgement. He rules an unrighteous world with righteousness and through all time is a refuge for those oppressed by the sin of the world.
Enthroned in the New Jerusalem, (Zion), the message of what God is doing and what he has done – is to be proclaimed among the nations. In his mercy he will not ignore the cries for help. Though we be afflicted by doubt or fear, though we be persecuted by money lenders or school bullies, though we be bombarded by pain and problems, we can rejoice in the reality of our salvation.
Ungodly nations and hate filled warlords fall into the pits they have dug to trap the righteous. Marxist regimes who try to eradicate religion or fundamentalist zealots who distort truth are ensnared by their own hands and go down to the realm of the dead. But God will not forget the needy and the afflicted.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom so those fat cat bankers, drug dealers and xenophobic world leaders need to wake up to their real situation before a Holy God. They need to be reminded that they are but men who need a saviour.