The Pulpit Commentary on Psalms 9:13-20

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Prayer to God.

Previous verses have celebrated the triumph of the Divine righteousness in punishing the wicked and defending the cause of the oppressed. Psalms 9:13 and Psalms 9:14 are a personal prayer, interrupting the flow of the general strain of the psalm. Luther says, "In the same way do all feel and sleek who have already overcome some tribulation, and are once more oppressed and tormented. They cry and beg that they may be delivered."

I. THE PSALMIST'S PRAYER TO THE RIGHTEOUS GOD. (Psalms 9:13, Psalms 9:14.)

1. The appeal. "Graciously see or consider my trouble. I am unjustly suffering from the hatred of men. If thou wilt only look upon the fact as it is, then I am confident thou wilt interpose and save me." For the Divine sympathy is always on the side of justice.

2. The arguments which enforces the appeal. Two.

II. THE DIVINE WORK IS A REVELATION OF THE DIVINE RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Psalms 9:15-18.)

1. The plots of the wicked become the means of their own destruction. (Psalms 9:15, Psalms 9:16.) Because the righteous Being overrules in the affairs of men. No wicked schemes can be so well laid but that in the end they ruin him who laid them. We have examples of this in the first and third Napoleons, and constantly recurring ones in more private life.

2. The premature end of the ungodly. (Psalms 9:17.) "The Wicked must return to the unseen world"—sooner than others, is implied (not "the wicked shall be turned into hell"). Wickedness and vice tend to shorten life.

3. The righteous expectation of the afflicted shall be fulfilled. The poor and the afflicted hope in God, and their hope shall not be disappointed. "God is not unrighteous to forget your work of faith and labour of love."

III. AN URGENT CALL UPON GOD TO GIVE STILL MORE EVIDENT PROOF OF HIS RIGHTEOUS RULE. (Psalms 9:19, Psalms 9:20.) "Arise, O Lord, let not man have the upper hand: let not weak man carry himself as if he were strong." What is needed to put men in fear is some irresistible work of judgment among men, that shall put God's supreme rule beyond all doubt. There is something here of impatience—a wish to hasten God's slow but sure methods of maintaining the cause of truth and righteousness in the world.—S.

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