Psalm 9 "Just Men"

Psalm 9:1-2, 15-16, 19-20

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High...
The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
     in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment;
    the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands...

Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail;

    let the nations be judged before you!

Put them in fear, O Lord!

    Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah

Comments:

This psalm is an acrostic psalm that seems to be paired with Psalm 10. It is acrostic because each four-line section starts with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This poetic and memory-aiding element does not generally come through in translation. While its poetic technique is acrostic, its style is one of praise and prayer. Psalm 9 seems more focused on praise with a little lament (think “prayer request”) thrown in, while Psalm 10 is more lament with some praise thrown in. 

In Psalm 9 we see the Lord as praiseworthy, upright and just, and enduring. We also see the opposite in the nations/wicked who are despicable, oppressive, and doomed. Do you remember the cereal commercials that touted, “Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids!” Well, I hear a little of that taunt in the psalmist's descriptions of those who would think that praise, honor, and glory are their own possessions. Praise is for God not for men. If we need to be personally reminded with regularity that we are “but men” (v.20) how much more so for the large groups of prideful people like us that we call nations?

I was talking this week with a couple of friends about how uncomfortable it is when we are reminded that we are “just men” and our illusion that we are something more is shattered. It is painful because such revelation happens in times of weakness, failure, rejection, disappointment, and loss of situational control. However, it is out of such times of conviction that we can confess and repent (1 John 1:9) and experience the total cleansing of Christ. It is out of the crushing brokenness that we can become vessels of encouragement to others (2 Cor. 1:3-5). It is from the dark valley of our humiliation when even in our wildest imagination we can’t take credit for anything good that might happen that God can use us powerfully like he did Gideon’s remnant of 300 (Judges 7:2). In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul wrote a humbling message to the church that thought it had it all together,

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)

But let’s be honest, how many people would want to play the part of Wile E. Coyote?

Wile E. Coyote Explodes (Looney Tunes)

You remember who he is—the buyer of all things ACME to catch the Roadrunner but who always fell into his own trap (or had his own trap fall on him). Yet we do it all the time when we think we can manipulate and objectify others.

Psalm 9 makes it clear that the person who is unjust, unkind, and treacherous towards other people (who have been made in the image of God) will fall into their own trap (v. 15-16), and worse! So, I am thankful for those times when God reminds me that I am just a man; I don’t enjoy them, but I am thankful for the results.

In the end, God wins, and the nations that forget him shoot themselves in the knee.

 

I pray that my knees might not be locked or hyper-extended in my prideful defiance, but bent in the humility of praise and prayer. So far, the Lord has been faithful to let me know. How about you?