Psalm 9 - I will give thanks

When you pick up Psalm 9 you are immediately struck by the tune it is to be sung to, referred to in the title: ‘The Death of the Son.’ This was something that David had experienced (2 Samuel 11 vs 19), an experience that was devastating and a scar that never left him.

Against this backdrop the words in vs 1-2 seem out of place. How can words such as ‘thanks’, ‘rejoice’ and ‘praises’ find their place in a song sung to such a heartbreaking tune?

At the centre of the whole Bible is a story of the death of the Son. 

Perhaps the best known verse in the whole of the Bible (John 3 vs 16) puts it this way:

‘For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son,

That whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.’

The news that God’s Son died upon a cross for each one of us becomes the news that changes everything. 

Psalm 9 pictures ‘enemies’ turning back (vs 3). The Old Testament tells many stories of God’s enemies being defeated (you think of the Egyptians at the Red Sea or of the giant Goliath falling). However 1 Corinthians 15 vs 26 reminds us that there is one final enemy:

‘The last enemy to be destroyed is death.’

But the news at the cross and resurrection is that even this last enemy has now been defeated. So the confidence (in the face of personal tragedy) found in Psalm 9 becomes a defiant signpost to the good news of the gospel. We live in a world where death pursues us and yet now we know that this enemy too is a defeated enemy, with power for now, but not forever.

Those who name Jesus as their King will one day be lifted up from the gates of death (vs 13), no matter what they face they have a hope that can never perish (vs 18).

Pause for thought: The Bible describes death as an enemy and yet a defeated enemy (1 Corinthians 15 vs 26). How can believeing in the Son who died transform your view of death?