Psalms 9:12
Ver. 12. When he maketh inquisition for blood,.... The Arabic version renders it, "he remembers him that seeks their blood"; that is, the wicked man, that lies in wait for innocent blood, and whose feet are swift to shed it; the man of sin, who is bloodthirsty; who drinks up the blood of the saints like water, and has been made drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, him will God remember, and take vengeance on, in his own time: but rather this is to be understood of God himself, seeking for the blood of his saints: he knows where it is, though ever so privily shed, as he did Abel's; yet, to show his strict care and accurate notice of it, he is represented as searching for it, and finding it out by secret search, Jer 2:34. And it is the same phrase with "requiring" blood, and expresses a demand of satisfaction for it; and declares the vengeance that God will take on account of it: he requires the blood of every man at the hand of him by whom it is shed, Ge 9:5; especially the blood of the righteous, Mt 23:35; particularly the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, shed by the Romish antichrist; he will make inquisition for that, and will find in Babylon the blood of the prophets and saints, and of all that are slain on earth; and will avenge the blood of his servants at her hand, and give her blood to drink, Re 18:24;he remembereth them; either the "righteous", as the Targum paraphrases it, whose blood has been shed; or else the wicked, who shed their blood: God will remember them and their sins; which, for some time, may seem not to have been taken notice of by him, and will pour out his wrath, and inflict just punishment on them; see Re 16:19;he forgetteth not the cry of the humble: the "Cetib", or writing of the text, is Myyne, "afflicted"; the "Keri", or marginal reading, isMywne, "humble"; so the Masorah and Targum read: both may be taken into the sense: afflicted persons are generally humble, afflictions make them humble; God's people are an afflicted people; afflicted with sin, with Satan, with the world, with antichrist and his followers: and they are an humble people; grace makes them humble, and a sense of their sin and unworthiness keeps them so: and this is a proper character of the followers of Jesus. These in their distress cry to the Lord, as the Israelites did in Egypt under their bondage and, pressures: yea, their blood cries after death, as Abel's did, and as the blood of the martyrs of Christ does, whose souls under the altar cry for vengeance, Re 6:9; and God is not unmindful of their cry; however he may seem to be, he takes notice of it, and wilt in his own time avenge his elect, which cry unto him day and night. Psalms 9:13Ver. 13. Have mercy upon me, O Lord,.... The psalmist proceeds to petitions on his own account in this verse: the ends he proposes by the fulfilling of them are mentioned in the next. A good man, a man called by the grace of God, though he has obtained mercy of the Lord, yet still stands in need of more, of fresh discoveries of pardoning grace and mercy, of merciful supplies, of merciful support, and merciful deliverances from enemies, inward and outward: and such an one flees to God, and not to the creature; and pleads, not his own dignity, righteousness, or merit, but the mercy of God;consider, my trouble [which I suffer] of them that hate me; or "see my affliction because of mine enemies" {l}; look upon me under it with an eye of pity and compassion, and help and deliver me; and look upon mine enemies that give me this trouble, and take vengeance on them;thou that liftest me up from the gates of death; the house appointed for all living; that is, from the power of it, when just upon the brink of it; when near it, as a person is to an house, when he is at the gates of it; either through sickness, or some violent distemper of body, as Hezekiah was; or through some imminent danger in battle, as David was when engaged with Goliath; when everyone thought, as Kimchi observes, that he should fall by his hand: or it may be this may have respect to his being raised up from the death of sin, and delivered from the power of darkness; to his being brought out of the horrible pit and miry clay of an unregenerate state, and set upon the rock of salvation; which is a lifting up indeed, an exaltation from a very low to a very high estate: and this the psalmist takes notice of to encourage his faith; and makes use of it as an argument with God, that as he had dealt so graciously and bountifully with him, he would still show mercy to him, and look upon him under his affliction.{l} yanwvm yyne har "intuere afflictionem meum propter osores meos", Gejerus. Psalms 9:14Ver. 14. That I may show forth all thy praise,.... That is, all thy bounties and acts of goodness, deserving of praise; even as many of them as he had an experience of, and which came within his knowledge; and as much of them as he was capable of observing: for otherwise the instances of divine grace and goodness are so many, that they cannot be reckoned up in order, nor God be praised for them, in the present state of things, as he should; See Gill on "Ps 9:1";in the gates of the daughter of Zion: it was usual with the Hebrews to represent a chief city as a mother city, and the towns and villages, and places adjacent, as daughters; and so, as Zion or Jerusalem signifies the church of God in general, or the mother church, Ga 4:26; so "the daughter" of Zion may mean a particular church: the Targum renders it the congregation of Zion; and "the gates" of it are the public ordinances of divine worship in it; and the sense is, that the psalmist desired to show forth the praises of God in the most public manner in the congregation and assembly of the saints;I will rejoice in thy salvation, or "that I may rejoice in thy salvation" {m}: meaning either temporal salvation and deliverance from enemies, wrought by God for him, which would be matter of joy to him; or spiritual salvation, which may be called God's salvation, because contrived by him in the council of peace, and secured by him in the covenant of grace, and wrought out by his Son in the fulness of time, and applied by his Spirit at conversion. And a gracious man rejoices in this salvation more because it is the Lord's than because it is his own; or he rejoices more because of the glory of God, which is displayed in it, than because of his own advantage and happiness by it.{m} hlyga "exultem", Junius & Tremellius, Musculus; "ut exultem", Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis; "gaudeam", Cocceius; so Ainsworth. Psalms 9:15Ver. 15. The Heathen are sunk into the pit [that] they made,.... The psalmist having determined to praise the Lord, and called upon others to join with him in it, here enters upon it: for, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra observe, this is hlht "the praise" he was desirous to show forth, which is occasioned by the destruction of God's enemies, and the deliverance of his people: by "the Heathen" are meant not the Philistines, as Kimchi interprets it, who thought to cause Israel to fall, and fell themselves; but this is spoken prophetically of the nations of the earth, who have joined in the idolatry of antichrist, the Gentiles, by whom the holy city has been trodden under foot; even the several antichristian states, that will be destroyed by the pouring out of the seven vials, and especially the last, at the battle of Armageddon; and which will be brought on by themselves, with a design to destroy the whole kingdom and interest of Christ, but will issue in their utter ruin, which this phrase is expressive of; see Re 18:3. The metaphor is taken from hunters, who dig pits for the wild beasts to fall into, that they may the more easily take them, into which they fall themselves; see Ps 7:15. Wicked men are mischievous and crafty, but sometimes they are taken in their own craftiness;in the net which they laid is their own foot taken; which may signify the same thing as before, that the mischief they design for others falls upon themselves; only as the former phrase denotes their utter destruction like the sinking of a millstone in the sea, by which the irrecoverable ruin of Babylon is expressed, Re 18:21; this may design the restraint and hinderance of them from doing the evil they would; their feet are entangled, that they cannot run to shed blood; and their hands are held, that they cannot perform their enterprise; and their wrath in restrained and made to praise the Lord. The metaphor is taken from fowlers, who lay nets and snares for birds, and cover them that they may not be seen, but fall into them unawares; see Ps 124:7. Psalms 9:16Ver. 16. The Lord is known [by] the judgment [which] he executeth,.... The judgment which God will execute upon antichrist, and the antichristian powers, will be a means of making known his name, his glory, his perfections, in all the earth; as his wisdom, power, justice, and goodness; see Ex 9:16. The destruction of antichrist will be the Lord's doing, and it will be a righteous one; it will be a just retaliation; as he has killed with the sword, multitudes of his followers shall be killed with the sword; as he has led captive, he shall be taken captive at the battle of Armageddon; as he has burnt, many of the martyrs of Jesus, he shall be cast into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. Some read these words as two sentences, "The Lord is known; he hath executed judgment" {n}: the latter of these refers not to the ministration of justice in the providential government of the world, or at the last day in the general judgment; but to the judgment of the great whore, or antichrist, at which time the Lord will be known in his Gospel in all the world; the earth will be tilled with the knowledge of him, and he, and he alone, will be exalted; his name will be great and glorious throughout the earth; all shall know him, from the least to the greatest; and their knowledge of him will be very clear and comprehensive;the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands; not Goliath, as Kimchi thinks, who was slain by David with his own sword, though this was true of him in the letter and type; but the wicked one, the man of sin and son of perdition, antichrist, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all craftiness and wily stratagems, called the depths of Satan, Re 2:24; but his own sins shall take him, and he shall be holden with the cords of his iniquities, and be rewarded double for all his sins; what is before figuratively expressed is here literally declared; or, "he hath snared the wicked in or by the work of his hands" {o}, that is, God.Higgaion. Selah; of the latter of these words, See Gill on "Ps 3:2"; the former signifies "meditation"; Jarchi paraphrases it hghn, "let us meditate on this, selah"; Aben Ezra interprets it, "I will show forth this in truth"; the Chaldee paraphrase is, "the righteous shall rejoice for ever"; the note of Kimchi and Ben Melech is, "this salvation is to us meditation and praise"; upon the whole the sense seems to be this, that God's judgments upon antichrist, and the antichristian states, and the deliverance of his people from their yoke and tyranny, are things worthy of the meditation of the saints, and afford just matter of joy, praise, and thanksgiving.{n} hve jpvm hwhy edwn "notus est Dominus; judicium fecit", Pagninus, Montanus, Gussetius; so Vatablus, Musculus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis, and Ainsworth. {o} evr vqwn wypk lepb "illaqueavit iniquum per opus (vel in opere) manunm ipsius", Gussetius. Psalms 9:17Ver. 17. The wicked shall be turned into hell,.... Some render it, "shall return to the grave" {p}, to the earth, the original dust from whence they came; but this is common to all men, to the righteous as well as the wicked; rather lwav here signifies the place of torment, commonly called hell, where devils and damned spirits are; hither the souls of the wicked go immediately upon their departure from their bodies, Lu 16:23; and after the judgment is over, they will be remanded thither in soul and body; and their damnation is called the destruction of soul and body in hell; which will consist in an everlasting separation from God, and in a sense of his wrath and fiery indignation: and though this is true of all the wicked, yet here that wicked one, antichrist, and his wicked followers, are chiefly designed; even the beast and false prophet, who shall be cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone, Re 19:20;[and] all the nations that forget God; which is not to be understood of the Pagan nations, though they may be said to forget God, since he is to be known by the light of nature, and yet they worship idols, the works of their hands; but the Papal nations, who adore the pope of Rome as God on earth, worship angels and saints departed, and images of gold and silver, and wood and stone. It may be applied to every wicked man who forgets there is a God who sees and knows all things, and to whom men are accountable; see Ps 50:22.{p} hlwavl wbwvy "revertentur ad vel in sepulchrum", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. Psalms 9:18Ver. 18. For the needy shall not always be forgotten,.... The people of God are poor and needy for the most part; they are so in things temporal, and they are poor in spirit, or in things spiritual, of which they are sensible; their needs are many, and frequently return; but God has provided a throne of grace for them to come to for help in time of need, and he will supply all their wants out of the fulness of grace in Christ; nor is he unmindful of them, and of his covenant with them; strictly speaking, they are never forgotten by him, being engraven on his hands, and set as a seal on his heart; but they sometimes seem to be so both to themselves and others, Ps 42:3; and they may continue so long; God may seem for a long time to take no notice of them, but suffer them to lie under affliction and persecution; the holy city is trodden under foot forty two months, or one thousand two hundred and sixty days, that is, so many years; so long the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth, so long the church is in the wilderness, and so long will be the reign of antichrist, Re 11:2; but as great Babylon will come up in remembrance before God, and he will remember her sins, and render her double; the set time to favour his poor and needy will come, and he will arise and have mercy on them, and bring them into a glorious and comfortable state and condition;the expectation of the poor shall [not] perish for ever; the negative particle, though not in the original text, is rightly supplied from the preceding clause, as it is by the Targum, Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Kimchi, and as the sense requires; and the expectation of Christ's poor ones is not only a supply of grace here and eternal happiness hereafter; but they expect a glorious state of the church on earth, and that Christ will descend in person from heaven, and his tabernacle will be among men; and that they shall be kings and priests, and possess the kingdom, and reign with Christ a thousand years; and though these things may seem to be deferred, and their expectation put off to a length of time, yet it shall not perish for ever; there will be a performance of the things promised and expected. Psalms 9:19Ver. 19. Arise, O Lord,.... To the destruction of thine enemies, and the salvation of thy people; See Gill on "Ps 7:6";let not man prevail; the man of sin, antichrist, that is, let him not always prevail; he is the little horn that was to prevail against the saints, and has prevailed, Da 7:21; but he shall not always prevail; this petition will be heard and answered; for though he shall cast down many thousands, he shall not be "strengthened" by it, Da 11:12; where the same word is used as here; the Lamb at last shall overcome him and his ten kings, his supporters, and all that shall aid and assist him, Re 17:14;let the Heathen be judged in thy sight; that is, the antichristian nations that adhere to the man of sin, let them be judged and punished in the sight of God, the Judge of all the earth, whose eyes are as a flame of fire; compare with this Joe 3:12. Psalms 9:20Ver. 20. Put them in fear, O Lord,.... Who are, a bold, impudent, fearless generation of men; who, like the unjust judge, neither fear God nor regard men, therefore the psalmist prays that God would inject fear into them, who only can do it; and this will be done at Babylon's destruction, when the antichristian kings, merchants, and seafaring men, will stand afar off for fear of her torment, Re 18:10;[that] the nations may know themselves [to be but] men; and not God, and have no power against him; see Isa 31:3; the sense is, that the antichristian nations, who oppose themselves to Christ and his people, may know that they are but frail, mortal, miserable men, as the word {q} signifies; and that he who is at the head of them, the man of sin, is no other, though he exalts himself above all that is called God, 2Th 2:4; or these words are a prayer for the conversion of many among the nations, and may be rendered, "put, O Lord, fear in them" {r}; that is, the true grace of fear, "that the nations may know" themselves, their sin and guilt and danger, and know God in Christ, and Christ, and the way of salvation by him; for at the word "know" should be a stop, concluding a proposition, since the accent "athnach" is there; and then follows another, "they [are] men. Selah": destitute of the fear and grace of God, are capable of it, but cannot give it to themselves.Selah; on this word, See Gill on "Ps 3:2".{q} hmh vwna "mortales esse", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Gejerus; "homines miseri", Cocceius, Michaelis; "sorry men", Ainsworth. {r} Mhl hrwm htyv "pone timorem eis", so Junius and Tremellius, Piscator, Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Ainsworth.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.