The Real Avenger
Psalms 9
September 2, 2018
I. DAVID’S PRAISE (1-2)
A. Praise Expressed (1-2)
B. Praise Explained (3-10)
1. You Make My Enemies Stumble (3-6)
a. They Stumble Justly (4)
b. They Stumble Totally (5)
c. They Stumble Permanently (6)
2. But For Me You Are A Stronghold (7-10)
a. A Stronghold Eternally (7)
b. A Stronghold Justly (8)
c. A Stronghold Effectively (9)
d. A Stronghold Thoroughly (10)
C. Praise Expected (11-12)
II. DAVID’S PRAYER (13-16)
A. His Personal Request (13-14)
B. His Personal Reminder (15-16)
III. DAVID’S PROCLAMATION (17-20)
A. The Wicked Won’t Always Be Free (17)
B. The Needy Won’t Always Be Forgotten (18)
C. The Nations Won’t Always Be Fearless (19-20)
If you’ve followed the theatres at all in the last decade
Then you know that Hollywood has repeatedly returned
To the same franchise over and over.
Marvel’s Avengers have already produced 20 films
With 12 more in various stages of production.
They are advertised as “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”
And it’s safe to say that our culture loves them.
But long before Stan Lee was writing stories about Captain America and the Incredible Hulk, there was an Avenger present.
HE IS NONE OTHER THAN OUR GREAT GOD.
• NO, that doesn’t mean that our God runs around in a shiny suit with special
powers and fights mythical creatures in cosmic battles.
• RATHER, our God reigns as the sovereign Judge of the universe and
promises that a day is coming, when He will in fact avenge His people from all
the wrongs they have suffered from the wicked.
The battle has not yet been fought,
But when it is (and it will be) it won’t even be difficult.
Our God will simply destroy forever
All those who rebelled against His rule, and who afflicted His elect.
This is a fact.
And it is this fact that inspires the 9th Psalm.
• I passed you out an outline tonight, namely because outlines are often times the product of my understanding and perhaps it will help you in understanding this Psalm as well.
• I am not going to hit each detail of that outline in the sermon tonight, because detailed outlines that run that deep make for good reading, but horrible preaching.
Tonight I want to hit the big points,
And you can refer to the outline if you want something more detailed.
3 main points tonight.
#1 DAVID’S PRAISE
Psalms 9:1-12
The Psalm begins, like many Psalms begin
And that is simply with a passionate statement of exaltation to God.
When you read these first 2 verses, the thing that pours over you
Is the reality that David is “all in”
He’s not just thankful.
“I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart;”
Just so we’re clear,
The “heart” in Bible times was not the seat of emotion (that was the gut, or the bowels).
The “heart” was the seat of reason or thinking or the mind.
And so David here is not just singing as loud as he can,
But he is also racking his brain
To make sure he remembers all that he is thankful for.
This is a mental exercise for him.
• He’s contemplating on the LORD
• He’s remember God’s benefits
• He’s recounting what God has done
And as he remembers them, he says, “I will tell of all Your wonders”
That’s commitment right there.
Not only to do the mental work to explore the depths of God,
But to also commit to share what you find.
What is also true is all that David finds fully satisfies him.
“I will be glad and exult in You;”
Not just rejoicing in what God has done, but rejoicing in who God is.
And of course the external fruit of this mental labor and inner rejoicing is that it comes out of his mouth in song.
“I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.”
We read it in Ephesians:
Ephesians 5:18-20 “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;”
Paul speaks of the spirit-filled life,
• And it is evidenced by those who speak to one another “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” and by those who engage in “singing and making melody with [their] heart to the Lord”
That is David.
• He has searched the depths of God
• He is satisfied in what he has found
• He is grateful for what he has learned
• And He can’t wait to reveal that in songs of tremendous praise.
In short, you just see that David
Is filled with wonder and gratitude and praise for God.
IT’S OBVIOUS.
The question we again ask, is: WHY?
• David, what did you learn in your inner mental quest?
• David, what did you see as you sought out God?
• What is it about God that has made you so overwhelmingly joyful and grateful?
And the answer:
GOD IS MY AVENGER
You may not actually see the word in your text,
But in vs. 12 we read, “For He who requires blood remembers them;”
Literally translated “He who avenges bloodshed”
This is what David discovered about God.
GOD IS MY AVENGER.
I suppose we should begin with
At least a brief understanding of WHAT THAT MEANS.
In the Old Testament, you are certainly aware of the significance of bloodshed to God.
He hates the shedding of innocent blood.
• When Abel was murdered by Cain, God called out to Cain that his brother’s
blood was crying out to Him from the ground.
• When Noah got off the ark, it was the first command he received that man
should not take the life of another man because he is created in the image of
God.
• In fact, in the Old Testament, if you randomly found a dead body in the field,
you had to measure which city was closest to the man. The elders had to
come out to that man with an unworked heifer, break it’s neck, and wash their
hands over it declaring, “We did not do this!” (Numbers 21)
The point being, shedding innocent blood is a big deal,
And justice must be made when it occurs.
And so, in Bible times, if someone was murdered,
There would typically be a person who would set out to cleanse the land of that innocent blood, by killing the one who committed the murder.
That person was called “the avenger”
TURN TO: Numbers 35:9-34
That gives you a bit of an understanding.
What I’m telling you is that GOD IS AN AVENGER.
Psalms 99:8 “O LORD our God, You answered them; You were a forgiving God to them, And yet an avenger of their evil deeds.”
1 Thessalonians 4:3-6 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.”
And this Psalm praises God for that.
And so let’s see what David says.
A very telling statement comes in verse 3
“When my enemies turn back, They stumble and perish before You.”
You understand the statement.
• David has come to the realization that he’s never had a single victory because of the strength of his arm.
• Every victory he has ever accomplished has been because of the strength of his God.
Goliath didn’t fall before David.
Goliath fell before God.
But that is also true for all those who would attack David and seek to supplant him.
• Whether that is Saul or Absalom or the Philistines or any other foe.
• It is God who has come to David’s defense and delivered him from his enemies.
It is God who has made his enemies stumble.
And you’ll notice that DAVID IS QUITE EXPLICIT about how they stumble.
THE STUMBLE JUSTLY
(4) “For You have maintained my just cause; You have sat on the throne judging righteously.”
That is to say, they deserved what God gave them.
God wasn’t showing partiality, God was demonstrating justice.
No one likes it when the guilty go free,
And David says that before God, they never do.
THEY STUMBLE TOTALLY
(5) “You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their name forever and ever.”
• God didn’t just discipline them.
• God “destroyed” them.
• God “blotted out their name”
David saw this as intense and decisive judgment.
God attacked and destroyed David’s enemies.
This is actually a promise we find in the New Testament.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 “For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed — for our testimony to you was believed.”
Do you pick up on those same themes?
• “it is only just…”
• “God to repay…”
• “dealing out retribution”
• “penalty of eternal destruction”
This is no idle observation by David.
God does this for His elect.
He causes their foe to totally stumble.
THEY STUMBLE PERMANENTLY
(6) “The enemy has come to an end in perpetual ruins, And You have uprooted the cities; The very memory of them has perished.”
I’ve heard of people being “ancient history”
I’ve heard of people being “a distant memory”
But David says “The very memory of them has perished.”
It’s over, they’re gone, they aren’t coming back.
David saw that God had done such a work on his behalf with his enemies.
GOD HAD AVENGED HIM MANY MANY TIMES.
And while God was avenging David’s enemies,
God was also busy protecting David.
In verse 9, David refers to God as “a stronghold”
HE IS AN ETERNAL STRONGHOLD
(7) “But the LORD abides forever; He has established His throne for judgment,”
The reason God is an eternal stronghold is because God “abides forever”
There will never be a time when He is not our avenger.
HE IS A JUST STRONGHOLD
(8) “And He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity.”
Again, He will never condemn the innocent or acquit the guilty.
He judges with “equity” or “uprightness”.
He is perfectly just.
HE IS AN EFFECTIVE STRONGHOLD
(9) “The LORD also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble;”
He’s not just a stronghold when there is no threat.
He’s not phony rock.
When times are the hardest.
When trouble is the most real.
That’s when God shines forth the brightest.
He is “A stronghold in times of trouble.”
HE IS A THOROUGH STRONGHOLD
(10) “And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.”
If you’ll remember up in verses 4-6 David listed 6 things that God had done.
All marked by “You have”.
But equally important is the one thing that God has never done.
And that is that He has “not forsaken those who seek You.”
Psalms 37:25 “I have been young and now I am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken Or his descendants begging bread.”
And David is just calling it like he sees it.
• As he goes on this mental journey to discover who God has been for him,
• David is lifting his voice in praise because God has been the constant avenger
of all his enemies,
• And a constant stronghold for him in ever trouble.
And David just can’t stop singing about that.
Think about it believer.
• How has God ever failed you?
• At what time did He abandon you?
• When did He ever let the enemy fully defeat you?
David can’t think of a time, and he is amazed at that.
So much so that HE CALLS FOR CORPORATE PRAISE
From everyone who would realize this as well.
David is singing and he wants the church to sing with him.
(11-12) “Sing praises to the LORD, who dwells in Zion; Declare among the peoples His deeds. For He who requires blood remembers them; He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.”
David says, “Church you ought to be singing praises to God. Specifically because He is the avenger God who avenges you before the enemy and remembers you and never forgets your cry”
Sing to Him about that!
Praise Him for that!
“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, He will not, He will not desert to his foes. And though even hell should endeavor to shake, He’ll never, no never, no never forsake!”
“Through many, dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come. Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead will me home.”
• Sing of how God silenced the enemy and delivered you from his grasp.
• Sing of how God was a great stronghold for you in distress.
• Sing of how God has avenged you from the evil one.
That is David’s praise and his command for the church to sing.
1 Peter 4:3-5 “For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you; but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”
Praise God for that!
Praise Him that He avenges His own!
This is a blessing of being God’s child!
BUT THERE’S MORE.
Again, we are reminded why sound music is so important.
Because the song we write on the day of victory
Is also the song we’ll lean on in the valley of despair.
That song blesses your heart and causes you to sing, and you memorize it, and you love it, for it is true.
And then when life takes a difficult turn,
That truth has been embedded in your heart, and you sing it again,
But this time you sing it in faith that it is still true.
David does both.
• In verses 1-12 he sings the song in gratitude.
• In verses 13-20 he sings it again in faith.
David’s Praise
#2 DAVID’S PRAYER
Psalms 9:13-16
Do you see how what David has learned about God not only inspired his praise, but also inspired his prayer?
It is so valuable to search out the person and work of God.
Not only will it lead you to praise, but it will also lead you to prayer.
David just realized that God had many times avenged him.
And so after singing praises because of that,
DAVID NOW TURNS TO PRAYER FOR HE STILL HAS ENEMIES.
(13-14) “Be gracious to me, O LORD; See my affliction from those who hate me, You who lift me up from the gates of death, That I may tell of all Your praises, That in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in Your salvation.”
David has a prayer request.
He is hated, and his life is in danger.
And he is asking God to do again as He has always done
And be a stronghold and an avenger once again.
And he asks it that he may continue to “tell of all Your praises.”
But I’ll tell you what I like about the way David words this prayer.
He simple asks God to “see my affliction from those who hate me.”
David doesn’t ask God to avenge him.
David doesn’t ask God to defend him.
But that’s because David knows he doesn’t have to.
All he has to do is make sure God knows about it.
My dad was a man with many flaws. The one he battled most of his life was his temper. But despite his flaws my dad was a fierce protector and defender of his family. And my sister and I knew that if anything ever happened to us, we didn’t have to tell my dad how to respond, we just had to make sure he knew about it.
I remember a time when Alaina and I could not have been more than about 6 and 10 years old and we were at a horse sale in Brownwood, TX. And an impatient alley worker wasn’t too happy with how long it was taking Alaina to cross the alley and so as soon as she reached the fence, he sent the horses down the alley. It could have been really bad. We told dad, and to this day I remember how the roof of the entire sale barn rattled when he kicked the pipe gate around into the fence, and I distinctly remember the long line of “yes sir’s” and “no sir’s” he was receiving from that man.
We didn’t have to tell him to avenge us,
We just had to tell him what had happened.
That’s all David does here.
Because he already knows that God is an avenger.
And as an added reality, David even reminds himself of the fact.
(15-16) “The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made; In the net which they hid, their own foot has been caught. The LORD has made Himself known; He has executed judgment. In the work of his own hands the wicked is snared. Higgaion Selah.”
(“Higgain” – perhaps resounding music or meditation – who knows?)
David announces how “the nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made”
We learned that back in Psalms 7 didn’t we?
How the wicked dig a pit for the righteous but then fall into it themselves.
The question is, WHO IS DAVID REMINDING?
Certainly not God, God knows that.
David is reminding himself of who God is
And how God deals with the wicked
SO AS TO STRENGTHEN HIS OWN FAITH.
David knows that the Lord often times snares the wicked in his own snare.
• Do you remember when we spoke of Haman, building gallows for Mordecai and then being hanged on them himself?
• Do you remember Pharaoh’s edict to drown all the Hebrew baby boys, and then that Pharaoh was himself drowned in the Red sea?
• Do you remember that Jacob had a propensity for lying, even dressing up at times to deceive, and then we remember his wedding night with Leah?
We read it:
Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”
Or how about this story:
Judges 1:3-7 “Then Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted me, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I in turn will go with you into the territory allotted you.” So Simeon went with him. Judah went up, and the LORD gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands, and they defeated ten thousand men at Bezek. They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and fought against him, and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes. Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to gather up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me.” So they brought him to Jerusalem and he died there.”
You get the idea.
David is reminding himself of this very thing
THAT HIS FAITH MAY ENDURE
Even though now currently in a difficult predicament.
And David’s prayer of faith is made possible by the song of praise which he had learned.
Sound music is so important.
David’s Praise, David’s Prayer
#3 DAVID’S PROCLAMATION
Psalms 9:17-20
We’ve heard David singing, we’ve seen David praying,
AND NOW DAVID IS PREACHING.
He’s sharing what he knows about God with the rest of the nation
That their faith might also be encouraged.
And his truths are so important for every believer to know.
THE WICKED WON’T ALWAYS BE FREE
(17) “The wicked will return to Sheol, Even all the nations who forget God.”
I know at times it feels as though wickedness abounds.
It feels like we are drowning in the corruption of the world.
And certainly this was promised.
2 Timothy 3:1-9 “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.”
We know wickedness will rise, but we also know that it won’t last.
“the wicked will return to Sheol, even all the nations who forget God.”
They won’t survive, remember that.
THE NEEDY WON’T ALWAYS BE FORGOTTEN
(18) “For the needy will not always be forgotten, Nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever.”
And of course they aren’t really ever forgotten.
Verse 10 made that clear.
It’s just that at times it feels that way.
• At times it feels like the Devil is already taking a victory lap.
• At times it feels like this whole thing is headed down the gutter.
But it won’t always be this way.
God hasn’t forgotten and our hope is not a foolish one.
The day of God’s vengeance is coming.
• He will avenge His children on their enemies.
• He will fulfill their hopes.
Remember this story?
Luke 16:19-25 “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. “And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. “Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. “And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’ “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.”
It was bad for Lazarus for a while, but it didn’t end that way.
THE NATIONS WON’T ALWAYS BE FEARLESS
(19-20) “Arise, O LORD, do not let 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.”
Today men strut about continually.
• Boasting of atheism and paganism
• Boasting of immorality and iniquity
• Relishing foul language and lewd behavior
• Laughing at the grossest of immoralities
And men do this because there is no fear of God before their eyes.
But there will be…
There is coming a day when the whole world will emphatically learn
That there is a God and it is not them.
Revelation 6:12-17 “I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
There is coming a day when fear of God will be reinstated.
Men will know who He is and will shudder.
And this is David’s encouragement to the church.
• Sing to God – He is the Avenger!
• Pray to God – He is the Avenger!
• Trust God – He is the Avenger!
BUT LET ME TAKE IT ONE STEP FURTHER.
Because, while the New Testament doesn’t quote this Psalm,
It does reference the doctrine behind it.
We are given a very real and practical application
To how we are to respond to the fact that God is our avenger.
TURN TO: Luke 18:1-8
Do you see that?
“will not God bring about justice for His elect cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?”
And the implied answer is no.
“I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
But what is the application to the story?
It’s seen in verse 1.
“That at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart”
• Trust God.
• Don’t lose heart, just pray
• Know that God is the Avenger
• He brings about justice for His elect
• Know this, trust this, lean on this, and rejoice in this!
It is a blessing for the church.
