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Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry

I will praise [thee], O Lord, with my whole, heart,.... This is what is called in the New Testament making melody in the heart, or singing with grace in the heart, Ephesians 5:19; and yet does not signify mere mental singing, but vocal singing, the heart joining therein; for the word here used for praise signifies to confess, to speak out, to...

Psalms 9

In this psalm, I. David praises God for pleading his cause, and giving him victory over his enemies and the enemies of his country (ver. 1-6), and calls upon others to join with him in his songs of praise, ver. 11, 12. II. He prays to God that he might have still further occasion to praise him, for his own deliverances and the confusion of his...

Psalms 9:1

I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. It will be well if we also resolve that we will praise the Lord. Most people have something or someone to praise, so let us select the Lord, even Jehovah, as the subject of our song. Let us resolve that we will praise him continually, for it may be...

Psalms 9:1

Ver. 1. With a holy resolution the songster begins his hymn; I will praise thee, O Lord. It sometimes needs all our determination to face the foe, and bless the Lord in the teeth of his enemies; vowing that whoever else may be silent we will bless his name; here, however, the overthrow of the foe is viewed as complete, and the song flows with...

Psalms 9:2

I will be glad and rejoice in thee,.... Not in himself, in any attainments or works of his; not in his wisdom, riches, and strength, nor in his warlike exploits, but in the Lord; not in second causes, in horses and chariots, in armies, and in the courage and valour of men, but in God, as the author of deliverance, victory, and salvation; not in...

Psalms 9:2

I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High. Get thee up, then, my soul, out of the dark places of thy despondency. Rise, my drooping spirit, to something higher and better. If thou canst not be glad in anything else, be glad in thy God, — be glad that thou hast a God, and such a God, and that he is thy God...

Psalms 9:2

Ver. 2. Gladness and joy are the appropriate spirit in which to praise the goodness of the Lord. Birds extol the Creator in notes of overflowing joy, the cattle low forth his praise with tumult of happiness, and the fish leap up in his worship with excess of delight. Moloch may be worshipped with shrieks of pain, and Juggernaut may be honoured by...

Psalms 9:3

When mine enemies are turned back,.... As the Philistines were, when Goliath their champion was dead; and as the men that came to apprehend Christ, David's antitype, went backwards and fell to the ground, through the superior power of Christ; and as sin, Satan, and the world, and at last antichrist, are made to retreat from the Lord's people, who...

Psalms 9:3

When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. As much as to say, “The presence of God is quite enough to make my adversaries flee, — yea, and utterly to cut them off.” As John Wesley said, “The best of all is, God is with us;” and if God be with us, it matters little to us who are against us.

Psalms 9:3

Ver. 3. God's presence is evermore sufficient to work the defeat of our most furious foes, and their ruin is so complete when the Lord takes them in hand, that even flight cannot save them, they fall to rise no more when he pursues them. We must be careful, like David, to give all the glory to him whose presence gives the victory. If we have here...

Psalms 9:4

For thou hast maintained my right and my cause,.... Or vindicated and established his righteous cause; God had pleaded and defended it, and by the flight, fall, and ruin of his enemies, had clearly made it appear that his cause was just and good; thou sittest in the throne judging right; God has not only a throne of grace on which he sits, and...

Psalms 9:4

For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right. One of our noblemen has this for his motto, “I will maintain it;” but the Christian has a far better one: “Thou hast maintained my right.” If David sang thus after he had hurled the stone from his sling into Goliath’s skull, he might well magnify the name of...

Psalms 9:4

Ver. 4. One of our nobility has for his motto, "I will maintain it; "but the Christian has a better and more humble one, "Thou hast maintained it." "God and my right, "are united by my faith: while God lives my right shall never be taken from me. If we seek to maintain the cause and honour of our Lord we may suffer reproach and misrepresentation,...

Psalms 9:5

Thou hast rebuked the Heathen,.... The people of the Philistines, as the Targum and Kimchi explain it, though some Jewish writers (a) understand it of Amalek the chief of the Heathen nations; but it rather refers to Gospel times, and to the rebukes of the Heathen, by the preaching of the Gospel, for their idolatry and superstition; and especially...

Psalms 9:5-6

Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever. O thou enemy, — You can conceive of David, standing on the prostrate form of his fallen foe, and looking on that gigantic countenance and those mighty limbs, crying out, “O thou enemy,” —

Psalms 9:5

Ver. 5. God rebukes before he destroys, but when he once comes to blows with the wicked he ceases not until he has dashed them in pieces so small that their very name is forgotten, and like a noisome snuff their remembrance is put out for ever and ever. How often the word "thou" occurs in this and the former verse, to show us that the grateful...

Psalms 9:6

O thou enemy,.... Which some understand of Goliath, though we do not read of any desolations made by him, nor of any cities destroyed by him; nor by the Israelites upon his death, and the flight of the Philistines on that account; Jarchi interprets it of Esau and his posterity, who shall be destroyed in future time, to which he applies, Ezekiel...

Psalms 9:6-7

Destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities, their memorial is perished with them. But the Lord shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment. “Thou hast destroyed cities,” but thou couldst not destroy God. When thou didst defy the armies of other nations, thou couldst easily put them to rout, but...

Psalms 9:6