Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!

1) What aspects of God’s character are revealed in Psalm 9?
While we all want justice, we rarely want justice meted out to ourselves. We don’t like facing the reality that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, emphasis mine). Jesus said, “This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19, emphasis mine) When confronted with our sin, we resort to hiding and blaming as Adam and Eve did in Eden. We each sin by loving our selfish desires, idolizing our lusts, and worshipping everything except God. The God of Justice rightly deems us worthy of the consequence of eternal death for our sins against His holiness. (Romans 6:23) This would be tragic if it were the end of the story. If the final declaration is that we are sinners relentlessly rebelling against the righteous judge, and that our response would always be a knee-jerk reaction to hide from his Light and blame Him and others for our sin, we would be right to despair of all hope. But God is merciful and righteous. The Hebrew word for mercy depicts humble stooping to show gracious favor to those undeserving of kindness. Even as we were God’s enemies, He chose to die in our place, taking our punishment for sin upon Himself. (Romans 5:8, 1 Peter 2:24) Justice was served at the cross where God’s wrath was poured out on His Son instead of humanity. (Romans 5:9) This is the God of mercy, and the God of righteous judgment. This is a God of humble stooping (Philippians 2:6-8), a God who seeks and saves the lost (Luke 19:10), and a God who desires none to perish (2 Peter 3:9). This God of supreme justice and immeasurable mercy is worthy of our worship!

2) Who are “the wicked,” and what is God’s response to “the wicked”? (verses 5, 16-17)
It is tempting to look outward whenever we hear the word wicked. Surely, this is not a descriptor of ourselves! Even in psalm 9, the psalmist speaks of his enemies. “Oh, God,” we say, “Smite the wicked!” Yet, we don’t want to be smitten by Him; we want to be welcomed and justified. What about us? We are the wicked. All have sinned. All fall short of God’s holiness. This is me. This is you. The wicked aren’t limited to that person who is upsetting me or not living as I wish they would. We need to be so cautious of the sin of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day who quickly pointed to others’ sin while ignoring their own. Jesus called them “whitewashed tombs” (Matthew 23:27) who were dead within and completely unaware of their own need for God. They refused to acknowledge their sinfulness, which meant they couldn’t accept a God who would show them unmerited mercy and grant them salvation at His cost. They simply did not perceive themselves as needing a Savior; they were good enough on their own. Let’s respond to the word wicked by saying, “This is me. I need Him.” Thank Him that we are counted as righteous because of His work, not our own because we could never earn righteousness. Apart from His mercy, the inclination of our hearts is rebellion against God, and our destiny is the condemnation of the wicked. May we have compassion on the wicked as God has compassion on us, for at the cross, the ground is level. We all come to Him as rebellious sinners in need of a Savior.

3) What can we praise God for when He is acting as judge? (verses 16-20)
I remember a time when I began to understand that those who had deeply harmed me in the past were recipients of God’s just wrath, and I could trust Him to act justly on my behalf. For the first time, I felt a comfort deeper than I’d previously known. I saw God’s judgment as being on my behalf, not against me. He was judging the wicked, my enemies, so to speak, for harming His beloved daughter, as any good, protective father would. God’s judgment is ultimately a very good thing; it’s one we can trust without needing to take justice into our own hands. (Romans 12:17-21) Imagine a world where justice didn’t matter, and no one enforced the laws established for safety, harmony, and preservation of freedom. God is a God who cares enough to judge rightly. We can praise Him that He judges the unrighteous, and that He offers mercy in that process, but ultimately those sins committed against Him and those He loves do not go without retribution. (Romans 12:19-20) God cares deeply for the oppressed. And though the oppressed suffer for a time, He is aware of their suffering, and He is near to them. (Psalm 34:18) He always has the oppressed on His heart. He sees, hears, and cares when we are pressed down and persecuted and when we face trials of all kinds. (1 Peter 4:19) He also cares about those around us who suffer and He calls us to represent Him in their lives with love, compassion, and just action. When God judges, He does it with righteousness, fairness, grace, and mercy. He is never unkind or mean, unfair or temperamental in His judgments. We can trust Him as Elohim, the just God of all gods.

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