Whole-Hearted Worship – Psalm 9

“I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart. I will tell of all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You. I will sing praise to Your Name, O Most High.” Psalm 9:1-2

David, filled with love for the Lord, praises Him with his whole heart. Such a moment is divine! When you, a person made in God’s image, love your Creator and worship Him not due to obligation, but due to a genuine revelation of who God is and what He means to you, in that moment, all other concerns fade away and you tell the Lord how much you love Him! Being glad and rejoicing in Him! Testifying of His goodness with songs of worship!

In Psalm 86:11, David prayed, “Unite my heart to fear Your Name.” Say, “No” to distractions! In James 1:8, the Lord urges us not to be double-minded. Be 100% for Jesus! In John 17:21, Jesus prayed that His disciples would be one with Him and the Father. When we praise the Lord and testify for Him, especially with music and with others who love to worship Him, we become in one accord with the Lord.

“When my enemies turn back, they shall fall and perish at Your presence. For You have maintained my right and my cause. You sat on the throne judging in righteousness. You have rebuked the nations You have destroyed the wicked. You have blotted out their name forever and ever.” Psalm 9:3-5

The presence of the Lord, and the glory of His power, are sufficient to turn enemies away. Once, my wife was confronted by a rough appearing individual in the pre-dawn hours in San Francisco, she asked him one question, “Do you want Jesus?” He turned away from her without another word and left her alone. In John 18:6, Jesus told those who came at Him with swords and clubs, “I am He” and His enemies fell backward in His presence. Jesus could have destroyed them with a word, but He needed to go to the cross for our salvation, so He let them live and arrest Him.

“You have maintained my right and my cause.” God maintained David’s right and cause because David’s was for what was right in the sight of God. David was for the causes that God was for. His life was aligned with the Lord’s. David and the highest court judge in the universe were one in heart and mind.

Now, in Christ, we too, are able to have the mind of Christ.

Ephesians 4:23 says to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” Romans 8:5-7 say, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.” Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” God has made a way for us in Christ to be transformed by the renewing of the way we think. Renewed back to the original nature before Adam sinned! He does this by His Holy Spirit living in us and leading us to think as God thinks.

David testified of how God rebuked nations and destroyed the wicked. He blotted out their name forever and ever. David saw God defeat the enemies of Israel on every side as He trusted in the Lord and was led by God’s Spirit in his approach to taking them down.

“O enemy, destructions are finished forever! And You have destroyed cities! Even their memory has perished! But the Lord shall endure forever. He has prepared His throne for judgment. He shall judge the world in righteousness, and He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness.” Psalm 9:6-8

The Lord gave David the long view! By divine revelation, David knew that one day all cities that oppose God will be no more. God’s kingdom shall outlast them all. The kingdom of Christ shall be forever and ever. There shall be a divine judgment day on which no hardened criminal will be exonerated. All shall be condemned! Revelation 21:27 says, “There shall by no means enter it [the Holy City] anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” A relationship here on earth with our Lord Jesus Christ is the key to that city.

The unforgivable sin is to reject faith in Christ because it is by faith in Him that God forgives all our sins and washes the memory of them away. How does anyone’s name appear in the Lamb’s Book of Life? By repenting! To repent is have a change of mind about Christ. You surrender Your heart, mind, soul and strength to Jesus Christ and ask Him to save and keep You for all eternity. You ask Him to be your Savior and Lord. Lord means that you give Christ the steering wheel and serve His purposes for your life, not your own.

“The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And those who know Your Name will put their trust in You; for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.” Psalm 9:9-10

A place of refuge is a safe place. It is a place of provision. Proverbs 18:10 says, “The Name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it and are safe.”

Isaiah 59:19 says, “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.” The standard that the Holy Spirit lifts up against the evil oppressor is the Name of Jesus Christ. In Luke 10:17, seventy followers of Jesus returned to Him with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your Name.” In Acts 2:38, new converts were baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 3:16, it was faith in the Name of Jesus that made a lame man to walk again. In Acts 10:43, Peter preached to Gentiles, saying, “To Him [Jesus] all the prophets witness that, through His Name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.” They believed and received the Holy Spirit.

By the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit, we rebuke demons in the Name of Jesus, and they flee. Zechariah 4:6 says, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit.” Isaiah 10:27 says, “The yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.” The word “Christ” in Greek and “Messiah” in Hebrew means Anointed One. Demons cannot stand against the Name of Jesus.

“Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion! Declare His deeds among the people. When He avenges blood, He remembers them. He does not forget the cry of the humble.” Psalm 9:11-12

Yes, we should sing praise to the Lord! We should never use His Name disrespectfully nor should we tolerate any movie or TV show that does so. We treat the Name of the Lord as a sacred name because that is what it is. We should speak about the wonderful things He has done so others too will learn to love and adore Him.

God will avenge those who do wrong – vengeance belongs to God. The Lord invites us to be humble and let Him take care of evil oppressors.

“Have mercy on me, O Lord! Consider my trouble from those who hate me. You who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may tell of all Your praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion. I will rejoice in Your salvation.” Psalm 9:13-14

In John 15:18-19, Jesus said to His disciples, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” Thus, we pray for God’s mercy to help us navigate amidst people whom the devil has turned against Him. God delivers us from the gates of death and brings us to the gates of praise where we rejoice in His salvation.

“The nations have sunk down in the pit which they made; in the net which they hid, their own foot is caught. The Lord is known by the judgment He executes. The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah! The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten; the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O Lord, do not let man prevail. Let the nations be judged in Your sight. Put them in fear, O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah!” Psalm 9:15-20

When we place our enemies into the hands of God, He sabotages the sabotages that were plotted against us. He spoils those who thought to spoil us. They do their plotting in secret, but God knows their plans and alerts us to them. You can find examples of God foiling the plans of the wicked against the righteous in the stories of David which are recorded in First and Second Samuel, in the stories of Elijah which are recorded in First and Second Kings, and in the story of Queen Esther and Mordecai in the Book of Esther. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Daniel, Jeremiah, Jesus, Peter and Paul were rescued by miracles from various plots to destroy them.

“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Enough said.

The Lord says, “The needy shall not always be forgotten. The expectation of the poor shall not perish forever.” God will arise. Ultimately, evil people shall perish. The Lord will lift up the poor.

“Put them in fear, O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men.” Those who seem to escape justice time and time again shall finally be recompensed for what they have done. They are not invincible. They are vulnerable. They have not built their lives on the Word of God. In Matthew 7:26-27, Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

By faith, David foresaw and foretold of the certain ruin of the enemy of the Lord. He was compelled by God’s Spirit not to wait until he reached heavens shore to rejoice, but to live a life of worship and adoration to the Lord now in this life.

Thanks to the grace of God in Christ Jesus, we too, can now live a life of whole-hearted worship toward the Lord by His Spirit. Praise the Lord! Amen!