Christian Photographers Community

Psalm 9

The people of God should constantly be talking about the many, many gracious things He does for them.  And, while they're at it, while they're still thinking about how good and gracious He is, they'll obviously be in the best possible frame of mind to ask Him for the things they still need.  In the psalm before us, David leads the worshippers in exactly that way: he begins with praise and thanksgiving, then leads them to call on the goodness of their gracious God for what they still need.

We would do well to follow his lead.  In fact, we would do well to remember God's graciousness at the beginning of all our prayers. Like David, we ought to sing, "I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works."

We should then also follow David's lead by being very specific about it.  When we say, "I will tell of all Your marvelous works," we should then actually do it – we should tell our God how good He is to do each thing.  Then, finally, while we're still thinking about the goodness of God, we can go on to lay before Him our needs. 

This prayer of David is such a good example for us! He sings, "Have mercy on me, O Lord!  Consider my trouble from those who hate me."  We should notice that along with complaint, he also expresses confidence in God's care.  He sings, "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."  We should always express our needs, but, based on what God has already done in our lives, we should also express our confidence in His care.

Like David, we can follow this with meditation on how God has dealt with us in the past.  We should think over what has happened in our lives with specific consideration for the way God has led us.  From this we can draw the same conclusions that David draws when he sings, "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." In other words, by observing what God has done in the past, we can become confident that our present prayers will be heard also.

Finally, we can close our prayer as David does when he sings, "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."  We might use different words.  We might say something like, "Arise, O Lord, do not let them pass me over for the next promotion (or "Do not let me fail in this assignment," or "Don't let me fail in this work I have to do, or . . .)."  Then we too can say, "let people around me see that I belong to You.  Let them come to You also because of my witness to Your grace.

Thus may we be a witness and testimony to what God does in our daily lives.

In turning to this Psalm this morning I have found that I had previously highlighted verses 1,2, and 10

"I will praise you Lord with all my heart; I will tell of the miracles you have done. I will be happy because of you, God Most High, I will sing praises to your name....Those who know the Lord trust him, because he will not leave those who come to him."

This is speaking to bearing our testimonies to all those we meet, telling them of where God has brought us from and about the blessings we have received since coming to know him. Just as you said Bro. Al.

How about this one Al.

Please forgive me - I didn't answer this one because it didn't seem to be asking a question or making a comment upon which I could further comment helpfully.  My question always before I comment is, can I help this person to grow, to worship, to obey our Lord, etc.?  If I can't see any way I can do this, then I probably won't comment.