Pastor Ed's Series of Psalms

Psalm 1 | Psalm 2 | Psalm 3 | Psalm 4 | Psalm 5 | Psalm 6 | Psalm 7 | Psalm 8
Psalm 9-10 | Psalm 11 | Psalm 12 | Psalm 13 | Psalm 14 | Psalm 15
Psalm 16 | Psalm 17 | Psalm 18 | Psalm 19 | Psalm 22 | Psalm 23
Psalm 27 | Psalms 28-30 | Psalms 31-32 | Psalm 33 | Psalm 34
Psalm 35 | Psalm 36-37 | Psalm 38 | Psalm 39 | Psalm 40 |
Psalm 41 | Psalm 42-43

Psalms 9-10

Psalms 9 and 10 are considered to be one Psalm because Psalm 10 does not have a title associated with it and the two Psalms form an interesting thing called an acrostic. An acrostic is where the first letter of a successive verse is taken from the Hebrew alphabet. These two Psalms fit that acrostic.

In these two Psalms, David is crying out to God for help in a world full of evil, full of evil people , but he reminds himself that God is sovereign and in control. He talks about things he is facing, but we can easily apply this Psalm to today.

He begins by praising god – verses 1 and 2 say:

I will praise you, O Lord, and with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

It would be great to just stay with these two verses, to just praise God, like we did last week.
Its significant that David starts out the Psalm by declaring the wonders of God.

When we praise the Lord, we're doing several things – we're Discovering the wonders of God's person:

1 Peter 2:9 says that you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Psalm 89:15 Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord.

We're desiring the presence of God and to be consumed by his beauty:

Psalm 27:4 says One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.

We are delighting in the glory of God and enjoying all he has for us:

Psalm 37:3-4 Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

We are dethroning the enemies of God as we enthrone the presence of God:

Revelation 12:7-10 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place jn heaven. The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ, For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.

Psalm 22:3 says yet you are enthroned as the holy one, you are the praise of Israel.

Whenever we praise God we are defining the nature and character of God through exalting his name:

Psalm 48:10 Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth, your right hand is filled with righteousness.

Psalm 52:9 For I will praise you forever for what you have done, in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints.

We are declaring the awesome greatness of God and His salvation to the nations:

Psalm 96:1-3 Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise his name, proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among the peoples.

Vs 9-10 Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness, tremble before him all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns, the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved, he will judge the peoples with equity.

When we praise we are destroying strongholds of spiritual opposition by exalting God.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

When we praise Him we are devoting ourselves to practicing God's presence in continual worship.

In Luke 2 36-37 we have the account of Anna – There was also a prophetess Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old, she had not lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.

Psalm 44:8 In God we make our boast all day long and we will praise your name forever.

When we praise the Lord we are demonstrating the righteousness and glory of God through expressive worship.

1 Chronicles 13:8 David and all the Israelites were celebrating with all their might before God, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets.

2 Samuel 6:14-15 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sounds of trumpets.

Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine Before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

When we praise we are disciplining ourselves to a consistency in daily, personal praise.

2 Chronicles 23:28,30 The duty of the Levites was to help Aarons descendants in the service of the temple of the Lord, to be in charge of the courtyards, the side rooms, the purification of all sacred things and the performance of other duties at the house of god. They were also to stand every morning and to thank and praise the Lord.

Praise is dying to self by an ongoing sacrifice of personal praise.

Hebrews 13:15: Through Jesus, therefore let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name.

1 Peter 1:7 these have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

So these are all things we do when we praise the Lord!

David mentions the word “will” four times in these two verses. He wants to be obedient – he is declaring that he will praise God first above all things.

David reminds us that God is sovereign and in control, and then draws a line between the saved and the lost, the wicked and the righteous. This is a recurring theme in many of the Psalms.

In verse 6, David recalls the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, when he says,

Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy, you have uprooted their cities; even the memory of them has perished. In Genesis 19:25 it says that Lord overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities – and also the vegetation in the land.

He mentions God's relationship to the wicked times in Psalms 9 and 10:

vs 5 You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked. You have blotted out their name forever and ever
vs 15 The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug; their feet feet are caught in the net they have hidden. The Lord is known by his justice, the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. The wicked return to the grave all the nations that forget God.
Vs 20 Strike them with terror O Lord, let the nations know they are but men.
Ps 10 vs 15 Break the arm of the wicked and evil man, call him to account for his wickedness that would not be found out.
And vs. 18 defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.

We need the comfort of those words in our day and age. I was looking into some statistics to show the state of our world:

It is estimated by an organization Interpol that human trafficking amounting to gains of $32 billion dollars. The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 12.3 million victims of forced labor around the globe, of which 2.4 million, mostly women, are victims of human trafficking.

Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia remain the highest producers of the crop that is used to produce Cocaine.

Afghanistan now produces 90% of the world's opium supply.

Tranparency International reports that corruption is rampant, with over $1 Trillion alone are paid in bribes each year according to a report by the World Bank Institute report.

The pornography industry is estimated worldwide between $10 and 14$ billion dollars. Focus on the Family Action reports that at the dawn of the 90's, the industry was producing 1,000 films a year, and by the end of the decade, the figure was 10 times that much, due to the Justice Departments lack of obscenity law enforcement and the internet.

There were 1.8 million prisoners in our judicial system at the end of 2008.

Gambling, in one form or another, is legal in 48 of 50 states.

Bernie Madoff, the former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange, defrauded investors with his PONZI scheme of almost $18 billion. During the investigation, his sons told authorities that when he confessed, he told them it was one big lie.

Psalm 10 describes the individuals responsible for this activity:

In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises. He boasts of the cravings of his heart, he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord. In his pride the wicked does not seek him, in all his thoughts there is no room for God. His ways are always prosperous; he is haughty and your laws are far from him; he sneers at all his enemies. He says to himself, nothing will shake me; I'll always be happy and never have trouble. His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue. He says to himself, God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees.

Sounds like what is happening today doesn't it?

David also refers to the poor and the needy.

The world bank development indicators reported that in 2008, almost half of the worlds population, over 3 billion people, live on less than $2.50 a day.

UNICEF reports that 25,000 children die each day due to poverty, most of those coming in Africa and South Asia.

When David says Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? It leads us to ask the same question. Sometimes, God seems far off. But we have to remember we live in a fallen world.

We need to be encouraged by the words of David in Psalm 9:7 – 10

The Lord reigns forever, he has established his throne for judgment. He will judge the world in righteousness, he will govern the peoples with justice. The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name will trust in you, for you Lord have never forsaken those who seek you.

Vs 18 says that the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish. And Arise, O Lord, lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless. You are the helper of the fatherless.

And he closes the two chapters by saying, The Lord is King forever and ever, the nations will perish from his land. You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.

These are prayers of hope.

In the face of what is going on in the world, we need to pray. We also need to remind ourselves that the Lord is in charge, that he is in control.

If you made a decision to recommit your life tonight to Christ, or if you need prayer, I would like you to see me or our prayer team after the service.

Let's stand as the praise team leads us in hymn #527 Glory to His Name.