NOTE: We are taking a week’s break from reading through Exodus; our Exodus readings will resume on Monday, February 19 with the account of the battle between the Lord and Pharaoh and the Ten Plagues.

I have previously mentioned that I read one psalm a day, every day. So, over the next week, I’d love to have you jump in and join me in my psalms reading plan. —Andrew

Psalm 9

1 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
    I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
2 I will be glad and exult in you;
    I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
3 When my enemies turn back,
    they stumble and perish before your presence.
4 For you have maintained my just cause;
    you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.
5 You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish;
    you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
6 The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins;
    their cities you rooted out;
    the very memory of them has perished.
7 But the Lord sits enthroned forever;
    he has established his throne for justice,
8 and he judges the world with righteousness;
    he judges the peoples with uprightness.
9 The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,
    a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 And those who know your name put their trust in you,
    for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.
11 Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion!
    Tell among the peoples his deeds!
12 For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;
    he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
13 Be gracious to me, O Lord!
    See my affliction from those who hate me,
    O you who lift me up from the gates of death,
14 that I may recount all your praises,
    that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
    I may rejoice in your salvation.
15 The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
    in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
16 The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment;
    the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah
17 The wicked shall return to Sheol,
    all the nations that forget God.
18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
    and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
19 Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail;
    let the nations be judged before you!
20 Put them in fear, O Lord!
    Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah

Want to face each day whole-hearted and unafraid?

The Ninth Psalm gives us a fundamental lesson: begin your day and your prayers with full-throated thanksgiving.

Much of the psalm is a request from the psalmist that the Lord defeat the wicked and remember the oppressed, but the opening two verses are all about praise:

1 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
    I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
2 I will be glad and exult in you;
    I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

There is a place (as we will see in other psalms) for protest before God, but it is instructive that Psalm 9 begins with praise.

Let’s do it today.