Psalm 9 is the ninth psalm of the

Book of Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

, beginning in English in the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of K ...

: "I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works." In Latin, it is known as "Confitebor tibi, Domine". The topic of the psalm is that the success of evil is only temporary, and in the end, the righteous will endure. Psalm 10 is considered part of Psalm 9 in the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond t ...

and in most pre-

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

Christian Bibles. These two consecutive psalms have the form of a single

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the F ...

Hebrew poem. The psalm is a regular part of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

and other Protestant liturgies.

Text

King James Version

# I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. # I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High. # When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. # For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right. # Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever. # O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them. # But the LORD shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment. # And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. # The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. # And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. # Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings. # When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble. # Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death: # That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation. # The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. # The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. 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 for ever. # Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight. # Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.

Structure

The Psalm is an

Hebrew poem, and with Psalm 10 forms a single combined work. Old Testament scholar

Hermann Gunkel Hermann Gunkel (23 May 1862 – 11 March 1932), a German Old Testament scholar, founded form criticism. He also became a leading representative of the history of religions school. His major works cover Genesis and the Psalms, and his major in ...

divided Psalm 9 as follows: #Verses 2-3: hymn-like opening song of thanksgiving #Verses 4-5: main piece of the peace song #Verse 6-17: transition to an eschatological hymn In describing the structure of Psalm 9/10 there are some quite different approaches. Gunkel rated the Psalm by the alphabetical arrangement as "artificial" or "forced", saying, "One cannot place overly strict demands on the internal coherence of such a forced product. The writer was likely glad to have found a fitting word for each letter; he did not have the literary ability to mould his poem into a fully unified work of art."

, ''Die Psalmen'' (1986), p32. Anders, by contrast, calls the ''shape'' of the Psalm an ''elegant correspondence of form''. The French theologian Pierre Auffret gives the following structure for Psalm 9: Psalm 9:2 to 9 corresponds to Psalm 10:6 to 15: #in respect to the heart #relative to the face #in respect to the throne #in respect to the wicked #in respect to eternity. Psalm 9 is the first of the acrostic Psalms, covering half of the Hebrew alphabet, with Psalm 10 covering the rest of the alphabet. There is some tension between psalms 9 and 10. Psalm 9 has a tone of victory over evil and its ancient Chaldean title suggests that it was written to celebrate David's victory over

Goliath Goliath ( ) ''Goləyāṯ''; ar, جُليات ''Ǧulyāt'' (Christian term) or (Quranic term). is a character in the Book of Samuel, described as a Philistine giant defeated by the young David in single combat. The story signified King Sau ...

. Then, as the acrostic continues into Psalm 10, the tone becomes a

lament A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about somet ...

: God seemingly stands afar off. Victory over evil may be 'here and not yet'.

Dating

Some scholars question the Davidic authorship of this psalm: Bernhard Duhm and

Emil Kautzsch Emil Friedrich Kautzsch (4 September 1841 – 7 May 1910) was a German Hebrew scholar and biblical critic, born at Plauen, Saxony. Biography He was educated at Leipzig, in whose theological faculty he was appointed privatdozent (1869) and ...

date it to

Maccabean The Maccabees (), also spelled Machabees ( he, מַכַּבִּים, or , ; la, Machabaei or ; grc, Μακκαβαῖοι, ), were a group of Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empir ...

times while form critic

links it the Persian era.

Uses

Judaism

*Verse 4 is found in the repetition of the

Amidah The ''Amidah Amuhduh'' ( he, תפילת העמידה, ''Tefilat HaAmidah'', 'The Standing Prayer'), also called the ''Shemoneh Esreh'' ( 'eighteen'), is the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy. Observant Jews recite the ''Amidah'' at each ...

Rosh Hashanah Rosh HaShanah ( he, רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, , literally "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (, , lit. "day of shouting/blasting") It is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days (, , ...

. *Verse 11 is part of Uva Letzion. *Verse 13 is part of

Av Harachamim Av Harachamim or Abh Haraḥamim ( "Father fmercy" or "Merciful Father") is a Jewish memorial prayer which was written in the late eleventh or early twelfth century, after the destruction of the Ashkenazi communities around the Rhine River by Chr ...

Catholic Church

According to the Rule of St. Benedict (530 AD),

Psalm 1 Psalm 1 is the first psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in the English King James Version: "Blessed is the man", and forming "an appropriate prologue" to the whole collection.Kirkpatrick, A. F. (1906)Cambridge Bible for Schools and Collegeson ...

Psalm 20 Psalm 20 is the 20th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble". The Book of Psalms is part of the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christian Old T ...

were mainly reserved for the office of

Prime A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

. In the Rule of St. Benedict, Psalm 9 is sung by the Latin version translated in the Greek of the

; therein,

Psalm The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...

includes 18 additional verses in Psalm 10. Benedict divided this joint Psalm 9/10 in two parts, one sung to the end of the ''office of Prime Tuesday'' () and the other ( and ) earlier on Wednesdays. In other words, the first verses of Psalm 9 until ''Quoniam non in finem erit oblivio pauperis: patientia pauperum non peribit in finem,'' formed the third and final psalm on Tuesday, the second part of the Psalm (Vulgate according to his view) was recited as the first psalm of the office of the prime Wednesday. Psalms 9 and 10 were traditionally recited as the fourth and fifth Psalms of Sunday Matins in the Liturgy of non monks clerics and canons. In the current Liturgy of the Hours, Psalm 9 is sung in the Office of Readings for Monday of the first week of the four weekly cycle of liturgical prayers.

Book of Common Prayer

In the Church of England's ''

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

'', this psalm is appointed to be read on the evening of the first day of the month.Church of England
Book of Common Prayer: The Psalter
as printed by

John Baskerville John Baskerville (baptised 28 January 1707 – 8 January 1775) was an English businessman, in areas including japanning and papier-mâché, but he is best remembered as a printer and type designer. He was also responsible for inventing "w ...

in 1762, p. 196ff

Musical settings

The French hymn and its German translation, " Ich lobe meinen Gott von ganzem Herzen", are a paraphrase of verses from Psalm 9.

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...

wrote a setting of a paraphrase in German, "Mit fröhlichem Gemüte", SWV 105, for the ''

Becker Psalter The ''Becker Psalter'' is a German metrical psalter authored by the Leipzig theologian Cornelius Becker and first published by Jakob Apel in Leipzig in 1602 under the title ''Der Psalter Davids Gesangweis''. Several composers set the psalms cont ...

'', published first in 1628.

References

External links

* * * Text of Psalm 9 according to th
1928 Psalter

text in Hebrew and English, mechon-mamre.org
For the leader; according to Muth Labben: A psalm of David. / I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart; will declare all your wondrous deeds.
text and footnotes, usccb.org United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

introduction and text, biblestudytools.com
Psalm 9 – God Remembers, Man Forgets
enduringword.com
Psalm 9 / Refrain: You, Lord, have never failed those who seek you.

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

Psalm 9
at biblegateway.com
Hymns for Psalm 9
hymnary.org {{Psalms 009 Works attributed to David