TLIC Psalms. January 14. Hope Forever.

Read Psalm 9:13-20. ¹³Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death, ¹⁴that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation. ¹⁵The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. ¹⁶The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. ¹⁷The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God. ¹⁸For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. ¹⁹Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail; let the nations be judged before you! ²⁰Put them in fear, O Lord! Let the nations know that they are but men!

David continues to see his cause as God’s cause. Why? Because he is God’s anointed servant king. But even though he is the king, David connects his life to the poor and needy. When God remembers David and fights for him it is because God fights for all the oppressed. God restores justice to the whole world, not just David. As for David, he can’t wait to recount all the praises of God. Not just for what God has done in his life, but for who God is – the Lord has made himself known.

No one has made the Lord known more than Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Lord God. His life reveals everything we need to know about God and about ourselves. We are mere men, born of Sheol and destined to return there when we die. Jesus, however, went to Sheol in our place. He entered the grave, the place of the dead, and set the captives free. He burst through her gates and returned to the gates of Zion. The battle that Jesus fought for us in Sheol proves that we are all the wicked caught in our own net. But it also proves that by faith we can all be the poor and needy that allow Christ to give us hope forever.  

To live is Christ moves us from wicked, to poor, to rescued. How? By the gracious salvation of the Lord through Jesus Christ. May we remember our place and recount the praises of God today in the gates of Zion.

Prayer. Jesus, you are my salvation, I cannot save myself. Help me to recount your praises each and every day that I live. Amen.

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