Psalm 9:4

For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) Thou hast maintained my right.—Literally, thou hast made my judgment, as the LXX. and Vulg. For this confidence in the supreme arbiter of events compare Shakespeare:—

“Is this your Christian counsel? Out upon you!

Heaven is above all yet. There sits a Judge

That no king can corrupt.”—Henry VIII.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 9:4-5. My right and my cause — That is, my righteous cause against thy and my enemies. Thou sattest in the throne, &c. — Thou didst judge and give sentence for me. Thou hast rebuked — That is, punished or destroyed, as it is explained in the next clause; the heathen — Namely, the Philistines and other heathen nations who, from time to time, molested David and the people of Israel. Thou hast put out their name for ever — Meaning either that fame and honour which they had gained by their former exploits, but had now utterly lost by their shameful defeats; or their very memorial, as it fared with Amalek.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:1-10 If we would praise God acceptably, we must praise him in sincerity, with our whole heart. When we give thanks for some one particular mercy, we should remember former mercies. Our joy must not be in the gift, so much as in the Giver. The triumphs of the Redeemer ought to be the triumphs of the redeemed. The almighty power of God is that which the strongest and stoutest of his enemies are no way able to stand before. We are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth, and that with him there is no unrighteousness. His people may, by faith, flee to him as their Refuge, and may depend on his power and promise for their safety, so that no real hurt shall be done to them. Those who know him to be a God of truth and faithfulness, will rejoice in his word of promise, and rest upon that. Those who know him to be an everlasting Father, will trust him with their souls as their main care, and trust in him at all times, even to the end; and by constant care seek to approve themselves to him in the whole course of their lives. Who is there that would not seek him, who never hath forsaken those that seek Him?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For thou hast maintained my right and my cause - My righteous cause; that is, when he was unequally attacked. When his enemies came upon him in an unprovoked and cruel manner, God had interposed and had defended his cause. This shows that the psalmist refers to something that had occurred in the past; also that he regarded his cause as right - for the interposition of God in his behalf had confirmed him in this belief.

Thou satest in the throne judging right - As if he had been seated on a bench of justice, and bad decided on the merits of his cause before he interfered in his behalf. It was not the result of impulse, folly, partiality, or favoritism; it was because he had, as a judge, considered the matter, and had decided that the right was with the author of the psalm, and not with his enemies. As the result of that determination of the case, he had interposed to vindicate him, and to overthrow his adversaries. Compare Psalm 8:3-8.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3-5. When … are turned back—It is the result of God's power alone. He, as a righteous Judge (Ps 7:11), vindicates His people. He rebukes by acts as well as words (Ps 6:1; 18:15), and so effectually as to destroy the names of nations as well as persons.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

My right and my cause, i.e. my righteous cause against thine and mine enemies.

Thou satest in the throne; thou didst judge and give sentence for me.

Judging right, or, O righteous Judge, or, as a just judge.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For thou hast maintained my right and my cause,.... Or vindicated and established his righteous cause; God had pleaded and defended it, and by the flight, fall, and ruin of his enemies, had clearly made it appear that his cause was just and good;

thou sittest in the throne judging right; God has not only a throne of grace on which he sits, and from whence he distributes grace and mercy to his people, but he has a throne of judgment, and which is prepared for it, as in Psalm 9:7; where he sits as the Judge of all the earth, and will do right; nor can he do otherwise, though his judgments are not always manifest in the present state of things; and the vindication of the psalmist's innocence and uprightness is another reason of his joy and gladness.

Geneva Study Bible

For {b} thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.

(b) However the enemy seems for a time to prevail yet God preserves the just.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. In the defeat of his enemies he sees God’s judicial intervention on his behalf. God has pronounced and executed sentence in his favour. Cp. Psalm 7:8-9.

thou satest &c.] Better, thou didst take thy seat on the throne, judging righteously. The throne is that of judgement (Psalm 9:7; Proverbs 20:8). God has assumed this judicial character, in answer to the Psalmist’s prayer in Psalm 7:7.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - For thou hast maintained my right and my cause. David uniformly ascribes his military successes, not to his own ability, or even to the valour of his soldiers, but to God's favour. God's favour, which is secured by the justice of his cause, gives him victory after victory. Thou surest in the throne judging right. While the late battle raged, God sat upon his heavenly throne, administering justice, awarding defeat and death to the wrong-doers who had wantonly attacked his people, giving victory and glory and honour to those who stood on their defence against the aggressors. Psalm 9:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 9:4-5) The call upon himself to thanksgiving sounds forth, and the ב-strophe continues it by expressing the ground of it. The preposition בּ in this instance expresses both the time and the reason together (as in Psalm 76:10; 2 Chronicles 28:6); in Latin it is recedentibus hostibus meis retro. אחור serves to strengthen the notion of being driven back, as in Psalm 56:10, cf. Psalm 44:11; and just as, in Latin, verbs compounded of re are strengthened by retro. In Psalm 9:4 finite verbs take the place of the infinitive construct; here we have futt. with a present signification, just as in 2 Chronicles 16:7 we find a praet. intended as perfect. For the rendering which Hitzig adopts: When mine enemies retreat backwards, they stumble... is opposed both by the absence of any syntactic indication in Psalm 9:4 of an apodosis (cf. Psalm 27:2); and also by the fact that יכּשׁלוּ is well adapted to be a continuation of the description of שׁוּב אחור (cf. John 18:6), but is tame as a principal clause to the definitive clause בשוב אויבי אחור. Moreover, אחור does not signify backwards (which would rather be אחרנּית Genesis 9:23; 1 Samuel 4:18), but back, or into the rear. The מן of מפּניך is the מן of the cause, whence the action proceeds. What is intended is God's angry countenance, the look of which sets his enemies on fire as if they were fuel (Psalm 21:10), in antithesis to God's countenance as beaming with the light of His love. Now, while this is taking place, and because of its taking place, will be sing praise to God. From Psalm 9:2 we see that the Psalm is composed directly after the victory and while the destructive consequences of it to the vanquished are still in operation. David sees in it all an act of Jahve's judicial power. To execute any one's right, משׁפּט (Micah 7:9), to bring to an issue any one's suit or lawful demand, דּין (Psalm 140:13), is equivalent to: to assist him and his good cause in securing their right. The phrases are also used in a judicial sense without the suffix. The genitive object after these principal words never denotes the person against whom, but the person on whose behalf, the third party steps forward with his judicial authority. Jahve has seated Himself upon His judgment-seat as a judge of righteousness (as in Jeremiah 11:20), i.e., as a judge whose judicial mode of procedure is righteousness, justice,

(Note: Also Proverbs 8:16 is probably to be read צדק כּל־שׁכּטי, with Norzi, according to the Targum, Syriac version, and old Codices; at any rate this is an old various reading, and one in accordance with the sense, side by side with כל־שׁפטי ארץ.)

and has decided in his favour. In ישׁב ל (as in Psalm 132:11), which is distinguished in this respect from ישׁב על (Psalm 47:9), the idea of motion, considere, comes prominently forward.