Psalm 9:9

The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) The Lord also.—Better, but let Jehovah.

Refuge.—Properly, a stronghold: a citadel into which the persecuted would retreat.

Oppressed.—Properly, crushed.

Trouble.—From root meaning “to cut off from.” Sc., “provisions,” “water,” and the like. Its cognate in Jeremiah 14:1; Jeremiah 17:8, means “drought.” The phrase “in times of trouble” recurs in Psalm 10:1.

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

The Lord also will be a refuge - Margin, an high place. The margin expresses the more exact sense of the, Hebrew word - משׂגב miśgâb. It means properly height, altitude; then a height, rock, crag; and then, as such localities, being inaccessible to an enemy, were sought in times of danger as places of secure retreat, it comes to denote a place of security and refuge, Psalm 18:2; Psalm 46:7, Psalm 46:11; Psalm 48:3; Psalm 59:9, Psalm 59:17; Psalm 94:22. The declaration here is equivalent to what is so often said, that God is a refuge, a rock, a high tower, a defense; meaning, that those referred to might find safety in him. See the notes at Psalm 18:2.

For the oppressed - literally, for those who are crushed, broken; hence, the dejected, afflicted, unhappy - דך dak - from דכך mor dākak - to beat small; to break in pieces; to crush. The allusion here is to those who are wronged or down-trodden; to the victims of tyranny and injustice. Such may look to God to vindicate them and their cause, and they will not look in vain. Sooner or later he will manifest himself as their protector and their helper. See Psalm 9:12.

A refuge in times of trouble - Not only for the oppressed, but for all those who are in trouble. Compare Psalm 46:1. That is, all such may come to him with the assurance that he will be ready to pity them in their sorrows, and to deliver them. The psalmist had found it so in his own case; and he infers that it would be so in all cases, and that this might be regarded as the general character of God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9, 10. The oppressed, and all who know Him (Ps 5:3; 7:1), find Him a sure refuge.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

God will not only judge the world at the last day, and then give sentence for his people against their enemies, but even at present he will give them his protection.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed,.... The poor and weak, such as have no might nor power, and are thrown down and trampled upon, as the word (i) signifies; and such are the people of God. They are oppressed with the burden of sin; they are bowed down with Satan and his temptations; and are sometimes pressed out of measure, and above their strength, with the persecutions of men; they are trodden under foot by antichrist, or otherwise are borne down with a variety of sorrows and afflictions; but the Lord is a refuge for them. The Chaldee paraphrase renders it as before, "the Word of the Lord", the eternal Logos, the Son of God: he is a refuge for poor sensible sinners, fleeing from wrath to come; being typified by the cities of refuge, whither the manslayer fled from the avenger of blood: he is the strong hold for the prisoners of hope to turn into; his name is a strong tower and place of defence for oppressed saints; he is a refuge when all others fail, and at all times, in the day of affliction, and in the hour of death, and at judgment;

a refuge in times of trouble; of which the saints have many, as when God hides his face, when corruptions prevail, when grace is low in exercise, and temptations are strong, yet even then Christ is the refuge from the storm; the salvation of his people is of him, and he is their strength in every time of trouble; see Isaiah 25:4.

(i) "attrito", Cocceius, Gejerus: "contrito", Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

The LORD also will be a refuge for the {d} oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

(d) Our miseries are meant to cause us to feel God's present care over us.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9, 10. So may Jehovah be a high tower for the down-trodden,

A high tower in times of extremity;

And let them that know Thy name trust in Thee,

Because Thou hast not forsaken them that seek Thee, O Jehovah.

These verses express the result of Jehovah’s judgement in the deliverance of those who are crushed and down-trodden (Psalm 10:18; Job 5:4) by the world’s magnates, and the consequent encouragement of the faithful.

a refuge] A high tower or fort; in the Psalter always metaphorically of God. Cp. Psalm 18:2, &c., and the use of the cognate verb in Psalm 20:1 and elsewhere. The figure may well be derived from the experience of David in his outlaw life. The down-trodden victim is lifted up far out of the reach of his tormentors. Cp. Proverbs 18:10.

trouble] A word occurring elsewhere only in Psalm 10:1. It seems to mean the extremity of trouble in which all hope of deliverance is cut off. The idea may be that the precipice which apparently barred the fugitive’s escape proves to be his retreat from his pursuers.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - The Lord also will be a Refuge for the oppressed. Misgab, translated "refuge," is literally "a hill-fort" (comp. Psalm 144:2, where it is rendered "high tower"). David's use of the metaphor is reasonably ascribed to his having "often experienced safety in such places, when fleeing from Saul" (Hengstenberg; see 1 Samuel 23:14). A refuge in times of trouble; literally, in times in trouble; i.e. "in times that are steeped in trouble" (Kay). Psalm 9:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 9:10-11) Thus judging the nations Jahve shows Himself to be, as a second ו-strophe says, the refuge and help of His own. The voluntative with Waw of sequence expresses that which the poet desires for his own sake and for the sake of the result mentioned in Psalm 9:11. משׂגּב, a high, steep place, where one is removed from danger, is a figure familiar to David from the experiences of his time of persecution. דּך (in pause דּך) is properly one who is crushed (from דּכך equals דּכא, דּכה to crush, break in pieces, דקק to pulverize), therefore one who is overwhelmed to the extreme, even to being completely crushed. The parallel is לעתּות בצּרה with the datival ל (as probably also in Psalm 10:1). עתּות from עת (time, and then both continuance, Psalm 81:16, and condition) signifies the public relations of the time, or even the vicissitudes of private life, Psalm 31:16; and בצּרה is not הצּרה with בּ (Bttch.), which gives an expression that is meaninglessly minute ("for times in the need"), but one word, formed from בּצּר (to cut off, Arab. to see, prop. to discern keenly), just like בּקּשׁה ekil from בּקּשׁ, prop. a cutting off, or being cut off, i.e., either restraint, especially motionlessness ( equals בּצּרת, Jeremiah 17:8, plur. בּצּרות Jeremiah 14:1), or distress, in which the prospect of deliverance is cut off. Since God is a final refuge for such circumstances of hopelessness in life, i.e., for those who are in such circumstances, the confidence of His people is strengthened, refreshed, and quickened. They who know His name, to them He has now revealed its character fully, and that by His acts; and they who inquire after Him, or trouble and concern themselves about Him (this is what דּרשׁ signifies in distinction from בּקּשׁ), have now experienced that He also does not forget them, but makes Himself known to them in the fulness of His power and mercy.