The Pilgrim Path---Please read Psalm 9 

In Psalm 9, King David recalls the triumph the LORD gives in the face of foes. However, life is not always trouble free, for he cries for "help" at the division (verse 13).

The Psalm promotes spiritual and mental well-being. Who doesn't need more of each? The Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Living Son of David, delivers these colossal benefits to His Own---even in the midst of a pandemic, economic uncertainty, and fears about the future. The future is in His hands.

Please get your copy of the Holy Scriptures and think through these notes...

---v.1---Recollection: God has held me "together" all the way along this path of life...He is worthy of thanks & praise---I need to remember what he's already done...

---v. 2---Resolved: God is to be praised "all" the time---because He is always worth being "glad" in throughout life ---Job thought so ---in Job chapter one...Paul & Silas "sang" in jail in Acts 16: 25

---v. 3---Really bad guys turned "back" and were "crushed" before the LORD...He will tend to enemies...let him "do" His work...

---v. 4---Realization: God held me all along. He sits on His Glorious Throne---Doing what is Right---in His time...

---v. 5---Rebuking the wicked---ultimately making them vanish! Thomas Brooks said that many an old philosopher was asked, "What is God's chief occupation?" Their response, "Humbling the proud"

---v. 6---Ruin: God's plan for those who oppose Him

---v. 7---Repeat this: The LORD sits enthroned! He never gets booted "off" His Throne...

---v. 8---Ruling all the peoples of the earth---with uprightness (some rulers do not accept that "they" are to be ministers of God for good---Romans 13---they will regret ever having ruled--- when they "face" the LORD)

---v. 9---Relief---is what we humans "seek" and need---when we are in trouble. Yet, how many people actually know where to go? Is there a legitimate stronghold for the human soul---the real me? King David says, "Yes!"

---v. 10---Revelation---the Word of God: tells us there is One anchor for humanity---the Name we trust in is: JESUS...From J. I. Packer: "...so many in our day seem to have been distracted from what was, is, and always will be the true priority for every human being---that is, learning to know God in Christ."

---v. 11---Ring it out: Repeat it again---He sits on the Throne---"Sing to Him"---the LORD knows we have a problem with this...He gets "displaced" in life...

---v.12---Remember---the LORD remembers His own---He never forgets...He even puts our tears in His bottles---Psalm 56: 8....what an intimate awareness...

---v. 13---Rouse Yourself LORD---please favor me! Such fervency in prayer...if you're going to "talk" to the LORD---you might as well---really talk to Him...

---v.14---Recounting the reliability of the LORD---Which is one reason "why" we are still here---Lamentations 3:22-24

---v. 15---Rolled and left in the Pit they had dug---the LORD'S enemies are left in their own pits---ruined...

---v.16---Recognized & Righteous: the LORD executes judgment and the wicked are snared...

---v. 17---Remember God in love & obedience---know safety. Forget God---Hell is your end...

---v. 18---Reception awaits the genuinely needy...From Spurgeon: The Lord may hide his face for a season from his people, but he never has utterly, finally, really, or angrily, forsaken them that seek him. Let the poor seekers draw comfort from this fact, and let the finders rejoice yet more exceedingly, for what must be the Lord's faithfulness to those who find if he is so gracious to those who seek...

---v. 19---Real prayer---for God's "real glory" is here---"Let not man prevail!" Man is a haughty being----he needs no classes to be arrogant. Proof--- that he needs the Holy Spirit to "be" otherwise...

---v. 20---Restraints needed: "Put them in fear, O LORD!" Wow---show men that they are simply mortals...From Stephen Charnock: We are so inclined to sin that we need strong restraints, and so swelled with a natural pride against God, that we need thorns in the flesh to let out the corrupt matter. The constant hanging the rod over us makes us lick the dust, and acknowledge ourselves to be altogether at the Lord's mercy. Though God hath pardoned us, he will make us wear the halter about our necks to humble us...

Tim Keller: "Christians know of one who remembered God yet was completely forsaken (Matthew 27: 46). But because Jesus died "in our place"---we can be even surer than David that God will always be there for us."

Be still, my soul! the Lord is on thy side;

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;

Leave to thy God to order and provide;

In every change He faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul! thy best, thy heavenly friend

Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Katharina Amalia Von Schlegel (1813-1897)

Grace & Peace in Jesus Our LORD, Pastor Jason