Ps. 9 (to end)

Nations / have sunk / into the pit / they have made.

Their foot / was caught / in the net / which they hid.

Yhwh / has revealed / himself / he has executed / judgment

by the action / of his hands / striking down / the wicked.

At first glance the opening verses appear very similar to previous psalms: the idea Yhwh punishing the wicked by allowing their evil to ‘boomerang’back upon their own heads. In addition, the idea of Yhwh as the judge/adjudicator of the nations is very familiar. What is not common though (thus far in our psalms) is the combining of both of these ideas. Previously, the ‘boomerang’ of judgment descended upon individual wicked men who were attacking the righteous, ‘chosen’ possessions of Yhwh. Here, the ‘boomerang’ is extended to apply to entire nations. This, in and of itself, may not seem surprising. But note how we have already encountered the nations in our psalm: they were to ‘uprooted’ and made a ‘perpetual waste’; Yhwh’s previous judgment effected an erasure of their ‘name’ from the earth. Are we to understand this ‘making waste’ as similar to this current form of judgment? If so, it seems to me that the same re-orientation we have needed as to previous psalms, now applies to ‘world-history’(biblically speaking); it something that requires a fundamentally different vision of what is ‘natural’ and what is ‘supernatural’. What is interesting to note (and we have commented on this before) is that this ‘wrath’ or ‘judgment’by Yhwh that applied in individual circumstances is something that applies in national (world-wide) judgment as well. Paul will later pick up on this idea, although in a different key, in Romans when he says God’s wrath is ‘revealed’by his giving the nations up to their passions. This leads into another (almost startling) observation (in both Paul and this psalm): this falling of the nations into their own pit is regarded as a ‘revelation’ of Yhwh. It is fascinating that this almost passive act by Yhwh is regarded as a positive manifestation of his sovereignty over history and the nations. The contrast in the psalm couldn’t appear starker: the nations fall into a pit they dig, and get trapped in a net they have set—and this is regarded as a revelation of Yhwh himself striking down the nations with his hand. As I have argued previously, this vision of Yhwh is something that emerges from contemplation of the Divine Name; it arguably cannot be seen from some ‘neutral’vantage point. One final point regarding these verses: notice how the nations ‘sink into the pit’, while, in the previous verses Yhwh was designated as the psalmist’s “guardian from the gates of death”. While one is redeemed, delivered, and ‘lifted up’ from “the pit”, the other (who actually dug the pit to begin with) ‘sinks down’ into this Sheol-type pit of destruction. It is an interesting idea: that Sheol is somehow the pit made by the wicked, as if their evil actions actually construct the underworld to which they will descend. And this image coheres very well with what we have observed in other psalms: that ‘judgment’ is not simply the destruction of the wicked but the redemption of Yhwh’s chosen; there is no redemption without destruction—there is no ‘lifting up’ from the ‘the pit’ without a sending down into the pit those who attacked Yhwh’s people

The wicked / shall return / to Sheol

all nations / that forget / God

for the poor / will not / always / be forgotten

nor will / the hope / of the afflicted / perish / forever.

One of the most interesting, and puzzling aspects, of these verses is the fact that the wicked are deemed to be ‘returning’to Sheol. Had it said the wicked shall ‘descend’ into Sheol, it would have made more sense. Yet, we see here the fact that the wicked came from Sheol, walked on the earth for a time, and are now, by Yhwh’s hand, shoved back into Sheol. I honestly do not know what to make of it: the previous verse did describe them as digging “the pit” and perhaps what this means is that they were ‘in’ the pit digging, came out to lay a trap for the innocent and are now, because of Yhwh’s judgment, ‘returning’ to the pit they dug. Or, perhaps this should be taken more ‘metaphorically’: the wicked are those whose ‘home’ is Sheol, the place where Yhwh is forgotten. In this sense, the wicked’s actions begin at the same place the foolish man begins—forgetfulness of Yhwh—and their ‘return’ is understood as their ‘sinking’ back into the origin of their wickedness. And, again, notice how there is the reference to the ‘nations’—this is not some personalized/individualized judgment; it is absolute in scope—entire ‘nations’now sink into the underworld and become the shades that dwell in the land where Yhwh’s name does not.

For the poor / will not / always / be forgotten nor will / the hope / of the afflicted / perish / forever. There are a few things we need to observe about these lines, and, back into some previous insights. First, it spears that the poor are, now, forgotten; they are suffering. What is not being stated here is that their position is one of perspective, or one to be endured for some greater end. Rather, the point of the verse is to stress that they will be remembered, concretely, in the future—there will be a time when, in history and reality, they will be redeemed (much like Israel was redeemed from Egypt). Likewise, these afflicted people are in danger of losing hope; it is as if their nourishment is drying up and they are in danger of dying. Again, the impetus to these verses is the fact that there will be a time of real and true redemption and that the present is one of a very precarious existence; they, again like Israel, are in danger of losing their ability to ‘cry out’ because their ability to hope is in danger. In this psalm, and as we have seen, things really can be lost and return to dust. This is described as “being forgotten”. And, we have encountered this phrase already. Earlier in the psalm there was recounted the fact that Yhwh has utterly destroyed certain nations; so much so, in fact, that their ‘memory’ is erased from the earth. Here, the loss of memory is applied not to the wicked nations but to the righteous afflicted of Yhwh. However, whereas there the memory of these nations was utterly wiped out, here, the poor are assured that they will not suffer the same fate. Their memory was “finished, in perpetual ruins, and perished”—these men’s hope “will not perish forever”; although, it is not necessarily because of something inherent in them as much as the fact that Yhwh will ‘remember’ them so that their ‘memory’ may persist and they will be able to avoid going down to Sheol where there is no ‘memory’ of Yhwh but praise Yhwh in the gates of daughter Zion and memorialize his saving deeds (of them). There is this dual image here: they will not be ‘forgotten’ and their hope will not ‘perish’. Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to reverse these images? “They will not perish and their hope will not be forgotten”? Yet, their very existence is tied here to Yhwh’s remembrance of them; it is a fascinating detail. By merging these two images we see that existence of the afflicted is grounded in the memory of Yhwh, as if his ability to ‘turn’ in his mind towards these people and take notice of them is itself what grants them life/redemption. We find here a subtle confirmation of what we have observed before: that to appeal to Yhwh’s ‘memory’ is to appeal to him for his deliverance and life-giving power. Likewise, their ability to ‘hope’ is intimately, if not irrevocably, tied to this—Yhwh will not forget, their hope will not perish. Hope is the sphere in which the afflicted dwell that enables them to ‘remembered’ by Yhwh. Likewise, it may be that hope is sphere in which Yhwh’s acts are ‘remembered’ and recounted which, as we saw, is the vehicle in which those who dwell with Yhwh secure their ‘dwelling’. To lose hope is to forget Yhwh; to forget Yhwh is to already embody Sheol (where there is no memory of Yhwh); to embody Sheol is “to perish”.