Wholehearted Devotion
TRANSLATION
(H) For the director of the choir, to the tune, “Death of the Son,” a psalm of David. (1) I will praise you, Yahweh, with all my heart. I will recount all your wonderful acts. (2) I will rejoice and exult in you. I will make music to your name, O Most High. (3) My enemies turn their backs. They stumble and perish at your presence, (4) for you have maintained my right and my cause. You have sat on your throne judging righteously. (5) You have rebuked the nations. You have destroyed the wicked. You have wiped out their name forever and ever. (6) O enemy, endless desolations have consumed (you). You uprooted their cities. The very memory of them has perished.
OBSERVATIONS
In the first paragraph of this psalm, David devoted the first two verses to praising Yahweh and the next four to describing how the God of justice had dealt with his enemies. David used four consecutive “I will” clauses to declare how he purposed to worship, a helpful portrayal of how believers everywhere can effectively praise Yahweh: directly ascribing heartfelt praise to Yahweh (vs. 1a), recounting his mighty works (vs. 1b), rejoicing in knowing such a great God (vs. 2a), and using music as a vehicle of praise (vs. 2b).
In the next four verses, David turned his attention to Yahweh’s dealing with his enemies. Yahweh’s presence caused them to retreat in confusion (vs. 3). Yahweh’s justice protected those whom they sought to victimize (vs. 4). Yahweh’s rebuke destroyed them and any memory of them (vs. 5). They were left desolate, their cities uprooted, gone without a trace (vs. 6).
OUTLINE
I. The psalmist declared Yahweh’s praise. (1 & 2)
II. The psalmist described how Yahweh deals with our enemies. (3-6)
IDEA STATEMENT
The justice of Yahweh which destroys the godless and protects the godly deserves our highest praise.
APPLICATION
The first verse of Psalm 9 contains one repetition in Hebrew, the word translated “all.” With this word David accomplished two things. He set forth how he praised Yahweh, “with all my heart,” and why he praised Yahweh, “(for) all your wonderful acts.” In essence, it is “all of me for all you have done for me.”
To get an idea of what wholehearted devotion looks like we should consider the story of David returning the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem after it had been captured by the Philistines (2 Sam. 6). There we read: “David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before Yahweh with all his might while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of Yahweh with shouts and the sound of trumpets” (6:14 & 15). David so abandoned himself to rejoicing in Yahweh that his wife, Michel, sarcastically commented: “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” David’s response: “It was before Yahweh” (6:20 & 21). His worship was intended exclusively for God, not for his wife’s eyes nor for the eyes of anyone else who happened to be present. When it came to his devotion to Yahweh, others’ opinions mattered little to the king. Does this mean that we are free to act in any way we desire when we worship?
Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians wrote about the importance of propriety in public worship: “But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way” (1 Cor. 14:40). How do we reconcile this admonition with David’s abandoning himself to such joyous celebration in 2 Samuel? Somehow, we need to find the right balance. On the one hand, our worship should be a wholehearted, spontaneous expression of joy while, on the other hand, our gatherings for worship should be conducted with an awareness of how our actions may impact fellow worshipers and any unbelievers in attendance.
An answer to this dilemma lies not so much in focusing on the specifics, the ways in which we worship or on what others think of us when we worship. Rather, our attention should be centered on the God we worship, asking how we can please him with the spirit, “All of me for all you have done for me.” The Danish theologian, Søren Kierkegaard, suggested that when we worship, we should consider ourselves actors on a stage performing for an “audience of one.” When our hearts are preoccupied with the only one who truly merits our devotion, our actions are more likely to be pleasing to him and, hopefully, edifying to all those who happen to be present.