Psalm 9:5 - Printer Friendly

ESV: You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish; you have blotted out their name forever and ever.

NIV: You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked; you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.

NASB: You have rebuked the nations, You have eliminated the wicked; You have wiped out their name forever and ever.

CSB: You have rebuked the nations: You have destroyed the wicked; you have erased their name forever and ever.

NLT: You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked; you have erased their names forever.

KJV: Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.

NKJV: You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their name forever and ever.

This establishes several of the great deeds (Psalm 9:1) for which David is giving thanks to God.

First, God "rebuked" these enemies of Israel. Built into the idea of a "rebuke" are concepts like correction, scolding, and reprimand. By thoroughly defeating these hostile nations (Psalm 9:3), the Lord strongly condemned their sins. He showed in a dramatic way that their aggression was wrong.

Second, God accomplished the physical destruction of these wicked armies. A drastic victory over invaders meant those forces would not survive to fight against Israel ever again.

Third, the Lord "blotted out their name forever and ever." Blotting is the act of removing a stain: covering over, dissolving, or erasing it from existence. Used in a biblical context, the phrase "blot out" typically means a total annihilation of a person, place, or nation. As with other such phrases, it assumes a level of deliberate exaggeration, to make a point about the thoroughness of destruction. For example, Exodus 17:14 records the Lord's words about Amalek after Joshua and his people defeated the Amalekites. The Lord said to Moses, "Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven." In his message to the Jews gathered at Solomon's portico, Peter urged them to repent and turn back to the Lord so their sins would be blotted out (Acts 3:19).

Psalm 9:1–8 opens the song as David ascribes praise to God. He celebrates the Lord for saving him and his army from the nations that attacked him and his people. He recalls the triumph the Lord accomplished over the enemy. The victory evidenced the Lord's righteous judgment and sovereignty. The nations perished but the Lord's name lives forever.

David praises God in a song which follows an acrostic pattern: the psalm is divided into phrases which begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The pattern continues through Psalm 10, leading some to suggest they were intended as a single work, or as closely related halves. In this psalm, David promises to praise God for His great deeds, including awesome victory over evil. The Lord's eternal justice is also praised, as David asks for further rescue from those who seek to kill him. The passage ends with a prayer for God to remind mankind of His authority.

This is a thanksgiving song, where David shows appreciation for the Lord's rescue. This shares similar themes to Psalm 10, though from a very different tone. Some scholars think Psalms 9 and 10 were originally a single work. This is part of the first section of the book of Psalms, including Psalms 1 through 41.

The book of Psalms is composed of individual songs, hymns, or poems, each of which is a ''Psalm'' in and of itself. These works contain a wide variety of themes. Some Psalms focus on praising and worshipping God. Others cry out in anguish over the pain of life. Still other Psalms look forward to the coming of the Messiah. While some Psalms are related, each has its own historical and biblical context.