The ninth Psalm
is an example of this.
I will praise
thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth
all thy marvellous works. I will be glad and rejoice
in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most
High.(Psalm 9:1-2)
The voice of
this Psalm is that of grateful Israel, willingly
praising God in the aftermath of a severe testing.
Israel had been besieged by the nations of the world,
and would have been destroyed but for the intervention
of God.
When mine
enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish
at thy presence.
For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou
satest in the throne judging right.(Psalm 9:3-4)
Notice that the
Psalmist celebrates the final deliverance of Israel in
the past tense… the “prophetic perfect”. It is an
already accomplished fact, It is finished because God
has spoken it.
The prophet
Zechariah is but one of the many who saw the final
conflict of Israel as an international siege of
Jerusalem, leading to the brink of annihilation ,
until the Lord himself returns to save the remnant of
His people,
Behold, I will
make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the
people round about, when they shall be in the siege
both against Judah and against Jerusalem…For I will
gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle…Then shall
the LORD go forth, and fight against
those nations, as when he fought in the day of
battle.(Zechariah 12:2,14:2-3)
It is as a
result of “Thy Presence”
that Israel’s final enemies “turn back,
fall and perish…“. The New Testament refers to
the return of the King Messiah as “the Parousia” of
our Lord, the actual physical return of Jesus.
The nations of
the world are angry, for they have contrived
grievances with Israel. But the U.N. isn’t the final
court in the worldwide conflict. The last word is not
given to the USA, the U.N., or the IMF.
There is a
righteous judge of all the earth, the God of the
Bible. He is the one that the “kings of the
earth and their princes” have taken their
counsel together against in the second Psalm,
The kings of
the earth set themselves, and the rulers take
counsel together, against the LORD, and against his
anointed…(Psalm 2:2)
The ninth Psalm
praises God that it is He, the judge of all of the
earth that has decided the final conflict, “maintain(ing)
my right and my cause”.
Thou hast
rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked,
thou hast put out their name for ever and
ever(Psalm 9:5)
As in the day
when God rebuked the sea, saying “You can come
this far and no further, thus shall your proud waves
be stopped.”(Job 38:11), God shall rebuke
all of the nations (Heathen) who had amassed
themselves against Israel, and they will find that His
rebuke is withering, destructive and final.
The imagery of
the Tower of Babel is invoked, for the nations of the
world will once again unite, on a project to “make a name
for themselves“. But once again the ambitious,
humanistic project comes crashing down around them.
The prophet
speaks in the past tense, “Thou hast
destroyed the wicked…”. The Kings of the
earth and their rulers thought that by their unity
they could prevail over Him, but the Proverbs warned
them long before,
Though hand
join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished,
but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.
(Proverbs 11:21)