Remembering His Wonders : Psalm 9:1–6

Remembering His Wonders

Psalm 9:1–6

Key Bible Verse — Psalm 9:1–2, 5–6

"I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High… You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked; you have blotted out their name for ever and ever. Endless ruin has overtaken my enemies, you have uprooted their cities; even the memory of them has perished."

Short Reflection

Here is the twist nobody wants to hear: the "wonderful deeds" David cannot stop singing about include genocide.

We love Psalm 9 when it speaks of gladness and rejoicing. We frame the first two verses on coffee mugs and greeting cards. Tell of all your wonderful deeds. Yes, we think, the promotion, the healing, the sunset, the answered prayer. We curate our memories of God's wonders like a social media highlight reel — warm, photogenic, and personally uplifting. But David does not stop at the pleasantries. When he opens the album of God's wonders, he turns to the pages where nations are rebuked, the wicked are destroyed, names are blotted out, cities are uprooted, and the memory of God's enemies perishes from the earth. This is what makes him sing.

The wonder of God's wonders is not that He is nice. It is that He is just.

And here is the deeper twist: we were not the innocent victims in this story. We were the nations. We were the wicked. We were the cities marked for uprooting. Every one of us was born into the camp of those who have set themselves against the Most High. We have exchanged truth for lies, worshipped our own names, and built cities of self-rule that deserve nothing less than endless ruin. If God had given us only what we deserved, our names would have been the ones blotted out forever.

The true wonder of Psalm 9 is not that God destroyed someone else. It is that He destroyed our enemy — sin, death, and the power of darkness — while making a way for us to escape the judgment we earned. When David sings of enemies stumbling and perishing, he is singing about a justice that should have swallowed us whole. But mercy stepped in. The cross is the place where God's rebuke fell in full, and we who deserved to be uprooted were grafted in. That is the wonderful deed worth telling. That is why the memory of our old city perishes, and a new name is written in its place.

What Does This Mean?

Remembering God's wonderful deeds is not just counting personal blessings; it is remembering His holy judgment against evil — a judgment we deserved but were spared from through mercy — and letting that memory fuel wholehearted praise.

How Does This Apply to Me?

Ask yourself:

When I "tell of God's wonderful deeds," do I only share the comfortable blessings, or do I include the wonder of His justice and the mercy that rescued me from it?

Do I truly believe I was among the wicked who deserved to perish, or do I see myself as an innocent bystander in the story of salvation?

How does remembering that God's judgment fell on Christ instead of me change the way I worship Him today?

Am I glad about God's justice only when it applies to people I dislike, or do I rejoice that His justice is perfect and His mercy has reached even me?

What "old city" in my life — old identity, old rebellion, old self-rule — needs to be uprooted so completely that even its memory perishes?

One Truth to Carry

The most wonderful deed God has done is not that He blessed you, but that He judged evil in full and spared you from the ruin you deserved — and that mercy should make you sing with your whole heart.

Short Prayer

Lord, I have sanitized Your wonders into something comfortable and small. But Your wonders include Your justice — the holy judgment that should have fallen on me. Thank You that You destroyed my enemy and blotted out my old name, not through cruelty, but through mercy at the cross. Let me never forget that I was among the nations You rebuked, yet You made a way for me to sing instead of perish. I will praise You with my whole heart. I will tell of Your wonderful deeds — all of them. In Jesus' name, Amen.