Week 4 Psalm 9
Sometimes I think about justice and fairness (more accurately I think about injustice and unfairness).
This psalm says quite a bit about the Lord’s justice. About how he adjudicates & resolves everything that’s going on. About how the Lord judges righteously. Fairly. Equitably.
These are good to know since in a pretty regular way people get ground-down & brutalized & terrorized by other people. And some people get murdered.
I noticed this phrase about murdered people: he who requires blood remembers them (the note in the margin says that requires blood also means avenges bloodshed).
This is a very helpful thing to keep in mind – the Lord avenges murders. I check a couple of other versions:
He who avenges blood is mindful of them (mindful of murdered people)
The one who seeks an accounting for bloodshed remembers them
When He avenges blood, He remembers them.
I think the verse registered with me because I’d read the story about Cain murdering his brother. The Lord said to Cain: the voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. Still…Cain got to live his life. Got married. Had a family – a pretty successful family. In the meantime Abel’s blood was left crying in the ground. Seems unfair.
So David’s psalm is a bit of a consolation: he who requires blood remembers them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
Note: quotes from Psalm 9:12 (NASB CSB ESV NKJV). Genesis 4:10 (NASB)