Why ask God for a Legal Avenger? Not to bring justice, but to show sin. What causes sin? I do. What reveals it? The law does. What if I had never heard the law, and David’s request for a harsh Avenger is not granted?

Should you then abandon David’s plea that God use his law against his enemies and send a Legal Avenger? No, the law must be preached to the Christian (insofar as he is not one).

1 To the choirmaster: according to Muthlabben. A Psalm of David. I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will tell of all thy wonderful deed.

As usual, we do not know what these opening lines mean, but the word left untranslated as “Muth-labben” uses the Hebrew word “al-muth. Some scholars say it refers to “the hiddenness of the son,” while others think it’s about young women—almuth—a term Solomon used in Song of Songs. In this psalm, David isn’t singing about beauty, but weakness—about those in need of covering. This is a hymn about the rescue of the fair maiden, or more pointedly, the weak and suffering believer. So here’s the big question: Does God save the weak as a knight in shining armor, or through the cross? Does God save the weak by the Avenger or by the Mercy Seat?

2 I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High.

Psalm 9 is an acrostic (continued in Psalm 10), each stanza beginning with the following letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The art of it cannot be reproduced in English, and it was used not only to make the stanzas memorable but also to declare that God teaches all the “ABCs” and covers the world from A to Z, Alpha to Omega, and Alef to Tav. 

3 When my enemies turned back, they stumbled and perished before thee.

Psalms 9 and 10 are mirror images that together explain the conundrum of a soul seeking grace from the Lord. Where does one look for this justice? Where can we plead for an avenger (Ps. 9:12)? David might have sung this after he had wreaked revenge following a great victory.

4 For thou hast maintained my just cause; thou hast sat on the throne giving righteous judgment More likely, however, this is the kind of song that follows a defeat when it seems the Lord will never give us what we need: a just congress, a just war, or even revenge against our enemies. At the end of the Psalm, David cries for God to use his law to impose his “righteous judgment,” and for that, David needs a mighty Avenger. 

5-6 Thou hast rebuked the nations, thou hast destroyed the wicked; thou hast blotted out their name for ever and ever. The enemy have vanished in everlasting ruins; their cities thou hast rooted out; the very memory of them has perished.

Who could be David’s Avenger? Only God. God must rebuke the “nations” who surround Israel and battle David, either in mortal combat or by smuggling their blasphemous idols into the worship of Jerusalem. David needs a total blood Avenger who will not balk at blotting out the nations. Their buildings must be in ruin, their cities demolished—and their entire memory must be erased from earth so that they never existed, do not now exist, and never will exist again. After living in New York long enough, even Stan Lee recognized the need for a collection of Avengers like this, including a massive Viking with a hammer. But, unlike David, Mr. Lee had no faith in God and thus had to create a myth in his Marvel Comics that God would one day send a mighty legislator to right all wrongs, avenge all “almuth” (sufferers), and bring in the peaceful, just kingdom of God. 

7-8 But the LORD sits enthroned for ever, he has established his throne for judgment; and he judges the world with righteousness, he judges the peoples with equity.

All David is asking is that God be Zedek (justice) and re-establish Yashar (equity). He wants the law applied equally to all so that no one is above it and no one is beneath it. He wants vengeance, but more deeply, he wants order. Not chaos. Not favoritism. 

9 The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.

David especially “lifts” the poor and oppressed (those like the “almuth”) above the fray. In Greek, the word for “oppressed” is “penitent,” and those who are “troubled” particularly refers to what Lutherans call “the troubled conscience.” A troubled conscience thinks they’re suffering for something they did. They fear God is angry.

10 And those who know thy name put their trust in thee, for thou, O LORD, hast not forsaken those who seek thee.

The entire issue of being avenged, receiving retribution, and regaining “equity” comes down to trust. David wants others to know God’s name and trust him. Yet what exactly is one trusting “in thee, O Lord”? 

11 Sing praises to the LORD, who dwells in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds!

David had taken the little hill, Zion, from the Canaanites and made it into his own estate (2 Sam. 5:7-10). He wanted God also to have a place to dwell there, but God left that task for David’s son Solomon to complete. Yet, how would God dwell in the temple? Would it be as he had dwelt in the Holy of Holies since Moses, seated on his mercy seat? 

12 For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

The key to David’s prayer on Mt. Zion is that he is sure God is the one “who avenges blood” and is “mindful of them,” not forgetting the cry of the afflicted: the poor, the weak, and the one who has endured injustice. The translation is difficult; it literally says, “For the one who seeks shed blood remembered them.” What does that mean? It has become a universal error to assume “avenges blood” must be idiomatic (meaning a metaphor or idea of myth that stands in for the real thing). Invariably, modern interpreters decide that shed blood refers to “seeking debt payment,” “restitution for sins,” or propitiation and expiation by blood. But David is not seeking modern theories of “atonement.” Nor is God idiomatically using blood to avenge David. God will use the real thing, blood, to avenge the afflicted by destroying their sin.

The thing God “remembers” (or is mindful of) is not the numbers or kinds of sins for which he must receive reparations, pay back the debt, or take revenge. He is “mindful” of the individual criers, the poor, and the afflicted, not the numbers and types of their sins. In fact, God is not remembering their sin at all; he is remembering those under attack by that sin. However, the way God avenges by blood has shocked David (and the world) ever since. It was not an Avenger, but his own promised Seed, set forth as a mercy seat—in blood. It was not retribution, but forgiveness that his blood gave. 

13 Be gracious to me, O LORD! Behold what I suffer from those who hate me, O thou who liftest me up from the gates of death.

“Blood avenging” and “sin forgiveness” are not ways of gaining God’s attention through sacrifice, but instead asking God to “be gracious to me.”

Read More