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The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. \u2026 Arise, Lord, do not let mortals triumph; let the nations be judged in your presence. Strike them with terror, Lord; let the nations know they are only mortal. (Psalm 9:9-10,19-20)

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Most of this Psalm is a prayerful song of praise to God for who he is as Judge of the Nations and what he has done in showing himself to be a refuge for the oppressed against their oppressors.\xa0 But near the end of the Psalm, the tune begins to turn from praise to plea.\xa0 A plea for justice and judgement against the nations and the wicked.\xa0

A funny thing happens across the Psalm: the whole of the congregation who may have sung or recited this Psalm identify themselves with the oppressed and needy.\xa0 \u201cThe Lord is a refuge for the oppressed\u201d and a God who never forsakes those who seek him.\xa0 On the other side, the enemy is identified with the nations, the mortals, the wicked ones. \xa0

I have often found it hard to draw such hard lines as the Psalms do.\xa0 I am rarely as confident in my own righteousness so as to shout out with David: \u201cvindicate the integrity of my cause!\u201d\xa0 I likewise have a hard time slapping the label of wicked on anyone and asking for them to be destroyed.\xa0

But there\u2019s more to the prayers of the Psalms than just these hard lines and categories.\xa0 Surely there were wicked people and enemies in Israel too.\xa0 Surely there were wealthy and arrogant people that would not have so well fit the category of \u201cthe oppressed.\u201d

And yet, when the Israelites came to worship before their God, they became \u201cthe needy.\u201d\xa0 To ask for salvation and justice from God is to admit of one\u2019s need.\xa0 To recognize that there are, in fact, powers with which one cannot reckon on one\u2019s own is to admit of one\u2019s need.\xa0 To recognize that one is \u201conly mortal\u201d is to knock all of one\u2019s arrogance and pretentions to power down to the appropriate lens of perspective that allows one to admit of one\u2019s need.\xa0

The Israelites are so humbled as they enter worship and remember again that it is only by God\u2019s work and not their own that they are ever saved and preserved, whether they find themselves in humble and oppressive circumstances, or not.\xa0 And this then becomes the prayer for the nations too: may they also be reminded that they are but mortal.\xa0 May they also be humbled in the presence of God so to admit of their need.

This, I think, is a very good way to hear this Psalm spiritually for all those of us who might not find ourselves to be particularly \u201coppressed\u201d at any given moment.\xa0

But of course, there is also the very real and hard thread that runs through this Psalm too that we just can\u2019t ignore: the Judge will judge with justice.\xa0 Those who really are oppressed or needy, those who are addicted, abused, homeless, hungry, or afflicted in whatever other way\u2014they have a refuge in God when they seek him.\xa0 Not just because he comforts them, but also because he brings justice.\xa0

This Psalm then is also a call to all of us who may not be oppressed to keep a keen eye out both for those who are, but also for the ways that we might be contributing to their oppression.\xa0 This is where the spiritual meets the practical: as we are humbled to our own mortality and need in worship before God the judge, we are called to gain the eyes to see others who were already there.\xa0

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