Gratitude is an amazing thing. When I get down, shifting my focus from what’s bugging me to the numerous things I should be grateful and thankful for immediately changes my perspective. Gratitude reminds me that even when things look bleak, there is way more good in this world than we can always readily see. It is difficult, if not downright impossible, to be angry or worried when I am grateful. Hatred cannot exist for long in a grateful heart.
In Psalm 9, we witness David praising God for demonstrating His righteousness in judging wicked nations, providing deliverance for David from his enemies, and for being a trustworthy God. These themes repeat themselves through many of David’s psalms. Even though he experienced trouble, some directly of his own making, David never lost sight of the goodness of God and the incredible things the Lord had done in his life.
Like David, we should remember the Lord’s past acts of demonstrated grace and undeniable mercy in our lives so that we can be sure to praise Him publicly for these wonderful things He has done. God’s past faithfulness gives us confidence in His present and future trustworthiness. God remains faithful today and forever.
Psalm 9
To the choirmaster: according to Muth-labben. A Psalm of David.
1 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. 2 I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
3 When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence. 4 For you have maintained my just cause; you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.
5 You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish; you have blotted out their name forever and ever. 6 The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins; their cities you rooted out; the very memory of them has perished.
7 But the Lord sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, 8 and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness.
9 The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. 10 And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.
11 Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds! 12 For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
13 Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death, 14 that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation.
15 The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. 16 The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah
17 The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God.
18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
19 Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail; let the nations be judged before you! 20 Put them in fear, O Lord! Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah
The Devotional Guy™ 
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