Big Idea: Acknowledging our humanity is prerequisite to a faith that allows and even expects God to act on our behalf as he has acted for the saints of history.

Understanding the Text

Psalm 7 closes with a vow of thanksgiving (7:17), and Psalm 8 is in effect the fulfillment of that vow. Then follows Psalm 9 with a continuation of thanksgiving, followed by the lament of Psalm 10. This order is a reversal of the usual order of lament and thanksgiving. There are certainly psalms that contain mixed types,[1] but the order here may suggest that the editor deemed it more appropriate to follow the thanksgiving of Psalm 8 with another thanksgiving psalm.[2]

Psalms 9 and 10 are generally considered a single psalm, as they are in fact in the Septuagint and Vulgate. The evidence that they were ori…