Footnotes

1. Psalm 9:1 In these psalms we are perhaps in the period of the return from the Exile, toward the end of the sixth century; the foreign occupiers and the people who had remained in Palestine regarded returning deportees as intruders and they mistreated them. This is the first alphabetical psalm; in the Masoretic Text it is divided into two psalms, while in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate Psalms 9 and 10 constitute one psalm. This accounts for the difference in the numbering of the psalms in these versions.
2. Psalm 9:1 is predominantly praise of God for his royal blessings and glories, including deliverance from hostile nations, concluding with a short prayer for God’s continuing righteous judgments (see v. 5) on the nations.
3. Psalm 9:1 For the director: these words are thought to be a musical or liturgical notation. According to Muth Labben: nothing is known about these words.
4. Psalm 9:2 The praise rendered to the Lord by the psalmists in the Psalter is customarily public praise for his goodness and glory as well as the saving acts he has performed on behalf of his people. Some have described such praise as the forerunner of the Gospel preaching in the New Testament. See also note on Ps 7:18.