Psalm 9-God of the Oppressed-God of safety and rest

The Psalmist of Psalm 9 gives thanks to God.  I try to start every morning off giving thanks to God.  I thank God for the creation that surrounds me.  I thank God for my family.  I thank God for the ways that God showed up in my day to day activities the previous day.  I thank God for answered prayers.  Sometimes it's easy to forget the prayers you prayed when the answers come.  I found myself in that situation this week.  I had noticed some pretty major changes in the way someone was acting.  Positive changes.  I started wondering what was going on, what was happening.  Then in my prayers one morning I remembered my prayers for this friend.  It's so easy to go to God when trouble is in front of us and then to completely forget God when those prayers and yearnings of the heart are answered.  It's also easy to attribute things to God that aren't God's at all.  I am ashamed to admit that there was a time when illness struck a person I saw as my enemy and I commented that it must have been divine intervention.  I was joking at the time but the people who heard me make this statement did not think it funny at all.  I recieved a phone call from a friend that night, someone who I had been sharing with about the love of God.  She told me real quickly her distaste for what I had said and that if that was the kind of God I served and that was the way that God's followers thought, she didn't want to be any part of it.  I hung my head and cried.  The psalmist here, again, wants God to be one that crushes enemies.  The Psalmist wants to attribute the destruction of nations to God.  But, he comes to the same conclusion as in a previous psalm.  The enemy destroys itself.  Evil leads to destruction.  There are destructive consequences to destructive behavior.  The good news of the Psalm is this:  "But the Lord rules forever!  He assumes the throne for the sake of justice.  He will establish justice in the world rightly; he will judge all people fairly.  The Lord is a safe place for the oppressed-a safe place in difficult times.  Those who know your name trust you because you have not abandoned any who seek you, Lord."  (9:7-10)  When the enemy seems to be closing in on you.  Go to the Lord.  There you will find rest!