Psalm 9:9-10: The God who takes in the oppressed

The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of struggle.
And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, o Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

In Joel 2, there's a prophesy looking forward to the day when God pours out His Spirit, upon the Messiah's coming. In verse 28 God says that He'll pour out His Spirit "on all flesh", and a few verses down (32) has Him saying, "and it shall come to pass that all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." If you take this prophesy along with many of the other similar passages from the Old Testament Prophets such as Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 11 and 36, and much of Isaiah (to name a few of the many) you can easily see that this is referring to the days when the Messiah is going to come.
Of course, we know in hindsight that these days are among us, because Christ Jesus IS the Messiah, and He HAS come. God HAS poured out His Spirit on all flesh already. The temptation would be to ask, "So then why are there so few Christians?", but the answer to this is easy: Just because He's poured out His Spirit, that doesn't mean ALL people are going to receive the Spirit INTO their hearts. That's why the Joel passage says, "In that day, all who call on my name will be saved." Apparently not everyone will, but any that will will be saved.

In the New Testament, Paul quotes this prophesy from Joel in Romans 10:13, in the middle of his famous section on how Christ's work has opened up salvation for all people, and not just Jews. V 12-- "For there is no distinction, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him." Paul then cites Joel in v 13 saying, "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
The word used to describe this is Gospel. The Gospel, in Paul's letter to the Romans, refers to the fact that since all people have turned from God and sought their own glory apart from God's will after which God has turned them over to their own sin since they didn't want anything to do with Him (1:18-25), and since ALL people are guilty and depraved (3:9-20)...EVEN STILL...Christ Jesus, the perfect and spotless Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the world, by absorbing the holy and righteous wrath of God, so that anyone who has faith in His work is justified apart from THEIR works (3:25-26, 28). Very simply, as a free gift, God has taken His anger over sin out on Jesus, so that anyone who desires to live before the presence of their Creator is free from condemnation if they just believe in who Christ is and what Christ has done. It's a glorious Gospel!

Of course, very often, preachers of the Gospel (myself included) get so caught up in preaching this Gospel of freedom from sins in Jesus' name that we never step out on the limbs of this tree to show what this means for us practically TODAY. Truly the New Testament is ALL about Christ's work, and there's no possibility that "Jesus dying on the cross for my sin" is an insufficient message to preach, but as I was reading Psalm 9, I was challenged to take it a step deeper INTO this Gospel we proclaim, to answer a question: What does this MEAN for us today? It means so much I couldn't even begin to scratch the surface, but I'll try.

1. First, it means that we can approach God's throne. Before Christ completed salvation on the cross, no one could stand in the presence of the Almighty God, and I would be below reproach if I didn't say that we STILL can't contain the glory of God's presence completely. But the book of Hebrews does tell us that through what Jesus accomplished, something HAS certainly changed. According to Heb 1:3, God has revealed Himself through Jesus, who is "the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of His nature". Colossians 1:19 says that in Christ "the FULLNESS of God was pleased to dwell." Even though God's glory can't be beheld by human eyes and human hearts or human thoughts, His glory is in CHRIST, and we have seen Christ. God has come to be among us. Hebrews then goes on in chapters 3 and 4 to compare Jesus to both Moses and Joshua (from the Old Testament), showing that Jesus is GREATER than both of them, and that He is a "great High Priest" (4:14), by whom we can "approach the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy in our time of need" (4:16). To understand this you have to know that in the Old Testament, the Temple had a room called the Most Holy Place where the High Priest for that year would go into once a year to offer sacrifices to God on behalf of himself and the people. This room was where God's presence dwelt on Earth. And the place in the room where sacrifices were offered was called "the Mercy Seat". Hebrews is saying because of what Jesus has done, we can approach the Mercy Seat OURSELVES, whereas we couldn't earlier because of unholiness in sin. Jesus is the NEW and BETTER High Priest, and not only that--He went into the Most Holy place and offered His own blood as the sacrifice, "thus securing eternal redemption" (9:12). Now "we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus...and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith..." (10:19, 21-22a).
To sum up, we can approach God's throne because of what Christ Jesus has done through His work on the cross of offering a final sacrifice for sins. This means very simply that if you are seeking God's mercy and presence, YOU CAN HAVE IT, by coming through Jesus.

2. Secondly, if you have brought the wounds on yourself, you can't expect God to lick your wounds for you, without telling you what He thinks you need to hear first. Like I have already said, because of what Jesus has done, we can approach God's throne. But one thing remains the same with us as it was with the Israelites in the Old Testament who relied on sacrifices made by high priests: It's still our sin that separates us from God. Sin is still the issue for us as we come to the throne of mercy.
Now many will bring up texts such as Romans 8:1 ("there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus"), and 1 John 2:1 ("if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous") to argue that sin isn't an issue among us anymore. But the problem with an argument like that is that apparently you didn't read the previous chapter of Romans before you quoted 8:1, which has Paul speaking of how he STILL struggles with sin; nor did you consider the FIRST part of the 1 John 2:1 passage which says, "I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone DOES sin..." which assumes that they WILL sin, but John writes to the believers in hopes that they won't. My point is this: In Christ, we don't have condemnation, as He is our final sacrifice for all time and therefore we can approach God's throne in confidence and faith. However, your and my problems, as we approach God is the fact that He's holy and we're sinful, and we need to come to grips with that if we're going to turn to Him.
Because of this, you need to understand that as you come to God's throne to "receive mercy", He may not always tell you what you want to hear--but that shouldn't be the reason you're coming to Him anyways. I'm convinced that this is much of the reason for the lack of spiritual fervor among Christians as well as the reason many "Christians" "fall away" after being "saved": They approached God expecting that He would operate on them on their terms which is NOT how God is to be approached. He is to be approached with sincere and humble contriteness at the fact that He's God and you're not, He knows everything and you don't, and He knows what's best for you and you don't (see Job 40:3-5, 42:1-6; Psalm 51:16-17; Isaiah 6:1-5; Luke 18:9-14, 21:41-44; and James 4:6-10). You have sinful, self-serving, and world-glorifying motives and eyes you're looking at God through, and if you assume that He's going to give you what you WANT, most of the time you will be sorely disappointed.
On the other hand, if you assume He's going to give you what you NEED, regardless of what you think that is, you will NEVER be disappointed.
The fact that you're sinful when you approach Him doesn't negate the fact that He invites you to come to Him, which is why Jesus invites "all who are burden and heavy-laden" (Matthew 11:28) to come to Him. But since 'what you want' is the problem, the only posture before God's throne is the posture of reverence and humility, whether it's on your knees or on your face.

It's interesting that we find David writing in the Psalm 9 passage that the Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, for a few reasons. First, David knows that God is a stronghold in oppression, whether the oppression is David's fault or if it's someone else's. Some of David's problems were there in spite of his innocence, but others were there because he brought them on himself. Still, David knew He could approach God regardless of which scenario was true for the moment. And yet the second reason it's interesting David writes this is the fact that because Christ hadn't offered the sacrifice on the cross yet, people really couldn't approach the throne of mercy, yet. Is this a contradiction?
I don't think so. We see in Exodus 34 (deep into the Old Testament) that "The Lord (is) a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love to the thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin..." (34:6-7a). Truly we know that as David approached the Lord with contriteness and sincerity in his heart, the Lord met him there (David was the one who wrote the Psalm 51 passage referenced earlier that speaks of a broken heart and a contrite spirit being the sacrifice God desires...and he wrote that song after committing adultery, causing his mistress to commit it, and then killing her husband).

So aren't we still at a contradiction though? No, because if we continue to look into the Exodus 34 passage, we see that verse 7 continues from God's gracious characteristics, "...but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity if the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and fourth generation."
To the natural mind which is contrary to God (see 1 Corinthians 2), these things seem like contradictions. But they're not, and David's story is a perfect example why--here was a man (a respected and revered KING) who was very sinful before God and others, and yet every time he got himself up a creek without a paddle, he would turn back with a broken and sorry heart to receive mercy from God. And yet the same God who would give him mercy and grace is the same God who caused David's life to fall into shambles because of his sin. Seriously, if you read of King David's family life after he commits the adultery with Bathsheba and kills her husband, you'll see that it was a complete wreck for the rest of his life, the likes you've only seen on Jerry Springer. Why? Because even though God would offer forgiveness where forgiveness is sought, the effects of the sin still linger among the sinner and his/her friends/family...and this is NOT God's fault, but the fault of the one who sinned in the first place.
So when Psalm 9 speaks of the Lord being a stronghold for the oppressed, it's TRUE, whether Jesus died on the cross and rose again or not. Seek the Lord, He'll be found, and you'll be held.

But the only way for the sin to be completely defeated, once and for all, is through Christ's work of taking...not just the sins you've committed in the past and the sins of the present, but...ALL your sin, even from the future onto Himself and receiving the punishment due us from God on Himself, so that we CAN approach the throne of mercy and receive it from our great God who pours it out to those who seek it, bringing an END to the condemnation we so rightly deserve.

If the cross covers the atonement for the sin (which it does) to make us be able to approach God in times of trouble, what does the resurrection cover?
It's simple: At the resurrection, He who knew no sin but became sin until it crushed Him to death (Jesus, of course), DEFEATS death by rising up into new and eternal life. The sin which was on Him is taken into death, but it's not taken into His Resurrection.
Practically, this means that as we approach God as wretched and pitiable sinners, we come to Jesus' work and our sin is forgiven and blotted out; but since we are in Christ Jesus now--Him who is RISEN FROM THE DEAD, WE are to be risen from the dead, without sin, too. Romans 8:13 says, "If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live..." (skipping to vv 15-16) "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God."

Of course this leads us back to the Joel passage from earlier--"in those days I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh". The difference between mercy in the old covenant and mercy in the new covenant is two-fold: 1) no more sacrifices need to be made for sins because Christ has given the final one, and 2) God's Spirit is IN us if we trust in the first point, to cause us to move on and live APART from sin under the righteous reign of Christ Jesus.
The point: You receive mercy and acceptance at God's throne, and then in the Spirit, you live in acceptance and thankfulness at whatever His will is for your life from there on out, because the answer to all of your prayers is Jesus anyways.

May we learn that Jesus doesn't just take care of sin, but that He takes care of us. May we receive mercy as we are taken in by God, and may we learn to stand in the grace that is given through Christ Jesus.