Psalms 9:1 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

PSALM 9 Muth-labben also seems to be another title of some song, or tune, or instrument; of which we must and may be content to be ignorant, as the Jewish doctors also are. Some render it, upon the death of his son, to wit, Absalom, or of one called Labben; or, of the middle man, or the man that stood between the two armies, to wit, Goliath, who is so called in the Hebrew text, 1 Samuel 17:4. But none of these suit with the design and matter of the Psalm, which is more general, and relates to his former manifold dangers, and the deliverance which God had graciously given him out of them. And that of Goliath agrees not with Psalms 9:14, where there is mention of praising God in Zion, which then and long after was in the hands of the Jebusites. David resolveth to praise God, Psalms 9:1,2, for executing judgment upon his enemies, Psalms 9:3-8. God is a refuge to the oppressed, Psalms 9:9,10. David calls the people of Israel to praise the Lord, Psalms 9:11,12. He prayeth him to consider his trouble, Psalms 9:13, that he might have cause to praise him, Psalms 9:14. The heathen, by God's judgment, fall into the snare they made for others, Psalms 9:15,16. The portion of the wicked that forget God, Psalms 9:17. A promise of mercy to the needy and poor, Psalms 9:18; and a prayer for judgment on the ungodly, Psalms 9:19,20. With my whole heart, i.e. with a sincere, and affectionate, and united heart. I will discourse in the general of thy manifold wonders wrought for me, and for thy church and people formerly. The particle all is here, as it is oft elsewhere, taken in a restrained sense.