Psalm 9:14 NKJV
That I may tell of all Your praise
In the gates of the daughter of Zion.
I will rejoice in Your salvation.
From the Gates of Death to the Gates of Praise
MY NOTES
“That I may tell of all Your praise In the gates of the daughter of Zion. I will rejoice in Your salvation.” — Psalm 9:14 (NKJV)
When you pray for God to lift you out of a hard place, what is your ultimate goal? For most of us, the immediate instinct is simply relief—we want the pain to stop, the bill paid, the conflict resolved, or the diagnosis cleared. Relief is a natural desire, but David operated on a much higher frequency.
In the previous verse, he was standing at the threshold of despair, crying out, “Have mercy on me, O Lord! … You who lift me up from the gates of death.” But here in verse 14, David reveals why he asked for that rescue. He didn’t ask for mercy just so he could return to a comfortable, unbothered life. He asked for mercy so he could take his place in the public assembly and magnify the God who saved him.
God did not rescue David merely to end his trouble; He rescued him so His own glory and grace could flash and sparkle before the eyes of others.
That contrast is the whole point. Gates of death behind him. Gates of Zion in front of him. One was a prison door. The other was the crowded place where a city did its business, and a people walked toward worship. He wants the song loud enough for that gate, not whispered in a corner after the scare has passed.
Psalm 87:2 (NKJV)
“The Lord loves the gates of Zion More than all the dwellings of Jacob.”
Psalm 100:4 (NKJV)
“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”
Psalm 118:19 (NKJV)
“Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, And I will praise the Lord.”
In ancient cities, the city gates were the center of public life. It was where business was transacted, court was held, and the community met. In Jerusalem (“the daughter of Zion”), the gates were where worshippers passed through on their way to the sanctuary.
David’s prayer is a journey from shadow to light. When God pulls a soul out of the iron gates of death, He doesn’t drop them off in an empty field; He sets their feet right in the gates of praise. The sheer distance between where you were taken from and where God has advanced you ought to drive your worship to its highest key.
We rejoice in the salvation because it is the Lord’s more than because it is ours. The glory displayed in the rescue outruns the personal relief.
Temporal deliverance would have been enough to sing about. Spiritual salvation—planned in peace, secured in covenant, accomplished by the Son, applied by the Spirit—is the deeper reason the gates should hear it.
Psalm 40:9–10 (NKJV)
“I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness In the great assembly; Indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O Lord, You Yourself know. I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth From the great assembly.”
Luke 8:39 (NKJV)
“‘Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.’ And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.”
Words are not enough if the joy is missing. David wants to live for this: to rejoice that he was preserved by grace, and to say so where the people gather. From the grave’s mouth to Zion’s gate is a long lift. That is why the prayer for mercy in the last verse had heat in it. He knew what kind of grace such a salvation implies.
Psalm 13:5 (NKJV)
“But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.”
Isaiah 12:2 (NKJV)
“Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’”
If you’ve been forgiven and rescued from spiritual death by Christ’s blood, you deserve to walk with a clear conscience, a strong heart, and genuine happiness. Unbelief and constant gloom don’t honor the Redeemer. When God lifts you out of a pit, the only right response is a heart that leaps for joy because the Savior has done what only He could do.
Prayer
Abba Father, You lifted me for more than relief. Give me a bold and willing heart to speak of Your marvelous works. Do not let me keep Your goodness secret. Set my feet firmly in the gates of praise, and let my life reflect the deep, unshakeable joy of Your salvation. I praise You today not just for what You give, but for who You are. In the name of Jesus my Savior, Amen.
Key takeaways
- Mercy asked in private is meant to become praise in public.
- The goal of deliverance is God’s glory.
- Gates of death and gates of Zion are supposed to be a before-and-after, not two separate lives.
- Tell as much praise as you have actually known. That is “all” you can tell.
- Rejoice in His salvation more because it is His than because it is yours.
- A rescued mouth that stays shut still leaves work unfinished.
Proverb for Today
In the way of righteousness is life, And in its pathway there is no death. Proverbs 12:28 NKJV
Daily Scripture
Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 NKJV
Closing
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV
Grace be with you. Amen.
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Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
We must not overlook David’s object in desiring mercy; it is God’s glory: “that I may show forth all thy praise.” Saints are not so selfish as to look only to self; they desire mercy’s diamond that they may let others see it flash and sparkle, and may admire Him who gives such priceless gems to his beloved. The contrast between the gates of death and the gates of the New Jerusalem is very striking; let our songs be excited to the highest and most rapturous pitch by the double consideration of whence we are taken, and to what we have been advanced, and let our prayers for mercy be made more energetic and agonizing by a sense of the grace which such a salvation implies. When David speaks of his showing forth all God’s praise, he means that, in his deliverance, grace in all its heights and depths would be magnified. Just as our hymn puts it:
O the length and breadth of love!
Jesus, Savior, can it be?
All thy mercy’s height I prove,
All the depth is seen in me.
Here ends the first part of this instructive Psalm, and in pausing awhile we feel bound to confess that our exposition has only flitted over its surface and has not dug into the depths. The verses are singularly full of teaching, and if the Holy Spirit shall bless the reader, he may go over this Psalm, as the writer has done scores of times, and see on each occasion fresh beauties.
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Enduring Word
That I may tell of all Your praise: David wanted God to rescue him so that he could give God all the more praise, and all the more passionately to rejoice in God’s salvation. (Guzik)
i. Again, the idea is that David has much more than his own benefit and well-being in mind. Even his deliverance is a way for God to bring more glory to Himself. David did not see his rescue as the final goal; the goal was always God’s greater glory. (Guzik)
ii. I will rejoice in Your salvation: “It is a good thing for the melancholy to become a Christian; it is an unfortunate thing for the Christian to become melancholy. If there is any man in the world that has a right to have a bright, clear face and a flashing eye, it is the man whose sins are forgiven him, and who is saved with God’s salvation.” (Spurgeon)
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Albert Barnes
That I may show forth all thy praise — That I may praise thee in the land of the living; that I may finish the work of praise by rendering to thee all that is due. The idea is, that the dead could not praise God, or that his praise could be uttered only by the living; and he calls on God, therefore, to interpose and save him, that he might yet worship and praise him on the earth. In this sentiment the psalmist utters only what man naturally feels when he looks upon the grave; that it is an end of human plans and pursuits; that it is a land of silence; that the worship of God is not there celebrated. Such language must be retarded as uttered under the impulse of natural feeling, and not as uttered by the deliberate judgment of the mind when calmly contemplating the whole subject. All pious persons base these feelings at times, and it was proper that these feelings should be expressed in the sacred writings, as illustrating human nature even under the influence of religion. The same sentiment occurs in several places, as is, that he was apparently near to the gates of death, and that the only one who could raise him up was God, and he now invoked His interposition that it might be done. The phrase “gates of death” relates to the prevalent views about the unseen world – the world where the dead abide. That world was represented as beneath; as a dark and gloomy abode; as enclosed. Psalms 115:17, “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” See the notes at Psalms 6:5. It is not necessary to say that the sacred writers had brighter views at times than these. But who can keep the mind always from desponding when it looks at the grave? Who can always help feeling that it is a place of darkness and gloom?
In the gates of the daughter of Zion — As contradistinguished from the “gates of death.” Gates in ancient cities were places of concourse, where important transactions were performed; and the “gates” of Jerusalem were regarded as attractive and sacred, because it was through them that the people passed on their way to worship God at the tabernacle or in the temple. Hence, it is said in Psalms 87:2, “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” Psalms 100:4: “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving.” Compare Psalms 118:19. The phrase, “daughter of Zion,” means Jerusalem. For the reason of this appellation, see the notes at Isaiah 1:8. The language used here proves that the psalm was composed after Zion or Jerusalem was made the capital of the kingdom and the seat of public worship, and, therefore, that it cannot refer, as is supposed in the Aramaic Paraphrase, to the death of Goliath.
I will rejoice in thy salvation — In the salvation which thou wilt bestow on me; here particularly, in delivering him from his dangers. The language, however, is general, and may be employed with reference to salvation of any kind.
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John Gill
That I may show forth all thy praise,…. That is, all thy bounties and acts of goodness, deserving of praise; even as many of them as he had an experience of, and which came within his knowledge; and as much of them as he was capable of observing: for otherwise the instances of divine grace and goodness are so many, that they cannot be reckoned up in order, nor God be praised for them, in the present state of things, as he should; See Gill on “Ps 9:1”;
in the gates of the daughter of Zion: it was usual with the Hebrews to represent a chief city as a mother city, and the towns and villages, and places adjacent, as daughters; and so, as Zion or Jerusalem signifies the church of God in general, or the mother church, Galatians 4:26; so “the daughter” of Zion may mean a particular church: the Targum renders it the congregation of Zion; and “the gates” of it are the public ordinances of divine worship in it; and the sense is, that the psalmist desired to show forth the praises of God in the most public manner in the congregation and assembly of the saints;
I will rejoice in thy salvation, or “that I may rejoice in thy salvation”: meaning either temporal salvation and deliverance from enemies, wrought by God for him, which would be matter of joy to him; or spiritual salvation, which may be called God’s salvation, because contrived by him in the council of peace, and secured by him in the covenant of grace, and wrought out by his Son in the fulness of time, and applied by his Spirit at conversion. And a gracious man rejoices in this salvation more because it is the Lord’s than because it is his own; or he rejoices more because of the glory of God, which is displayed in it, than because of his own advantage and happiness by it.
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Matthew Henry
His sincere purpose to praise God when his victories should be completed (v. 14): “Lord, save me, not that I may have the comfort and credit of the deliverance, but that thou mayest have the glory, that I may show forth all thy praise, and that publicly, in the gates of the daughter of Zion;” there God was said to dwell (v. 11), and there David would attend him, with joy in God’s salvation, typical of the great salvation which was to be wrought out by the Son of David.
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Calvin’s Commentary
That I may recount. David’s meaning simply is, that he will celebrate the praises of God in all assemblies, and, wherever there is the greatest concourse of people (for at that time it was the custom to hold assemblies at the gates of cities;) but, at the same time, there seems to be an allusion to the gates of death, of which he has just spoken, as if he had said, After I am delivered from the grave, I will do my endeavor to bear testimony, in the most public manner, to the goodness of God, manifested in my deliverance. As, however, it is not sufficient to utter the praises of God with our tongues, if they do not proceed from the heart, the Psalmist, in the last clause of the verse, expresses the inward joy with which he would engage in this exercise, and that I may rejoice in thy salvation; as if he had said, I desire to live in this world for no other purpose than to rejoice in having been preserved by the grace of God. Under the name of daughter, as is well known, the Jews meant a people or city, but he here names the city from its principal part, namely, Sion.
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Miscellaneous Comments
“That I may show forth all thy praise,” etc. To show forth all God’s praise is to enter largely into the work. An occasional “God, I thank thee,” is no fit return for a perpetual stream of rich benefits.
—William S. Plumer.
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