James 1:5-8 (NIV) If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, Who gives GENEROUSLY to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive ANYTHING from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

Psa 9:1b (NIV) A psalm of David:
I will praise You, O LORD, with ALL my heart; I will tell of ALL Your wonders. David is a man who has experienced a lot of results; he started out at a very young age with a tremendous amount of appreciation for the wonderful things God was doing for him. A lot of the miracles, help, and blessings God does for you are somewhat small. God doesn’t want to overwhelm you with things that are so big they FORCE you to believe and trust Him.

It is important for you to be able to see the small miracles from God just as much as you see the big ones. You will never be able to feel God’s love for you, if you miss seeing ALL the things He is doing for you. This process of NOTICING and APPRECIATING these miracles will take you into your healing from the struggles with loss of a loved one; AND, it will take you into a wonderful relationship with your heavenly Father.

Psa 9:2 (NIV) I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High. There are two ways of looking at this prayer David prayed to God. We could see him saying that he was going to use his determination and will-power to make sure he praised God. When we make a promise like that, that is when we end up disappointing ourselves and feeling like we have failed God. If you make God promises, then YOU have to do what it takes to keep them. If you fail to keep your promises, then it is YOU who broke your promises.

The other way of seeing this prayer is to see David PROCLAIMING his faith. He is proclaiming his faith in God’s ability and faithfulness to EMPOWER him to remember and express appreciate and praise Him. A promise is faith in our own strength, determination, efforts, and abilities to “be glad and rejoice.” A proclamation of faith in God’s power is you saying: “I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High because I know You will empower me to do it.”

Psa 9:3 (NIV) My enemies turn back; they stumble and perish before You. It may seem strange to tell God all He has done for you; but, this is a part of strengthening your faith and helping it be consistent. When you start laying out all the things you have NOTICED that God has done for you and mentioning them to Him, God responds to this list by sending you power and excitement in you and your faith. Start making a daily list of all the things you have noticed that God did for you that day. Then when you have your time of prayer, use that list to tell God how much you appreciate all of it. That will help you pray a prayer of appreciation to your heavenly Father.

Psa 9:4 (NIV) For You have upheld my right and my cause; You have sat on Your throne, judging righteously. God judges righteously; that means He always does what is right, good, best, and loving. This is based on His complete knowledge of everything past, present, and future concerning everyone and everything. However, for us to get His benefits from His incredible knowledge, we have to do two important things: (1) we have to ask and (2) we have to ask in faith. These two things aren’t all that is needed; but, they are priority issues.

One of the major things that damages our CONSISTENT faith is caused by our inadequate, limited knowledge. We compare what God does with what WE THINK we know. God may do things or allow things that we don’t agree with; that offends our “faith-filter.” We evaluate the situation using our limited knowledge of what we think; and then we face a choice. Are we going to have faith in our knowledge, abilities, and skills; or, are we going to trust God’s incredible knowledge, abilities, and skills? Do we believe HE is more qualified and loves us more than we love ourselves?

Psa 9:5-6 (NIV) You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their name for ever and ever. Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy, You have uprooted their cities; even the memory of them has perished. As you read the Old Testament and learn more about God and all the things He has done in the past, you will get to know Him better. The Bible will help you learn a lot about God’s character and attitudes. David had done a lot of reading and studying the Bible and had a lot of knowledge about the things God had done in the past. This HISTORICAL knowledge helped him have a lot more faith in God than just from his own personal experiences.

Psa 9:7-8 (NIV) The LORD reigns forever; He has established His throne for judgment. He will judge the world in righteousness; He will govern the peoples with justice. Things have happened to you that haven’t been fair; people and circumstances have mistreated you and set you up for a certain amount of pain, suffering, and failure. But, you are now starting to ask for help, righteousness (things that are good for you and those around you), and justice (fair treatment).

David’s prayer of proclamation is describing the kind of rule, leadership, authority, and principles God operates by. David had decades of experiences with God and knew Him better than you do. His prayer is giving you a chance to look through David’s eyes and see God the way he experienced Him. His prayer is telling you what you can expect as you continue to develop your relationship with God.

Psa 9:9-10 (NIV) The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know Your name will trust in You, for You, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek You. This is what you are going to find out about God; all through the Bible you will hear this same thing from those who put consistent faith in Him. Your experiences will build a faith inside you that will become strong and never wavering. But, in the meantime, these friends of yours, like David, will help you trust Him based on their experiences.

Psa 9:11-12 (NIV) Sing praises to the LORD, enthroned in Zion; proclaim among the nations what He has done. For He Who avenges blood remembers; He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted. You are getting an opportunity to see how much your faith and trust will grow in God. David prayed and sang songs of faith in God; he expressed how he felt about the way God treated him over the years of his life. David saw a lot of battles and a lot of abuse against him and the people around him. He knew, from years of experience, that God always comes through for those who cry out for His help. What David got is what you are growing into through your experiences with God.

Psa 9:13-14 (NIV) O LORD, see how my enemies persecute me! Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death, that I may declare Your praises in the gates of the Daughter of Zion and there rejoice in Your salvation. David wasn’t praying about problems with loss of a loved one; he was praying about people who were persecuting him. But, your prayer and his prayer will be able to have very similar structure and characteristics to them. You can say things like: “O Lord, see how I suffer from struggles with loss of a loved one! Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death, that I may declare Your praises and rejoice in Your salvation.”

Psa 9:15-18 (NIV) The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden. The LORD is known by His justice; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. The wicked return to the grave, all the nations that forget God. But the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish.

Always keep in mind that we accidently and ignorantly DO wicked things; but, that doesn’t make us the wicked. The wicked are people who do bad things to themselves and others and have dedicated themselves to it. You have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. 2 Cor 5:21 (NIV) God made Him Who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. You have been set free from all wickedness in your record with God.

Psa 9:19-20 (NIV) Arise, O LORD, let not man triumph; let the nations be judged in Your presence. Strike them with terror, O LORD; let the nations know they are but men. Even though David’s main issues were with wicked, evil people and may not necessarily fit your exact difficulties in life, these prayers are still presented to you as guides for YOUR problems. God wants you to take them and reword them so that the principle of the prayer is the same but better fits your situation. You might reword this prayer this way: “Arise, O Lord, don’t let my difficulties with loss of a loved one triumph over me.”