Psalm 9

Psalm 9 is the ninth psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works." In Latin, it is known as "Confitebor tibi, Domine". The topic of the psalm is that the success of evil is only temporary, and in the end, the righteous will endure. Psalm 10 is considered part of Psalm 9 in the Greek Septuagint and in most pre-Reformation Christian Bibles. These two consecutive psalms have the form of a single acrostic Hebrew poem.^{[citation needed]}

The psalm is a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant liturgies.

The Psalm is an acrostic Hebrew poem, and with Psalm 10 forms a single combined work.

Old Testament scholar Hermann Gunkel divided Psalm 9 as follows:

In describing the structure of Psalm 9/10 there are some quite different approaches. Gunkel rated the Psalm by the alphabetical arrangement as "artificial" or "forced", saying, "One cannot place overly strict demands on the internal coherence of such a forced product. The writer was likely glad to have found a fitting word for each letter; he did not have the literary ability to mould his poem into a fully unified work of art." Anders, by contrast, calls the shape of the Psalm an elegant correspondence of form.

The French theologian Pierre Auffret gives the following structure for Psalm 9: Psalm 9:2 to 9 corresponds to Psalm 10:6 to 15:

Psalm 9 is the first of the acrostic Psalms, covering half of the Hebrew alphabet, with Psalm 10 covering the rest of the alphabet. There is some tension between psalms 9 and 10. Psalm 9 has a tone of victory over evil and its ancient Chaldean title suggests that it was written to celebrate David's victory over Goliath. Then, as the acrostic continues into Psalm 10, the tone becomes a lament: God seemingly stands afar off. Victory over evil may be 'here and not yet'.

Some scholars question the Davidic authorship of this psalm: Bernhard Duhm and Emil Kautzsch date it to Maccabean times while form critic Hermann Gunkel links it the Persian era.