Psalms 113: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This short psalm calls the LORD's servants to praise his name, now and forever, everywhere the sun travels. It says that although the LORD is higher than all nations and above the heavens, he stoops down to look at what happens in the heavens and on earth. It then says he lifts poor and needy people out of the dirt and seats them with princes, and he gives the childless woman a household and children.

Claim by Claim

1. 113:1
   • The LORD is to be praised.
   • The servants of the LORD are commanded to praise.
   • The name of the LORD is to be praised.
2. 113:2
   • The name of the LORD is to be blessed.
   • The name of the LORD is to be blessed from this time onward and forever.
3. 113:3
   • From the place where the sun rises to the place where it sets, the name of the LORD is praised.
   • It is ambiguous whether the verse states that the name of the LORD is praised or that it ought to be praised.
4. 113:4
   • The LORD is high above all nations.
   • The glory of the LORD is above the heavens.
5. 113:5
   • No one is like the LORD our God.
   • The LORD our God is the one who sits enthroned on high.
6. 113:6
   • The LORD lowers himself to look.
   • It is ambiguous whether the looking down is upon the things in heaven and on earth or whether the looking down reaches from the heavens to the earth.
7. 113:7
   • The LORD raises the poor man up out of the dust.
   • The LORD lifts the needy man out of the refuse heap.
8. 113:8
   • The LORD does this in order to seat the poor man with nobles.
   • The nobles are the nobles of the LORD's own people.
9. 113:9
   • The LORD settles the barren woman in a household.
   • The LORD makes her a joyful mother of children.
   • The LORD is to be praised.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

113:1

"Praise the LORD" here translates a single Hebrew word, *halelu-yah*, the source of the English "hallelujah." It is a plural command, addressed to a group. "LORD" printed in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants usually written YHWH; ancient readers said a substitute word aloud rather than pronouncing it, and English versions follow that by printing the title "LORD" instead. "Servants of the LORD" can mean those who serve at the sanctuary, or the whole worshiping people; the Hebrew does not settle which.

113:2

To "bless" God runs the opposite direction from God blessing people: it means to speak well of him, to praise and honor him, not to confer anything on him. "The name of the LORD" is a standard way of referring to the LORD himself as he is known and called upon, not to the sound of the name as distinct from its bearer.

113:3

Sunrise and sunset mark the east and west horizons, so the line covers the whole inhabited world; it can also be heard as covering the whole day, from dawn to dusk. Both senses were available to the first hearers.

113:4

"The heavens" usually means the sky and everything above it, where the sun, clouds and stars are.

113:5

"Dwelleth on high" pictures God as a king on a throne high above the world. Real kings sat on raised thrones so that everyone had to look up at them.

113:6

The Hebrew of verses 5–6 can be divided in more than one way. It may say that God stoops down to look at heaven and earth alike, even the heavens being far beneath him, or it may attach "in the heavens and on the earth" to what precedes, giving "who is seated on high... who bends low to look." The rendering keeps the ambiguity open.

113:7

"Dust" and "ash heap" are the two lowest places a person could physically be. The ash heap was the refuse mound outside a town or village where household ashes and rubbish were dumped; the destitute, the sick and the outcast sat there (Job sits on one after losing everything). The pairing is a fixed idiom for the bottom of society, not a description of one individual.

113:8

"Princes" here means nobles, the leading men who sat with the ruler and made decisions, the top of the social order. To be seated with them is to be given rank and a voice, the exact reverse of sitting on the ash heap.

113:9

In ancient Israel a woman without children had no standing in the household and no security in old age, since grown sons supported a widow and carried the family line and its land forward; childlessness was also commonly treated as a public disgrace. The Hebrew says God "settles" her in the house (installs her in a secure, permanent position within the household) and the children named are literally sons, the ones who would provide that security.