Malachi 1:11(v3)For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my…
1 Samuel 2:7-8(v7)Yahweh makes poor and makes rich. He brings low, he also lifts up. He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the…
Psalms 18:3(v3)I call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised; and I am saved from my enemies.
Luke 1:52-53(v7)He has put down princes from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things. He has sent the rich away…
Psalms 107:41(v7)Yet he lifts the needy out of their affliction, and increases their families like a flock.
Show all 92 cross-references
Isaiah 59:19(v3)So they will fear Yahweh’s name from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which…
Psalms 86:9(v3)All nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord. They shall glorify your name.
Isaiah 49:13(v3)Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth! Break out into singing, mountains, for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion on…
Psalms 48:10(v3)As is your name, God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness.
Psalms 68:6(v9)God sets the lonely in families. He brings out the prisoners with singing, but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.
Genesis 21:5-7(v9)Abraham was one hundred years old when his son, Isaac, was born to him. Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh…
Genesis 30:22-23(v9)God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb. She conceived, bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.”
1 Samuel 2:5(v9)Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread. Those who were hungry are satisfied. Yes, the barren has borne seven. She who has…
Isaiah 54:1(v9)“Sing, barren, you who didn’t give birth; break out into singing, and cry aloud, you who didn’t travail with child: for more are the…
Luke 1:13-15(v9)But the angel said to him, “Don’t be afraid, Zacharias, because your request has been heard. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and…
Job 5:11(v7)so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety.
Genesis 25:21(v9)Isaac entreated Yahweh for his wife, because she was barren. Yahweh was entreated by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
2 Samuel 7:8-9(v7)Now therefore tell my servant David this, ‘Yahweh of Armies says, “I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, to be prince…
Job 36:7(v8)He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
Psalms 72:11(v3)Yes, all kings shall fall down before him. All nations shall serve him.
Galatians 4:27(v9)For it is written, “Rejoice, you barren who don’t bear. Break out and shout, you who don’t travail. For the desolate have more children…
Revelation 11:15(v3)The seventh angel sounded, and great voices in heaven followed, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord, and…
Psalms 8:1(v4)Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens!
Psalms 89:6(v5)For who in the skies can be compared to Yahweh? Who among the sons of the heavenly beings is like Yahweh,
Isaiah 40:25(v5)“To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
Isaiah 57:15(v6)For the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, says: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a…
Jeremiah 10:6(v5)There is no one like you, Yahweh. You are great, and your name is great in might.
Ezekiel 17:24(v7)All the trees of the field will know that I, Yahweh, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green…
Daniel 12:2-3(v7)Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those…
Deuteronomy 33:26(v5)“There is no one like God, Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens for your help, in his excellency on the skies.
Psalms 11:4(v6)Yahweh is in his holy temple. Yahweh is on his throne in heaven. His eyes observe. His eyes examine the children of men.
Psalms 72:17-19(v3)His name endures forever. His name continues as long as the sun. Men shall be blessed by him. All nations will call him blessed. Praise be…
Psalms 99:2(v4)Yahweh is great in Zion. He is high above all the peoples.
Psalms 138:6(v6)For though Yahweh is high, yet he looks after the lowly; but he knows the proud from afar.
Exodus 15:11(v5)Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Psalms 50:1(v3)The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks, and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.
Psalms 75:6-7(v7)For neither from the east, nor from the west, nor yet from the south, comes exaltation. But God is the judge. He puts down one, and lifts…
Habakkuk 2:14(v3)For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Yahweh’s glory, as the waters cover the sea.
Ephesians 5:19-20(v1)speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always…
Job 5:15-16(v7)But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty. So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.
Psalms 89:8(v5)Yahweh, God of Armies, who is a mighty one, like you? Yah, your faithfulness is around you.
Psalms 97:9(v4)For you, Yahweh, are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods.
Isaiah 24:16(v3)From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The…
Isaiah 42:10-12(v3)Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and…
Daniel 2:20(v2)Daniel answered, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever; for wisdom and might are his.
Romans 15:9-10(v3)and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will give praise to you among the Gentiles and sing…
Job 36:6-7(v7)He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked, but gives justice to the afflicted. He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with…
Psalms 135:1-3(v1)Praise Yah! Praise Yahweh’s name! Praise him, you servants of Yahweh, you who stand in Yahweh’s house, in the courts of our God’s house.…
Psalms 148:13(v4)let them praise Yahweh’s name, for his name alone is exalted. His glory is above the earth and the heavens.
Isaiah 26:19(v7)Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the…
Isaiah 40:17(v4)All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.
Isaiah 40:18(v5)To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him?
Ezekiel 21:26-27(v7)the Lord Yahweh says: “Remove the turban, and take off the crown. This will not be as it was. Exalt that which is low, and humble that…
Philippians 2:8-11(v8)And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross. Therefore God also…
James 2:5(v7)Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he…
1 Peter 3:21-22(v7)This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you—not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward…
Genesis 41:41(v8)Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Behold, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”
Psalms 35:10(v5)All my bones shall say, “Yahweh, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy…
Psalms 45:16(v8)Your sons will take the place of your fathers. You shall make them princes in all the earth.
Psalms 57:10-11(v4)For your great loving kindness reaches to the heavens, and your truth to the skies. Be exalted, God, above the heavens. Let your glory be…
Psalms 135:20(v1)House of Levi, praise Yahweh! You who fear Yahweh, praise Yahweh!
Isaiah 40:15(v4)Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a…
Isaiah 40:22(v4)It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,…
Isaiah 66:1(v4)Yahweh says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build to me? Where will I rest?
Ephesians 1:20-21(v7)which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all…
1 Kings 8:27(v4)But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain you; how much less this house that I…
1 Chronicles 16:36(v2)Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting even to everlasting. All the people said, “Amen,” and praised Yahweh.
Psalms 33:1-2(v1)Rejoice in Yahweh, you righteous! Praise is fitting for the upright. Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre. Sing praises to him with the harp…
Psalms 34:22(v1)Yahweh redeems the soul of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him shall be condemned.
Psalms 41:13(v2)Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting! Amen and amen.
Psalms 68:13(v8)while you sleep among the camp fires, the wings of a dove sheathed with silver, her feathers with shining gold.
Psalms 69:36(v1)The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein.
Psalms 103:19(v5)Yahweh has established his throne in the heavens. His kingdom rules over all.
Psalms 103:20-21(v1)Praise Yahweh, you angels of his, who are mighty in strength, who fulfill his word, obeying the voice of his word. Praise Yahweh, all you…
Psalms 112:1(v1)Praise Yah! Blessed is the man who fears Yahweh, who delights greatly in his commandments.
Psalms 134:1(v1)Look! Praise Yahweh, all you servants of Yahweh, who stand by night in Yahweh’s house!
Psalms 145:10(v1)All your works will give thanks to you, Yahweh. Your saints will extol you.
Isaiah 6:2(v6)Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.
Isaiah 16:5(v5)A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to…
Isaiah 66:2(v6)For my hand has made all these things, and so all these things came to be,” says Yahweh: “but I will look to this man, even to he who is…
Revelation 5:13(v2)I heard every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, saying, “To him who sits…
Revelation 19:5(v1)A voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, the small and the great!”
1 Chronicles 29:10-13(v2)Therefore David blessed Yahweh before all the assembly; and David said, “You are blessed, Yahweh, the God of Israel our father, forever and…
Job 2:8(v7)He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.
Job 4:18(v6)Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error.
Job 15:15(v6)Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
Revelation 5:9-10(v8)They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your…
1 Samuel 24:14(v7)Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea?
Psalms 22:15(v7)My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.
Psalms 106:48(v2)Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting even to everlasting! Let all the people say, “Amen.” Praise Yah!
Acts 2:31-33(v7)he foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul wasn’t left in Hades, and his flesh didn’t see decay. This…
Ephesians 3:21(v2)to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (25 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv1, 2, 5, 7, 91 Praise, ye servants of Jehovah! This psalm contains…
1 Praise, ye servants of Jehovah! This psalm contains abundant reasons for all men without exception to praise God. The faithful alone being endued with spiritual perception to recognize the hand of God, the prophet addresses them in particular. And if we consider how cold and callous men are in this religious exercise, we will not deem the repetition of the call to praise God superfluous. We all acknowledge that we are created to praise God’s name, while, at the same time, his glory is disregarded by us. Such criminal apathy is justly condemned by the prophet, with the view of stirring us up to unwearied zeal in praising God. The repetition, then, of the exhortation to praise him, ought to be considered as referring both to perseverance and ardor in this service. If, by the servants of God, some would rather understand the Levites, to whom the charge of celebrating his praises under the Law was committed, I am not much opposed to it, provided they do not exclude the rest of the faithful, over whom formerly God appointed the Levites as leaders and chief musicians, that he might be praised by all his people without exception. When the Holy Spirit addresses the Levites expressly in relation to the subject of God’s praises, it is designedly that, by their example, they may show the way to others, and that the whole Church may respond in one holy chorus. Now that we are all “a royal priesthood,” (1 Peter 2:9) and as Zechariah testifies, (Zechariah 14:21) that under the reign of Christ, the meanest of the people shall be Levites, there is no question that, excepting unbelievers who are mute, the prophet invites us all in common to render this service unto God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv1, 4, 7By this oft repetition he stirreth up our cold…
By this oft repetition he stirreth up our cold dullness to praise God, seeing his works are so wonderful, and that we are created for the same cause.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv1–9Psa 113:1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise, O ye…
Psa 113:1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise, O ye servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD.
Ver. 1. Hallelujah] See Psa 111:1.
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Praise, O ye servants of the Lord] None but such can do it, or are fit for it; and for such praise is comely, Psa 147:1, as unthankfulness is an ugly sin, but especially in ministers, those servants of the Lord, by a specialty.
Praise the name of the Lord] Ter repetit, Trinitatem subindicando, saith one; others note that by this threefold Praise ye, the psalmist taxeth men’s dulness, and exciteth their diligence to this divine duty.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9Ye servants of the Lord; ye Levites, who are…
Ye servants of the Lord; ye Levites, who are peculiarly devoted to this solemn work, who sometimes are called God’s servants in a special sense, and all you faithful souls.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v1In this psalm,
In this psalm,
I. We are extorted to give glory to God, to give him the glory due to his name.
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1. The invitation is very pressing: praise you the Lord, and again and again, Praise him, praise him; blessed be his name, for it is to be praised, Psa 113:1-3. This intimates, (1.) That it is a necessary and most excellent duty, greatly pleasing to God, and has a large room in religion. (2.) That it is a duty we should much abound in, in which we should be frequently employed and greatly enlarged. (3.) That it is work which we are very backward to, and which we need to be engaged and excited to by precept upon precept and line upon line. (4.) That those who are much in praising God themselves will court others to it, both because they find the weight of the work, and that there is need of all the help they can fetch in (there is employment for all hearts, all hands, and all little enough), and because they find the pleasure of it, which they wish all their friends may share in.
2. The invitation is very extensive. Observe, (1.) From whom God has praise - from his own people; they are here called upon to praise God, as those that will answer the call: Praise, O you servants of the Lord! They have most reason to praise him; for those that attend him as his servants know him best and receive most of his favours. And it is their business to praise him; that is the work required of them as his servants: it is easy pleasant work to speak well of their Master, and do him what honour they can; if they do not, who should? Some understand it of the Levites; but, if so, all Christians are a royal priesthood, to show forth the praises of him that has called them, Pe1 2:9. The angels are the servants of the Lord; they need not be called upon by us to praise God, yet it is a comfort to us that they do praise him, and that they praise him better than we can. (2.) From whom he ought to have praise. [1.] From all ages (Psa 113:2) - from this time forth for evermore. Let not this work die with us, but let us be doing it in a better world, and let those that come after us be doing it in this. Let not our seed degenerate, but let God be praised through all the generations of time, and not in this only. We must bless the Lord in our day, by saying, with the psalmist, Blessed be his name now and always. [2.] From all places - from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, that is, throughout the habitable world. Let all that enjoy the benefit of the sun rising (and those that do so must count upon it that the sun will set) give thanks for that light to the Father of lights. God's name is to be praised; it ought to be praised by all nations; for in every place, from east to west, there appear the manifest proofs and products of his wisdom, power, and goodness; and it is to be lamented that so great a part of mankind are ignorant of him, and give that praise to others which is due to him alone. But perhaps there is more in it; as the former verse gave us a glimpse of the kingdom of glory, intimating that God's name shall be blessed for ever (when time shall be no more that praise shall be the work of heaven), so this verse gives us a glimpse of the kingdom of grace in the gospel-dispensation of it. When the church shall no longer be confined to the Jewish nation, but shall spread itself all the world over, when in every place spiritual incense shall be offered to our God (Mal 1:11), then from the rising to the setting of the sun the Lord's name shall be praised by some in all countries.
II. We are here directed what to give him the glory of.
1. Let us look up with an eye of faith, and see how high his glory is in the upper world, and mention that to his praise, Psa 113:4, Psa 113:5. We are, in our praises, to exalt his name, for he is high, his glory is high. (1.) High above all nations, their kings though ever so pompous, their people though ever so numerous. Whether it be true of an earthly king or no that though he is major singulis - greater than individuals, he is minor universis - less than the whole, we will not dispute; but we are sure it is not true of the King of kings. Put all the nations together, and he is above them all; they are before him as the drop of the bucket and the small dust of the balance, Isa 60:15, Isa 60:17. Let all nations think and speak highly of God, for he is high above them all. (2.) High above the heavens; the throne of his glory is in the highest heavens, which should raise our hearts in praising him, Lam 3:41. His glory is above the heavens, that is, above the angels; he is above what they are, for their brightness is nothing to his, - above what they do, for they are under his command and do his pleasure, - and above what even they can speak him to be. He is exalted above all blessing and praise, not only all ours, but all theirs. We must therefore say, with holy admiration, Who is like unto the Lord our God? who of all the princes and potentates of the earth? who of all the bright and blessed spirits above? None can equal him, none dare compare with him. God is to be praised as transcendently, incomparably, and infinitely great; for he dwells on high, and from on high sees all, and rules all, and justly attracts all praise to himself.
2. Let us look around with an eye of observation, and see how extensive his goodness is in the lower world, and mention that to his praise. He is a God who exalts himself to dwell, who humbles himself in heaven, and in earth. Some think there is a transposition, He exalts himself to dwell in heaven, he humbles himself to behold on earth; but the sense is plain enough as we take it, only observe, God is said to exalt himself and to humble himself, both are his own act and deed; as he is self-existent, so he is both the fountain of his own honour and the spring of his own grace; God's condescending goodness appears,
(1.) In the cognizance he takes of the world below him. His glory is above the nations and above the heavens, and yet neither is neglected by him. God is great, yet he despises not any, Job 36:5. He humbles himself to behold all his creatures, all his subjects, though he is infinitely above them. Considering the infinite perfection, sufficiency, and felicity of the divine nature, it must be acknowledged as an act of wonderful condescension that God is pleased to take into the thoughts of his eternal counsel, and into the hand of his universal Providence, both the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth (Dan 4:35); even in this dominion he humbles himself. [1.] It is condescension in him to behold the things in heaven, to support the beings, direct the motions, and accept the praises and services, of the angels themselves; for he needs them not, nor is benefited by them. [2.] Much more is it condescension in him to behold the things that are in the earth, to visit the sons of men, and regard them, to order and overrule their affairs, and to take notice of what they say and do, that he may fill the earth with his goodness, and so set us an example of stooping to do good, of taking notice of, and concerning ourselves about, our inferiors. If it be such condescension for God to behold things in heaven and earth, what an amazing condescension was it for the Son of God to come from heaven to earth and take our nature upon him, that he might seek and save those that were lost! Herein indeed he humbled himself.
(2.) In the particular favour he sometimes shows to the least and lowest of the inhabitants of this meaner lower world. He not only beholds the great things in the earth, but the meanest, and those things which great men commonly overlook. Not does he merely behold them, but does wonders for them, and things that are very surprising, out of the common road of providence and chain of causes, which shows that the world is governed, not by a course of nature, for that would always run in the same channel, but by a God of nature, who delights in doing things we looked not for. [1.] Those that have been long despicable are sometimes, on a sudden, made honourable (Psa 113:7, Psa 113:8): He raises up the poor out of the dust, that he may set him with princes. First, Thus God does sometimes magnify himself, and his own wisdom, power, and sovereignty. When he has some great work to do he chooses to employ those in it that were least likely, and least thought of for it by themselves or others, to the highest post of honour: Gideon is fetched from threshing, Saul from seeking the asses, and David from keeping the sheep; the apostles are sent from fishing to be fishers of men. The treasure of the gospel is put into earthen vessels, and the weak and foolish ones of the world are pitched upon to be preachers of it, to confound the wise and mighty (Co1 1:27, Co1 1:28), that the excellency of the power may be of God, and all may see that promotion comes from him. Secondly, Thus God does sometimes reward the eminent piety and patience of his people who have long groaned under the burden of poverty and disgrace. When Joseph's virtue was tried and manifested he was raised from the prison-dust and set with princes. Those that are wise will observe such returns of Providence, and will understand by them the loving-kindness of the Lord. Some have applied this to the work of redemption by Jesus Christ, and not unfitly; for through him poor fallen men are raised out of the dust (one of the Jewish rabbies applies it to the resurrection of the dead), nay, out of the dunghill of sin, and set among princes, among angels, those princes of his people. Hannah had sung to this purport, Sa1 2:6-8. [2.] Those that have been long barren are sometimes, on a sudden, made fruitful, Psa 113:9. This may look back to Sarah and Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, and Samson's mother, or forward to Elizabeth; and many such instances there have been, in which God has looked on the affliction of his handmaids and taken away their reproach. He makes the barren woman to keep house, not only builds up the family, but thereby finds the heads of the family something to do. Note, Those that have the comfort of a family must take the care of it; bearing children and guiding the house are put together, Ti1 5:14. When God sets the barren in a family he expects that she should look well to the ways of her household, Pro 31:27. She is said to be a joyful mother of children, not only because, even in common cases, the pain is forgotten, for joy that a man-child is born into the world, but there is particular joy when a child is born to those that have been long childless (as Luk 1:14) and therefore there ought to be particular thanksgiving. Praise you the Lord. Yet, in this case, rejoice with trembling; for, though the sorrowful mother be made joyful, the joyful mother may be made sorrowful again, if the children be either removed from her or embittered to her. This, therefore, may be applied to the gospel-church among the Gentiles (the building of which is illustrated by this similitude, Isa 54:1, Sing, O barren! thou that didst not bear, and Gal 4:27), for which we, who, being sinners of the Gentiles, are children of the desolate, have reason to say, Praise you the Lord.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv1–8Praise ye the Lord,.... Or, "hallelujah". This is the…
Praise ye the Lord,.... Or, "hallelujah". This is the title of the psalm, as in the two preceding, and directs to the principal matter of it.
Praise, O ye servants of the Lord; meaning not the angels, nor all men, nor the priests and Levites only; but all the saints, who are a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God; who are servants, not of sin, nor of Satan, nor of men, but of God and Christ; and who serve the Lord willingly and cheerfully, with much pleasure and delight, in righteousness and holiness, with reverence and godly fear, and without trusting to and depending on their service for salvation: and one principal branch of their service is praise, especially under the Gospel dispensation; in which all legal sacrifices are abolished, and the sacrifice of praise is continued; and which is pleasant and delightful work, and yet there is a backwardness to it; and therefore there is need of such an exhortation to excite unto it, and to repeat it, as follows:
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praise the name of the Lord; not any particular name, as Jehovah; but him himself, and the perfections of his nature; his holiness, justice, truth, faithfulness, power, goodness, grace and mercy. The repetition of the exhortation denotes either the abundance of praise to be given to the Lord, or the constancy and continuance of it; which ought to be done at all times, every day, since his mercies are new every morning. Some have thought the threefold repetition respects the trinity of Persons, who are each to be praised, as in Num 6:24, but this is doubtful, and perhaps not sufficient to build such a doctrine on; and especially since the first of these exhortations is the title of the psalm: however, this is a certain truth, that Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit, are to be praised.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv1, 6, 8We are here exhorted to praise God, ver. 1-3.…
We are here exhorted to praise God, ver. 1-3. Particularly for his glory and greatness, ver. 4, 5 And for his grace and goodness, ver. 6-9.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9An exhortation to bless God for his own excellencies,…
PSALM CXIII
An exhortation to bless God for his own excellencies, 1-6;
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and for his great mercy to the poor and necessitous, 7-9.
NOTES ON PSALM CXIII
Ps 113, Ps 114, Ps 115, Ps 116, Ps 117, and Ps 118, form the great Hallel, and were sung by the Jews on their most solemn festivals, and particularly at the passover. To these reference is made by the evangelists, Mt 26:30, and Mr 14:26, there called the hymn which Jesus and his disciples sung at the passover, for the whole of the Psalms were considered as one grand hymn or thanksgiving. It was probably composed after the return from the captivity. It has no title but Hallelujah in the Hebrew and ancient Versions.
Verse 1. Praise, O ye servants] Probably an address to the Levites. The Anglo-Saxon has [A.S.], praise the Lord, ye knaves. Knapa or knave signified among our ancestors a servant; sometimes a male, a young man.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv1, 4, 7, 9Psa 113:1-3. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord…
Psa 113:1-3. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord — Ye Levites, who are peculiarly devoted to this solemn work, and sometimes termed God’s servants, in a special sense, and all you faithful souls. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time, &c. — Let not the work of praising God die with us, but let those that come after us praise him; yea, let him be praised through all the generations of time, and let us and all his saints praise him in eternity. From the rising of the sun, &c. — Throughout the habitable world, from one end of it to the other; the Lord’s name is to be praised — That is, it ought to be praised in all nations, because all nations enjoy the benefit of his glorious works of creation and providence: and in all nations there are most manifest proofs of his infinite wisdom, power, and goodness. All nations, also, were to be redeemed by the Messiah, and it is his gracious purpose and promise to bring all nations to the knowledge of his truth.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv1–9Praise ye the Lord - Margin, as in Hebrew,…
Praise ye the Lord - Margin, as in Hebrew, “Hallelujah.” See the notes at Psa 106:1.
Praise, O ye servants of the Lord - You who profess to serve and obey him; who acknowledge him as your God. In the original this is also the word “Hallelu,” הללוּ halelû.
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Praise the name of the Lord - Still the same word “Hallelu.” The name of the Lord is put here, as it is often, for the Lord himself.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v1Psalms 113
Psalms 113
1 Praise ye the Lord.
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Praise, O ye servants of the Lord,
Praise the name of the Lord.
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore.
3 From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same
The Lord’s name is to be praised.
4 The Lord is high above all nations,
And his glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like unto the Lord our God,
Who dwelleth on high,
6 Who humbleth himself to behold
The things that are in heaven, and in the earth!
7 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,
And lifteth the needy out of the dunghill;
8 That he may set him with princes,
Even with the princes of his people.
9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house,
And to be a joyful mother of children.
Praise ye the Lord.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—An exhortation is sent forth to praise Jehovah at all times and throughout the world (Psa_113:1-3) as the God who, though infinitely exalted, yet beholds even things that are most abased (Psa_113:4-6), and exalts, blesses, and gladdens the feeble, the despised, and the mourning (Psa_113:7-9). No special connection with the people of Israel after the exile (Hengst. and the ancients) is discoverable. Just as uncertain is any allusion to Jonathan’s elevation, 1Ma_10:63 (Hitzig), or the assumption that there is a close connection between this Psalm and the following, and that it was composed in view of the passover (Köster, Ewald). [It is thus supposed to be connected with the deliverance from Egypt pictured in Psalms 114.—J. F. M.] But even the frequent, and, in some cases, unexpected use of the so called chirek compaginis1 (comp. Ewald, § 211) is no evidence of antiquity, but indicates design.
In the liturgy, the so-called Hallel (Psalms 113-118), also termed the Egyptian Hallel, as distinguished from the Great Hallel. Psalms 136. begins with this Psalm. The latter designation is also applied sometimes by the Talmud and Midrash to Psalms 120, 136, and to Psa_135:4-21. By some Christian writers it is wrongly applied to the Hallel in the more restricted sense. This Psalm continued to be recited while the Temple stood, and is still recited in Palestine, eighteen times a year, apart from its customary, though not legal, use at the new moon. Outside of Palestine, it is now yearly recited twenty-one times on account of the addition of three great feast-days. At the family celebration of the passover Psalms 113, 114 were sung before the meal, and indeed before the emptying of the second cup, and Psalms 115-118 after the meal, and after the filling of the fourth cup (comp. the expositors on Mat_27:30; Mar_14:26).—This Psalm is the Old Test magnificat. [Perowne: “The Psalm may be said to be a connecting link between the Song of Hannah and the Magnificat of the Virgin.”—J.F.M.]
Psa_113:1. Servants of Jehovah. This phrase is more expressive here than in Pss. 134, 135:20, and pre-supposes a specific conception of the relation in which Israel as a whole stood to God as His servant (Psa_136:22), and in which their individual living members Psa 34:23; 69:37) were embraced.
Psa_113:5-6. A connection in the thought might be considered possible between verse 6b and Psa_113:5 a (Deu_3:24). But we are prevented by the structure of the sentences from assuming such connection here (Geier, Hengst., Camphausen). The angels in heaven (Calvin) are, at all events, not to be thought of. The simplest course is to supply: upon all things. For this affords the most comprehensive conception of every thing that exists and transpires there (J. H. Mich. and others). But the restriction to seeing generally (Hupfeld), as contrasted with looking down, is unsuitable; for although the throne of God is usually mentioned as existing in heaven, yet the exaltation of God over heaven and earth is distinctly expressed (Psa_148:3). [The true rendering of Psa_113:5-6 accordingly is: “Who is like Jehovah our God, who sitteth throned on high, who stoopeth down to see (what is done) in heaven and on earth?” (Perowne). The literal construction of the second and third clauses is, who maketh high to sit, who maketh low to see. For the thought comp. Isa_57:15.—J. F. M.]
Psa_113:7-9. Psa_113:7-8 are taken verbatim from the song of Hannah (1Sa_2:8), and Psa_113:9 probably follows 1Sa_2:5. A barren spouse was not assured of being allowed to remain in the house. Not until she became a mother did she gain a firm position. The application of the figure to the Church (Isa_54:1 ff) does not justify a typical interpretation of this passage (The older expositors and Hengst. following the Chald. and the Rabbins).—“One who is shut out from society in Syria and Palestine lies upon the mezbele (dung and ash-heap), calling upon the passers-by for alms during the day, and at night cowering in the ashes warmed by the sun” (Del.). [Psa_113:9 b. is correctly: a joyful mother of the children. Delitzsch: “The poet presents the scene so vividly to himself, that he points, as though with his finger, at the children with which God has blessed her.” The article is suspected without reason by Olshausen and Hupfeld. These critics, especially the former one, run to an excess in their attempts to amend the text.—J. F. M.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. As God has given Himself a name that is above every name, and has therein revealed His nature for all times and the whole world, so will He be invoked always and everywhere by His servants by this name, and bids His Church in all places of the earth be mindful of this part of its service to Him.
2. God’s infinite exaltation above all created beings does not separate Him from those in need of help, or remove Him to an unapproachable distance, or place Him in solitude and out of relation to them, but is united in an incomparable manner with a careful regard for the least as well as for the greatest.
3. This mindfulness of them is no mere observing or purposeless gazing, but actual condescension to the insignificant, despised, and afflicted, so that they may be raised from their misery, and that the Church may ever have renewed occasion to praise Him.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The condescension of the Highest as the strongest and ever-renewed ground of His praise in the Church.—God acts as befits His name; do we render Him the thanks which are His due?—Can it be said of us: As the Master so the servant?—God indeed condescends to the most distressed of men who mourn in obscurity; but what He does in a corner of the earth serves to manifest and exalt His glory, and shall make His name an object of praise for all time and through the whole world.—Who is like our God? A question, (1) of confession, (2) of thanksgiving, (3) of trust.
Starke: If we are to praise God rightly, we must be His servants and believing children; for those who serve Satan and their own bodies, and are the slaves of Mammon, are not fit for such a service.—God’s praise is as worthy of a place in His true service as any other of its elements; this is why we are so often called upon to engage in it.—It is not unbecoming to God to care for what is debased. What it was no dishonor to create, it is no dishonor to preserve.—The exaltation of the wretched is an unassailable testimony to the merciful providence of God, and to the reward that is bestowed upon the pious and godly.—He that is raised from a low station to great honor, must know that God has done it, and must not become uplifted, else God may set him down again.—He who is to be advanced to positions of peculiar importance has no need to anticipate God’s time. When His time and hour come, He will know how to place him where He would have him.
Selnecker: There are many servants and friends of the Lord throughout the world. Their lives and teaching should therefore be such as that God shall not be dishonored, but honored by them.—Franke: The word our is a word of faith. He who has truly given his heart to God, may trust in Him with joy, and need fear nothing.—Rieger: In all God’s words and works are to be found precious traces of His greatness and exaltation and condescending love.—Faith unites the lofty and the condescending in God, and they are equally dear and precious.—Richter: The natural man, even though he be learned, takes no delight in contemplating God’s greatness in lowering Himself. It is faith alone which can harmonize the two, and rejoice that the condescending Lord of the universe does yet favor this little earth so highly, and glorify Himself in things that are insignificant.—Guenther: What are all the exaltation and glory of this world compared to the glory of the kingdom of God?—Diedrich: If the poor Church will be dismayed at times, the servants of the supreme God of mercy must only strike up again the hallelujah, the song of mercy and freedom, and all distress will disappear.—Taube: The small regard the great; and the great God regards the small; the child of the dust seeks self-made heights of greatness; and He who is truly high and exalted will dwell with those who are of a broken and contrite spirit. Wonderful and adorable way for the salvation of the world!
[Scott: In His providence the Lord sometimes raises men from the most abject to the most honorable stations of society, and it is well when they acquit themselves properly in their new dignities. But this is His constant method in the kingdom of grace. He takes us debtors, beggars, nay, rebels and traitors, from the dust, the dung-hill, or the dungeon, to be His favorites and His children, to be kings and priests unto Him: and thus He numbers us with the princes of His chosen people.—J. F. M.]
Footnotes:
[1][Because it was formerly supposed to have been employed to unite its own word euphonically with the following. See Böttcher, Gr. § 584. It is generally, though not exclusively, attached to the construct, state. See Green. Gr. § 61, 6 a, 218. According to Ewald, it is only used artificially by later poets.—J. F. M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 91. Servants of the Lord—The call is upon Israel,…
1. Servants of the Lord—The call is upon Israel, the professed servants of Jehovah, wherever residing. Those only who know God are prepared for this act of praise, and the whole psalm indicates that the most marked condescension of Jehovah toward his people, even the poorest and vilest, had been recently and freshly experienced. The verse is similar to Psa_135:1, except a slight transposition of words, and is more emphatic.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 91. For the structure of the verse with repetition…
1. For the structure of the verse with repetition of the verb cp. Psa_29:1. The same words recur in different order in Psa_135:1.
O ye servants of the Lord] True Israelites, who as individuals answer to the calling of Israel to be “the servant of Jehovah” (Psa_136:22; Isa_41:8-9; al.). Cp. Psa_69:36; Isa_54:17.
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the name of Jehovah, emphatically repeated thrice, is more significant than Jehovah simply would be. It is the compendious expression for His whole revelation of Himself, which is the object and ground of His servants’ praise.
1–3. A call to praise Jehovah’s name universally and unendingly.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv1, 4, 6, 7, 9(1) Ye servants of the Lord—i.e., Israel. (See Psa_69:36.)
(1) Ye servants of the Lord—i.e., Israel. (See Psa_69:36.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv1–9This is the first of the "Hallel" psalms, or…
This is the first of the "Hallel" psalms, or of those sung at the Feasts of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. It is a "Hallelujah psalm," like the two preceding, but is not alphabetic. As a most joyful hymn of praise, it is selected by our Church to be one of the psalms for Easter Day.
The composition falls into three stanzas of three verses each. In the first (vers. 1-3) the servants of the Lord are called upon to praise him. In the second (vers. 4-6) God is praised in the heavens, with respect to his glory there. In the third (vers. 7-9) he is eulogized in respect of his great doings upon the earth.
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Praise ye the Lord. (comp. Psa_104:35 Psa_105:45 Psa_106:1, 48 111:1 112:1) Praise, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the Name of the Lord. By "ye servants of the Lord," all faithful Israelites are certainly intended; but the phrase need not be absolutely limited to them (comp. ver. 3).
Vers. 1-9. Reasons for reverential praise.
The force of the psalmist"s summons in the opening verse is felt as we proceed through the psalm itself, and when we reach the end of it; for there are brought out
I THE CONSTANCY OF GOD"S GOODNESS. In no less than three verses (1-3) the Lord"s Name is put for himself. This is significant of the Divine constancy. The name of the Lord is never dissociated from the same class of thoughts and deeds. It is so invariably connected with these that one stands for the other. His name and his character are inseparable; utter his name, and there instantly rise to our thought the attributes which distinguish him; to sing of his Name is not to praise an imaginary or ideal one, but the very Lord God himself. We worship him "with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning.
II THE GREATNESS OF HIS GLORY. He manifests his presence, exercises his power, and makes known his goodness
(1) through all ages (ver. 2);
(2) over all the earth (ver. 3);
(3) in the highest heavens (ver. 4).
III THE FACT OF HIS CONDESCENSION. (Ver. 6) "He humbleth himself; who casts looks so low;" "and looketh down so deep." However we read it, the idea is that the "Most High God" interests himself in the children of men. He not only is concerned with the progress of our race generally (as a great emperor may occasionally bestow his attention upon the affairs of a distant province as reported to him by its representative), but he occupies his eternity with the intimate knowledge and practical government of each nation, province, family, individual soul. To the Infinite One nothing can be too small for his regard.
IV HIS UPLIFTING POWER AND GRACE. (Ver. 7) Obviously it could not be expected that every godly man would rise in worldly position; that involves an actual impossibility; nor would that, if it were possible, be a desirable reward of piety. But the good man who is the faithful, thrifty, reliable man is very often raised from obscurity to eminence, from lowliness to power. And the constant tendency of Christian worth and virtue is to convert poverty into competence, want into comfort, misery into cheerfulness, despair into peace. Indeed, this last is one of the ordinary and continual effects of piety. In the gospel of Christ, God is lifting up those that have been brought down into a sense of condemnation and shame to the holy and blessed heights of hope and joy. Christianity is everywhere and always an uplifting power.
V HIS ENRICHING KINDNESS. (Ver. 9) We do not sufficiently realize the goodness of God in the domestic enrichment with which he blesses us; in all the love and all the happiness that come from the conjugal, parental, filial, fraternal relationships which his heart has conceived, which his hand is working for us. All these things bring into view
VI HIS STRONG CLAIM ON OUR REVERENCE AND PRAISE. As the psalm begins and ends with a "hallelujah" so should our lives, in every part, be encircled with the utterance of heartfelt gratitude.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. Servant-reasons for praise.
"Praise, O ye servants of the Lord." This psalm is the first of the series called the "Hallel," which was sung in connection with the annual Jewish festivals, and especially at the Passover and Feast of Tabernacles. This and the following psalm were sung before the second cup. We need not think, however, that these psalms were composed for use at the feasts with which they were afterwards associated. Only Jewish minds could recognize any particular fitness for such scenes. To us they are simply praise psalms. Here we notice that praise of the Divine Master is properly claimed from all the servants of the Divine Master.
I PRAISE IS PROPERLY CLAIMED FROM ALL GOD"S CREATION, "All thy works praise thee, in all places of thy dominion." Poet-souls and pious souls find voice for Nature, and utter forth the joy in the Divine wisdom and goodness which all things seem to feel Many of the psalms are nature-psalms. When man is praiseful, he feels that everything around him is praiseful too.
II PRAISE IS PROPERLY CLAIMED FROM THE MORAL BEINGS GOD HAS MADE. Inanimate things praise by answering the ends for which they are made, and meeting the conditions in which they are set. But moral beings praise by recognizing qualities and character in the Divine arrangements. They do not only see goodness, they see that only from a good and gracious Being can such goodness come. Man, as man, in distinction from man as sinner, or man as in special relations with God, is called to praise, as he recognizes the Divine providing, ruling, and overruling.
III PRAISE IS PROPERLY CLAIMED FROM THE SERVANTS WHO DO GOD"S WILL. There may be a special call intended here to the officials of the temple priests and Levites; but the term "servant" is used by the Prophet Isaiah of the whole people, of every person called to a ministry, and of Messiah. And the Apostle Paul delights to speak of himself as the servant, bond-servant, slave, of Jesus Christ. All God"s people who have come into personal relations with him, and have received his regime rating grace, think of themselves as consecrated to his service, as having become his servants. It may be shown that they, in a special way, feel the duty of praise, and find reasons for praise. Servant-praise is based:
1. On knowledge. The intimacy with the Master is a continually fresh revelation.
2. On experience. The servant never forgets the grace that brought him into the servant-relation.
3. On office; for it is servant-work to secure the honor of the Master. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv1–9This Psalm is one of pure praise, and contains…
This Psalm is one of pure praise, and contains but little which requires exposition; a warm heart full of admiring adoration of the Most High will best of all comprehend this sacred hymn. Its subject is the greatness and condescending goodness of the God of Israel, as exhibited in lifting up the needy from their low estate. It may fitly be sung by the church during a period of revival after it has long been minished and brought low. With this Psalm begins the Hallel, or Hallelujah of the Jews, which was sung at their solemn feasts: we will therefore call it THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE HALLEL. Dr. Edersheim tells us that the Talmud dwells upon the peculiar suitableness of the Hallel to the Passover, "since it not only recorded the goodness of God towards Israel, but especially their deliverance from Egypt, and therefore appropriately opened with Praise ye Jehovah, ye servants of Jehovah, and no longer servants of Pharaoh." Its allusions to the poor in the dust and the needy upon the dunghill are all in keeping with Israel in Egypt, and so also is the reference to the birth of numerous children where they were least expected.
No division need be made in the exposition of this Psalm, except it be that which is suggested by the always instructive headings supplied by the excellent authors of our common version: an exhortation to praise God, for his excellency, 1-5; for his mercy, 6-9.
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Ver. 1. Praise ye the LORD, or Hallelujah, praise to JAH Jehovah. Praise is an essential offering at all the solemn feasts of the people of God. Prayer is the myrrh, and praise is the frankincense, and both of these must be presented unto the Lord. How can we pray for mercy for the future if we do not bless God for his love in the past? The Lord hath wrought all good things for us, let us therefore adore him. All other praise is to be excluded, the entire devotion of the soul must be poured out unto Jehovah only.
Praise, O ye servants of the LORD. Ye above all men, for ye are bound to do so by your calling and profession. If God's own servants do not praise him, who will? Ye are a people near unto him, and should be heartiest in your loving gratitude. While they were slaves of Pharaoh, the Israelites uttered groans and sighs by reason of their hard bondage; but now that they had become servants of the Lord, they were to express themselves in songs of joy. His service is perfect freedom, and those who fully enter into it discover in that service a thousand reasons for adoration. They are sure to praise God best who serve him best; indeed, service is praise.
Praise the name of the LORD: extol his revealed character, magnify every sacred attribute, exult in all his doings, and reverence the very name by which he is called. The name of Jehovah is thrice used in this verse, and may by us who understand the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity be regarded as a thinly veiled allusion to that holy mystery. Let Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all be praised as the one, only, living, and true God. The close following of the words, "Hallelujah, Hallelu, Hallelu, "must have had a fine effect in the public services. Dr. Edersheim describes the temple service as responsive, and says, "Every first line of a Psalm was repeated by the people, while to each of the others they responded by a Hallelu Jah or Praise ye the Lord"thus
The Levites began: Hallelujah (Praise ye the Lord).
The people repeated: Hallelu Jah.
The Levites: Praise (Hallelu), O ye servants of Jehovah.
The people responded: Hallelu Jah.
The Levites: Praise (Hallelu) the name of Jehovah.
The people responded: Hallelu Jah.
These were not vain repetitions, for the theme is one which we ought to dwell upon; it should be deeply impressed upon the soul, and perseveringly kept prominent in the life.
Whole Psalm. With this Psalm begins the Hallel, which is recited at the three great feasts, at the feast of the Dedication (Chanucca) and at the new moons, and not on New Year's day and the day of Atonement, because a cheerful song of praise does not harmonise with the mournful solemnity of these days. And they are recited only in fragments during the last days of the Passover, for "my creatures, saith the Holy One, blessed be He, were drowned in the sea, and ought ye to break out into songs of rejoicing?" In the family celebration of the Passover night it is divided into two parts, the one half, Psalm 113-114, being sung before the repast, before the emptying of the second festal cup, and the other half, Psalm 115-118, after the repast, after the filling of the fourth cup, to which the umnhsantev (Mt 26:30 Mk 14:26), or singing a hymn, after the institution of the Lord's Supper, which was connected with the fourth festal cup, may refer. Paulus Burgensis styles Psalm 113 to Psalm 118 Alleluja Judaeorum magnum. (The great Alleluiah of the Jews). This designation is also frequently found elsewhere. But according to the prevailing custom, Psalm 113-118, and more particularly Psalm 115-118, are called only Hallel, and Psalm 136, with its "for his mercy endureth for ever" repeated twenty-six times, bears the name of "The Great Hallel" (lwdgh llh). Frank Delitzsch.
Whole Psalm. The Jews have handed down the tradition, that this Psalm, and those that follow on to the 118th, were all sung at the Passover; and they are denominated "The Great Hallel." This tradition shows, at all events, that the ancient Jews perceived in these six psalms some link of close connection. They all sing of God the Redeemer, in some aspect of his redeeming character; and this being so, while they suited the paschal feast, we can see how appropriate they would be in the lips of the Redeemer, in his Upper Room. Thus
In Psalm 113, he sang praise to him who redeems from the
lowest depth.
In Psalm 114, he sang praise to him who once redeemed
Israel, and shall redeem Israel again.
In Psalm 115, he uttered a songover earth's fallen
idolsto him who blesses Israel and the world.
In Psalm 116, he sang his resurrection song of
thanksgiving by anticipation.
In Psalm 117, he led the song of praise for the great
congregation.
In Psalm 118 (just before leaving the Upper Room to go to
Gethsemane), he poured forth the story of his suffering,
conflict, triumph and glorification. A. A. Bonar.
Whole Psalm. An attentive reader of the Book of Psalms will observe that almost every one of them has a view to Christianity. Many, if not most of the psalms, were without doubt occasioned originally by accidents of the life that befell their royal author; they were therefore at the same time both descriptive of the situation and life, the actions and sufferings, of King David, and predictive also of our Saviour, who was all along represented by King David, from whose loins he was descended according to the flesh. But this Psalm appears to be wholly written with a view to Christianity. It begins with an exhortation to all true servants and zealous worshippers of God, to "praise his name, "at all times, and in all places; "from this time forth and for evermore, "and "from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof." And the ground of this praise and adoration is set forth in the following verses to be, first, the glorious majesty of his Divine nature; and next, the singular goodness of it as displayed to us in his works of providence, particularly by exalting those who are abased, and his making the barren to become fruitful. His lifting the poor out of the mire, and making the barren woman to become fruitful, may, at first sight, seem an odd mixture of ideas. But a right notion of the prophetic language will solve the difficulty; and teach us, that both the expressions are in fact very nearly related, and signify much the same thing. For by the "poor" are here meant those who are destitute of all heavenly knowledge (the only true and real riches) and who are sunk in the mire and filth of sin. So, again, his making "the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children, "is a prophetic metaphor, or allusion to the fruitfulness of the Church in bringing forth sons or professors of the true religion. My interpretation of both these expressions is warrantable from so many parallel passages of Scripture. I shall only observe that here the profession of the Christian faith throughout the whole earth is foretold; as also the particular direction or point of the compass, toward which Christianity should by the course of God's providence be steered and directed, viz., from East to West, or "from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same." James Bate, 1703-1775.
Ver. 1. Praise ye the LORD. Praise. The wllh is repeated. This repetition is not without significance. It is for the purpose of waking us up out of our torpor. We are all too dull and slow in considering and praising the blessings of God. There is, therefore, necessity for these stimuli. Then this repetition signifies assiduity and perseverance in sounding forth the praises of God. It is not sufficient once and again to praise God, but his praises ought to be always sung in the Church. Mollerus.
Ver. 1. Praise ye the Lord. This praising God rests not in the mere speculation or idle contemplation of the Divine excellence, floating only in the brain, or gliding upon the tongue, but in such quick and lively apprehensions of them as to sink down into the heart, and there beget affections suitable to them; for it will make us love him for his goodness, respect him for his greatness, fear him for his justice, dread him for his power, adore him for his wisdom, and for all his attributes make us live in constant awe and obedience to him. This is to praise God, without which all other courting and complimenting of him is but mere flattery and hypocrisy...God Almighty endowed us with higher and nobler faculties than other creatures, for this end, that we should set forth his praise; for though other things were made to administer the matter and occasion, yet man alone was designed and qualified to exercise the act of glorifying God...In short, God Almighty hath so closely twisted his own glory and our happiness together, that at the same time we advance the one we promote the other. Matthew Hole, 1730.
Ver. 1. Praise, O ye servants of the LORD. From the exhortation to praise God, and the declaration of his deserving to be praised; learn, that as it is all men's duty to praise the Lord, so in special it is the duty of his ministers, and officers of his house. First, because their office doth call for the discharge of it publicly. Next, because as they should be best acquainted with the reasons of his praise, so also should they be the fittest instruments to declare it. And lastly, because the ungodly are deaf unto the exhortation, and dumb in the obedience of it; therefore when he hath said, "Praise ye the Lord, " he subjoins, "Praise, O ye servants of the Lord." David Dickson.
Ver. 1. Ye servants of the LORD. All men owe this duty to God, as being the workmanship of his hands; Christians above other men, as being the sheep of his pasture; preachers of the word above other Christians, as being pastors of his sheep, and so consequently patterns in word, in conversation, in love, in spirit, in faith, in pureness. 1Ti 4:12. John Boys.
Ver. 1-3.
Hallelujah, praise the Lord!
Praise, ye servants, praise his name!
Be Jehovah's praise adored,
Now and evermore the same!
Where the orient sunbeams gleam.
Where they sink in ocean's stream,
Through the circuit of his rays
Be your theme Jehovah's praise.
Richard Mant.
Whole Psalm. The psalm contains three parts:
1. An exhortation to God's servants to praise him.
2. A form set down how and where to praise him, ver. 2, 3.
3. The reasons to persuade us to it.
(a) By his infinite power, ver. 4, 5.
(b) His providence, as displayed in heaven and earth,
verse 6. Adam Clarke.
Ver. 1. The repetitions show,
1. The importance of praise.
2. Our many obligations to render it.
3. Our backwardness in the duty.
4. The heartiness and frequency with which it should be rendered.
5. The need of calling upon others to join with us.
Ver. 1.
1. To whom praise is due: "the Lord."
2. From whom it is due: "ye servants of the Lord."
3. For what is it due: his "name."
a. For all names descriptive of what he is in himself.
b. For all names descriptive of what he is to his servants. G. R.
Ver. 1, 9. Praise ye the Lord.
1. Begin and end life with it, and do the same with holy service, patient suffering, and everything else.
2. Fill up the interval with praise. Run over the intervening verses.
Psalms 113:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv1, 5, 7, 9Praise the name of the Lord.
Psa_113:1-9
Praise the name of the Lord.
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Highest service and the highest Being
I. The highest service in which intelligent creatures can engage. What is praise? Not verbal laudation, however enthusiastic in feeling, appropriate in language, or transporting in music. What, then, is it to praise God? It is to have our whole souls, and being, attuned to His holy character, and to His benevolent purpose. A holy life is the only true anthem.
1. Because its inspiration can alone give worth to all other services.
2. Because it alone can harmoniously develop and satisfy all the faculties and aspirations of our nature. It is--
(1) A service for all men (verse 1).
(2) A service for all time (verse 2).
(3) A service for all space (verse 3).
II. The highest being that intelligent creatures can contemplate.
1. His character. All-wise, all-holy, all-merciful, etc.
2. His incomparableness (verse 4).
3. His condescension (verse 6).
4. His operation--
(1) Abroad in society (verse 7).
(2) At home in families (verse 9). He operates in families as well as abroad and in society. To Him the birth of every child must be ascribed. (Homilist.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible1887 · Public DomainOn v1Psalms 113
Psalms 113
THIS pure burst of praise is the first of the psalms composing the Hallel, which was sung at the three great feasts (Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles), as well as at the festival of Dedication and at the new moons. "In the domestic celebration of the Passover night the Hallel is divided into two parts; the one half, Psalms 113 and Psalms 114, being sung before the repast, before the emptying of the second festal cup, and the other half, Psalms 115-118, after the repast, after the filling of the fourth cup, to which the having sung a hymn in Mat_26:30 and Mar_14:26 may refer" (Delitzsch, in loc.).
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Three strophes of three verses each may be recognised, of which the first (Psa_113:1-3) summons Israel to praise Jehovah, and reaches out through all time and over all space, in longing that Gods name may be known and praised. The second strophe (Psa_113:4-6) magnifies Gods exalted greatness; while the third (Psa_113:7-9) adores His condescension, manifested in His stooping to lift the lowly. The second and third of these strophes, however, overlap in the song, as the facts which they celebrate do. Gods loftiness can never be adequately measured, unless His condescension is taken into account; and His condescension never sufficiently wondered at, unless His loftiness is felt.
The call to praise is addressed to Israel, whose designation "servants of Jehovah" recalls Isaiah 11s characteristic use of that name in the singular number for the nation. With strong emphasis, the name of Jehovah is declared as the theme of praise. Gods revelation of His character by deed and word must precede mans thanksgiving. They, to whom that Name has been entrusted, by their reception of His mercies are bound to ring it out to all the world. And in the Name itself, there lies enshrined the certainty that through all ages it shall be blessed, and in every spot lit by the sun shall shine as a brighter light, and be hailed with praises. The psalmist has learned the world wide significance of Israels position as the depository of the Name, and the fair vision of a universal adoration of it fills his heart. Psa_113:3 b may be rendered "worthy to be praised is the name," but the context seems to suggest the rendering above.
The infinite exaltation of Jehovah above all dwellers on this low earth and above the very heavens does not lift Him too high for mans praise, for it is wedded to condescension as infinite. Incomparable is He; but still adoration can reach Him, and men do not clasp mist, but solid substance, when they grasp His Name. That incomparable uniqueness of Jehovah is celebrated in Psa_113:5 a in strains borrowed from Exo_15:11, while the striking description of loftiness combined with condescension in Psa_113:5 b and Psa_113:6 resembles Isa_57:15. The literal rendering of Psa_113:5 b and Psa_113:6 a is, "Who makes high to sit, Who makes low to behold," which is best understood as above. It may be questioned whether "On the heavens and on the earth" designates the objects on which His gaze is said to be turned; or whether, as some understand the construction, it is to be taken with "Who is like Jehovah our God?" the intervening clauses being parenthetical; or whether, as others prefer, "in heaven" points back to "enthroned on high," and "on earth" to "looks far below." But the construction which regards the totality of created things, represented by the familiar phrase "the heavens and the earth," as being the objects on which Jehovah looks down from His inconceivable loftiness, accords best with the context and yields an altogether worthy meaning. Transcendent elevation, condescension, and omniscience are blended in the poets thought. So high is Jehovah that the highest heavens are far beneath Him, and, unless His gaze were all-discerning, would be but a dim speck. That He should enter into relations with creatures, and that there should be creatures for Him to enter into relations with, are due to His stooping graciousness. These "far-darting looks are looks of tenderness, and signify care as well as knowledge. Since all things lie in His sight, all receive from His hand.
The third strophe pursues the thought of the Divine condescension as especially shown in stooping to the dejected and helpless and lifting them. The effect of the descent of One so high must be to raise the lowliness to which He bends. The words in Psa_113:7-8 are quoted from Hannahs song. {1Sa_2:8} Probably the singer has in his mind Israels restoration from exile, that great act in which Jehovah had shown His condescending loftiness, and had lifted His helpless people as from the ash heap, where they lay as outcasts. The same event seems to be referred to in Psa_113:9 under a metaphor suggested by the story of Hannah whose words have just been quoted. The "barren" is Israel. {comp. Isa_54:1} The expression in the original is somewhat obscure. It stands literally "the barren of the house," and is susceptible of different explanations; but probably the simplest is to regard it as a contracted expression for the unfruitful wife in a house, "a housewife, but yet not a mother. Such a one has in her husbands house no sure positionIf God bestows children upon her, He by that very fact makes her for the first time thoroughly at home and rooted in her husbands house" (Delitzsch, in loc.). The joy of motherhood is tenderly touched in the closing line, in which the definite article is irregularly prefixed to "sons," as if the poet "points with his finger to the children with whom God blesses her" (Delitzsch, u.s.). Thus Israel, with her restored children about her, is secure in her home. That restoration was the signal instance of Jehovahs condescension and delight in raising the lowly. It was therefore the great occasion for world wide and age-long praise.
The stager did not know how far it would be transcended by a more wonderful, more heart-touching manifestation of stooping love, when "The Word became flesh." How much more exultant and world filling should be the praises from the lips of those who do know how low that Word has stooped, and how high He has risen, and how surely all who hold His hand will be lifted from any ash heap and set on His throne, sharers in the royalty of Him who has been partaker of their weakness!
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v11. Another of the Hallelujah Psalms 2. Date and…
INTRODUCTION
1. Another of the Hallelujah Psalms 2. Date and authorship unknown.
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3. The first of six Psalms in the Jewish liturgy (113–118) termed Hallel, or the Egyptian Hallel, as distinguished from the great Hallel. “This Psalm continued to be received while the temple stood, and is still recited in Palestine eighteen times a year, apart from its customary, though not legal use, at the new moon. Outside of Palestine it is now yearly recited twenty-one times.… At the family celebration of the Passover Psalms 113, 114. were sung before the meal, and indeed before the emptying of the second cup, and the others after the meal, and after the filling of the fourth cup.”—Moll.
A NOBLE PEOPLE AND A NOBLE SERVICE
(Psa_113:1)
Nobility consists in those endowments which render the possessors worthy of honour. Nobility of service consists in the consecration of those endowments to the best being, for the best ends. This is nowhere fully the case except in the service of God.
I. The servants of God are a noble people. All God’s servants are noblemen. Abraham, Moses, Caleb, Job, Isaiah, Zerubbabel, and the promised Messiah, God speaks of as “My servants.” Christ’s designation of Himself is, “I am among you as one that serveth.” Nebuchadnezzar and Darius saw that Daniel and the three Hebrew youths were “servants of God.” Paul, Peter, Timothy, James, and Jude called themselves servants of God. All Israel was such ideally; all Christians are so actually.
1. God’s servant realises the noblest and most perfect ideal of life.
(1.) Some men live for pleasure.
(2.) Some for intellectual effort.
(3.) Some for moral excellence.
(4.) But God’s servants live for Him. And here they have what they can never otherwise have, a powerful motive for virtue, full mental culture, and all legitimate enjoyment, for the education and completion of their whole being, hence God’s service is the noblest ideal of life.
2. God’s servants have the noblest master. It ennobles the proudest peer in the land to be in the service of his sovereign.
3. God’s servants yield to the noblest claims. “I have made thee for Myself.” This was not based upon any merit in us, but upon His free love and mercy. And therefore God’s claims rest—
(1.) Upon the right of property. We have rights over the products of our hand and brain. So has God.
(2.) Upon the right of sustenance and preservation. The basest ingratitude is that which ignores the right of those to whose generosity we owe our all.
(3.) Upon the right of redemption. Note the price by which it was effected, the curse from which it rescues, the dignities to which it elevates.
4. God’s servants have the noblest warrant for their service.
(1.) The warrant of reason. Their service is a “reasonable service.”
(2.) The warrant of conscience.
(3.) The warrant of love.
5. God’s servants are promised and enjoy the noblest rewards. God Himself. “I will be their God.” There are many subordinate rewards, but this comprehends and crowns them all.
II. God’s service is a noble service. “Praise the name of the Lord.” This injunction no doubt refers to acts of religious worship as such. But it suggests much more, for all the acts of religious life are worship. “That ye should show forth the praises of Him,” &c. “Glorify God in your bodies and spirits which are His.”
1. It is noble in the dignity of its sphere. It links man with God Himself. Man becomes a “worker together with God,” with Christ, who accomplishes His mighty undertakings by human agency; with the Holy Ghost, who uses man as His mouthpiece for conviction of sin, &c.
2. It is noble in the motive from which it springs. All life is noble or ignoble according as it is actuated by noble or ignoble aims. God’s servants aim at “pleasing God.” This motive animated our Lord, Joh_8:29; Enoch, Heb_11:5; Solomon, 2Sa_7:29.
3. It is noble in the instruments by which it is accomplished. All that is morally worthy is pressed into this service; the mind purged from error; the will freed from prejudice; the heart emancipated from irregular passion and sin; the body a temple of the Holy Ghost.
4. It is noble in the freedom of its consecration. It is not pressed service, it is purely voluntary under the “royal law of liberty.”
5. It is noble in the uses which it serves. Doing the “will of God on earth as it is done in heaven.”
GRATITUDE
(Psa_113:2)
Our text suggests—
I. That there are grounds for gratitude. We bless God for blessing us. These grounds are universal. “What hast thou that thou didst not receive?” From Him descends “every good and perfect gift.”
1. Physical. The body with its organs, senses, members, susceptibilities of pleasure, provision for clothing, shelter, food, &c.
2. Mental. Literature, science, art, authors, poets, artists, are gifts from God.
3. Spiritual. The Bible, Gospel, means of grace, &c.
4. Political. Government, liberty.
II. That these grounds are often ignored.
1. Men lose sight of their benefactor. This may be
(1) Deliberate. Men dislike to be under an obligation. The Emperor Basil was saved when hunting by a courtier, and all Constantinople was speculating about the reward, when, to the astonishment of all, the preserver of his sovereign was ordered out to execution on the ground that the debt could never adequately be repaid. So men owe so much to God that the sense of obligation becomes burdensome, and they therefore endeavour to banish Him from their minds.
(2) Careless. Like the conduct of many children towards their parents. The blessings are so very regular that we forget their source.
2. Men make light of their blessings.
(1.) Of their physical gifts. Sin prostitutes them, and the attendant misery is charged upon God.
(2.) Of their mental gifts. The mind has wandered into unprofitable speculations, and is forthwith made responsible for the doubts and errors into which men fall. And men wish themselves dogs, without the power of thought.
(3.) Spiritual gifts, from their fancied sufficiency.
(4.) Political gifts, from love of lawlessness.
3. Men deny the utility of thankfulness. “If man serves us we repay him, in kind if he needs it; or by gratitude which gratifies his spirit. But what kind of repayment or gratification can God receive?” True, the divine benefactor is not dependent on man’s gratitude or gifts; but this overlooks the duty of acknowledging a gift whether it advantages its giver or not.
III. That these grounds should be acknowledged by present thankfulness. The obligation commences the moment the gift is conferred, and should therefore be acknowledged forthwith.
1. Circumstances should not be allowed to interfere. Those circumstances are God’s gifts, and should not be turned into instruments for robbing Him of His rights.
2. Persons should not be allowed to interfere. The dearest human relative ought not to be so close as God. Debts incurred to man are not to be compared with those we owe to God.
3. Inclination should not be allowed to interfere. They do not interfere with our service to man, nor should they with our duty to God.
IV. That these grounds should be acknowledged by perpetual thankfulness. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” “His mercy endureth for ever,” therefore, &c. Learn—
(i.) The evils of ingratitude. It narrows the intellect, contracts the heart, restricts the sphere of service, and engenders a cold, hard, barren selfishness.
(ii.) The advantages of thankfulness. It secures further blessings from God, enlarges the volume of manhood, and prepares for the service of heaven.
UNIVERSAL WORSHIP
(Psa_113:3)
I. God’s name ought to be praised everywhere, because—
1. Everywhere He is worthy of praise.
(1.) God’s government is everywhere founded and administered on principles of righteousness.
(2.) His beneficent provision for His creatures’ want—His sun, His showers, His fruits, &c.—is made everywhere.
(3.) His almighty protection, upholding the universe and protecting His creatures, is afforded everywhere.
(4.) His offers of mercy extend, without distinction of race or order, everywhere. His Son died for all, His Spirit strives with all, His Church welcomes all, and His heaven was made for all.
2. Everywhere He is acknowledged to exist. Sometimes this belief has been adulterated with error, but the substratum of the truth everywhere remains, and nothing can eradicate it. In all the great civilisations it has universally obtained. It has been said recently that a few savage tribes are without it, which, if true, is very unfortunate for atheism; for that would prove that unbelief in God is only possible to the most degraded and brutal barbarism. In all ages God has been the trust of mankind.
3. Everywhere, that is the end of God’s providential plan. “All shall know the Lord from the least even unto the greatest.” “All nations shall do Him service.” That is the grand destiny of the human race (Mal_1:11; Rev_5:8-14).
4. Everywhere, that is the law of man’s true dignity. The history of the world shows that men are elevated and civilised in proportion to their recognition of the Most High. Everywhere it ennobles and sanctifies.
II. God’s name ought to be praised under all circumstances. Under all the various conditions revealed by the progress of the sun, should man render grateful homage.
1. In the business of the day, for He makes it possible.
2. In the family affairs of the day, for He controls them.
3. In the vicissitudes of the day. In prosperity or adversity, for He is the author of both.
4. In the transactions of government, for He is King of kings and Lord of lords.
5. And, since “He giveth His beloved sleep,” in the repose which follows the setting sun.
III. God’s name ought to be praised at all times.
1. In the beneficent march of the seasons, for they are led by Him.
2. In the gracious division of day and night, for it was fixed by Him.
3. “Early in the morning,” at noon (Daniel), at night (our Lord on Olivet); for all departments of the day are ordained by Him.
THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF NATIONS
(Psa_113:4, clause 1)
The figure is that of God seated on His throne as King of kings and Lord of lords.
I. The divine government is personal. “The Lord is high.” Human governments are institutional. But, while God usually works through natural laws, &c., He can work without them, and is always superior to them. “He maketh His sun to shine.” “He doeth according to His will,” &c.
II. The divine government is exalted “above all nations.” Superior in its basis, aims, methods, to the best human government. It is superior in wisdom, comprehensiveness, sympathy, goodness, and resources, because directly administered by supreme wisdom, goodness, and power.
III. The divine government, from its exaltation, is suitable to the circumstances of all nations.
1. It is absolute perfection. Human legislation is made up of caprices, mistakes, changes. The great task of human governors is to alter, modify, or improve on the legislation of their predecessors, and thus it cannot be suited to all the circumstances of mankind. On the contrary, God’s laws are unalterable, because incapable of improvement, and because promulgated by the all-perfect mind.
2. It is founded on the reason of things, and, therefore, is not arbitrary. It does not contemplate classes, &c.; it is perfect equity, and all nations may expect even-handed justice from the hands of God.
IV. God’s government is benevolent towards all nations. Many societies are founded on the supposition that men were made for governments, and not governments for men. God rules for the express benefit of nations. They require, and so they receive, His control and care. But is this borne out by facts! Look at the miseries of nations. Answer—
1. Much of this misery is self-inflicted. If men will break God’s laws they must take the consequences. All nations who are faithful to God are blessed.
2. These miseries are insignificant compared with their blessings. Our years of tyranny or depression must be balanced by the years of prosperity and freedom.
3. These miseries subserve benevolent and righteous ends. How often have famines been sent to drive a nation to its God. How often has God used a destructive war to expel a tyrant from his throne. Famine brought free trade. The Marian persecution inaugurated the Elizabethan reformation. The American war abolished slavery.
V. The divine government is administered by Christ. “The Father hath committed all judgment into His hands.” (Dan_7:13-14; Php_2:9.) Christ is qualified for this office.
1. By a personal acquaintance with His subjects.
(2.) By a personal relation with His subjects. He is a true King, not only the “able” but the “kinsman” of the race, born out of the bosom of humanity.
(3.) By an intense sympathy with His subjects.
(4.) By His accessibility to His subjects.
IN CONCLUSION. Let men and nations beware how they rebel against this government. Can they produce a better? They rebel against omnipotent goodness when they throw off their allegiance to God.
THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF HEAVEN
(Psa_113:4, clause 2)
God rules in heaven; and the difference between His government there and His government here is, that here men break its laws and thwart its beneficent designs; yonder all is harmony and obedience. “The Lord is high above all nations,” but His glory is above the heavens. Here that glory is but faintly illustrated amidst the partial obedience of the best of His creatures and the rebellion of the rest; there fully. This government is based on the same principles, conducted by the same methods, and contemplates the same ends among glorified spirits as among men, and is acknowledged and obeyed;—
I. Universally. Revelation 5.
II. Reverentially. Isa_6:2. “With twain he covered his face.”
III. Swiftly. Isa_6:2. “With twain he did fly.”
IV. Comprehensively. The ends of the divine government are the sole object of their service; they have no personal aims to secure, because in doing God’s will they secure all.
V. Continually. “They rest not day nor night.”
VI. Willingly. Their wills are in complete harmony with the will of God. Sin does not warp their inclination, and they are under no powerful restraint towards wrong.
VII. Perfectly. No sin blears their vision or blights their faculties. They see what is the perfect will of God, and do it with all the completeness of their being.
Let all Christians pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.”
THE ABSOLUTE
(Psa_113:5)
Verses5 and 6 in the original present a parallelism which is not preserved in the English version. As Hebrew poetry they would stand thus:—
Who is like unto Jehovah, our God,
Who sits throned on high,
Who casts looks so low,
In the heavens and in the earth?
The italics of A. V. are of course supplied by the translators to make what appeared to be the best sense. We propose to treat the second and third lines (with Bunsen, Delitzsch, Hengstenberg, &c.) as a parenthesis. Our subject, therefore, is The Absolute; the incomprehensibleness of Deity. “Who is like unto Jehovah, our God, in the heavens and in the earth?” Notice—
I. That the incomprehensibleness of God is generally acknowledged. Observe—
1. How it is presented in the Bible. (Exo_3:14; Exo_15:11; Deuteronomy 4; 1Sa_2:2; 1Ki_8:12-27; Job_5:9; Job_11:7-9; Job_37:5; Job_37:23; Psa_89:6; Psa_145:3; Eccl. 16:21; Isaiah 40, 43; Rom_11:33-34.)
2. How it is presented by philosophy. Socrates maintained that “he only knew this, that he knew nothing.” Plato: “The Maker and Father of the worlds, it is difficult to discover, and when found impossible to make him known to all” The Eleatic school held that “we ought not to assert anything concerning the gods, for we have no knowledge of them.” So the Stoics. Modern schools assert the same. Schelling says, “God is that which is in itself and only from itself can be conceived.” So indeed Hamilton, Mansel, Spenser, and Matthew Arnold. “A God all known and comprehended is no God. That which I fully know and understand, is below, not above me, for I have mastered it. I have not to worship it, it must bow down to me. That which towers immeasurably above me, which I cannot scale and cannot fathom, before which I am as nothing, that and that alone, I fall down to and adore—not ignorance, but knowledge is the mother of devotion. Nevertheless, the sense of ignorance in the created mind, of immeasurable ignorance and infirmity, is preliminary and essential to all true adoration.”—Dr. J. Young.
3. How it is presented by heathen, religions. “Seek fellowship with Zeus and Epictetus.” Alas! it was the Zeus that was wanting.… There was a yearning for God, for personal fellowship with God, for personal likeness to God.… ‘But who is the Zeus, the god of whom you talk, that I may believe on Him,’ was the cry which grew more hopeless and agonising generation by generation … to which religion had no answer.”—Baldwin Brown.
II. That men have universally striven to solve the mystery, by taking up the challenge of our text. Sir W. Hamilton says, “From Xenophanes to Leibnitz the infinite, the absolute, th unconditioned formed the highest principle of speculation.” And, as the only way in which man can define anything is by a process of more or less adequate comparison and illustration, he has endeavoured to figure God, and thus much of theology in all ages has been but the projected shadow of human thought.
1. Much of natural theology has been constructed in this way. It assumes that God is, and then undertakes to show what God is like. Man is capable of fashioning and combining existing materials, and directing them to the accomplishment of new results. So he thinks of a God like himself, a creator. He is capable of directing his materials to serve a definite and intelligent end. So he ascribes skill and design to the creator, and by his observation of the adaptation of means to ends in the world, that belief is confirmed. He is a father or king ruling by laws which he enforces by rewards and punishments. So his maker is argued to be his governor, who will bless his obedience and punish his sin.
2. Much of both so-called orthodoxy and heterodoxy has been constructed in this way. Arianism arose out of the transfer of human paternity to the divine nature. Calvinism starts with a sovereignty of God built upon the idea of remorseless human despotism. Many other theories, particularly some prevalent in the present day, proceed upon the assumption that God’s thoughts are as our thoughts, and His ways as our ways.
3. The various heathen mythologies have been built up in this way. Very few are disposed to deny that the spiritual unity of God was the primitive belief of mankind. St. Paul shows the process from this to the most debasing forms of idolatry (Rom_1:18-32). Sin darkened man’s understanding and led his reason astray. It is easy to see how the divine attributes might have become dissociated, then made to represent independent divine forces, and then separate divine persons. It is also easy to see how these independent persons could be symbolised by natural powers and objects supposed to be most like them; and it is only a step further to manufacture a permanent symbol; and hence idol worship. Thus the progress of symbolism was first downwards from God, then upwards to Him. Nature worship was the earliest form of idolatry. Then human. The gods of nature were endowed with human attributes and forms, and heroes and ancestors were deified. The process went on till not a natural object, beautiful or monstrous, good or malign, and not a single human quality, good or bad, wise or ridiculous, but had its temple, peculiar, and in many cases consistent, worship, and its symbolical form. The difficulty became to distinguish what was not divine. What an exposition of “Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thyself”!
4. “The fundamental position of rationalism is, that man by his own reason can attain to a right conception of God.” “Fools, to dream that man can escape from himself, that human reason can draw aught but a human portrait of God! They do but substitute a marred and mutilated humanity for one exalted and entire; they add nothing to their conception of God as He is, but only take away a part of their conception of man.”—Mansel.
III. That the Bible gives us a revelation of all that may be known of God in a manner suited to our faculties and saving to our soul. “The infinite cannot be grasped within our thoughts, nor within any limits, for on all sides it has no limits. To know God in His infinity is impossible, but to know much respecting the God who is infinite is quite another thing, and may be grandly possible.”—Dr. J. Young. The Biblical representations of God are very bold, but they are carefully guarded; and the difference between the symbolism which is the result of human speculation and that of divine revelation is, that the former degrades the Deity, the latter guides the human mind to transcend itself and lifts it up to the idea of infinite perfection. We may see notably in the mystery of the Incarnation, “the light which was manifested, that He the Eternal Son might reveal to men the Father whom no man hath seen or can see.… Parable after parable led men from earthly relations to those of the kingdom of heaven … the sower, the householder, the bridegroom, the father, the king.… But it was much more in Himself.… It was through His human nature as the Son of Man that men were to approach to a knowledge of the divine mind.… We who believe that the Word was in the beginning with God and was God, became flesh and tabernacled amongst us, … can enter into the meaning of the words, ‘The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father He hath declared Him,’ and listen with awe and adoration to that which, if it were not true, would have been a blasphemy to make us shudder: ‘Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ ”—Plumptre.
IV. These considerations lead us to the following conclusions.
1. That the question of our text must remain unanswered. God, like every other great truth, is incapable of full definition, whether by words or illustrations.
The most perfect painting conveys no adequate idea of the sun. The most perfect model only faintly resembles a flower. The ablest disquisition leaves the mystery of life unsolved.
2. That God has given us similitudes of what is best and holiest within the grasp of man’s feeble intelligence, that every one may be able to form some conception of His character and will. The hem of the garment was enough for the poor woman in the gospels; so our notions of power, wisdom, love, &c., are permitted faintly to illustrate the infinite perfections of God.
3. That God has given us these illustrations to lead us up to Himself. He tells man what He is like, that man may know by spiritual apprehension and indwelling what He is.
“One day Martin Luther was catechising some peasants. ‘Say thy creed,’ he said. ‘I believe in God, the Father Almighty.’ ‘What is it to be almighty?’ asked Martin. ‘Indeed, I cannot tell,’ and Luther, with rugged beautiful honesty, said, ‘Neither indeed, friend, can I; and if I were to tell you truly there is not a doctor in all Europe who could tell you what it is to be almighty; but if you will always remember that He is your Father Almighty, high enough to rule you, wise enough to teach you, strong enough to help you, kind enough to love you, it will be well and enough.’ ”—Coley.
THE MAJESTY AND CONDESCENSION OF GOD
(Psa_113:5-6)
The two extremes of God’s infinite perfections are exhibited in our text: “Who sits throned on high, who casts looks so low.” He is infinite in majesty, and demands our adoration; yet He is infinite in condescension, thus making our worship possible. The first attribute alone would appal us by its awful grandeur. The second alone would lead us to presume.
I. The majesty of God. “Who sits throned on high.”
1. Above the realm of space. There is nothing more sublime than the idea of infinite space. Of this we can understand little amid the contracted landscapes of our own country. We must stand where the mighty hills rear their cloud-capped pinnacles to heaven. But what is the grandest mountain range compared with the world of which it is but an excrescence! And what is the world itself but a speck in the system to which it belongs. And what is that system in comparison with those eighty millions of systems in the vast universe. And “these are part of His ways; but how small a portion is heard of Him.” Draw the line where we will, the immeasurable lies yet beyond, and above that immeasurable God sits throned.
2. Above all duration. Equally with the conception of space is that of time sublime. We cannot fix the mind on a continuous succession of periods without a corresponding elevation.
(1.) Look at the history of our own nation. We can trace it back till it is lost in hoar antiquity. But compare it with the history of the neighbouring continent. When Britain emerged from obscurity, Rome after a long and splendid history was approaching its fall. When Rome arose, the fortunes of Assyria were beginning to decline, and the monuments of Egypt were worn by the elemental battles of centuries; and before that comes patriarchal history and the years before the flood. Yet what is all this compared with scientifically recorded time! Millions upon millions of years may have elapsed between the creation of the first man and the beginning in which God created the heavens and the earth. And beyond that, “before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth or the worlds—from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God.”
(2.) But this is only half the conception. How much there is of life remaining to us we know not. But beyond the limits of the longest life possible to us there is a vast ocean of time measurable only by the infinite mind; and beyond that is boundless eternity. “Time reaches not to the steps of the eternal throne. No law of succession narrows in His doings. All things are ever before Him. He is the Everlasting now—past, present, future; time and space, these creatures of His hand, are not, in relation to His infinite perfection.”—Bishop Wilberforce.
3. In the sense of exalted spirituality.
II. The condescension of God, “who casts looks so low.” God does not dwell in solitary and indifferent grandeur in the high and lofty place. He is the Governor of the universe; its Father and its Friend.
1. God condescends to loot on physical laws and employs them.
2. God condescends to look upon man and visits him. Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, David, the Jewish nation, and at last through His Incarnate Son.
3. God condescends to look upon human governments and employs them. “He doeth according to His will,” &c. “By Him kings reign,” &c.—
“He sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall;
Atoms and systems into ruin hurled:
There a bubble burst, and here a world.”
Learn (i.) The danger of antagonism to God; (ii) The blessedness of the Divine condescension.
HUMAN EXALTATION
(Psa_113:7-8)
1. Psa_113:7-9 are almost word for word from the song of Hannah. (Cf. Song of Mary, Luk_1:46-48.)
2. Human exaltation is the result of the Divine benignity. Had God never noticed our lost race it had remained for ever in misery and degradation. But God’s notice was God’s redemption. The sentiment of our text may be illustrated—
I. In the various spheres of daily life, the poor have been lifted out of the dust, and have sat with princes.
1. In the scientific sphere,—Sir Wm. Arkwright, the inventor of the spinning jenny, was once a barber’s apprentice. Brindley, the engineer; Hugh Miller, the geologist; John Hunter, the physician, were day labourers. Thos. Edwards, the naturalist, was a shoemaker; Bewick, the engraver, a coalminer; Herschell, a bandsman; Faraday, the son of a poor blacksmith; Sir Isaac Newton, the son of a farmer; Davy, a country apothecary’s assistant
2. In the artistic sphere,—Turner, the painter, was a barber; Chantrey, a journeyman carver; Etty, a journeyman printer; Sir Thomas Lawrence, the son of a tavern-keeper; Inigo Jones, John Gibson, Romney, and Opie were labourers.
3. In the literary sphere,—Shakespeare was the son of a butcher; John Foster, a weaver; Ben Jonson and Allan Cunningham, day labourers; Drew, a shoemaker; Adam Clarke, the son of a poor schoolmaster; Elihu Burritt, a blacksmith; Dr. Lee, the great Hebrew scholar, a carpenter.
4. In the judicial sphere,—Lord Tenterden was once a barber’s boy; Talfourd, the son of a brewer; Baron Pollock, son of a saddler; Lord Eldon, the son of a coal-fitter.
5. In the army and navy,—Bonaparte rose from the ranks; Sir Cloudesley Shovel was a shoemaker, and Warren Hastings was an East India clerk.
6. In the Church,—Adrian IV. was a swineherd; Wolsey, the son of a butcher; Thomas a’ Beckett, of obscure origin, Bunyan a tinker; Whitfield, the son of an innkeeper; Martyn, the son of a miner; and Carey and Morrison were shoemakers.
7. In the field of discovery,—Cook was a day labourer; Baffin, a man before the mast; Livingstone, a weaver; and Layard, a solicitor’s clerk. Many more might be adduced in the political, social, and commercial spheres, but these are sufficient to show that God blesses the diligent use of the powers He has given. Would that they all had been employed for Him.
II. In God’s method of Redemption. All men are by sin sunk in moral degradation. They are lost to self, lost to destiny, lost to God. When God looks upon them He raises them from their fall, and by the regenerating power of His Spirit they become God’s heirs, joint heirs with Jesus Christ, and are anointed kings and priests unto God, and look forward to a crown, a sceptre, and a throne.
III. In the history of the Christian Church. Its beginnings were of the humblest possible character. Its Founder was the reputed son of a carpenter; its first officers peasants or fishermen. For the first century, the “wise and noble” were conspicuous by their absence. Its beginnings everywhere are the same. It aims to seek and to save the lost, and it is the lost and degraded that it welcomes. Its beginnings are humble, but its progress is ever mighty. Philosophers and statesmen are proud to partake of its privileges on a level with the peasant and the slave, and kings receive their crowns from its hands.
IV. In the resurrection of the body. (1 Corinthians 15.)
IN CONCLUSION.—(i.) All true greatness is the gift of God. (ii.) All true greatness commences with the recognition of God. (iii.) All greatness fails if it does not secure the consecration of God.
MOTHERHOOD: ITS BLESSINGS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
(Psa_113:9)
There is no sweeter name to a child than mother, and no sweeter name to a mother than her child’s. The two greatest curses of mankind are bad mothers and thankless children. Our text suggests—
I. That children are the subject of fond and prayerful desire.
1. This desirableness is in certain quarters denied.
(1.) By a false political economy. Children beyond a certain number are said to be the fruitful cause of misery and pauperism. So thought the Hindoos, and till recently the waters of the Ganges and the jaws of the alligator were the all-sufficient “check.” So thought the Spartans, and the “check” with them was wholesale infanticide. Not more unnatural and not less vile are the artificial checks of modern civilisation (?). But that civilisation forgets that the miseries of the world proceed not from large families, but from the parental vices which it permits and sanctions.
(2.) By a false sentiment. Children are said to be a trouble and expense, and men blasphemously treat the advent of children with humorous resignation, if not with positive chagrin, and feel that society requires that demeanour. What makes children a trouble and expense but the indolence, hardheartedness, or extravagance of parents?
2. This desirableness is recognised by
(1) The nature of things. “There is nothing addressing itself to nature to which the response is so quick, so universal, and so joyful as the coming of the young into the world.… There is almost nothing possessing a spark of intelligence which has not this inward preparation for rejoicing at the birth of offspring.… It is a bright day, or should be, in every household, in every neighbourhood, when a child is born, and a member added to society.”—H. W. Beecher.
(2) By the barren mother (see 1 Samuel 1, 2). Vain are all well-meant consolations. Tell her that they are but “careful comforts,” that she has her husband, and immunity from family cares, and she will tell you that she is willing to bear every anxiety, if she can only be the joyful mother of children.
(3) By a just moral sentiment, and a sound political economy. The object of existence can be but imperfectly attained without children. A family is a great incentive to industry. How many a wife has saved her husband from drunkenness and crime by the light and joy which children bring!
(4) By the word of God. Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, Manoah’s wife, &c.
3. This desirableness is ennobling. Because it is
(1) in harmony with the will of God (Gen_1:28).
(2) A desire to live for another.
(3) An evidence of the paternity of God, and in conformity with it.
II. That children are a mother’s joy. This is now happily, thanks to the Bible, passed into a proverb, and children in all healthy circles are now regarded as a necessary element in the happiness of life. There is—
1. The joy of expectation.
2. The joy of new maternity (Joh_16:21).
3. The joy of giving birth to citizens of the kingdom of heaven. They are the Lord’s heritage under both testaments (Psa_127:3).
4. The joy of training.
5. The joy of a nature ennobled and enlarged by maternity.
6. The joy of a HOME.
III. That children are a mother’s care. “He maketh a barren woman to keep house.” He “not only builds up the family, but thereby finds something for the heads to do.”—M. Henry. That being the case—
1. Value them. “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.” Their value does not lie altogether in their charms, &c., but in the fact that they are rational immortal beings, lent that you may enable them to realise the fact that they are “sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.”
2. Study them. Constant watchfulness, careful discrimination. It is not a virtue, but a vice that you are not guilty of to horses or dogs, to treat them all alike.
3. Provide for them (1Ti_5:8)
(1) Sufficient maintenance.
(2) A good education.
(3) A bright prospect.
4. Consecrate them to, and train them up in the nurture and admonition of, the Lord.
IV. That children are divine gifts. “He maketh.” Thus are they uniformly regarded in the Bible.
IN CONCLUSION.—“God is on the side of little children, and He is on the side of parents who wish to bring up their children right … and with some degree of teaching, and some degree of trust in God, you are adequate to lift your children from the plane of animalism, to the plane of social beings, and from that again to the plane of moral and spiritual beings; and when that is accomplished, the next change is to drop the animal altogether, and rise to the realm above, and be as the angels of God”—H. W. Beecher.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant1903 · Public DomainOn v1The glory of Jehovah’s Name.
The glory of Jehovah’s Name.
1. And now the third Hallelujah celebrates Jehovah’s Name, now to be one, according to the testimony of the prophet, over all the earth. All servants of Jehovah are exhorted to praise it: to show thus that their obedience springs out of joyful adoration; the only service which can have value for Him. And the answer rings out joyfully: "Blessed be Jehovah’s Name! from this time even for ever." The full worship, too, is seen coming in: "from the rising of the sun to the going down of it, Jehovah’s Name shall be praised."
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2. Well may it be! for the whole scene of this praise is His creation. "He is high above all nations:" yea, "Jehovah’s glory is above the heavens." The Incomparable One! He has placed His dwelling on high; but He sees, and with tender interest, all that is in heaven and on earth. This leads to the next verse in which we see how deep this interest goes, and how wonderful are the results of it.
3. For He is Abraham’s God, the God of resurrection: this still told in Old Testament style, and to which the Christian revelation only has given its full glory. Yet the features of it can be still discerned and have been from the beginning. For He "raiseth the exhausted from the dust; He lifteth up the needy from the dunghill:" "an emblem of the deepest poverty and desertion; for in Syria and Palestine, the man who is shut out from society lies upon the mezbele (the dunghill or heap of ashes,) by day calling the passers-by for alms, and by night hiding himself in the ashes that have been warmed by the sun" (Delitzsch).
Out of this misery and degradation God yet raises up, to put a wretch like this among the nobles (nedibhim; the men of princely liberality) -yea, the nobles of his people. This is a repetition of Hannah’s words; and Hannah’s own case is before the psalmist’s mind, that case so memorable indeed for Israel: "He maketh the barren to keep house, a joyful mother of sons." Mary’s song, at the beginning of the New Testament, reminds us, could we ever forget it, that one birth, impossible but for the stooping of God to man, has filled here for us the place of all others. And herewith has come for every recipient of divine grace now, the promise and the power of a resurrection; by which those worse degraded than the dwellers on the dunghill are raised to higher place than that of princes! Hallelujah!
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn v1This Ps. begins the group (113-118) known in the…
This Ps. begins the group (113-118) known in the Jewish Church as the Hallel Psalms, or Hymns of Praise, from hillel, to praise. They are sung at the Passover Feast—Psalms 113, 114 before the second cup, and 115-118 after the fourth cup; formerly recited also at the other two feasts, at the New Moons, and on the eight days of the Feast of Dedication (Cheyne). Psalms 113 has been called the Magnificat of the Old Testament. Note the liturgical introduction and conclusion ('Hallelujah' = 'Praise ye the Lord') for use in the Temple service.
6. 'Who stoopeth down to look in heaven and on earth.'
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9. The barren woman] a grievous sorrow to a Jewish wife. There is here an echo of Hannah's song (1Sa_2:1-10).
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein1922 · Public DomainOn v1Psalm 113
Psalm 113
Hallelujah! Praise His Name!
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This third Hallelujah Psalm begins with a Hallelujah and ends with Hallelujah. It is given in the Authorized Version as “Praise ye the Lord” (as in all these Psalms). It would be more sublime to maintain this grand old Hebrew word “Hallelujah.” His Name is praised. “Praise the name of the Lord--Blessed be the Name of the Lord.” Yea from the rising of the sun unto the going down, from one end of the earth unto the other, the Lord’s Name is praised. He is above all nations. What Hannah so beautifully uttered in her song of Praise has come. “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill; that He may set him with princes, even with the Princes of His people.” That is Israel redeemed by Him. And so is “the barren woman, a joyful mother of children.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v1Praise of God’s Mercy toward the Lowly.
Praise of God’s Mercy toward the Lowly.
v. 1. Praise ye the Lord, this being the third hallelujah psalm, setting forth the majesty of God, together with His mercy in dealing with the humble. It was used as the introduction to the great hallel sung by the Jews on their great festivals, particularly on the Passover. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord, all the faithful, all true believers, who delight in the true ministry of Jehovah, praise the name of the Lord, setting forth the glory of His essence and attributes, as shown in His Word and works.
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v. 2. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore, the entire Church, with all its members, singing His praises as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, throughout eternity.
v. 3. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, throughout the length and breadth of the world, the Lord’s name is to be praised, all creatures being invited to join in this psalm.
v. 4. The Lord is high above all nations, exalted above all human states with their puny rulers, and His glory above the heavens, over which He, too, is the absolute Sovereign.
v. 5. Who is like unto the Lord, our God, who dwelleth on high, on the throne of His power,
v. 6. who humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth, that is, who, from His exalted position of omniscience and omnipresence, watches most carefully over everything that happens in heaven and earth.
v. 7. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, out of the condition of extreme lowliness, and lifteth the needy, the miserable and despised, out of the dunghill, or ash-heap, as one cast off by men and making the refuse heap of the city his dwelling;
v. 8. that He may set him with princes, even with the princes of His people, elevating him to a position in the nobility, the powerful people of the land.
v. 9. He maketh the barren woman to keep house, taking from her the disgrace of childlessness, and to be a joyful mother of children, a blessing which is often emphasized in the Bible. Praise ye the Lord! It is the proper song for the believers of all times, and all the blessings here enumerated are gratefully acknowledged by them in hymns of praise and in willing ministry of the hands.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9Pss 113–118 These psalms form what is known as…
Pss 113–118 These psalms form what is known as the “Egyptian Hallel” (hallel means “praise”) because Jews use the collection in the celebration of Passover, which was instituted at the beginning of the exodus from Egypt. Psalms 113–114 are recited before the Passover meal and Pss 115–118 afterward.
Ps 113 This hymn of praise exalts the greatness of the Lord’s name and glory. God is greatly exalted and glorious in heaven (113:4); he also stoops down to take care of the lowly and needy on earth (113:5-9).
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113:1-3 The name of the Lord (Hebrew Yahweh; see Exod 3:15) reveals his being, character, and reputation. He is exalted in time (now and forever) and in space (from east to west).
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 7, 9 1 Praise, ye servants of Jehovah! This psalm contains…
1 Praise, ye servants of Jehovah! This psalm contains abundant reasons for all men without exception to praise God. The faithful alone being endued with spiritual perception to recognize the hand of God, the prophet addresses them in particular. And if we consider how cold and callous men are in this religious exercise, we will not deem the repetition of the call to praise God superfluous. We all acknowledge that we are created to praise God’s name, while, at the same time, his glory is disregarded by us. Such criminal apathy is justly condemned by the prophet, with the view of stirring us up to unwearied zeal in praising God. The repetition, then, of the exhortation to praise him, ought to be considered as referring both to perseverance and ardor in this service. If, by the servants of God, some would rather understand the Levites, to whom the charge of celebrating his praises under the Law was committed, I am not much opposed to it, provided they do not exclude the rest of the faithful, over whom formerly God appointed the Levites as leaders and chief musicians, that he might be praised by all his people without exception. When the Holy Spirit addresses the Levites expressly in relation to the subject of God’s praises, it is designedly that, by their example, they may show the way to others, and that the whole Church may respond in one holy chorus. Now that we are all “a royal priesthood,” (1 Peter 2:9) and as Zechariah testifies, (Zechariah 14:21) that under the reign of Christ, the meanest of the people shall be Levites, there is no question that, excepting unbelievers who are mute, the prophet invites us all in common to render this service unto God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 7 By this oft repetition he stirreth up our cold…
By this oft repetition he stirreth up our cold dullness to praise God, seeing his works are so wonderful, and that we are created for the same cause.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–9 Psa 113:1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise, O ye…
Psa 113:1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise, O ye servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD.
Ver. 1. Hallelujah] See Psa 111:1.
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Praise, O ye servants of the Lord] None but such can do it, or are fit for it; and for such praise is comely, Psa 147:1, as unthankfulness is an ugly sin, but especially in ministers, those servants of the Lord, by a specialty.
Praise the name of the Lord] Ter repetit, Trinitatem subindicando, saith one; others note that by this threefold Praise ye, the psalmist taxeth men’s dulness, and exciteth their diligence to this divine duty.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Ye servants of the Lord; ye Levites, who are…
Ye servants of the Lord; ye Levites, who are peculiarly devoted to this solemn work, who sometimes are called God’s servants in a special sense, and all you faithful souls.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 In this psalm,
In this psalm,
I. We are extorted to give glory to God, to give him the glory due to his name.
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1. The invitation is very pressing: praise you the Lord, and again and again, Praise him, praise him; blessed be his name, for it is to be praised, Psa 113:1-3. This intimates, (1.) That it is a necessary and most excellent duty, greatly pleasing to God, and has a large room in religion. (2.) That it is a duty we should much abound in, in which we should be frequently employed and greatly enlarged. (3.) That it is work which we are very backward to, and which we need to be engaged and excited to by precept upon precept and line upon line. (4.) That those who are much in praising God themselves will court others to it, both because they find the weight of the work, and that there is need of all the help they can fetch in (there is employment for all hearts, all hands, and all little enough), and because they find the pleasure of it, which they wish all their friends may share in.
2. The invitation is very extensive. Observe, (1.) From whom God has praise - from his own people; they are here called upon to praise God, as those that will answer the call: Praise, O you servants of the Lord! They have most reason to praise him; for those that attend him as his servants know him best and receive most of his favours. And it is their business to praise him; that is the work required of them as his servants: it is easy pleasant work to speak well of their Master, and do him what honour they can; if they do not, who should? Some understand it of the Levites; but, if so, all Christians are a royal priesthood, to show forth the praises of him that has called them, Pe1 2:9. The angels are the servants of the Lord; they need not be called upon by us to praise God, yet it is a comfort to us that they do praise him, and that they praise him better than we can. (2.) From whom he ought to have praise. [1.] From all ages (Psa 113:2) - from this time forth for evermore. Let not this work die with us, but let us be doing it in a better world, and let those that come after us be doing it in this. Let not our seed degenerate, but let God be praised through all the generations of time, and not in this only. We must bless the Lord in our day, by saying, with the psalmist, Blessed be his name now and always. [2.] From all places - from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, that is, throughout the habitable world. Let all that enjoy the benefit of the sun rising (and those that do so must count upon it that the sun will set) give thanks for that light to the Father of lights. God's name is to be praised; it ought to be praised by all nations; for in every place, from east to west, there appear the manifest proofs and products of his wisdom, power, and goodness; and it is to be lamented that so great a part of mankind are ignorant of him, and give that praise to others which is due to him alone. But perhaps there is more in it; as the former verse gave us a glimpse of the kingdom of glory, intimating that God's name shall be blessed for ever (when time shall be no more that praise shall be the work of heaven), so this verse gives us a glimpse of the kingdom of grace in the gospel-dispensation of it. When the church shall no longer be confined to the Jewish nation, but shall spread itself all the world over, when in every place spiritual incense shall be offered to our God (Mal 1:11), then from the rising to the setting of the sun the Lord's name shall be praised by some in all countries.
II. We are here directed what to give him the glory of.
1. Let us look up with an eye of faith, and see how high his glory is in the upper world, and mention that to his praise, Psa 113:4, Psa 113:5. We are, in our praises, to exalt his name, for he is high, his glory is high. (1.) High above all nations, their kings though ever so pompous, their people though ever so numerous. Whether it be true of an earthly king or no that though he is major singulis - greater than individuals, he is minor universis - less than the whole, we will not dispute; but we are sure it is not true of the King of kings. Put all the nations together, and he is above them all; they are before him as the drop of the bucket and the small dust of the balance, Isa 60:15, Isa 60:17. Let all nations think and speak highly of God, for he is high above them all. (2.) High above the heavens; the throne of his glory is in the highest heavens, which should raise our hearts in praising him, Lam 3:41. His glory is above the heavens, that is, above the angels; he is above what they are, for their brightness is nothing to his, - above what they do, for they are under his command and do his pleasure, - and above what even they can speak him to be. He is exalted above all blessing and praise, not only all ours, but all theirs. We must therefore say, with holy admiration, Who is like unto the Lord our God? who of all the princes and potentates of the earth? who of all the bright and blessed spirits above? None can equal him, none dare compare with him. God is to be praised as transcendently, incomparably, and infinitely great; for he dwells on high, and from on high sees all, and rules all, and justly attracts all praise to himself.
2. Let us look around with an eye of observation, and see how extensive his goodness is in the lower world, and mention that to his praise. He is a God who exalts himself to dwell, who humbles himself in heaven, and in earth. Some think there is a transposition, He exalts himself to dwell in heaven, he humbles himself to behold on earth; but the sense is plain enough as we take it, only observe, God is said to exalt himself and to humble himself, both are his own act and deed; as he is self-existent, so he is both the fountain of his own honour and the spring of his own grace; God's condescending goodness appears,
(1.) In the cognizance he takes of the world below him. His glory is above the nations and above the heavens, and yet neither is neglected by him. God is great, yet he despises not any, Job 36:5. He humbles himself to behold all his creatures, all his subjects, though he is infinitely above them. Considering the infinite perfection, sufficiency, and felicity of the divine nature, it must be acknowledged as an act of wonderful condescension that God is pleased to take into the thoughts of his eternal counsel, and into the hand of his universal Providence, both the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth (Dan 4:35); even in this dominion he humbles himself. [1.] It is condescension in him to behold the things in heaven, to support the beings, direct the motions, and accept the praises and services, of the angels themselves; for he needs them not, nor is benefited by them. [2.] Much more is it condescension in him to behold the things that are in the earth, to visit the sons of men, and regard them, to order and overrule their affairs, and to take notice of what they say and do, that he may fill the earth with his goodness, and so set us an example of stooping to do good, of taking notice of, and concerning ourselves about, our inferiors. If it be such condescension for God to behold things in heaven and earth, what an amazing condescension was it for the Son of God to come from heaven to earth and take our nature upon him, that he might seek and save those that were lost! Herein indeed he humbled himself.
(2.) In the particular favour he sometimes shows to the least and lowest of the inhabitants of this meaner lower world. He not only beholds the great things in the earth, but the meanest, and those things which great men commonly overlook. Not does he merely behold them, but does wonders for them, and things that are very surprising, out of the common road of providence and chain of causes, which shows that the world is governed, not by a course of nature, for that would always run in the same channel, but by a God of nature, who delights in doing things we looked not for. [1.] Those that have been long despicable are sometimes, on a sudden, made honourable (Psa 113:7, Psa 113:8): He raises up the poor out of the dust, that he may set him with princes. First, Thus God does sometimes magnify himself, and his own wisdom, power, and sovereignty. When he has some great work to do he chooses to employ those in it that were least likely, and least thought of for it by themselves or others, to the highest post of honour: Gideon is fetched from threshing, Saul from seeking the asses, and David from keeping the sheep; the apostles are sent from fishing to be fishers of men. The treasure of the gospel is put into earthen vessels, and the weak and foolish ones of the world are pitched upon to be preachers of it, to confound the wise and mighty (Co1 1:27, Co1 1:28), that the excellency of the power may be of God, and all may see that promotion comes from him. Secondly, Thus God does sometimes reward the eminent piety and patience of his people who have long groaned under the burden of poverty and disgrace. When Joseph's virtue was tried and manifested he was raised from the prison-dust and set with princes. Those that are wise will observe such returns of Providence, and will understand by them the loving-kindness of the Lord. Some have applied this to the work of redemption by Jesus Christ, and not unfitly; for through him poor fallen men are raised out of the dust (one of the Jewish rabbies applies it to the resurrection of the dead), nay, out of the dunghill of sin, and set among princes, among angels, those princes of his people. Hannah had sung to this purport, Sa1 2:6-8. [2.] Those that have been long barren are sometimes, on a sudden, made fruitful, Psa 113:9. This may look back to Sarah and Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, and Samson's mother, or forward to Elizabeth; and many such instances there have been, in which God has looked on the affliction of his handmaids and taken away their reproach. He makes the barren woman to keep house, not only builds up the family, but thereby finds the heads of the family something to do. Note, Those that have the comfort of a family must take the care of it; bearing children and guiding the house are put together, Ti1 5:14. When God sets the barren in a family he expects that she should look well to the ways of her household, Pro 31:27. She is said to be a joyful mother of children, not only because, even in common cases, the pain is forgotten, for joy that a man-child is born into the world, but there is particular joy when a child is born to those that have been long childless (as Luk 1:14) and therefore there ought to be particular thanksgiving. Praise you the Lord. Yet, in this case, rejoice with trembling; for, though the sorrowful mother be made joyful, the joyful mother may be made sorrowful again, if the children be either removed from her or embittered to her. This, therefore, may be applied to the gospel-church among the Gentiles (the building of which is illustrated by this similitude, Isa 54:1, Sing, O barren! thou that didst not bear, and Gal 4:27), for which we, who, being sinners of the Gentiles, are children of the desolate, have reason to say, Praise you the Lord.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–8 Praise ye the Lord,.... Or, "hallelujah". This is the…
Praise ye the Lord,.... Or, "hallelujah". This is the title of the psalm, as in the two preceding, and directs to the principal matter of it.
Praise, O ye servants of the Lord; meaning not the angels, nor all men, nor the priests and Levites only; but all the saints, who are a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God; who are servants, not of sin, nor of Satan, nor of men, but of God and Christ; and who serve the Lord willingly and cheerfully, with much pleasure and delight, in righteousness and holiness, with reverence and godly fear, and without trusting to and depending on their service for salvation: and one principal branch of their service is praise, especially under the Gospel dispensation; in which all legal sacrifices are abolished, and the sacrifice of praise is continued; and which is pleasant and delightful work, and yet there is a backwardness to it; and therefore there is need of such an exhortation to excite unto it, and to repeat it, as follows:
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praise the name of the Lord; not any particular name, as Jehovah; but him himself, and the perfections of his nature; his holiness, justice, truth, faithfulness, power, goodness, grace and mercy. The repetition of the exhortation denotes either the abundance of praise to be given to the Lord, or the constancy and continuance of it; which ought to be done at all times, every day, since his mercies are new every morning. Some have thought the threefold repetition respects the trinity of Persons, who are each to be praised, as in Num 6:24, but this is doubtful, and perhaps not sufficient to build such a doctrine on; and especially since the first of these exhortations is the title of the psalm: however, this is a certain truth, that Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit, are to be praised.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 8 We are here exhorted to praise God, ver. 1-3.…
We are here exhorted to praise God, ver. 1-3. Particularly for his glory and greatness, ver. 4, 5 And for his grace and goodness, ver. 6-9.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 An exhortation to bless God for his own excellencies,…
PSALM CXIII
An exhortation to bless God for his own excellencies, 1-6;
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and for his great mercy to the poor and necessitous, 7-9.
NOTES ON PSALM CXIII
Ps 113, Ps 114, Ps 115, Ps 116, Ps 117, and Ps 118, form the great Hallel, and were sung by the Jews on their most solemn festivals, and particularly at the passover. To these reference is made by the evangelists, Mt 26:30, and Mr 14:26, there called the hymn which Jesus and his disciples sung at the passover, for the whole of the Psalms were considered as one grand hymn or thanksgiving. It was probably composed after the return from the captivity. It has no title but Hallelujah in the Hebrew and ancient Versions.
Verse 1. Praise, O ye servants] Probably an address to the Levites. The Anglo-Saxon has [A.S.], praise the Lord, ye knaves. Knapa or knave signified among our ancestors a servant; sometimes a male, a young man.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 7, 9 Psa 113:1-3. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord…
Psa 113:1-3. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord — Ye Levites, who are peculiarly devoted to this solemn work, and sometimes termed God’s servants, in a special sense, and all you faithful souls. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time, &c. — Let not the work of praising God die with us, but let those that come after us praise him; yea, let him be praised through all the generations of time, and let us and all his saints praise him in eternity. From the rising of the sun, &c. — Throughout the habitable world, from one end of it to the other; the Lord’s name is to be praised — That is, it ought to be praised in all nations, because all nations enjoy the benefit of his glorious works of creation and providence: and in all nations there are most manifest proofs of his infinite wisdom, power, and goodness. All nations, also, were to be redeemed by the Messiah, and it is his gracious purpose and promise to bring all nations to the knowledge of his truth.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–9 Praise ye the Lord - Margin, as in Hebrew,…
Praise ye the Lord - Margin, as in Hebrew, “Hallelujah.” See the notes at Psa 106:1.
Praise, O ye servants of the Lord - You who profess to serve and obey him; who acknowledge him as your God. In the original this is also the word “Hallelu,” הללוּ halelû.
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Praise the name of the Lord - Still the same word “Hallelu.” The name of the Lord is put here, as it is often, for the Lord himself.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 113
Psalms 113
1 Praise ye the Lord.
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Praise, O ye servants of the Lord,
Praise the name of the Lord.
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore.
3 From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same
The Lord’s name is to be praised.
4 The Lord is high above all nations,
And his glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like unto the Lord our God,
Who dwelleth on high,
6 Who humbleth himself to behold
The things that are in heaven, and in the earth!
7 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,
And lifteth the needy out of the dunghill;
8 That he may set him with princes,
Even with the princes of his people.
9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house,
And to be a joyful mother of children.
Praise ye the Lord.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—An exhortation is sent forth to praise Jehovah at all times and throughout the world (Psa_113:1-3) as the God who, though infinitely exalted, yet beholds even things that are most abased (Psa_113:4-6), and exalts, blesses, and gladdens the feeble, the despised, and the mourning (Psa_113:7-9). No special connection with the people of Israel after the exile (Hengst. and the ancients) is discoverable. Just as uncertain is any allusion to Jonathan’s elevation, 1Ma_10:63 (Hitzig), or the assumption that there is a close connection between this Psalm and the following, and that it was composed in view of the passover (Köster, Ewald). [It is thus supposed to be connected with the deliverance from Egypt pictured in Psalms 114.—J. F. M.] But even the frequent, and, in some cases, unexpected use of the so called chirek compaginis1 (comp. Ewald, § 211) is no evidence of antiquity, but indicates design.
In the liturgy, the so-called Hallel (Psalms 113-118), also termed the Egyptian Hallel, as distinguished from the Great Hallel. Psalms 136. begins with this Psalm. The latter designation is also applied sometimes by the Talmud and Midrash to Psalms 120, 136, and to Psa_135:4-21. By some Christian writers it is wrongly applied to the Hallel in the more restricted sense. This Psalm continued to be recited while the Temple stood, and is still recited in Palestine, eighteen times a year, apart from its customary, though not legal, use at the new moon. Outside of Palestine, it is now yearly recited twenty-one times on account of the addition of three great feast-days. At the family celebration of the passover Psalms 113, 114 were sung before the meal, and indeed before the emptying of the second cup, and Psalms 115-118 after the meal, and after the filling of the fourth cup (comp. the expositors on Mat_27:30; Mar_14:26).—This Psalm is the Old Test magnificat. [Perowne: “The Psalm may be said to be a connecting link between the Song of Hannah and the Magnificat of the Virgin.”—J.F.M.]
Psa_113:1. Servants of Jehovah. This phrase is more expressive here than in Pss. 134, 135:20, and pre-supposes a specific conception of the relation in which Israel as a whole stood to God as His servant (Psa_136:22), and in which their individual living members Psa 34:23; 69:37) were embraced.
Psa_113:5-6. A connection in the thought might be considered possible between verse 6b and Psa_113:5 a (Deu_3:24). But we are prevented by the structure of the sentences from assuming such connection here (Geier, Hengst., Camphausen). The angels in heaven (Calvin) are, at all events, not to be thought of. The simplest course is to supply: upon all things. For this affords the most comprehensive conception of every thing that exists and transpires there (J. H. Mich. and others). But the restriction to seeing generally (Hupfeld), as contrasted with looking down, is unsuitable; for although the throne of God is usually mentioned as existing in heaven, yet the exaltation of God over heaven and earth is distinctly expressed (Psa_148:3). [The true rendering of Psa_113:5-6 accordingly is: “Who is like Jehovah our God, who sitteth throned on high, who stoopeth down to see (what is done) in heaven and on earth?” (Perowne). The literal construction of the second and third clauses is, who maketh high to sit, who maketh low to see. For the thought comp. Isa_57:15.—J. F. M.]
Psa_113:7-9. Psa_113:7-8 are taken verbatim from the song of Hannah (1Sa_2:8), and Psa_113:9 probably follows 1Sa_2:5. A barren spouse was not assured of being allowed to remain in the house. Not until she became a mother did she gain a firm position. The application of the figure to the Church (Isa_54:1 ff) does not justify a typical interpretation of this passage (The older expositors and Hengst. following the Chald. and the Rabbins).—“One who is shut out from society in Syria and Palestine lies upon the mezbele (dung and ash-heap), calling upon the passers-by for alms during the day, and at night cowering in the ashes warmed by the sun” (Del.). [Psa_113:9 b. is correctly: a joyful mother of the children. Delitzsch: “The poet presents the scene so vividly to himself, that he points, as though with his finger, at the children with which God has blessed her.” The article is suspected without reason by Olshausen and Hupfeld. These critics, especially the former one, run to an excess in their attempts to amend the text.—J. F. M.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. As God has given Himself a name that is above every name, and has therein revealed His nature for all times and the whole world, so will He be invoked always and everywhere by His servants by this name, and bids His Church in all places of the earth be mindful of this part of its service to Him.
2. God’s infinite exaltation above all created beings does not separate Him from those in need of help, or remove Him to an unapproachable distance, or place Him in solitude and out of relation to them, but is united in an incomparable manner with a careful regard for the least as well as for the greatest.
3. This mindfulness of them is no mere observing or purposeless gazing, but actual condescension to the insignificant, despised, and afflicted, so that they may be raised from their misery, and that the Church may ever have renewed occasion to praise Him.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The condescension of the Highest as the strongest and ever-renewed ground of His praise in the Church.—God acts as befits His name; do we render Him the thanks which are His due?—Can it be said of us: As the Master so the servant?—God indeed condescends to the most distressed of men who mourn in obscurity; but what He does in a corner of the earth serves to manifest and exalt His glory, and shall make His name an object of praise for all time and through the whole world.—Who is like our God? A question, (1) of confession, (2) of thanksgiving, (3) of trust.
Starke: If we are to praise God rightly, we must be His servants and believing children; for those who serve Satan and their own bodies, and are the slaves of Mammon, are not fit for such a service.—God’s praise is as worthy of a place in His true service as any other of its elements; this is why we are so often called upon to engage in it.—It is not unbecoming to God to care for what is debased. What it was no dishonor to create, it is no dishonor to preserve.—The exaltation of the wretched is an unassailable testimony to the merciful providence of God, and to the reward that is bestowed upon the pious and godly.—He that is raised from a low station to great honor, must know that God has done it, and must not become uplifted, else God may set him down again.—He who is to be advanced to positions of peculiar importance has no need to anticipate God’s time. When His time and hour come, He will know how to place him where He would have him.
Selnecker: There are many servants and friends of the Lord throughout the world. Their lives and teaching should therefore be such as that God shall not be dishonored, but honored by them.—Franke: The word our is a word of faith. He who has truly given his heart to God, may trust in Him with joy, and need fear nothing.—Rieger: In all God’s words and works are to be found precious traces of His greatness and exaltation and condescending love.—Faith unites the lofty and the condescending in God, and they are equally dear and precious.—Richter: The natural man, even though he be learned, takes no delight in contemplating God’s greatness in lowering Himself. It is faith alone which can harmonize the two, and rejoice that the condescending Lord of the universe does yet favor this little earth so highly, and glorify Himself in things that are insignificant.—Guenther: What are all the exaltation and glory of this world compared to the glory of the kingdom of God?—Diedrich: If the poor Church will be dismayed at times, the servants of the supreme God of mercy must only strike up again the hallelujah, the song of mercy and freedom, and all distress will disappear.—Taube: The small regard the great; and the great God regards the small; the child of the dust seeks self-made heights of greatness; and He who is truly high and exalted will dwell with those who are of a broken and contrite spirit. Wonderful and adorable way for the salvation of the world!
[Scott: In His providence the Lord sometimes raises men from the most abject to the most honorable stations of society, and it is well when they acquit themselves properly in their new dignities. But this is His constant method in the kingdom of grace. He takes us debtors, beggars, nay, rebels and traitors, from the dust, the dung-hill, or the dungeon, to be His favorites and His children, to be kings and priests unto Him: and thus He numbers us with the princes of His chosen people.—J. F. M.]
Footnotes:
[1][Because it was formerly supposed to have been employed to unite its own word euphonically with the following. See Böttcher, Gr. § 584. It is generally, though not exclusively, attached to the construct, state. See Green. Gr. § 61, 6 a, 218. According to Ewald, it is only used artificially by later poets.—J. F. M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 1. Servants of the Lord—The call is upon Israel,…
1. Servants of the Lord—The call is upon Israel, the professed servants of Jehovah, wherever residing. Those only who know God are prepared for this act of praise, and the whole psalm indicates that the most marked condescension of Jehovah toward his people, even the poorest and vilest, had been recently and freshly experienced. The verse is similar to Psa_135:1, except a slight transposition of words, and is more emphatic.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9 1. For the structure of the verse with repetition…
1. For the structure of the verse with repetition of the verb cp. Psa_29:1. The same words recur in different order in Psa_135:1.
O ye servants of the Lord] True Israelites, who as individuals answer to the calling of Israel to be “the servant of Jehovah” (Psa_136:22; Isa_41:8-9; al.). Cp. Psa_69:36; Isa_54:17.
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the name of Jehovah, emphatically repeated thrice, is more significant than Jehovah simply would be. It is the compendious expression for His whole revelation of Himself, which is the object and ground of His servants’ praise.
1–3. A call to praise Jehovah’s name universally and unendingly.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 7, 9 (1) Ye servants of the Lord—i.e., Israel. (See Psa_69:36.)
(1) Ye servants of the Lord—i.e., Israel. (See Psa_69:36.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–9 This is the first of the "Hallel" psalms, or…
This is the first of the "Hallel" psalms, or of those sung at the Feasts of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. It is a "Hallelujah psalm," like the two preceding, but is not alphabetic. As a most joyful hymn of praise, it is selected by our Church to be one of the psalms for Easter Day.
The composition falls into three stanzas of three verses each. In the first (vers. 1-3) the servants of the Lord are called upon to praise him. In the second (vers. 4-6) God is praised in the heavens, with respect to his glory there. In the third (vers. 7-9) he is eulogized in respect of his great doings upon the earth.
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Praise ye the Lord. (comp. Psa_104:35 Psa_105:45 Psa_106:1, 48 111:1 112:1) Praise, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the Name of the Lord. By "ye servants of the Lord," all faithful Israelites are certainly intended; but the phrase need not be absolutely limited to them (comp. ver. 3).
Vers. 1-9. Reasons for reverential praise.
The force of the psalmist"s summons in the opening verse is felt as we proceed through the psalm itself, and when we reach the end of it; for there are brought out
I THE CONSTANCY OF GOD"S GOODNESS. In no less than three verses (1-3) the Lord"s Name is put for himself. This is significant of the Divine constancy. The name of the Lord is never dissociated from the same class of thoughts and deeds. It is so invariably connected with these that one stands for the other. His name and his character are inseparable; utter his name, and there instantly rise to our thought the attributes which distinguish him; to sing of his Name is not to praise an imaginary or ideal one, but the very Lord God himself. We worship him "with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning.
II THE GREATNESS OF HIS GLORY. He manifests his presence, exercises his power, and makes known his goodness
(1) through all ages (ver. 2);
(2) over all the earth (ver. 3);
(3) in the highest heavens (ver. 4).
III THE FACT OF HIS CONDESCENSION. (Ver. 6) "He humbleth himself; who casts looks so low;" "and looketh down so deep." However we read it, the idea is that the "Most High God" interests himself in the children of men. He not only is concerned with the progress of our race generally (as a great emperor may occasionally bestow his attention upon the affairs of a distant province as reported to him by its representative), but he occupies his eternity with the intimate knowledge and practical government of each nation, province, family, individual soul. To the Infinite One nothing can be too small for his regard.
IV HIS UPLIFTING POWER AND GRACE. (Ver. 7) Obviously it could not be expected that every godly man would rise in worldly position; that involves an actual impossibility; nor would that, if it were possible, be a desirable reward of piety. But the good man who is the faithful, thrifty, reliable man is very often raised from obscurity to eminence, from lowliness to power. And the constant tendency of Christian worth and virtue is to convert poverty into competence, want into comfort, misery into cheerfulness, despair into peace. Indeed, this last is one of the ordinary and continual effects of piety. In the gospel of Christ, God is lifting up those that have been brought down into a sense of condemnation and shame to the holy and blessed heights of hope and joy. Christianity is everywhere and always an uplifting power.
V HIS ENRICHING KINDNESS. (Ver. 9) We do not sufficiently realize the goodness of God in the domestic enrichment with which he blesses us; in all the love and all the happiness that come from the conjugal, parental, filial, fraternal relationships which his heart has conceived, which his hand is working for us. All these things bring into view
VI HIS STRONG CLAIM ON OUR REVERENCE AND PRAISE. As the psalm begins and ends with a "hallelujah" so should our lives, in every part, be encircled with the utterance of heartfelt gratitude.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. Servant-reasons for praise.
"Praise, O ye servants of the Lord." This psalm is the first of the series called the "Hallel," which was sung in connection with the annual Jewish festivals, and especially at the Passover and Feast of Tabernacles. This and the following psalm were sung before the second cup. We need not think, however, that these psalms were composed for use at the feasts with which they were afterwards associated. Only Jewish minds could recognize any particular fitness for such scenes. To us they are simply praise psalms. Here we notice that praise of the Divine Master is properly claimed from all the servants of the Divine Master.
I PRAISE IS PROPERLY CLAIMED FROM ALL GOD"S CREATION, "All thy works praise thee, in all places of thy dominion." Poet-souls and pious souls find voice for Nature, and utter forth the joy in the Divine wisdom and goodness which all things seem to feel Many of the psalms are nature-psalms. When man is praiseful, he feels that everything around him is praiseful too.
II PRAISE IS PROPERLY CLAIMED FROM THE MORAL BEINGS GOD HAS MADE. Inanimate things praise by answering the ends for which they are made, and meeting the conditions in which they are set. But moral beings praise by recognizing qualities and character in the Divine arrangements. They do not only see goodness, they see that only from a good and gracious Being can such goodness come. Man, as man, in distinction from man as sinner, or man as in special relations with God, is called to praise, as he recognizes the Divine providing, ruling, and overruling.
III PRAISE IS PROPERLY CLAIMED FROM THE SERVANTS WHO DO GOD"S WILL. There may be a special call intended here to the officials of the temple priests and Levites; but the term "servant" is used by the Prophet Isaiah of the whole people, of every person called to a ministry, and of Messiah. And the Apostle Paul delights to speak of himself as the servant, bond-servant, slave, of Jesus Christ. All God"s people who have come into personal relations with him, and have received his regime rating grace, think of themselves as consecrated to his service, as having become his servants. It may be shown that they, in a special way, feel the duty of praise, and find reasons for praise. Servant-praise is based:
1. On knowledge. The intimacy with the Master is a continually fresh revelation.
2. On experience. The servant never forgets the grace that brought him into the servant-relation.
3. On office; for it is servant-work to secure the honor of the Master. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–9 This Psalm is one of pure praise, and contains…
This Psalm is one of pure praise, and contains but little which requires exposition; a warm heart full of admiring adoration of the Most High will best of all comprehend this sacred hymn. Its subject is the greatness and condescending goodness of the God of Israel, as exhibited in lifting up the needy from their low estate. It may fitly be sung by the church during a period of revival after it has long been minished and brought low. With this Psalm begins the Hallel, or Hallelujah of the Jews, which was sung at their solemn feasts: we will therefore call it THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE HALLEL. Dr. Edersheim tells us that the Talmud dwells upon the peculiar suitableness of the Hallel to the Passover, "since it not only recorded the goodness of God towards Israel, but especially their deliverance from Egypt, and therefore appropriately opened with Praise ye Jehovah, ye servants of Jehovah, and no longer servants of Pharaoh." Its allusions to the poor in the dust and the needy upon the dunghill are all in keeping with Israel in Egypt, and so also is the reference to the birth of numerous children where they were least expected.
No division need be made in the exposition of this Psalm, except it be that which is suggested by the always instructive headings supplied by the excellent authors of our common version: an exhortation to praise God, for his excellency, 1-5; for his mercy, 6-9.
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Ver. 1. Praise ye the LORD, or Hallelujah, praise to JAH Jehovah. Praise is an essential offering at all the solemn feasts of the people of God. Prayer is the myrrh, and praise is the frankincense, and both of these must be presented unto the Lord. How can we pray for mercy for the future if we do not bless God for his love in the past? The Lord hath wrought all good things for us, let us therefore adore him. All other praise is to be excluded, the entire devotion of the soul must be poured out unto Jehovah only.
Praise, O ye servants of the LORD. Ye above all men, for ye are bound to do so by your calling and profession. If God's own servants do not praise him, who will? Ye are a people near unto him, and should be heartiest in your loving gratitude. While they were slaves of Pharaoh, the Israelites uttered groans and sighs by reason of their hard bondage; but now that they had become servants of the Lord, they were to express themselves in songs of joy. His service is perfect freedom, and those who fully enter into it discover in that service a thousand reasons for adoration. They are sure to praise God best who serve him best; indeed, service is praise.
Praise the name of the LORD: extol his revealed character, magnify every sacred attribute, exult in all his doings, and reverence the very name by which he is called. The name of Jehovah is thrice used in this verse, and may by us who understand the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity be regarded as a thinly veiled allusion to that holy mystery. Let Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all be praised as the one, only, living, and true God. The close following of the words, "Hallelujah, Hallelu, Hallelu, "must have had a fine effect in the public services. Dr. Edersheim describes the temple service as responsive, and says, "Every first line of a Psalm was repeated by the people, while to each of the others they responded by a Hallelu Jah or Praise ye the Lord"thus
The Levites began: Hallelujah (Praise ye the Lord).
The people repeated: Hallelu Jah.
The Levites: Praise (Hallelu), O ye servants of Jehovah.
The people responded: Hallelu Jah.
The Levites: Praise (Hallelu) the name of Jehovah.
The people responded: Hallelu Jah.
These were not vain repetitions, for the theme is one which we ought to dwell upon; it should be deeply impressed upon the soul, and perseveringly kept prominent in the life.
Whole Psalm. With this Psalm begins the Hallel, which is recited at the three great feasts, at the feast of the Dedication (Chanucca) and at the new moons, and not on New Year's day and the day of Atonement, because a cheerful song of praise does not harmonise with the mournful solemnity of these days. And they are recited only in fragments during the last days of the Passover, for "my creatures, saith the Holy One, blessed be He, were drowned in the sea, and ought ye to break out into songs of rejoicing?" In the family celebration of the Passover night it is divided into two parts, the one half, Psalm 113-114, being sung before the repast, before the emptying of the second festal cup, and the other half, Psalm 115-118, after the repast, after the filling of the fourth cup, to which the umnhsantev (Mt 26:30 Mk 14:26), or singing a hymn, after the institution of the Lord's Supper, which was connected with the fourth festal cup, may refer. Paulus Burgensis styles Psalm 113 to Psalm 118 Alleluja Judaeorum magnum. (The great Alleluiah of the Jews). This designation is also frequently found elsewhere. But according to the prevailing custom, Psalm 113-118, and more particularly Psalm 115-118, are called only Hallel, and Psalm 136, with its "for his mercy endureth for ever" repeated twenty-six times, bears the name of "The Great Hallel" (lwdgh llh). Frank Delitzsch.
Whole Psalm. The Jews have handed down the tradition, that this Psalm, and those that follow on to the 118th, were all sung at the Passover; and they are denominated "The Great Hallel." This tradition shows, at all events, that the ancient Jews perceived in these six psalms some link of close connection. They all sing of God the Redeemer, in some aspect of his redeeming character; and this being so, while they suited the paschal feast, we can see how appropriate they would be in the lips of the Redeemer, in his Upper Room. Thus
In Psalm 113, he sang praise to him who redeems from the
lowest depth.
In Psalm 114, he sang praise to him who once redeemed
Israel, and shall redeem Israel again.
In Psalm 115, he uttered a songover earth's fallen
idolsto him who blesses Israel and the world.
In Psalm 116, he sang his resurrection song of
thanksgiving by anticipation.
In Psalm 117, he led the song of praise for the great
congregation.
In Psalm 118 (just before leaving the Upper Room to go to
Gethsemane), he poured forth the story of his suffering,
conflict, triumph and glorification. A. A. Bonar.
Whole Psalm. An attentive reader of the Book of Psalms will observe that almost every one of them has a view to Christianity. Many, if not most of the psalms, were without doubt occasioned originally by accidents of the life that befell their royal author; they were therefore at the same time both descriptive of the situation and life, the actions and sufferings, of King David, and predictive also of our Saviour, who was all along represented by King David, from whose loins he was descended according to the flesh. But this Psalm appears to be wholly written with a view to Christianity. It begins with an exhortation to all true servants and zealous worshippers of God, to "praise his name, "at all times, and in all places; "from this time forth and for evermore, "and "from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof." And the ground of this praise and adoration is set forth in the following verses to be, first, the glorious majesty of his Divine nature; and next, the singular goodness of it as displayed to us in his works of providence, particularly by exalting those who are abased, and his making the barren to become fruitful. His lifting the poor out of the mire, and making the barren woman to become fruitful, may, at first sight, seem an odd mixture of ideas. But a right notion of the prophetic language will solve the difficulty; and teach us, that both the expressions are in fact very nearly related, and signify much the same thing. For by the "poor" are here meant those who are destitute of all heavenly knowledge (the only true and real riches) and who are sunk in the mire and filth of sin. So, again, his making "the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children, "is a prophetic metaphor, or allusion to the fruitfulness of the Church in bringing forth sons or professors of the true religion. My interpretation of both these expressions is warrantable from so many parallel passages of Scripture. I shall only observe that here the profession of the Christian faith throughout the whole earth is foretold; as also the particular direction or point of the compass, toward which Christianity should by the course of God's providence be steered and directed, viz., from East to West, or "from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same." James Bate, 1703-1775.
Ver. 1. Praise ye the LORD. Praise. The wllh is repeated. This repetition is not without significance. It is for the purpose of waking us up out of our torpor. We are all too dull and slow in considering and praising the blessings of God. There is, therefore, necessity for these stimuli. Then this repetition signifies assiduity and perseverance in sounding forth the praises of God. It is not sufficient once and again to praise God, but his praises ought to be always sung in the Church. Mollerus.
Ver. 1. Praise ye the Lord. This praising God rests not in the mere speculation or idle contemplation of the Divine excellence, floating only in the brain, or gliding upon the tongue, but in such quick and lively apprehensions of them as to sink down into the heart, and there beget affections suitable to them; for it will make us love him for his goodness, respect him for his greatness, fear him for his justice, dread him for his power, adore him for his wisdom, and for all his attributes make us live in constant awe and obedience to him. This is to praise God, without which all other courting and complimenting of him is but mere flattery and hypocrisy...God Almighty endowed us with higher and nobler faculties than other creatures, for this end, that we should set forth his praise; for though other things were made to administer the matter and occasion, yet man alone was designed and qualified to exercise the act of glorifying God...In short, God Almighty hath so closely twisted his own glory and our happiness together, that at the same time we advance the one we promote the other. Matthew Hole, 1730.
Ver. 1. Praise, O ye servants of the LORD. From the exhortation to praise God, and the declaration of his deserving to be praised; learn, that as it is all men's duty to praise the Lord, so in special it is the duty of his ministers, and officers of his house. First, because their office doth call for the discharge of it publicly. Next, because as they should be best acquainted with the reasons of his praise, so also should they be the fittest instruments to declare it. And lastly, because the ungodly are deaf unto the exhortation, and dumb in the obedience of it; therefore when he hath said, "Praise ye the Lord, " he subjoins, "Praise, O ye servants of the Lord." David Dickson.
Ver. 1. Ye servants of the LORD. All men owe this duty to God, as being the workmanship of his hands; Christians above other men, as being the sheep of his pasture; preachers of the word above other Christians, as being pastors of his sheep, and so consequently patterns in word, in conversation, in love, in spirit, in faith, in pureness. 1Ti 4:12. John Boys.
Ver. 1-3.
Hallelujah, praise the Lord!
Praise, ye servants, praise his name!
Be Jehovah's praise adored,
Now and evermore the same!
Where the orient sunbeams gleam.
Where they sink in ocean's stream,
Through the circuit of his rays
Be your theme Jehovah's praise.
Richard Mant.
Whole Psalm. The psalm contains three parts:
1. An exhortation to God's servants to praise him.
2. A form set down how and where to praise him, ver. 2, 3.
3. The reasons to persuade us to it.
(a) By his infinite power, ver. 4, 5.
(b) His providence, as displayed in heaven and earth,
verse 6. Adam Clarke.
Ver. 1. The repetitions show,
1. The importance of praise.
2. Our many obligations to render it.
3. Our backwardness in the duty.
4. The heartiness and frequency with which it should be rendered.
5. The need of calling upon others to join with us.
Ver. 1.
1. To whom praise is due: "the Lord."
2. From whom it is due: "ye servants of the Lord."
3. For what is it due: his "name."
a. For all names descriptive of what he is in himself.
b. For all names descriptive of what he is to his servants. G. R.
Ver. 1, 9. Praise ye the Lord.
1. Begin and end life with it, and do the same with holy service, patient suffering, and everything else.
2. Fill up the interval with praise. Run over the intervening verses.
Psalms 113:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 7, 9 Praise the name of the Lord.
Psa_113:1-9
Praise the name of the Lord.
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Highest service and the highest Being
I. The highest service in which intelligent creatures can engage. What is praise? Not verbal laudation, however enthusiastic in feeling, appropriate in language, or transporting in music. What, then, is it to praise God? It is to have our whole souls, and being, attuned to His holy character, and to His benevolent purpose. A holy life is the only true anthem.
1. Because its inspiration can alone give worth to all other services.
2. Because it alone can harmoniously develop and satisfy all the faculties and aspirations of our nature. It is--
(1) A service for all men (verse 1).
(2) A service for all time (verse 2).
(3) A service for all space (verse 3).
II. The highest being that intelligent creatures can contemplate.
1. His character. All-wise, all-holy, all-merciful, etc.
2. His incomparableness (verse 4).
3. His condescension (verse 6).
4. His operation--
(1) Abroad in society (verse 7).
(2) At home in families (verse 9). He operates in families as well as abroad and in society. To Him the birth of every child must be ascribed. (Homilist.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 113
Psalms 113
THIS pure burst of praise is the first of the psalms composing the Hallel, which was sung at the three great feasts (Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles), as well as at the festival of Dedication and at the new moons. "In the domestic celebration of the Passover night the Hallel is divided into two parts; the one half, Psalms 113 and Psalms 114, being sung before the repast, before the emptying of the second festal cup, and the other half, Psalms 115-118, after the repast, after the filling of the fourth cup, to which the having sung a hymn in Mat_26:30 and Mar_14:26 may refer" (Delitzsch, in loc.).
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Three strophes of three verses each may be recognised, of which the first (Psa_113:1-3) summons Israel to praise Jehovah, and reaches out through all time and over all space, in longing that Gods name may be known and praised. The second strophe (Psa_113:4-6) magnifies Gods exalted greatness; while the third (Psa_113:7-9) adores His condescension, manifested in His stooping to lift the lowly. The second and third of these strophes, however, overlap in the song, as the facts which they celebrate do. Gods loftiness can never be adequately measured, unless His condescension is taken into account; and His condescension never sufficiently wondered at, unless His loftiness is felt.
The call to praise is addressed to Israel, whose designation "servants of Jehovah" recalls Isaiah 11s characteristic use of that name in the singular number for the nation. With strong emphasis, the name of Jehovah is declared as the theme of praise. Gods revelation of His character by deed and word must precede mans thanksgiving. They, to whom that Name has been entrusted, by their reception of His mercies are bound to ring it out to all the world. And in the Name itself, there lies enshrined the certainty that through all ages it shall be blessed, and in every spot lit by the sun shall shine as a brighter light, and be hailed with praises. The psalmist has learned the world wide significance of Israels position as the depository of the Name, and the fair vision of a universal adoration of it fills his heart. Psa_113:3 b may be rendered "worthy to be praised is the name," but the context seems to suggest the rendering above.
The infinite exaltation of Jehovah above all dwellers on this low earth and above the very heavens does not lift Him too high for mans praise, for it is wedded to condescension as infinite. Incomparable is He; but still adoration can reach Him, and men do not clasp mist, but solid substance, when they grasp His Name. That incomparable uniqueness of Jehovah is celebrated in Psa_113:5 a in strains borrowed from Exo_15:11, while the striking description of loftiness combined with condescension in Psa_113:5 b and Psa_113:6 resembles Isa_57:15. The literal rendering of Psa_113:5 b and Psa_113:6 a is, "Who makes high to sit, Who makes low to behold," which is best understood as above. It may be questioned whether "On the heavens and on the earth" designates the objects on which His gaze is said to be turned; or whether, as some understand the construction, it is to be taken with "Who is like Jehovah our God?" the intervening clauses being parenthetical; or whether, as others prefer, "in heaven" points back to "enthroned on high," and "on earth" to "looks far below." But the construction which regards the totality of created things, represented by the familiar phrase "the heavens and the earth," as being the objects on which Jehovah looks down from His inconceivable loftiness, accords best with the context and yields an altogether worthy meaning. Transcendent elevation, condescension, and omniscience are blended in the poets thought. So high is Jehovah that the highest heavens are far beneath Him, and, unless His gaze were all-discerning, would be but a dim speck. That He should enter into relations with creatures, and that there should be creatures for Him to enter into relations with, are due to His stooping graciousness. These "far-darting looks are looks of tenderness, and signify care as well as knowledge. Since all things lie in His sight, all receive from His hand.
The third strophe pursues the thought of the Divine condescension as especially shown in stooping to the dejected and helpless and lifting them. The effect of the descent of One so high must be to raise the lowliness to which He bends. The words in Psa_113:7-8 are quoted from Hannahs song. {1Sa_2:8} Probably the singer has in his mind Israels restoration from exile, that great act in which Jehovah had shown His condescending loftiness, and had lifted His helpless people as from the ash heap, where they lay as outcasts. The same event seems to be referred to in Psa_113:9 under a metaphor suggested by the story of Hannah whose words have just been quoted. The "barren" is Israel. {comp. Isa_54:1} The expression in the original is somewhat obscure. It stands literally "the barren of the house," and is susceptible of different explanations; but probably the simplest is to regard it as a contracted expression for the unfruitful wife in a house, "a housewife, but yet not a mother. Such a one has in her husbands house no sure positionIf God bestows children upon her, He by that very fact makes her for the first time thoroughly at home and rooted in her husbands house" (Delitzsch, in loc.). The joy of motherhood is tenderly touched in the closing line, in which the definite article is irregularly prefixed to "sons," as if the poet "points with his finger to the children with whom God blesses her" (Delitzsch, u.s.). Thus Israel, with her restored children about her, is secure in her home. That restoration was the signal instance of Jehovahs condescension and delight in raising the lowly. It was therefore the great occasion for world wide and age-long praise.
The stager did not know how far it would be transcended by a more wonderful, more heart-touching manifestation of stooping love, when "The Word became flesh." How much more exultant and world filling should be the praises from the lips of those who do know how low that Word has stooped, and how high He has risen, and how surely all who hold His hand will be lifted from any ash heap and set on His throne, sharers in the royalty of Him who has been partaker of their weakness!
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 1. Another of the Hallelujah Psalms 2. Date and…
INTRODUCTION
1. Another of the Hallelujah Psalms 2. Date and authorship unknown.
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3. The first of six Psalms in the Jewish liturgy (113–118) termed Hallel, or the Egyptian Hallel, as distinguished from the great Hallel. “This Psalm continued to be received while the temple stood, and is still recited in Palestine eighteen times a year, apart from its customary, though not legal use, at the new moon. Outside of Palestine it is now yearly recited twenty-one times.… At the family celebration of the Passover Psalms 113, 114. were sung before the meal, and indeed before the emptying of the second cup, and the others after the meal, and after the filling of the fourth cup.”—Moll.
A NOBLE PEOPLE AND A NOBLE SERVICE
(Psa_113:1)
Nobility consists in those endowments which render the possessors worthy of honour. Nobility of service consists in the consecration of those endowments to the best being, for the best ends. This is nowhere fully the case except in the service of God.
I. The servants of God are a noble people. All God’s servants are noblemen. Abraham, Moses, Caleb, Job, Isaiah, Zerubbabel, and the promised Messiah, God speaks of as “My servants.” Christ’s designation of Himself is, “I am among you as one that serveth.” Nebuchadnezzar and Darius saw that Daniel and the three Hebrew youths were “servants of God.” Paul, Peter, Timothy, James, and Jude called themselves servants of God. All Israel was such ideally; all Christians are so actually.
1. God’s servant realises the noblest and most perfect ideal of life.
(1.) Some men live for pleasure.
(2.) Some for intellectual effort.
(3.) Some for moral excellence.
(4.) But God’s servants live for Him. And here they have what they can never otherwise have, a powerful motive for virtue, full mental culture, and all legitimate enjoyment, for the education and completion of their whole being, hence God’s service is the noblest ideal of life.
2. God’s servants have the noblest master. It ennobles the proudest peer in the land to be in the service of his sovereign.
3. God’s servants yield to the noblest claims. “I have made thee for Myself.” This was not based upon any merit in us, but upon His free love and mercy. And therefore God’s claims rest—
(1.) Upon the right of property. We have rights over the products of our hand and brain. So has God.
(2.) Upon the right of sustenance and preservation. The basest ingratitude is that which ignores the right of those to whose generosity we owe our all.
(3.) Upon the right of redemption. Note the price by which it was effected, the curse from which it rescues, the dignities to which it elevates.
4. God’s servants have the noblest warrant for their service.
(1.) The warrant of reason. Their service is a “reasonable service.”
(2.) The warrant of conscience.
(3.) The warrant of love.
5. God’s servants are promised and enjoy the noblest rewards. God Himself. “I will be their God.” There are many subordinate rewards, but this comprehends and crowns them all.
II. God’s service is a noble service. “Praise the name of the Lord.” This injunction no doubt refers to acts of religious worship as such. But it suggests much more, for all the acts of religious life are worship. “That ye should show forth the praises of Him,” &c. “Glorify God in your bodies and spirits which are His.”
1. It is noble in the dignity of its sphere. It links man with God Himself. Man becomes a “worker together with God,” with Christ, who accomplishes His mighty undertakings by human agency; with the Holy Ghost, who uses man as His mouthpiece for conviction of sin, &c.
2. It is noble in the motive from which it springs. All life is noble or ignoble according as it is actuated by noble or ignoble aims. God’s servants aim at “pleasing God.” This motive animated our Lord, Joh_8:29; Enoch, Heb_11:5; Solomon, 2Sa_7:29.
3. It is noble in the instruments by which it is accomplished. All that is morally worthy is pressed into this service; the mind purged from error; the will freed from prejudice; the heart emancipated from irregular passion and sin; the body a temple of the Holy Ghost.
4. It is noble in the freedom of its consecration. It is not pressed service, it is purely voluntary under the “royal law of liberty.”
5. It is noble in the uses which it serves. Doing the “will of God on earth as it is done in heaven.”
GRATITUDE
(Psa_113:2)
Our text suggests—
I. That there are grounds for gratitude. We bless God for blessing us. These grounds are universal. “What hast thou that thou didst not receive?” From Him descends “every good and perfect gift.”
1. Physical. The body with its organs, senses, members, susceptibilities of pleasure, provision for clothing, shelter, food, &c.
2. Mental. Literature, science, art, authors, poets, artists, are gifts from God.
3. Spiritual. The Bible, Gospel, means of grace, &c.
4. Political. Government, liberty.
II. That these grounds are often ignored.
1. Men lose sight of their benefactor. This may be
(1) Deliberate. Men dislike to be under an obligation. The Emperor Basil was saved when hunting by a courtier, and all Constantinople was speculating about the reward, when, to the astonishment of all, the preserver of his sovereign was ordered out to execution on the ground that the debt could never adequately be repaid. So men owe so much to God that the sense of obligation becomes burdensome, and they therefore endeavour to banish Him from their minds.
(2) Careless. Like the conduct of many children towards their parents. The blessings are so very regular that we forget their source.
2. Men make light of their blessings.
(1.) Of their physical gifts. Sin prostitutes them, and the attendant misery is charged upon God.
(2.) Of their mental gifts. The mind has wandered into unprofitable speculations, and is forthwith made responsible for the doubts and errors into which men fall. And men wish themselves dogs, without the power of thought.
(3.) Spiritual gifts, from their fancied sufficiency.
(4.) Political gifts, from love of lawlessness.
3. Men deny the utility of thankfulness. “If man serves us we repay him, in kind if he needs it; or by gratitude which gratifies his spirit. But what kind of repayment or gratification can God receive?” True, the divine benefactor is not dependent on man’s gratitude or gifts; but this overlooks the duty of acknowledging a gift whether it advantages its giver or not.
III. That these grounds should be acknowledged by present thankfulness. The obligation commences the moment the gift is conferred, and should therefore be acknowledged forthwith.
1. Circumstances should not be allowed to interfere. Those circumstances are God’s gifts, and should not be turned into instruments for robbing Him of His rights.
2. Persons should not be allowed to interfere. The dearest human relative ought not to be so close as God. Debts incurred to man are not to be compared with those we owe to God.
3. Inclination should not be allowed to interfere. They do not interfere with our service to man, nor should they with our duty to God.
IV. That these grounds should be acknowledged by perpetual thankfulness. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” “His mercy endureth for ever,” therefore, &c. Learn—
(i.) The evils of ingratitude. It narrows the intellect, contracts the heart, restricts the sphere of service, and engenders a cold, hard, barren selfishness.
(ii.) The advantages of thankfulness. It secures further blessings from God, enlarges the volume of manhood, and prepares for the service of heaven.
UNIVERSAL WORSHIP
(Psa_113:3)
I. God’s name ought to be praised everywhere, because—
1. Everywhere He is worthy of praise.
(1.) God’s government is everywhere founded and administered on principles of righteousness.
(2.) His beneficent provision for His creatures’ want—His sun, His showers, His fruits, &c.—is made everywhere.
(3.) His almighty protection, upholding the universe and protecting His creatures, is afforded everywhere.
(4.) His offers of mercy extend, without distinction of race or order, everywhere. His Son died for all, His Spirit strives with all, His Church welcomes all, and His heaven was made for all.
2. Everywhere He is acknowledged to exist. Sometimes this belief has been adulterated with error, but the substratum of the truth everywhere remains, and nothing can eradicate it. In all the great civilisations it has universally obtained. It has been said recently that a few savage tribes are without it, which, if true, is very unfortunate for atheism; for that would prove that unbelief in God is only possible to the most degraded and brutal barbarism. In all ages God has been the trust of mankind.
3. Everywhere, that is the end of God’s providential plan. “All shall know the Lord from the least even unto the greatest.” “All nations shall do Him service.” That is the grand destiny of the human race (Mal_1:11; Rev_5:8-14).
4. Everywhere, that is the law of man’s true dignity. The history of the world shows that men are elevated and civilised in proportion to their recognition of the Most High. Everywhere it ennobles and sanctifies.
II. God’s name ought to be praised under all circumstances. Under all the various conditions revealed by the progress of the sun, should man render grateful homage.
1. In the business of the day, for He makes it possible.
2. In the family affairs of the day, for He controls them.
3. In the vicissitudes of the day. In prosperity or adversity, for He is the author of both.
4. In the transactions of government, for He is King of kings and Lord of lords.
5. And, since “He giveth His beloved sleep,” in the repose which follows the setting sun.
III. God’s name ought to be praised at all times.
1. In the beneficent march of the seasons, for they are led by Him.
2. In the gracious division of day and night, for it was fixed by Him.
3. “Early in the morning,” at noon (Daniel), at night (our Lord on Olivet); for all departments of the day are ordained by Him.
THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF NATIONS
(Psa_113:4, clause 1)
The figure is that of God seated on His throne as King of kings and Lord of lords.
I. The divine government is personal. “The Lord is high.” Human governments are institutional. But, while God usually works through natural laws, &c., He can work without them, and is always superior to them. “He maketh His sun to shine.” “He doeth according to His will,” &c.
II. The divine government is exalted “above all nations.” Superior in its basis, aims, methods, to the best human government. It is superior in wisdom, comprehensiveness, sympathy, goodness, and resources, because directly administered by supreme wisdom, goodness, and power.
III. The divine government, from its exaltation, is suitable to the circumstances of all nations.
1. It is absolute perfection. Human legislation is made up of caprices, mistakes, changes. The great task of human governors is to alter, modify, or improve on the legislation of their predecessors, and thus it cannot be suited to all the circumstances of mankind. On the contrary, God’s laws are unalterable, because incapable of improvement, and because promulgated by the all-perfect mind.
2. It is founded on the reason of things, and, therefore, is not arbitrary. It does not contemplate classes, &c.; it is perfect equity, and all nations may expect even-handed justice from the hands of God.
IV. God’s government is benevolent towards all nations. Many societies are founded on the supposition that men were made for governments, and not governments for men. God rules for the express benefit of nations. They require, and so they receive, His control and care. But is this borne out by facts! Look at the miseries of nations. Answer—
1. Much of this misery is self-inflicted. If men will break God’s laws they must take the consequences. All nations who are faithful to God are blessed.
2. These miseries are insignificant compared with their blessings. Our years of tyranny or depression must be balanced by the years of prosperity and freedom.
3. These miseries subserve benevolent and righteous ends. How often have famines been sent to drive a nation to its God. How often has God used a destructive war to expel a tyrant from his throne. Famine brought free trade. The Marian persecution inaugurated the Elizabethan reformation. The American war abolished slavery.
V. The divine government is administered by Christ. “The Father hath committed all judgment into His hands.” (Dan_7:13-14; Php_2:9.) Christ is qualified for this office.
1. By a personal acquaintance with His subjects.
(2.) By a personal relation with His subjects. He is a true King, not only the “able” but the “kinsman” of the race, born out of the bosom of humanity.
(3.) By an intense sympathy with His subjects.
(4.) By His accessibility to His subjects.
IN CONCLUSION. Let men and nations beware how they rebel against this government. Can they produce a better? They rebel against omnipotent goodness when they throw off their allegiance to God.
THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF HEAVEN
(Psa_113:4, clause 2)
God rules in heaven; and the difference between His government there and His government here is, that here men break its laws and thwart its beneficent designs; yonder all is harmony and obedience. “The Lord is high above all nations,” but His glory is above the heavens. Here that glory is but faintly illustrated amidst the partial obedience of the best of His creatures and the rebellion of the rest; there fully. This government is based on the same principles, conducted by the same methods, and contemplates the same ends among glorified spirits as among men, and is acknowledged and obeyed;—
I. Universally. Revelation 5.
II. Reverentially. Isa_6:2. “With twain he covered his face.”
III. Swiftly. Isa_6:2. “With twain he did fly.”
IV. Comprehensively. The ends of the divine government are the sole object of their service; they have no personal aims to secure, because in doing God’s will they secure all.
V. Continually. “They rest not day nor night.”
VI. Willingly. Their wills are in complete harmony with the will of God. Sin does not warp their inclination, and they are under no powerful restraint towards wrong.
VII. Perfectly. No sin blears their vision or blights their faculties. They see what is the perfect will of God, and do it with all the completeness of their being.
Let all Christians pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.”
THE ABSOLUTE
(Psa_113:5)
Verses5 and 6 in the original present a parallelism which is not preserved in the English version. As Hebrew poetry they would stand thus:—
Who is like unto Jehovah, our God,
Who sits throned on high,
Who casts looks so low,
In the heavens and in the earth?
The italics of A. V. are of course supplied by the translators to make what appeared to be the best sense. We propose to treat the second and third lines (with Bunsen, Delitzsch, Hengstenberg, &c.) as a parenthesis. Our subject, therefore, is The Absolute; the incomprehensibleness of Deity. “Who is like unto Jehovah, our God, in the heavens and in the earth?” Notice—
I. That the incomprehensibleness of God is generally acknowledged. Observe—
1. How it is presented in the Bible. (Exo_3:14; Exo_15:11; Deuteronomy 4; 1Sa_2:2; 1Ki_8:12-27; Job_5:9; Job_11:7-9; Job_37:5; Job_37:23; Psa_89:6; Psa_145:3; Eccl. 16:21; Isaiah 40, 43; Rom_11:33-34.)
2. How it is presented by philosophy. Socrates maintained that “he only knew this, that he knew nothing.” Plato: “The Maker and Father of the worlds, it is difficult to discover, and when found impossible to make him known to all” The Eleatic school held that “we ought not to assert anything concerning the gods, for we have no knowledge of them.” So the Stoics. Modern schools assert the same. Schelling says, “God is that which is in itself and only from itself can be conceived.” So indeed Hamilton, Mansel, Spenser, and Matthew Arnold. “A God all known and comprehended is no God. That which I fully know and understand, is below, not above me, for I have mastered it. I have not to worship it, it must bow down to me. That which towers immeasurably above me, which I cannot scale and cannot fathom, before which I am as nothing, that and that alone, I fall down to and adore—not ignorance, but knowledge is the mother of devotion. Nevertheless, the sense of ignorance in the created mind, of immeasurable ignorance and infirmity, is preliminary and essential to all true adoration.”—Dr. J. Young.
3. How it is presented by heathen, religions. “Seek fellowship with Zeus and Epictetus.” Alas! it was the Zeus that was wanting.… There was a yearning for God, for personal fellowship with God, for personal likeness to God.… ‘But who is the Zeus, the god of whom you talk, that I may believe on Him,’ was the cry which grew more hopeless and agonising generation by generation … to which religion had no answer.”—Baldwin Brown.
II. That men have universally striven to solve the mystery, by taking up the challenge of our text. Sir W. Hamilton says, “From Xenophanes to Leibnitz the infinite, the absolute, th unconditioned formed the highest principle of speculation.” And, as the only way in which man can define anything is by a process of more or less adequate comparison and illustration, he has endeavoured to figure God, and thus much of theology in all ages has been but the projected shadow of human thought.
1. Much of natural theology has been constructed in this way. It assumes that God is, and then undertakes to show what God is like. Man is capable of fashioning and combining existing materials, and directing them to the accomplishment of new results. So he thinks of a God like himself, a creator. He is capable of directing his materials to serve a definite and intelligent end. So he ascribes skill and design to the creator, and by his observation of the adaptation of means to ends in the world, that belief is confirmed. He is a father or king ruling by laws which he enforces by rewards and punishments. So his maker is argued to be his governor, who will bless his obedience and punish his sin.
2. Much of both so-called orthodoxy and heterodoxy has been constructed in this way. Arianism arose out of the transfer of human paternity to the divine nature. Calvinism starts with a sovereignty of God built upon the idea of remorseless human despotism. Many other theories, particularly some prevalent in the present day, proceed upon the assumption that God’s thoughts are as our thoughts, and His ways as our ways.
3. The various heathen mythologies have been built up in this way. Very few are disposed to deny that the spiritual unity of God was the primitive belief of mankind. St. Paul shows the process from this to the most debasing forms of idolatry (Rom_1:18-32). Sin darkened man’s understanding and led his reason astray. It is easy to see how the divine attributes might have become dissociated, then made to represent independent divine forces, and then separate divine persons. It is also easy to see how these independent persons could be symbolised by natural powers and objects supposed to be most like them; and it is only a step further to manufacture a permanent symbol; and hence idol worship. Thus the progress of symbolism was first downwards from God, then upwards to Him. Nature worship was the earliest form of idolatry. Then human. The gods of nature were endowed with human attributes and forms, and heroes and ancestors were deified. The process went on till not a natural object, beautiful or monstrous, good or malign, and not a single human quality, good or bad, wise or ridiculous, but had its temple, peculiar, and in many cases consistent, worship, and its symbolical form. The difficulty became to distinguish what was not divine. What an exposition of “Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thyself”!
4. “The fundamental position of rationalism is, that man by his own reason can attain to a right conception of God.” “Fools, to dream that man can escape from himself, that human reason can draw aught but a human portrait of God! They do but substitute a marred and mutilated humanity for one exalted and entire; they add nothing to their conception of God as He is, but only take away a part of their conception of man.”—Mansel.
III. That the Bible gives us a revelation of all that may be known of God in a manner suited to our faculties and saving to our soul. “The infinite cannot be grasped within our thoughts, nor within any limits, for on all sides it has no limits. To know God in His infinity is impossible, but to know much respecting the God who is infinite is quite another thing, and may be grandly possible.”—Dr. J. Young. The Biblical representations of God are very bold, but they are carefully guarded; and the difference between the symbolism which is the result of human speculation and that of divine revelation is, that the former degrades the Deity, the latter guides the human mind to transcend itself and lifts it up to the idea of infinite perfection. We may see notably in the mystery of the Incarnation, “the light which was manifested, that He the Eternal Son might reveal to men the Father whom no man hath seen or can see.… Parable after parable led men from earthly relations to those of the kingdom of heaven … the sower, the householder, the bridegroom, the father, the king.… But it was much more in Himself.… It was through His human nature as the Son of Man that men were to approach to a knowledge of the divine mind.… We who believe that the Word was in the beginning with God and was God, became flesh and tabernacled amongst us, … can enter into the meaning of the words, ‘The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father He hath declared Him,’ and listen with awe and adoration to that which, if it were not true, would have been a blasphemy to make us shudder: ‘Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ ”—Plumptre.
IV. These considerations lead us to the following conclusions.
1. That the question of our text must remain unanswered. God, like every other great truth, is incapable of full definition, whether by words or illustrations.
The most perfect painting conveys no adequate idea of the sun. The most perfect model only faintly resembles a flower. The ablest disquisition leaves the mystery of life unsolved.
2. That God has given us similitudes of what is best and holiest within the grasp of man’s feeble intelligence, that every one may be able to form some conception of His character and will. The hem of the garment was enough for the poor woman in the gospels; so our notions of power, wisdom, love, &c., are permitted faintly to illustrate the infinite perfections of God.
3. That God has given us these illustrations to lead us up to Himself. He tells man what He is like, that man may know by spiritual apprehension and indwelling what He is.
“One day Martin Luther was catechising some peasants. ‘Say thy creed,’ he said. ‘I believe in God, the Father Almighty.’ ‘What is it to be almighty?’ asked Martin. ‘Indeed, I cannot tell,’ and Luther, with rugged beautiful honesty, said, ‘Neither indeed, friend, can I; and if I were to tell you truly there is not a doctor in all Europe who could tell you what it is to be almighty; but if you will always remember that He is your Father Almighty, high enough to rule you, wise enough to teach you, strong enough to help you, kind enough to love you, it will be well and enough.’ ”—Coley.
THE MAJESTY AND CONDESCENSION OF GOD
(Psa_113:5-6)
The two extremes of God’s infinite perfections are exhibited in our text: “Who sits throned on high, who casts looks so low.” He is infinite in majesty, and demands our adoration; yet He is infinite in condescension, thus making our worship possible. The first attribute alone would appal us by its awful grandeur. The second alone would lead us to presume.
I. The majesty of God. “Who sits throned on high.”
1. Above the realm of space. There is nothing more sublime than the idea of infinite space. Of this we can understand little amid the contracted landscapes of our own country. We must stand where the mighty hills rear their cloud-capped pinnacles to heaven. But what is the grandest mountain range compared with the world of which it is but an excrescence! And what is the world itself but a speck in the system to which it belongs. And what is that system in comparison with those eighty millions of systems in the vast universe. And “these are part of His ways; but how small a portion is heard of Him.” Draw the line where we will, the immeasurable lies yet beyond, and above that immeasurable God sits throned.
2. Above all duration. Equally with the conception of space is that of time sublime. We cannot fix the mind on a continuous succession of periods without a corresponding elevation.
(1.) Look at the history of our own nation. We can trace it back till it is lost in hoar antiquity. But compare it with the history of the neighbouring continent. When Britain emerged from obscurity, Rome after a long and splendid history was approaching its fall. When Rome arose, the fortunes of Assyria were beginning to decline, and the monuments of Egypt were worn by the elemental battles of centuries; and before that comes patriarchal history and the years before the flood. Yet what is all this compared with scientifically recorded time! Millions upon millions of years may have elapsed between the creation of the first man and the beginning in which God created the heavens and the earth. And beyond that, “before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth or the worlds—from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God.”
(2.) But this is only half the conception. How much there is of life remaining to us we know not. But beyond the limits of the longest life possible to us there is a vast ocean of time measurable only by the infinite mind; and beyond that is boundless eternity. “Time reaches not to the steps of the eternal throne. No law of succession narrows in His doings. All things are ever before Him. He is the Everlasting now—past, present, future; time and space, these creatures of His hand, are not, in relation to His infinite perfection.”—Bishop Wilberforce.
3. In the sense of exalted spirituality.
II. The condescension of God, “who casts looks so low.” God does not dwell in solitary and indifferent grandeur in the high and lofty place. He is the Governor of the universe; its Father and its Friend.
1. God condescends to loot on physical laws and employs them.
2. God condescends to look upon man and visits him. Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, David, the Jewish nation, and at last through His Incarnate Son.
3. God condescends to look upon human governments and employs them. “He doeth according to His will,” &c. “By Him kings reign,” &c.—
“He sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall;
Atoms and systems into ruin hurled:
There a bubble burst, and here a world.”
Learn (i.) The danger of antagonism to God; (ii) The blessedness of the Divine condescension.
HUMAN EXALTATION
(Psa_113:7-8)
1. Psa_113:7-9 are almost word for word from the song of Hannah. (Cf. Song of Mary, Luk_1:46-48.)
2. Human exaltation is the result of the Divine benignity. Had God never noticed our lost race it had remained for ever in misery and degradation. But God’s notice was God’s redemption. The sentiment of our text may be illustrated—
I. In the various spheres of daily life, the poor have been lifted out of the dust, and have sat with princes.
1. In the scientific sphere,—Sir Wm. Arkwright, the inventor of the spinning jenny, was once a barber’s apprentice. Brindley, the engineer; Hugh Miller, the geologist; John Hunter, the physician, were day labourers. Thos. Edwards, the naturalist, was a shoemaker; Bewick, the engraver, a coalminer; Herschell, a bandsman; Faraday, the son of a poor blacksmith; Sir Isaac Newton, the son of a farmer; Davy, a country apothecary’s assistant
2. In the artistic sphere,—Turner, the painter, was a barber; Chantrey, a journeyman carver; Etty, a journeyman printer; Sir Thomas Lawrence, the son of a tavern-keeper; Inigo Jones, John Gibson, Romney, and Opie were labourers.
3. In the literary sphere,—Shakespeare was the son of a butcher; John Foster, a weaver; Ben Jonson and Allan Cunningham, day labourers; Drew, a shoemaker; Adam Clarke, the son of a poor schoolmaster; Elihu Burritt, a blacksmith; Dr. Lee, the great Hebrew scholar, a carpenter.
4. In the judicial sphere,—Lord Tenterden was once a barber’s boy; Talfourd, the son of a brewer; Baron Pollock, son of a saddler; Lord Eldon, the son of a coal-fitter.
5. In the army and navy,—Bonaparte rose from the ranks; Sir Cloudesley Shovel was a shoemaker, and Warren Hastings was an East India clerk.
6. In the Church,—Adrian IV. was a swineherd; Wolsey, the son of a butcher; Thomas a’ Beckett, of obscure origin, Bunyan a tinker; Whitfield, the son of an innkeeper; Martyn, the son of a miner; and Carey and Morrison were shoemakers.
7. In the field of discovery,—Cook was a day labourer; Baffin, a man before the mast; Livingstone, a weaver; and Layard, a solicitor’s clerk. Many more might be adduced in the political, social, and commercial spheres, but these are sufficient to show that God blesses the diligent use of the powers He has given. Would that they all had been employed for Him.
II. In God’s method of Redemption. All men are by sin sunk in moral degradation. They are lost to self, lost to destiny, lost to God. When God looks upon them He raises them from their fall, and by the regenerating power of His Spirit they become God’s heirs, joint heirs with Jesus Christ, and are anointed kings and priests unto God, and look forward to a crown, a sceptre, and a throne.
III. In the history of the Christian Church. Its beginnings were of the humblest possible character. Its Founder was the reputed son of a carpenter; its first officers peasants or fishermen. For the first century, the “wise and noble” were conspicuous by their absence. Its beginnings everywhere are the same. It aims to seek and to save the lost, and it is the lost and degraded that it welcomes. Its beginnings are humble, but its progress is ever mighty. Philosophers and statesmen are proud to partake of its privileges on a level with the peasant and the slave, and kings receive their crowns from its hands.
IV. In the resurrection of the body. (1 Corinthians 15.)
IN CONCLUSION.—(i.) All true greatness is the gift of God. (ii.) All true greatness commences with the recognition of God. (iii.) All greatness fails if it does not secure the consecration of God.
MOTHERHOOD: ITS BLESSINGS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
(Psa_113:9)
There is no sweeter name to a child than mother, and no sweeter name to a mother than her child’s. The two greatest curses of mankind are bad mothers and thankless children. Our text suggests—
I. That children are the subject of fond and prayerful desire.
1. This desirableness is in certain quarters denied.
(1.) By a false political economy. Children beyond a certain number are said to be the fruitful cause of misery and pauperism. So thought the Hindoos, and till recently the waters of the Ganges and the jaws of the alligator were the all-sufficient “check.” So thought the Spartans, and the “check” with them was wholesale infanticide. Not more unnatural and not less vile are the artificial checks of modern civilisation (?). But that civilisation forgets that the miseries of the world proceed not from large families, but from the parental vices which it permits and sanctions.
(2.) By a false sentiment. Children are said to be a trouble and expense, and men blasphemously treat the advent of children with humorous resignation, if not with positive chagrin, and feel that society requires that demeanour. What makes children a trouble and expense but the indolence, hardheartedness, or extravagance of parents?
2. This desirableness is recognised by
(1) The nature of things. “There is nothing addressing itself to nature to which the response is so quick, so universal, and so joyful as the coming of the young into the world.… There is almost nothing possessing a spark of intelligence which has not this inward preparation for rejoicing at the birth of offspring.… It is a bright day, or should be, in every household, in every neighbourhood, when a child is born, and a member added to society.”—H. W. Beecher.
(2) By the barren mother (see 1 Samuel 1, 2). Vain are all well-meant consolations. Tell her that they are but “careful comforts,” that she has her husband, and immunity from family cares, and she will tell you that she is willing to bear every anxiety, if she can only be the joyful mother of children.
(3) By a just moral sentiment, and a sound political economy. The object of existence can be but imperfectly attained without children. A family is a great incentive to industry. How many a wife has saved her husband from drunkenness and crime by the light and joy which children bring!
(4) By the word of God. Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, Manoah’s wife, &c.
3. This desirableness is ennobling. Because it is
(1) in harmony with the will of God (Gen_1:28).
(2) A desire to live for another.
(3) An evidence of the paternity of God, and in conformity with it.
II. That children are a mother’s joy. This is now happily, thanks to the Bible, passed into a proverb, and children in all healthy circles are now regarded as a necessary element in the happiness of life. There is—
1. The joy of expectation.
2. The joy of new maternity (Joh_16:21).
3. The joy of giving birth to citizens of the kingdom of heaven. They are the Lord’s heritage under both testaments (Psa_127:3).
4. The joy of training.
5. The joy of a nature ennobled and enlarged by maternity.
6. The joy of a HOME.
III. That children are a mother’s care. “He maketh a barren woman to keep house.” He “not only builds up the family, but thereby finds something for the heads to do.”—M. Henry. That being the case—
1. Value them. “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.” Their value does not lie altogether in their charms, &c., but in the fact that they are rational immortal beings, lent that you may enable them to realise the fact that they are “sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.”
2. Study them. Constant watchfulness, careful discrimination. It is not a virtue, but a vice that you are not guilty of to horses or dogs, to treat them all alike.
3. Provide for them (1Ti_5:8)
(1) Sufficient maintenance.
(2) A good education.
(3) A bright prospect.
4. Consecrate them to, and train them up in the nurture and admonition of, the Lord.
IV. That children are divine gifts. “He maketh.” Thus are they uniformly regarded in the Bible.
IN CONCLUSION.—“God is on the side of little children, and He is on the side of parents who wish to bring up their children right … and with some degree of teaching, and some degree of trust in God, you are adequate to lift your children from the plane of animalism, to the plane of social beings, and from that again to the plane of moral and spiritual beings; and when that is accomplished, the next change is to drop the animal altogether, and rise to the realm above, and be as the angels of God”—H. W. Beecher.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 The glory of Jehovah’s Name.
The glory of Jehovah’s Name.
1. And now the third Hallelujah celebrates Jehovah’s Name, now to be one, according to the testimony of the prophet, over all the earth. All servants of Jehovah are exhorted to praise it: to show thus that their obedience springs out of joyful adoration; the only service which can have value for Him. And the answer rings out joyfully: "Blessed be Jehovah’s Name! from this time even for ever." The full worship, too, is seen coming in: "from the rising of the sun to the going down of it, Jehovah’s Name shall be praised."
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2. Well may it be! for the whole scene of this praise is His creation. "He is high above all nations:" yea, "Jehovah’s glory is above the heavens." The Incomparable One! He has placed His dwelling on high; but He sees, and with tender interest, all that is in heaven and on earth. This leads to the next verse in which we see how deep this interest goes, and how wonderful are the results of it.
3. For He is Abraham’s God, the God of resurrection: this still told in Old Testament style, and to which the Christian revelation only has given its full glory. Yet the features of it can be still discerned and have been from the beginning. For He "raiseth the exhausted from the dust; He lifteth up the needy from the dunghill:" "an emblem of the deepest poverty and desertion; for in Syria and Palestine, the man who is shut out from society lies upon the mezbele (the dunghill or heap of ashes,) by day calling the passers-by for alms, and by night hiding himself in the ashes that have been warmed by the sun" (Delitzsch).
Out of this misery and degradation God yet raises up, to put a wretch like this among the nobles (nedibhim; the men of princely liberality) -yea, the nobles of his people. This is a repetition of Hannah’s words; and Hannah’s own case is before the psalmist’s mind, that case so memorable indeed for Israel: "He maketh the barren to keep house, a joyful mother of sons." Mary’s song, at the beginning of the New Testament, reminds us, could we ever forget it, that one birth, impossible but for the stooping of God to man, has filled here for us the place of all others. And herewith has come for every recipient of divine grace now, the promise and the power of a resurrection; by which those worse degraded than the dwellers on the dunghill are raised to higher place than that of princes! Hallelujah!
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 This Ps. begins the group (113-118) known in the…
This Ps. begins the group (113-118) known in the Jewish Church as the Hallel Psalms, or Hymns of Praise, from hillel, to praise. They are sung at the Passover Feast—Psalms 113, 114 before the second cup, and 115-118 after the fourth cup; formerly recited also at the other two feasts, at the New Moons, and on the eight days of the Feast of Dedication (Cheyne). Psalms 113 has been called the Magnificat of the Old Testament. Note the liturgical introduction and conclusion ('Hallelujah' = 'Praise ye the Lord') for use in the Temple service.
6. 'Who stoopeth down to look in heaven and on earth.'
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9. The barren woman] a grievous sorrow to a Jewish wife. There is here an echo of Hannah's song (1Sa_2:1-10).
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 113
Psalm 113
Hallelujah! Praise His Name!
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This third Hallelujah Psalm begins with a Hallelujah and ends with Hallelujah. It is given in the Authorized Version as “Praise ye the Lord” (as in all these Psalms). It would be more sublime to maintain this grand old Hebrew word “Hallelujah.” His Name is praised. “Praise the name of the Lord--Blessed be the Name of the Lord.” Yea from the rising of the sun unto the going down, from one end of the earth unto the other, the Lord’s Name is praised. He is above all nations. What Hannah so beautifully uttered in her song of Praise has come. “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill; that He may set him with princes, even with the Princes of His people.” That is Israel redeemed by Him. And so is “the barren woman, a joyful mother of children.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Praise of God’s Mercy toward the Lowly.
Praise of God’s Mercy toward the Lowly.
v. 1. Praise ye the Lord, this being the third hallelujah psalm, setting forth the majesty of God, together with His mercy in dealing with the humble. It was used as the introduction to the great hallel sung by the Jews on their great festivals, particularly on the Passover. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord, all the faithful, all true believers, who delight in the true ministry of Jehovah, praise the name of the Lord, setting forth the glory of His essence and attributes, as shown in His Word and works.
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v. 2. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore, the entire Church, with all its members, singing His praises as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, throughout eternity.
v. 3. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, throughout the length and breadth of the world, the Lord’s name is to be praised, all creatures being invited to join in this psalm.
v. 4. The Lord is high above all nations, exalted above all human states with their puny rulers, and His glory above the heavens, over which He, too, is the absolute Sovereign.
v. 5. Who is like unto the Lord, our God, who dwelleth on high, on the throne of His power,
v. 6. who humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth, that is, who, from His exalted position of omniscience and omnipresence, watches most carefully over everything that happens in heaven and earth.
v. 7. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, out of the condition of extreme lowliness, and lifteth the needy, the miserable and despised, out of the dunghill, or ash-heap, as one cast off by men and making the refuse heap of the city his dwelling;
v. 8. that He may set him with princes, even with the princes of His people, elevating him to a position in the nobility, the powerful people of the land.
v. 9. He maketh the barren woman to keep house, taking from her the disgrace of childlessness, and to be a joyful mother of children, a blessing which is often emphasized in the Bible. Praise ye the Lord! It is the proper song for the believers of all times, and all the blessings here enumerated are gratefully acknowledged by them in hymns of praise and in willing ministry of the hands.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 9 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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the name of Yahweh
Here the word "name" represents Yahweh, himself. AT: "Yahweh" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
praise
Yahweh
servant
name
bless
eternity
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 Pss 113–118 These psalms form what is known as…
Pss 113–118 These psalms form what is known as the “Egyptian Hallel” (hallel means “praise”) because Jews use the collection in the celebration of Passover, which was instituted at the beginning of the exodus from Egypt. Psalms 113–114 are recited before the Passover meal and Pss 115–118 afterward.
Ps 113 This hymn of praise exalts the greatness of the Lord’s name and glory. God is greatly exalted and glorious in heaven (113:4); he also stoops down to take care of the lowly and needy on earth (113:5-9).
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113:1-3 The name of the Lord (Hebrew Yahweh; see Exod 3:15) reveals his being, character, and reputation. He is exalted in time (now and forever) and in space (from east to west).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.