PSALM 113

CONSIDER

• The God of Israel, who is exalted over all nations and whose glory is above the heavens, saw to the needs of the needy

• God is to be praised for stooping to lift the needy from the ash heap and seating them with princes  <R1795>

• ‘Praise the Lord’ or ‘Hallelujah’ is reserved when praising God for the deliverance from the wicked

• It appears mainly in the Old Testament (Psa 103-118) and one chapter of the New Testament (Rev 19)

NOTES BY VERSE

Note: each ** comment in this document is listed in numerical order according to the verse(s) from this chapter

** Followers of Christ are to recognize and praise the Lord at all times

Psalm 113:1-3 NIV

[1] Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, you his servants; praise the name of the Lord. [2] Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore. [3] From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.

Psalm 117:1 NIV

[1] Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.

** Our God is with us every moment of every day in every situation, when we call on Him in joyful praise

Psalm 90:14,17 NIV

[14] Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. [17] May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us---yes, establish the work of our hands.

Psalm 113:3 NIV

[3] From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.

** What a gracious stoop of love! He frequently lifts the lowest of mankind out of their poverty and degradation, and adopts them into His family.

His gracious Spirit is continually visiting the down-trodden, giving beauty for ashes to those who are cast down, and elevating the hearts of His mourners until they shout for joy.

These upliftings of grace are here ascribed directly to the divine hand, and truly those who have experienced them will not doubt the fact that it is the Lord alone who brings His people up from the dust of sorrow and death. When no hand but His can help, He interposes and the work is done.

"And lifts the needy from the dunghill" whereon they lay like worthless refuse, cast off and cast out--left as they thought, to rot into destruction, and to be everlastingly forgotten.

How great a stoop from the height of His throne, to a dunghill! How wonderful is that power which occupies itself in lifting up beggars, all befouled with the filthiness in which they lay! For He lifts them out of the dunghill, not disdaining to search them out from amidst the base things of the earth--that He may bring to nothing the great ones, and pour contempt upon all human glorying.

What a dunghill was that upon which we lay by nature!  What a mass of corruption is our original estate! What a heap of loathsomeness we have accumulated by our sinful lives! We could never have risen out of this corruption by our own efforts--we were dead men rotting in a dunghill of sin!

Almighty were the arms which lifted us, which are still lifting us, and will lift us into the perfection of Heaven itself!  <S185>

Psalm 113:4-8 NIV

[4] The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. [5] Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, [6] who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? [7] He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; [8] he seats them with princes, with the princes of his people.