Psalm 113sn Psalm 113. The psalmist praises God as the sovereign king of the world who reaches down to help the needy.
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise, you servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord!
2 May the Lord’s name be praised
now and forevermore!
3 From east to westtn Heb “from the rising of the sun to its setting.” The extent is not temporal (“from sunrise to sunset”) but spatial (“from the place where the sun rises [the east] to the place where it sets [the west].” In the phenomenological language of OT cosmology, the sun was described as rising in the east and setting in the west.
the Lord’s name is deserving of praise.
4 The Lord is exalted over all the nations;
his splendor reaches beyond the sky.tn Heb “above the sky [is] his splendor.”
5 Who can compare to the Lord our God,
who sits on a high throne?tn Heb “the one who makes high to sit.”
6 He bends down to looktn Heb “the one who makes low to see.”
at the sky and the earth.
7 He raises the poor from the dirt,
and lifts up the needy from the garbage pile,sn The language of v. 7 is almost identical to that of 1 Sam 2:8.
8 that he might seat him with princes,
with the princes of his people.
9 He makes the barren woman of the familytn Heb “of the house.”
a happy mother of children.tn Heb “sons.”
Praise the Lord!
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