Psalms 113 KJV
Praise to the Lord Most High
About This Psalm
Who is like the LORD? He stoops down to lift the poor from the dust. God's greatness shown in His humility.
1raise ye the LORD. 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 LORDโs 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.
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Did You Know?
Psalms 113 initiates the Egyptian Hallel (113-118) recited at Passover, where its reversal motif of lifting the poor from the dust directly parallels Israel's exodus from slavery as a collective act of divine exaltation.
The Hebrew verb in verse 6 describing the Lord who 'humbleth himself to behold' the heavens and earth carries connotations of deliberate stooping or bending down, a rare anthropomorphism that underscores God's transcendent yet intimate involvement with creation.
Verses 7-8 reuse nearly verbatim phrasing from Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2:8, embedding the psalm within an older poetic tradition of social reversal that later shaped Mary's Magnificat in Luke 1.
Verse 9's reference to making the barren woman a joyful mother of children invokes the ancestral narratives of Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel, framing God's intervention in fertility as part of the same pattern of elevating the marginalized seen earlier in the psalm.
The inclusio of 'Hallelujah' framing the entire chapter, combined with the command to praise 'from the rising of the sun unto the going down,' creates a temporal and spatial envelope that anticipates the worldwide spread of worship beyond Israel's borders.