☰ Psalms 113
113
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 west1
the Lord’s name is deserving of praise.
4  The Lord is exalted over all the nations;
his splendor reaches beyond the sky.2
5  Who can compare to the Lord our God,
who sits on a high throne?3
6  He bends down to look4
at the sky and the earth.
7  He raises the poor from the dirt,
and lifts up the needy from the garbage pile,5
8  that he might seat him with princes,
with the princes of his people.
9  He makes the barren woman of the family6
a happy mother of children.7
Praise the Lord! 8
1 113:3 sn: Psalm 113. The psalmist praises God as the sovereign king of the world who reaches down to help the needy. 2 113:4 tn: 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. 3 113:5 tn: Heb “above the sky [is] his splendor.” 4 113:6 tn: Heb “the one who makes high to sit.” 5 113:7 tn: Heb “the one who makes low to see.” 6 113:9 sn: The language of v. 7 is almost identical to that of 1 Sam 2:8. 7 113:9 tn: Heb “of the house.” 8 113:9 tn: Heb “sons.”
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