Add parallel Print Page Options

Psalm 113[a]

113 Praise the Lord.
Praise, you servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord.
May the Lord’s name be praised
now and forevermore.
From east to west[b]
the Lord’s name is deserving of praise.
The Lord is exalted over all the nations;
his splendor reaches beyond the sky.[c]
Who can compare to the Lord our God,
who sits on a high throne?[d]
He bends down to look[e]
at the sky and the earth.
He raises the poor from the dirt,
and lifts up the needy from the garbage pile,[f]
that he might seat him with princes,
with the princes of his people.
He makes the barren woman of the family[g]
a happy mother of children.[h]
Praise the Lord.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 113:1 sn Psalm 113. The psalmist praises God as the sovereign king of the world who reaches down to help the needy.
  2. Psalm 113:3 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. Psalm 113:4 tn Heb “above the sky [is] his splendor.”
  4. Psalm 113:5 tn Heb “the one who makes high to sit.”
  5. Psalm 113:6 tn Heb “the one who makes low to see.”
  6. Psalm 113:7 sn The language of v. 7 is almost identical to that of 1 Sam 2:8.
  7. Psalm 113:9 tn Heb “of the house.”
  8. Psalm 113:9 tn Heb “sons.”

113 Praise Yah!
    Praise, you servants of Yahweh,
    praise Yahweh’s name.
Blessed be Yahweh’s name,
    from this time forward and forever more.
From the rising of the sun to its going down,
    Yahweh’s name is to be praised.
Yahweh is high above all nations,
    his glory above the heavens.
Who is like Yahweh, our God,
    who has his seat on high,
    Who stoops down to see in heaven and in the earth?
He raises up the poor out of the dust.
    Lifts up the needy from the ash heap,
that he may set him with princes,
    even with the princes of his people.
He settles the barren woman in her home
    as a joyful mother of children.
Praise Yah!