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 west1
the Lord’s name is deserving of praise.
The Lord is exalted over all the nations;
his splendor reaches beyond the sky.2
Who can compare to the Lord our God,
who sits on a high throne?3
He bends down to look4
at the sky and the earth.
He raises the poor from the dirt,
and lifts up the needy from the garbage pile,5
that he might seat him with princes,
with the princes of his people.
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.”