Two Women and an Expanse of Praise

Psalm 113

Who Is like the LORD Our God?

 ¹ Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD,
   praise the name of the LORD!

 ² Blessed be the name of the LORD
   from this time forth and forevermore!
³ From the rising of the sun to its setting,
    the name of the LORD is to be praised!

 ⁴The LORD is high above all nations,
   and his glory above the heavens!
⁵ Who is like the LORD our God,
   who is seated on high,
⁶who looks far down
   on the heavens and the earth?
⁷He raises the poor from the dust
   and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
⁸to make them sit with princes,
   with the princes of his people.
⁹He gives the barren woman a home,
   making her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the LORD!

The phrase that bookends this Psalm, “Praise the Lord”, might ironically be more familiar and more meaningful in its original Hebrew: “Hallelu Yah.” We’ve taken it as hallelujah, a powerful one-word expression of our praise and esteem for Almighty God. The rest of the Psalm takes the single-word expression and gives it even more meaning by trying to describe the utter expanse of God and the resulting expanse of our praise for Him. This expansiveness is illustrated several ways:

Temporal: “From this time forth and forevermore”

Spatial: “From the rising of the sun to its setting”, or all the way around the world
                “Glory above the heavens”, or higher than we can comprehend

Authority: “High above all nations”, “Seated on high”

Our God is so completely boundless that all of His children are compelled to praise Him at all times in all places.

A more subtle illustration considers the timelessness of God. The text of verses 7 and 8 were uttered in a beautiful prayer by Hannah in the Old Testament (1 Samuel 2:8), and the theme was reiterated in another beautiful prayer by Mary in the New Testament (Luke 1:46-55). Take a moment right now to expand this timeless expanse of praise by one more day in your own life by offering to Him in prayer your description of our exalted, expansive God.