INTRODUCTION

In high school, I played basketball. And every time we would practice, we would perform the same drills over and over again. Despite repeated entreaties to our coach to let us just scrimmage the entire time, we would always perform the same basic drills over and over and over again to begin practice. The thing that our coach understood, and that we failed to notice, was the absolute necessity of basic skills such as dribbling and passing. While we were merely interested in showing off and playing around, our coach realized that in order to win, the basic skills of the game had to be mastered. We had to be reminded over and over and over again of the basics of the game and of their importance for us as a team.
In much the same way, we can often get sidetracked in the Christian life and begin to assume or forget or neglect some of the basic tenets of our faith. Psalm 113 is a psalm focused on one of – if not – the main tenets of our faith. If you ask any faithful Christian, “What is the purpose of the world and our existence in it?”, you will get some form of the answer “To glorify God.” We know, as a rote truth, that we exist to praise and glorify the Lord. The writer of Psalm 113 takes that truth and expounds upon it in 9 verses. And as we look at this psalm, it is my prayer that we will be moved once again by our responsibility to praise the Lord and by the astounding praiseworthiness of that Lord.
So, with that in mind, we will look at the Psalm itself – which breaks down neatly into three sections (v. 1-3, v. 4-6, & v. 7-9) – and then we will spend a good bit of time applying the text to our lives.

THE TRUTHS OF THE TEXT

The Lord is to be Praised (v. 1-3)

The Psalmist begins the psalm with a grand call to praise the Lord. He writes, “Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!” (v. 1-3). Reading these three verses – and combining them with the last line of the psalm, in which the psalmist reiterates this exhortation – it becomes very clear that the psalmist has one end in mind – praise.
Having recognized the desired end of the psalmist, let’s look a bit closer at the details of this desired end. First, notice the object of the praise: the Lord. There is no vagueness in this declaration; it is “the name of the Lord” that is to be praised. This is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the God of Israel. And even further back, this is the God who created the world. The psalmist’s wants that Lord to be praised, exalted, lifted up and glorified.
Second, notice that the psalmist wants the Lord to be praised “from this forth and forevermore” (v. 2). There is no time limit on this praise. It should endure as long as its object endures – which is to say forever. Implicit in this statement is as assumption that the exhorting that the psalmist is doing will occur among the people of God as well. If people do not know why they should praise the Lord, they will not do it. We will come back to that, but – at this point – we need to notice that this praise envisaged by the psalmist is meant to continue forever.
Third, this praise is meant to come from all peoples. The psalmist says, “From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised” (v. 3). The issue here is one of distance and scope. The psalmist uses the sun because the sun rises on one side of the world and sets on the other. This is poetic language for alluding to every place that sees the sun’s light. The whole world is to praise the Lord; at least that is the desire of the psalmist. So the psalm begins with this gloriously grand declaration that the Lord is to be praised everywhere, all the time, by all peoples, forever.

The Lord is to be Praised because of His Unique Greatness (v. 4-6)

Having laid out his purpose, the psalmist then moves on to give two main reasons why the Lord is to be praised. So the first reason that the Psalmist gives in support of the exhortation that the Lord should be praised is because of God’s unique position of exalted power and greatness. He says, “The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens” (v. 4). Those of us here are no strangers to the struggles between nations that vie for supremacy over one another, but the psalmist makes clear that God is sovereign over everyone of those nations in an undisputed way. There is no one above him, and – on top of that – the very heavens are beneath him. His glory is higher than the heavens. The imagery being used here is more an imagery of scale than of exact location. The heavens themselves make us feel small. Most human beings will never leave the outer atmosphere of this earth, and even the space explorations that we undertake are comparatively puny. We rejoice and gloat over the fact that we can reach the moon. And yet there are billions of miles of space that remain unexplored. And yet the glory of the Lord is greater than all of that unexplored space.
The psalmist continues on in this same vein by pointing out that the Lord is without peer in this position. He writes, “Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?” (v. 5-6). Again, the point of the psalmist’s words is to impress upon us the utter “otherness” of God. He is not like us, because he is infinitely greater than us. In fact, just as we look far down on the hills and paths of the ant, so the Lord looks far down on our world and our universe. Again, the imagery here is of scale more so than location. The psalmist is unconcerned with where God is located; he is more concerned with his reader’s comprehending how superior the Lord is to them no matter where he is located.
This is a common theme in the Old Testament, and it is picked up and elaborated upon in a couple of major passages. In Job, the book closes with a litany of statements that make clear the Lord’s unique and exalted position: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (38:4). “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb…and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?” (38:8,11). “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place?” (38:12). “Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?” (38:17). These references in Job are not mere tidbits of information – they are meant to elicit from Job a response of awe and worship. This is the God that we serve and the God that the psalmist holds up. These same themes are echoed in another key passage, Isaiah 40, where Isaiah writes, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?” (40:12). “Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” (40:13-14). Again, the themes are not mere pieces of information; they are meant to elicit from Israel a humble recognition of God’s power and a trust in his ability to save. We will come back to this in a moment for purposes of application, but – for now – recognize and meditate upon that level of unique power and authority.

The Lord is to Praised because of His Incredible Graciousness (v. 7-9).

The psalmist closes the psalm with one other main reason that the Lord should be praised and that is because – even with his unique and unmatched power and authority – the Lord cares intimately about us as people, particularly those of us who are needy. The psalmist, speaking about the Lord, writes, “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people” (v. 7-8). So the psalmist is holding up the mercy and grace that flow from the great and almighty Lord of the universe. It does not only say that he knows of the existence of these people. It does not merely say that he aids them every now and again. The imagery the psalmist uses is that the Lord takes the poor and needy from their places of poverty and neediness and places them in his very courts – those courts that are so highly exalted above the heavens and the earth. This is not just a little bit of help to get them started; this is grace to the fullest. This is God’s incredible power being guided by his incredible grace. The Lord not only condescends to these individuals but actually elevates them to positions of power and prestige.
The psalmist continues this theme with yet another image – that of the barren woman. He writes of the Lord, “He give the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children” (v. 9a). The imagery here is not that the Lord gives the barren woman a physical home like some cosmic Ty Pennington from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The imagery is that the Lord builds a household for the barren woman by giving her children. Again, there is much behind this image in the mind of the psalmist. In the Old Testament, barrenness was taken to be a sign of God’s curse upon a woman. It was something that no woman wanted and no man desired. In the Israelite culture, posterity was incredibly significant, so barrenness was terribly difficult. A woman who was barren was in danger of being in much the same position as the people in vs. 7-8. The reason the psalmist uses this imagery is because, like the Lord’s response to the poor and the needy, the Lord’s response to the barren woman shows his immense mercy and grace wedded to his incredible power.
The psalmist closes the psalm the same that it began, “Praise the Lord!” (v. 9b). He exhorted his readers to praise the name of the Lord at the beginning, and after giving foundational reasons for doing so, he renews the exhortation. The readers of Psalm 113 are to praise the Lord because the Lord is uniquely mighty and incredibly merciful. Why should these things cause the reader to praise the Lord? Because His power does not make him a mercenary, and his grace does not make him a wimp. His power is driven by his merciful designs of salvation, and his grace is carried along by his ability to do whatever he pleases. In the words of Derek Kidner in his heading for this psalm, there is “Nothing too great for him; no one too small.”

APPLICATION

Praise the Lord

It is impossible to read this psalm and not see that this is the main desire of the psalmist’s heart and the main point of the psalm itself. The psalmist is not setting out to merely lay out facts and pieces of information; he is attempting to elicit from his reader the very praise that of which he is speaking. Intellectual acknowledgement that the Lord is to be praised is admirable in many respects, but it is worthless if it does not work itself out in actual praise. We are not dealing with some make-belief character; we are dealing with the real and living God.
As we saw earlier, the psalmist makes clear that the Lord is to be praised everywhere, all the time, by all people forever. So, to make that very practical, do you praise the Lord in this way? Do your thoughts about God cause you to break forth in worship of him? Can you find time in the day to worship this sort of God? It is not an academic question with which we can quibble and debate. It is an incredibly practical question that is very easy to answer. Often times, we as Christians marvel at the fact that so many people are able to see easily and callously refuse to praise the Lord. Oh, we know and readily acknowledge that sin is a very powerful force, and yet we still marvel at times. In those times, we must ask ourselves, what then is our excuse? For those of us who have had the power of sin broken and have been set free and are free to learn and know about the great and glorious God that we serve, what is our excuse?
But, hopefully, as we recognize our struggles to praise the Lord, it drives us to then ask, “How can I move my heart to praise the Lord?” To that question, I would give two reasons to praise the Lord often – and they come directly from Psalm 113:

1) Praise the Lord because of his unique greatness.

As we notice our own hard-heartedness when it comes to praising the Lord, we should fight this by reminding ourselves that the God of Psalm 113 is the God of today. The God who was high above all nations in Psalm 113 is still in that position. There have been no successful assaults on his position yet and most certainly no successful assaults by the other things that vie for our praise and our affections. If we find ourselves enamored with our spouse or our families, we must remember that the Lord fitted those people together in the womb and gave them to us. Praise him. If we our enthralled by our job, it is the Lord who has given us the means to make wealth. If our affections are gripped by sports or money or any other physical part of this world, we must remind ourselves that all of those things will pass away and fade.
As we saw last week, our hearts will be exposed at the judgment when the Lord returns. We all praise something. The issue is not whether we are able to praise; the issue is whether the objects we praise and adore are worthy of that praise and adoration. Compare whatever grips your heart to the greatness of your God and see which one is more worthy.
We must make it a regular practice to think often about the greatness of God. If we wonder at the fact that thinking about how great God is does not move our hearts, it is a sure sign that we either do not think about it rightly or we do not think about it enough. Set aside time often to meditate on the Lord’s position and majesty. Read through Job 38-41 and Isaiah 40 often until they sink deep into your heart. Pray that the Lord would impress upon you just a bit of his greatness. There is a reason that every encounter with the Lord in Scripture is so awe-inspiring and fear-inducing (post-fall Eden, Sinai, Isaiah 6, etc.). It is because the people involved were able to rightly comprehend the greatness of God, and they praised him accordingly.

2) Praise the Lord because of his incredible graciousness.

On top of contemplating the Lord’s greatness in order to praise him rightly, contemplate his goodness. Do not just think about the fact that he raises poor people in general from the dust to make them sit with princes, but think about the fact that he has raised you who were dead in your trespasses from the dead and has seated you in the heavenly realms with Christ (Eph. 1:19-2:7). Think about the fact that you have been lifted up to a position that you have no right to occupy by a God who owed you nothing because of his pleasure and power and grace. It is easy for us to look at the people of Isreal and think, “Of course they understood the greatness and graciousness of God because they saw the Red Sea parted and they saw the glory of God at Sinai and they experienced God’s greatness and graciousness first-hand.” All too often, we forget that what we have experienced in being saved from our sins is actually the greater fulfillment of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. We marvel at the fact that God rescued Israel from the Egyptians, but we fail to marvel at the fact that God rescued us from Satan. We are astounded by the intimacy that Israelites in the Old Testament seemed to have with God, but we fail to be astounded by the fact that we can enter the true Holy of Holies in heaven in prayer whereas the Israelites were not even allowed to enter the copy of the true Holy of Holies on this earth.
The reality of these doctrines is that they are not abstract doctrines; they are intimately connected to us and to our own salvation and to our own place in life. The psalmist is not just exhorting any old people to praise God because he is great and good; he is exhorting you and I to praise the Lord because we deal with the same great and good Lord. I fear that – much like with God’s greatness – we are not moved by his graciousness simply because we do not think about it often enough. We must be sure to set aside time to meditate on God’s gracious work of redemption, because the goal of that work is not merely your salvation but the praise of the Lord for the salvation He has wrought. We must be sure to remind one another often of the God’s gracious work of redemption, because our goal as a church is not merely to socialize and hang out but to exhort one another to praise the name of the Lord.

Demonstrate to the world the unique greatness of God.

Another very practical way that I think Psalm 113 can be applied is by recognizing ourselves as ambassadors of the Lord himself and of his Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20 makes this very point as it goes so far as to say that God is making his appeal for reconciliation to the world through us. At very least, this verse seems to say that the very attributes of God that we have speaking about this morning are shown to the world by us as the people of God. We saw that the writer of Psalm 113 declared that the Lord is to be praised by all people everywhere. But Romans makes clear, “How are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Rom. 10:14). It is our responsibility not only to praise the Lord because of his unique greatness and incredible graciousness but also to tell others of those things so that they might praise the Lord as well.
So, with that in mind, we should demonstrate to the world the unique greatness of God. How can we do that? First of all, give credit where credit is due. “Luck” and “good fortune” are nonexistent entities – products of a world that is so creative in avoiding the Lord. As the Lord blesses you and provides for you out of his greatness, make sure it is obvious to everyone whose power accomplished that feat. As you see people around the world blessed by the Lord and yet failing to acknowledge him for it, remind them that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Hold up before them very clearly the source of all that is good in their lives.
Also, demonstrate to them the greatness of God by demonstrating to them his power over sin in your life. Sin and the struggles that sin begets are universal experiences that everyone can understand. We, as Christians, must demonstrate the reality of Romans 8 to the world. We must demonstrate that we have been set free from the power of sin and that we are no longer bound to it. And we must make clear that this freedom is from the power of God. We cannot marvel at the fact that people do not understand the greatness of God when that greatness seems to have no relevance or effect in our own lives. Make sure that it has effect. Fight sin because God’s power dwells within you, allowing you to overcome sin and its debilitating effects.

Demonstrate to the world the incredible graciousness of God.

Along the same lines, we should make sure that we are demonstrating to a watching world the reality of God’s graciousness. 1 John makes clear that we love because he first loved us. Likewise, we should show mercy because mercy has been shown to us. Again, is it any wonder that people mock the Lord when his people are less merciful than even average people? As ambassadors of God, we are the conduit through which God is known to the world. If the world does not know his graciousness, it could very well be because we are not being gracious.
Labor to make sure that all of your relationships are seasoned with grace. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Do you want others to overlook your missteps? Overlook theirs. Do you want others to put your desires before their own? Put theirs before yours. Do you want people to understand the incredible grace that God poured out on them at the cross and continues to pour out on them in their life itself? Show them grace by meeting their needs, caring for them and about them and telling them the gospel.

CONCLUSION

The realities of Psalm 113 are not only for our own personal good but for the good of the whole world. Let us be faithful to live out what we have seen. As we come to the table for communion, we come to remember the act which was the greatest demonstration of God’s greatness wedded to his mercy. The cross was the epitome of the Lord’s power because it was through the cross that sin and Satan were defeated. Those were powers greater than any earthly powers and the Lord put them to open shame, triumphing over them through the cross. It was also the greatest demonstration of his mercy because it was there that we poor people were made rich through the work of Christ. Let us be faithful to live in light of these truths this week. Amen.

BASICS: THE DUTY TO PRAISE AND REASONS TO DO SO