Psalms 113 — Sermons
Psalm 113:1–9 — The Highest God Sees the Lowest Place
Text: Psalm 113:1–9
Publication translation: Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
Central truth: The incomparable LORD deserves praise everywhere and forever because His sovereign majesty includes gracious attention to people in the lowest places.
Sermon purpose: Call hearers to praise the LORD now, trust His wise compassion in unresolved grief, reject pride and partiality, and find final hope in Jesus Christ.
Controlling line: No one is higher than the LORD, and no one is too low for His attention.
Estimated preaching time: Approximately 23–28 minutes; approximately 2,600 spoken manuscript words.
Key themes: Praise; the name of the LORD; worldwide worship; divine transcendence; divine condescension; the poor and needy; barrenness; sovereign reversal; Christ’s humiliation and exaltation; resurrection hope.
Preaching-Unit Recommendation
Psalm 113:1–9 belongs together as one sermon. The opening call to praise expands through all time and across the earth in verses 1–3. Verses 4–6 then identify the incomparable LORD whose glory is above the heavens yet who stoops to behold His creation. Verses 7–9 show what His seeing means as He raises the poor, honors the needy, and gives joy in a place of private grief. The closing “Hallelujah” answers the opening command with the reasons supplied by the whole psalm. Psalm 112 has portrayed the God-fearing person who gives to the poor; Psalm 113 praises the LORD who raises the poor. Psalm 114 begins a distinct poetic celebration of Israel’s exodus and should follow next Sunday.
Before You Preach
- Psalm 113 is an anonymous praise psalm. It supplies no author, date, original occasion, feast, or musical direction, so none should be invented.
- “Servants of the LORD” first addresses the LORD’s covenant people, Israel. Believers in Christ rightly join this praise through Israel’s Messiah without erasing Israel.
- “From where the sun rises to where it sets” names the whole earthly horizon. It declares the worldwide praise due to the LORD rather than claiming every nation already praised Him.
- The LORD’s humbling of Himself in verse 6 describes His willing condescension to behold creation, not repentance, correction, weakness, or loss of deity.
- Dust and the dump depict material need joined with humiliation. Poverty itself does not save, but the LORD sees and acts for people who possess no human leverage.
- Verses 7–9 celebrate reversals God truly performs; they do not guarantee wealth, political status, or children to every faithful person in this life.
- Verse 9 honors motherhood and the relief of a real sorrow. It neither blames women for barrenness nor teaches that a woman’s worth depends upon bearing children.
- Psalm 113 does not directly predict the incarnation. Philippians 2 supplies warranted whole-Bible synthesis in which the eternal Son’s willing humiliation and exaltation reveal divine greatness in its fullest saving display.
Sermon Outline
- Give the LORD praise without borders — verses 1–3
- Behold the LORD whose height does not make Him distant — verses 4–6
- Trust the LORD who sees and raises the lowly — verses 7–9
Full Sermon Manuscript
Give the LORD praise without borders — verses 1–3
“Who is like the LORD our God?”
Psalm 113 does not ask because the answer is uncertain. It asks because every comparison collapses. The LORD is not the best among rivals or the highest name on a list. No one is like Him.
And the psalm’s reason may surprise us. No one is like the LORD because no one is so high. And no one is like the LORD because the One who is so high willingly attends to people who have fallen so low. His majesty does not make Him distant. His height does not keep Him from the dust.
Open your Bible with me to Psalm 113. We will take all nine verses. The psalm begins:
“Hallelujah!
Give praise, O servants of the LORD;
praise the name of the LORD.”
“Hallelujah” is not religious decoration. It is a command: praise the LORD. The command comes again in the next line, and then once more: “Give praise, O servants of the LORD; praise the name of the LORD.”
The repetition will not allow God’s servants to remain spectators. The psalm does not begin, “Think about praise,” or, “Wait until praise feels natural.” It summons people who belong to the LORD to declare His worth.
In the psalm’s original covenant setting, these servants are Israel, the people God redeemed from slavery to Pharaoh to become His own. They do not praise a vague higher power. They praise the name of the LORD—the covenant God who has made Himself known.
God’s name is not a magical sound. It reveals who He is. When the LORD proclaimed His name to Moses, He declared His compassion, grace, patience, covenant faithfulness, justice, and judgment. Praise therefore has content. We are not trying to create a feeling about an unknown God. We are answering what the true God has revealed about Himself.
And the psalm places no boundary around that answer:
“Blessed be the name of the LORD
both now and forevermore.
From where the sun rises to where it sets,
the name of the LORD is praised.”
Praise begins now.
That little word confronts delay. We often attach conditions to worship. We will praise when the burden lifts, when the answer comes, when the relationship heals, when the fear subsides, when we understand what God is doing.
Psalm 113 will soon speak about poverty, humiliation, and barrenness. It does not praise from a world without pain. Yet it says, “now.” God’s worth has not been suspended until every sorrow is resolved.
“Forevermore” carries praise beyond one mood, one feast, one lifetime, and one generation. We do not keep God alive by remembering Him. We are the ones who pass away. His name remains worthy when our names have been forgotten.
Then the psalm looks from the sunrise in the east to the sunset in the west. It takes in the whole earthly horizon. This does not mean every people already acknowledged the LORD. The nations worshiped idols then, and nations still refuse Him now. The line declares what is fitting: everywhere the sun shines, the LORD’s name deserves praise.
God had promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. The prophets announced that the LORD’s name would be great among the nations. Jesus, Israel’s Messiah, commanded that repentance for the forgiveness of sins be proclaimed in His name to all nations.
The nations do not replace Israel. Through Israel’s Messiah, believing Jews and Gentiles are brought near to the same God. Revelation shows where this is going: a redeemed multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language worshiping before God and the Lamb.
So the praise of Psalm 113 is wider than this room and longer than our lives. When the servants of God praise Him, we join a purpose that reaches from sunrise to sunset and from now into eternity.
But what is so glorious about this God that every place and every generation owes Him praise? The psalm lifts our eyes above every earthly power.
Behold the LORD whose height does not make Him distant — verses 4–6
Verse 4 looks above every human power:
“The LORD is exalted over all the nations,
His glory above the heavens.”
Nations appear enormous to us. Their laws direct lives. Their armies cross borders. Their economies affect households. Their rulers can relieve suffering or multiply it. Empires speak as though history belongs to them.
But every ruler is a temporary person living on a planet he did not make, breathing air he did not create, and approaching a death he cannot finally prevent. The LORD is exalted over all the nations. He is not one national god competing for territory. Every border lies within His world. Every ruler remains under His authority.
Then the psalm goes higher: “His glory above the heavens.” Even heaven is not a structure large enough to contain Him. He made it. The highest created realm is still creation; the LORD alone is the uncreated Creator.
That is why verse 5 asks:
“Who is like the LORD our God,
the One enthroned on high?”
No one.
God is not merely stronger than every rival. He has no equal and belongs to no class. An idol is not a smaller version of the LORD. A ruler is not a faint competitor. The difference between the LORD and everything else is the difference between the Creator and all that depends upon Him.
Yet the question says, “the LORD our God.” The incomparable One has made Himself known in covenant relationship. He is beyond comparison, but He is not unknowable. He sits enthroned on high, yet He has bound His name to His people.
Then comes the astonishing turn:
“He humbles Himself to behold
the heavens and the earth.”
The poetry pictures the LORD lowering Himself to look. It does not mean God has a body that must bend or eyes that need a better angle. It does not mean He corrects a fault or surrenders any glory. He is so exalted that even attending to the heavens is described as stooping—and He freely stoops to behold the earth.
Human importance often creates distance. As status rises, access narrows. Assistants receive the calls. Gates guard the property. Schedules protect the powerful from interruption. Human attention is limited, so influential people decide who is worth their time.
The LORD’s greatness is nothing like that. He needs nothing from us. No creature can increase His glory. Yet He willingly directs His attention to His creation. His care does not diminish His majesty; it displays what His majesty is like.
Do not imagine a god who is high but remote, powerful but indifferent, great but inaccessible to the suffering. That is not the LORD.
And do not imagine a god who feels concern but lacks authority, who wishes He could help but is defeated by forces larger than Himself. That is not the LORD either.
Psalm 113 joins what we are tempted to separate. The LORD is infinitely exalted and actively compassionate. He is high enough to rule every power and gracious enough to attend to the lowest place.
His seeing is not detached observation. The next verses are full of action. He raises. He lifts. He seats. He settles.
Trust the LORD who sees and raises the lowly — verses 7–9
The psalm has taken us above nations and heavens. Now it takes us down to the dust:
“He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the dump
to seat them with nobles,
with the princes of His people.”
The “dump” is the refuse heap, the place of ashes and discarded things. The picture is not merely a person who must reduce a few comforts. It is material need joined with humiliation. This person has no rank to command attention, no wealth to purchase access, and no influence to repay a favor.
But the LORD sees.
More than that, the LORD acts. The poor person does not climb into honor by impressing someone powerful. God raises him from the dust, lifts him from the refuse, and seats him with nobles. The movement is from the ground to a place of recognized dignity.
These words closely echo Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2. Hannah knew years of barrenness, tears, and cruel provocation. When the LORD gave her Samuel, she praised Him as the One who raises the poor from the dust, lifts the needy from the ash heap, and seats them among princes.
Psalm 113 takes up that language and then enters another place of pain:
“He settles the barren woman in her home
as a joyful mother to her children.
Hallelujah!”
The first reversal is public. People can see a poor man sitting in dust. The second grief may be carried quietly inside a home.
In Israel, children continued the family line and represented the household’s future. Barrenness could carry profound sorrow and public reproach. Scripture records the tears of women such as Rachel and Hannah. This psalm does not blame the woman. It does not tell her the grief is insignificant. It declares that the LORD sees her and has power where human ability has ended.
We must hear what the text says without making it say what it does not.
God truly raised poor people to places of honor. He truly gave children to barren women. But Psalm 113 does not promise that every poor believer will become wealthy, every overlooked person will receive public rank, or every childless woman will bear a child in this life.
Scripture honors faithful people who remained destitute, were mistreated, and died without earthly deliverance. Poverty does not earn salvation. Wealth does not prove divine approval. Continued childlessness does not prove defective faith.
It would be cruel to turn this song of praise into a guarantee God has not given. The certainty of the psalm is not that we control the form and timing of every reversal. The certainty is that no need lies beneath God’s sight, no human barrier limits His power, and no act of deliverance exceeds His authority.
That gives honest hope to unresolved grief. You may have prayed so long that hope itself now feels dangerous. You do not have to pretend the dust is comfortable. You do not have to call the refuse heap beautiful. You do not have to deny the ache of an empty place in the home. You may bring grief to the God who sees without demanding that He follow your timetable.
And because He is wise as well as powerful, you may trust Him when His answer is not the answer you pleaded for. Praise now is not denial. It is the confession that pain has not changed God’s character and delay has not removed Him from His throne.
But this psalm does more than comfort the lowly. It confronts everyone who claims to be the LORD’s servant.
James warns the church against giving the rich the place of honor while humiliating the poor. Imagine singing praise to the God who lifts people from the dust and then despising them because they are there.
We can do that without saying a cruel word. We can decide who deserves warmth by appearance, whose story deserves time by influence, whose children receive patience by behavior, or whose friendship seems useful by status. We can honor people who may advance us and overlook people who cannot repay us.
That partiality contradicts our praise. One test comes when there is nothing visible to gain: whom do you move toward after the service, whose call do you return, whose story do you let take time, and whom do you quietly hope someone else will notice?
If no person is too low for the LORD’s attention, no person should be beneath the attention of His servants. That does not mean we can solve every need or promise what God has not promised. It means we refuse the proud measurements by which the world assigns human worth. We listen. We welcome. We give. We defend the mistreated. We treat the poor as image-bearers, not projects, inconveniences, or warnings of what we fear becoming.
And here the whole Bible leads us beyond every earthly reversal to the fullest revelation of greatness joined with willing lowliness.
Psalm 113 does not directly predict the incarnation. But Philippians 2 tells us that Jesus Christ, who exists in the form of God, took the form of a servant. The eternal Son truly became human. He humbled Himself in obedience all the way to death on a cross.
The One through whom all things were made did more than look upon human misery. He entered His creation. He came not merely to improve our social standing but to bear sin. Rich and poor alike stand guilty before God. Neither need nor influence can purchase forgiveness.
Christ died for sinners and rose bodily from the grave. God highly exalted Him, and the day is coming when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
There is the final answer to the grief Psalm 113 names. God does not promise every pain will end before death. He promises that everyone who trusts in Christ has eternal life. Christ will return, raise His people bodily, judge evil, rule in righteousness, and finally remove death, mourning, crying, and pain.
The lowest place is not lower than His reach. The grave itself cannot hold those who belong to Christ.
So praise the LORD now. Do not wait for the burden to lift before declaring that He is worthy. Trust His wisdom without pretending the wound does not hurt. Refuse the pride that treats lowly people as invisible. Come to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness and life no earthly reversal can provide.
Who is like the LORD our God?
No one is higher than the LORD, and no one is too low for His attention.
Hallelujah.
Application and Pastoral Questions
- What condition have you quietly placed before the word “now” in the command to praise the LORD?
- Does your praise name what God has actually revealed about Himself, or does it depend mainly on mood and circumstance?
- Which ruler, nation, institution, or cultural power have you begun to fear as though it stood above the LORD?
- Where are you tempted to interpret God’s delayed answer as indifference rather than entrust unresolved grief to His wisdom?
- Whom do you instinctively treat as more worthy of time, warmth, attention, or honor because of wealth, appearance, influence, family, or usefulness?
- How can your congregation care for the poor and grieving without treating them as projects or making promises Scripture does not make?
- Have you trusted Jesus Christ for the deeper rescue from sin and death, or are you seeking only a change in earthly circumstances?
Personalization Opportunities
- Name a current source of national or cultural anxiety familiar to the congregation without allowing partisan commentary to displace the LORD’s supremacy over all nations.
- Acknowledge known seasons of financial hardship in the congregation with discretion and without identifying anyone or promising immediate reversal.
- If appropriate, speak pastorally to infertility, miscarriage, or unwanted childlessness while preserving privacy and refusing easy explanations.
- Identify a local ministry through which the congregation can welcome, serve, or defend people who are routinely overlooked.
- Briefly describe a genuine occasion when praise rested on God’s revealed character before circumstances changed; do not imply that your experience creates a promise for others.
Additional Preaching Notes
- The Hebrew “Hallelujah” combines the plural imperative “praise” with “Yah,” a shortened form of the covenant name; this can be stated briefly if useful.
- Sunrise and sunset function chiefly as a spatial merism embracing the earth, although the image naturally carries a daily rhythm as well.
- Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2:1–10 is the closest canonical background for verses 7–9 and joins the raising of the poor with the reversal of barrenness.
- The BSB’s “dump” in verse 7 is rendered “ash heap” in the LSB; both describe the place where refuse and ashes gathered.
- Mary’s praise in Luke 1:46–55 continues the canonical pattern of God bringing down the proud, exalting the humble, and remembering His promises to Abraham and Israel.
Historical / Illustration Sources
None required.