Psa 113 | EE | STEP | Hallelujah! Servants of the LORD, tell him that he is very great! Sing aloud that the name of the LORD is very great!

Psalms 113

The Servants’ Song (The First Egyptian Hallel) ^{▼▼113:0 The psalm is in three clear parts:
– Verses 1-3: the servants of the LORD must praise and bless him;
– Verses 4-6: they must do this because he is so very great and important;
– Verses 7-9: but he will still give help to the people that need help.}

1 Hallelujah!

Servants of the LORD, tell him that he is very great!

Sing aloud that the name of the LORD is very great! ^{▼▼113:1 In verse 1, the word ‘hallel’ (or halel) comes 3 times. The first time is ‘hallelujah.’ It means that ‘the LORD is very great’, or in other words, ‘praise the LORD.’ Then the psalmist tells the servants of the LORD to praise him. The psalmist is the person that wrote the psalm. When he wrote the psalm, these servants were all Jews. Now they come from any country in the world! The last time we read ‘the name of the LORD.’ The name tells us all about the LORD. Every Hebrew name for God means something different. The names tell us about him! The name LORD tells us that he is the covenant God.}

2 Bless the name of the LORD.

Do it now and do it always! ^{▼▼113:2 In verse 2, ‘bless’ does not mean the same in Hebrew as ‘praise.’ When God blesses people, he gives them many things. When people bless God, they give him all that they have. This includes praising God. In verse 3, some Bible students translate it, ‘from when the sun rises to when it goes down.’ This means ‘praise God all day!’ Our translation means ‘praise God in every part of the world!’ It is right to do both of these things.}

3 Praise the name of the LORD!

Do it from where the sun rises in the east

to where it goes down in the west.

4 The LORD is king over every nation.

He shines brighter than anything in the sky. ^{▼▼113:4 A nation, in verse 4, is a country with a government. The LORD is king (or rules) over every nation. Sometimes it does not seem as if he does. But we must believe that it is true! God has something that we call ‘glory.’ It means that he shines more than anything else in the earth or sky. There is nobody as great as he is.}

5 There is nobody like the LORD our God.

He sits on a throne that is very high above us. ^{▼▼113:5 Somewhere he sits on a throne, (verse 5). A throne is a special seat that a king sits on. This throne is in heaven. But we do not know where heaven is. It is so high above us, that God has to bend down to see us, (verse 6).}

6 He bends down to look at the sky and the earth.

They are far below him.

7 He lifts up poor people from the ground.

And he lifts up people that need help from the ashes.

8 He gives them a seat with princes,

with the princes of their country.

9 He makes the woman that is barren in her home

into a happy mother of children. Hallelujah! ^{▼▼113:9 7-9 tell us some of the things that the LORD God does. Verse 7 is a good example of Hebrew poetry. Here, both parts of the verse mean the same. ‘He lifts up poor people from the ground’ means the same as ‘he raises up people that need help, from the ashes.’ These poor people that need help are people with nothing: no home, no money, no food. It is as if they were part of the ground, or the ashes from a fire. They can hope for nothing. But the LORD can do something for them! And there are many people who will say, ‘He has, he did something for me!’ When we pray, the LORD is the God who likes to say ‘Yes!’ When he answers us, we feel like princes (the sons of kings) or princesses (daughters of kings). He even lets barren women have children. ‘Barren’ means ‘cannot have a child.’ There are stories about this in 1 Samuel 1 and Luke 1. Also, many people today can say the same thing. So the psalm ends as it began: Hallelujah! Tell the LORD that he is very, very great!}