BackgroundPsalm 113 opens the Egyptian Hallel, the cluster of Psalms 113-118 sung at Israel's three pilgrimage festivals and most prominently at Passover. In the Mishnaic Seder tradition that crystallized after the Second Temple period, families chanted Psalms 113 and 114 before the Passover meal and 115-118 after it, framing the entire memorial of the Exodus with praise. The psalm's bookends, calling on the LORD's name to be praised "from the rising of the sun to its setting," set a global and cosmic stage for the very local act of remembering that God once heard slaves cry in Egypt.
Psalm 113: He Raises the Poor from the Dust
By Bea Zalel
Psalm 113
- Hallelujah! Give praise, O servants of the LORD; praise the name of the LORD.
- 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.
- The LORD is exalted over all the nations, His glory above the heavens.
- Who is like the LORD our God, the One enthroned on high?
- He humbles Himself to behold the heavens and the earth.
- 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.
- He settles the barren woman in her home as a joyful mother to her children. Hallelujah!
Theme
Bea Zalel here, opening the Hallel with you. Psalm 113 begins with a triple call to "Halelu-Yah," praise the LORD, addressed first to "servants of the LORD." That word "servants" is not accidental at a Passover table. The Israelites had been servants of Pharaoh, and now they are servants of YHWH, and the difference between those two masters is the entire story the Hallel is about to retell. The poet wants the new servants to remember they sing because the old servitude ended.
The middle of the psalm asks a question Israel's neighbors would have found strange. "Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?" Most ancient Near Eastern hymnody flattered a high god by enumerating his territory. This poet inverts the move. The LORD is so high that even the heavens are something he stoops to see. His exaltation is measured by how far down he must lean to notice anything at all.
Then comes the turn that makes this psalm beloved. The God so high that the heavens are beneath him bends all the way to the ash heap. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the garbage pit, seating them with princes. He gives the barren woman a home as a joyful mother of children. The image of the barren-woman-made-mother is a direct echo of Hannah's Song in 1 Samuel 2, and Mary will pick up the same melody in Luke 1:46-55 when she sings of God scattering the proud and lifting the lowly. The Hallel begins, in other words, with a theology of reversal that the Gospel writers will hear ringing in their ears.
For a Passover table, this is the right doorway. Before any retelling of plagues or sea, the singer is reminded that the God who acts in this story is characterized by reaching down. The Exodus is not an exception to God's nature. It is a demonstration of it.
Discussion questions
- Why do you think the Hallel opens by addressing "servants of the LORD" rather than kings or priests, and what does that signal about who the Passover story belongs to?
- The psalm says God is so exalted that he must "look far down" even at the heavens. How does that picture of height differ from how power usually presents itself in your own culture?
- Trace the echo from Hannah's Song (1 Samuel 2:1-10) through Psalm 113 to Mary's Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). What does it mean that this same melody runs across so many centuries of Scripture?
- Verse 7 lifts the poor "from the dust" and "from the ash heap." Where in your own community do you see the literal dust and ash heaps God notices?
- Why might the image of the barren woman becoming a joyful mother have carried such weight in the ancient world, and how does its resonance translate or fail to translate today?
- The Hallel was sung at all three pilgrimage festivals but most famously at Passover. What does it mean that Israel's praise vocabulary was rehearsed in community several times a year?
- Some Jewish traditions hold that Jesus and his disciples sang Psalm 113 just before the Last Supper. How does that possibility shape your reading of the meal that followed?
- Where in this psalm do you hear theology and where do you hear ethics, and how does the poet weld them together?
- Verse 3 envisions the LORD's name praised "from the rising of the sun to its setting." How does a hyper-local festival like Passover fit inside that global horizon?
- If Psalm 113 is the front gate of the Hallel, what posture does it ask you to bring through that gate before the Exodus is even retold?
Read this psalm in another translation
The inline text above is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB). Open in a new tab to compare with a modern licensed translation: