“From the rising of
the sun to its setting
the name of the Lord is to be praised.”
— Psalm 113:3 (NRSV)
Many do marvel at the works of God and by
the power and majesty of the Lord’s
being. Indeed, it’s always very cool to
find fellow brothers and sisters in Christ engaged in praise. The fact that love hunts best in packs of
praise is a sweet revelation.
This first Hallel (praise) psalm of six (Psalms 113-118) starts and ends with
the joyous heave, Hallelujah, or
Hallel-u-jah... “Praise the Lord!” The psalm is hence emphatic and ecstatic;
full with praise. But, just why?
Call
to Praise – The Servants of the Lord
Verse 1 calls those of the Lord to praise the Covenant Name. Whenever there is cognition of God’s covenant
name it’s to be praised — for it is worthy.
And suitable cause is given in the remaining verses, particularly verses
7-9.
Caveats
of Praise (Verses 2-4)
These verses give the servants of God
constructs for belief — the Lord’s
to be praised, and his name blessed, from this time, forevermore (verse
2). That is setting God’s praise in the
realm of the eternal.
Next in verse 3, the Covenant Name (“Lord”) is to be praised from sunrise to
sunset, which is alluding to every waking
hour. Imagine that. There is no moment of consciousness that
God’s name is not to be praised.
Verse 4 calls to the fact that God is
omnipresent and above all creation, “above” even the heavens. This calls to the mystery of a God that
cannot quite be located, even though the Divine Being is everywhere
simultaneously.
Who
Is Like You Lord? (Verses 5-6)
These verses harness and symbolise the crux
of the worshipful message. There is solemn
awe expressed by the psalmist as they cannot get their head around the
voluminousness of God; both high and low is the Lord, all at the same time.
This fact gives the confidence of hope in
spiritual warfare with the enemy. God is
superior over thrones, powers, principalities, dominions and the evil-like. These verses hold up the truth of God’s
concurrent transcendence and immanence.
Reasons
for Praise – The Raising of the Lowly (Verse 7-9)
Evidence always underlines truth. The Lord
is the avenger of the lowly in verse 7 and they’re brought to levels of
princely being in verse 8. God, alone,
is the one making the barren woman conceive and bring her babies to term (verse
9). In each of these cases there is
great vulnerability, but trust in God delivers on cause.
This psalm is perhaps represented very well
in the New Testament by James 1:9-11 and Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), for
instance:
“[The Lord] has brought down the powerful from
their thrones,
and lifted up the
lowly...”
— Luke 1:52 (NRSV)
God is great to be praised, for the Lord alone is the great equaliser. This is a burgeoning hope for every last one
over the earth. Do you perceive it; the justice of God? Justice comes pelting
down over a parched land eventually.
© 2011, 2014 S. J. Wickham.
General
Reference: W. Graham Scroggie, A Guide to the Psalms: A Comprehensive
Analysis of the Psalms (Vol. 3) (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel
Publications, 1995), pp. 103-109.
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