Looking High And Low

Psalm 113

1Praise the LORD!

Yes, give praise, O servants of the LORD.

Praise the name of the LORD!

2Blessed be the name of the LORD

forever and ever.

3Everywhere—from east to west—

praise the name of the LORD.

4For the LORD is high above the nations;

his glory is far greater than the heavens.

5Who can be compared with the LORD our God,

who is enthroned on high?

6Far below him are the heavens and the earth.

He stoops to look,

7and he lifts the poor from the dirt

and the needy from the garbage dump.

8He sets them among princes,

even the princes of his own people!

9He gives the barren woman a home,

so that she becomes a happy mother.

Praise the LORD!

Early in the 1600s a Dutch optician named Hans Lippershey developed the telescope. Another Dutchman, Zacharias Janssen, made the first microscope about the same time. Before long, astronomers like Galileo were looking upward through telescopes, and biologists like William Harvey were looking downward through microscopes.

The telescope shows that the earth is only a grain of sand in the vast universe, but the microscope shows us that every grain of sand is a fascinating universe in itself. Thomas Chalmers said, “The one told me of the insignificance of the world I tread on, the other redeems it from all insignificance.” So whether you look upward through a telescope or downward through a microscope, you can see the greatness of our God.

As the psalmist looks, he realizes that God’s glory is greater than anything he can see, with or without a telescope. Yet he notes that God is also interested in the poor and needy on the garbage dump. That’s the wonder of our God. You can never sink so far down—emotionally, physically, or even spiritually—that he can’t lift you up. Through Jesus Christ, he offers us the opportunity to become his children, setting us among princes (see verse 8).

He can raise the poor to stand

With the princes of the land,

Wealth upon the needy shower,

Set the smallest high in power.

Who is like our God most high,

Infinite in majesty?

JOSIAH CONDER

Fascinating Fact

We don’t normally think of the reformer John Calvin as a musician, yet he was the editor of the first printed edition of metrical psalms for church worship. Of the seventeen psalms that were included, he was personally responsible for the metrical translations of five. In addition to the metrical versions, one psalm (Psalm 113) was printed in prose.

Notable Quotable

“Gideon is fetched from threshing, Saul from seeking the asses, David from keeping the sheep, and the apostles from fishing. The treasure of the gospel is put into earthen vessels, and the weak and the foolish ones of the world confound the wise and mighty that the excellency of the power may be of God.”

MATTHEW HENRY