Psalm 113

¹Praise the Lord !

Praise, you servants of the Lord ,

praise the name of the Lord !

²May the Lord ’s name be praised

now and forevermore!

³From east to west[#tn Heb “from the rising of the sun to its setting.” The extent is not temporal (“from sunrise to sunset”) but spatial (“from the place where the sun rises [the east] to the place where it sets [the west].” In the phenomenological language of OT cosmology, the sun was described as rising in the east and setting in the west.]

the Lord ’s name is deserving of praise.

⁴The Lord is exalted over all the nations;

his splendor reaches beyond the sky.

⁵Who can compare to the Lord our God,

who sits on a high throne?

⁶He bends down to look[#tn Heb “the one who makes low to see.”]

at the sky and the earth.

⁷He raises the poor from the dirt,

and lifts up the needy from the garbage pile,

⁸that he might seat him with princes,

with the princes of his people.

⁹He makes the barren woman of the family[#tn Heb “of the house.”]

a happy mother of children.

Praise the Lord !