Introduction
I’m going to take these two psalms together, mainly because they’re both short. However, some of the commentators say that the Jews in the first century sang both psalms one after the other before eating the Passover. Apparently they then sang Psalms 115 to 118 to conclude the Passover feast.
In Psalm 113, the psalmist calls on the servants of the Lord to praise the name of the Lord. He then goes on to praise him because the Lord is exalted over all and because he raises the lowly. In Psalm 114, the psalmist recalls the exodus from Egypt and the settlement in Canaan. He remembers how the Red Sea fled from the Lord and the River Jordan turned back because of him. He remembers too how the mountains and hills shook. And he then calls on the whole earth to tremble before the Lord.
Psalm 113
Psalm 113 begins, like Psalms 111 and 112, with ‘Hallelujah!’ or ‘Praise the Lord!’ The psalmist then calls on the servants of the Lord to praise the name of the Lord. When he mentions the servants of the Lord, he might be referring to the Levites who led the praise in the tabernacle and temple. However, it’s perhaps more likely that he’s referring to God’s people in general. He’s calling all of God’s people to praise him. He refers in the last line of verse 1 to ‘the name of the Lord’, but that’s just another way to refer to the Lord himself. When you hear the name ‘Colin Gamble’, you think of me and the things I do. And when we hear the name ‘the Lord’, we think of God and what he has done for his people.
According to verse 2, the psalmist wants the name of the Lord to be praised both now and for evermore. In other words, let the name of the Lord be praised at all times. And according to verse 3, he wants the name of the Lord to be praised from the place where the sun rises to the place where the sun sets. In other words, let the name of the Lord be praised in all places. So, may his name be praised from now and into eternity and from the east to the west and everywhere in between. May the Lord be worshipped always and everywhere.
And he then makes clear why the Lord should be praised. And it’s because the Lord is exalted over the nations. So, in Old Testament times, each nation had their own god. But the Lord, the God of Israel, was exalted over all the nations and their gods. He ruled over them all. And his glory — that is, God himself — is exalted above the heavens. So, he’s greater than the nations and he’s greater than the heavens. He is the Most High God who rules over the heavens and the earth and all that they contain.
And so: Who is like him? Well, there is no other god like him, because he is the one and the only one who sits enthroned on high. There’s no-one over him and there’s no-one beside him. Everyone else and everything else is under him. And therefore when he looks at us, he has to stoop down to see us, because we are below him. Just as we stoop down to look at an insect, so he stoops to look at us. In this way the psalmist is highlighting God’s majestic transcendence and how he is above and beyond us. He is the High and Holy One, the Most High God. But the psalmist is also highlighting for us God’s grace and mercy and his kindness, because he’s saying that the Most High God is willing to stoop down. He’s willing to condescend and to come down to our level. Just as a father will get down on his knees to play with his child, so the Lord stoops down to us, because he loves us and cares for us.
And in the next part of the psalm, the psalmist tells us that the Lord raises the poor from the dust and he lifts the needy from the ash heap. So, he stoops down, not only to look at us, but to lift us up. He raises the poor and needy and seats them with princes. Think of Joseph in the Old Testament who was a prisoner in Egypt. But then the Lord raised him up and made him prime minister of Egypt. And think of David and how he was only a shepherd-boy when we first heard of him. And the Lord lifted him up and made him king of Israel. Or think of how the Lord took the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt and he brought them to Canaan where they ruled the land.
And the psalmist then tells us that the Lord settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. So, think of Hannah whose rival used to provoke her and make her weep. But the Lord heard her prayer and graciously and freely gave her children of her own, beginning with Samuel.
The Lord our God is majestic in his transcendence. He is exalted over the nations and the heavens, ruling over the heavens and the earth from a high and holy place. He is above and beyond the world that he has made. And yet he’s also near us. He stoops down to us and he draws near to help us. He lifts up the poor and needy and he fills us with joy and happiness.
And in the fullness of time, the Lord our God came down to us in the Person of his Son, who became one of us and who lived among us for a time and who died to pay for our sins with his life in order to lift us from our sin and misery in this life and to give us everlasting joy and happiness in his presence in the new and better world to come, where we will reign with Christ the Lord for ever. And so, hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Let the name of the Lord Jesus be praised at all times and in all places.
Psalm 114
We come now to Psalm 114 which begins with the psalmist recalling the time when the people of Israel came out of Egypt. By mentioning how the Egyptians spoke a foreign tongue, he’s making clear that the Israelites did not belong there. Hearing the Egyptians every day was a constant reminder to them that they were aliens in a foreign land. But the Lord their God rescued them from Egypt.
According to verse 2, Judah became God’s sanctuary. He’s presumably thinking of the temple which was in the land belonging to the tribe of Judah. And then he says that Israel became God’s dominion. He probably means that the whole of the land of Israel was God’s visible kingdom at that time.
And so, in verses 1 and 2, he refers to the exodus from Egypt and to the settlement in Canaan. And he refers to both the exodus and the settlement in verses 3 and 4, where he refers to the Red Sea and the River Jordan. So, they passed through the Red Sea to escape from Egypt; and forty years later they passed through the River Jordan in order to settle in the land. The psalmist says that the Red Sea looked and fled and the River Jordan turned back. The they fled and turned back when they saw the Lord coming. And the mountains and hills skipped like rams and lambs. He may be thinking of the time when they were at Mount Sinai and the earth shook when the Lord came down on the mountain to meet Moses.
Of course, he’s depicting the sea and river and the mountains and hills as if they were alive. The sea can’t really look and flee. The river can’t really turn back. Mountains and hills don’t really skip. However, the psalmist is depicting them as if they were alive to convey to us what happened when the Lord came down from heaven to rescue his people from Egypt and to bring them into the Promised Land. It was as if they panicked when they saw the Lord, and they fled from him in fright.
And he continues to depict them that way in verses 5 and 6 by asking the sea why it fled and by asking the river why it turned back. He also asks the mountains and hills why they skipped. The commentators suggest that he’s taunting them. So, think of a small boy who taunts his rivals in the playground whenever his big brother is with him to stand up for him. And with God on his side, the psalmist laughs at the sea and the river and the mountains and hills because they’re so frightened of the psalmist’s God who is there to stand up for him.
And the psalm ends with the psalmist calling on the whole earth to tremble before the Lord. The earth and everything in it should tremble before the Lord because he’s the great God who turned the rock into a pool. He’s thinking of the times when God brought water from the rock in order to keep his people from dying of thirst. By bringing water from the rock, the Lord demonstrated his great power, because who else could do that? But he also demonstrated his faithfulness to his people and his willingness to care for them as they travelled through the wilderness to the Promised Land.
And we too are on our way to the Promised Land of eternal life in the presence of God. And God is able to remove whatever obstacles are in our way. He’s able to create a way for us through every trouble. And he’s able to sustain us and to give us all that we need, because he’s Almighty God who made all things and he cares for us.
And we know that he cares for us, because he sent his Only Begotten Son to die for us. He who did not spare his Son, but gave him up for us all, will also, along with him, give us everything we need to persevere day by day. And so, we needn’t be afraid or anxious, but we should continue to trust in the LORD our God to help us and to lead us all the way through this troubled life and into the Promised Land of eternal life where we will be his sanctuary and his dominion. We will be his sanctuary, because we will dwell with him for ever. And we will be his dominion, because we will live as citizens of his kingdom for ever.
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