That brings us to the last stanza of Psalm 113. What it tells us is that God stoops down in order that he might lift the downtrodden up. And more! He lifts them to be as he is. Do you see the parallel between these two stanzas? God is exalted over the nations, so he exalts the poor, raising him from the dust. God is enthroned on high, so he raises the poor to sit with princes.
Having called upon the “servants of the LORD” to praise him “from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets," the psalm next turns to the praise of God directly, extolling him as the one who is “exalted over all the nations” and whose "glory [is] above the heavens” (v. 4). Verses 3 and 4 are paralleled almost exactly in Malachi 1:11: “My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,' says the LORD Almighty.”
As we noted in yesterday's study, the only place in the Bible where YHWH is explained is Exodus 3:14. Though derived from the most basic of all verbs and expressed in the simplest verbal form, YHWH expresses a wealth of God's attributes. We have already noted that 1) God is a person; and 2) God is self-existent. Today we continue with three more attributes of God.
Our starting point is to notice that this is a strong praise psalm. In fact, it is a superb example of what our praise of God should be. The psalm begins and ends with the words “Praise the LORD,” and the first of its three stanzas repeatedly calls on all the servants of God to extol God, which is what the remainder of the psalm (stanzas two and three) does.
Who is like God? What is God like? Have you ever asked yourself that question? It is a good question. The trouble is that it is unanswerable, because there is nothing God can be compared to. He is in a category of his own, unique. Therefore, the only way we have to talk about him—and it is always inadequate—is by analogy. We can say that he is like a loving father, or that he is like a great king. Or again, still less directly to the point, we can report what he has done. We say that God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. God is our Savior through the work of Jesus Christ.
