Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 5 · Psalm 113
The Hundred and Thirteenth Psalm.
‖HallelujahPraise ye the Lord. The hundred and thirteenth is a thankfull commemoration of the glory and condescensions of God, and the great and signal works of his providence to the most afflicted abject creatures (never more discernible than in the work of redemption) and from the matter of it was by the Hebrews stiled, as the two former, Hallelujah. (See note a. on Ps. cvi. and cxi.)
1. PRaise, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord.
Paraphrase. All faithfull servants of God are most neerly concerned and obliged chearfully to celebrate and commemorate the great and glorious and gracious works of God.
2. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth for evermore.
To him therefore be all possible praise and glory ascribed both now and to all eternity.
3. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same the Lords name is to be praised.
From one end of the heathen world unto the other (see Mal. i. 11.) his mercies and goodness to mankinde (especially that great Evangelical mercy, the gift of Christ) shall be solemnly proclaimed and promulgated.
4. The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens.
The power and dominion of God is paramount, the greatest Empires in the world are all subordinate to him; He is the one supreme Lord over all the world, and not onelyonly of this one people which is called by his name: And though the highest heavens be the special place of his mansion, yet his glory is infinitely greater than to be incircled or comprehended by them.
5. Who is like unto the Lord our God,a. who†exalteth himself to dwell. dwelleth on high,
6. *Who humbleth himself to behold in heaven and in earth.Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth?
And above all other wayes of expression, herein is he most incomparable, that sitting in the highest heavens in the greatest majesty, he is pleased to descend to this low state of ours, to visit us here below in the greatest humility (not only by overseeing, overruling and governing the affairs of this lower world, but by assumption of our flesh pitching his tent among us, and so corporally visiting us, in the incarnation of the Sonne of God.)
7. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill,
8. That he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people.
9. Heb. ‖setteth the barren in a family a—maketh the barren woman to keep house, to be a joyfull mother of children. Praise ye the Lord.
And as this God of heaven hath been pleased thus to descend and humble himself to us, so is he graciously pleased to exalt those that are humbled, and from the lowest pitch of worldly vileness and desolation to advance sometimes to the highest dignities, even to that of the royall throne, 1 Sam. ii. 8. at other times to dispense other seasonable mercies, children to the barren Sarah and Hannah, and many the like (but especially the gift of grace, and of more grace to the humble, the glad tidings of the Gospel to the poor.) For which we are all obliged to pay him our Hallelujahs.
Annotations on Psalm CXIII.
V. 5. Dwelleth on high] The Syntaxis in this place is very poetical, and a very discernible foreign in it. foreign foreignand foreign are acknowledged to be in exact opposition one to the other, the first from foreign high, is exalting himselfe, the latter from foreign lowly, humbling himself. And proportionably foreign and foreign in heaven and earth must be opposed also, and the one joyned with his exaltation as the terme of that, and the other with his humiliation as the terme of that: and then the like decorum being observed betwixt dwelling, and seeing or beholding (the higher being proper for the habitation, but the lower being accommodated to the works of his providence, signified by seeing) the construction will be regularly thus, who is like unto Jehovah our God, who exalteth himself foreign to heaven foreign to inhabite or dwell there, and yet humbleth himself (at the same time) foreign to the earth foreign to see, behold, or order all things therein by his providence and his grace? An observation which hath allwayes had truth in it from the beginning of the world, but then most signally, when the Messias, the supreme God of heaven, came to visit us here on earth in so great humility. Of this kinde of composition there want not examples: see Cant. i. 5. I am black, but comely, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon; i. e. black as the tents of Kedar, but faire as the curtains of Solomon. So Deut. xxxii. 42. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devoure flesh, with the blood of the slain and of the captives: where the sense exacts this other placing, I will make my arrows drunk with blood, the blood of the slain, and my sword shall devoure the flesh of the captives— So Rom. i. 12. the righteousnesse of God is revealed foreign from faith to faith, i. e. the righteousnesse of God by faith is revealed to faith, or that men might believe: see Note b. on that chapter. To this sense I conceive all the antient translators had respect, the Chaldee rendring it foreign— who exalted his habitation that he may dwell, and lets down his eyes that he may see in heaven and in earth; but the Lxxii. more expresly, foreign, who dwelleth in the heights, and beholdeth the things that are below in the heaven and in the earth; and so the Syriack, who sitteth on high, and beholdeth or looketh foreign on that which is deep or low (not as the Latine reads coelum & terram, the heaven and earth, but) foreign &c. on heaven and earth. In all which rendrings the letting down the eyes, the beholding the things that be low or deep, cannot be common to the heaven and earth, but is proper to the earth in opposition to heaven. For as for the notion of foreign foreignfor the regions of the aire, it cannot probably have place here, any more than v. 4. where his glory is said to be above the heavens, to express the infiniteness of it, by its superiority to the highest of all creatures, which consequently must be resolved to be the highest heavens, and not the aire, which is much inferior to them. If this should seem to be too unusual and violent an hyperbaton, then the meaning must be, that although God be high in his throne of glory, yet he condescends to the managery of the whole fabrick, stoops down to behold the things on earth, and by as great a condescension, looks on those in heaven; his glory therein approving it selfe to be above the heavens, because his beholding the transactions there is a descending or looking down.
V. 9. Keep house] The word foreign house, foreignis sometimes best rendred family: so Gen. vii. 1. Go thou and all foreign thy family into the Ark. So Exod. i. 21. God made for the midwives foreign families, 2 Sam. vii. 11. God shall make foreign a family, i. e. give thee children. And so here speaking of Gods mercy to the poor and lowly, and instancing in foreign the barren, childless woman, foreign setling her an house, must be giving children, and so will most intelligibly be rendred, setleth the barren in a family; and then to it will best accord what follows, foreign a joyfull mother of children, there being no such matter of joy to a barren woman, as that of having children. The Jewish Arab quite leaving out foreign in his translation, renders it, and that maketh the barren woman a joyfull mother of children; as thinking it included in the sense. A phrase very nigh unto this we had Psal. Lxviii. 7. foreign, where the speech being of solitary persons, widows &c. and foreign signifying adverbially, at home, the rendring was somewhat to differ from this, as the sense did.