Praising God

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry & Bluemont Churches
September 21, 2025
Psalm 113

At the beginning of worship:

I’m sure most of you remember the long running TV show, MASH, which lasted three times as long as the Korean War, which it portrayed. One of the more compelling characters in the show was Father Mulcahy, the Catholic priest who served as field hospital’s chaplain. 

In one episode, Father Mulcahy had the blues. Observing the hard work of the surgeons, nurses, and medics to save lives, he complained that all he could do was pray. But then a man on the operating room table took a turn for the worse. Nothing the surgeons did stopped the man’s decline. Mulcahy was brought over. He prayed. Suddenly, the man began to improve. 

“You’re sure you’re not useful,” Hawkeye asked. The shy and humble chaplain said, “It’s not supposed to work that way.”^[1]

Of course, it is supposed to work that way. Only it often doesn’t. We pray and someone still dies. But we’re still called to pray and to hope and to do what we can to help. Maybe we should remember to include in our prayers the caveat from Jesus who prayed, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”^[2]

Before reading the Scripture:
As we jump around the Psalms, today we’ll look at Psalm 113. Like Psalm 112^[3], which we explored a few weeks ago, Psalm 113 is a positive Psalm which makes two points. First, we’re called to praise God. The second point is the reason why we praise God, and it has to do with the nature of God to help those overlooked by society. Just like Psalm 112, which seems a little unrealistic in its promise of riches descending on the righteous, this Psalm also has an unrealistic theme. It promises blessings to the poor blessings and children to barren women. We’ll need to think about what this means because we know it doesn’t always work that way. 

The language and the poetry of this Psalm is beautiful. It begins and ends with a Hallelujah, often translated as “Praise the Lord!” Faithful Jews who gathered with family and friends at Passover would recite these words. Perhaps even Jesus used this Psalm during the last supper, celebrating Passover with the disciples.

In the Hebrew, the Psalm consist of three stanzas. Verses 1-3 calls us to praise God, verses 4-6 reminds of God’s majesty and why God should be praised. The final three verses illustrate God’s mercy.^[4] Let’s look at the Psalm and see what we might learn about God and why all of us should praise God. 

Read Psalm 113

Our Psalm begins with an imperative. The opening “Hallelujah,” translated as “Praise the Lord” in our reading, isn’t a suggestion. It’s a command with two components.  First, we begin now to praise God, and we continue as long as we have breath. And God’s people are always to be praising the Lord. For those of us exploring this Psalm from this side of the Jesus’ resurrection, as we see in the book of Revelation, this task continues into eternity.^[5]

Second, we learn God is to be praised continually, throughout our waking hours. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the Psalm commands. In a world without electrical lights, people slept when it was dark. During the daylight hours, people were awake and going about their work, but they were also to praise God. As the lamp in the temple burned continually, reminding the people that their prayers of praise should continually rise to God. Or as the Apostle Paul said, “Pray without ceasing.”^[6]  

In other words, our lives are to be a witness, a prayer. This doesn’t mean we are to be on our knees all day. Nor should Hallelujahs come out of our mouths continually. We praise God by how we live and how we relate to others. 

After the command to praise, the Psalm provides the reasons behind such instruction. First, we’re given a theology of praise. We praise God because nothing is greater. God stands above everything. Nations, the earth, even the heavens. The cosmology of the Psalmist places God outside of everything that’s created. This includes the heavens and the earth. We think of God in heaven, but the Psalmist doesn’t pin God down even there. Instead, God the creator stands free from even the heavens. God stands above all, and no one can compare to God. Our minds cannot understand the grandeur and splendor of God. Yet, we are to praise.

The second set of reasons for praise has to do with God not abandoning creation. Our God is not the God envisioned by the Deists, like some of our nation’s founding fathers, who saw God as the watchmaker. God creates, winds up the watch, then stands back and observes the ticking, not intervening. But the Psalmist doesn’t see God in such a manner. The God of the Hebrew people, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, isn’t like this. God continues to be involved in creation. 

We’re given two examples. First, God remains concern for the least of us. The poor and the needy, those often overlooked by others, remain on God’s heart. We also saw this last week when we looked at Psalm 14. In that Psalm, God stands against those who think they control the world and don’t have to answer anyone as they abuse the poor. God provides a refuge for the poor and the righteous. Those who think they can get away with “eating the poor” will experience the terror of a righteous and just deity.

In today’s Psalm, we learn that God looks out for the poor. God raises up the poor from the dust, which should remind us of Genesis, where God created the first man out of the ground and gave him breath.^[7] In other words, God gives new life to the poor. 

During the Passover celebration, this Psalm is paired with Psalm 114, which recalls God’s wonders during the Exodus. In this case, the people are reminded that they were once poor, whether slaves in Egypt or the dust of the ground.  

The second half of verse seven recalls the image of the needy being lifted from the ash heap. We can imagine the lepers and others forced to live outside the city walls literally on the dung heap, as the “ash heap” can also be translated.

God not only lifts the poor and needy but seats them on the podium with princes. The poor and the needy will become people of honor. 

The final example of God’s faithfulness is how God looks upon barren women. The translation is that God provides her a home, but the root meaning goes deeper. God seats such women in a happy home, just as God places the poor and needy on the throne with princes.^[8] Finally, God makes such women the joyful mother of children.

For the Hebrew faithful reciting this Psalm in the temple or in their homes during Passover, they would be immediately drawn to consider Abraham’s wife Sarah, and Hannah, the mother of Samuel. Both women were without children until late in life. Other women who might be recalled were Rebekah and Rachel.^[9]Barren woman in the ancient world were particularly vulnerable, which is why God looks out for them. 

Of course, there is a problem with this. We’ve all known those who are poor and needy, some who have been faithful and have cried out to God. Yet, not many of them ever sat on the podium with highfalutin folk. Even worse, we hear of malnourished children dying in the Gaza and in the Sudan and Congo. And we’re left to question why God didn’t answer their prayers.  And most preachers know of women who avoid church on Mother’s Day, for their prayers haven’t been answered in the manner they’d like. 

None of us should assume we know better than God, but why does God act sometimes and not in others. Had Hannah been the only barren women in Israel when Samuel was born? Probably not. Yet, there are times when God interrupts in history, which gives us hope and the second reason to praise God.

Today’s Psalm demands us to praise of God and gives us reasons to so. At the very least, we should praise God when the sun rises or when we awake. And again, when it sets or as we fall asleep. While it is okay to ask God for what we need, we should never forget to give God thanks with praise. Will we listen?” Amen.

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^[1] I was reminded of this episode in Scott Hoezee’s commentary on the text. See https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2025-09-15/psalm-113-4/

^[2] Matthew 6:10.

^[3] See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2025/08/31/psalm-112-the-blessing-of-the-righteous/

^[4] Stan Mast, commentary on Psalm 113. See https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2016-09-12/psalm-113/

^[5] See Revelation 4, 7:15.

^[6] 1 Thessalonians 5:17. 

^[7] Genesis 2:7.

^[8] Robert Alter, The Book of Psalms: A Translation and Commentary (New York, Norton, 2007), 404, 9.

^[9] See Genesis 11:30, 25:21,29:31, and 1 Samuel 1. See Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984),162.  See also Athur Weiser, The Psalms: A Commentary (1958, Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962), 707-708,