Introduction to Psalm 113
Psalm 113 opens the collection of the Egyptian Hallel (Ps 113-118), the liturgical sequence that has accompanied the Passover night since the Tannaitic period. Mishnah Pesachim 10:5-7 prescribes the precise structure: Ps 113-114 are recited before the Passover meal — before the meal, over the first cup — while Ps 115-118 are completed after the third cup, that of redemption. The Talmud Bavli Pesachim 117a discusses the attribution of the Hallel: Moses and Israel sang it at the Exodus (the first Hallel), the prophets established it for future redemptions. Ps 113 is therefore the threshold of the memory of the Exodus. The MT text begins with the double Halleluyah — halelu avdei YHWH ("praise, O servants of YHWH") — where avdei (servants) designates a liturgical category, not social servitude: the Levites, the priests, and by extension every Israelite who accesses worship (Ps 134:1).
Verse 3 MT establishes the spatial-temporal coordinates of praise: mimmizrach shemesh ad mevo'o mehuhal shem YHWH — "from the rising of the sun to its setting, praised be the name of YHWH." This formula anticipates the universal proclamation of the risen Kyrios: "God gave him the name that is above every other name" (Phil 2:9-11).
Psalm 113 text and commentary: the divine kenosis in vv. 5-9
The central theology of Psalm 113 text is condensed in the antithetical pair of participles in vv. 5-6:
| MT term | Transliteration | Translation | LXX |
|---|---|---|---|
| הַמַּגְבִּיהִי | ha-magbihi | "the one who sits on high" | ὁ ὑψηλὸς |
| הַמַּשְׁפִּילִי | ha-mashpili | "the one who stoops down to look" | ὁ ταπεινός |
God transcends the heavens and yet bends (shafal) to observe the earth — not distant surveillance but a deliberate downward movement. Paul takes up this structure in the kenotic hymn of Phil 2:6-8: "though he was in the form of God... he emptied himself... humbling himself (tapeinōsas heauton)." The Greek tapeinōsas is the exact calque of the MT ha-mashpili: the pre-existent Christ "stoops down" in the precise sense of Ps 113:6.
Verses 7-9 develop the concrete consequence: meqimi me-'afar dal ("the one who raises from the dust the poor, dal"). The word dal indicates the economically fragile person, distinct from the 'ani (the interior sufferer). The Song of Hannah (1Sam 2:7-8) uses almost identical terms — "he brings down the proud, he raises up the humble" — and the Magnificat of Mary (Luke 1:52-53) roots in this tradition its hymn to the megalosyne of God. Midrash Tehillim 113 illuminates this movement from within the Jewish tradition: the praise "Hallelujah, praise the servants of the Lord" is linked to the memory of the nocturnal liberation from Egypt, when Israel passed from the status of servants of Pharaoh to that of servants of God. The movement of descent and ascent — from the dust to the heights of the heavens — is not only anthropological but theological: it is God himself who effects the reversal, exactly as in the Passover night "we cried to you and you delivered us" (cf. Ps 113:1: haleluia, hallelu avdei Adonai).
Verse 9 concludes with the image of the barren woman who becomes "a joyful mother of children" (em ha-banim semekhah) — an echo of the motherhood of Sarah, Hannah and Rachel, figures of divine grace that overturns the impossible. Mishnah Berakhot 9:5 teaches that one must bless God both for evil and for good, with both yetzarim: Psalm 113 is the response to this prescription, a praise that embraces the paradox of the God who bends down from heaven.
Psalm 113 in Christian liturgy
On the evening of the Last Supper, Jesus and the disciples sang the Hallel before going to Gethsemane (Matt 26:30: "after singing a hymn"). Psalm 113 text was certainly part of that song: its praise to the God who raises the dead from the dust resounded in the hour when the Servant of YHWH was setting out toward his humiliation and exaltation.