Psalms 113:7
in Psalms 113He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the dump
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, And lifteth up the needy from the dunghill;
KJV
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill;
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This verse in Psalms 113
Commentary
13 notes on this verseDaniel, the prophet, says to Nebuchadnezzar, that the most High rules in the kingdom of humankind, and he will give it to whomsoever it shall please him, and he will appoint the lowest and the basest person over it.
This site's exposition
lifts the needy from the dump
on Psalms 113:7-9
Hannah's song at 1 Samuel 2:8 carries these lines almost word for word, the poor lifted from the dust and the needy from the ash heap, and 1 Samuel 2:5 gives the barren woman her children. The Hebrew behind the dump is ashpoth, a heap of rubbish or filth. The man off the rubbish heap is seated with nobles.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
It is written that "there is no glory, if when you sin, you are punished and endure it, but if when you do good and suffer, this is a grace with God. To this, indeed, you have been called, because Christ also has died for you, leaving you an example, that you may follow in his steps, who did no sin, neither was deceit found in his month; who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return, when he suffered, did not threaten." And so the just person, even if he is on the rack, is always just. Because he justifies God and says that his suffering is less than his sins warrant, he is always wise. For true and perfect wisdom is not taken away by the torments of the rack, nor does it lose its nature, because it casts out fear by its zealous and loving purpose, even as the wise person knows that he should say that our sufferings in this body are unworthy of the reward of future glory and that all the sufferings of this time cannot equal the reward that is to come. And thus, to him, God, who knows the time of the harvest, is always good. Therefore, like a good farmer, he plows his field here with the plough-share of a rather severe abstinence, as it were. He clears his land here with the scythe of virtues that cuts off the vices, so to speak. He manures here by humbling himself even to the earth, for he knows that "God raises up the needy from the earth and lifts up the poor out of the dunghill." Indeed, unless the apostle Paul had been counted as dung, he could never have gained Christ for himself. Such a person keeps watch over his crops here, so that he may store them away there without concern. And so, to him, God is always good because he always hopes for good things from God.
"He taketh up the destitute out of the dust, and lifteth the poor out of the mire" (ver. 7); "that He may set Him with the princes, even with the princes of His people" (ver. 8). Let not then the heads of the exalted disdain to be humble, beneath the Lord's right hand. For though the faithful steward of the Lord's money be placed together with the princes of the people of God, although he be destined to sit on the twelve seats, and even to judge angels; yet he is taken up destitute from the dust, and lifted from out of the mire. Was not he possibly lifted up from the mire, who "served divers lusts and pleasures"?...
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Some have applied this to the work of redemption by Jesus Christ, and not unfitly; for through him poor fallen men are raised out of the dust (one of the Jewish rabbies applies it to the resurrection of the dead), nay, out of the dunghill of sin, and set among princes, among angels, those princes of his people.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,....
9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. We are extorted to give glory to God, to give him the glory due to his name. The invitation is very pressing: praise you the Lord, and again and again, Praise him, praise him; blessed be his name, for it is to be praised,
6 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century6 voices
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust. This is an instance of his gracious stoop of love: he frequently lifts the lowest of mankind out of their poverty and degradation and places them in positions of power and honour. His good Spirit is continually visiting the down trodden, giving beauty for ashes to those who are cast down, and elevating the hearts of his mourners till they shout for joy.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust. This is an instance of his gracious stoop of love: he frequently lifts the lowest of mankind out of their poverty and degradation and places them in positions of power and honour. His good Spirit is continually visiting the down trodden, giving beauty for ashes to those who are cast down, and elevating the hearts of his mourners till they shout for joy. These up liftings of grace are here ascribed directly to the divine hand, and truly those who have experienced them will not doubt the fact that it is the Lord alone who brings his people up from the dust of sorrow and death. When no hand but his can help he interposes, and the work is done. It is worth while to be cast down to be so divinely raised from the dust. And lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, whereon they lay like worthless refuse, cast off and cast out, left as they thought to rot into destruction, and to be everlastingly forgotten. How great a stoop from the height of his throne to a dunghill! How wonderful that power which occupies itself in lifting up beggars, all befouled with the filthiness in which they lay! For he lifts them out of the dunghill, not disdaining to search them out from amidst the base things of the earth that he may by their means bring to nought the great ones, and pour contempt upon all human glorying. What a dunghill was that upon which we lay by nature! What a mass of corruption is our original estate! What a heap of loathsomeness we have accumulated by our sinful lives! What reeking abominations surround us in the society of our fellow men! We could never have risen out of all this by our own efforts, it was a sepulchre in which we saw corruption, and were as dead men. Almighty were the arms which lifted us, which are still lifting us, and will lift us into the perfection of heaven itself. Praise ye the Lord.
THE greatness and majesty of the Most High God are utterly inconceivable. The most masterly minds, when in the most spiritual state, have felt it impossible for the utmost stretch of their imagination to reach to the grandeur of God. Our loftiest conceptions of the universe probably fall very far short of what it really is—although the researches of astronomy have revealed facts surpassing all the powers of the human mind in the attempt to grasp them. Thought, reason, understanding, and even imagination are bewildered in the vast and illimitable fields of space amidst the marvels of God's handiwork.
THE greatness and majesty of the Most High God are utterly inconceivable. The most masterly minds, when in the most spiritual state, have felt it impossible for the utmost stretch of their imagination to reach to the grandeur of God. Our loftiest conceptions of the universe probably fall very far short of what it really is—although the researches of astronomy have revealed facts surpassing all the powers of the human mind in the attempt to grasp them. Thought, reason, understanding, and even imagination are bewildered in the vast and illimitable fields of space amidst the marvels of God's handiwork. Yet all the wonders which the human eye has seen, or mortal spirit guessed at, are but parts of His ways. We have heard no more than one stanza of creation's never-ending Psalm. We have viewed but one stone in the vast mosaic of the Maker's works. An infusorial atom of life in a drop of water may know as much of the great sea as we do of the universe as a whole. An ant creeping over a sand heap by the seaside must not boast of having counted the grains which bound the ocean—nor must the most learned mortal dream that he has a full idea of the vast creation of God! Above all this, however, is the fact that all these wondrous works bear no more proportion to the unseen, all-powerful God, than one line written by the pen of Milton would bear to His masterly mind. When God has made all that He ordains to create and when we have seen all that He has made, yet there remains in Himself infinite possibilities of creation. The potter is far greater than the vessel which he fashions and the Lord is infinitely greater than all His works. He fills all things, but all things cannot fill Him.
He raiseth up the poor - The poorest man, in the meanest and most abject circumstances, is an object of his merciful regards. He may here allude to the wretched state of the captives in Babylon, whom God raised up out of that dust and dunghill. Others apply it to the resurreetion of the dead.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust - From the most humble condition in life. He exalts them to conditions of wealth, rank, honor. He has power to do this; he actually does it. This is not intended to be affirmed as a universal truth, or to assert that it is always done, but that it is among the things which show his majesty, his power, and his goodness, and which lay the foundation for praise. And lifteth the needy out of the dunghill - From the condition of lowest poverty. Instances are sufficiently abundant in which this is done, to justify such an assertion, and to show that it is a proper foundation of praise to God.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מְקִֽימִ֣י | mekimi | [he is] raising | H6965 → | 628 times |
| מֵעָפָ֣ר | meafar | from [the] dust | H6083 → | 110 times |
| דָּ֑ל | dal | [the] poor | H1800 → | 47 times |
| מֵֽ֝אַשְׁפֹּ֗ת | meashpot | from [the] ash heap | H830 → | |
| יָרִ֥ים | yarim | he lifts up | H7311 → | 190 times |
| אֶבְיֽוֹן׃ | ʾevyon | [the] needy | H34 → | 61 times |
מְקִֽימִ֣י[he is] raising
mekimiH6965 →628 times
מֵעָפָ֣רfrom [the] dust
meafarH6083 →110 times
דָּ֑ל[the] poor
dalH1800 →47 times
מֵֽ֝אַשְׁפֹּ֗תfrom [the] ash heap
meashpotH830 →
יָרִ֥יםhe lifts up
yarimH7311 →190 times
אֶבְיֽוֹן׃[the] needy
ʾevyonH34 →61 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 107:41But He lifts the needy from affliction and increases their families like flocks.
it leads to
- 1 Samuel 2:8
He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth…
- Job 21:11
They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,
- Esther 8:15–17
Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal garments of blue and white, with a large gold crown and a purple robe of fine linen. And the city of Susa shouted…
- Isaiah 49:20–22
Yet the children of your bereavement will say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; make room for us to live here.’
- 1 Samuel 2:8
Through
Job 5:11He sets the lowly on high, so that mourners are lifted to safety.
it leads to
- Luke 1:52–53
He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has exalted the humble.
- Psalms 107:41
But He lifts the needy from affliction and increases their families like flocks.
- Luke 6:21
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
- 1 Samuel 2:7–8
The LORD sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.
- Luke 1:52–53
About Psalms
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, Interrogation of Job and David 3:2.3; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 113; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 5; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 658: “From The Dunghill To The Throne” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jerome, Against the Pelagians 2.3; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.