Psalms 113:8
in Psalms 113to seat them with nobles, with the princes of His people.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
That he may set him with princes, Even with the princes of his people.
KJV
That he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people.
⋯
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, the poor lifted from the dust, 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.
This site's exposition
to seat them with nobles
The lift of verse 7 ends in a seat. Spurgeon said the LORD does nothing by halves: He raises the poor and stops only when they sit with the princes of His people. Henry records that one Jewish rabbi applied the lines to the dead raised from the dust.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"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.
That he may set him with princes,....
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,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
That he may set him with princes. The Lord does nothing by halves: when he raises men from the dust he is not content till he places them among the peers of his kingdom. We are made kings and priests unto God, and we shall reign for ever and ever. Instead of poverty, he gives us the wealth of princes; and instead of dishonour, he gives us a more exalted rank than that of the great ones of the earth. Even with the princes of his people.
5 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century5 voices
That he may set him with princes. The Lord does nothing by halves: when he raises men from the dust he is not content till he places them among the peers of his kingdom. We are made kings and priests unto God, and we shall reign for ever and ever. Instead of poverty, he gives us the wealth of princes; and instead of dishonour, he gives us a more exalted rank than that of the great ones of the earth. Even with the princes of his people. All his people are princes, and so the text teaches us that God places needy souls whom he favours among the princes of princes. He often enables those who have been most despairing to rise to the greatest heights of spirituality and gracious attainment, for those who once were last shall be first. Paul, though less than the least of all saints was, nevertheless, made to be not a whit behind the very chief of the apostles; and in our own times, Bunyan, the blaspheming tinker, was raised into another John, whose dream almost rivals the visions of the Apocalypse. Such verses as these should give great encouragement to those who are lowest in their own esteem. The Lord poureth contempt upon princes; but as for those who are in the dust and on the dunghill, he looks upon them with compassion, acts towards them in grace, and in their case displays the riches of his glory by Christ Jesus. Those who have experienced such amazing favour should sing continual hallelujahs to the God of their salvation.
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.
With the princes - נדיבים nedebim, very properly translated by the Anglo-Saxon, the aldermen, the most respectable of his people.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
That he may set him with princes - May give him a rank - a position - with nobles and great people upon the earth. Many instances of this nature have occurred in the history of the world. Not a few of the nobles of England, including several of its lord chancellors, have been raised thus from very humble life; and in every nation God shows that he has power to give to those of humblest rank a name and place which no hereditary titles and honors can bestow: thus Shakespeare was the son of a glover and woolstapler. God has power to come into the humblest cottage of poverty, and to bring forth those who shall stand foremost in their generation as people of genius and power. Nothing is more absolute than the power which God thus holds over the nations of the earth, and it is meet that a Being who has this power, and who exercises it, should be praised and honored. Even with the princes of his people - Among those who are selected to preside over the people whom he has chosen for himself. It is implied here that this would be a higher honor than to be exalted to power among a pagan people - a people ignorant of the true God. It is a higher honor to be counted worthy to rule a Christian nation than a pagan people; it is a higher honor to be a ruler in the church - over those whom God has redeemed for himself - than it is to administer a secular government.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לְהוֹשִׁיבִ֥י | lehoshivi | to make [him] sit | H3427 → | 1079 times |
| עִם־ | ʾim- | with | H5973 → | 1050 times |
| נְדִיבִ֑ים | nedivim | noble [people] | H5081 → | 29 times |
| עִ֝֗ם | ʾim | with | H5973 → | 1050 times |
| נְדִיבֵ֥י | nedivei | [the] noble [people] of | H5081 → | 29 times |
| עַמּֽוֹ׃ | amo | people his | H5971 → | 1873 times |
לְהוֹשִׁיבִ֥יto make [him] sit
lehoshiviH3427 →1079 times
עִם־with
ʾim-H5973 →1050 times
נְדִיבִ֑יםnoble [people]
nedivimH5081 →29 times
עִ֝֗םwith
ʾimH5973 →1050 times
נְדִיבֵ֥י[the] noble [people] of
nediveiH5081 →29 times
עַמּֽוֹ׃people his
amoH5971 →1873 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
Job 36:7He does not take His eyes off the righteous, but He enthrones them with kings and exalts them forever.
it leads to
- Psalms 34:15
The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their cry.
- Psalms 33:18
Surely the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His loving devotion
- 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…
- Psalms 113:7–8
He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the dump
- 2 Thessalonians 3:3
But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.
- Psalms 34:15
Through
Genesis 41:41Pharaoh also told Joseph, “I hereby place you over all the land of Egypt.”
it leads to
- Matthew 28:18
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.
- Matthew 28:18
Through
Psalms 45:16Your sons will succeed your fathers; you will make them princes throughout the land.
it leads to
- Revelation 5:10
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign upon the earth.”
- 1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
- Revelation 5:10
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Psalms
This page draws on 10 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); 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.