is disclosed by means of its manifestation, is a principal element, yea, the proper ground and aim, of the service, and shall finally become that which fills all time and all space. מהלּל laudatum (est), is equivalent to ἀινετόν, laudabile (lxx, Vulgate), and this does not differ greatly from laudetur. The predictive interpretation laudabitur is opposed to the context (cf. moreover Köhler on Mal 1:11).
Verses 4-6
This praiseworthiness is now confirmed. The opening reminds one of Psa 99:2. Pasek stands between גוים and יהוה in order to keep them apart. The totality of the nations is great, but Jahve is raised above it; the heavens are glorious, but Jahve's glory is exalted above them. It is not to be explained according to Psa 148:13; but according to Psa 57:6, 12, רם belongs to Psa 113:4 too as predicate. He is the incomparable One who has set up His throne in the height, but at the same time directs His gaze deep downwards (expression according to Ges. §142, rem. 1) in the heavens and upon earth, i.e., nothing in all the realm of the creatures that are beneath Him escapes His sight, and nothing is so low that it remains unnoticed by Him; on the contrary, it is just that which is lowly, as the following strophe presents to us in a series of portraits so to speak, that is the special object of His regard. The structure of Psa 113:5-6 militates against the construction of “in the heavens and upon the earth” with the interrogatory “who is like unto Jahve our God?” after Deu 3:24.
Verses 7-9
The thoughts of Psa 113:7 and Psa 113:8 are transplanted from the song of Hannah. עפר, according to 1Ki 16:2, cf. Psa 14:7, is an emblem of lowly estate (Hitzig), and אשׁפּת (from שׁפת) an emblem of the deepest poverty and desertion; for in Syria and Palestine the man who is shut out from society lies upon the mezbele (the dunghill or heap of ashes), by day calling upon the passers-by for alms, and by night hiding himself in the ashes that have been warmed by the sun (Job, ii. 152). The movement of the thoughts in Psa 113:8, as in Psa 113:1, follows the model of the epizeuxis. Together with the song of Hannah the poet has before his eye Hannah's exaltation out of sorrow and reproach. He does not, however, repeat the words of her song which have reference to this (1Sa 2:5), but clothes his generalization of her experience
