The Highest Height and Deepest Depth Text: Psalm 113:4-6
Introduction: The Great Reversal
We live in an age that is profoundly confused about greatness. Our culture worships at the altar of the self. We celebrate pride, we commend arrogance, and we mistake swagger for substance. We think greatness is found in climbing over others, in making a name for ourselves, in being seen and celebrated by the world. But the God of the Bible turns our pathetic little notions of glory completely upside down. He shows us that true greatness, true glory, is not found in self-exaltation but in self-abasement. It is not found in being high and staying high, but in being the highest and stooping the lowest.
This psalm, Psalm 113, is one of the Hallel psalms, sung by the Jews at their great festivals, and almost certainly sung by our Lord Jesus with His disciples on the night He was betrayed. Think of it. As He prepared to go to the cross, as He prepared for the ultimate act of condescension, He sang a song about the God who condescends. This is not a coincidence. This is the very heart of the gospel.
The world says, "Climb, achieve, dominate." God says, "The one who is highest of all is the one who humbles Himself to serve." The world's heroes are those who conquer nations. God's hero is the one who conquers death by dying. This is the great reversal, the central paradox of our faith. And we see it here in these three verses with breathtaking clarity. We are shown a God whose transcendence is absolute and a God whose immanence is astonishing. He is higher than we can possibly imagine, and yet He comes closer than we could ever dare to hope.
If we do not grasp this, we will not grasp who our God is. We will create a god in our own image, a god who is either a distant, uninvolved cosmic principle, or a chummy, avuncular "buddy Jesus" who is not much greater than we are. But the God of Scripture is both infinitely majestic and intimately personal. He is the God who sits on high and the God who brings Himself low. To worship Him rightly, we must hold these two truths together, for in their glorious tension, we find the gospel.
The Text
Yahweh is high above all nations;
His glory is above the heavens.
Who is like Yahweh our God,
The One who sits on high,
The One who brings Himself low to see
The things in heaven and on the earth?
(Psalm 113:4-6 LSB)
The Unassailable Throne (v. 4)
The psalmist begins by establishing the absolute supremacy of God over all created things.
"Yahweh is high above all nations; His glory is above the heavens." (Psalm 113:4)
This is a statement of radical transcendence. First, "Yahweh is high above all nations." In the ancient world, gods were territorial. Chemosh was the god of the Moabites, Dagon the god of the Philistines, and so on. They were tribal deities, limited by geography and power. But Yahweh, the God of Israel, is not on that list. He is not in the pantheon; He is above it. He is not the God of Israel in the same way Chemosh is the god of Moab. He is the God over all nations. The rise and fall of empires, the shifting of borders, the decrees of kings, all of it happens under His sovereign gaze. He is not a participant in the geopolitical squabbles of men; He is the one who sets up kings and brings them down. All the pomp and military might of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Rome are as nothing to Him. He is high above them.
But the psalmist immediately takes it a step further. It is not just that God is higher than all human institutions. "His glory is above the heavens." This is crucial. The heavens, in the ancient mindset, were the realm of the divine, the abode of the gods. The sun, moon, and stars were objects of worship. But our God is not contained within the cosmos. His glory exceeds it. The entire universe, with its billions of galaxies and incomprehensible distances, is but a footstool for His feet. The heavens declare His glory, yes, but they cannot contain it. He is not a part of the system; He is the author of it. This establishes the fundamental Creator/creature distinction. God is not just quantitatively bigger than us; He is qualitatively different. He is in a category all by Himself.
This truth is the death of all idolatry. If God is above the nations, then nationalism is idolatry. If His glory is above the heavens, then nature-worship is idolatry. Any attempt to locate God's ultimate glory within the created order is a fundamental mistake. He is utterly transcendent, which means He is utterly free. He is not constrained by anything or anyone. He does what He pleases, and He answers to no one.
The Incomparable God (v. 5)
This absolute transcendence naturally leads to a rhetorical question that exposes the foolishness of all rival claims to deity.
"Who is like Yahweh our God, The One who sits on high," (Psalm 113:5 LSB)
The answer, of course, is no one. This is the central confession of Israel. "Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one!" (Deut. 6:4). This is not just a mathematical statement; it is a statement of uniqueness. He is in a class by Himself. Who can you compare to Him? The idols of the nations? They are blocks of wood and stone, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak; eyes, but cannot see. They are nothing. The philosophers' "unmoved mover"? That is a cold, impersonal abstraction, not the living, personal God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Notice the description: "The One who sits on high." This is the posture of a king. He is enthroned. He is not pacing nervously, wondering how things will turn out. He is not reacting to events; He is ordaining them. He sits, calmly and sovereignly, ruling over all things from His celestial throne. This is a picture of absolute control and untroubled authority. The universe is not a chaotic mess spinning out of control. It is a kingdom, and there is a King on the throne. This is the foundation of all Christian comfort and all Christian confidence. Our God reigns.
But the phrase "our God" is intensely personal. The infinitely transcendent King, the one who is utterly unique and incomparable, has entered into a covenant relationship with His people. The God who is high above the heavens has bound Himself to us with promises. This is the beginning of the bridge between His infinite height and our lowly estate. He is not just God; He is our God.
The Astonishing Condescension (v. 6)
And now we come to the verse that should shatter all our categories and leave us in stunned silence. The psalmist has taken us to the highest heights, and now he plunges us to the deepest depths.
"The One who brings Himself low to see The things in heaven and on the earth?" (Psalm 113:6 LSB)
This is one of the most profound statements in all of Scripture. God is so high that He has to humble Himself, He has to condescend, just to look at the heavens. Think about that. The archangels, the seraphim, the cherubim, all the glorious celestial beings who dwell in the highest heaven, are so far beneath God that for Him to even notice them is an act of humility. The most glorious created thing is still infinitely distant from the uncreated Creator.
If He must stoop to see the heavens, what does that mean for His relationship to the earth? He must stoop to see our proudest empires, our tallest mountains, our deepest oceans. Our entire planet is a speck of dust in His cosmos, and for Him to pay it any mind at all is an act of staggering condescension. He brings Himself low to see.
This is not the distant god of the deists, who wound up the clock and let it run. This is a God who is intimately and actively involved in His creation. He sees. He pays attention. And this condescension is not a passive observation. The verses that follow in this psalm show the result of His seeing: "He raises the poor from the dust, And lifts the needy from the ash heap" (v. 7). His stooping is a saving stoop. He looks down in order to lift up.
And this, of course, is a blazing arrow pointing straight to the incarnation of Jesus Christ. If it is an act of condescension for God to simply look at the earth, what shall we say of the act of Him becoming a man? Philippians 2 tells us that Christ Jesus, "who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men" (Phil. 2:6-7). He did not just bring Himself low to see; He brought Himself low to become. The One whose glory is above the heavens was wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a feeding trough. The One who sits on high learned to walk. The hands that flung the stars into space were pierced with nails. This is the ultimate condescension. This is the ultimate humility. This is the great reversal in its most potent form.
Conclusion: The Upward Downward Path
So what does this mean for us? It means everything. It means that our salvation depends entirely on this condescending God. We do not climb our way up to Him; He comes all the way down to us. Our hope is not in our strength, but in His stooping. He saw us in our dust and ashes, in the filth of our sin, and He did not just look; He came down into the muck with us in order to lift us out.
This truth must also define our lives. If the central characteristic of our God is this blend of supreme majesty and supreme humility, then it must be ours as well. We are called to imitate the God who brings Himself low. The path to true greatness in the kingdom of God is the path downward. "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Matt. 23:12). We are to serve one another, to prefer one another, to wash one another's feet.
The world tells you to make much of yourself. This psalm tells you to make much of the God who made Himself low for you. The world tells you to seek your own glory. The gospel tells you to seek the glory of the One whose glory is above the heavens. And the great paradox is this: when you take the lower seat, when you humble yourself under His mighty hand, that is when He lifts you up. He raises the poor from the dust. He takes nobodies and makes them sons and daughters of the King. He takes rebels and makes them priests. He stoops down to our ruin and raises us up to His throne. Who is like Yahweh our God? No one. Absolutely no one.