The Great Reversal: God's Economics Text: Psalm 113:7-9
Introduction: The God Who Stoops
We live in an age that is obsessed with categories of oppression. Our culture is constantly dividing everyone into groups of the privileged and the victimized, the powerful and the powerless. And in their upside-down moral calculus, victimhood has become a kind of currency, a perverse form of righteousness. They champion the "poor" and the "needy," but their definitions are carnal, political, and frankly, godless. Their solution is to tear down the successful, to punish the fruitful, and to redistribute envy. This is the logic of Cain, and it always ends in blood and ruin.
The Bible also speaks constantly of the poor and the needy, but it does so in a way that utterly demolishes the categories of our secular overlords. The Bible's concern for the lowly is not a call for class warfare; it is a revelation of the very character of God. Our God is the transcendent King, high above the heavens, so glorious that He must condescend even to look upon the highest angels. And yet, this is the God who stoops. This is the God whose glory is found in His humility. He doesn't just glance at the lowly from a distance; He involves Himself in their plight. He intervenes.
This psalm, one of the Hallel psalms likely sung by Christ and His disciples after the Last Supper, gives us the divine pattern of this intervention. It shows us God's economics, which we can call the Great Reversal. He takes those who are nothing in the world's eyes and makes them everything. He takes situations of utter desolation and brings forth overflowing life. This is not social justice as the world preaches it. This is covenantal justice, rooted in the merciful, sovereign grace of a God who delights in turning the world's value system on its head. And in these three verses, we see the heart of the gospel played out in miniature.
The Text
Who raises the poor from the dust
And lifts high the needy from the ash heap,
To make them sit with nobles,
With the nobles of His people.
He makes the barren woman of the house sit
As a glad mother of children.
Praise Yah!
(Psalm 113:7-9 LSB)
From the Dunghill to the Throne (v. 7-8)
The first movement of this great reversal deals with social and economic standing.
"Who raises the poor from the dust and lifts high the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with nobles, with the nobles of His people." (Psalm 113:7-8)
This is a direct quote from Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2, a song celebrating a God who overturns the proud and exalts the humble. The imagery here is potent. The "dust" is the place of lowliness, of being forgotten. The "ash heap" or "dunghill" is even more graphic. It was the town garbage dump, a place of filth, refuse, and utter destitution. To be on the ash heap was to be a social outcast, to be written off as human trash. This is the lowest possible station in life.
And it is from this very place that God acts. Notice, He doesn't just toss them a coin from on high. He "raises" and "lifts" them. This is a personal, powerful, and deliberate act of elevation. This is not a bootstrap operation. The man on the ash heap has no bootstraps. This is pure, unadulterated grace. God's mercy reaches down into the filth of human misery and degradation and pulls men out.
But where does He put them? This is the staggering part. He makes them "sit with nobles, with the nobles of His people." He does not just clean them up and set them on a path to middle-class respectability. He gives them a seat at the king's table. He ennobles the ignoble. He gives them a place of honor, authority, and fellowship with the rulers of the covenant community. This is not just social mobility; this is a radical change of identity and status.
Now, we must be careful here. This is not a promise that every financially poor Christian will become a millionaire. Nor is it a condemnation of wealth. The Bible is clear that poverty can be the result of laziness and sin, just as it can be the result of oppression. But the primary application here is spiritual. We are all, by nature, spiritually destitute. We are sitting on the ash heap of our sin and rebellion. We are poor, blind, and naked, with nothing to commend ourselves to God. We are spiritually bankrupt. As Isaiah says, all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment (Is. 64:6).
And from that dunghill of sin, God, in Christ, has lifted us. He did this by sending His own Son to the ultimate ash heap, the cross. Christ became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9). He was lifted up on a tree, a place of curse and shame, so that we could be lifted to a throne. And what is our new position? We have been made kings and priests to our God (Rev. 1:6). We have been seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). God has not just forgiven us; He has ennobled us. He has adopted us as sons and made us co-heirs with Christ. This is a promotion that makes a beggar becoming a prince look like a triviality.
From Barrenness to Fruitfulness (v. 9)
The second movement of the great reversal deals with the curse of barrenness and the blessing of life.
"He makes the barren woman of the house sit as a glad mother of children. Praise Yah!" (Psalm 113:9 LSB)
In the ancient world, barrenness was not just a personal sorrow; it was a profound social shame and, in the context of the covenant, a sign of curse. To be fruitful was to be blessed by God, to have a share in the future of the covenant people. To be barren was to be a dead end, a branch cut off. The Bible is filled with the stories of barren women whose wombs God opened in spectacular fashion: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Samson's mother, Hannah, Elizabeth. Each instance was a signpost pointing to God's power to bring life out of death.
God does not just give the barren woman a child. He makes her "sit as a glad mother of children." He establishes her. He gives her a secure and joyful place in the household. He turns her shame into honor, her sorrow into gladness. This is the God who specializes in impossible pregnancies. He takes what is empty and fills it to overflowing.
This points us directly to the gospel. The ultimate barrenness is the barrenness of sin. Sin makes everything fruitless and impossible. We are, by nature, dead in our trespasses, unable to produce any spiritual fruit that pleases God. Our world, under the curse, is a barren wasteland. But God sent His Son, born of a virgin's womb, the ultimate act of bringing life from a place of biological impossibility. And through the new birth, He makes our dead, barren souls fruitful.
This is also a promise to the Church. The Church is the new Eve, the mother of all living. Isaiah prophesied this very thing: "Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married" (Is. 54:1). The Gentile church, once desolate and barren, would be more fruitful than old covenant Israel. Through the preaching of the gospel, God takes the barren nations and makes them joyful mothers of children, filling His house with sons and daughters from every tribe and tongue.
This is why the psalm ends with "Praise Yah!" Hallelujah! This is the only proper response to such a God. When you see the logic of His grace, when you understand that He is the God who reverses every curse, who lifts beggars to thrones and brings life from the dead, the only thing you can do is praise Him.
Conclusion: Your Place in the Reversal
So what does this mean for us? It means that our value, our status, and our hope are not determined by the world's metrics. They are not determined by our bank account, our social standing, our fertility, or our political clout. Our identity is determined by the God who stoops.
If you are in Christ, you are a participant in this Great Reversal. You were on the ash heap, and He has seated you with princes. You were spiritually barren, and He is making you fruitful for His kingdom. This is your testimony. This is the story of every true believer.
Therefore, we must learn to think with the mind of God. We must stop evaluating ourselves and others by the world's flimsy standards. Do you feel poor? In Christ, you are royalty. Do you feel needy and helpless? His power is made perfect in your weakness. Do you feel fruitless and insignificant? He has planted His life in you, and He will bring forth His harvest.
And because we have been the recipients of such grace, we must be the agents of it. We are called to be a people who stoop. We are to look for the poor, the needy, the outcast, not to patronize them with secular handouts, but to bring them the gospel that lifts them from the dunghill of sin and seats them at the Father's table. We are to be a people who cultivate fruitfulness, who bring the life of the gospel into the barren places of our culture.
The world's system is a zero-sum game of envy and strife. But God's economy is one of resurrection and abundance. He does not take from the rich to give to the poor; He creates wealth out of nothing. He creates life out of death. He creates nobles out of beggars. This is our God. Let us, therefore, live as the ennobled sons and fruitful daughters of such a King. Praise Yah!