Hope (Your Story Ends Well)

Questions This Sermon Answers:

1. What is Psalm 113 about?

Psalm 113 is a hymn of praise that opens the Egyptian Hallel, exalting the LORD who is both infinitely high and tenderly near. It calls God's servants to praise His name "from the rising of the sun to its going down" (Psalm 113:3), then declares that this exalted God stoops to lift the poor from the dust. Dr. Holt preaches it as a word of hope: the transcendent God is intimately concerned with what His people are going through, and your story ends well.

2. Why does Psalm 113 say "Praise the LORD" three times in one verse?

The command "praise the LORD" appears three times in verse 1 for emphasis. The Hebrews had no exclamation points or emojis, so they conveyed emphasis through repetition: said once is significant, twice more so, and three times in a single verse is something else entirely. Dr. Holt likens it to a text message in all capitals or with twenty emojis. The threefold call signals that we ought to pay attention and praise this God with everything in us.

3. What is the Egyptian Hallel?

"Hallel" is the Hebrew word for praise, and "Hallelujah" means "praise the LORD." Psalms 113-118 form the Egyptian Hallel, sung at Passover to remember God rescuing His people from Egypt and Pharaoh. Psalm 113 was sung at the outset of the Passover meal, so in all likelihood Jesus and His disciples sang it the night He was betrayed. It recalls a God who, in His people's greatest need, came through.

4. Did Jesus sing Psalm 113?

Very likely. Because Psalm 113 opened the Egyptian Hallel sung at Passover, in all likelihood Jesus and His disciples sang it the night He was betrayed, before going out to the Mount of Olives. The hymn that praises a God who delivered Israel from Egypt was on the lips of the Savior as He approached the cross by which He would accomplish the greater deliverance. It binds the Passover, the Last Supper, and Calvary together in one song of praise.

5. Why should we praise God according to Psalm 113?

God does not need our praise, but He deserves it for two reasons: because of who He is and because of what He has done. Dr. Holt illustrates with a glorious Gulf sunset that transfixes us and makes us call others to "come see this" — and how much more the author of a million sunsets, whose nature dwarfs them. Our problem, as Romans 1 shows, is a thick veneer of sin over our eyes by which we suppress what we know of Him.

6. What does it mean that God "humbles Himself to behold"?

Psalm 113:6 says the LORD "humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth." The psalmist does not say He is merely big and strong, though He is; he marvels that the high God stoops. The Baals, Zeus, and Molech never condescended, for gentleness was not in their lexicon. Our God is not only strong but tender, who, as Philippians shows, did not hesitate to be born in a manger and embraced the cross to save us.

7. Why does Psalm 113 say no one is like the LORD?

Verse 5 asks, "Who is like the LORD our God, who dwells on high?" The answer is no one. His incommunicable attributes are shared with no creature; the Creator transcends the created. Dr. Holt notes his young daughter once compared him to Batman and later to Fred Flintstone, but God can be compared to no one. He is high above the nations and their laws, and the whole earth is His footstool over which He reigns. The Westminster Confession (2.1-2) confesses this incomparable God.

8. What does it mean that God lifts the poor from the ash heap?

Psalm 113:7 declares, "He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap." A king scanning a crowded room looks for other kings, for power is attracted to power and wealth to wealth — but God is the opposite. He seeks the lowly, the needy, the widow, and the broken, and seats them with princes. You may sit on the ash heap, Dr. Holt preaches, but you will not stay there, for God seeks out you.

9. How does Psalm 113 point to Christ?

The God who humbles Himself to behold is most fully seen in Jesus Christ, who, as Philippians shows, did not hesitate to humble Himself and be born in a manger and embraced the cross. He did not place Himself atop a mountain only the strong could climb; He sought out sinners and tax collectors and the woman at the well. Psalm 113's exalted yet stooping God is Emmanuel, God with us, who seeks us out in the very crucible of our pain.

10. How does Psalm 113 give hope to those who are suffering?

Psalm 113 assures the hurting that they are not alone and that the story ends well. A day will come when you look back and see God was with you every step of the way. Our God does not leave His projects half-baked; He finishes what He has begun, and He has appointed the church as His arms to bind up the wounded. The church is not a museum of saints but a hospital for sinners, for we were all once without God and without hope in the world (Ephesians 2:12).