Today’s devotion is a prayerful meditation and celebration. Psalms 113 – 118 are known as “The Egyptian Hallel”. Hallel, in Hebrew means praise, and we see Praise the Lord frequently throughout these Psalms. This is a portion of a service for certain Jewish festivals. It’s often a special prayer said/sung on Jewish holidays to give thanks and praise to God. Psalm 113 is typically connected with the Passover meal and other Jewish festivals as a reflection upon God’s redemption of His people, the Israelites, as the commemoration of their Exodus from slavery in Egypt.
I often say that when we read about Israel within the Biblical text that we should remember that we are directly connected as one. What I am saying is explained by the Apostle Paul in Romans 11:17-24, as the Gentiles are grafted into the olive tree, a place of blessing under the Abrahamic covenant, “sharing” in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special tree (Jesus) alongside of our Jewish brothers and sisters. We are all God’s people. We are all offered the same redemption found only in Christ Jesus. Thus, we should all celebrate that gift of pure love every second of every single day.
Friends, we are free from the slavery of sin, and today’s Psalm didn’t only apply to the freedom of the Israelites in the Old Testament, or to the freedom the disciples found in the New Testament during The Last Supper, when both Matthew and Mark recount within their Gospels that after The Supper “then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives” (Matt 26:30 & Mark 14:26), it also applies to every person who calls on the Name of Jesus as their Lord and Savior for all eternity.
Psalm 113
1 Praise the Lord!
Yes, give praise, O servants of the Lord.
Praise the name of the Lord!
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord
now and forever.
3 Everywhere—from east to west—
praise the name of the Lord.
4 For the Lord is high above the nations;
his glory is higher than the heavens.
5 Who can be compared with the Lord our God,
who is enthroned on high?
6 He stoops to look down
on heaven and on earth.
7 He lifts the poor from the dust
and the needy from the garbage dump.
8 He sets them among princes,
even the princes of his own people!
9 He gives the childless woman a family,
making her a happy mother.
Praise the Lord!
Prayer: Jesus, we praise You and thank You for saving each one of us! Please help us today to be reminded, and to be a reminder to others, of Your saving love for all of Your people. You are above all things, and You deserve to be praised. We ask all of this in Your Precious and Holy Name, Jesus. Amen.