We all know some “rags to riches” stories, people who have come from very poor backgrounds to become very wealthy people. We’ve read about Andrew Carnegie, born into a poor Scottish family, who left as a teenager to come to the U.S., and became one of the richest men in the world at the time. Or Charlie Chaplin, who had an extremely impoverished childhood on the streets of London, to become a world-famous movie star. Charles Dickens wrote several rags-to-riches stories, particularly Oliver Twist. In our psalm for this week we read of how we can become one of these rags-to-riches stories.
Psalm 113 is one of many psalms which call upon God’s children to bring Him praise, which is only right, especially in light of what we will be reading in this Scripture. The psalmist declares that we should be bringing the Lord praise from the rising of the sun to its going down (vs. 3). This includes everyone from the east to the west, from one border of the country to the opposite border, from one seashore to the next, one coast to the other. Everyone, from every race and nationality are to call upon Yahweh as their God, and to bring Him praise.
Not only is every person to bring the Lord praise, but we should be praising Him from morning till night. Praise shouldn’t just be limited to Sunday mornings in church, but each day throughout the week. It also shouldn’t just be one moment of the day, when we say our morning prayers, or right before we go to bed. We should be praising the Lord our every waking moment, all throughout the day, for anything and everything that we experience. From the rising to the setting of the sun.
Yahweh is the one true God of the universe, of all creation. He is far above and exalted above all that He has created (vs. 5-6). Though the Lord God is more powerful and exalted than anyone in the universe, yet He has compassion and love for the poor, the powerless, and the broken. In God’s eyes, a person’s value has no relationship to their wealth or position on the social ladder.
How many of His children have come from the poor and the outcast? As verse 7 says, God raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap. What king here on earth, or any wealthy businessman or person of society would pick a beggar from a dirty alley to be a member of their family, equal in every way to their own “blue blood” children? Very few, if any, would. Yet that is exactly what the Lord God has done for every one who has called upon His Son, Jesus Christ as their Savior. Before we were saved we were spiritual beggars and outcasts. If one were to look with “spiritual glasses” at a Christian before they were saved, they would look like filthy beggars dressed in rags (Isaiah 64:6). Yet because of Jesus’ death on our behalf, because of His shed Blood, whoever calls upon Him as their Savior are then lifted out of the ash heap and are seated with princes (vs. 8). We go from rags to riches!
God sets us with princes! Through the Lord Jesus we are now children of God, the King of the Universe. We are a royal priesthood (I Peter 2:9). He gives us all we need from His vast wealth. We also have direct access to the throne of God, just as a prince would.
God has never selected only the rich, the powerful, the beautiful, or the physically fit of this world to be His children. That is often the case in this world. In this world’s society, in order to belong one must be rich and/or beautiful. But that is not the case with God. He exalts the humble and humbles the proud (Matthew 20:16). We are all spiritual beggars, and many of us are also economically poor, and unattractive to the world. Yet God lifts us out of the dust and ashes to make us princes, a true rags-to-riches story.
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