What Does Psalm 113:6 Mean in the King James?
Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
God’s height is expressed in lowering himself until nothing in heaven or earth is beyond his sight.
THE MEANING
God is high, yet he lowers himself to behold everything in heaven and on earth. You are included in the earth he sees; your life lies within the reach of that attention.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that God’s greatness makes him too high to notice earthly life.
THE ROOT
הַמַּשְׁפִּילִי
hamashpili
GROWS FROM
שפל
shaphal
To be low; to bring low or lower.
“humbleth himself” in this verse is hamashpili. The Hebrew pictures God actively lowering himself. His attention is joined to this descent: he draws near enough to behold all that is in heaven and on earth.
ALSO GROWS
hishpil: To lower or bring down.
הִשְׁפִּיל
This causative form shares the root and makes the verb’s active downward movement clear.
shephelah: Lowland, low country.
שְׁפֵלָה
The root describes a low place as well as a lowered condition, giving the verse’s self-lowering a concrete vertical image.
לִרְאוֹת
lir’ot
GROWS FROM
ראה
ra’ah
To see, look at, or perceive.
The Hebrew links lowering himself directly with seeing: God lowers himself in order to behold. The verse presents divine sight as reaching across heaven and earth, not remaining remote above them.
ALSO GROWS
ro’eh: One who sees; a seer.
רֹאֶה
The same root names the one who sees, linking sight with the act of regard.
mar’eh: Sight, appearance, or vision.
מַרְאֶה
This branch shows the root’s reach into what is seen, joining the act of seeing with its visible field.
THE PATTERN
God’s height is revealed through attention that reaches down to all creation and raises the lowly.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and he hath set the world upon them.For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.THE THREAD
Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.Psalm 138:6 uses the same roots: שפל (shaphal, low) and ראה (ra’ah, see). Its pairing of the high LORD with the lowly makes explicit the downward regard compressed here into “humbleth himself to behold.”
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