“Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high,
who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?”
(Psalm 113:5)
Scripture describes God as the lofty One seated on high, and because of the exalted position He inhabits over His universe, comparatively He must look “far down” or “stoop down” (Ps. 116:2) to consider His creatures.
If we could ever realize how high and lofty, supreme and holy, majestic and mighty our God is, we would be humbled beyond words that He considers us at all, because He is too lofty to relate to any being so far below Him as we are.
And yet, by grace and without any obligation, God chose to stoop down to interact with sinful men bound under the curse of the fall. Scripture says that God purposed within Himself – “according to the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11) – to stoop low enough to save His people… so low that God became flesh (John 1). So low, in fact, that His own feet got dirty with the very dust He used to create man from.
He sent His blessed Son, equal in loftiness and supremacy (Phil. 2:6) to dwell among us. This Prince of the kings of the earth (Rev. 1:5) willingly set aside His lofty position with God to save sinners buried in the miry clay of the fall and bound in chains of darkness.
The One seated on high, the Lord of all, desired to condescend to the lowest beggar like Lazarus and take such a one into His heart and His kingdom. Only One who is infinitely lofty is capable of demonstrating such a love, grace, mercy, and goodness.
In Rom. 8:39, Paul hearkens to God as the lofty One when he says, “neither height, nor depths, shall separate from this love of God in Christ Jesus.” Thomas Goodwin comments on this verse, “But heights are those heights of God’s loftiness, in being so infinitely above us. The depths are your depths of lowness, miseries, and sins. Now these did not hinder His union with believers, nor shall they ever separate His heart from ours. His loftiness and your lowness, His heights and your depths, make the happiest union that could ever be, because it is His grace which makes it and brings it about, and holds us together.”
- Lord, Your infinite grace and condescension is a thought too high for me. That You, the high and lofty One, ordained such a union and communion with us who are so far below You is mind boggling. Will You work in me a more earnest desire to seek You as the lofty One, the One high and lifted up, that I might more fully adore You in Your splendor?
- You are the blessed God, my Redeemer. Help me especially to adore Your grace, for it condescended to raise me up out of the cursed pit and set me on the Rock higher than I. Help me echo the angels in saying, “Glory be to God on high!”
- As I am in communion with You Lord, my desire is that You would be “all in all” to me, so that all the fulness of God in Christ shall fill me up (Eph. 3:19). Fuel my desire to adore You like the fire of a hot furnace burns a piece of iron to mold it into a useful tool that I might be of use to the High and Lofty God and His kingdom.
- I am amazed that You saved me and grafted me into Your righteous stock, that I have an inheritance in Your kingdom because of Christ’s work, and that I am a child of the most High. I pray that You continue to raise me up and cleanse me in the Spirit of grace. Help me walk worthy of the High and Lofty God, adoring my Savior, Jesus Christ, forever.
Further Scriptures for Psa. 113:5
Ps. 35:10, 103:19; Exod. 15:11; Ps. 89:6; Isa. 57:15
