Eternal Praise: Understanding Psalm 113:1-2

March 21, 2025

Psalms, Study

Abba, bible, elohim, eternity, forever, god, jesus, lord, name, praise, Psalms, yahweh

Psalm 113:1-2 NKJV

Praise the Lord!

Praise, O servants of the Lord,
Praise the name of the Lord!

Blessed be the name of the Lord
From this time forth and forevermore!

My Thoughts

The importance of praising the Lord, and encouraging His servants to honor Him with heartfelt worship is evident in this passage. Commentators like Charles Spurgeon highlight that praise is an essential offering, linking reverence with gratitude for God’s past blessings. The exhortation serves as a reminder for believers to reflect on God’s attributes while recognizing His sovereignty and grace. The psalmist calls for eternal praise, indicating that gratitude should start now and continue forever, resonating as a universal act of worship throughout existence. Bill

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Commentaries:

Charles Spurgeon

“Praise ye the LORD,” or Hallelujah, praise to JAH Jehovah. Praise is an essential offering at all the solemn feasts of the people of God. Prayer is the myrrh, and praise is the frankincense, and both of these must be presented unto the Lord. How can we pray for mercy for the future if we do not bless God for his love in the past? The Lord hath wrought all good things for us, let us, therefore, adore him. All other praise is to be excluded, the entire devotion of the soul must be poured out unto Jehovah only.

“Praise, O ye servants of the LORD.” Ye above all men, for ye are bound to do so by your calling and profession. If God’s own servants do not praise him, who will? Ye are a people near unto him and should be heartiest in your loving gratitude. While they were slaves of Pharaoh, the Israelites uttered groans and sighs by reason of their hard bondage; but now that they had become servants of the Lord, they were to express themselves in songs of joy. His service is perfect freedom, and those who fully enter into it discover in that service a thousand reasons for adoration.

“Praise the name of the LORD:” extol his revealed character, magnify every sacred attribute, exult in all his doings, and reverence the very name by which he is called. The name of Jehovah is thrice used in this verse, and may by us who understand the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity be regarded as a thinly veiled allusion to that holy mystery. Let Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all be praised as the one, only, living, and true God. The close following of the words, “Hallelujah, Hallelu, Hallelu,” must have had a fine effect in the public services.

“Blessed be the name of the LORD.” While praising him aloud, the people were also to bless him in the silence of their hearts, wishing glory to his name, success to his cause, and triumph to his truth. By mentioning the name, the Psalmist would teach us to bless each of the attributes of the Most High, which are as it were the letters of his name; not quarreling with his justice or his severity, nor servilely dreading his power, but accepting him as we find him revealed in the inspired word and by his own acts, and loving him and praising him as such.

“From this time forth.” If we have never praised him before, let us begin now. As the Passover stood at the beginning of the year it was well to commence the new year with blessing him who wrought deliverance for his people. Every solemn feast had its own happy associations and might be regarded as a fresh starting place for adoration.

“And forevermore:” eternally. The Psalmist could not have intended that the divine praise should cease at a future date however remote. “Forevermore” in reference to the praise of God must signify endless duration: are we wrong in believing that it bears the same meaning when it refers to gloomier themes? Can our hearts ever cease to praise the name of the Lord? Can we imagine a period in which the praises of Israel shall no more surround the throne of the Divine Majesty? Impossible. Forever, and more than “forever,” if more can be, let him be magnified.

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Enduring Word

Praise the LORD: This is the third consecutive psalm to begin with the exclamation, Hallelujah! As in Psalms 111-112, it is both a personal statement of praise and an encouragement for others to do the same. (Guzik)

Praise, O servants of the LORD: God’s servants have special reason to praise Him. They have the honor of sharing in His great work, and they are promised eternal reward for doing so. Everyone has reason for praise; servants of the LORD have many more reasons.(Guzik)

Praise the name of the LORD: This means honoring and exalting Yahweh Himself and His character, which are represented by His name. (Guzik)

i. “There is a point in specifying the Lord’s servants and his name, since worship to be acceptable must be more than flattery and more than guess-work. It is the loving homage of the committed to the Revealed.” (Kidner)

ii. “In the case of God ‘the name of the Lord’ is all important, for it has to do with the revelation of who God is. In other words, it is not just any God we are to worship. We are to praise the one true ‘Lord,’ who has revealed himself in creation, on Sinai, and more recently in the person of his only Son, Jesus of Nazareth.” (Boice)

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John Gill

Praise, O ye servants of the Lord; meaning not the angels, nor all men, nor the priests and Levites only; but all the saints, who are a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God; who are servants, not of sin, nor of Satan, nor of men, but of God and Christ; and who serve the Lord willingly and cheerfully, with much pleasure and delight, in righteousness and holiness, with reverence and godly fear, and without trusting to and depending on their service for salvation: and one principal branch of their service is praise, especially under the Gospel dispensation; in which all legal sacrifices are abolished, and the sacrifice of praise is continued; and which is pleasant and delightful work, and yet there is a backwardness to it; and therefore there is need of such an exhortation to excite unto it, and to repeat it, as follows:

praise the name of the Lord; not any particular name, as Jehovah; but him himself, and the perfections of his nature; his holiness, justice, truth, faithfulness, power, goodness, grace, and mercy. The repetition of the exhortation denotes either the abundance of praise to be given to the Lord or the constancy and continuance of it; which ought to be done at all times, every day, since his mercies are new every morning. Some have thought the threefold repetition respects the trinity of Persons, who are each to be praised, as in Numbers 6:24, but this is doubtful, and perhaps not sufficient to build such a doctrine on; and especially since the first of these exhortations is the title of the psalm: however, this is a certain truth, that Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit, are to be praised.

From this time forth and forevermore; from the beginning of time, or as soon as time began, the Lord’s name was to be praised, and was praised by the holy angels, who were present at laying the foundation of the earth, Job 38:4, and all the works of the Lord, in their way, have praised him ever since. Here it may respect the time of penning this psalm, or the time when the persons called upon commenced the servants of the Lord, the time of their conversion; a time of love, life, light, and deliverance, and therefore a time to begin to praise the Lord: or the whole time of the Gospel dispensation, to which this psalm refers; the accepted time and day of salvation, and of the Gentiles glorifying God for his mercy; in which the Lord is to be and is praised, as he will be to all eternity, by angels and glorified saints.

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Matthew Henry

From whom God has praise-from his own people; they are here called upon to praise God, as those that will answer the call: Praise, O you servants of the Lord! They have most reason to praise him; for those that attend him as his servants know him best and receive most of his favors. And it is their business to praise him; that is the work required of them as his servants: it is easy pleasant work to speak well of their Master, and do him what honor they can; if they do not, who should? Some understand it of the Levites; but, if so, all Christians are a royal priesthood, to show forth the praises of him that has called them, 1 Pt. 2:9. The angels are the servants of the Lord; they need not be called upon by us to praise God, yet it is a comfort to us that they do praise him, and that they praise him better than we can.

From all places the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, that is, throughout the habitable world. Let all that enjoy the benefit of the sun rising (and those that do so must count upon it that the sun will set) give thanks for that light to the Father of lights. God’s name is to be praised; it ought to be praised by all nations; for in every place, from east to west, there appear the manifest proofs and products of his wisdom, power, and goodness; and it is to be lamented that so great a part of mankind are ignorant of him, and give that praise to others which is due to him alone. But perhaps there is more in it; as the former verse gave us a glimpse of the kingdom of glory, intimating that God’s name shall be blessed forever (when time shall be no more that praise shall be the work of heaven), so this verse gives us a glimpse of the kingdom of grace in the gospel-dispensation of it. When the church shall no longer be confined to the Jewish nation but shall spread itself all the world over, when in every place spiritual incense shall be offered to our God (Mal. 1:11), then from the rising to the setting of the sun the Lord’s name shall be praised by some in all countries.

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The Pulpit Commentaries

Blessed be the Name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. The prayer here is that God may be praised through all time, as in the next verse it is that he may be praised through all space. In connection with the praise of God, limits of time and place are unsuitable (comp. Psalms 115:18; Psalms 121:8; Psa 125:1-5 :8; Psalms 131:3; Isaiah 59:21; Micah 4:7).

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A. R. Fausset

1. Praise ye the Lord—Hallelujah. O ye servants of the Lord—“the upright … that fear Him … His people” (Ps. 111:1, 5, 6; 34:22; 69:36); “Israel His servant” (Ps. 136:22; Ezra 5:11; Neh. 1:10). Praise is one leading service which the Lord’s “servants” owe Him.

2. Blessed be the name of the Lord—i. e., the Lord as He hath manifested Himself in His glorious deeds for His people. ‘The world which forms a God according to its own fancies has a nameless God’ (Hengstenberg). From this time forth and forevermore. The Psalmist takes for granted as already accomplished the deliverance and exaltation of the Lord’s people and praises the Lord for it, and for the causes of praise which faith assures him the Lord will give “forevermore.” Israel shall especially say so “from the time” that the Lord shall restore her. To that time prophetically the allusion is.

A. R. Fausset, A Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments: Job–Isaiah, vol. III (London; Glasgow: William Collins, Sons, & Company, Limited, n.d.), 351.

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Cross References

Daniel 2:20 (KJV)

²⁰Daniel answered and said,

Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever:

For wisdom and might are his:

Psalm 115:18 (KJV)

¹⁸ But we will bless the Lord

From this time forth and for evermore.

Praise the Lord.

Malachi 1:11 (KJV)

¹¹ For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same

My name shall be great among the Gentiles;

And in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering:

For my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.

Psalm 106:48 (KJV)

⁴⁸ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting:

And let all the people say, Amen.

Praise ye the Lord.

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KJV W/Strongs Bible

113:1 Praise 1984 8761 ye the LORD 3050. Praise 1984 8761, O ye servants 5650 of the LORD 3068, praise 1984 8761 the name 8034 of the LORD 3068.(Praise ye…: Heb. Hallelujah)

113:2 Blessed 1288 8794 be the name 8034 of the LORD 3068 from this time forth 6258 and for 5704 evermore 5769.

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Geneva Bible 1560

Psalm 113:1-2

1 Praise ye the Lord. Raise, ô ye servants of the Lord, (a) praise the Name of the Lord.

2 Blessed be the Name of the Lord from hence forth and for ever.

(a) By this often repetition he stirs up our cold dullness to praise God, seeing his works are so wonderful, and that we are created for the same cause.

Closing Thoughts:

Jude NKJV:

20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,

And to present you faultless

Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,

25 To God our Savior,

Who alone is wise,

Be glory and majesty,

Dominion and power,

Both now and forever.

Amen.