Transforming Barrenness: God’s Grace in Psalm 113:9

He grants the barren woman a home,
Like a joyful mother of children.

Praise the Lord!

My Thoughts

Psalm 113:9 highlights God’s grace in transforming the lives of barren women, allowing them to become joyful mothers amidst societal stigmas. The commentaries below emphasize this verse as a pinnacle of God’s mercy, reflecting historical figures like Sarah and Hannah who experienced divine intervention. They illustrate how God elevates those marginalized due to barrenness, paralleling the spiritual growth of churches. Ultimately, the psalm concludes with a call to perpetual praise for God’s enduring compassion and blessings in the lives of believers…..Bill

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Commentaries:

Charles Spurgeon

“He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children.” The strong desire of the easterns to have children caused the birth of offspring to be hailed as the choicest of favors, while barrenness was regarded as a curse; hence this verse is placed last as if to crown the whole, and to serve as a climax to the story of God’s mercy. The glorious Lord displays his condescending grace in regarding those who are despised on account of their barrenness, whether it be of body or of soul. Sarah, Rachel, the wife of Manoah, Hannah, Elizabeth, and others were all instances of the miraculous power of God in literally fulfilling the statement of the psalmist. Women were not supposed to have a house till they had children, but in certain cases where childless women pined in secret, the Lord visited them in mercy and made them not only to have a house but to keep it. The Gentile church is a spiritual example upon a large scale of the gift of fruitfulness after long years of hopeless barrenness; and the Jewish church in the latter days will be another amazing display of the same quickening power: long forsaken for her spiritual adultery, Israel shall be forgiven, and restored, and joyously shall she keep that house which now is left unto her desolate. Nor is this all, each believer in the Lord Jesus must at times have mourned his lamentable barrenness; he has appeared to be a dry tree yielding no fruit to the Lord, and yet when visited by the Holy Ghost, he has found himself suddenly to be like Aaron’s rod, which budded, and blossomed, and brought forth almonds. Or ever we have been aware, our barren heart has kept house and entertained the Savior, our graces have been multiplied as if many children had come to us at a single birth, and we have exceedingly rejoiced before the Lord. Then have we marveled greatly at the Lord who dwelleth on high, that he has deigned to visit such poor worthless things. Like Mary, we have lifted up our Magnificat, and like Hannah, we have said, “There is none holy as the Lord; for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.”

“Praise ye the LORD.” The music concludes upon its keynote. The Psalm is a circle, ending where it began, praising the Lord from its first syllable to its last. May our life psalm partake of the same character, and never know a break or a conclusion. In an endless circle let us bless the Lord, whose mercies never cease. Let us praise him in youth, and all along our years of strength; and when we bow in the ripeness of abundant age, let us still praise the Lord, who doth not cast off his old servants. Let us not only praise God ourselves, but exhort others to do it; and if we meet with any of the needy who have been enriched, and with the barren who have been made fruitful, let us join with them in extolling the name of him whose mercy endureth for ever. Having been ourselves lifted from spiritual beggary and barrenness, let us never forget our former estate or the grace which has visited us, but world without end let us praise the Lord. Hallelujah.

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Enduring Word

He grants the barren woman a home: The psalmist illustrated one way the work of lifting the poor and needy to a high and honored place might work. The picture is of a woman barren of children becoming a joyful mother. (Guzik)

i. “The afflicted man will receive recognition and the oppressed woman will receive honor in being a woman. In the ancient Near East, and especially in Israel, motherhood was a crowning achievement of any woman. A barren woman was a social outcast; she was a disappointment to her husband, to other women, and especially to herself.” (VanGemeren)

ii. “This psalm ends by saying that the great exalted God of the Bible is not only concerned about needy people in general but also with the individual. He cares about you. He cares for you and me personally.” (Boice)

iii. It is significant to remember that Jesus sang these words on the night He was betrayed and arrested, the night before His crucifixion. “As he approached the ultimate depths in this stooping, He sang the song which offers praise to God for this condescending grace.” (Morgan)

Praise the LORD: The caring, loving God who comes from the highest heaven to help the humble of the earth is worthy of praise – Hallelujah! (Guzik)

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Albert Barnes

He maketh the barren woman to keep house … – Margin, as in Hebrew, “to dwell in a house.” That is, to be at the head of a family. See the notes at Psalms 68:6. Compare 1 Samuel 2:5. This, too, is suggested as a reason why God should be praised and adored. In instances where all hope of posterity is cut off, he interposes and diffuses joy through a dwelling. We may look abroad, and see abundant occasion for praising God, in his condescension to human affairs – in his lifting up the poor from the humblest condition – in his exalting those of lowly rank to places of honor, trust, wealth, and power; but, after all, if we wish to Find occasions of praise that will most tenderly affect the heart, and be connected with the warmest affections of the soul, they will be most likely to be found in the domestic circle – in the mutual love – the common joy – the tender feelings – which bind together the members of a family. In such a family, the words with which this psalm begins and ends, “Hallelujah,” “Hallelujah,” are especially appropriate; and if any community on earth should apply these words to itself it should be such a family, called upon by everything tender, holy, and lovely, to “praise the” Lord.

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John Gill

He maketh the barren woman to keep house,…. Or “to dwell in the house,” as the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and other versions; or rather “to cause the house to be inhabited”; to fill the house with inhabitants, to build up the house, as the barren woman, when made fruitful, does, as Rachel and Leah built up the house of Israel, Ruth 4:11. This may be applied to the church of God, as it is to the congregation of Israel by the Targum, “who makes the congregation of Israel, which is like to a barren woman, that sitteth sorrowful, to dwell with the men of her house, full of multitudes.” Jarchi interprets it of Zion, who was as a barren woman; see Isaiah 54:1, Galatians 4:27. It may be illustrated by the case of the primitive and apostolic church, which at first had but very few converts, but afterward, both in Judea and in the Gentile world, had large numbers; as the church in the latter day will also have, when the fulness of the Gentiles is brought in, and the nation of the Jews born at once.

And to be a joyful mother of children; as the barren woman is when she becomes the mother of children; and indeed every woman rejoices when a man is born into the world, John 16:21, and so does the church of Christ and people of God, when souls are born again among them; this causes great joy among the saints; see Psalm 87:4.

Praise ye the Lord; not only for the church’s fruitfulness, but for all the great and good things the Lord has vouchsafed to do for his people, mentioned in this psalm.

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Matthew Henry

Those that have been long barren are sometimes, on a sudden, made fruitful, v. 9. This may look back to Sarah and Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, and Samson’s mother, or forward to Elizabeth; and many such instances there have been, in which God has looked on the affliction of his handmaids and taken away their reproach. He makes the barren woman to keep house, not only builds up the family but thereby finds the heads of the family something to do. Note, Those that have the comfort of a family must take the care of it; bearing children and guiding the house are put together, 1 Tim. 5:14. When God sets the barren in a family he expects that she should look well to the ways of her household, Prov. 31:27. She is said to be a joyful mother of children, not only because, even in common cases, the pain is forgotten, for joy that a man-child is born into the world, but there is particular joy when a child is born to those that have been long childless (as Lu. 1:14) and therefore there ought to be particular thanksgiving. Praise you the Lord. Yet, in this case, rejoice with trembling; for, though the sorrowful mother be made joyful, the joyful mother may be made sorrowful again, if the children be either removed from her or embittered to her. This, therefore, may be applied to the gospel church among the Gentiles (the building of which is illustrated by this similitude, Isa. 54:1, Sing, O barren! thou that didst not bear, and Gal. 4:27), for which we, who, being sinners of the Gentiles, are children of the desolate, have reason to say, Praise you the Lord.

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The Pulpit Commentaries

He maketh the barren woman to keep house. Hannah’s song is still in the psalmist’s thoughts, and suggests this illustration (see 1 Samuel 2:5). But it must not be restricted to a literal interpretation. The true “barren woman” was Israel (Isaiah 54:1), whose curse of barrenness was ultimately removed, and who became, as here prophesied, a joyful mother of children (comp. Isaiah 49:12, Isaiah 49:18, Isaiah 49:20; Isaiah 54:2, Isaiah 54:3; Isaiah 60:5; Galatians 4:27). Praise ye the Lord.

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Cross References

1 Samuel 2:5 (KJV )

⁵ They that were full have hired out themselves for bread;

And they that were hungry ceased:

So that the barren hath born seven;

And she that hath many children is waxed feeble.

Isaiah 54:1 (KJV )

Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear;

Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child:

For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.

Genesis 21:2 (KJV )

²For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

1 Samuel 1:20 (KJV )

²⁰Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord.

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KJV W/Strongs Bible

113:9 He maketh the barren woman 6135 to keep 3427 8688 house 1004, [and to be] a joyful 8056 mother 517 of children 1121. Praise 1984 8761 ye the LORD 3050.(to keep…: Heb. to dwell in an house)

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Geneva Bible 1560

Psalm 113:9

9 He maketh the barren woman to dwell with a family, and a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord.

Final Thoughts:

“Remember this, and be assured;

Recall it to mind, you transgressors.

“Remember the former things long past,

For I am God, and there is no other;

I am God, and there is no one like Me,

Declaring the end from the beginning,

And from ancient times things which have not been done,

Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,

And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;

Calling a bird of prey from the east,

The man of My purpose from a far country.

Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.

I have planned it, surely I will do it.

Isaiah 46:8-11 NASB