Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 113:9
He maketh the barren woman to keep house, [and to be] a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.
9. He maketh the barren housewife to dwell
As a joyful mother of sons.
He gives her a secure and happy position in her home. The reference in Psa 113:6-7 to the Song of Hannah suggests this further reference to the experience of Hannah, as an instance of the way in which Jehovah has compassion on those who are despised. But doubtless under the figure of the once childless wife gladdened with a family of sons the Psalmist intends to allude to Zion. Cp. Isa 54:1; Isa 66:8. So the Targum: “Who maketh the congregation of Israel, which was like a barren woman mourning for the men of her household, to be full of crowds, like a mother who rejoiceth over sons.”
Praise ye the Lord ] In the LXX this Hallelujah is transferred, perhaps rightly, to the beginning of Psalms 114. See on Psa 104:35.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 Psa 68:6. Compare 1Sa 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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 113:9
He makoth the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children.
Influence
The psalmist must have been thinking surely of the many modes in which the powers are called out and the affections exercised. The guidance of the household, the care of children,–these are certainly the commonest ways in which the affections and the powers of one half the human race are brought into free and full play. But there may be no house to guide, and no children to love and tend and educate; and yet the words may be made true, He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. I take the words, then, as telling us, first of all, this: That no powers and no affections were intended by the Giver of all to lie fallow and waste. He, from whom these, as well as all other good and perfect gifts, come, has, we may be sure, in His view also a field for their exercise–a field, into which He is prepared, by His providence and His Spirit, to guide the owner. There is room and need, depend upon it, for every power and every affection that the Creator has implanted in us. Now, I may be speaking to some who have not yet found their place in the world, and who suffer from the heartache and the restlessness which come of unused faculties and dormant affections. It is to such cases as these that the words of the psalmist should come home with a special message to rouse and comfort and invigorate. The matter is really in their own hands. They have but to look around them, and they will soon perceive that the literal meaning of the psalmists words is not the only, nor in many ways the most satisfying, meaning. It will be strange if they cannot find, within the circle of their own acquaintance, more than one life which looks at the first glance very lonely, very dull, very uninviting; in which the nearest and dearest ties of husband, wife, and children have no place; and yet which on closer inspection turns out to be full of interests, full of affections, full of duties, full of good works and heavenly charities. It may be the life of some poor widow living amidst a crowd of neighbours as poor as herself, of whom she is the loved and trusted friend, counsellor, and comforter. Or it may be the life of some daughter and sister at home, who is the link between all the widely-scattered members of the old household. Or it may be the life of some poor helpless and hopeless sufferer on a sick-bed, whose couch of pain is the meeting-point of many hearts, which are cheered and elevated by the sight of Christian endurance, and soothed and softened by the warm tide of Christian affection. (D. J. Vaughan, M.A.)
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Psa 114:1-8
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. He maketh the barren woman to keep house] This is a figure to point out the desolate, decreasing state of the captives in Babylon, and the happy change which took place on their return to their own land. These are nearly the words of Hannah, 1Sa 2:5.
ANALYSIS OF THE HUNDRED AND THIRTEENTH PSALM
The scope of this Psalm is the same with those that went before, that is, to excite men to praise God.
This Psalm contains three parts: –
I. An exhortation to God’s servants to praise him.
II. A form set down how and where to praise him, Ps 113:2-3.
III. The reasons to persuade us to it. 1. By his infinite power, Ps 113:4-5. 2. His providence, as displayed in heaven and earth, Ps 113:6.
I. The prophet exhorts men “to praise the Lord;” and,
1. He doubles and trebles his exhortation, that it be not coldly but zealously done, or else to show that he alone is worthy of praise.
2. “Praise the Lord, O ye servants,” c.: They are to praise him, for he is their Lord praise him likewise with a pure heart.
II. The manner of praising him. Say,
1. “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1:21.
2. “From this time forth,” c.: In prosperity or adversity, in this life or the future.
3. “From the rising of the sun,” &c.: In all places, even over all the world.
III: And now follow the reasons to persuade men to praise God.
1. Because of his majesty, infinite power, and glory, which extend not to earth alone, but heaven also: “The Lord is high above,” &c.
2. Because of his providence, benignity, and bounty, which being united with so much majesty, appear the more admirable. “Who is like the Lord,” &c. None in heaven or on earth are to be compared to him. “Yet he humbleth himself,” &c. He is present with the highest angels, and with the poorest of his creatures, to help them.
In “humbling himself to behold the things on earth” he gives two instances: 1. In states and kingdoms. 2. In private families.
1. In states: “He raiseth up the poor,” &c.: Let then no man say, that God does not regard them that are of low estate he raiseth up the poor, to the end “that he may set him with the princes,” &c.
2. In private families: “He maketh the barren woman,” &c. “Children are a heritage of the Lord.” Some expositors refer the meaning of this last verse to the Church of the Gentiles: “Rejoice, O barren,” &c. Isa 54:1.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To keep house, Heb. to dwell in a house or family, or amongst children, to wit, coming out of her own womb, as is clearly implied by the opposition of this to her barrenness. And the word
house is oft put for children, as Exo 1:21; Rth 4:11; Psa 115:10,12. And so it is explained in the next clause.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. On this special case, compare1Sa 2:21. Barrenness wasregarded as a disgrace, and is a type of a deserted Church (Isa54:1).
the barren woman . . .houseliterally, “the barren of the house,” so thatthe supplied words may be omitted.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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, Ru 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 Isa 54:1 Ga 4:27. It may be illustrated by the case of the primitive and apostolic church, which at first had but very few converts, but afterwards, 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, Joh 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 Ps 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
9 Who maketh the barren woman to dwell in the family He relates another work of God, which if, apparently, not so notable, ought not, on that account, the less to engage our thoughts. Unimpressed as we are by the ordinary works of God, we are constrained to express our astonishment when a woman who has been for a long period barren, unexpectedly becomes the mother of a numerous family. The Hebrew term, הבית, habbayith, is to be understood, not simply of a house, but also of a household, — that is, the thing containing, for that which is contained, — just as the Greeks apply οικος, and the Latins domus, to a household. The meaning is, that the woman who was formerly barren is blessed with fruitfulness, and fills the house with children. He attributes joy to mothers, because, though the hearts of all are prone to aspire after wealth, or honor, or pleasures, or any other advantages, yet is progeny preferred to every thing else. Wherefore, since God superintends the ordinary course of nature, alters the current of events, elevates those of abject condition and ignoble extraction, and makes the barren woman fruitful, our insensibility is very culpable, if we do not attentively contemplate the works of his hand.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) He maketh.See margin. Motherhood alone assured the wife of a fixed and dignified position in her husbands house. The quotation from Hannahs song suggested the allusion to her story. We are no doubt right in taking this joyful mother as emblematic of the nation itself restored to prosperity and joy.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Barren woman to keep house Properly, to dwell, or abide, in the house. The allusion is to the uncertain continuance of the barren wife in the family, owing to the capricious tyranny of the husband, under the wretched system of domestic life in Asia. Children are a natural bond of sympathy between husband and wife, and the language is expressive of a happy and prosperous condition of domestic and social life. The same figure occurs Psa 68:6. The text is to be taken figuratively to signify, that as the barren wife is restored to favour, and the family life made happy, when the reproach of barrenness is removed, so God had now restored and established his people in joy and prosperity. See the figure applied to the Church, Isa 54:1. Psa 113:7-9 seem to have a historic pointing. Had not God recently raised Israel from the “dunghill” to honour? Had not the families and family life of the nation been recently restored? The infinite condescension of God in thus remembering their low estate is the theme of the psalm. It is a companion piece to Psalms 114, and savors of the fresh joy of the returned exiles from Babylon.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Several women in the Old Testament history, are proofs of this mercy: and the New Testament saints, no doubt, could produce also their Hannahs, and Rachels, and Elizabeths, 1Sa_1:2; 1Sa_1:19-20 ; Gen_30:1-2; Gen_30:22-23 ; Luk_1:7; Luk_1:13; Luk_1:57 . And what indeed is the promise given to the Gentile church, but that, more shall be the children of the desolate, than the children of the married wife? Isa 54:1 . These are sweet testimonies in proof. And the psalm therefore ends as it began, with Hallelujah. The Lord give grace both to him that now writes, and to him that reads, so to begin, and so to end it. Praise ye the Lord.
REFLECTIONS
READER, let you and I seek for grace to catch the heavenly flame, and while the Holy Ghost is thus calling upon the church to bless the Lord, that from the rising of the sun to its going down, his name shalt be great among the Gentiles, oh may we not be silent, morn or even; but with the dawn of day, as well as when the shades of night close in upon the earth, may we bless the Lord, and call upon all that is within us to praise his holy name.
And, oh! what unnumbered motives and arguments arise in every direction, within, without, and all around, to be earnest and alive in this blessed service! Think, Reader, of the condescension of God the Father, in sending his Son to be the Saviour of the world! Think of the grace of God the Spirit, in making the bodies of the saints his temple. And think of that grace and love in God the Son, who so loved us as to give himself for us! Reader, a whole eternity will not be long enough for praising, blessing, and adoring Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for these things. Oh! reader, let each of us say, What hath God wrought, in remembering us in our low estate; for his mercy endureth forever! Help us, Lord, to praise thee, to love thee, to live to thee; that every day we may increase, with all the household of faith, in praising the God of our salvation, upon earth, until we come to the everlasting enjoyment of the Lord, and the view of him in glory, to praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to all eternity. Amen.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 113:9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house, [and to be] a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.
Ver. 9. He maketh the barren woman to keep house ] Heb. to dwell in a house, that is, to have a house full of children, and so to build her husband’s house, Rth 4:11 . This is applied to the Church (which is the theatre of the world, wherein God showeth his special providence and power), Isa 54:1 Gal 4:26-27 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
children = sons.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
maketh: Psa 68:6, Gen 21:5-7, Gen 25:21, Gen 30:22, Gen 30:23, 1Sa 2:5, Isa 54:1, Luk 1:13-15, Gal 4:27
keep house: Heb. dwell in an house
Reciprocal: Gen 11:30 – barren Gen 21:6 – God Num 5:28 – and shall Rth 4:13 – the Lord 2Ki 4:17 – General Ecc 3:2 – time to be born Luk 1:58 – her neighbours Joh 16:21 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 113:9. He maketh the barren woman to keep house Hebrew, , moshibi habaith, to dwell in a house, or family, or among children, namely, born of her. In the sacred history of the Old Testament, we find many instances of barren women, who were miraculously made to bear children. Isaac, Joseph, Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist were thus born of mothers who had been barren. These examples, says Dr. Horne, may be considered as preludes to that marvellous exertion of divine power, whereby the Gentile Church, after so many years of barrenness, became, in her old age, a fruitful parent of children, and the mother of us all. Wherefore it is written, Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear, &c., Isa 54:1.