The Humble Are Raised

These readings set before us two paths: humble praise under God’s hand, or proud strength that ends in lament. Jabesh, helpless before a cruel enemy, could not save itself. Israel was gathered, not to boast in its own arm, but to act under the fear of God. The psalm gives the inner form of such deliverance: a man cries, gives thanks with his whole heart, bows in worship, and confesses that God regards the lowly. This is the road of rescue.

Tertullian says, “Him does He enjoin us to worship in humility, as the lifter-up of the humble, not in pride, because He brings down the proud.” Saul’s early zeal brought relief to the oppressed; yet Ezekiel’s lament warns how quickly rulers become lions that devour. Power received as a trust becomes ruin when it feeds on men. The vine once planted strong is then plucked up in wrath, dried, and burned. Kingdoms fall this way, and so do households and souls: when thanksgiving gives way to self-exaltation, judgment is already near.

Yet the psalm does not teach despair in trouble. It teaches steadfast prayer and obedient lowliness. Hippolytus says, “You will be able to save me when in the midst of troubles, and to keep them in check when they rage, and rave, and breathe fire.” Therefore let no one seek a sinful covenant with the world to spare himself shame. Better to cry to God, keep His commandments, defend the afflicted, and accept a low place than to grasp fiercely and be made a lamentation.