Psalm 113:4 – “Getting High”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of this verse:

⁴High above all of nations [is] the LORD, His glory above the heavens.

The Biblical concept of “high” has always fascinated me. It is actually a concept of considerable importance to us earthbound human beings. “High” is almost always a good thing while “low” is typically bad. People rise “higher” in their workplace. Some students rank “high” in their class. When someone is happy they’re “riding high.” We pretty much all enjoy going to the mountains and getting “way up high.” Kings are called “your royal highness.” One of God’s names El Elyon means “Most High God.”

What amuses me is that, in a sense, there is no such thing as “high.” As long as we and our thoughts are earthbound, “high” makes sense. But, what if two people were standing on opposite sides of the earth, one at the North Pole and one at the South. What if you asked them to point “up?” The two would be pointing in opposite directions! If they both climbed in rockets and went “up” they would travel in opposite directions! What is “up” to one is “down” to the other. The direction of “high” to one is “low” to the other.

So what really is “high?”

It is actually a completely earthbound term and is, in fact, totally relative to where we happen to be standing at the moment. It only “works” when you’re standing on a planet (or moon) with gravity, so that “down” is in the direction of the gravity and “up” is away from it. The term is inherently relative. You could almost say it is anthropocentric. In order to mean anything, it requires the presence of a thinking human being, who is actually (and even unknowingly) defining the term entirely from his own perspective. As a kid, my cousins and I would climb Mt. Moosilauke in NH which rose far above the surrounding landscape to a height of almost 5000 feet. That was “high.” Yet, now my son lives in Colorado where they climb the “14-ers,” the mountains that reach up above 14,000 feet. When you’re up there “Rocky Mountain high,” the top of Moosilauke is way down “low.”

It occurs to me as I type, perhaps that is the problem with people who want to rise “high.” It is always relative. No matter how high I rise in the company, there’s always someone “higher.” And if I rise to be the CEO of the company, then there’s another company worth more money, so their CEO is “higher” than me. Napoleon was a genius of administration and could have left France (and Europe) with a heritage of good government, but he got it in his heart he wanted to rule all of Europe. It wasn’t enough to have become the emperor of France. He wanted to rise higher, and so, instead of good government, he plunged Europe into years of horrific war, bereaved hundreds of thousands of families of their sons and husbands and fathers, and left behind a memory of a cruel dictator hated by everyone.

I guess that’s why people are always “stepping on each other.” They all want so much to be “higher.” But, again, “high” is inherently a relative term, so there’s nowhere to rise to and then be content. No matter how “high” you get, up is always “higher.”

This verse before us says, “High above all nations is the Lord…” Once again, interesting that one of God’s names is El Elyon, the Most High God. In order to know Him, we have to accept that He is “higher” than us – and always will be. We have to accept that He is “high” and that makes us “low.” Part of Satan’s fall was he wanted to “… ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God … I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” He couldn’t accept that he had to be “low.” Perhaps in all of this, we find the reason why a genuine Christian can actually be a decent person – because they’ve stopped trying to be “high.” They’ve accepted that God is and always will be “higher” and so it’s okay if other people seem to be “higher.” They don’t always have to “win.” I believe this is the thought buried in the Hebrew of Psalm 91:1, which says in English, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” The idea in Hebrew is that the person who actually chooses to remain (dwell) under the rule of Elyon (the Most High) will rest, will enjoy the benefits of living under Shaddai (the One who does exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think).

Our God is the “High” one. He is “His Most Royal Highness” and everyone, all nations, all rulers, all people everywhere are “under” Him. To accept that is to accept reality. To fight it is to live in a fantasy and will finally land people in the place prepared for the devil and his minions, the lowest of lows, the pit called hell. Those who accept it will be “raised” to the highest heavens. As Jesus said, “He who exalts himself will be humbled while He who humbles himself will be exalted.”

“High” is totally a relative term, yet even its relativity ought to teach us one of the most important lessons of life – I need to be content where I am. “Promotion comes from above.”