Yahweh is high above all nations, his glory above the heavens.
Parallel translations
- KJV The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens.
- BSB The LORD is exalted over all the nations, His glory above the heavens.
- NKJV The Lord is high above all nations, His glory above the heavens.
- NASB The Lord is high above all nations; His glory is above the heavens.
- NLT For the Lord is high above the nations; his glory is higher than the heavens.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The Lord is exalted above all nations, His glory higher than the heavens. God's supremacy surpasses everything created.
Overview
God reigns sovereignly over every nation, and His glory transcends even the heavens. This declaration of His transcendence sets up the psalm's stunning contrast with His condescension in the following verses. The infinitely high God is the same One who stoops to save in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 8:1For the Chief Musician; on an instrument of Gath. A Psalm by David. Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who has set your glory above the heavens!
- Ps 99:2Yahweh is great in Zion. He is high above all the peoples.
- Ps 97:9For you, Yahweh, are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods.
- Isa 40:17All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.
- Ps 148:13let them praise Yahweh’s name, for his name alone is exalted. His glory is above the earth and the heavens.
- Isa 40:15Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.
- Isa 40:22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;
- Isa 66:1Yahweh says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build to me? Where will I rest?
- Ps 57:10–11For your great loving kindness reaches to the heavens, and your truth to the skies.
- 1 Kgs 8:27But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain you; how much less this house that I have built!
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 113:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.