Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Awit 113:4

For the most important aspect of a person's worship of God is that he should do good for its own sake and for the sake of the Profound Statute issued by the Supreme Lawgiver; and principally for the sake of His great Name (2Chronicles 6:32). However, this would not be the case if a person's actions were guided by considerations of reward or fear of punishment. For he would then be serving not God but himself and this is not the sort of worship God desires. If the reaction to evil acts was immediate (Ecclesiastes 8:11) and God meted out punishment to the wicked at once, nobody would dare (Jeremiah 30:21) to do evil for fear of the immediate retribution that would follow. Similarly, everyone would try to do good because they knew they would be rewarded instantly. The deed would not be performed for the sake of God, nor would there be any meaning to reward and punishment, seeing that all would be bound to act as they did out of fear of punishment or hope of reward. Nor would there be any meaning to free-will and trial, though they were the substance of God's purpose in creating man: that the heart's inclination should tempt a person to do evil and he should feel free to do so, but that nevertheless he should refrain and turn away from evil (Psalms 34:15), out of respect for God and His divine ordinances. Therefore, He endowed man's mind with everything, except the knowledge of how God acts (Ecclesiastes 3:11) with regard to the reward of the righteous or the punishment of the wicked. And so there are evil-doers who prosper and wicked persons who are praised in public for what they have done and God's Providence is concealed and hidden from the sight of most people. Contrariness beguiles understanding, causing it to deny Providence and to declare that the world runs itself (TB Avodah Zarah 54b); that everything depends on heredity, nature and the stars; that the Lord is on high, His glory is above the heavens (Psalms 113:4), and He does not govern those down below; not to mention the other charges made by heretics. As proof, they all cite the disorder and capriciousness of Providence, namely, that the righteous languish and the wicked prosper.

A Midrashic (ancient Tanchuma manuscript) view: of the two words גאה גאה: there are four creatures which are known for their arrogance; the lion amongst the free-roaming beasts; the ox amongst the domestic beasts, the eagle amongst the birds; man surpasses them all in arrogance. The reason for this is that G’d gave man dominion over all the other creatures in the terrestrial universe when He said (Genesis 1,28) “and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things which move on earth.” What did G’d do? He had likenesses of all these four “arrogant” creatures made as part of His throne as we know from Ezekiel I,10: “Each of them had a human face at the front; each of the four had the face of a lion on the right, each of the four had the face of an ox on the left; each of them had the face of an eagle at the back.“ The reason for this was that G’d had said: “seeing these creatures display arrogance and consider themselves as superior I have to demonstrate My superiority to them.” This is why we read here that the Jewish people acknowledged this when they described G’d as superior to all who deem themselves superior.

Those who deny Divine Providence say: “God is far above all the nations; His glory is far above the Heavens.”²⁷⁵Psalm 113:4 There are those among the nations who claim that there is a God in the universe but that God is far removed from the world and does not influence the doings of this world.²⁷⁶Weil is distinguishing deism from theism in his comments here, an idea that became prominent in the eighteenth century. Both Deists and Theists believe in a separate person God, but theism believed that God took an active interest in the world while deists believed that God was present in the universe but not interested in the goings on of the world. They deny the reality of Divine Providence. God is “far above nations” and does not involve Himself in the doings of this lowly world. Therefore they can feel that they can act in an evil fashion toward the people of this world and that they do not have to worry about fearing God or facing punishment. We have been given proof that God’s providence can be experienced in this world. We have four proofs: (1) The Exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai; (2) God lowered Himself and dwelled over the Holy ark; (3) God brought Israel into the land of Israel and helped them to succeed; (4) In the future, God will dwell among the community or righteous and pious people. These four proofs are contained in the continuation of the Psalm.