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Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of his people. (Psalm 113:5-8)

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There is something unique about Israel\u2019s God that sets him apart from any other human or deity.\xa0 Not only is he high above the highest heights\u2014a great God on the throne who reigns over the whole of the universe\u2014but he is also a God who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth, even taking an interest in the plight of the poor and needy\u2014the lowliest of the low.\xa0

There was no other deity of the ancient world like that.\xa0 Sure there were gods that sat in highest heights, but they didn\u2019t care about any human problems.\xa0 And sure there were great heroes among men, but even they were not terribly concerned about the lowest of the low.\xa0 That Israel\u2019s God could and did span and draw together such a mindbending spectrum as that between the utterly transcendent throne room of heaven and the utterly mundane and imminent ash heap of the needy made this God simply incomparable.\xa0

So, the psalm asks: \u201cwho is like the Lord our God?\u201d\xa0 Answer there?\xa0 No one.\xa0 Nothing.\xa0 Our God is utterly unique.\xa0 And in his Son Jesus Christ, we get an even better look at him.\xa0 This one who did not consider equality with God as something to be used to his own advantage but instead became nothing.\xa0 The highest of the high, the utterly transcendent, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God was born into this world as the lowest of the low: the baby out-of-wedlock of a poor peasant couple from the Podunk frontier town of Nazareth.

Why did our God take such a lowly path?\xa0 To raise us up to the highest heights with him, that\u2019s why.\xa0 It was Israel who was first brought up from their poverty and need in Egypt: they were set free and made into a people.\xa0 And with Jesus, we too have been raised up.\xa0 We have not been given an earthly place, but a heavenly place next to the prince of peace who has become our brother.\xa0

Of course, God still does this work of justice and of salvation in a thousand other ways too.\xa0 He really does rescue the poor and lifts them up.\xa0 He really does still rescue the needy of our world from the ash heaps.\xa0 Sometimes he even invites us into that work\u2014to join him, our prince, into the places where he is still today, spanning the gap between the highest heights and the lowest lows.\xa0 Our God still sees, he still acts. He still hears the cries of those who have long been oppressed, and he still moves in justice and salvation on their behalf.\xa0

We are never to think that we are too high not to stoop down low.\xa0 Nor are we to ever think we are too low not to be lifted back up high.\xa0 Our God is in both places, and meets us in each.\xa0 Rescuing us, and also inviting us to join him in his work of bringing justice, grace, and mercy to others, too.\xa0

Praise the Lord for his great work that continues even today!\xa0 Praise the Lord, for there is no one else like him!

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