“He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.”
My Notes
What Does Psalms 113:9 Mean?
The psalmist celebrates one of God's most intimate reversals: "He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children." The barren woman — socially marginalized, personally grieving, biologically hopeless — is given a household and children. And not just children: joyful motherhood. The transformation isn't just physical (fertility). It's emotional (joy).
The word "barren" (aqarah — sterile, childless, unable to conceive) describes the most devastating condition for a woman in the ancient world. Barrenness wasn't just a medical condition. It was a social identity: the barren woman was considered cursed, incomplete, and without future. God's intervention addresses every dimension of that identity.
The phrase "to keep house" (yashav bayith — to dwell in a house, to be settled in a household) means God doesn't just give children. He gives a home. The barren woman who had no future now has a household — a place, a family, a domestic reality that establishes her in the community. The settling is as significant as the conceiving.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What form of 'barrenness' (childlessness, fruitlessness, emptiness) are you carrying?
- 2.How does God's intervention addressing every dimension (children, household, identity, joy) model comprehensive restoration?
- 3.What does the Bible's pattern of barren women producing world-changing children teach about the significance of delayed fruitfulness?
- 4.Where do you need the joy that accompanies the reversal, not just the reversal itself?
Devotional
The barren woman gets a home and children. And joy. God takes the person the ancient world considered most cursed and transforms her into the person most blessed: a joyful mother with a household.
The barrenness in the ancient world wasn't just childlessness. It was an identity that defined everything: your social standing (diminished), your marital security (threatened), your future (nonexistent), and your self-understanding (cursed). The barren woman carried the weight of all four losses. God's intervention addresses all four: children (future), household (security), motherhood (identity), and joy (self-understanding transformed).
The joy is the detail that exceeds the biological miracle. God doesn't just give the barren woman children. He gives her joyful motherhood. The transformation reaches the emotional level: not just a mother but a happy one. The grief that defined the barren years is replaced by the joy that defines the fruitful years. The reversal is comprehensive — body, household, identity, and emotions all transformed.
Sarah, Hannah, Rachel, Elizabeth — the Bible's barren women who became mothers are the living illustrations of this verse. Each one carried the weight of childlessness. Each one received the intervention that reversed the condition and produced the joy. And in every case, the child born to the formerly barren woman was significant beyond the personal: Isaac, Samuel, Joseph, John the Baptist. The children of barren women changed the world.
If you're in a season of barrenness — literal or metaphorical, physical or vocational, relational or creative — this verse says the transformation is God's specialty. The barren woman doesn't just survive. She keeps house. She mothers children. She experiences joy. The reversal goes further than you'd dare to hope.
What barrenness do you carry that this verse addresses?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
He maketh the barren woman to keep house ... - Margin, as in Hebrew, “to dwell in a house.” That is, to be at the head…
In this psalm,
I. We are extorted to give glory to God, to give him the glory due to his name.
1. The invitation is very…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture