Psalm 8

1Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens! 2From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger. 3When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, 4what is man, that you think of him? What is the son of man, that you care for him? 5For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor. 6You make him ruler over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet: 7All sheep and cattle, yes, and the animals of the field, 8the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas. 9Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

This psalm is a solemn meditation on, and admiration of, the glory and greatness of God, of which we are all concerned to think highly and honourably. It begins and ends with the same acknowledgment of the transcendent excellency of God's name. It is proposed for proof (Psa 8:1) that God's name is excellent in all the earth, and then it is repeated as proved (with a "quod erat demonstrandum" - which was to be demonstrated) in the last verse. For the proof of God's glory the psalmist gives instances of his goodness to man; for God's goodness is his glory. God is to be glorified, I. For making known himself and his great name to us (Psa 8:1). II. For making use of the weakest of the children of men, by them to serve his own purposes (Psa 8:2). III. For making even the heavenly bodies useful to man (Psa 8:3, Psa 8:4). IV. For making him to have dominion over the creatures in this lower world, and thereby placing him but little lower then the angels (Psa 8:5-8). This psalm is, in the New Testament, applied to Christ and the work of our redemption which he wrought out; the honour given by the children of men to him (Psa 8:2, compared with Mat 21:16) and the honour put upon the children of men by him, both in his humiliation, when he was made a little lower then the angels, and in his exaltation, when he was crowned with glory and honour. Compare Psa 8:5, Psa 8:6, with Heb 2:6-8; Co1 15:27. When we are observing the glory of God in the kingdom of nature and providence we should be led by that, and through that, to the contemplation of his glory in the kingdom of grace.

To the chief musician upon Gittith. A psalm of David.

Cross-references: Ps 8:1 · Ps 8:2 · Ps 8:3 · Ps 8:4 · Ps 8:5 · Matt 21:16 · Ps 8:6 · Heb 2:6 · 1Cor 15:27

Introduction