Mystical Psalter: Psalm 8

Psalm 8

1 O Yahweh our Lord, how excellent is Your Name in all the earth!—You who have set Your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes and infants You have prepared praise because of Your enemies, that You might still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider the Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained,
4 what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man, that You visit him?
5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honour.
6 You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, yes, and the beasts of the field,
8 the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
9 O Yahweh our Lord, how excellent is Your Name in all the earth!

In this psalm, David praises Yahweh for the great care He lavishes upon man, the crown of His creation. Yahweh, Israel’s covenant God, is great in all the earth, and His Name—His acknowledged power—is praised to the ends of the world. His glory, His fame, is set above the heavens, where it may be seen by all the world.

What is this great work that Yahweh has done? He has rescued the poorest and most defenseless of His people, the babes and infants; He has overthrown His enemies and has stilled the enemy and the avenger. It was David’s great prayer that God would prove Himself the helper of the orphan and break the arm of the wicked oppressor (see Ps. 9 (10):15-14). God has done that, and thus prepared praise for Himself out of the mouths of those He has rescued. This is expressed in the Hebrew of v. 2, which says that out of the mouths of babes, God has "established a bulwark"—He has set the helpless in the safety for which they long (see Ps. 11(12):5).

David is humbled at such divine care. When he looks up into the night sky and sees God’s heavens, the very work of His fingers, the moon and the stars which He made, he is struck by God’s condescension. God is great enough to make these marvels in the heavens—what is man on earth that He should be mindful of him and visit him with such care? Indeed, God has exalted man to a place a little lower than the heights of heaven itself, the abode of the angels (Hebrew elohim, "God" or "gods"). He has crowned him with glory and honour, making him superior to all the other creatures on the earth. All others on earth God has put under his feet—not just domesticated animals, but even the wild beasts of the field, the untamed fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, which swim beyond the reach of land-bound man.

Truly, Yahweh, God and Lord of Israel, the Maker of all the earth, is to be praised! Truly His Name is to be magnified in all the earth!

The Church has always read this psalm as revealing the glory of the Messiah. In the centuries before Christ, the term "Son of Man" (meaning originally simply "a human being") came to be used as a title for the Messiah. This reading of the psalm as referring to Christ is quite consistent with its deeper meaning. When David referred to "the son of man" in v. 4, he referred primarily to man as a race. David was struck with wonder that God should care for mankind and lavish His love upon him. But Jesus, as Messiah, is the King of mankind, the embodiment of the human race. He is, in fact, the New Adam (see 1 Cor. 15:45f), in that He is the Head and source of the new race of redeemed mankind, even as Adam was the head and source of fallen mankind. In describing the glory of man, David is also describing the glory of Jesus, the Messiah and King of men.

Thus, when the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews applies this psalm to Jesus (in Heb. 2:5-10), he is not misinterpreting it, but revealing its deeper meaning. The glory and authority of Man that David celebrates (given by God when Adam and Eve were first created; see Gen. 1:26-28) finds its fulfillment in Christ. God exalted Man to rule in His Name as King over all the cosmos, making him only a little lower than the very heights of heaven. But this is not our experience. In this age, Man does not rule, but is himself ruled and tyrannized by sin, disease, wild animals, the forces of nature, and death. Far from reigning in serene and untroubled power, he cowers in fear, waiting for the end.

It is only Christ who stands erect and omnipotent over all creation. He alone does not cower, but rules in God’s Name, stilling the stormy power of nature with a word, as its sovereign King (see Mk. 4:35-39). The authority over all creation which God gave to man, and which David here celebrates, is now seen only in Christ. It is true that as Messiah, by grace He shares this authority with us. But the royal authority over the works of God’s hands is Christ’s alone by right. He alone truly and fully reveals what God intended for Man, and all people find their humanity fulfilled only when they share in His glory.

It is thus through Christ that God stilled the enemy and the avenger (v. 2), and rescued the weakest of His people. Therefore babes and infants rightly praise Him—as the children did during Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday (Mt. 21), and as we are called to do now. May the children’s praise echo in our mouths also, and may we also praise Jesus, the Messiah and Son and Man, through whom God’s glory has been set above the heavens.