Psalm 8
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.
1 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name
in all the earth!
You have set your glory above
the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes
and infants,
you have established strength
because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the
avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are
mindful of him,
and the son of man that you
care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little
lower than the heavenly
beings
and crowned him with
glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion
over the works of your
hands;
you have put all things
under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and
the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the
paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name
in all the earth!
As mentioned in a post from yesterday, I have recently learned this psalm. And this morning, it was again bouncing around my head and heart as I was getting ready for church. When going through this psalm, I can’t help but to express it in prayer to the Lord…and the tone is far from being monotone! When you read through the psalm, what grips you? What crosses your heart and mind? This psalm is so packed with awesome and humbling truth. I feel like I’ve barely begun to scratch the surface in learning its depth. However, there are some things that I desire to share that have hit me as I’ve meditated on this passage of Scripture over the past several weeks.
I love how the psalm both starts and ends by acknowledging the greatness of the Lord’s name in all the earth. No other name even comes close to being as majestic as His! When I really stop to take a look at who God is, I can’t help but to be filled with wonder and awe. His name is above all. His glory is above all. He is the beginning and the end. He is the magnificent, creative Creator. He is caring and loving, even though we are so puny, sinful, and unworthy. He is the source of strength and often reveals His strength through the weak. He does the impossible and the seemingly illogical. Everything He does points back to Him.
When thinking about how to “still the enemy and the avenger”, I honestly have never thought, “I’ll try to find some of the weakest people I know to show amazing strength against my enemies. That’ll sure stop ‘em!” Yet, it’s the weak that are completely dependent on the Lord. It’s through the weak that God’s strength is shown more vividly. When God uses the weak, the unlikely, to accomplish His purposes, His work undoubtedly points directly to Him. He gets the glory, not man. And it is so humbling that He even chooses to use us in our extremely weak, inadequate, human state to do His amazing work. I have often been guilty of pride. This passage has helped reveal the ugliness of this sin in my life and has humbled me before the Almighty God.
Have you ever stopped to ponder God’s creation? Not just the creation you can see, but also the creation that is beyond this earth or even this galaxy? I’ve often heard messages describing both the intricate detail, as well as the expanse of the universe that is known. As much as I try to understand some of what is being described, my mind just can’t come close to wrapping itself around it. And to think, it was simply spoken into existence. Yeah…my brain really does tend to hurt in every attempt to ponder such things. I found these couple verses (3-4) so interesting. On the surface, they might not seem to be all that connected. The psalmist looks at and thinks about God’s amazing creation, specifically referring to the moon and stars…things that are beyond this earth. And then he immediately goes into a question: “What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him?” The way he ended his thought in verse 3 is with the question presented in verse 4. He doesn’t say something like, “When I look at your creation, I’m reminded of how amazing You are.” Instead, he says something to the effect of “When I look at your creation, who am I that you care for me?” He looked at the vastness of God’s creation and was immediately humbled. He saw that God is not only so much bigger than can be comprehended, but He is also a personal God. He was then hit with who he was in light of who God is. That led to humility. It can’t help but to lead to humility.
Then, the psalmist goes into more detail as he ponders “God versus man”. After acknowledging the greatness of God and being humbled by the reality that he is so undeserving of God’s care toward him, he notes that God has given man responsibility over His creation. I can’t help but imagined the psalmist was baffled (in humility and with wonder) when meditating on this truth. God, who created everything and is far greater than we could ever possibly imagine, has given man the privilege of authority (and responsibility) on the earth. He has “crowned him with glory and honor”. This wasn’t some new thing God decided to do in the psalmist’s day. It dated back to the beginning of creation. Of course, man really messed it up, and we continue to misuse, abuse, and neglect the responsibilities and privileges God has given us. This leads me to Hebrews 2, where verses 4-6 of this psalm are quoted. Hebrews points out that right now, we don’t see man in the position God originally put him in on the earth (due to sin). Then, the passage compares Jesus to man…Jesus, “who for a little while was made lower than the angels…crowned with glory and honor” (2:9). There is a difference, however, as can be seen in the rest of the verse and the following verses. When God initially crowned man with glory and honor, it was in a more positive light since sin hadn’t entered the world yet. When Jesus was clothed in humanity and was crowned with glory and honor, it was “because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9). Hmmm…not such a happy-feel-good truth. Jesus humbled Himself, became flesh, and suffered to the point of death in order to redeem what had been ruined by sin. “Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.” (See Philippians 2:5-11.) Oh, how desperate our need is for Jesus!
Can you sense the heart behind the psalm? Do you see the journey that is taken? Did you get a little better glimpse of the depth of this passage when taking a little look at Hebrews 2 and then Philippians 2? (I love seeing how the Old Testament ties together with the New Testament, and Hebrews is an excellent book at showing how they tie together.) What an interesting process the psalmist goes through when writing this psalm: he acknowledged the greatness of God, looked at His work and character, stood in awe of Him, recognized who he was in light of who God is, and in such humility, he again acknowledged the greatness of God. It all points back to God. How awesome, how magnificent, how mighty He is!
”O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
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