NOTES for Psa 8
1 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. |
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. |
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; |
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? |
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. |
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: |
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; |
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. |
9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! |
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For the nonreligious mind, the idea of humanity’s insignificance, supposedly preached by the Bible, has long seemed familiar and natural. To see that this is not so, one need only read this psalm.
The psalmist sings of God’s greatness and, at the same time, of the greatness of the world He created, which bears witness to Him. The hymn to the Creator then flows smoothly into a hymn to humanity. The transition may seem unexpected, but the very structure of the psalm emphasizes how natural it is.
The psalm reveals the full significance of humanity as the crown of creation, placed at the head of the created world. We are not accidental dust in the midst of an infinite universe; we have been set over everything the Lord created.
Death and sin still reign, but the psalmist has already been shown humanity’s destiny, hidden from the nonreligious mind. We are closely bound to God, and it is precisely this bond that guarantees human greatness and dignity.
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