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Psalm 8
Psalm 8 is one of the most often quoted Psalms in the New Testament. It is taken up in several places as a prophecy about Jesus Christ, the true Son of God.
Psalm 8 has a very discernible outline.
We see the honor of God’s name declared in verses 1 and 2.
We see mankind’s sense of insignificance and the mercy of God toward him in verse 3 and 4.
We see God’s role for mankind laid out in verses 5 through 8.
And we see God’s majesty proclaimed again in verse 8.
We notice how the Psalm ends as it begins, framing all that is in the middle by this exclamation of praise.
This has often been called an evening Psalm in that David’s observations appear to be of the night sky.
(1) For the director of music. According to gittith. A psalm of David.
The first thing we notice in the text of this Psalm is the superscription, a note as to how the Psalm is to be used in worship. We do not know what a “gittith” is. It could be a type of musical instrument, a form of song, or a special ceremony.
It is important that we remember that the psalms were used is public worship. They were sung in different ways using different instruments.
Psalm 8 begins with an exclamation of praise.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
The Psalm begins simply, with the personal invocation, O YHWH, our Adonai, or O YHWH, our Lord
Its very first word is God’s personal name, just as in the Lord’s prayer the first word is Father.
Its second word is a title for YHWH. Adonai, the Lord, tells us what the role of YHWH is.
This is a great way to address our God in prayer.
In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus said that when we pray we should start out by saying, “hallowed be Thy name.” This psalm certainly begins with such a hallowing. First it honors the personal God of Israel with the title Adonai. Then it acknowledges his majesty over all creation.
This Psalm starts where all life endeavors should start, with praise and honor given to the creator.
In all the earth, in every part of it, the excellence and majesty of YHWH the Lord is manifest. As we have learned before the name of the Lord represents his character and nature. Creation, in its immensity, in its tiny complexity, in its beauty breathes forth praise.
To reflect and show forth the glory of YHWH is the very purpose of creation. That YHWH’s glory and excellence and praiseworthiness would be manifest is why everything is. Every created being and thing has this as its ultimate end and purpose for being.
Have you ever seen those machines that make noodles? The dough is pressed in behind a metal plate that has all these hundreds of little holes. Then great pressure is applied squeezing the dough through the holes, and out come the noodles.
God is the creator and sustainer of all creation. It bears His mark. His person and being behind creation provide a kind of pressure if you will, such that his grandeur is always squeezing out, oozing out and revealing itself through creation at every point.
YHWH, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.
The next two lines give further insight into the very purpose of creation, and they do so by making a contrast. Both above the height of the heavens and from the mouths of little babes God’s praise comes forth.
You have set your glory above the heavens.
His name is majestic both in the high heavens and in the little child.
The Hebrew is a little ambiguous here. Does this verse say that God has “set his glory” or that His “glory is sung or chanted.” You find different readings in different Bibles.
The point is this. As David looks out from earth into the starry sky, as he considers the majesty of the heavenly sphere, he sees YHWH’s glory manifest there, in the realms of the heavens. But it’s not just the really awesome and immense things that bring announce God’s glory.
His praise is also manifest in the smallest and weakest of things on earth.
(2) From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise
The word used here for children I believe refers to young children, to “sucklings” or nursing children as some translations put it. In other words, the praises that come forth from babes are not are not necessarily articulated language, but sounds, murmuring, grunts, cries, gurgles.
Not only does the majesty of the stars declare God’s glory, but so do the murmurings of infants.
The sounds of infants speaks to the goodness of God, to His providential care, to His wisdom in creation, to the beauty of his purposes as the mother’s body turns her own food into nourishing milk for the suckling child.
In this way the majesty and wonder of the Lord is proclaimed even by children who cannot yet talk.
So there is this sort of antiphonal chorus back and forth– from the highest heavens to the little babes on earth, God’s wonder is announced.
But David goes on to give a reason for the praise which coems forth from suckling babes. It is…
because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
Not everyone proclaims the majesty of the name of the Lord. There are after all His enemies, his foes, His adversaries, those who would discredit and mock and blaspheme his name.
But the Lord of all has an answer for them. He has witnesses that will vindicate his honor. Who might these be who will honor the name of the Lord? Is it a mighty warrior? A great king? Is it a famous celebrity?
No, it is the weak and helpless suckling babe!
I love little babies. When ours were little I used to love just looking at them asleep in their beds, lying there so helpless and trusting, their long limbs sprawled out.
Human babies are of the most helpless of all animal babies. Because human brains are eventually so large, we have to be born with our brains less fully developed just so we can get out of the birth canal! This makes human babies even more dependent and helpless than the babies of most other animals.
Little babies are not the power brokers of the world. If you wanted to establish the fact of your greatness you would not argue for it based on the sounds of little babes and children. Who are they after all?
But God has chosen the weak things of this world to make known His glory. He does not need big shows of force. He is God, and one day when he sweeps his enemies away into their final destiny the sounds of their very own babes which testified to the Lord’s majesty will speak against them. Their testimony will silence and defeat and be a stronghold against the rantings of God’s enemies.
Though men will blaspheme the name of YHWH, though they will chaff at His lordship and do all they can to rid earth of his memory, their very own babies, whether they like it or not, contradict their rantings as they proclaim God’s wonder and thus vindicate God’s great name!
God seems to have a great sense of irony, a sense of humor. See, the truth of who YHWH the Lord is squeezes out all over, and vindicates his name.
Now we have a change of direction…
(3) When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
David seems to be sitting out at night looking out upon the sky, gazing into the universe. He is looking with brain and heart engaged, looking not merely at the heavens. But as it says, at your heavens.
By using the word “consider” calls us to open our eyes and engage our brains. Jesus did the same thing. “Consider the raven” Jesus said. Solomon said the same thing -- “consider the ant.”
We have been given brains, big brains, good brains, and, we are expected to use them.
Learning never stops. There is so much to know about the Lord and His world.
It is not a “secular” or “unspiritual” act to be curious, to ponder, to imagine. The human being is almost insatiably curious. The Psalmist here has a message for the contemporary evangelical Christian. It really is OK to open up your minds and hearts to the study and consideration of the universe. He invites you to do this. It’s not an unspiritual or a second rate thing to do. It even makes for a good quiet time. Go ahead, explore, dig around, look hard, build tools so you can see even more. The universe is filled with such wonder and complexity and beauty you will never figure it all out.
But there is a danger. When we open our eyes to the wonder and beauty of the world God has made, when we consider the vastness and scope of the universe which we now understand in its immensity even better than David did, our own puniness is the natural conclusion of our consideration. The natural thought would be that we are nothing before this almost infinite vastness. We are but the most tiny and infinitesimal of pin pricks in the map of the universe. We are, it seems, not only tiny, but alone, and compared to the great forces of the universe so very small, frail, weak, and mortal.
Given the vastness of creation and the puniness of man, given the vastness of the God who has created all of this, how is that YHWH would even bother with man?
As so he asks…
(4) what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
As is typical of Hebrew poetry, he says the same thing more or less two ways.
What is “enosh” that you remember him?
What is the “ben adam” that you care for him?
The first word used here for man speaks of man collectively, that is, of mankind. Many of the contexts where this word is used seem to speak of mankind in his frailty or mortality. The second phrase used here speaks also of mankind collectively, as descendents all of the first man, Adam.
What David is trying to convey here is astonishment that the God whose glory is set above the heavens, the one who by his finger set in place the vastness of the universe, that this God would even notice us, puny and insignificant as it appears we are. But he more than notices.
He is mindful, he has us on His mind, he remembers us.
Not only that but he cares for us, that is, he takes care of us, he attends to us and our needs.
See, whereas we might say that natural revelation reveals the existence and glory of God, it does not reveal the glory of man. It would be normal to conclude that we nothing in the scheme of things. But to the one who matters we are not nothing.
In fact, not only are we not nothing, we are quite something, for he has made us so.
(5) You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
Not only is the Lord mindful of man, but He has given man a great assignment. He has given mankind a role that puts him just below God in the hierarchy of the universe, yes, that same vast universe that man contemplates, that same universe that makes him wonder if YHWH could really care about him.
You will notice differences in translation here. Does this verse say that man is a little lower than God, or a little lower than the angels, or a little lower than the heavenly beings? The words in question is the word “elohim,” the normal specialized Hebrew word used for God. There is a rarer more generic sense of the word used in the plural for gods or heavenly beings. It is sometimes used to refer to angels.
The most literal and obvious translation would be that he had made man a little lower than God. This makes sense in the context. The passage as a whole would seems to be referring back to Genesis 1, where we are taught about mankind being made in God’s image and having dominion over creation. This phrase about being a little lower than God would then be another way of talking about man made in the image of God. The idea then would be that even though man is puny in relation to the universe, he really in fact is just lower than God, for he is made in the image of God, and he is God’s agent on earth.
But the Greek Old Testament translated this Hebrew verse with the Greek word angels, and the writer of the book of Hebrews follows the Greek Old Testament sense then referring the passage to Jesus. And it is hard to argue with how a New Testament writer uses the old Testament.
Whether we see this statement as comparing our role as just below that of God or just below that of the heavenly beings, it is the same role in either case, and it is an exalted role that you wouldn’t expect of such a puny finite creature as man!
This is one of those areas where natural revelation isn’t enough. We wouldn’t naturally see our true role just from looking around at things. No amount of study and exploration into the far reaches of our universe will give us this information. Indeed, we need special revelation to understand the high calling we have been given by the creation’s creator. This psalm first asked us to consider the works or God, now we are asked to consider the Word of God. We learn of our calling, our role, our responsibility, from the word of God, and we submit to that word, and we except this calling.
We shouldn’t expect that other people would not see this. It is inevitable that we would have a different sense of calling from those who do not receive this word as revelation form the God of heaven.
In giving us this role God has crowned us with glory and honor. he has given us the greatest of assignments. He has exalted us to his own right hand, to be his special agents in and over creation.
So, just what is it he has called us to be and do?
(6) You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:
This obviously takes us back to the language of Genesis One.
The point here is that God subjected his creation to mankind, made in His image. He has assigned to mankind the role of being king of God’s creation. That is, he has placed us in charge? But for what end? For us to get all that we can out of it? No, for the sake of his own glory and honor. We rule over His world for His good.
We have presidents and vice presidents. In the ancient near east they had kings. And these kings had right hand men who ran things for them. We have two very good examples of this in the bible. One is Joseph, who was the right hand man of Pharaoh, and who ran the kingdom for Pharaoh. We read the description of his role in Genesis 41:41—44. Next to Pharaoh Joseph was the most honored man in the kingdom. He represented Pharaoh. Everything he did he did in the name of Pharaoh and he did for the glory of Pharaoh. And he was crowned with Glory and honor by Pharaoh.
The other example is Daniel, who was made the regent of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar. As it says, Nebuchadnezzar made him rule over the entire province of Babylon.
We could call Joseph and Daniel vice kings. And since the word “regent” means king, we call them vice regents. In the covenant language of the Bible mankind is a vice-regent, a vice king if you will, over creation, over the beasts and over the land and the sea.
We are royalty in creation. Notice that this Psalm is written post fall. Our job hasn’t changed because of the fall, it’s just a lot harder!
We have a responsibility to the earth, to the world, and to its creatures, including man.
Now why do we rule over the earth? It is in service of our master, and for His glory. It is not for our enrichment per se, nor is it merely for our pleasure. We are to care for the earth, and for its creatures, which means caring for mankind himself. The earth is not ours, it is to us as Egypt was to Joseph, not for him but for His Pharaoh.
We rule over creation for our Lord’s honor. Is the creator honored more because f our rule, or less?
I would like to highlight just three arenas of our vice regency in light of this passage…
Education
Many of us have started back to school this week. In order to rule over the world God has made we must learn about it and understand it. To rule over we must understand and meditate on each thing, to learn it’s pattern, its essence, its way, its uniqueness, its contribution to whole, etc. As we learn more, we are better able to proclaim our master’s praise. As we learn more we are better able to use the resources of creation creatively and wisely to meet our needs.
Work and Vocation
In our work Our King uses us to preserve and protect and provide for his creation, and for mankind his creatures. In our work we participate with God in his role of sustaining and preserving and providing for his creation. Think of the work that you do. How is it a participation with God in His work of caring for His creatures?
Environmental Responsibility
We have been given the world not to exploit for the sake of our greedy desires, but to tend, to care for, to make as it were even more beautiful and more praiseworthy. We have an incredible responsibility to the creatures of the earth which God has placed under our care. Yes, he has given creatures to us for food to meet our needs. But we are to care even for the creatures we must end up eating. The way we treat cows and pigs and chickens that we rise to eat is unconscionable. The way we tear down habitat with no through to the impact of our actions is a contradiction of our role. I believe that their cries go forth to the creator, and grieve His heart.
Verses 7 and 8 go on simply to enumerate our subjects in this God ordained rule…
(7) all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, (8) the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
And then it finishes with the same praise with which it began. The survey of God’s world and our role in that world causes praise again to pour froth from David’s lips.
(9) O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
But there is a problem.
The God of heaven may have exalted mankind with an exalted purpose, a purpose which still stands, but we see and know that mankind has fallen short, he has rejected his calling.
The Psalm begs for fulfillment.
Adam failed. His progeny failed.
And the earth is no longer cooperating. Mankind the exploiter now is frail and subject to the forces of the created order, to sickness, to death itself.
What man will fulfill the purpose for which mankind has been made.
Christ Jesus is that man. He has been made The King. He has been exalted to God’s right hand. He has been crowned with glory and honor.
Christ Jesus is the man who has fulfilled the calling of mankind. Christ Jesus is the man who has perfect man who is enthroned at God’s right hand having defeated death and sin and Satan.
This is a psalm that not only tells us a lot about our Lord and Savior.
Hebrews 2:5-9 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified:
"What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet."
In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
As we await his victorious return, we are now raised up and made new so that we can begin to fulfill our mission. One day we will reign with Christ in a renewed heaven and dearth. But for now I the Spirit we serve and love the world we have been made to rule over. |
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