The Best Man Series

Psalm 8: 1 – 9

The Best Man

To the Chief Musician. On the instrument of Gath. A Psalm of David.

1 O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens! 2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I consider 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 You have crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, 7 All sheep and oxen—Even the beasts of the field, 8 The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

As we begin our review of Psalm 8, I want to take a look at the ‘heading’ which I believe strongly that most people just ignore.

‘For the chief musician, set to the Gittith. A psalm to/for David.’

‘Gittith may refer to a musical instrument named after its origin in Gath. The Septuagint, however, has ‘for the winepresses (gittoth)’ suggesting that it was sung in connection with the feast of Tabernacles, and as ‘gath’ means winepress it could possibly be right.

The psalm is a hymn of worship to the Creator, and a description of man’s intended higher status in that creation, exceeding that of the physical heavens and of all other created things, but only once he is returned to innocence.

Here is a question I believe is quite revealing and awesome. If you have been studying the bible with us you know the answer. The question is this, ‘Can you find from Scripture that our Holy Creator had mankind in His Omniscient thoughts before He set in motion the creation of the world?’

Let’s turn to the book of Ezekiel chapter 1 to find our answer.

1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. 2 On the fifth day of the month, which was in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, 3 the word of the LORD came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was upon him there. 4 Then I looked, and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. 5 Also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man. 6 Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings. 7 Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the soles of calves’ feet. They sparkled like the color of burnished bronze. 8 The hands of a man were under their wings on their four sides; and each of the four had faces and wings. 9 Their wings touched one another. The creatures did not turn when they went, but each one went straight forward. 10 As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man; each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, each of the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and each of the four had the face of an eagle. 11 Thus were their faces. Their wings stretched upward; two wings of each one touched one another, and two covered their bodies. 12 And each one went straight forward; they went wherever the spirit wanted to go, and they did not turn when they went.

We know from Scripture that our Holy El Shaddai – God Almighty – created in times past before the heavens and the earth, angels to be His ministering servants. We note that the cherubim had the form of a man before Adam was even created.

Two sections of humanity are in mind, on the one hand the ‘innocent’ and on the other ‘the enemy and the avenger’. Man restored to innocence, as pictured by the innocent babe, is seen as the one through whom God’s final purposes will come to fruition, the establishment of righteousness. The enemy and the avenger, unless returning and being restored, are excluded from this hope of future blessing.