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.
‘O YHWH our lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.
The psalm begins and ends with the same two lines. This is the first aim of the psalmist, to ascribe praise to our Lord Yahweh, the One Who Is the great and mighty Overlord over His people, the One Whose name and nature is revealed as excellent throughout all the world, by nature if not by man. Thus the splendor, the majesty, the overall excellence of His name Is being declared as Psalm 148.13 says, ‘Let them praise the name of the LORD, for His name alone is exalted; His glory is above the earth and heaven.’
‘The name’ to Israel ever indicated the essence of the one to whom the name was applied. Here it is The Father God, ‘the One Who Is’, ‘the One Who causes to be’, Lord of Being, Lord of Creation. And His name Is all-excelling, majestic over all the earth. Look with me at Psalm 104, where His Majesty Is clearly revealed, for He is Lord of the whole earth and is its Creator, ‘1 Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great: You are clothed with honor and majesty, 2 Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. 3 He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters, Who makes the clouds His chariot, Who walks on the wings of the wind, 4 Who makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire. 5 You who laid the foundations of the earth, so that it should not be moved forever, 6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment; The waters stood above the mountains. 7 At Your rebuke they fled; At the voice of Your thunder they hastened away. 8 They went up over the mountains; They went down into the valleys, to the place which You founded for them. 9 You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, that they may not return to cover the earth. 10 He sends the springs into the valleys; They flow among the hills. 11 They give drink to every beast of the field; The wild donkeys quench their thirst. 12 By them the birds of the heavens have their home; They sing among the branches. 13 He waters the hills from His upper chambers; The earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your works. 14 He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the service of man, that he may bring forth food from the earth, 15 And wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart. 16 The trees of the LORD are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which He planted. 17 Where the birds make their nests; The stork has her home in the fir trees. 18 The high hills are for the wild goats; The cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers. 19 He appointed the moon for seasons; The sun knows its going down. 20 You make darkness, and it is night, in which all the beasts of the forest creep about. 21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God. 22 When the sun rises, they gather together and lie down in their dens. 23 Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening. 24 O LORD, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions—25 This great and wide sea, in which are innumerable teeming things, living things both small and great. 26 There the ships sail about; There is that Leviathan which You have made to play there. 27 These all wait for You, that You may give them their food in due season. 28 What You give them they gather in; You open Your hand, they are filled with good. 29 You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. 30 You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth. 31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever; May the LORD rejoice in His works. 32 He looks on the earth, and it trembles; He touches the hills, and they smoke. 33 I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. 34 May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the LORD. 35 May sinners be consumed from the earth, and the wicked be no more. Bless the LORD, O my soul! Praise the LORD!
But the ascription of praise, which might at first sight appear only to stress the glory of His name, also stresses His close relationship with His people. He is not only ‘the Lord’, He is our Lord. The writer has a thrill of pride as he recognizes that Adoni Yahweh Is their Lord, the Lord of His people. He has chosen them as His people, and they are uniquely His, and yet at the same time His excellence is revealed over the whole world. So the great Creator had become their Deliverer. There is here a contrast between the small (‘our’) and the great (all the earth’) which continues throughout the psalm.
You whose glory is spread over the heavens, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might still the enemy and the avenger.’
As the psalmist studied the moon and the stars shining brilliantly from the night sky, full of wonder at their all pervading splendor, he was filled with awe. ‘The invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and Godhood’ as Paul informs us in his book to the Romans.
But, he adds, He has spoken even more emphatically through babes and suckling’s. Each tiny baby, with his budding morality, with his ability to think and reason, with his coming ability to do good in the earth and with his prospective mastery of the world, is a wonder of creation and declares the glory of God. He is the image of God, that which in its own way, while still innocent, reveals and reflects God. It is an idealistic view of man as Hebrews chapter 2 brings out. It is depicting God’s final intention.
Hebrews 2.5-10, “5 For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. 6 But one testified in a certain place, saying: “What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You take care of him? 7 You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of Your hands. 8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”
So the writer sees in the baby the image of what was before the fall and the image of what must be. Its innocent cry silences the enemies of God and strengthens God’s position as Overlord of all things. Here is the prototype of God’s purpose for man. Here is one who rebukes all who have fallen from that position. The babes and suckling’s are not in opposition to God. They represent man in his obedience. They do not seek vengeance for fancied wrong. They have committed no sin. Their hearts are open. They are potentially the fulfillers of God’s purposes.
These are in stark contrast to ‘the adversaries’, those who oppose God. But who are these adversaries, ‘the enemy and the avenger?’ Psalm 44.16 gives us some insight, ‘Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles, because of the enemy and the avenger.’
The verse depicts them as those who reproach and blaspheme. In this psalm they are the nations of the world who are not in submission to Father God, those who reject His name and rule. But there the contrast is with God’s people. Here, however, the contrast is with the innocent babe. Thus we must expand the idea to include all who are against God and who speak against His name, in contrast with this tiny child. He is a reproach and a rebuke to them all. He depicts what they might have been. And they are ‘stilled’. Their voices are silenced. Revealed innocence condemns them, for these babies are the prototype of what should be, and what should have been.
We see this point taught by our Lord Jesus. It regularly depicts those who would respond to Him and believe as they need to become like the innocent babe. Look what it says in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 18, “and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. “Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Thus the babes and suckling’s in the end represent all who are true believers, restored to innocence and trust by the mercy of God. This must be so for otherwise the believers do not appear in the psalm, and it is finally dealing with the concept of ‘man’.
The words that follow must therefore be read in that light. It is not ‘men’ who are to be ‘crowned’ but ‘God’s men’, God’s true people - Those who will still the enemy and the avenger. For that is why they were born.
It is the same picture as that given by Hosea in chapter 11 of his book, ‘When Israel was a child, I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt’. It was the picture of an ‘innocent’ Israel in Egypt, God’s babe, whom He taught to walk, whom He bore in His arms, whom He drew to Him with the reins of love, whom He ‘healed’, whom He fed. But they fell from Him and rebelled against Him, and so He called on them to return to what that idealistic picture of what they had been when they were in Egypt. However there in God’s inheritance they refused to return and were thus handed over to Assyria.
‘When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him? And the son of man that you visit him? For you have made him but little lower than God, and you crown him with glory and honor.
People who lived in years past had an advantage over us. You see they were not distracted by all the conflicting lights. They could see the sky as it should be seen without anything interrupting the view. As the psalmist considers the glories of the universe, the beauty of the heavens as seen in the night sky, the glorious lights in that sky, it makes him ask, what is weak man in comparison with these? We today with our knowledge of the vastness of the universe have even more reason to ask that question.
God has shaped and molded the stars and given them their glory. They are His workmanship.
The words used for man stress his frailty and humanness. Yet God is mindful of him in his frailty, and visits him. The words denote His care for man, and His exaltation of him.
But his answer to the question of ‘what is man?’ is clear and unequivocal. At his best man is ‘over all’. That is why in Daniel the true people of God are represented as ‘like a son of man’ while the nations are likened to wild beasts. The heavens have no dominion, but God has made man, when in his right mind, to be His regent, to stand on earth in relation to living creatures as little less than God. Man is a rational thinking and authoritative being, with a conscious relationship with God. He is a ‘king’, crowned with glory and honor. He is thus superior to the night skies. But not in himself, it is God’s appointment of him that has made him great. Man as he should be, restored to innocence, is great because God has destined him to greatness.
Our Great Master has made us a ‘Little lower than God (or the elohim - the angelic spirits)’. We are below the spiritual heavens but above all else. We are made in the same image as God. Note therefore that the ‘gods’ whom others worshipped, connected with the skies, are hereby dismissed. Man is greater than the gods.
‘And you crown him with glory and honor.’ The honor and glory with which he is crowned is described in the next verses. It is revealed in his domination under God of all living creatures. The psalmist sees believing man, and possibly especially as epitomized in the Davidic king, The Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the crown of earthly creation, through whom will come blessing to the whole world, even peace and plenty and fulfillment as Isaiah teaches us in chapter 11 of his book.
Isaiah 11.1-10, “1 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. 2 The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. 3 His delight is in the fear of the LORD, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears; 4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, and faithfulness the belt of His waist. 6 “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. 10 “And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious.”
Until Adoni Jesus God came all things had not been put under man. The vision was not fulfilled. But Adoni Yeshua coming as Representative man, Was the only One perfect enough and innocent enough to deserve the crown. And taking on Himself the form of frail man, and coming here on our behalf, He did triumph and was crowned through triumphant suffering, so that He was made the perfect Savior and true Representative of man through that suffering, followed by His resurrection to glory and honor. This rather idealistic simple picture painted by the psalmist in its bare outline is there defined in terms of a fuller realism of suffering for sin, to be followed by a crowning and a glory that is all the greater. The psalmist was limited by the fact that this world was all he knew. The reality is of a far greater world yet to come.
‘You made him to have dominion over the works of your hands, You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yes, and beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas.’
The idea is based on Genesis 1 which reads, “24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over allfn the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
The word in Genesis for ‘have dominion’ has the root meaning of ‘tread under foot’. Note that cattle, wild animals, birds and fish are all included, finally also including the great sea monsters (‘whatever passes through the paths of the seas’). He has in mind not only those that man has domesticated, or tamed, but the whole of living creation. That is man’s privilege, only partially fulfilled but it is his ultimate destiny.
To the psalmist this was the height of attainment. A world restored to innocence with righteous man, walking in submission to God, ruling over all creation.
But this idealistic picture finds its greater final fulfillment through Christ when as ‘the last Adam’, ‘the second man’, all things are put in subjection under His feet. What God intends for restored man is far better than man could ever dream.
‘O YHWH, our lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.’
Many times we get confused between repetition and chanting. For example many people with just say over and over again the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ or ‘Our Father’ without placing thought to the words. This is chanting and is not good. You do find throughout the bible that repetition is good for memory sake. If you repeat some things then you have a better chance of retaining the thoughts and words. We see that the psalmist repeats verse one. It summarizes a main purpose of the Psalm, to give glory to Israel’s God (and ours), and especially for the final restoration that He will bring about when He will be all in all. To this I say and all His children – Amen!
