Suggested listen: Poor Bishop Hooper, Psalm 8
Read Psalm 8 in its entirety.
Write down any parts that stand out to you or that you aren’t quite sure about. Pray for the Spirit to reveal His heart as we sort through these verses. Take a deep breath. Read again.
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 babies 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!
Take a moment to ponder and reflect on what stands out as you read.
- Do you have any emotional response?
- What is the knee-jerk reaction to these words?
- What portion of the text grips your eyes? Where do they pause?
Let’s walk through this together…
VS 1
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens…
David begins by recognizing the covenant name of God (LORD) and His position of Yahweh (or Master) over His people (Lord). He is reiterating who God is by promise and dominion. He is LORD, our Lord, whose majesty is seen throughout the earth yet earth cannot even contain it! His glory abounds far into and above the heavens. He is great and greatly to be praised!
Take a moment to just recognize who God is and who He is to you. Identify His majesty. Praise God in your own words. Reflect, pray, journal.
VS 2-4
Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
This glorious and majestic God, whose splendor extends far above the heavens is also displayed in babies and infants. There’s a reason we say “kids are brutal!” They are honest and unfiltered and call it like they see it. There is something extra sharp when we are judged by a kid! This quote from Charles Spurgeon is fantastic in explaining why…
“Aha! Aha! O adversary! To be overcome by behemoth or leviathan might make thee angry; but to be smitten out of infants’ mouths causes thee to bite the dust in utter dishonor. Thou art sore broken, now that ‘out of the mouth of babes and sucklings’ thou art put to shame.” (Spurgeon)
He uses the small and, by man’s accounts, weak and helpless to silence and still his enemies. I love the foreshadowing here, because we know that God had already chosen to use a baby king to disrupt the works of the enemy and eventually crush his head altogether. Our God has a habit of using the most unlikely, most confusing vessels to bring him the most glory.
When we look to the vastness of creation, so much of the earth that we haven’t even discovered yet, the galaxies that have been flicked into place by His fingers, we cannot help but be in awe of His greatness! He is I AM, the Almighty Creator God, omnipotent, omniscient, and holy. Yet He is mindful of lowly, futile, man. Mindful and deeply caring. Aware of every detail of our lives on a level we will never understand ourselves. He’s mindfulness goes beyond just knowing we exist, as if that isn’t enough, but He is fully engaged, knowing and thinking upon each of us with the purest love and pride. His ways are not our ways! We compare and exclude ourselves, believing and seeing only the worst parts. But what does He do?
VS 5-8
Yet You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
He honors you. He sets you in a place of authority and respect. It’s how he MADE you to exist. He created you to function out of the identity He placed in you from the beginning. Theologian James Boice says this,
“God’s glory is above the heavens; yet He put this same glory and honor on man as a crown. This is an effective way of identifying man with God and of saying that he has been made in God’s image, reflecting God’s glory in a way other parts of the creation do not.”
We cannot forget that we are His. We are created in His image, in His likeness. We have been adopted and purchased by His blood. We have been crowned and anointed with His glory and righteousness. He is mindful of you. He knows your name. He knows the way that you take (Job 23:10). He knows the number of hairs on your head (Luke 12:7). His thoughts toward you outnumber the grains of sand (Psalm 139:17-18). Lift your eyes and stand in this place of honor, fully aware that you have done nothing on your own to earn or deserve it, but that in His vastness and perfection, He has placed you here for the purpose of His glory!
Meditate on the works of His fingers, both in nature and in your life. How does identifying these things stir your heart? Create space in your spirit to allow the Lord to establish His Lordship and remind you of your created place as Imago Dei. Worship in spirit and in truth. Reflect, pray, journal.
O LORD, our Lord, You are glorious. You are perfect in all Your ways. Everything shouts and declares your glory, God! We cannot help but be brought to our knees when we really allow ourselves to consider all that you have made and the intricacies of how we live. The way the planets stay on just the right axis to sustain life, the way our bodies function with just the right PH balance, the many different ways our existence could be threatened and yet You keep us secure. You hold all things together with masterful orchestration because You care deeply for us. All things point to your glory and yet you see it fit to place a crown of honor on our head. Even more, Jesus you counted it as nothing to be grasped and emptied yourself by taking the form of a servant and humbled yourself by becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross for our sake. Your love for us knows no end. And we respond with adoration and gratitude and love. May our love be fueled by Yours. Thank you for your grace, Jesus. Thank you for seeing us, for rescuing us, and for blessing us with your presence. You have defeated death so that we may live in unity with you, in a purchased place of righteousness and glory. May all that we do glorify your name. Let us join with creation in being a living testimony of the Almighty God. And let us be mindful of others as we rest in Your perfect love and peace. Thank you for knowing us and loving us. Thank you for keeping us. We love you, Father.