To watch the video teaching on Psalm 8, click here
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!
Psalm 8
Anytime a believer gives some serious thought to the vast variety, beauty, and intricacy of God’s creation, we almost cannot help but break into songs of praise.
This seems to be exactly what happened to David when he wrote Psalm 8. Psalm 8 is an excellent example of a hymn in which God is praised for the way he has established and created the world.
Although the hymn begins and ends in praise to God, the substance of the hymn isn’t really about God but is about the crowning glory of God’s creation: people. However, the only way to think rightly about the astonishing creation of man and woman is to think about us in relation to God’s purpose in glorifying himself. He crowned us with glory and honor to bring himself glory and honor. We spill over in praise to be given such a high and noble purpose for our lives.
So let’s take a look at Psalm 8 and consider what David wrote about who we are as the crowning glory of God’s creation and the magnificent God who created us to be in a relationship with him.
Poetic Structure of Psalm 8
(To watch my introductory video on the poetic structure of the Psalms, click here!)
In the ESV, Psalm 8 is broken up into 4 strophes that have a chiastic pattern. Boice (1994) explains the pattern like this:
A – Celebration of God’s majesty
B- Confession of people’s insignificance
B- Astonishment of people’s significance
A – Celebration of God’s majesty1
The poem is comprised of 10 lines. The parallelisms in verses 3-6 are worth noting. See the images below:
Considering the poetic structure of the poem helps us in bringing out the meaning of the poem. Now we can draw out the meaning of the poem and how we might apply it to our own praise and worship.
Interpretation of Psalm 8
The Psalm starts by praising God for several of his attributes. First, David praises the LORD (Yahweh) for being our Lord (Adonai). This God who is infinitely holy, the great “I AM” is also astonishingly personal. He is Lord of all, majestic in all the earth, his glory is even higher than the heavens, and yet David also says he is our Lord. The Lord of all creation saw fit to enter into a personal relationship with us.
This amazing God whose glory is above the heavens has established strength in the weak by being in a relationship with them. Why? So that they might fight off the enemy. The NIV translates verse 2 as “Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold…” Jesus refers to this verse in Matthew 21 when the chief priests and scribes tell Jesus to stop the children from praising him as he entered Jerusalem. “Have you never read,” he says, “Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise’?” (vs. 16). The God of all strength ordains the praise of the weak in order to make them strong.
But why does God choose to work his power through the weak instead of the strong? In 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, the apostle Paul says this:
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
God chooses to work through the weak because his power and strength are most magnificently displayed in their weakness. And when the weak defeat their enemies they know that the strength to do so did not come from within themselves but came from their powerful God. Therefore no human can boast but it is God himself who gets all of the glory for the enemies’ defeat.
Considering the way this infinite God works through the weakness of his people makes David ponder the insignificance of people. When he considers the vastness of the universe, especially as observed in the night sky, David wonders why on earth God would spend time thinking about people? And not just think about them but go out of his way to care for them? When it comes to considering our relationship with the God of the universe we must start by remembering our own insignificance.
But just as this God ordains praise from the weak, he also makes the insignificant, significant. If I were to give a title to verses 5 and 6, I would call it: Man – the Crowning Glory of God’s Creation. Remembering our insignificance reminds us that we are indeed created and have no special right to enter into a relationship with God. But verses 5 and 6 remind us that God saw fit, out of all the things he created, to crown people with glory and honor. Out of all of God’s creation, people alone bear the honor of imaging their creator. Not only that but people, as image-bearers, have been given dominion over the rest of creation, putting the rest of creation under our feet. What an incredible place of honor! Nothing else in all of God’s creation can make these claims. God has given incredible significance to the insignificant.
The Psalm ends with David bursting out in praise again. Considering what God has done for us and the purpose he has given us, how can we not sing his praises?
Psalm 8 and Jesus
Mark Futato suggests considering the Psalms as not only being sung to Jesus but by Jesus. The Psalms are the hymnbook of Jesus. They are all about him and for him.
In Hebrews 2, the author quotes Psalm 8 when he says:
It has been testified somewhere,
“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone (vs. 6-9)
Hebrews tells us that verses 4-6, in particular, are not only true about us but are true about Jesus too. He became a little lower than the angels that he might suffer and die on our behalf and is now crowned with glory and honor for doing so. We can also point to Jesus in verse 2 when David talks about God establishing strength from the praises of infants and babies. It is this strength, manifested in the weak that vanquishes the foes and the avengers. Philippians 2 says that Jesus,
emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men (vs. 7).
Jesus became weak, taking the form of an infant, that he might establish strength to defeat the enemy. And because he did so, he has made strong the weak who put their faith in Him.
My Hymn of Praise
How do you sing Psalm 8? What does Psalm 8 mean to you?
After rightly understanding the meaning of the Psalms it is right for us to make a personal connection to them. The Psalms are meant to stir our emotions and give us words for our deepest feelings.
For me, Psalm 8 presents a challenge and a vivid reminder.
The challenge, for me, comes in verse 2. I cannot help but think of my own babies and infants when I think of the strength that God establishes in their praise. I have a very strong instinct to protect my children. And I recognize that the greatest danger my children face actually lives inside them and is stirred up within them by the enemy. Therefore I long to help strengthen my children to fight off the enemy and the sins he tempts them to. Verse 2 then, challenges me to help strengthen them for the fight by encouraging praise from their lips. And since my husband and I are currently the most influential people in their lives, they will learn to praise God by seeing us model it daily. I am challenged, therefore, to make praise my first language. To banish all complaining, idle, and unkind talk from my mouth and use my words to point my children to the greatness of God, the source of all their strength.
Psalm 8 is also a vivid reminder for me of how God mercifully established his strength in me when I was at my weakest. Several years ago I suffered from severe depression and anxiety. My life was in ruins all around me and I did not know where to begin to put it back together. But God saw fit to use that horrible time to transform me and make me strong. If I had not suffered as I had I would still be under the grip of my pride which said that my worth was tied up in my ability to do good work. I needed to be brought low to learn that my worth was secured by the blood of Christ. If I hadn’t learned that, I would not have the understanding of the gospel that I have today and I certainly wouldn’t be writing posts about it. God used my weakest moments to begin to establish his strength in me. (You can read more about my depression journey here).
These are the thoughts that stir my heart as I sing Psalm 8. I sing out of gratitude for what Christ has done in my life and the way he has brought strength from my weakness and pointed me to my significance in Him.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
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