PRAISE THE LORD FOR CREATION AND MAN
Psalm 8 begins and ends with praise to God. “O, Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all of the earth” (vv. 1, 9).
The Majesty of God (8: 1, 2, 9)
The Psalmist marvels at the glory of God. God is worthy of every man’s adoration and praise. David calls God “Lord” from the Hebrew, adonai. The term occurs about 300 times in the Old Testament.
Its meaning is “master, sir, lord” and signifies “ownership or mastership” and indicates the great “truth that God is the owner of each member of the human family, and that He consequently claims the unrestricted obedience of all” (Girdlestone, Old Testament Synonyms, 59). Thus, included is the amenability of man to God and His law.
When the term is used of men, it is always singular, adon. When used of God, it is almost always plural, adonai, and possessive, meaning “my Lord’s.” Being plural, it confirms the idea of the Godhead, as in the name, Elohim.
David says the name of God is “excellent” or “majestic” both “in all the earth” and “above the heavens.” The word “excellent” is from the Hebrew addir, meaning “glorious, majestic, lofty, honorable.” David’s point is that the praise of God is both much in evidence upon the Earth and in the heavens. Compare Psalm 19; 103:20-22; Job 38:7; Isaiah 6:3 where the stars and the angels voice their praise to God.
David declares that God’s glory is not restricted to the heavens above and the Earth beneath, but is also evidenced from the “mouth of babes and sucklings” (v. 2).
This text is used by Jesus in Matthew 21:15-16, where in His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the children cried, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”
Also, verse 2 can be understood that the most feeble of human beings (infants) show forth praise as to be conclusive evidence of His existence, power, and character. How can this be the case? Thomas B. Warren writes:
They do it by their mere existence with all of the complexities of the various systems (cardiovascular, respiratory, et al.), the power of their minds to grow to the point that they reason correctly about extremely complex matters, their capacity to love and to hate, their freedom which (in maturity) enables them to decide whether they will do what they hold to be morally right or morally wrong, their conscience which urges them to choose that course of action which they hold to be right, their capacity to develop to the point that they love another person as a spouse, to begat and/or bear children, et al. There is also the matter of their growing to such maturity as to enable them to grasp both the existence and attributes of God. (The Book of Psalms, vol. 1., 53)
The Measure of Man (8:3-8)
Psalm 8:3-8 deals with “The Measure of Man” or God’s placement of man in the scheme of His creation. The section divides into three parts with each having two verses: (1) 8:3-4; (2) 8:5-6; and (3) 8:7-8.
1. Psalm 8:3-4. These verses do not denigrate man, but rather set forth questions which show evidence that God is worthy of our adoration and praise.
Perhaps David penned this Psalm as a shepherd, or in later life, reflected and recalled his shepherd days. In verse 3, David had surveyed the heavens, and this had created a deep reverence in his heart for what he saw, as he realized the heavens were the work of God’s creation. They were not chance, but rather the perfect handiwork of the Creator. Robert Taylor writes:
These amazed him; they thrilled him; they turned his own mind to the Master Mind that had ordained, established, or fixed them in their orbits of wondrous functions. How vastly different is the atheistic mind, which can survey the very same heavens on a clear, starry night that David did thirty centuries ago and witness nothing but indefinite and evasive Chance as creator of it all!! No wonder the psalmist will label the atheist as the fool just six chapters later and two pages removed in my beloved Bible (14:1). He repeats it in Psalms 53:1. (Studies in Psalms, 21-22)
In view and evidence of the magnificence of the heavens, David took a close look at man—“What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (8:4). The question is also asked in Psalm 144:3 and in Hebrews 2:6. It is an important question asked in both Testaments.
J. A. Alexander writes that the phrase, “What is man?” in the Hebrew signifies the idea of “What is frail man?” (The Psalms Translated and Explained, 89). What is frail, weak, or feeble man in comparison to the glory of the heavens that God thinks attends to, and “visits” or manifests Himself to, either in His wrath or His mercy? The latter phrase, “that thou visitest him,” contains the idea of “God’s special presence and activity, whether as friend or foe” (89).
The Bible reveals that man is worth more than the entire physical universe (cf. Matthew 16:26; John 3:16; Hebrews 2:9). These texts, and others, explain God’s providential care of men. God desires none to be lost, but that each and every man bear, believe, and be saved by obeying the gospel (2 Peter 3:9; Romans 5:8-9; 8:1-5; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-10).
2. Psalm 8:5-6. David begins to answer his question, “What is man that thou are mindful o him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?”
He reasons as follows: (1) “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels.” In the American Standard Version, the word is God rather than angels being from the normal Hebrew word for God, Elohim. The idea being that man is lower than deity. He is God’s creation in His image and after His likeness (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7).
Man is the product of God’s creation. Job wrote, “The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life” (33:4). The Biblical answer of man’s origin is (a) Simple- God! A child can understand this answer. Youth can understand this answer. It causes no strain upon the intelligence of the adult. (b) Sublime—God! The Bible states that God “spake, and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:9). God created all out of nothing; man must use existing materials. (c) Sufficient—God! We have a purpose by virtue of our creation being in His image and His likeness. When we realize that man is “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14), we will praise Him as the heavens, the Earth, and the babes and sucklings.
David’s second answer is, “and hast crowned him with glory and honor” (8:5). We have royal dignity. The Hebrew word order of this phrase is “and (with) honour and glory crown him.” These nouns are used to refer to royal dignity in Psalm 21:1, 5, 6; 45:4; Jeremiah 22:18; and 1 Chronicles 29:25. The obvious allusion is to man’s being created in the image and likeness of God, the apex of all creation.
Verse 6 gives a third answer to David’s question. Man is the apex and crown of God’s creation. As a consequence, man is elevated in God’s creation to a level above and is superior to all of God’s creatures on Earth. All else of God’s creation is under man’s authority, God gave man dominion over all things (Genesis 1:28) with “all things under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:27), Paul reminds us that the world is subject to man, not angels (Hebrews 2:5-9).
3. Psalm 8:7-8. Man has been given dominion over “all sheep and oxen, yea, the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air; and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea” (8:7-8). While we may not be as strong as some of these animals, we control or have dominion or rule over them.
Someone might ask why are only these animals listed? The answer is they serve as examples of animals known to all and serve as examples of man’s dominion over all things. A valid observation is made by Thomas B. Warren, which is seen in our present day and age of high technology, “Who - but God knows the domination which man will have (over the earth and portions of the universe) before Christ comes again? No one!” (54).
Concluding Thoughts
With the Psalm’s introduction and conclusion with the significant statement, “O, Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth” (8:1, 9), we ought to be motivated to praise the Lord. God is great, His ways are marvelous and our praise should roll from the depths of our hearts! God who can create and sustain such a being as man is, must indeed be superlatively great and due our praise!