psalm 8 |
Psalm 8 has described as “a psalm for stargazers”
|
Psalm 8:1:
O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
|
Psalm 8:2:
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. |
This is a staggering / almost jolting statement to appear right beside the proclamation of the majesty and glory of God. And yet the psalmist is saying something about how God chooses to reveal his majesty and glory in creation.
The answer is surprising and counterintuitive. God displays his glory by using weak people to do his great work. God reveals his majesty by defeating his enemies through the weakness of children and infants. James Johnston says "The universe is stunned at the magnificent majesty of God when toddlers pray before bedtime and sing in Sunday school. God creates victorious power from the lips of children who confess him. This should be a huge encouragement for young mothers who spend their days wiping noses, cleaning up spills, folding little hands before meals, and singing songs while changing diapers. Step back and see the big picture: God is making his name majestic in this world through you. God is establishing his strength in this world through your children as they learn to praise him." Satan has always waged war on babies. It’s replete in the Old and New Testaments - Satan HATES babies. They are a constant reminder of God’s image and glory, and his ultimate doom! You’ll recall that the curse of Satan included the promise that the seed of a woman would crush his head! He’s always been afraid of babies. Think of that? How silly is this? Little infant babies? What harm can they do? How could they hurt anything? They’re dependent and small and weak! And this Psalm says God has chosen to use them to establish a stronghold - to make a position of strength in God’s conquest of his enemies. This is staggering. But this is our God! This is the glory of God! It is fully on display when he chooses to use the weak things of this world to confound the wise. 1 Corinthians 1:27 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; Whether it was a baby in a basket, or a cowardly wheat thresher with a rag-tag army of 300 men, or a shepherd boy with a sling and five stones God shows off when he beats his enemies by making the odds of success seem incalculably small. Remember the exodus? He led his people into what seemed like an obvious trap! Only to deliver them THROUGH THE SEA. Remember Elijah? He doused the altar with so much water you would have thought a tropical storm had come through Mount Carmel. God LOVES to display his glory through apparent weakness. -- Jason Pamblanco; Leonardtown Baptist Church |
|
Psalm 8:3:
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; |
 Thomas Watson
To glorify God is to set God highest in our thoughts, and to have a venerable esteem of him... There is in God all that may draw forth both wonder and delight; there is a constellation of all beauties; he is prima causa, the original and springhead of being, who sheds a glory upon the creature. We glorify God when we are God-admirers; admire his attributes, which are the glistening beams by which the divine nature shines forth; his promises which are the charter of free grace, and the spiritual cabinet where the pearl of price is hid; the noble effects of his power and wisdom in making the world, which is called 'the work of his fingers.' Psa 8:3. To glorify God is to have God-admiring thoughts; to esteem him most excellent, and search for diamonds in this rock only.” ― Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity: Contained in Sermons upon the Westminster Assembly's Catechism
|
Psalm 8:4-9:
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!