Psalm 8

How Majestic Is Your Name

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.


¹O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
²Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.

³When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
⁴what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

⁵Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
⁶You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
⁷all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
⁸the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Read the Psalm 2 times.
Look at the beginning and end to this Psalm. What stands out to you?
What does verse 2 say about strength? Is that the normal mental picture you get when you think of strength?
Read verses 3-8. Verse 4 talks about ‘man’ and ‘son of man’. David isn’t indicating that there are 2 different groups here, rather being a man or a son of man are the same thing- being human! Read Genesis 1:26. How does the verse in Genesis relate to this psalm? As a college student, talking a lot about animals may not translate into what you are doing (unless you’re an ag major). What point do you think David is making and how does that relate to you?

Summary:
David spends the bulk of this psalm looking at how God views people. Even in the first verse He says God is our Lord, not some far off being we have no relationship with. Have you ever done what verse 3 talks about- staring up at the stars and contemplating how you fit into all of it? Try it, God will show you amazing things! When David does this, he comes to an astonishing conclusion, “you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor” (v 5). He then describes how that plays out in our lives. I hope this gives you a sense of significance while at the same time humbling you (remember, it is God who made and ordered everything on this earth). This was David’s response, which is why he ends this psalm the same way he began- praising God.