Psalm 8

Every been somewhere really dark and looked up at the glory of God’s handiwork? It’s as if the Lord screwed each star into place.

Psalm 8 comes from that kind of experience—the psalmist has looked up at the heavens and is reflecting on the universe that God has made and man’s place within it.

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

“The Gittith” is an unknown musical term that is lost to us.

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.

The psalmist imagines that the simple praise of little children is stronger than the malevolent work of God’s enemies.

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?

The moon and the stars are amazing, but so is a baby in the womb. God made the heavens, but he also made us, and the psalmist is in awe.

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.

In Genesis 1, we read that God created humankind to rule over the earth in his place—to be stewards and caretakers of all that God has made. The psalmist marvels that God has entrusted his precious creation to human hands.

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

In your Psalms books, spend a few minutes writing down some of the things in creation that you find awesome and beautiful.