O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
4 What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
6 You make him to rule 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 through the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth! Psalm 8, NASB
Psalm 8 is another psalm of orientation. Brueggemann would label this a “song of creation.”[1] In this psalm, again we find life nice and ordered. We see the world as “God’s way of bestowing blessing upon us.”[2]
The people of ancient Israel sang this psalm in gratitude to God for the creation. They still had a reverence for the creation. Look at verse 1, and the glory the people held for God, “O Lord, our Lord.” This line tells us that the people knew God as greater than them, but still God was for them. In this ordered existence, their first thought is to give God all the praise for the creation. The singer or speaker reminds everyone of God’s, greatness by reciting, “How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!” The singer/speaker is so sure that this praise belongs to the Creator that even babies or children are aware of it.
The singer/speaker then asks the question, “What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?” The psalm writer then goes through a list of things of what humans are and the blessings given to us through creation by God. According to the psalmist, “You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.”
We have unfortunately taken those words to mean total domination and sometimes destruction of God’s creation we call “Earth.” We are destroying our seas, our land, and other life forms. Animals and species of the land, air, and sea (including plants) that were abundant are now extinct or on the verge of extinction. This same psalm of orientation can be a psalm of social criticism if we look deep enough.[3] Remember this psalm ends the way it begins as a praise to God for creation, “O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!” This means that we have a responsibility to maintain and respect the creation.
[1] Walter Brueggemann, Spirituality of the Psalms (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2002).
[2] Ibid, p. 22.
[3] Ibid.