Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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⚙ Annotations & References ▾
Passage sections 1 ▾
The Majesty of God and Dignity of Man poetry 8:1–8:9
Themes 4 ▾
Glory of God 1, 4 Name of God 1 Creation 3-4 Holiness 4
Speakers 1 ▾
David human 1-9
Prophecies 2 ▾
Praised by Children 2 Crowned with Glory and Honor 5-6
Typology 1 ▾
Adam's Dominion and Christ's Universal Reign 6
Historic voices 10 ▾
Catechism of the Catholic Church 4× 1, 3, 5 Commentary on the Book of Psalms 1× 1-6, 9 Summa Theologica 1× 2 Second Helvetic Confession 1× 5 Homilies on the Gospel of John 1× 8 John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible 1× 1-9 Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament 1× 1, 3, 6, 9 Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary 1× 1, 3 Expositions on the Psalms 1× 1-2, 4 Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary 1× 2-5, 9
Manuscript witnesses 5 ▾
Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325 Codex Alexandrinus A c. AD 400-440 Aleppo Codex (Crown of Aleppo) c. AD 930 Leningrad Codex (Codex Leningradensis) AD 1008
Cross-references 107 ▾
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What is Psalms 8 about?

Look up on a clear night at the moon and the stars, the work of God's fingers, and the first thing you feel is your own smallness. David sets the whole psalm inside a single cry, sounded at its opening and again at its close: how excellent is the LORD's name in all the earth. Between those bookends stands the question the heavens press on anyone who looks up honestly: what is man, that God is mindful of him? The answer is not that man is nothing, but that God has crowned this creature of dust with glory and honor and laid the works of His hands beneath his feet, the dominion first given in Eden. Hebrews carries the psalm further, to the one true Man made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death and now crowned with glory, all things put under Him.

Historical backdrop

These are the songbook of a nation, sung across a thousand years of Israel's worship, from Moses in the wilderness to the exiles returned from Babylon. They were carried from the tabernacle to Solomon's temple to the second temple rebuilt under Persia, set to the lyre and the harp and the clash of cymbals in the courts of the LORD.

Matthew Henry on Psalms 8
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Psalms 8
The Church Fathers on Psalms 8

Psalms 8

Psalms Chapter 8
8
1O Jehovah, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth, Who hast set thy glory upon the heavens!
2Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou established strength, Because of thine adversaries, That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
3When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5For thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor.
6Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet:
7All sheep and oxen, Yea, and the beasts of the field,
8The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9O Jehovah, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth!
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What is Psalms 8 about?

Look up on a clear night at the moon and the stars, the work of God's fingers, and the first thing you feel is your own smallness. David sets the whole psalm inside a single cry, sounded at its opening and again at its close: how excellent is the LORD's name in all the earth. Between those bookends stands the question the heavens press on anyone who looks up honestly: what is man, that God is mindful of him? The answer is not that man is nothing, but that God has crowned this creature of dust with glory and honor and laid the works of His hands beneath his feet, the dominion first given in Eden. Hebrews carries the psalm further, to the one true Man made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death and now crowned with glory, all things put under Him.