Psalms 8King James Version
O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels. One of the most quoted psalms in the New Testament.
A creation doxology that bookends with 'O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.' The middle section poses the question that will echo through millennia: what is man, that God is mindful of him? The answer is not humiliation but wonder: humans are made just below the heavenly beings and crowned with glory. The scale runs from infant voices to the cosmos and back to the name.
Human dignity is not self-generated but derives from being the ones in whom the Creator placed focused, specific attention amid an enormous universe.
verse: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" The question is rhetorical but it cuts: wonder at the fact that we matter at all.
Superscription: 'To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David.' Gittith may indicate a Gittite instrument or tune. The psalm is nocturnal in its gaze (v3: 'the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained') suggesting night as its original setting. A hymn rather than a lament, rare in Book 1's pattern of personal crisis.
David as psalmist-worshipper; God addressed throughout; 'man' and 'son of man' as the subject of theological wonder; babes and infants; adversaries silenced by infant praise.
Psalm 8 is quoted in Hebrews 2:6-8 as fulfilled in Jesus, who as 'son of man' fully embodies the glory intended for humanity. It is one of the most theologically dense short psalms. Its cosmological scope echoes Genesis 1 and makes it a foundational text for Christian anthropology. Paul echoes it in 1 Corinthians 15:27.
For when you feel crushingly small, insignificant, lost in an enormous world that doesn't notice you. The psalm does not deny the smallness; it says the Creator deliberately aimed at it.
1[To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David.] O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
2Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, 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 a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6Thou madest 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 fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!