Psalms

Chapter 8

God's Glory and Human Dignity

The psalmist marvels at the excellence of God's name in all the earth and His glory above the heavens. He observes that from the mouths of babes God has ordained strength against His enemies, and when he contemplates the heavens—the moon and stars—he is struck with awe at his own smallness. Yet God has made mankind a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honour, given dominion over all the earth's creatures. The psalm concludes by returning to the overwhelming excellence of God's name in all the earth.

God's majestyCreation's wonderHuman dignityGod's dominion

¹O 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!

Ch. 78 of 150Ch. 9