Psalm 8- How Majestic is Your Name

 Psalm 8- How Majestic is Your Name in All the Earth

Psalms 8:1-9 (NASB95) 

1 For the choir director; on the Gittith. A Psalm of David. 

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!

How Majestic

Psalm 8:1 O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!…

3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;…

7 All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, 8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,…

These verses remind me of my own personal testimony of coming to the Lord. A long time ago, in a land far away, I was a student at a national laboratory in northern Illinois. This was in the age of the hippie revolution and anti Vietnam war protests, and I was all in with the counterculture of that day. I was also studying high energy physics so was also influenced by the secular thinking of the scientific community. We were looking for meaning in the inner workings of the universe without acknowledging the creator of it all. It was the age of love,  peace, and rock and roll, but we had neither love nor peace.

There was only one visible Christian student at my college, and as it happened, we were both studying at the national laboratory that semester. One day we had lunch together, and we talked about God. I told him I wasn’t sure that God even existed. He challenged me, as a scientist, to do an experiment. It was simple, just ask God to prove to me that he exists. I agreed since it seemed simple enough and surely no harm would be done when nothing happened. Boy was I wrong!

Later that evening, I was thinking about all this while walking though the woods. This national lab is in the middle of a forest preserve, partly to isolate the sensitive and sometimes dangerous experiments from the public. The original nuclear pile reactor from the University of Chicago is stored there. Anyway, I was pretty deep in the woods, thinking how silly the concept of god was, so decided to turn around and return to my room. At that exact moment, all the wild animals of the forest began to speak to me. Some birds flew up at me from the reeds around a pond that I had already passed, and other animals in the woods began to howl and hoot. This was a bit disturbing to me, but I discounted it as a coincidence and walked a bit further into the woods. After a bit I though to myself that this was a silly pursuit and tuned to return the way I had come. Again the same thing happened, more birds, more coyotes and other wild animals raised a ruckus. It was as if nature itself was speaking to me, telling me of the glory of their creator. This time I believed and turned to continue forward. I’ve been walking forward, following the Lord to this day. I don’t always follow Him perfectly, but when I need encouragement to continue on, I can always look to nature to see the splendor of the heavens and the other wonders which are the works of HIs hand. O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth,

What is Man

Another mystery is hidden in this psalm. Just reading the text alone doesn’t reveal this, but fortunately, we have the New Testament to explain it. The writer of Hebrews, in chapter 2, explains how this psalm is a prophesy of the coming Messiah and how Jesus was the perfect fulfillment of this word.

Hebrews 2:6-9 (NASB95)

6 But one has testified somewhere, saying, 

“WHAT IS MAN, THAT YOU REMEMBER HIM? OR THE SON OF MAN, THAT YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT HIM? 7 “YOU HAVE MADE HIM FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS; YOU HAVE CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY AND HONOR, AND HAVE APPOINTED HIM OVER THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS; 8 YOU HAVE PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET.” 

For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. 9 But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

Thus, nature not only speaks to us of the glory of God, but also it shows us how little we are in comparison to the universe. It then explains how Jesus became the least of all of us in order to redeem us, and reclaim the crown of glory lost in the fall of Adam. By allowing himself to be made lower than the angels, Jesus triumphed over sin and death and now all things are in subjection under His feet. He tasted death that we should live and reign forever with him. O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!