(To the chief Musician. Upon the Gittith. A Psalm of David.) Jehovah our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy majesty above the heavens.
Psalm 8 opens with a cry that reaches from the ground under our feet to the space above the stars. It calls God by two names at once, claims the whole earth for that name, and does so at the close of a group of psalms about rejection and enemies. (Where the ESV says "majestic", older translations say "excellent" — the word the writers below use.)
These are people who saw their King rejected. Psalm 8 closes their story, and they sing it themselves after their rescue.
We have now come to Psalm 8. It closes this unfolding of the state of the remnant, and of God's purposes about the rejected Anointed of Jehovah. The now delivered remnant is still the speaker. "O Jehovah, our Lord!" The heathen have risen up against Him in vain! It is not now a king in Zion — though that will surely be true — but a glory set above the heavens. It is not now only the people of the great King who are blessed. Wherever the children of men live, Jehovah's name, Israel's Lord, is great.
Behind the two English titles lie two Hebrew words, the second of them plural. One writer takes that name to cover the Father, the Son and the Spirit alike.
Don't these and many other Scriptures identify the Father, the Son and the Spirit — these three ever-glorious Persons — not only with "ELOHIM" (Genesis 1:1 and elsewhere), but also with the "LORD our Lord" of Psalm 8:1, 9? In Hebrew that is "JEHOVAH our ADONAHY" — a plural. His Name of excellence is to be spread abroad over all the earth, and His glory is above the heavens.
The verse states it as fact. The world around us does not look like it.
The name of Jehovah our Lord is excellent. Beyond all question it excels every other name. The highest heaven acknowledges that excellence in full; all the earth does not yet. Over most of the earth people still blaspheme it. A day is coming when the words of the first and last verses of Psalm 8 will come true in glory. But for that day we have to wait.
The psalm names both the trouble and the Person who will end it.
Today we would have to exclaim instead, "O Lord our Lord, how dishonoured is Your name in all the earth!" There is a reason for this. Our short Psalm names the source of the trouble in one word — "man." Having done so, it passes on at once to dwell upon the great Person who is going to make the name of the Lord excellent in all the earth — "the Son of Man."
The verb "set" has a history that runs back to the first chapter of the Bible.
In Psalm 8:1 we meet this word — "O LORD our Lord, how excellent is Your Name in all the earth! You have set (ordained) Your glory above the heavens." This word first appears in Genesis 1:17, where we read that God set "two great lights" in the sky. The verb here is in the middle voice, reflexive, the glory of the action belonging to the One who performed it.
This glory is not the night sky the psalmist looks at two verses later.
It is not the glory of moon and stars spread over the heavens, such as the psalmist speaks of in the third verse, but a glory above all created things, however wonderful.
The earth has not yet owned that name. Even so, there is something to see now.
The earth where people live is not yet put under Him, as our Scripture tells us. Yet when we look at Him crowned with glory and honour on high, faith already sees the divine glory set in Him above the heavens. That is the pledge that all the earth will soon own His name as excellent, as it really is.
The heading over this psalm carries the word "Gittith". One writer links it both to music and to the winepress.
Most take it to be the name of a musical instrument, perhaps used by the Gittites, the people of Gath. Even so, an element in it does point to thoughts like "wine-pressing". Scripture ties that idea again and again to judgment followed by gladness in the hearts of God's people, because God has vindicated His righteousness.
- The name. The name of Jehovah our Lord excels every other name. The highest heaven owns that in full. Earth still blasphemes it.
- The cause. The psalm traces the trouble to one word, "man", and then moves straight to the One who will fix it: the Son of Man.
- The setting. "Set" is the word used when God set the two great lights in the sky — an action whose glory belongs to the One who performed it.
- The reach. Not a king in Zion only, but a glory above the heavens and a name great wherever people live.
- The pledge. The earth is not yet subject to Him. But faith looks at Him crowned with glory and honour on high, and that sight guarantees the rest.
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou established praise because of thine adversaries, to still the enemy and the avenger.
Psalm 8 begins with God's name filling the whole earth, and then turns to the mouths of babies as the place where God founds strength. Why does He answer His foes with the weakest voices there are, and why does He silence the enemy instead of arguing him down?
Jesus quoted this verse when children praised Him and the leaders were annoyed. Where the Psalm says strength, He said praise. One writer ties the two together:
The religious leaders themselves saw His wonderful works of power and grace, and to their great annoyance they heard the children's cry. Jesus defended the children in their simplicity, quoting the verse from Psalm 8 as fulfilled in them. The Psalm says "established strength," while He applied it by saying "perfected praise." Either way the thought is the same: God does what He wants, and receives the praise He looks for, through small and weak things. This makes it clear that the strength and the praise come from Himself.
Another writer traces where such praise comes from, and who offers it now:
Strength is founded, praise is perfected, out of the mouths of babies and infants. By divine power, grace makes its new-born vessel of mercy, and that vessel prepares pure songs of perfect praise, in which the Lord alone is exalted and everything that would exalt itself is brought low... His believing people, who are described as "new-born babies," now offer the fruit of perfect praise to God, and He accepts it.
The leaders who objected to the children's praise got their answer from this verse. It put them, not the children, in the wrong:
The hostility of the leading men, who spoke and acted for the people, now came into the open, and they formally refused their rightful Lord and King... The Lord rebuked them with a passage from Psalm 8, which on this occasion fitted perfectly. It was meant both to rebuke the Jews, by giving them, for the present, the place of the enemy and the avenger, and to present Him, the rejected Messiah, before them in His full and proper glories.
When men would not honour the Lord, the Father made sure someone would:
Even in the days of His humiliation, babies and infants speaking His praise stilled the enemy and the avenger. The Father saw to it that, if the Lord was despised and rejected by men for His sake, there would still be a testimony to His glory.
One writer sees God setting man aside and putting His Word in the mouths of the weakest. He also names who will still the enemy:
David also saw man set aside, so that God might give and establish His Word out of the mouth of even babies and infants. "The enemy and the avenger" — who may be the same as "the man of the earth" in Psalm 10 — will be stilled, not by the efforts of mortal man, but by God Himself, working through the weakest and least important instruments. That work is reserved for the Son of Man Himself.
Another writer says the silencing goes further than stopping critics, and shows why such praise must come first:
So the enemy is silenced by more than the praise of babies and infants... He Himself will "strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall kill the wicked" (see Isaiah 11:4). But for this He will establish praise out of the mouth of babies and infants — that is, I have no doubt, of newly converted souls, humbled and brought down to feel the littleness and weakness this implies. So we see clearly why He must produce such praise before the kingdom can come: the heirs of it must be made ready.
One writer names the reason it must be weakness that sings:
The heavens above speak of His greatness without a word. But it is out of the mouths of babies and infants that He has established strength and perfected praise... It is weakness that can celebrate the strength of God, and He puts His strength to work only for weakness.
- Source. Strength and praise both come out of God — the infant mouth only proves the supply is not human.
- Gift. Grace makes the worshipper before it makes the song. The song brings self low and exalts the Lord alone.
- Reach. Children gave the praise the leaders withheld. By refusing it, the leaders took the place of the enemy in the verse.
- Guard. In the days of His rejection the Father saw to it that His Son's glory never went unwitnessed.
- Result. The Son of man Himself will still the enemy. First He establishes praise in the small and weak, and so makes the heirs of His kingdom ready.
When I see thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and stars, which thou hast established;
David is outdoors at night, looking up, and the sky sets off a chain of thought that runs through the rest of the psalm. The sky raises two questions: what these lights say about the God who made them, and what a creature as small as man is worth to Him.
David names only the lights that shine after dark. One writer takes the missing sun as deliberate:
Hebrews 2 quotes the wonderful Psalm 8. This Psalm is clearly a night Psalm. David says, "When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place." This is surely meant to teach a spiritual lesson. The sun is not mentioned. It was the night of Judaism; the day of Christianity had not arrived. The moon and stars told of light, and in the case of the moon, reflected light. So the types and prophecies told of the coming day. Their light was reflected. Faint as it was, they were the forerunner of the coming day.
Others read the same detail as speaking of the present, not Israel's past:
It is a night scene of Scripture, for the Psalmist does not see the sun shining, but the moon and the stars. And during this world's night the Christian can look up in faith and see the glory of God above the heavens in Jesus. Soon the night will pass, then the sun will shine.
Creation is one book, and Scripture is another. Each shows something the other does not:
The book of nature reveals God's fingers; the book of revelation His heart. The first tells us of His originality, design, forethought and unlimited power. The second reveals Himself — His heart, His love, His design in creating man, and His ways in blessing Him.
The same writer sets God's workmanship beside our own:
We marvel at God's fingers. We stand in silent awe at the wonders of creation. Man works hard to perfect his inventions, one slow step at a time. God created things that were perfect from the first moment of creation. Man corrects his mistakes. God makes none.
Studying the sky is not the same as reading it as David read it. One does not lead to the other:
It is a very solemn thing. The men who have learned most of God's wonders by searching the earth and the sky still stay ignorant of His glory as Creator, despite all the knowledge they have gained. They see the wonders of creation, but have not learned what David learned so long ago... Man does not find out God by searching. As we read in Hebrews 11:3, "By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God." Someone who knows nothing about the natural sciences, if taught by God through His word, holds God's secret about His handiwork. The most advanced student, if ignorant of God as revealed in Christ, knows nothing of it.
These lights press on the conscience because of the darkness around them:
Behold the moon; its light is dim in His holy presence. The sparkling stars are not clean in His sight. How much less is sinful man — a worm of the dust!... The light of the moon and stars is not so strong, yet the darkness around it makes it shine out all the more. This is true above all of the eastern skies over the dry lands beside the deserts. The moon and stars speak of God in a special way, and by contrast bring home to man his nothingness.
The sight of the night sky leads David straight to a question, and the New Testament answers it:
God has such marvellous things before Him as the moon and the stars. Why then does He give such a large place in His mind to man, and to the son of man? All Scripture bears witness to it: man has a place in the thoughts of God that even angels do not have, for all their greater glory and might. How do we explain this? What is the answer to the Psalmist's question? The Spirit of God gives us the answer in Hebrews 2:5-10. There He quotes the words of this psalm and applies them to Christ. He is the man who fills the mind of God; He is the ideal Son of man for whom all dominion is purposed.
- Night. No sun appears in the verse. Commentators differ: one reads it as the night before Christ came, another as the world's night now. Both take the dimmer lights as pointing to a coming day.
- Fingers. Creation shows God's design, forethought and power; it does not show His heart. For that you need His revelation of Himself.
- Faith. Searching the sky does not by itself find God. Someone taught by His word holds a secret of creation that the most advanced student can miss.
- Smallness. Set against the moon and stars, man feels his own nothingness — the very effect David's next line records.
- Answer. Hebrews 2 settles the question: the Son of Man fills God's mind, and God purposes all dominion for Him.
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
David looks up at the moon and stars, feels how small he is, and asks a question that the rest of the Bible answers. The question has two halves: man, and the son of man. Commentators agree that the second half points beyond David to Christ.
Man is one of the least of God's creatures. One writer puts the question in the psalmist's own voice:
When I think of all the might and the wisdom on display in the heavens, what am I? "What is man" — any man, great or small — "that You are mindful of him? or the son of man" — man in the abstract, the ideal man — "that You visit him?" We might well say that of man as the creature of God. In one sense, by certain measures, he is one of the least of God's creatures.
English hides a distinction the Hebrew makes plain. The first "man" and the "son of man" are not the same term:
What made the psalmist choose two distinct names for man? The English version does not make this distinction plain; but the Hebrew does. Adam means simply man — man as God created him out of the dust of the earth, man before the fall. He is the one "who is the figure of Him who was to come" (Rom. 5:14). Enosh means man as well, but man as frail, fallen, dying, passing away.
The change of word changes the answer. One writer weighs each name in turn:
He used a Hebrew word which has the sense of "frail man" or "mortal man." Well, what is he worth? Clearly he is worth nothing. What then shall we say of the Son of Man? Ah! now we have a very different story. Even in the psalm David changed the word for man, and wrote "the Son of Adam"; and this we know our Lord was, as seen in Luke 3:38. He is worth everything. Though He was once made a little lower than the angels, He is to be crowned with splendour and given complete rule, with all things under His feet.
Scripture puts this question on human lips more than once, and the spirit behind it changes each time. Of Job's version, one writer says it is spoken in a complaining, resentful mood — why does God not leave me alone? The other two are different again:
Then, in Psalm 8, "What is man," that God is going to make His own Son a man, and set Him over everything? … And here, in Psalm 144, it is, "What is man," that God should be so careful over this wicked people?
Where you look decides the answer you get:
The question brings out the littleness of man: the answer the greatness of Christ, the Son of Man. When David looks at the moon and the stars, he feels how small he is beside their vastness, and cries out, "What is man?" Look at man fallen, and he is very small. Look at man as God purposed him, set out in Christ, the Son of Man, and he is very great.
Where the ESV says God cares for man, older translations read that He visits him. One writer asks why man, and not the angels, holds that place in God's thoughts:
How is it that God takes knowledge of us, that He actually visits us? Why is it that the angels do not occupy a place in the thoughts and purposes of God such as man occupies? We ask again, Why? and we find the answer in the blessed Son of God, in Jesus… Man is lower than the angels in the order of creation, so Jesus has taken His place lower than they. And when we ask, Why did He take that place? — in the answer we read our salvation.
The psalm goes on to speak of all things under His feet — a rule the first man was given and threw away:
The Son of man there spoken of is not Adam, but Christ. The divine purpose is there declared to set Him over all the works of God's hand. The first man had this grant of power from God (Gen. 1:26-28), but failed to act for His glory. He sold himself into the hand of the enemy, and became his tool and slave. In God's own time the Second Man will take up the government of the whole world. He will glorify God fully, and bring full blessing to everyone under His rule.
- Question. Under the stars, David asks what a frail, dying creature is worth. By any ordinary measure, nothing.
- Word. David uses two Hebrew words: Enosh, man as frail and passing away, and Adam, man as God made him — a figure of the One who was to come.
- Answer. The question shows the littleness of man; the answer shows the greatness of Christ. Look at man fallen, and he is small. Look at man in God's purpose, seen in Christ, and he is very great.
- Visit. God does not watch man from a distance. Jesus took a place lower than the angels, and in the reason why, we read our salvation.
- Crown. The rule the first man threw away passes to the Second Man. He is to be crowned with splendour, with all things under His feet, and full blessing for everyone He governs.
Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and splendour.
The verse turns from the vastness of the night sky to a single question about man's worth, and answers it with a crown. But the New Testament points to one particular Man as the one crowned here. That changes how we read every word.
The psalm asks who man is that God should think of him. It then describes someone raised to rule over everything. Writers ask who that description is really about.
The title used in the previous line is part of the evidence. It also widens the horizon well beyond one nation.
Its opening sentence, "O Lord our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth!" gives the key to its meaning. This is no longer a question of Israel or of the Messiah. The whole earth is in view, and God puts all things under the feet of the SON OF MAN. Since Adam was not the Son of Man, it would be plain, even if we had no further light on the subject, that someone greater than Adam is set before us here.
The Hebrew word behind "angels" is Elohim. That is why some translations read "a little lower than God," and the ESV reads "heavenly beings." One writer weighs the options, leaning on the Septuagint — the early Greek version of the Old Testament — and then shows what the ranking means.
The Revised Version (following the Geneva Bible of 1560) translates Ps. 8:5 "a little lower than God." But "Elohim" (or "God") is often used for "gods," or "mighty ones," and here, as in Ps. 97:7, it clearly means angels. The Septuagint translates it that way, and Heb. 2:7 confirms it… Angels have no Redeemer… We learn from this that angels stand on a higher scale than man, but He passed them by twice. He passed them coming down, when He was made a little lower than the angels; and He passed them again going up.
The psalm sets the lowering and the crowning side by side. Hebrews explains the link between them.
He was made a little lower than the angels so that He could suffer death, and He is crowned with glory and honour. He has suffered death, and He is crowned as the reward for His work. In that work He fully glorified God in the very place where God had been dishonoured, and He saved man — those who believe in Him — where man was lost.
The first man really was given this place. One writer asks what is left of it now.
God put everything under man's hand. Man was the head of God's creation, according to His purpose. But if that was true at creation, we are reminded again that the fall has come in. The sceptre man should have held over all creation has dropped from his hand… He can confess that he is lower than the angels. But when it comes to being crowned with glory and honor over the works of God's hands, if he is honest he has to admit that such lordship is in name only, and is partial.
The picture of rule in the psalm looks earthly. One writer says the gift reaches much further than that.
The first man could not keep the gift of dominion, because he himself became the defeated slave of sin and death. That gift has passed, with a heavenly addition, into the hands of the second Man. In general the language of Psalm 8 describes the rule given in paradise, but it reaches much further than that… God's gift to Him takes in things in heaven as well as things on earth.
Nothing in the world today looks like this verse fulfilled. Writers answer that one half of it is already true, and that half secures the rest.
According to Hebrews 2:6, the prophecy is not yet fulfilled. But in the partial fulfilment of what is still to come, the church holds the pledge of its final completion. Not all things are under Jesus yet. Meanwhile Jesus is already crowned with glory and honour — certain proof that what remains will be fulfilled at the right time.
- Down — He was made lower than the angels for one purpose: to suffer death.
- Crowned — The glory and honour are His reward for that finished work.
- Lost — At the fall this rule slipped from the first man's hand. What he still holds is partial, and in name only.
- Wider — The rule regained reaches things in heaven as well as things on earth.
- Pledge — We do not yet see all things under Him. We do see Him crowned, and that is certain proof of the rest.
Thou hast made him to rule over the works of thy hands; thou hast put everything under his feet
This line hands the whole created world over to one man. Commentators ask two things about it: which man is meant, and why the world does not look like this yet.
The psalm's opening words widen the scene beyond Israel, and the title used is decisive.
This brings us to Psalm 8 — a very important one in the ways of God. Its opening sentence gives the key to its meaning: "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" This is no longer a question of Israel or of the Messiah. The whole earth is in view, and God puts all things under the feet of the SON OF MAN. Adam was not the Son of Man. So even with no further light on the subject, it is plain that someone greater than Adam is set out here.
God gave the first man this same rule, and he lost it.
The Son of man spoken of in Psalm 8 is not Adam, but Christ. God's purpose declared there is to set Him over all the works of His hand. The first man had this grant of power from God (Gen. 1:26-28), but failed to act for His glory. He sold himself into the hand of the enemy, and became his tool and slave. In God's own time the Second Man will take up the government of the whole world. He will give God perfect glory, and bring full blessing to all under His rule.
The inheritance He receives is not a clean one.
The Lord takes this title for Himself according to that psalm, after His rejection as King in Zion (Psalm 2), and He takes it in resurrection. He takes the headship and inheritance, with its load of sin and guilt on it; and He inherits it not only as His by right, but by redemption also. He takes it as the Redeemer-Heir.
The world around us does not look ruled by Christ. Commentators answer that His title is already in place.
He humbled Himself as no one else ever could, and He is crowned with glory and honour above all. The crown is given now, but we do not yet see all things put under Him. But unseen by man, He already holds this supremacy in place and title, according to Psalm 8:6 (7). The New Testament refers to that verse three times. His supremacy is so universal that only one is excepted: He who subjected all things to Him. God left nothing outside Christ's rule, as His actual seat on the throne of God, the Father's throne, shows.
How far does "all things" reach? Not every passage covers the same ground.
In Psalm 8, the things put under His feet do not appear to go wider than rule over the whole earth, whatever might have been in the mind of the Spirit… But in the letter to the Ephesians the circle clearly widens to include things in heaven as well as things on earth… His rule will have no limits. It will be as wide as the whole universe, for as Paul teaches, nothing is excepted except Him, God the Father, who put all things under Him (1 Cor. 15:27).
The wait has a purpose. God is bringing others in to share the rule.
Meanwhile, Scripture lets us know that God makes the church one with Him, as the body with its Head, sharing His exaltation over all things. This is why there is delay. As we all know, God is forming the body now, while Christ sits and waits in the heavens… For He will not reign alone. He, the Heir of all things, has joint-heirs. As Romans 8 says… "and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him."
The psalm opens with God's name being majestic in all the earth. That is not yet what we see.
But the name of Jehovah has never yet become majestic in all the earth. Our psalm announces that it will be glorified everywhere here on earth. That will happen when Christ takes the government of the universe… We do not yet see this with our eyes. But by faith we do see Jesus already crowned, the witness and pledge of all the rest (Heb. 2).
- Lost. God first gave this rule over the works of His hands to Adam. Adam lost it by sin and became the enemy's slave.
- Won. The Son of Man in this psalm is Christ. He takes the same inheritance twice over: by right and by redemption, as Redeemer-Heir.
- Given. The title is already His, though we cannot see it. He is crowned now, and only one is excepted: the One who put all things under Him.
- Widened. In the psalm, "all things" reaches as far as the earth. Ephesians widens the circle to heaven as well.
- Shared, then shown. The wait is for the joint-heirs. When Christ takes the government, the psalm's opening line comes true across the whole earth.
Sheep and oxen, all of them, and also the beasts of the field;
Psalm 8 has just said that all things are under the feet of man. Now it starts to name them. It begins with the animals of daily life, the flocks and herds, then moves out to the wild creatures beyond the farm. The list raises two questions the psalm does not answer. Who is this man? And when does he take his place?
The list moves outward, from the animals man already handles to the ones he does not. One writer follows that order and shows how far today's world falls short of it.
The psalm names domesticated animals first — sheep and oxen — then "the beasts of the field," that is, wild animals. To these it adds birds of the air and all sea life. These will all be perfectly subject to the Lord Jesus in the age to come. They were subject to Adam before he sinned. But God did not tell Noah they were subject to him. He said instead, "The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea" (Gen. 9:2).
Fear is not the same as subjection. Adam had that place and lost it. Noah was never given it. The psalm still holds it out.
Two men stand behind this psalm. One writer names them both.
God gives the universal dominion over all His works to the man of His counsel, as we find in Ps. 8. So God gave the first Adam, the created man, a universal lordship over this scene, as it came from its Creator's hands. He forfeited it when he fell by sin.
Who receives it instead? Another writer points to the Second Adam, and to His sufferings.
God's purpose was not to establish the first Adam, who had failed, but the Second Adam as Head of creation — and that because of His sufferings. It is because He was made a little lower than the angels that God has made "Him to rule over the works of [His] hands."
On its own, the list looks small: a farmer's authority over livestock and game.
But "all things" reaches past the creatures named. One writer points to a rule no human king was ever given.
Of course, the further statement that all things are put under His feet involves far more than these creatures. All the earth was to come under His dominion, as well as the cattle, the birds, and the fish of the sea. Even when He came down to earth and men asked about paying the temple tax, He could command a fish and it obeyed Him. Daniel never said that the emperor Nebuchadnezzar was given dominion over the fish of the sea (Dan. 2:38)!
Hebrews 2 quotes this psalm and then admits the obvious: the world does not look like this. One writer follows how its author closes that gap.
He quotes the whole psalm, to put the matter beyond question. Then he says: "At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him." Anyone could see that, even the most casual observer. So how was the psalm to be fulfilled? He goes on to show: "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour." So Jesus is the Man, the Son of Man (which Adam was not), under whom all things will be put.
Does the delay put the promise in doubt?
All things are not yet put in subjection to Jesus. But in the meantime, Jesus is already crowned with glory and honour. That is certain proof that what remains will be fulfilled in due time.
If wild beasts come under Him, the animal world itself must change. One writer links this verse to Isaiah's picture of creation no longer at war with itself.
The ferocity of the wild beasts is restrained, and man's supremacy established. All nature is made subject to the Son of man — the Second Man… So "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat… and a little child shall lead them" (Isa. 11:6).
- Lost. God gave the first man lordship over every living creature, and he forfeited it by sin.
- Given. God hands it instead to the Second Adam, who receives it because He was made lower than the angels and suffered.
- Wider. Sheep, oxen and wild beasts are the starting point, not the limit. "All things" reaches far past the farm and the field.
- Waiting. We do not yet see this rule. We do see Jesus crowned, and that proves the rest will come.
- Restored. When it comes, the wild animal loses its ferocity, and a child can lead the creatures that now kill.
The fowl of the heavens, and the fishes of the sea, [whatever] passeth through the paths of the seas.
The verse ends a list — sheep, oxen, wild animals, birds, and now the creatures of the sea — that spells out what "all things under his feet" covers. Commentators ask whose feet these are, since the first man given this rule lost it.
The list echoes the charge given at creation. One writer traces that first grant through failure to recovery.
From the first, God made His intention plain: man should rule this whole lower creation. "Have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Gen. 1:28). These were God's words to Adam... He failed almost at once. The enemy deceived him. He betrayed himself, and the creation God had set him over, into the enemy's hands. Did that frustrate or set aside God's purpose to put the earth under man's rule? No. The eighth Psalm testifies of a "Son of man," who will inherit all the dominion first entrusted to Adam.
Mentioning sea creatures is not decoration. It rules out the two other candidates Scripture sets over creation.
If David had written simply of man, we might have supposed he meant Adam. But the words "the Son of Man" rule out our first parent. Adam was a man, yet he was not a son of man... Scripture speaks of only three heads — Adam, Nebuchadnezzar, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam had universal sway on earth. Nebuchadnezzar ruled only a limited sphere. God put men, birds, and beasts under him (Dan. 2:38), but he had no dominion over the waters and their creatures. So the mention of the fishes in the Psalm rules him out as the one David wrote about.
That reserved authority showed itself once in Jesus' life on earth, over a fish and a coin.
Notice, God did not give Nebuchadnezzar the fish of the sea. Why? Because the Man of Psalm 8 had not yet come, who had the power over the fish of the sea. You must go to the 17th chapter of Matthew for that, where Peter felt troubled and wanted money for the tax. The Lord said to him, "Go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel" (Matt. 17:27). It was only the Lord Jesus, the Son of Man, who had power over the fish of the sea.
Critics argue that a shepherd could not have written this phrase. One writer turns that around.
But what did David know about the fish of the sea? He was used to looking after sheep! That is how the critics talk. Rather they should ask, what does David's God know about them? Far more than the best of scientific scholars! He made them all. Long centuries ago He made David write those words, "the paths of the seas." Men have only just found out that fish have their paths in the seas, just as we have ours on the land!
The creatures named here mark the psalm's own horizon, but the New Testament widens the circle.
We must not suppose that the things put under the feet of the Son of Man cover the same extent in every scripture that mentions them. In Psalm 8, whatever the Spirit may have had in mind, they do not seem to go wider than dominion over the whole earth... But in the letter to the Ephesians the circle clearly widens to include things in heaven as well as things on earth... His rule will have no limit. It will be as wide as the whole universe. As Paul teaches, nothing is left out except God the Father Himself, who put all things under Him (1 Cor. 15:27).
Nothing in the world today looks like this. Hebrews faces that gap directly.
Who is this "Son of man"? And when will He exercise and enjoy this dominion? Hebrews 2 answers us: "It was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking... At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see Jesus... crowned with glory and honor." This dominion belongs to the age to come. The One who will exercise and enjoy it is the "Son of man," now crowned with glory and honor.
This rule reaches the animal world itself.
Again, the ferocity of the wild beasts is restrained, and man's supremacy established. To the Son of man — the Second Man — all nature is made subject... So "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat... and a little child shall lead them" (Isa. 11:6-8).
- Lost. God gave Adam rule over fish, birds and beasts. He failed, and dragged creation down with him.
- Regained. The psalm hands that same rule to a "Son of man." The mention of the fish rules out both Adam and Nebuchadnezzar, and leaves only Christ.
- Proved. He showed that reserved authority over the sea when a fish carried the coin Peter needed for the tax.
- Widened. The psalm's list stops at the earth. Ephesians and 1 Corinthians stretch the same "all things" to heaven and the whole universe.
- Awaited. We do not yet see it — we see Jesus crowned. When He reigns, wild ferocity is held back and the wolf lies down with the lamb.
Jehovah our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
Psalm 8 ends where it began, with the same cry about the name of the Lord filling the whole earth. Between the two lines stands the Son of Man, crowned and given dominion. So why does a psalm about man's place close by naming God alone?
The last verse repeats the first. What holds the two ends together is the bond that joins God with man.
In all this we are slow learners, but the general thought is plain. No wonder the psalm ends where it begins. The whole is clasped together by the bond that has joined God with man. That bond has made His name excellent in all the earth — and with a glory, too, set above the heavens!
The verse names God twice over. One writer ties both titles — Jehovah, and Adonai, Israel's Lord — to the Son of man.
Psalm 8 is the full result in Christ, shown as Son of man, to the glory of Jehovah, the Adonai of Israel. I have no doubt Christ is owned as such here. So the rule given to man over all things and Jehovah's rule in Israel are joined together. Yet it reaches far wider still, because both are established in the person of the Son of God.
Read as a description of today, the verse does not match what we see.
Today we would have to cry out instead: O Lord our Lord, how dishonoured is Your name in all the earth! There is a reason for this, and our short Psalm identifies the source of the mischief in one word — "man." Having done so, it passes on at once to dwell on the great Person who is going to make the name of the Lord excellent in all the earth — "the Son of Man."
Another writer puts it as a matter of timing, not doubt:
Psalm 8 is not accomplished yet… His name is dishonoured, and His word is questioned and despised. But soon this ancient word of the Spirit will be made good in all places of His dominion.
The psalm could have ended with a king ruling in Zion. It reaches further, and the last line shows how far — not one nation, but everything God's hand has made.
It is not now merely the people of the great King who are blessed. Wherever the children of men live, Jehovah's name, Israel's Lord, is great. Is it now a matter of setting the Christ on His holy hill of Zion? No, it is setting the Son of man, not merely over the children of men, but over everything His hand has created in all places of His dominion. He is set over all the works of His hand, and nothing is left out. There is one exception only: the One who put all things under Him.
Other rulers hold power while their subjects rebel, and in time their names are forgotten. Not so here.
It will not be with the Son of Man as it is with others. They may be raised to a place of authority, and still have those under them in constant rebellion, refusing to submit. The Son of Man will not only have dominion over all; all will be perfectly subject to Him… So when other names are forgotten, His Name will be excellent in all the earth.
Hebrews takes up this psalm and says plainly that the promise is not complete. What we already see is enough to guarantee the rest.
According to Hebrews 2:6, the prophecy is not yet accomplished. But the church already holds a partial accomplishment of what is still to come, and that is the pledge of its final completion. All things are not yet put in subjection to Jesus. In the meantime, Jesus is already crowned with glory and honour — certain proof that the rest will be fulfilled at the right time.
- Name. The psalm opens and closes on the same cry. Everything in between explains how that name becomes excellent in all the earth.
- Man. The psalm traces the trouble in the earth to one word — "man" — and answers it at once with another title, "the Son of Man."
- Subject. Other rulers face constant rebellion. Under the Son of Man, all will be perfectly subject to Him.
- Dominion. His rule is not limited to Zion or to people. It covers everything God's hand has made, with one exception: the One who put all things under Him.
- Pledge. We do not yet see all things under Him. But He is already crowned, and that is certain proof the psalm's last line will one day be plain fact.