USB ~ Psalms 8

8 | USCCB

Divine Majesty and Human Dignity

1 For the leader; “upon the gittith.”† A psalm of David.

2 O LORD, our Lord, how awesome is your name through all the earth! I will sing of your majesty above the heavens

3 with the mouths of babesa and infants.† You have established a bulwark† against your foes, to silence enemy and avenger.†

4 When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you set in place—

5 †What is man that you are mindful of him, b and a son of man that you care for him? c

6 Yet you have made him little less than a god,† crowned him with glory and honor.

7 You have given him rule over the works of your hands, d put all things at his feet:

8 All sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field,

9 The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatever swims the paths of the seas.

10 O LORD, our Lord, how awesome is your name through all the earth!

Footnotes

†. Psalm 8 While marvelling at the limitless grandeur of God (Ps 8:2-3), the psalmist is struck first by the smallness of human beings in creation (Ps 8:4-5), and then by the royal dignity and power that God has graciously bestowed upon them (Ps 8:6-9).

†. 8:1 Upon the gittith: probably the title of the melody to which the Psalm was to be sung or a musical instrument.

†. 8:3 With the mouths of babes and infants: the psalmist realizes that his attempts to praise such an awesome God are hopelessly inadequate and amount to little more than the sounds made by infants. Established a bulwark: an allusion to lost myth telling how God built a fortress for himself in the heavens in primordial times in his battle with the powers of chaos. This “bulwark” is the firmament. Enemy and avenger: probably cosmic enemies. The primeval powers of watery chaos are often personified in poetic texts (Ps 74:13-14; 89:11; Jb 9:13; 26:12-13; Is 51:9).

†. 8:5 Man…a son of man: the emphasis is on the fragility and mortality of human beings to whom God has given great dignity.

†. 8:6 Little less than a god: Hebrew ’elohim, the ordinary word for “God” or “the gods” or members of the heavenly court. The Greek version translated ’*elohim by “angel, messenger”; several ancient and modern versions so translate. The meaning seems to be that God created human beings almost at the level of the beings in the heavenly world. Heb 2:9, translating “for a little while,” finds the eminent fulfillment of this verse in Jesus Christ, who was humbled before being glorified, cf. also 1 Cor 15:27 where St. Paul applies to Christ the closing words of Ps 8:7.

8:3 Mt 21:16; Wis 10:21.
8:5 Ps 144:3; Jb 7:17.
8:5 Heb 2:6ff.
8:7ff Gn 1:26, 28; Wis 9:2; 1 Cor 15:27.