INTRODUCTION
Psalm 8 is one of the great psalms of praise and wonder: marveling at the greatness of God’s creation and the greatness of His mindfulness of man. But the center of that mindfulness is Jesus Christ who has been given the name above all names, who has silenced sin and death. Everything has been put beneath His feet, and He will reign until His name is confessed as the greatest name in all the earth.
The Text: “TO THE CHIEF MUSICIAN UPON GITTITH, A PSALM OF DAVID. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!…” (Ps. 8:1-9).
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
The “Gittith” is probably a musical instrument or tune and is probably related in some way to the winepress in Gath. Because of this, it has historically been associated with a harvest festival. The Psalm opens and closes with an exuberant doxology of praise to the majesty and excellence of the name of God in all the earth (Ps. 8:1, 9). Between those two bookends there are a number of parallels: children taming enemies (8:2) and all the beasts, birds, and fish being tamed (8:7-8). You have the heavenly works of God’s fingers (8:3) and the dominion over the works of God’s hands (8:6). And at the center of the Psalm, there is the awe-inspired questions: What is man? Why do you care for him? And God has even crowned him with glory and honor (8:4-5).
A PROPHECY OF CHRIST
We’ve said that the psalms are all generally the songs of Christ, but some of them are directly Messianic and specific prophecies of Christ. Psalm 8 is one of those Psalms. We know this because the New Testament tells us: Hebrews specifically insists that Psalm 8 is prophesying Christ who, even though we do not yet see all things put under Him, “was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor” (Heb. 2:8-9). Paul applies this Psalm to Jesus in 1 Cor. 15:27: “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet…” And again in Ephesians 1:21-22: speaking of the resurrection, it says that Christ has been seated at God’s right hand: “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And hath put all things under his feet…” Finally, Christ Himself appeals to this psalm when He clears the temple of the money changers and the children followed Him crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” When the chief priests and scribes objected, Jesus appealed to Psalm 8:2 and said it was talking about Him. We might add to all of this that it is the name of Jesus in particular that will be magnified in all the earth: every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil. 2:9-11).
This is a Psalm about the dominion of Jesus. He was born of a woman, and even His cries were the beginning of the defeat of all our enemies. He became a man, the son of man, and visited us in person because God remembered all His covenant promises. He was made a little lower than the angels in the incarnation in order to suffer and die for us. And He was raised from the dead and crowned with glory and honor, and all things have been put beneath His feet. All of creation belongs to Him: all nature, all kingdoms, all families, all nations, all people, all galaxies.
THE CHILD KINGDOM
There is a remarkable childlike theme throughout Scripture that began in the Garden of Eden. There is a childlike faith and curiosity and courage that God is determined to bless, and there is a devilish old fussiness that God is determined to destroy. Adam and Eve were meant to trust their Father, but they grasped for maturity and grew old and died. But God promised that the seed of the woman, a child, would crush the head of the seed of the serpent. And so the tension builds: Will Sarah have a son? Will Hannah conceive? And they do, and so does Ruth, and her great-grandson was a young shepherd boy who fought lions and bears and giants. But David was promised a son, who would be God’s own son, and Isaiah said that a virgin would conceive: unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given (Is. 7, 9). And a little child would come and tame the wolf to lie down with the lamb, and the leopard to lie down with the baby goat, and lions and calves would play together, and a nursing child would play with poisonous snakes (Is. 11:6-8).
Psalm 8 is about that Child King taming the enemies, the sons of the snake, the lions and giants that roar and taunt. And when John saw his vision of the incarnation, he saw the dragon hunting a woman giving birth to a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, “and her child was caught up unto God and to His throne” (Rev. 12:4-5). Jesus is the man child whose cries silence the enemy and the avenger. Jesus is the Child King caught up to God and His throne who rules all the nations.
APPLICATIONS: FAITH & WONDER
Hebrews says that faith does many different things: faith builds enormous ships, moves to strange lands and builds altars, conceives babies, offers impossible sacrifices, suffers afflictions, and sometimes faith goes to war and subdues kingdoms. It is trendy to overly spiritualize the obedience of faith on the one hand, and it is sometimes strongly tempting to overly carnalize the obedience of faith. Faith always wins, and sometimes it looks like winning and sometimes it doesn’t. Faith doesn’t look like the wisdom of carnal men, but faith really is wise. Faith obeys, works hard, studies hard, learns from mistakes, doesn’t give up, and faith wonders at the glory of it all.
Jesus says that what He is looking for is the faith of children. When His disciples asked Him who is the greatest in the Kingdom, Jesus set a little child in front of them and said, “verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 18:3-4). The apostles were the first little children of the Kingdom (Lk. 10:21), but there have been many generations since: missionaries, businessmen, scientists, statesmen, soldiers, mothers, teachers, pastors, artists, and musicians.
Child-like faith and wonder are essential to Christian dominion. This is not a call for sentimentalism or mysticism. We need men and women who are strong and confident and full of wisdom and courage, but we need an army that knows that their greatest power is found in the fact that they are children of God.