Psalm 8

[TrevorL]

Greetings ayin jade,

11 hours ago, ayin jade said:

The occasion on which the psalm was composed is not known.

This Psalm is referenced several times in the New Testament.

I have had an interest in Psalm 8 for a number of years, and hope to add a few brief additional comments to your fairly thorough coverage. My suggestion is that Psalm 8 has the background of the defeat of Goliath by David. This is based on the view of JW Thirtle that the titles of the Psalms are actually the sub-titles, and the title Muth-labben can be understood as the death of the champion. You have referenced the principle quotations of Psalm 8 in the NT. Another important allusion / quotation is Matthew 11:25-27. This has a bearing on how we understand Psalm 8, and this is compared with your comment below.

 

11 hours ago, ayin jade said:

Psa 8:1  O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

O Lord – Hebrew, יהוה  Yahweh. It is an address to God by his chosen and special title.

Our Lord – The word used here - אדני  'âdônay - means properly master, lord, ruler, owner, and is such a title as is given to an owner of land or of slaves, to kings, or to rulers, and is applied to God as being the ruler or governor of the universe. The meaning here is, that the psalmist acknowledged Yahweh to be the rightful ruler, king, or master of himself and of all others. He comes before him with the feeling that Yahweh is the universal ruler - the king and proprietor of all things.

How excellent is thy name – How excellent or exalted art thou - the name being often used to denote the person. The idea is,” How glorious art thou in thy manifested excellence or character.”

How excellent is thy name in all the earth! – How illustrious is the name of Jesus throughout the world! His incarnation, birth, humble and obscure life, preaching, miracles, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension, are celebrated through the whole world. His religion, the gifts and graces of his Spirit, his people - Christians - his Gospel and the preachers of it are everywhere spoken of. No name is so universal, no power and influence so generally felt, as those of the Savior of mankind. Amen.

Matthew 11:25-27 (KJV) ²⁵ At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. ²⁶ Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. ²⁷ All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

Jesus takes up the words of Psalm 8 and interprets and applies them to his position. Instead of addressing Yahweh, he addresses God as his Father, and calls God the Father “Lord of heaven and earth”. This in itself is a succinct summary of Psalm 8:1,3. It is interspersed with a similar allusion to Psalm 8:2, speaking of the babes and sucklings. Verse 27 above also takes up the expression “all things”, and this is also the subject of Psalm 8:6 where God the Father as a result of God the Father exalting the Son of Man that then God passes on to Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man the rulership, “putting all things under his feet”.

 

Kind regards

Trevor

 

[Kaceytoo]

Matthew Fontaine Maury, the father of oceanography became so because at one time, when Commodore Maury was very sick, he asked one of his daughters to get the Bible and read to him. She chose Psalm 8, the eighth verse of which speaks of "whatsoever walketh through the paths of the sea," he repeated "the paths of the sea, the paths of the sea, if God says the paths of the sea, they are there, and if I ever get out of this bed I will find them."

So he did.

[TrevorL]

Greetings again ayin jade,

To add to my previous post, the Psalm can be considered from David’s perspective and from Jesus’ perspective. David considers the creation and gives praise to the One God, Yahweh, God the Father. When Jesus considers the Psalm and considers the creation, he addresses Yahweh as His Father, calling Him Lord of heaven and earth, thus acknowledging the Father as the Creator, and gives thanks to God that an understanding of his preaching had been hid from the wise and prudent, but had been revealed to those of childlike disposition, such as his immediate disciples. Thus I suggest that although it is true that God’s work has been manifested in and through our Lord Jesus Christ, the praise to God in Psalm 8:1 is addressed by David and Jesus to Yahweh, God the Father.

 

Also to add to the suggestion that this Psalm was written to commemorate David’s victory over Goliath, David is also of childlike disposition as suggested in Psalm 8:2, and he was only a youth, but with God’s help was able to overcome the enemy. As a result of his victory over the chief representative of the Kingdoms of men, the way was open for David to establish the Kingdom of God, and God blessed him in the forthcoming years to fulfil that role, tentatively God put all things under David's feet. This was nevertheless only a shadow of the fullness of what was accomplished in Christ..

On ‎1‎/‎09‎/‎2017 at 9:42 AM, ayin jade said:

Psa 8:5  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels – It might be thought to refer to the creation of man in the image and likeness of God; but as it must be understood of the human nature of Christ. Though rather this clause refers to the humiliation of Christ in his human nature, as it is interpreted in Heb 2:9  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Than the angels –  The authority, however, of the Aramaic, the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, would seem sufficient to show that the meaning is that of angels.

 

I suggest that this phrase "made him a little lower than the angels" is a succinct summary of Genesis 1:26-27 where God the Father invited the angels to participate in the creation of man. This then is used as a framework to speak of the creation of Jesus, when Jesus was conceived and became the Son of God because God was His Father, and the Son of Man (Adam) through Mary Luke 1:35. As Mary's son he partook of human nature, and was thus subject to death as all other humans after Adam. Hebrews 2 uses the fact that he needed to be lower in nature than the angels so that he could suffer death, and through this death resulting in his resurrection and exaltation bring salvation. Hebrews 2 thus reveals all of these features by considering and expounding the terms of Psalm 8.

 

Kind regards

Trevor

Edited September 2, 2017 by TrevorL