Psalm 8:2

David begins by speaking to God directly, and he uses two names. The first, printed “LORD” in capitals, is Yᵉhôvâh, God’s personal covenant name, the name he made known to Moses when he said, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14). It speaks of the God who exists of himself, who is eternal, and who keeps faith with his promises. This is the name by which he bound himself to Israel.

The second, “Lord”, is ʼâdôwn, from a root meaning to rule. It is a word for a master, a sovereign or an owner. Put together, the two names say that the God who entered into covenant with his people is also the ruler of all creation and of every person in it.

The small word “our” matters as well. David calls the Lord of everything “our Lord”, so the God whose glory is above the heavens is the God his people may call their own. He is near to them and high over all at once, and the psalm will go on to marvel at exactly that.

In Scripture a name stands for the one who bears it. God’s name, shêm, is his revealed character: all that he has shown himself to be, his reputation, and the way he is known and experienced by his people. To praise his name is to praise God himself.

The word “excellent”, ʼaddîyr, comes from a root meaning wide or large, and it is used figuratively of what is powerful, majestic, glorious and noble. It describes greatness that overwhelms, and David uses it for the unmatched greatness of God. “How excellent” is an exclamation, the voice of someone filled with awe.

This greatness is on show “in all the earth”, open for anyone to see. The nations around Israel worshipped many gods and often tied a god to one land or to one part of nature. David’s God has one name that is great over the whole earth, and his glory reaches beyond the heavens themselves. As this hymn was sung in Israel’s worship, it taught God’s people that the LORD they worshipped is the God of every land, and the only one to be worshipped.

God’s “glory” here is hôwd, his splendour, grandeur and honour, the greatness that belongs to him. David says that God has set it “above the heavens”. The heavens are the vastest and most beautiful thing a person can look up at, and God’s glory is higher still. He is greater than all he has made, he is himself uncreated, and his authority is over all of it.

The rest of Scripture speaks the same way. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalm 19:1). Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, and heard the seraphim cry that the whole earth is full of his glory (Isaiah 6:1–3). In heaven the elders worship him with the words, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11).

This opening is the ground for the whole psalm. When David considers the heavens, the work of God’s fingers (Psalm 8:3), he marvels that so great a God should care for man at all, and should crown him with glory and honour and give him dominion over his works (Psalm 8:5–8). The higher God’s glory is set in verse 1, the more wonderful his care for people becomes.

In verse 2 David moves from the heavens to the smallest people on earth. “Babes and sucklings”, ʻôlêl and yânaq, are infants and children still at the breast. In David’s day they were the picture of complete weakness and dependence, with no power, influence or standing, and nobody looked to them for strength. Yet this is where God has placed it.

The verb “ordained”, yâçad, means to set, to found or to establish, and God is the one who does it: “hast thou ordained”. The word for strength, ‘ôz, means strength or might, and it can also mean a stronghold. It is often used of God’s own power. The “mouth”, peh, is the mouth a person speaks and eats with, and the word often stands for speech itself. So the strength comes out of what these little ones utter, and God is the one who sets it there.

This is God’s way throughout Scripture. Paul writes that “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty”, so that no flesh should glory in his presence (1 Corinthians 1:27–29). Jesus rejoiced that his Father had hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes (Luke 10:21). God’s power shows most plainly where human strength is least, so that the glory is plainly his.

God founds this strength “because of thine enemies”. The phrase “because of”, lĕma‘an, gives the reason: it is on account of his foes that he acts. The word for enemies, tsârar, describes those who oppose God and his people.

The verse then gives the goal: “that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.” The enemy, ʼôyêb, is anyone hostile, and the avenger, nâqam, is the one who takes revenge, bent on harm and retribution against God’s people. To “still” them is shâbath, to cease, desist or rest, and with God as the one acting it means to make them cease. God brings their hostility to an end, and their boasts, accusations and schemes stop.

These enemies include the human foes of God’s people: oppressive nations, persecutors, and all who mock his ways and his servants. In the light of the New Testament they include the spiritual forces of evil as well, and Satan above all, whose name means “adversary” and who accuses God’s people. Scripture shows that enemy’s end, when the devil is cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10). The God of verse 1 is great enough to silence every foe, and in verse 2 he chooses to do it through the mouths of children.

Jesus quoted this verse himself. When children in the temple cried “Hosanna” to him, the chief priests and scribes were indignant, and Jesus answered them with the words of this psalm (Matthew 21:15–16). The children’s praise was the strength God had founded, and the men who set themselves against Jesus that day stood where the psalm’s enemies stand. The scene shows the verse at work: the weakest voices in the temple were the ones who praised God’s Son, and their praise was God’s answer to those who opposed him.

The New Testament carries both verses to Christ. All things were created by him and for him, and he is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15–17). He is “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3), so the glory David praised is seen most fully in him. God has given him “a name which is above every name”, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow (Philippians 2:9–11). After his resurrection he was exalted to the right hand of God and made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:33–36). The glory God set above the heavens is the glory into which the risen Christ ascended, and from there he reigns as Lord of all.

He fulfils verse 2 as well. He “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7). He came as a helpless infant laid in a manger, and he died on a cross, which in the world’s eyes was the very picture of weakness and defeat. Through that weakness God won his greatest victory, over sin, death and the devil. Paul says that Christ spoiled principalities and powers and made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them (Colossians 2:15). In him God has stilled the enemy and the avenger.

These two verses give us God’s greatness and his gentleness together. His name is excellent in all the earth and his glory is above the heavens, and this same Lord is “our Lord”, near to his people. He founds strength in the mouths of infants, so the smallest praise offered to him has his own strength behind it. When his enemies rage, he is able to bring them to a stop, and he has done it in Christ, who became weak for our sake.

Our own smallness is the place where he is pleased to show his power, and our praise, however weak, joins the cry that opens this psalm: “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”