A Psalm to Read By Moonlight...Psalm 8

O Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
     Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
    to still the enemy and the avenger.

This Psalm is about the majesty of God and also the significance of man. In a very short Psalm, we are taken back to the very beginning of time when God created man in his own image and crowned him with glory and honor and gave him dominion over everything, and we are taken above the heavens and to the very end of time! God's majesty is everywhere! 

But look at verse 2 in this Psalm--at first glance it doesn't seem to fit. What is all this talk about foes and enemies and avengers doing in the middle of a Psalm about praise? As you read through the Psalms you will notice very quickly that the psalmists are always talking about enemies. And in spite of the fact that they were at war A LOT, the weapon they feared the worst was...slander. David talks about slander constantly because words can destroy people in ways that swords can't. So when we read in verse 2 "Out of the mouths of babies and infants you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger" it means that mere babies can silence God's enemies by simply praising God! 

Did you know that Jesus quoted this verse to the Pharisees on Palm Sunday? They were all bent out of shape because the people were praising Jesus and they came to Jesus and told him to make them stop. Jesus quoted this verse to them, but he left out the last line: "to still the enemy and the avenger." But they knew he was talking about them, and that he was referring to them as God's enemies. 

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
 what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?

Do you see why you need to be reading this by the light of the moon? You have to look up at the night sky to see how big this cosmos is and even then you can't see all of it. Then look at yourself and see how small you are by comparison. So you can see why David wonders why man is the crowning glory of creation when he looks so pathetic!

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings[b]
    and crowned him with glory and honor.
 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under his feet,
 all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

 O Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Adam and Eve were made a little lower than heavenly beings and were crowned like a king and queen and they were given dominion over all the rest of creation. Well, I don't need to tell you how badly they blew it. But when the second Adam (Jesus) came, he did everything right. David knew this would happen and so he ends the Psalm just the way he started it: "O LORD our Lord how majestic is your name in  all the earth!" 

David understood that by sending a second "Adam" God was giving the first Adam (and all the rest of us) a measure of outrageous, scandalous grace! And he knew that someday, we will live on a new earth and we will be crowned with glory and honor and we will be given dominion over the new creation--only this time with no creepy serpent coming in to wreck it all. 

So next time you are outside at night, and you look up at the moon and stars, remember this Psalm and remember God's outrageous, scandalous grace. And let praise come out of your lips "to still the enemy and the avenger." 

O LORD our Lord How majestic is your name in all the earth!