Well, shalom, everyone, and welcome back to Torah Today Ministries and our series Tehillim Talks, which is a series of studies on the Psalms. Today we find ourselves in Psalm number eight. This short psalm is packed full of meaning.
It’s quoted twice that I found in the New Testament scriptures. And so there’s a lot this psalm has to say, and so let’s jump right in and see what insights we can draw from it.
Now, its attribution says this:
“To the choir master, according to the Gittit (גִּתִּית), a psalm of David.” (Psalm 8:1 – Hebrew numbering)
So what is a Gittit? No one knows for sure. Some think it’s a type of musical instrument. Maybe it’s a melody that this psalm was to be sung to. But we do know that the word Gittit comes from the Hebrew word gat (גַּת), which is an oil press or a wine press.
In fact, when Yeshua went to Gethsemane, which is from the words gat (גַּת) and shemen (שֶׁמֶן), which means the press for the shemen, the oil, he went there and he was being pressed spiritually. And out of his forehead came sweat drops of blood. So Gethsemane is an oil press, but a press, a gat, could also be a wine press. So Gittit refers to the wine pressing, what comes out of the wine press.
Now this makes perfect sense when we consider the previous Psalm, Psalm 7. I don’t know if David wrote Psalm 7 and Psalm 8 back to back, but Psalm 8 is the perfect follow up to 7 because in Psalm 7, David is really being squeezed. He was in pain, he was going through a terrible testing, a time of confusion, but when he gets to Psalm 8, it’s like what was inside now flows out.
And what’s inside the grape is worth more than what’s on the outside. For example, if you go to the grocery store, you buy a bunch of grapes, that’s one price. But if you buy grape juice, that’s a higher price. And then if you buy a bottle of wine, that’s a much higher price.
So what comes out of a man, we know can pollute him, but it’s what comes out of a man as well that is the highest part of a person. And sometimes God has to put us in pressure to bring out the things that are enduring and eternal. And I think Psalm 7 followed here by Psalm 8 makes a great example of this.
So verse one, it says:
“Adonai (יהוה), our Lord (Adoneinu/אֲדֹנֵינוּ), how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens.” (Psalm 8:1)
Maybe you’ve heard Hebrew songs that start Adonai, Adoneinu (יהוה אֲדֹנֵינוּ). This is the phrase, Yud Hei Vav Hei, our Lord, our Master.
“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?” (Psalm 8:3-4a)
You may say, wait a minute, Grant, you skipped a verse and you’re right, I did. I skipped verse two purposefully because verse one flows directly right into verse three. Verse two seems almost like an interruption of the thoughts.
What does verse two have to do with what comes before and what comes after? If verse two was not there, no one would say, you know, something seems to be missing.
What does verse two say? It says:
“Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger.” (Psalm 8:2)
So two questions, what does this verse even mean? Second of all, why did David stick it here between verses one and two? One’s talking about God’s glory and the heavens, verse three goes on to continue to talk about God’s glory and His name above the heavens. Why is verse two here?
Well, we must remember that David wrote these Psalms under the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit. So these Psalms are not written according to man’s logic and reasoning, but according to God’s. And if man is writing something to praise God, we’re gonna talk about God’s greatness, His bigness, His majesty, and the heavens and the stars, and His handiwork, His creation, how awesome He is.
But in God’s economy, when we talk about the heavens, the stars, and the enormity of the universe, and what God’s created, so what does God say? Now wait a minute. You really wanna see something?
Look at the baby. Look at this little infant nursing on its mother’s breast. You can learn as much or more about me from that as you can from looking up at the stars.
But what is this part about out of the mouth of babies and infants, you’ve established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger? When we think about trying to conquer enemies, whether they’re physical enemies and warfare or spiritual enemies, we want to look for something big, something overpowering, something overwhelming that we can use to fight them off. But God says, that’s man’s way.
I use small things. I use little things. I can use a baby to overthrow kingdoms.
In fact, he did this twice that I know of. In ancient Egypt, a woman took her infant son, put him in a basket and let him go down the Nile River. And God sailed that basket right on into Pharaoh’s palace and used that baby to bring the greatest kingdom on earth at the time to its knees.
And then a couple thousand years later, God gave a virgin a baby. And once again, the king of the time is trying to kill all the babies, because he so fears this one child. And yet again, he uses this baby’s parents to take this baby to Egypt.
And this baby becomes the man Messiah, Yeshua, who brings the kingdom of the enemy to its knees. God uses little things, things that the world says are insignificant, to accomplish mighty things in the world.
And it says, because of your foes. Now, we have seen this word foes before. In fact, I think we first encountered it back in chapter 3, Psalm 3, verse 1.
And it’s the word zarar (צָרַר). And David talks about the tzarai (צָרָי). Zarar means to compress, to crush, to really feel closed in.
In fact, it’s the root of the word Mitzrayim (מִצְרַיִם), which is the word for Egypt in the Hebrew Bible. Because Mitzrayim is a place of constriction, a place of crushing.
And he says, because of your foes, your zarar, and to still, then we get an avenger. The word for still there is the word shavat (שָׁבַת), from which we get the word Shabbat, Sabbath, to rest, to cease.
So God uses little things, he uses infants, he can use a baby, to conquer the enemies and to bring the work of the avenger to a halt.
And these two words, the enemy and avenger, I find interesting because we find them as a pair. The enemy and the avenger. And Rabbi Hirsch says that enmity and vengeance are the two things that make everybody against everybody else.
When you look at the world, the world is filled with enmity and vengeance. And everybody seems to be against everybody, whether it’s politically or internationally or even in your own neighborhood. And yet God wants to use a child to perfect strength and to bring all of that to a Shabbat rest. It’s an amazing verse.
But I find it so fascinating that it’s tucked in right here between verses one and three. A place you would never dream of putting it. And yet once again, we look at the vastness of space and we stand in awe and God says, you really want to see my heart?
Look at the baby. That’s a miracle. That’s me.
And I want to make you as innocent and as pure as that child so you can come into my kingdom. And if you want to hear pure praise, if you want to meet a sinless individual, if you want to meet someone who’s absolutely pure, who basically is already a citizen of the kingdom without ever having sinned, look at a baby.
And the babbling sound of a baby, its laughter, its cooing, that is perfect speech. Can I understand what he’s saying? No. But I can understand what he’s expressing.
Contentment and joy. Just the thrill of being alive. And to God, that is praise.
Yeah, I know the baby cries and whines sometimes because of pain and discomfort. And that’s part of being in this fallen world. But don’t ever underestimate the power of small things.
And that is one of the themes we’ll see throughout Psalms and throughout the Word of God. So anyways, we do need to move on.
So let’s go on to verses 3 and 4 where David continues his discussion in praise of God concerning the heavens. He says:
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is Enosh (אֱנוֹשׁ) that you are mindful of him and the son of Adam (בֶּן־אָדָם) that you appoint him an earthly authority?” (Psalm 8:3-4)
Now I gave you the Hebrew words behind the words man and man. Most English translations simply say what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man, but in Hebrew there are two different words.
The first word we find there is what is man that you are mindful of him. This is the word Enosh (אֱנוֹשׁ). Now if you recall, Enosh is also the name of a man.
It is Adam’s grandson. Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. You know what happened there. Cain murdered his brother Abel. So Eve gave birth to another son. His name was Seth.
And then Seth became the father of Enosh. And Enosh is a word that refers to frailty or incurability. We find this word several times in the scriptures.
One of them is in Job chapter 34 verse 6, where it says:
“In spite of my right, I am counted a liar. My wound is enosh (אָנוּשׁ).” (Job 34:6)
Incurable is how it’s translated. And we find it also in Isaiah. We find it in Micah. It refers to man in his frailty, in his incurability, even though Job was cured by God, and we too shall be cured by God. But it refers to a state of being that’s very broken.
But then it says, And the ben Adam (בֶּן־אָדָם), the son of man, that you appoint him an earthly authority. Now, of course, the word Adam (אָדָם), Adam is also a person’s name.
This is Enosh’s grandfather, the Adam of Adam and Eve fame. And Adam was created perfect and strong, the perfect image of God, his creator.
And so these two words are employed because both of these words are reflected in us. Because on the one hand, I am a son of Adam, and I am to bear God’s image. And as Messiah works in me, hopefully God’s image is going to become more clarified. And as I decrease and as he increases, people will see more of him and less of me.
But on the other hand, I’m aging and I’m broken. I have errors in my life. I have things I need to work on. I make mistakes all the time. On the other hand, I’m an Enosh. And so we carry these two men in tension in our lives. We’re an Enosh for it to be a son of Adam as well.
Now here’s something that is quite fascinating. When David used the term Ben Adam, son of Adam, son of man, he was simply referring to a descendant of Adam.
But then hundreds of years later, we come to the story of Daniel. And Daniel in his book in Daniel 7, he’s given a vision. And he talks about seeing the ancient of days enthroned.
And then one like the Ben Adam, the son of man coming to him, and this son of man being given a kingdom and so on. It’s an amazing story. And so when you come across the term son of man, any place after Daniel, you need to think of Daniel chapter 7.
Daniel chapter 7. And so the men, Paul for example in 1 Corinthians 15, and the writer of Hebrews later on, when they read Psalm 8, and they read about David referring to the son of man that you appoint him in earthly authority, they’re not only thinking of mankind as you and me, but they’re thinking of this new title for the Messiah, the son of man. And they read the Psalm in light of who Messiah is.
Do you see how that works? So David writes about a human being, a child of Adam, then Daniel is given a vision about the son of man, the Messiah and how he will rule the world. And then, so later, the writers of scripture looked back to Psalm 8, what David had read, and read it in the light of Daniel 7.
Because after all, the word of God, though it is given to us over a period of time, the word of God from Genesis to Revelation all existed in God’s mind at one point. So the things in Revelation were in his mind when he inspired Moses to write Genesis. And so the word is timeless in that way, though it was given to us over a series of time, of moments in time.
So if we look at a couple of the passages, I want us to look at these. Hebrews 2, verses 6 to 9. It says:
“It has been testified somewhere, What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” (Hebrews 2:6-8a)
That’s the end of the quote. And he’s quoted part of Psalm 8 that we haven’t gotten to yet. But then look what he says:
“Now when putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control.” (Hebrews 2:8b)
And what the writer’s talking about here is not you and me, just regular human beings. He’s talking about the son of man, Yeshua. He’s taking Psalm 8 and applying it to the Messiah.
He left nothing outside his control.
“At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Yeshua, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:8c-9)
And then Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 27 and 28, gets more specific. Again, he starts by quoting Psalm 8:
“For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he, Messiah, is excepted, who put all things in subjection under him, the father. When all things are subjected to him, then the son himself will also be subjected to him, who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:27-28)
Complicated passage, but I wanted to point it out so you can then wrestle with that yourself and see what insights you draw from that. And I suggest you read the entire context of the passage in Hebrews and in 1 Corinthians 15.
Well, let’s move on. Verses five through eight.
“Yet you have made him a little lower than the Elohim (אֱלֹהִים).” (Psalm 8:5a)
Now, that is the word used in Hebrew. The writer of Hebrews, though, that we just read, translates the word Elohim as angels.
Now, this word Elohim is problematic, and we need to be very careful how we interpret it. Here is the word in Hebrew, Elohim (אֱלֹהִים), and here are the things that it means:
What does this word really mean? That it can be translated all these ways and translated all these ways accurately. What does this word Elohim really mean? It seems to have as its source spiritual authority and power. Spiritual authority and power.
Thus, we can see God appointed judges as having spiritual authority and power. It can just refer to power, spiritual powers. Angels are God’s messengers and they are his workers in this world and they are imbued with his power.
And then pagan gods which have no power are mockingly, I think, called Elohim because the pagans see them as having power. But we do know that in Daniel as well, as he was praying, an angel of God came to him and he says, I was delayed in coming to you because of the angel of one of these other countries, one of these powers, one of these spiritual enemies.
And Paul writes about how we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but we wrestle against principalities and powers. And so these are spiritual powers, but they’re not healthy, righteous spiritual powers.
And of course, what is the greatest? Who is the greatest of all powers? The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the one from whom all power comes, and that is God himself.
So whenever we encounter the word Elohim, we need to consider this range of possible meanings. Most of the time, you will be safe just translating it as God. But don’t be tripped up when you find it referring to one of these other things.
Yeshua even used this play on words and the ambiguity of this word Elohim. When he was arguing with the Pharisees, and he says, doesn’t it say in the Scriptures, you are all Elohim, referring to people? So you can look that up and take a closer look at that in your own.
But let’s get back to our passage:
“For you have made him, that means the human being, a little lower than the Elohim (אֱלֹהִים). And God also made the son of man, Yeshua, for a little while lower than the angels, lower than the Elohim. And you desire to crown him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over all the works of your hands.”(Psalm 8:5-6)
And of course, in Genesis, in the first couple of chapters, we see God putting the authority of earth under Adam’s hands. He was in charge of the birds and the cattle and in charge of guarding and cultivating the garden. He gave him authority.
“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.” (Psalm 8:6-8)
And again, Genesis 1:26 reinforces this. This is what David basically is quoting.
Well, I want us to look at this word dominion. That word dominion is very interesting. It’s the word mashal (מָשַׁל).
And mashal is first found in the fourth day of creation, when it says that God made two lights. He made the greater light to mashal the day, and the lesser light, the moon, to mashal the night.
To mashal means to not just illuminate, but to be like the ruler of those things, the handler of those things.
And in fact, the Hebrew word for a proverb is also mashal (מָשָׁל). The book of Proverbs in Hebrew is called Mishlei (מִשְׁלֵי), because they are the Mishlei Shlomo, the Proverbs of Solomon. A proverb or a parable is a mashal.
Now, why is a proverb called a mashal? Well, the rabbis tell us that a mashal, a proverb, is like a handle on a bucket. Now, imagine you have a bucket of water, and you’re trying to carry this bucket of water without a handle.
So you wrap your arms around it, you start walking and you’re going and tripping and stumbling around and water sloshing everywhere, right? But what happens when you put a handle on that bucket? Now you can swing the bucket, you can walk around and you don’t lose a drop.
So a mashal, a proverb, allows us to take wisdom in the form of a proverb, and that proverb is like a handle on the bucket. That handle allows us to hold a bucket of truth, a bucket of wisdom, without spilling a drop.
This is why memorizing proverbs and the parables of Messiah are so important because there is so much wisdom and truth inside each of those buckets. And the handle is the story itself, the parable itself allows us to handle the contents of something without losing a drop.
So God put the sun to mashal the day and the moon to mashal the night so we could see the world and not miss what’s going on in the world. And the moon is a lesser light and some, you know, one day a month, there’s no light from the moon at all. And it’s not as consistent as the light of the sun, but nevertheless, the moon allows us to see things in the darkness.
So God has put man in a position to mashal the creation, to be in charge of it. There’s a derivative of this word mashal that is what Abraham refers to his servant, Eliezer, who he sent to find a bride for his son Isaac.
He was the mashel (מֹשֵׁל) of his house. He put everything in his charge. And you will find that reference over in Genesis 24:2:
“And Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his household, who was the mashel (מֹשֵׁל) of all that he had.” (Genesis 24:2)
So, God has made us the mashel of his creation. We are to be good stewards of it.
I’m not a tree hugger, but I do know that there is a balance between worshiping the creation and then neglecting and not being good stewards of the creation. There’s a balancing point. The creation was given to us to cultivate, to use, to make the most of, but we are not to abuse it, but we’re not to worship it either.
We’re to worship God and recognize that the created world is given to us as a gift. So, let’s use it, make the most of it, and also replenish it and take good care of it. There is a balancing point. There is a place of sanity in all of this.
So, the Psalm ends in verse 9 with a refrain that we saw right at the beginning of verse 1:
“Adonai (יהוה), our Lord (Adoneinu/אֲדֹנֵינוּ), how majestic [is] your name in all the earth.” (Psalm 8:9)
And I put the word “is” in brackets because the word, the verse could also be translated, Adonai, our Lord, how majestic will your name be.
Is it majestic in all the earth right now? Well, among those who know the Lord. But the day is coming when his knowledge, the knowledge of God will fill the earth like the waters cover the seas.
And his glory will fill the earth, but also people will be aware his glory in the earth. And in the world. But right now, it’s just in individuals who can see, like David did here in Psalm 8, could see God’s glory in the earth, that his name is in all the earth. His majesty fills the earth.
I hope that as we study the Psalms, our spiritual vision will sharpen and we will see God’s majesty throughout the earth, whether we’re looking at the heavens at night, or we’re looking at the trees and nature, or we’re looking at a child nursing at its mother’s breast. Because all of this, we see God at work.
What a great God we have.
So I thank God for Psalm 7 and the suffering David went through so that in that squeezing out could flow Psalm 8 and what a beautiful and delicious psalm this is. So allow God to use the suffering in your life that when you’re squeezed, out comes praise and not cursing.
Out comes joy and not complaint. Let us learn that in all situations, we are to give thanks. And if we express gratitude, we will be a happy people. We will see God everywhere.
So I hope this Psalm has been a blessing to you as much as it’s been to me. There’s so much packed in here that I feel like I’m kind of stumbling through it as we go through because there’s so much to say.
But I don’t want these teachings to be too long, so I guess I need to be quiet now. So until Psalm 9, I wish you shalom.
Links
To the choirmaster: according to the Gittit. A Psalm of David.
גת (gat) = “wine press”
גתית (gatit) = “wine pressing”
1 – Adonai, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens.
2 – Out of the mouth of babies and infants You have established strength because of Your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
צרר (tzarar) = “foes”
שבת (shavat) = “rest” / “cease”
3-4 – When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, 4 what is [frail] man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You appoint him [in earthly authority]?
5-8 – Yet you have made him a little lower than the elohim and [desire to] crown him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands. You have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
אלהים (elohim) = “God” / “gods” / “angels” / “powers” / “judges”
משל (mashal) = “to rule” [examples: Gen. 1:17-18 / 24:2]
9 – Adonai, our Lord, how majestic [is] Your name in all the earth!
REFERENCES:
Verse 1
Romans 1:18-20 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Verse 2
Matthew 21:15-16 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to Him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Yeshua said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise’?”
Verses 3-4
Job 34:6 In spite of my right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable [אנוש, enosh], though I am without transgression. (+ Is.17.11 / Micah 1.9)
אנוש [enosh] denotes a tainted class in mankind. It signifies that human being who does not think of himself as an אדם [adam], as a representative in the service of God on earth but who, instead, in false self-aggrandizement, sets himself up against God and the world. (R’ S.R. Hisrsch)
Genesis 2:15 Adonai God took the man [אדם, adam] and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Hebrews 2:6-9 It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that You are mindful of him, or the son of man, that You care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, He left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Yeshua, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
1 Corinthians 15:27-28 For “God has put all things in subjection under His feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that He is excepted who put all things in subjection under Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be all in all.
Verses 5-8
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man [אדם, adam] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Genesis 1:17-18 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule [משל, mashal] over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 24:2 And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who was steward [משל, mashal] of all that he had …