1 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordainedstrength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a littlelower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
World Behind This Chapter
Explore the people, places, language, history, and material world connected to Psalms 8.
QUESTIONS WORTH EXPLORING
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What does 'a little lower than the angels' translate?
SCHOLARLY DEBATE
Psalm 8:5 uses Hebrew ʾelohim, which can refer to God or divine beings. Ancient Greek and later translations render the phrase differently, making this a useful textual and translation question.
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What stands out about creation in Psalm 8?
Psalm 8 builds its movement around creation, heavenly majesty, human smallness, and royal vocation. Tracking repeated words, parallel lines, changes of speaker, and image clusters shows how the poem develops before assigning a later interpretation.
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What world does Psalm 8 ask the reader to picture?
The poem evokes heavens, earth, animals, and human domain. Those settings may be literal, remembered, ritual, or metaphorical; distinguishing those possibilities is part of reading Hebrew poetry carefully.
⌘Research PathsCurated links for exploring this chapter3
Scholarly overview of the image of God, including ancient Near Eastern royal ideology and humanity’s representative role. Useful for Psalm 8’s question about human status, glory, honor, and dominion over creation.
Bilingual Hebrew-English text for Psalm 8, including divine majesty, children’s praise, heavens, moon, stars, humanity, glory, honor, dominion, and creatures of land, air, and sea.
Shows how Psalm 8’s language about humanity, glory, dominion, creation, enemies, and praise connects with other biblical texts. Useful for tracing Psalm 8’s creation theology and later reuse.
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