“…who [Jesus, God the Son], being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:6-11.
“For by Him [Jesus Christ] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist [are held together].” Colossians 1:16-17.
Preamble to Psalm 8:
“To the Chief Musician. On the instrument of Gath. A Psalm of David.”
It is unknown what this instrument of Gath is, and the only thing that might be gathered here is that it must have had a unique sound which fit the meter of this psalm.
Gath (location uncertain today), by the way was in the land of the Philistines and was the home of Goliath and other giants.
“O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, You who set Your glory above the heavens!” Psalm 8:1.
The first phrase of this psalm has some of the saddest words in Scripture. It is not that they are not true; it is that man and his god the god of this world Satan have throughout history slandered, defiled, mocked, and eventually crucified the Creator of everything.
And everything created includes the angel Lucifer who became Satan who now wants to supplant God on this earth, and receive the worship for himself, which God alone rightfully deserves.
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!” Isaiah 14:12.
This created being, a fallen angel, while far greater in intellect than any of us, is incompetent to run the cosmos even remotely as well as the omnipotent God.
“…You who set Your glory above the heavens!” Psalm 8:1b.
God the omniscient One rules from a throne set above the seemingly limitless heavens, with its billions of galaxies composed of countless billions of stars which dwarf our own sun, in fact many of them dwarf our solar system.
Seething energy held together by gravity which God also created, and which runs in its circuits with the precision of a Swiss watch, in fact the precision of an atomic clock, set by those very stars.
Here is the ruler of all creation including what is called nature, seated above all things, yet in His omnipresence, He is here among us, concerned with every aspect of our lives.
“The Lord is high above all nations, and His glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth? He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes – with the princes of His people. He grants the barren woman a home, like a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord!” Psalm 113:4-9.
Consider the sentence in the above psalm for a moment. “Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth?”
The Most High God humbles Himself; what king, prince, president, or senator or congressman will give the average person a little of their time, or even any of their time?
Yet, the Most High God will pick up the phone anytime you call, and He will listen, for hours if need be, to us as we babble on about anything from our needs, to our complaints against Him!
God humbled Himself more still when He came to earth in the form of a man and allowed His own creation to abuse and manhandle Him, even to the point of crucifying Him; even then it was for our sake, for our salvation, to anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord.
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:5-8.
Psalm 8 is what is called a Messianic Psalm, it is quoted in various places in the New Testament, and is, as we will find, all about Jesus.
“Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger.” Psalm 8:2.
Great and powerful men rejected Christ, while the infants and babes glorified Him. It is the small things that God uses to bring praise to Himself.
The Apostle Paul, who had healed many people, had an infirmity of his own (some think his eyes) which he asked God to heal on three occasions.
“Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Corinthians 12:8-9.
“For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.” 1Corinthians 1:26-29.
“But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ they were indignant and said to Him, ‘Do You hear what these are saying?’ and Jesus said to them, ‘Yes. Have you never read, “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise”?’” Matthew 21:15-16.
The verse mentioned by Jesus in Psalm 8:2 means that the infants and babes would praise God. By accepting this praise Jesus was affirming to the priests and scribes that He was God, which is also the meaning of the title Son of David who would be the Messiah.
The Old Testament word Messiah is translated as Christ in the New Testament, so Jesus Messiah means the same thing as Jesus Christ, Jesus the King.
These wise men/theologians; men who should have acknowledged Jesus as their Messiah would not do so, so God had the children do it.
The meaning of the word Hosanna is unclear, in the Old Testament it was either, “save us” or “save we pray”. In the New Testament it is used to mean “bestow blessing”. It is possible then that the children in the temple may have cried out, “Bestow blessing on the Son of David!”
Another expositor wrote hosanna; “save us” can be translated as “be propitious” which means to show favor. If such is the case then he translates the children’s cry, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” into modern language as, “Be propitious (show favor) to the Messiah!”
The impact of this short sentence, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” cannot be overstated. This occurs after the triumphal entry of Christ the King into Jerusalem, and is during the last week before He is crucified.
This is one of the last warnings to the religious leaders that they are about to murder the Christ bringing wrath upon themselves and the nation.
Let us take one last look at the verses in Matthew 21 to pull this scene in the temple into proper focus.
“But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! [Show favor to the Messiah!]’ they were indignant and said to Him, ‘Do You hear what these are saying?’ and Jesus said to them, ‘Yes. Have you never read, “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise [Psalm 8:2a]”?’” Matthew 21:15-16.
The second half of Psalm 8:2 describes the reason for the testimony of the infants and babes.
“…because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger.” Psalm 8:2b.
The enemy here has been described as Satan, the adversary, and he was certainly working through the religious leaders in the temple as they tried to deny the many signs from God verifying Jesus as their Messiah.
Satan is the one who is always behind godless men egging them on, whether they are religious or just God haters.
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind [a mind that does not work], to do those things which are not fitting…” Romans 1:28.
“…[they became] backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful…” Romans 1:30-31.
Read all of Romans 1:18-32 for context.
Here is something the Christian must bear in mind, Satan never sleeps and his followers cannot sleep unless they are causing misery somewhere on earth.
The Christian must never fall asleep with the thought that Satan is on the run from them.
“An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes, when he finds out his iniquity and when he hates. The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. He devises wickedness on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not abhor evil.” Psalm 36:1-4.
“Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn away from it and pass on. For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.” Proverbs 4:14-17.
“…that You may silence the enemy and the avenger” Psalm 8:2b, the enemy is easily understood, but what is the meaning of the avenger? How can someone avenge themselves against God?
Again, if we look at the passage of the children crying out in the temple we can see who would avenge themselves against Jesus Christ who was continually working signs and saying things which were against the teachings of the priests, scribes, Pharisees, and others.
An avenger has been defined as one who wants revenge, and has a quarrelsome, argumentative disposition, endlessly bringing up sham or trivial arguments against God and His government.
We certainly see this in the attitude of the religious leaders of the day as they continually accused Christ of one thing or another.
We have the avenger today too; they are called atheists, liberals, and liberal theologians.
These folks make ridiculous arguments over crosses on hilltops, the use of the word God or Jesus in schools, or government buildings. These are one with those who crucified Jesus; they would do the same today.
Atheists fall into two categories, the first group being those who have been taught all their lives that there is no God. However, with these it is possible that they may listen to the evidence given to them by Christians attempting to turn them to Christ.
The second group is the rabid card carrying atheists who fall into a foaming writhing pile on the ground every time God is brought up in a discussion. The reason these people are the way they are is that at some time in their lives God did not do what they wanted, embittering them.
While this appears to be a flippant attitude, it is not meant to be taken that way because many good God fearing Christians have endured hardships as bad as the atheist and often worse and still chose Jesus Christ.
People like this hate God; this is not a matter of not believing in God’s existence, so no amount of well thought out argumentation or the show of infallible proofs will change the mind of the hard-core atheist.
Any discussion with this sort of person should be done with a lot of prayer beforehand, a loving attitude, and the use of a great deal of Scripture, because it is God’s word that has the power to touch the heart, not we ourselves.
This hatred for God and those who are His is shared by or agreed upon by the liberal, and the liberal theologians. It is important for the Christian to take these folks seriously.
They are not exercising their rights when they say schools should not have Bibles in them, crosses should be taken down, or the Ten Commandments cannot be posted in public buildings.
They are denying the rights of others and exercising their bigotry, the very thing they accuse Christians of.
“These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption [depravity]; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage [slavery].” 2 Peter 2:17-19.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Psalm 8:1-2, Above the Heavens taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 4-29-15, updated on 5-16-23.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.