The Majesty of God

Psalm 8 KJV 1900

To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David. 1 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 ordained strength 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 little lower 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!

Have you ever stood beneath a clear night sky, far away from the glow of city lights, and been overwhelmed by the vastness above you? The stars scattered like diamonds, the moon glowing in silent strength—it has a way of silencing us. There’s something deeply humbling about seeing how big the universe is… and how small we are.

David, the shepherd-king, likely penned Psalm 8 during such a moment—perhaps on a hillside, under the stars, with nothing but sheep around and silence above. But in that moment of quiet, his heart swelled with wonder. Not fear of the vastness, but awe of the One who made it. He didn’t just see stars; he saw signposts of God’s majesty.

And then, the deeper mystery hit him: Why would the God who crafted all this care about someone like me? “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?” (v.4)

Psalm 8 is a masterpiece of paradox:

It exalts the transcendence of God—His glory is above the heavens.

But it also celebrates the nearness of God—He is mindful of man.

Here lies the heartbeat of Christian worship: We are not merely spectators of God's greatness—we are invited participants in His care.

In a culture that often bases human worth on performance, appearance, or status, Psalm 8 boldly declares:

Your worth is not found in your resume, your reputation, or your reach.

Your worth is found in this: God thinks of you. God visits you. God entrusts you.

“This psalm is an unsurpassed example of what a hymn should be, celebrating as it does the glory and grace of God, rehearsing who He is and what He has done, and relating us and our world to Him; all with a masterly economy of words, and in a spirit of mingled joy and awe….

The range of thought takes us not only “above the heavens” (1) and back to the beginning (3, 6-8) but, as the New Testament points out, on to the very end.”

Psalm 8 reminds us that the most glorious truth in the universe is not just that God is majestic, but that this majestic God is mindful of you.

Let’s walk through this Psalm and discover three powerful aspects of God’s greatness-and how they shape our understanding of human worth and purpose.

I. The Praise of God’s Majesty (Psalm 8:1, 9)

“O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”

Our English translations sound redundant by repeating the word Lord in the opening line, “O LORD, our Lord.” When I learned this psalm as a boy, I assumed that this was a sort of pledge of allegiance, that David was making the point that God is “our Lord.” In fact, this is the first time in the psalms that David uses the plural and invites God’s people to join him. God is our ruler and king.

The two words for Lord are not the same in Hebrew, however. Most English Bibles translate God’s name Yahweh with the word Lord in capitals out of respect for God’s personal name. The second Lord is a different word in Hebrew, adonai, which means lord in the sense of a ruler, master, or king. If we sharpen our translation, David is speaking to God saying, “O Yahweh, our King, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

A. His Name is Excellent - (Vs. 1 a)

God’s name Yahweh is majestic throughout the earth. The name Yahweh probably means, “I am who I am” or “I will be who I will be.” The significance of this name is that God exists in and of himself. Yahweh created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 2:4). By his own will and power, he existed before the universe came into being. He is the uncreated Creator, the self-existing one, and he is absolutely complete in himself.

God’s name Yahweh is majestic throughout the earth. The name Yahweh probably means, “I am who I am” or “I will be who I will be.” The significance of this name is that God exists in and of himself. Yahweh created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 2:4). By his own will and power, he existed before the universe came into being. He is the uncreated Creator, the self-existing one, and he is absolutely complete in himself.

Psalm 113:4 KJV 1900

4 The Lord is high above all nations, And his glory above the heavens.

Yahweh has made his glory visible on the earth below and in the sky above.

B. His Glory is Exalted - (Vs. 1b-2)

David also recognized that though the LORD was Israel’s covenant God, He was also God of more than just Israel. His name is excellent...in all the earth. At the same time, the earth was not enough to measure the glory and excellence of God. His glory is above the heavens.

“Who hast set thy glory above the heavens” — transcendent power.

The word “majestic” points to God’s visible power and might. The word “glory” in this verse is often translated “splendor,” the visible display of God’s greatness. David focuses our attention on the outward display of God’s power and glory.

How does Yahweh display his glory in our world? How does he make his name majestic?

The answer is surprising and counterintuitive. The message of Psalm 8 is that Yahweh reveals his majesty in this world by using weak people to do his great work. God reveals his majesty by defeating his enemies through the weakness of children (v. 2).

He also reveals his majesty by ruling the world through weak, mortal human beings (vv. 3–8). God does his greatest work through human weakness.

When God uses weak people to do great and mighty things, his glory shines because it is obviously his power and not ours.

1 Corinthians 1:27–29 KJV 1900

27 But 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; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

Weak children and mortal men could not possibly be responsible for the power that works through them. The glory goes to Yahweh whose majestic name permeates Heaven and earth.

This is an important perspective at this point in the Psalms because it helps us understand why God’s anointed king suffers like he does. God allows his king to be weak and oppressed so that his own glory and power will shine more brightly.

When David then triumphed over his enemies, it was obvious that the power came from God. Christ conquered through the shame and weakness of the cross. God often allows us to be weak and oppressed too, so that it is obvious that the power comes from God and not from us.

2 Corinthians 4:7–10 KJV 1900

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

God makes his name majestic by using weak people like you and me to do his great work.

The night sky is not the limit — His glory surpasses the stars.

II. The Paradox of God’s Mindfulness (Psalm 8:3-4)

“What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”

David knew the value of simply considering the glory of God’s creation. He knew what it was like to look up into the starry sky and consider what a great God had made this vast, wonderful universe.

With the naked eye, one can see about 5,000 stars. With a four-inch telescope, one can see about 2 million stars. With a 200-inch mirror of a great observatory, one can see more than a billion stars. The universe is so big that if one were to travel at the speed of light, it would take 40 billion years to reach the edge of the universe. Considering the heavens makes us see the greatness of God.

These great heavenly objects such as the moon and the stars are the work of God’s fingers.

“Notwithstanding the amazing magnitude of the sun, we have abundant reason to believe that some of the fixed stars are much larger: and yet we are told they are the work of GOD’S FINGERS! What a hand, to move, form, and launch these globes!” (Clarke)

A. The Heavens Proclaim His Power - (Vs. 3)

David gazes at creation: moon, stars, order — all from “thy fingers.”

In the 1920s Edwin Hubble showed that our galaxy is one of many galaxies in the universe. The best estimate is that there are roughly 170 billion galaxies gathered in clusters and strung like filaments across space. Now the Hubble Space Telescope gives us a front-row seat to see the wonders of the Tarantula Nebula, the Magellanic Clouds, or the collision of a comet with Jupiter. All this is the work of God’s fingers! The vast distances and the nuclear explosions of the stars are not rough, sweaty work like heavy construction or road building for God. Creating the galaxies is detailed, delicate work for him, like a woman weaving lace.

No wonder David asks, “what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (8:4).

“David’s question can be asked with many nuances. In Psalm 144:3-4 it mocks the arrogance of the rebel; in Job 7:17 it is a sufferer’s plea for respite; in Job 25:6 it shudders at human sin. But here it has no tinge of pessimism; only astonishment that thou are mindful and thou dost care.” - Derek Kidner

Emphasis on delicacy: not the arm or hand — but fingers!

Isaiah 40:26 KJV 1900

26 Lift up your eyes on high, And behold who hath created these things, That bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by names By the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; Not one faileth.

B. Humanity Seems Insignificant - (Vs. 4)

“What is man?” — a rhetorical gasp of wonder.

William Beebe, the naturalist, used to tell a story about Teddy Roosevelt. At Sagamore Hill, after talking for the evening, the two would go out on the lawn and search the skies for a certain spot of star-like light near the lower left-hand corner of the Great Square of Pegasus. Then Roosevelt would recite: “That is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It consists of one hundred billion suns, each larger than our sun.” Then Roosevelt would grin and say, “Now I think we are small enough! Let’s go to bed.”

In light of the cosmos, we seem trivial…yet we matter to God.

The greatest mystery, though, is not that I am so small but that God’s love is so big. He is mindful of men and women who are mere microscopic specks in the universe. He cares for us. There are several words for man that David could have used at the beginning of verse 4. He chose the word ’enôsh, a word that emphasizes our frailty and mortality.

To emphasize our mortality, he pairs that with the name “son of man,” which probably emphasizes the fact that our lives are not our own. We owe our life to our parents. Yahweh is self-existent; we are not. God showed the depth of his love for us small, weak creatures through Jesus Christ. Jesus took the name “Son of Man” for himself, emphasizing his humanity

Morgan considered the use of the terms man and son of man as a “The contrast between the stately splendor of the moon and the stars, and man — Enosh — frail man — and the son of man Ben-Adam — of apparently earthly origin. The contrasts are graphic.” (Morgan G. Campbell

The great mystery is God’s great love for tiny people. He is mindful of insignificant creatures; he cares for us.

“Mindful” = to think upon, to attend to.

“Visitest” = to come near, to care.

Quote: “The greatest mystery is not that we look up and see God, but that He looks down and sees us.” – Unknown

III. The Position of God’s Image-Bearers (Psalm 8:5–8)

“Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels…”

The word translated “Angels” is literally “God” or “gods”; it can refer to angels, and that is how many English versions take it...

God has given us the highest honor of any earthly being. On the one hand, we are earthly, fashioned from the dust of the earth. We are not mere animals, though, because God breathed his life into us (Genesis 2:7). God gave us a unique and exalted position in his created world.

David moves from wonder at God’s mindfulness to a recognition of humanity’s appointed role in creation. This passage reveals how God sees us, what He gives us, and what He expects of us.

A. Our Divine Identity: “Crowned with Glory and Honour” - vs.5b

Despite our frailty, God has dignified humanity with a unique role.

"A little lower than the angels" (Hebrew: Elohim) could also be translated “a little lower than God” — showing the lofty nature of our created status.

This is not just poetic—it echoes Genesis 1:26–28 where mankind is made in the image of God.

Genesis 1:26–28 KJV 1900

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

“Crowned” is kingly language—it signifies status, responsibility, and worth.

God places value on every human life not because of what we do, but because of how we were made.

Quote: “Man is not a cosmic accident but a divine masterpiece.” – Unknown

Illustration: Consider how a crown, no matter how small or old, still carries symbolic weight—it denotes royalty. You were created to represent the King.

B. Our Delegated Authority: “Thou madest him to have dominion…”

The Psalm lists various realms of creation (land animals, birds, sea creatures), showing the scope of man's stewardship.

Dominion is not domination—it's responsibility under God’s ultimate rule.

God has entrusted His world to human hands, to cultivate, protect, and manage it in a way that reflects His heart.

Romans 8:19–21 speaks of creation groaning, waiting for the sons of God to act in righteousness again.

Sadly, humanity often abuses this responsibility—pollution, exploitation, and disregard for life are all symptoms of dominion gone wrong.

But when rightly exercised, dominion brings flourishing, order, and glory to God.

Application: Whether you're managing a classroom, a household, a business, or just your own time—you are a steward of something God has placed in your care.

C. Our Dignified Purpose: “All things under his feet…” - 6b

This echoes royal imagery again—God places authority under the feet of His image-bearers.

Yet, we see this verse ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 2:6–9 quotes Psalm 8 and applies it to Christ, the perfect Man who fulfilled the role we failed in.

Jesus is the true crowned Son of Man—who perfectly ruled over creation, redeemed fallen humanity, and one day will restore the full dominion to redeemed mankind (see Revelation 5:10).

Quote: “What Adam lost, Christ reclaimed.” – Matthew Henry

🔁 Conclusion:

Psalm 8 is a glorious contrast — the God of galaxies is also the God of grace. He who rules the stars also reaches down to you.

Call to Action: In light of His majesty and mindfulness:

Let us worship Him with wonder.

Let us live with dignity and purpose, knowing our worth is rooted in His care.