Psalm 8

God's Glory, Man's Dignity

For the choir director: on the Gittith (A). A Davidic psalm.

1 LORD, our Lord,
how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth! (B)
You have covered the heavens with Your majesty. (C) [a]
2 Because of Your adversaries,
You have established a stronghold [b]
from the mouths of children and nursing infants, (D)
to silence the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I observe Your heavens,
the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which You set in place, (E)

4 what is man that You remember him,
the son of man that You look after him? (F)

5 You made him little less than God [c] [d]
and crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You made him lord over the works of Your hands;
You put everything under his feet: (G) [e]

7 all the sheep and oxen,
as well as animals in the wild,

8 birds of the sky,
and fish of the sea
passing through the currents of the seas. (H)

9 LORD, our Lord,
how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!


With all of the glory and honor You have bestowed upon us, how dare we treat one another with such injustice and indignity? Why do we rage and imagine vain visions of grandeur at the expense of our very being? We are made in a remarkable and powerful likeness to purest Divinity! This is a privilege that aught not be taken lightly. Yet we mar Your glorious image in us. We disrespect and dishonor your highest ideal. Forgive our denseness and heal our blindness. Apply the eye-salve You so freely offer us and remove the scaly, debilitating darkness that we often times claim to be enlightenment. We have allowed our very flesh to corrupt what is truly good and perfect.