The Morning Psalm
The Book of Psalms

Psalm 8

King James Version · 9 verses

O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

2Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

3When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

4What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

5For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

6Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

7All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

8The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

9O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

About Psalm 8

O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! A night-sky psalm: when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers — what is man, that thou art mindful of him?

The astonishment runs both directions: man is dust the stars dwarf, yet crowned with glory and honour, set over the works of God's hands. Hebrews reads the psalm's full height in Jesus — the Son of man made a little lower than the angels, now crowned. Strength is ordained here out of the mouths of babes.

About this book

The Book of Psalms — summary, themes & key verses

The Bible's prayer book — 150 songs of praise, lament, trust, and honest human need.

Psalms, chapter by chapter