Psalm 8/Context
Context
Cultural background
"Many in Israel and among her neighbors worshipped the heavenly bodies as divine bodies. In this pagan conception, the heavenly orbs were endowed with sentience, power, and identity. Here, they are merely objects that testify to their Creator’s glory — indeed, the psalmist belittles them by calling them the works of your fingers."[1] "The second stanza begins with the assertion that God has made human beings but a little lower than heavenly beings. This phrase plays on the ancient Near Eastern concept of the heavenly luminaries as divine beings."[2]
"Both art and text throughout the ancient world indicate that the phrase “to place under the feet” was understood as symbolic of the authority given to kings" (cf. Ps. 110).[3],
Reference/allusions
- Gen. 1:26-28,
Alluded to in NT
Ps. 8:3ab
- LXX: ἐκ στόματος νηπίων καὶ θηλαζόντων κατηρτίσω αἶνον
- Matt. 21:16 (quotation [LXX]): ἐκ στόματος νηπίων καὶ θηλαζόντων κατηρτίσω αἶνον
Ps. 8:7b
- LXX: πάντα ὑπέταξας ὑποκάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ
- 1 Cor. 15:27 (quotation): πάντα γὰρ ὑπέταξεν ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ.
- Eph. 1:22 (allusion): καὶ πάντα ὑπέταξεν ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ
Ps. 8:5-6, 7b
- LXX: τί ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος ὅτι μιμνῄσκῃ αὐτοῦ, ἢ υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου ὅτι ἐπισκέπτῃ αὐτόν; ἠλάττωσας αὐτὸν βραχύ τι παρ᾽ ἀγγέλους δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ ἐστεφάνωσας αὐτόν... πάντα ὑπέταξας ὑποκάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ
- Heb. 2:6-8 (quotation [LXX]): τί ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος ὅτι μιμνῄσκῃ αὐτοῦ, ἢ υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου ὅτι ἐπισκέπτῃ αὐτόν; ἠλάττωσας αὐτὸν βραχύ τι παρ᾽ ἀγγέλους, δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ ἐστεφάνωσας αὐτόν, πάντα ὑπέταξας ὑποκάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ.
The NT is clear in its interpretation of this psalm as messianic. Modern scholarship, on the other hand, would disagree with this interpretation. Kraus, for example, writes that "in Psalm 8 there is not even a trace of this eschatological-messianic message of the NT."[4] Even an evangelical commentator like Allen Ross says that "the psalm is not a messianic psalm."[5] Such a reading is, according to Craigie, "not evidently implicit in the psalm in its original meaning and context."[6]
Despite what modern scholarship claims, a careful reading of Psalm 8 in its original context and co-text (the book of Psalms) suggests that the Psalm is indeed messianic. The following points are worth consideration in this regard.
- The Psalter is a messianic book.[7]
- Psalm 8 was written by King David (לדוד, v.1), Yahweh's anointed king (=משׁיח, Messiah).
- In Psalm 8, David writes about the universal dominion given to humanity (cf. Gen. 1:26-28).
- David himself was promised universal dominion (cf. Ps. 2:7-9).
- For this reason, David appeared to view himself (and his offspring) as a new kind of Adam (cf. Ps. 2:6 [נָסַכְתִּי, a metallurgical term that recalls the creation of Adam as God's צלם]).
- Adam's rule was over all animals (Ps. 8:8-9); David's rule was to be over all nations (Ps. 2:8-9). In the book of Psalms (as elsewhere in the Bible [cf. Daniel 7], David's enemies are depicted metaphorically as animals (e.g., Ps. 22:13-14).
- David knew that this universal rule would not be realized in his lifetime, but in that of his offspring (2 Sam. 7:12).,
Other
Canonical Context
Psalm 8 follows closely after Psalm 7, in which the psalmist ends with a vow to praise the "name of Yahweh, Most High" (7:18), having used the name יהוה seven times. Psalm 9 begins, similarly, with a vow to praise "your name, Most High" (7:3). Psalm 8, situated between these two vows of praise, is, accordingly, an ode to Yahweh's name (8:2, 10).
If Psalms 1-2 (without superscriptions) are excluded as introductory, then Psalm 8 is the sixth psalm in the Psalter, following a series of five lament psalms (3, 4, 5, 6, 7). This placement may reflect the fact that humans, the focus of Psalm 8, were created on the sixth day of creation (cf. Gen. 1).
Psalms 3-8 are connected in an interesting and often overlooked way. Images of morning and evening alternate in each psalm.
- Psalm 3 – morning (cf. 3:6)
- Psalm 4 – evening (cf. 4:9)
- Psalm 5 – morning (cf. 5:4)
- Psalm 6 – evening (cf. 6:7)
- Psalm 7 – morning (cf. 7:7)
- Psalm 8 – evening (cf. 8:4)
The blessed man meditates on Yahweh's instruction "day and night" (יומם ולילה). The order of these first 8 psalms may be designed with this in mind.
- ↑ Nancy L. deClaisse-Walford, Rolf A. Jacobson, and Beth LaNeel Tanner, The Book of Psalms, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2014).
- ↑ Nancy L. deClaisse-Walford, Rolf A. Jacobson, and Beth LaNeel Tanner, The Book of Psalms, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2014).
- ↑ Nancy L. deClaisse-Walford, Rolf A. Jacobson, and Beth LaNeel Tanner, The Book of Psalms, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2014).
- ↑ Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 1-59, translated by Hilton C. Oswald (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1988), 186.
- ↑ Allen P. Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2011), 290.
- ↑ Peter Craige, Psalms 1-50, Word Biblical Commentary 19 (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983), 110.
- ↑ David Mitchell, The Message of the Psalter: an Eschatological Programme in the Books of Psalms (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997); Jamie Grant, The King as Exemplar: the Function of Deuteronomy's Kingship Law in the Shaping of the Book of Psalms (Atlanta: SBL, 2004); Adam Hensley, Covenant Relationships and the Editing of the Hebrew Psalter (London: Bloomsbury, 2018).