Psalm 8/Notes/Phrasal.V. 2.447749

• Following the opening address to YHWH is an exclamation; the particle How (מָה) here "functions as an introduction to an exclamation in which a speaker usually expresses a value judgment about something." The value judgment which the speaker expresses is that YHWH's name is majestic.
• This is the first appearance of the word all (כֹּל), which appears four times in this psalm. It is used twice in the frame of the psalm to refer to the scope of God's dominion (vv. 2b, 10b) and twice in the body of the psalm to refer to the scope of humanity's dominion (vv. 7b-8a). Alter identifies כֹּל as "the chief thematic key-word of the psalm. [God's] dominion is over all, heaven and earth, angels and men and creatures of the field and air and sea, and he places 'all' at the feet of man."