Psalm 8: The Majesty of YHWH Manifest in His King

I recently preached a sermon on Psalm 8 during a Wednesday evening prayer service at Kenwood Baptist Church. I have two goals in this piece: (1) to briefly summarize a proper hermeneutical framework for reading the Psalter, and (2) to explain the meaning of Psalm 8 as the first glimpse in the narrative of the Psalter of the ascension and enthronement of the king of glory, YHWH himself, in the reign of David’s future son.¹

Resist the Urge to Personalize and Individualize the Psalms

The Psalter is not the hymn book of Ancient Israel nor is it a haphazard collection of individual songs nor is it a proof-text source for our prayers. It is an anthology with a narrative shape and a literary function in the canon of Scripture.²

The Psalter, the one hundred fifty psalms in the Christian canon, should be read as a book. That is, we should not read these one hundred fifty psalms merely as one hundred fifty separate compositions having nothing to do with one another…The book of Psalms is a literary musical, and a number of the book’s features demonstrate that the individual psalms have been strategically arranged to create an impressionistic movement of thought.³

The main character of the narrative is an idealized David, the blessed man (Ps 1) and YHWH’s Son and Messiah (Ps 2), who only after enduring persecution and suffering often poetically described as death ascends YHWH’s holy hill (Ps 15) and enters the gates of Zion bringing the very presence of YHWH himself with him (Ps 24). Reading the Psalter ought to primarily cause us to join in the hallelujah response of YHWH’s faithful people to what he has done for us in the Lord Jesus, who is the fulfillment of the idealized David of the Psalter, rather than turning inward.

The literary function of the Psalter in the canon of Scripture is interpretive and anticipatory. At the same time, it reflects upon the history of the people of God and looks ahead to their future. There are psalms that reflect on the creation of the world (Pss 95, 104), the exodus of Israel from Egypt (Pss 78, 105–106), and the forty years of wilderness wandering (Ps 95). There are psalms that anticipate the restoration of Israel from exile under a new Moses (Ps 90) and a Melchizedekian king-priest (Ps 110). Among the Writings of the tripartite Hebrew Bible, the Psalms were intended to inspire and shape eschatological hope among the faithful people of God who were awaiting full restoration after the return to the land failed to meet the expectations shaped by the promises delivered through the prophets.

So, read the Psalter with a view to understanding and embracing the interpretive perspective of the inspired authors, especially the unnamed author who arranged the book in the form in which we have it today. These are not poems about you, faithful Bible reader. They are poems about your Savior and about the great work that the Lord would do—and from our perspective on this side of the cross, resurrection, and ascension, the Lord has done—through him on your behalf.

The Future Son of David Will Be YHWH Incarnate

Psalm 8 serves as the first glimpse in the narrative of the Psalter of the ascension and enthronement of the king of glory, YHWH himself, in the reign of David’s future son as David reflects upon his own typological function in redemptive history, that is, the anticipatory storyline of Scripture.⁴ The main point of Psalm 8 is this: The enthronement of David as king and the covenant that YHWH made with him after his ascension to the throne through suffering typifies the full realization of YHWH’s universal and eternal dominion in David’s future seed. I will demonstrate this thesis here with three exegetical observations.

First, David makes the same distinction between “the LORD” (YHWH) and the “Lord” (his future son) here in Psalm 8 as he does in Psalm 110. This combination of “LORD” and “Lord” forms on inclusio that begins and ends the psalm (vv. 1, 9).⁵ If we allow these two psalms, both written by David, to mutually interpret one another, I think the same subtle distinction between “YHWH” and “Lord” is intended. The purpose of the inclusio is both to praise YHWH as creator and thus king over all creation and to anticipate the full realization of that reality in the universal and eternal reign of David’s future seed, “our Lord,” typified by David’s own enthronement and reign. The “our Lord” is the “son of man” spoken of in vv. 5–8, the second Adam, the one who is the image of God and the seed of David of whom David is a type—the one we as Christians know to be Jesus Christ.

What David is pleading for in v. 1 is that YHWH (again, LORD) would make his universal kingship over creation known by enthroning his king (again, our Lord) above the heavens.⁶ He wants the Lord to bring to full realization what his own kingship in Jerusalem anticipates. The Lord did this very thing in assigning dominion over all (earthly) creation to the first man (Gen 1:26–28), but that first man fell into sin and thus fell short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23), that is, he fell short of imaging God fully and in truth. David wants him to restore what was lost by exalting the second Adam, his future seed, “our Lord,” the image of the invisible God, to an even greater throne above the heavens.

Second, David acknowledges the smallness and feebleness of his own reign and kingdom in vv. 2–4. Establishing strength against enemies through babies and infants is David’s poetic and provocative way to refer to the hope expressed in the Genesis 3:15 promise in the wake of the first man’s fall into sin.⁷ In the narrative of Genesis, human procreation after the fall becomes more than just a creation mandate or means to human dominion in the earth. Human procreation functions metaphorically as generational reversal of death. Each generation of humans after Adam perpetuates the hope of the promised seed of the woman to come who would restore what was lost. David here is picking up on the utter condescension of the Lord’s plan to bring salvation from sin and death by the birth of a human child. The generational repetition of birth from barrenness in the Genesis narrative builds anticipation for precisely that hope realized.⁸

The phrase, “to still the enemy and the avenger” describes the result of the Lord’s saving work through that future seed. The action “to still” is a translation of a form of the verb Moses used in Genesis 2:1–3 to describe God’s rest on the seventh creation day. “Enemy” calls to mind the “enmity” that the Lord ordained between the blessed lineage and the cursed serpent’s lineage (Gen 3:14–15). Taken together it appears that David expects restored seventh-day rest to characterize the aftermath of the victory of his future descendant over the serpent and the end of enmity.

What David also sees in his own life is his own smallness before the almighty Creator who made what we see when we look skyward and what we know today to be essentially infinite in scope (vv. 4–5). David himself is the “man” whom the Lord remembers, and he is the “son of Adam” whom the Lordvisits. It is no accident that, while observing the stars just as Abraham did outside of his tent when the Lord promised him seed and land inheritance (Gen 15), David chose these phrases. This is covenantal language. The Lord remembered Rachel and granted to her conception and the birth of Joseph (Gen 30:22), the seed of Abraham who would rise to royalty in Egypt and deliver his family from famine.⁹ The Lord visited Sarah in granting the conception and birth of Isaac as he had promised (Gen 21:1; cf. Gen 18:11–13). Both Isaac and Joseph stand in the lineage of the “son of Adam,” the promised male seed of the woman. After the covenantal revelation that David received through Nathan the prophet (2 Sam 7), he knows who he is, and he knows who his future seed will be.

David is small and feeble, like an infant. This is evident to him as he gazes upon the heavens above which he wants YHWH to set his glory. It is evident to him as he reflects upon how he ascended to the throne of Israel not by might or by power but by the will of YHWH. What is also evident to him, however, is that the “son of Adam” to come, the second Adam, will be anything but small and feeble. As we know, Jesus started his human life as an infant, but the resurrected and ascended Christ sits in glory above the heavens, holds all authority in heaven and on earth, and has had all things put under his feet.

Third, David anticipates the universal reign of his future seed as king over all in vv. 5–9. Being “a little lower than the heavenly beings” was true of Adam in the creation narrative as he was given dominion over all the earth. This translation, I think, indicates that David sees himself in the same position enthroned as the Lord’s anointed king in Israel.

The Greek translation of this phrase, however, which the author of Hebrews interprets in Hebrews 2:5–10, takes “little” in a temporal sense, that is, not “a little lower than” but “for a little while lower than.”¹⁰ Thus, what David may very well be anticipating for his future son is a definite time period during which he will be lower than the heavenly beings, or angels, which would then imply a time both prior and afterwards during which he is not lower than the angels. In other words, as the author of Hebrews reads this text, David anticipates the incarnate nature of his future seed. He knows he will reign eternally (cf. 2 Sam 7:13–16); he writes that he will be crowned with glory and honor, i.e. the full realization of the image of God; and in Psalm 24 he writes that the ascension of the king of glory to YHWH’s holy hill brings the very presence of YHWH himself.

The author of Hebrews interprets Jesus having been “crowned with glory and honor” as a result of his suffering unto death. Thus, being crowned with glory and honor refers to resurrection and ascension—enthronement. Just as David sits enthroned as a type of the second Adam to come, Jesus now sits enthroned above the heavens as the second Adam and theimage of God.

Man is the “image and glory of God” (1 Cor 11:7) and sinful man (Adam) fell short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23), but Christ is the image of God (Col 1:15; 2 Cor 4:4; Phil 2:6) and through him believers are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor 3:17–18). The image of God, while primarily an ontological reality in the OT, becomes primarily an eschatological goal in the NT. Jesus is the first “crowned with glory and honor” and those who believe in him will follow him and be like him when he appears.

In vv. 6–8, David writes that the future king’s dominion will be a restoration of Adam’s pre-Fall reign by referring to a progression of creatures in reverse order when compared to Genesis 1. Together “the work of your fingers” (the heavenly bodies) and “the work of your hands” (earthly creatures)—which encompass God’s creative “filling” activity on days 4–6 of the creation narrative in Genesis 1—parallel each other in the psalm and, thus, anticipate the son of David’s reign to be universally encompassing in a way that Adam’s was not.¹¹ Recall that in Genesis 1:26–28 YHWH gave to Adam dominion over everything on earth. The sun and moon “rule” their respective spaces, namely, the day and night (Gen 1:16, 18), which is the same expression that David uses here in v. 6 translated “dominion.” Thus, in using this specific language here David anticipates a universal kingship for his son who will be “crowned with glory and honor” and that will visibly fulfill his own plea that the Lord would set his glory “above the heavens” (Ps 8:1). All things visible and invisible will be subject to the son of David (Col 1:15).

David expects “all things” to be under the feet of his future son, but the author of Hebrews writes that we do not yet see all things under the feet of Jesus. We have not seen Jesus at all, but with eyes of faith we see him “crowned with glory and honor” in the Scriptures in his death, resurrection, and ascension on our behalf. What is true for the ascended Christ today will be an experiential reality for all creation upon his blessed appearing.

Conclusion

In concluding the psalm the way that he began it, David is rejoicing in a future reality. It is almost as if he is now singing directly to “our Lord,” who is YHWH incarnate and who has realized everything that the Lord has promised. Psalm 2 says that Messiah will inherit “the ends of the earth.” The whole earth will know the majesty of the name of YHWH when we see his king in his beauty (Isa 33:17). What a glorious day that will be.

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Footnotes

1. This glimpse would be after the introductory Psalms 1–2, which depict ascension and enthronement as well. ↩︎
2. On the Psalter as a literary anthology, see Gordon J. Wenham, Psalms as Torah: Reading Biblical Song Ethically (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012). On the narrative shape of the Psalter, see James Hely Hutchinson, “The Psalter as a Book,” in Stirred by a Noble Theme: The Book of Psalms in the Life of the Church, ed. Andrew G. Shead (Nottingham, England: Apollos, 2013), 23–45. ↩︎
3. James M. Hamilton Jr. and Matthew Damico, Reading the Psalms as Scripture (Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2024), 7–8. ↩︎
4. Hamilton and Damico, Reading the Psalms as Scripture, 23. ↩︎
5. An otherwise rare combination in the Psalter; cf. Ps 97:5; 135:5. Elsewhere, cf. 1 Sam 25:28. Neh 10:29 has the exact same phrase “YHWH, our Lord.” ↩︎
6. In the Hebrew text the second half of v. 1 is an imperative. Thus, David is asking YHWH to make his glory observable to all creation, i.e. “above the heavens” would be above the entire created universe. These terms “majesty” and “glory” often appear together in the Psalter describing YHWH’s king: in Ps 21:6, YHWH’s salvation of his king assigns to his king“majesty” and “glory;” in Ps 111:3, YHWH’s work—in context, the enthronement of his eternal priest-king (Ps 110)—is itself “majestic” and “glorious;” the only use of “glory” in the Pentateuch is Num 27:20 where the Lord describes the transition of leadership from Moses to Joshua as giving “from [Moses’] glory” to Joshua. ↩︎
7. James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, vol. 1, Psalms 1–72, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2021): 207–208. ↩︎
8. For more on this, see Thomas John Sculthorpe, “He Makes Her Desert Like the Garden of YHWH: A Typological Understanding of the Birth of Isaac as Resurrection from Death” (Ph.D. Diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2024). ↩︎
9. The Lord also “remembered” Noah and moved to recreate the earth after the flood (Gen 8:1) and he “remembered” his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when he heard the groaning of Israel in bondage in Egypt and moved to deliver them (Exod 2:24). ↩︎
10. This translation issue is debated, but there does not appear to be any reason why the Hebrew text translated “a little lower than” cannot be rendered “for a little while lower than.” In other words, the Greek translation of this phrase and the author of Hebrews’ interpretation of it are consistent with the range of meaning of the Hebrew text. ↩︎
11. For more on this and what follows in this paragraph, see Thomas J. Sculthorpe, “Why Does Moses Call the Promised Savior a Seed? Resurrection Typology in Genesis 1–3,” Kenwood Bulletin (April 1, 2025): 1–17. ↩︎