Ps. 8 (Majesty, mastery and liturgy)

It is commonly thought that what the “babes and sucklings” speak is the divine Name and that Yhwh’s mastery is thereby ‘established’ putting “to rest” foe and avenger. There is merit to this. However, the psalm seems to point in a different direction. In the immediately preceding line the psalmist declares that he will “worship your majesty above the heaven.” It is this act of speaking, this liturgical praise, that I believe is what comes forth “from the mouths of babes and sucklings”. This has important ramifications for how we understand the act of creative mastery in this psalm, for both Yhwh and the authority Yhwh grants to man over “the work of his hands”. Of course, the act of worship involves praise of the divine Name, and its shimmering visibility “in all the earth”.  But this is not simply a ‘pronouncement’ of the Name. The Name is ‘majestic’, and this ‘majesty’ is “above the heavens”. The Name is, then, itself an overwhelming expression of Yhwh’s presence and, as such, can only be expressed through an act of awed liturgy. More deeply still is how the psalmist understands the role of liturgy within creation and the act of sovereign power. For the psalmist, the liturgy of Yhwh’s Name “establishes strength” and “puts at rest both foe and avenger.” This idea is present in many places in scripture. We might think here of the liturgy that establishes creation in Genesis, or the liturgy that brought down the walls of Jericho and, more pertinent still, the liturgy that is reported in the book of Chronicles at the establishment of the Temple. In Genesis, the “rest” of the seventh day, is the “rest of Yhwh” as he comes to dwell in the Temple that has been completed. In Chronicles, the liturgy of the Temple establishment follows the “rest” that floods the land after David’s conquests. That “rest” was the prerequisite of the Temple construction. In regards to Jericho, there is no military attack but simply a ‘seven’-circling (creational circling) of Jericho. In all of these, the liturgy is part and parcel of the act of creation against the forces of chaos and destruction. Here, in psalm 8,  these ideas are closely wed together. When man is “made little less than God” and “crowned with glory and honor”, he is made into the Adam-of-God that has the responsibility to guard and protect the garden. In other words, to continue Yhwh’s creative act of establishing a prodigal and life giving order to creation, and guarding that against the forces of chaos and death. It is this form of ‘mastery’ that is given to man and the authority that “sets everything beneath his feet”. The entire spectrum of creation is set beneath man, but man-as-liturgical-man. It is liturgy to Yhwh that establishes man’s mastery over creation. It is what “crowns him with glory and honor”. In the words of Genesis, we might say that it is the foundation of his “image”.