Psalm 8 - Big God, Little Me

To the choirmaster: on The Gittith. A Psalm of David. 1 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  Big God You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have found praise to foil your enemies, to still the enemy and the avenger.  Little Me 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?  God's Purpose 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.  9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! The Gittith, from an exhibition of ancient instruments by Moshe Frumin.  There are at least 11 hyperlinks in this post, directing you to further information - see if you can find them all....

This Psalm is to be played on the Gittith. Gittith is literally translated as being of the wine-press. Gath is a philistine city which means winepress in hebrew, so Gittith means something 'of the winepress' or 'of the city of Gath'. After David killed Goliath of Gath he went to serve in King Saul's palace at Gibeah in Benjamin.  He was there for 7 years during which time King Saul became more and more jealous of David's military prowess and slowly started to slip into insanity. Eventually David had to flee for his life. Nowhere in Israel was safe for him so he sought shelter in Gath with King Achish.  Obviously, turning up at a Philistine city, Israel's arch enemy at the time, was not a very safe option either. So when he arrived at the city he pretended to insane by drooling and peeing on the doors so he would not be seen as a threat. ;1 Samuel 21:10-14. David gained King Achish's trust and he and his men started working as mercenaries for the King. 1 Samuel 27:1-7 But David never betrayed Israel, all the time he was working as a 'double agent'. He would attack one of Israel's enemies and bring back spoils of war to the King, telling him he had attacked Israel. 1 Samuel 27:8-12. The Jewish Targum (the Jewish version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica) states that a Gittith, is a stringed instrument from the Philistine city of Gath. As well as learning to play the guitar whilst in Philistine territory, David honed his military skills. He also brought back with him the skill of fashioning Iron and through this was able to provide vast quantities of bronze and iron for the temple 1 Chronicles 22:7-14.  Part of the  philistines conquest strategy had been to kill all the blacksmith's, so everyone relied on them for all their farm implements and couldn't fashion weapons to use against them. 1 Samuel 13:19-20 . A lovely lesson here is that God does not waste a hurt, we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him Romans 8:28. Even when things look bad, God is working behind the scenes to bring good out of the situation. So, onto the Psalm! This Psalm displays another literary technique, Inclusio. I like to call it Bookends, where the start and end of the Psalm are framed with an matching phrase. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! There are 3 parts, God's might and majesty - Big God, Man's Insignificance - Little Me, and God purpose for mankind. Several parts of this Psalm resonate with me. Out of the mouth of babies and infants Sometimes we can be to clever for our own good, professing to be wise we become fools.  God reminds us that actually it is so simple even child can understand that he exists and deserves our worship.  In academic studies at the University of Oxford's Centre for Anthropology and Mind it was discovered that children and babies believe in God, despite what they are taught by their parents and teachers - it is obvious and instinctive to them. If we just look up, it should be obvious to us too:- When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Romans 1:18-20. In verse 8 there is an interesting phrase: whatever passes along the paths of the seas Matthew Maury (1806-1873) noticed the expression 'paths of the sea'.  He said to himself, 'If God says there are paths in the sea, I am going to find them.'  He went on to discover the warm and cold continental currents in 1850.  His book on oceanography remains a basic text in Universities today. He is considered to be the Father of Oceanography but the Bible declared the science of oceanography 2,800 years ago.