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Dear Lovely Readers,
I don't know how many times I have said it on here, but one of my dreams is to use this blog as a Bible study that maybe one day will become a book (dream upon dream) — but if I don't start somewhere, I will probably never start. So here I go.
First, let me explain that I go through something like a Discovery Bible Study (DBS) (to learn more, click here). In this, I go through questions:
- What does it say? Or what happened? Who, when, where?
- What does it say about God? His character or His promises?
- What stood out or made me question something?
- What does it say about people/me?
I write out the verse, and if it's cross-referenced, I look it up. So it can take me days to go through a section, or weeks to go through a chapter… but I don't mind. I had a friend tell me once that it took her 10 years to do an inductive study of the whole Bible. And I figure the time is going to pass anyway, so I might as well use it to get deeper into the Word.
This post is dedicated to my boyfriend. A few days ago, I was really struggling, and I couldn't stop crying, so I called him and asked him to read a Psalm to me. He pulled out his favorite — Psalm 8 — and read it over me.
📖 The Passage: Psalm 8
v.1 — "O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who has set Your glory above the heavens."
v.2 — "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger."
v.3 — "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained..."
v.4–5 — "What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor."
v.6 — "You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet."
v.9 — "O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!"
What Does It Say? (Observation)
Psalm 8 is a song of praise — a bookend psalm, opening and closing with the same declaration: "O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth." It begins and ends in worship, and everything in between is wonder.
A quick note on the very first verse that stood out in my study: the first word is the divine name Yahweh. The second Hebrew word, translated "our Lord," carries the meaning of "Our Sovereign." So right from the start, David is not just praising a faraway deity — he is crying out to the God who is both transcendent (above all the heavens) and intimately personal (our Lord, our Sovereign).
Does it stop you, too — that He is both the God of the universe and somehow, personally, yours?
💖 What Does It Say About God?
God's glory surpasses the heavens (v.1). Cross-referencing with Psalm 148:13: "Let them praise the name of the LORD, for His name alone is exalted; His glory is above all the earth and heavens." And Psalm 113:4: "The LORD is high above all nations, His glory is above the heavens." His name and His glory are inseparable — and both are incomprehensibly vast.
God uses the weak to silence the proud (v.2). The cross-references here are fascinating. In Matthew 21:16, Jesus quotes this very verse when the children are crying out "Hosanna" in the temple courts and the religious leaders are indignant. Jesus essentially says: Yes. This is exactly what this psalm is about. And 1 Corinthians 1:27 echoes it: "But God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty." God doesn't need the powerful or the polished. He ordains praise from the mouths of babies. That's the kind of God He is.
And honestly, doesn't that just take the pressure off?
God is intimately attentive to human beings (v.4–5). This is perhaps the most stunning part of the psalm. David looks up at the stars — at the immeasurable expanse of creation — and asks: What is man, that You are mindful of him? The rhetorical question is meant to stun us. And it should. God created all of this, and yet He is mindful of us. He visits us. The Hebrew text of verse 5 reads: "You have made him to lack little of God" — human beings are made in His image, just a little less than the angels, and crowned with glory and honor. When is the last time you actually let yourself believe that about yourself?
What Stood Out or Made Me Question Something?
The note I wrote in my journal says it best: "The response to this rhetorical question creates stunned awe."
Man — made of the earth — starts out at the summit of God's creation. That's not arrogance; that's the biblical vision of human dignity. We were made for something. We were made like Someone.
And then there's verse 6, which pulled me into a cross-reference rabbit hole (the best kind): "You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet." (See also: Genesis 1:26, 28; 1 Corinthians 15:27; Ephesians 1:22; Hebrews 2:8.)
This is where Psalm 8 connects directly to something much bigger — to the story of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15:27, Paul quotes this psalm and applies it to Jesus. Hebrews 2 does the same. The dominion given to humanity in Genesis, echoed in Psalm 8, finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Son of Man. Jesus is the one in whom all things are truly put under His feet.
That thread — from Genesis to the Psalms to Paul — makes me sit on my bed with a cup of tea and just... wonder.
What Does It Say About Me?
I am seen. I am visited. I am crowned.
Not because I earned it. Not because I am impressive. But because He is, and He chose to make me in His image, to give me dignity, to set His attention on me.
On the day I called my boyfriend crying, I didn't feel crowned. I felt like the dust I'm made of. And he read me this psalm. And somewhere in "O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name" — I remembered that the God whose glory is above the heavens also bends down to be our Lord. My Lord.
That's the whole psalm in a breath: He is infinitely great, and He is intimately ours.
🙏 A Prayer to Close
Thank You, Lord, for Your authority, and for the authority You have given me. Lord, I am sorry if I have ever abused or misused it. You are holy, righteous, and good. You love wholeheartedly. You are my God, and I don't want dominion if You are not leading.
Amen.
🔎 Cross-references used in this study: Psalm 148:13; Psalm 113:4; Psalm 111:2; Psalm 44:16; Genesis 1:26, 28; Matthew 21:16; 1 Corinthians 1:27; 1 Corinthians 15:27; Ephesians 1:22; Hebrews 2:6–8; Job 7:17–18; Job 10:12
Can you sit with that for a second — that the God who made the stars is mindful of you, specifically?
