Psalm 8

Psalm 8

1. For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by a stringed instrument.[a] 1 1 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! 1 Your glory is higher than the heavens.

2. You have taught children and infants 2 to tell of your strength,[b] 2 silencing your enemies 2 and all who oppose you.

3. When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers— 3 the moon and the stars you set in place—

4. what are mere mortals that you should think about them, 4 human beings that you should care for them?[c]

5. Yet you made them only a little lower than God[d] 5 and crowned them[e] with glory and honor.

6. You gave them charge of everything you made, 6 putting all things under their authority—

7. the flocks and the herds 7 and all the wild animals,

8. the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, 8 and everything that swims the ocean currents.

9. O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!

Footnotes:
a. 8:Title: Hebrew according to the gittith.
b. 8:2: Greek version reads to give you praise. Compare Matt 21:16.
c. 8:4: Hebrew what is man that you should think of him, / the son of man that you should care for him?
d. 8:5a: Or Yet you made them only a little lower than the angels; Hebrew reads Yet you made him [i.e., man] a little lower than Elohim.
e. 8:5b: Hebrew him [i.e., man]; similarly in 8:6.