Psalm 8 - Overcomer - O Lord, our Lord how excellent Your name
This is 4th Psalm to the Overcomer. Be simple like a babe, to praise the Lord ( v2) genuinely, simply taking the word for what it says, and to overcome the slavery to death through the Lord's death and resurrection. This is a Psalm of spiritual warfare.
This song is based on hymn #1097, but made to more literally follow the text of the Hebrew Psalm for my purpose of memorizing the Psalm.
v1 - There are 3 Psalms that are "To the overcomer upon the winepresses": Psalms 8, 81, and 84. I think "the winepresses" refers to when the Lord comes back, He and those overcomers who are with Him, will tread upon the armies at Armageddon as upon a great winepress ( Joel 3:13; Rev 14:18-20; 19:11-15). In order to be an overcomer upon the winepresses, we must praise the Lord like a suckling babe in this Psalm. This defeats the Lord's enemies (v2).
Also winepresses indicate that we should be beside ourselves in praising the Lord.
v2 - Lit. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings ... because of Your adversaries, to destroy the enemy and the avenger.
The Hebrew words translated "established strength" are translated "perfected praise" by LXX and the Lord in Matt 21:16. Out of the mouth of babes, the Lord has perfected praise, and this praise is strength against all kinds of enemies. We think that to perfect something takes maturity, but perfect praise does not require maturity. Perfect praise comes when we are as genuine as a babe.
We need to be genuine like a babe to share the gospel to win over the Lord's adversaries.
Come, let us sing a psalm and drive away the devil. - Martin Luther
v4- The 1st word "man" is enosh, mortal man. The second is son of Adam, which is the Biblical way of saying "a human being". Both terms refer to human beings after the fall of man. Enosh can refer to mortal man as a whole or as an individual, while son of man refers to an individual man. God thinks about and visits us both as a group and as individuals.
v5 - I used the word "then" in v5 because the Hebrew starts with a vav-consecutive, which means this verse takes place after something else. Usually, it takes place after what occurred in the previous verse, but that does not make sense here because there is no previous event in the Psalm to follow. Also, God could not have visited a son of man until after Cain was born, and God had lowered man before that. I think the preceding event is the implied creation of man. "Then" implies that God lowered man after He had created him.
Most versions either don't translate the vav-consecutive in this verse or they translate it as "for". LXX and YLT are the most strict about always translating the vav, usually as "and", but in this verse, even they skipped the vav. I have not found any place in the Bible where a vav-consecutive should be translated as "for".
The Hebrew word which I translated as "gods" is elohim, meaning "gods" or "God" depending on the context. It would not make sense to say, "Then You lowered man below God", because that would mean that man previously was not below God.
Also, since David is talking to God as "You" it doesn't make sense to say, "You lowered him a little below God". If David meant to say that, he should say, "You lowered him a little below Yourself" ( Ps 7:6; 10:1; 18:25-26; etc). I do not know of any place in the Bible where someone talks to God in the 2nd person, and in the same sentence refers to God in the 3rd person. Therefore the correct translation is "gods", referring to angels, both good angels and fallen ones ( Ps 86:8; Exo 15:11). Since the inspired text of Hebrews 2:7 translated elohim in this verse as "angels", not "God", we know that "angels" is the correct meaning. The LXX also translated it as "angels".
Most English translations translate the beginning of this verse as "You have made him a little lower than the angels", which sounds like God's creating Adam. But there is no word "made" in the Hebrew of this verse. The Hebrew verb literally means, "caused to lack". To lack means to not have something that you should have ( Exo 16:18). God did not create man lacking anything, but when man fell, then God caused him to lack everlasting life. This verse does not refer to the creation of man. It refers to the fall of man, when God caused man to suffer death ( Heb 2:9; Gen 2:17; 3:17-19) and to toil to eat bread. Death is something man was not originally supposed to suffer. This lack caused mankind and each man individually to be a slave to the things that were supposed to be subject to him ( Heb 2:15). LXX and the Greek of Heb 2:7 both translate the Hebrew word with a Greek word meaning "lowered".
The Hebrew verb "lowered" is in what is called the "perfect aspect", which means that the action is already completed. This was done in Gen 3:17-19. The verbs "crown" and "cause to have dominion" are imperfect, meaning they are not completed yet.
v6 - God subjected all things under man's feet in Gen 1:26-28. The verb here is perfect, meaning that it is already completed.
God put everything on earth under man's feet, so when man fell, everything on earth fell with him. The "all things" refer to all things on earth ( Heb 2:5,8). But today man is under slavery to earthly things due to the fear of death ( Heb 2:15). Man became a servant of the ground ( Gen 3:17-19).
God became the Son of Man, Jesus, a little lower than the angels so that He could suffer all the sufferings of human life and death to destroy the devil and release us from living under the fear of death.
11/4/2016 changed tune from #1097 to use same tune as Psalm 84 since both are "upon the winepresses".
copyright 2016 voiceinwilderness
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Psalm 8 To the Overcomer upon the winepresses. A Psalm through David
1 1 O LORD our Lord, in all the earth,
Your name, how excellent!
To You Who've set Your majesty
above all the heaven,
2 Out of the mouth of suckling babes
Thou hast established strength.
because of Your adversaries,
to still the avenger.
2 3 When I at night behold the skies,
the work of Thy fingers -
the moon and stars before my eyes,
all by You in order;
4 O What is mortal man in this,
that Thou should'st mindful be?
The son of man Thou visitest
individually.
3 5 You lowered him then below gods,
slightly inferior.
And with glory You crown his head
and clothe him with honor.
6 You have given him dominion
o'er the works of Your hands.
You have put all beneath his feet,
in air, sea and on land:
4 7 The sheep and oxen, all their kind,
and the beasts of the field.
8 The birds in the heights of the skies,
and fishes the sea yields,
All that passes through the pathways
in the depths of the sea.
9 O LORD our Lord, in all the earth,
Your name excellent be!
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Matthew 21:15 And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,
16 And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?
Joel 3:9 Proclaim this among the nations: prepare war, arouse the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.
10 Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-knives into spears; let the weak say, I am strong.
11 Haste ye and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together. Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah.
12 Let the nations rouse themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about.
13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down, for the winepress is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Jehovah is at hand in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
16 And Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: and Jehovah will be a shelter for his people, and the refuge of the children of Israel.
17 And ye shall know that I, Jehovah, am your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; and Jerusalem shall be holy, and no strangers shall pass through her any more.
Revelation 14:17 And another angel came out of the temple which is in the heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
18 And another angel came out of the altar, having power over fire, and called with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Send thy sharp sickle, and gather the bunches of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripened.
19 And the angel put his sickle to the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast the bunches into the great wine-press of the fury of God;
20 and the wine-press was trodden without the city, and blood went out of the wine-press to the bits of the horses for a thousand six hundred stadia.
19:11 And I saw the heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and he that sat thereon called Faithful and True; and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
12 And his eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems; and he hath a name written which no one knoweth but he himself.
13 And he is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which are in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure.
15 And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty.
Hebrews 2:5 For it was not to angels that He subjected the coming inhabited earth, concerning which we speak. 6 For one has solemnly testified somewhere, saying, "What is man, that You bring him to mind? Or the son of man, that You care for him? 7 You have made him a little inferior to the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor and have set him over the works of Your hands; 8 You have subjected all things under his feet.'' For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing unsubject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him,
9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little inferior to the angels because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death on behalf of everything.
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14 Since therefore the children have shared in blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil, 15 And might release those who because of the fear of death through all their life were held in slavery.
Exodus 16:18 And when they measured it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.
Genesis 2:16 And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
3:17 And to Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed be the ground on thy account; with toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 and thorns and thistles shall it yield thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
19 in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Psalms 86:8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works.
Exodus 15:11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over the whole earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
27 And God created Man in his image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over every animal that moves on the earth.
2 Samuel 7:24 And thou hast established to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever; and thou, Jehovah, art become their God.
22:26 With the gracious thou dost shew thyself gracious; With the upright man thou dost shew thyself upright; 27 With the pure thou dost shew thyself pure; And with the perverse thou dost shew thyself contrary.
Psalms 7:6 Arise, Jehovah, in thine anger; lift thyself up against the raging of mine oppressors, and awake for me: thou hast commanded judgment.
10:1 Why, Jehovah, standest thou afar off? Why hidest thou thyself in times of distress?
18:25 With the gracious thou dost shew thyself gracious; with the upright man thou dost shew thyself upright; 26 With the pure thou dost shew thyself pure; and with the perverse thou dost shew thyself contrary.
35:23 Stir up thyself, and awake for my right, for my cause, my God and Lord!
55:1 Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication.
80:15 Even the stock which thy right hand hath planted, and the young plant thou madest strong for thyself.
17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou hast made strong for thyself.
89:46 How long, Jehovah, wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy fury burn like fire?
94:2 Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth, render the reward to the proud.
104:2 Covering thyself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent-curtain; -
Isaiah 33:3 At the noise of the tumult the peoples fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered.
45:15 Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savour. …
63:14 As cattle go down into the valley, the Spirit of Jehovah gave them rest; so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name.
64:12 Wilt thou restrain thyself in presence of these things, Jehovah? Wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
Lamentations 3:44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that prayer should not pass through.
Gen 2:10 Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers.
3:1 Now the serpent had become more crafty than any animal of the field which Jehovah Elohim had made. And it said to the woman, Is it even so, that God has said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
4:1 Now Adam had known Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bore Cain, and said, I have paid the price for Jehovah to become a man.
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