Psalms 8 (ASV)

Chapter Text

8:1 O Jehovah, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth, Who hast set thy glory upon the heavens!

8:2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou established strength, Because of thine adversaries, That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

8:3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?

8:5 For thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor.

8:6 Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet:

8:7 All sheep and oxen, Yea, and the beasts of the field,

8:8 The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

8:9 O Jehovah, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth! Psalm 9 For the Chief Musician; set to Muthlabben. A Psalm of David.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "all things", "sheep", "jehovah", "lord", "excellent", "name", "earth", and "hast". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "all things" and "sheep", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The local ASV text gives this verse as the immediate unit, so "all things" and "sheep" carries the first interpretive weight. In The LORD as Shepherd, the local focus is trust, covenant mercy, guidance, and worship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "all things" and "sheep" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.