“Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” King David writes these words of praise as an introduction to the truth of Psalm 8, which declares God’s majestic sovereignty and lordship over all things created. He then closes the psalm in verse 9 with the same words of praise to underscore this truth.
David is declaring that God’s name is majestic because it excels all others. God’s name, which identifies His character and work, is holy, majestic, mighty, glorious, and excels far above all other names.
Similar thoughts appear in Psalm 104:1-2; “O Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. The rest of the psalm reviews God’s work in creation and concludes with verses 31, “May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works –.”
David continues, “You have set your glory above the heavens.” It is God’s majestic lordship over all things as Creator and Sustainer that reveals his glory. The whole creation, earth and heavens, give witness to God’s majestic glory.
Psalm 8 reminds us that beyond the vastness of the universe is the vastness of God. The moon and stars are merely the work of God’s fingers. The whole universe sits on His potter’s wheel; the whole universe stands on His workbench.
Gazing into the star-filled night sky, the psalmist believed that beyond the vastness of the universe is the vastness of his God. And in his looking and believing, he considers the moon and stars as merely “the work of your (God’s) fingers.”
Recognizing the vastness of creation and the majesty of God “in the heavens,” King David ponders before the Lord: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (vv.3-4).
So, the question being asked is “Will God keep us in His mind?” Will God keep His eye on us?” Being so small in comparison to the vast and endless universe, will God think of us, see us, and care for us?
In his worshipful thoughts toward this Almighty, Creator God, so glorious and majestic in the natural sphere, King David reflects on God’s relationship with us human beings. Reassured and inspired by God’s Spirit, King David declares “You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.” (v.5). Many scholars believe a better translation is, “a little lower than God.”
But the psalmist adds something more in saying that God has “crowned them with glory and honor.” In other words, God intended our glory and honor to be seen in the world as his own glory and honoris seen in the universe.
WOW! God’s name is not simply majestic in all the earth; God’s name is crowned in our hearts, for we are born anew and baptized in God’s majestic name.
The “glory and honor” of this “crown” is given in verse 6, “You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.”
The psalmist is again reflecting on Genesis 1:26, “… so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
That is our God-designed purpose and vocation. Our being crowned with “glory and honor,” is seen in our being made a little lower than God, bearing his image and placed in this world to rule over the earth and its creatures. It is our “glory and honor” to participate in God’s rule. God grants this crown to us as a privilege, and not as a right.
Our Father God, the God in whom we confess our faith, is not a generic, no-name deity. Our God is not a god who created and started the earth going like some cosmic watchmaker and then disappeared from the scene, never to be heard from again.
Our God is the God who gave the Law on Mt. Sinai, saying “I am the Lord your God. …You shall have no other gods before me.” (Ex 20:2a, 3).
This is the glorious God in whose “majestic” name we gather to worship, and by whose “majestic” name we are blessed and sent out into the world to live and act, bearing witness to God’s creative and redeeming work.
Truly, our one vocation in life is to participate in making God’s name “majestic” in all the earth. Daily we pray, “Father, help us make holy your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Like a final chorus, verse 9 repeats verse 1: “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Our place in God’s order evokes this final note of praise. As you discover your divine destiny, please join me in making God’s name majestic in all the earth.
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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – May 11, 2022
Ray M. Geigley
Healing Rays of Righteousness 
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