“Jesus is not a footnote to Adam and his Fall; the Fall…is a footnote to the purpose of God in Christ.” —B. Kruger
Sometimes it’s good to end exactly where you started if you can’t make any improvements. David thinks so in Psalm 8. He begins and finishes with these words: “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth” (vv 1, 9). The Hebrew words he uses are these: O Yhwh [Jehovah], our Adon. Or we might say, O Covenant-Keeping Lord, our Master. Jehovah is His name; Lord is His title. He’s the One who excels all others, for He is the Creator and Sustainer of all. But David is just beginning because earth is only His “footstool” (Isa 66:1). Yes, Lord, You “have set Your glory above the heavens!” as well (Ps 8:1). But suddenly the scene changes, and you can hardly believe it. This excellent, supreme Lord has “enemies”? What mighty power at His disposal will He use to neutralize them? Babies! That’s right. “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength” in order to “silence the enemy and the avenger” (v 2). How often have the lisping words of a child led a hard-hearted relative to Christ when the most eloquent preacher could not? And spiritual babes, too, are often more effective in the time of their new-found zeal. This idea of using the weak to do God’s bidding leads us to contrast the vastness of space with little man whom God called to be His viceroy over creation (vv 3-8). The two words used for man are humbling in themselves. “What is man [Heb, enosh, ‘frail, mortal man’]…and the son of man [ben-adam, ‘son of the dust’]” (v 4). Adam discarded that honor, ah, but there is another Man, “who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death” (Heb 2:9). He is putting everything back in order and will soon accomplish it perfectly. How excellent is HIS Name!