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Salmo 8
Verse 1
Unable to express the glory of God, the psalmist pronounces a exclamation mark. O Jehovah, our Lord! We do not need to be surprised of this, for no heart can measure, no tongue can utter, the half the greatness of Jehovah. All of creation is full of his glory and radiante com a excelência de seu poder; Sua bondade e sabedoria são manifested from all sides. The countless myriads of earthly beings, from the man's head to the crawling worm at his feet, they are all sustained and nourished by Divine generosity. The solid fabric of the universe relies on your eternal arm.
Universally he is present, and everywhere his name is excellent. God He works always and everywhere. There is no place where God is not. miracles of your power await us everywhere. Cross the valleys silent, where the rocks surround it on both sides, rising like the from the heavens until you can see only a strip of blue sky well above her; you may be the only traveler who passed through that valley; the a bird may startle, and the moss may tremble under the first step in the human foot; but God is present in a thousand wonders, sustaining your rocky barriers, filling the flower pots with their perfume and refreshing the solitary pines with the breath of your mouth. Come down, if you wish, to the deepest depths of the ocean. Where the water is undisturbed sleep, and the very sand is still in uninterrupted silence, but the glory of The Lord is there, revealing His excellence in the silent palace of the sea.
Borrow the wings of morning and fly to the most remote parts of the sea, but God is there. Climb to the highest of the heavens, or plunge into the deepest hell. deep, and God is in both corners in eternal songs, or justified in terrible vengeance. Everywhere, and in every place, God dwells and is manifestly at work. Not only on earth is he exalted by Jehovah, because your shine radiates in the firmament above the earth. Your glory exceeds the glory of the starry heavens; over the region of the stars swiftly established the His eternal throne is there, dwelling in ineffable light. Let us worship Him 'the only one who' He stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea, who makes Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south." (Job 9:8, 9). It is hard to find more words that are adequate than those of Nehemiah: "You, you alone are the Lord; you made heaven, heaven of heavens, with all its army, the earth and everything in it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all; and the host of heaven worships you.
Returning to the text, we are led to observe that this Psalm is addressed to God, because no one but the Lord Himself can fully know his own glory. The believing heart is captivated by what it sees, but only God know the glory of God. What sweetness resides in our small word, how great is the glory of God that is admired when we consider our interest in him as our Lord. How excellent is your name, no one the word can express this excellence; and therefore, it is left as a note of exclamation. The very name of Jehovah is excellent, which should be its person. Note the fact that even the heavens cannot contain His glory, it is placed above the heavens, as it is and always must be too great for the creature to express. While wandering among the Alps, we felt that the The Lord was infinitely greater than all his greatest works and, under this feeling, we write the following lines: However, in all of these how great they are, We do not see him. The glass is too dense and dark, or else our eyes born on earth are also dark.
In the Alps, which lift their heads above the clouds and maintain relatives talk to the stars, They are dust, in which the scale does not tremble, Compared to your divine immensity.
The peaks of the snow crown fail to put you ahead, Who dwells in eternity, and has only the name of Most High and Most High.
The depths are not very superficial to express wisdom and the knowledge of the Lord.
The mirror of creatures has no space to hold the image of the Infinite.
It is true that the Lord has written your name, And put your seal on the forehead of creation.
But like the skilled potter he stands out a lot The vessel he moderates in wheel Even so, but in greater proportion far away, The self of Jehovah transcends his noblest works.
The heavy wheels of the Earth would break, the axles would crack.
Loaded with the burden of the Deity.
The space is too narrow for the rest of the Eternal.
And time is too short for your throne.
Even an avalanche and thunder lack a voice, To proclaim the total volume of your praise.
So how can I declare it? Where are the words with which my shining tongue can speak your name?
Silently I bow and humbly adore.
Verse 2
Not only in the heavens above is the Lord seen, but the earth below is revealing its majesty. In the sky, the massive orbits, rolling in its greatness splendid, they are witnesses of its power in great things, Meanwhile, down here, the captivating expressions of babies are the manifestations of its strength in the little ones. How many times do children tell us about a God whom we have forgotten! How your simple chatter refutes the fools scholars who deny the being of God! Many men were made to hold their tongues, while the newborns bore witness to the glory of God of heaven. It is singular how clearly the history of the church exposes this Verse. The children did not cry 'Hosanna!' in the temple, when Were the proud Pharisees silent and disdainful? And the Savior did not mention. these same words as a justification for your childish screams? A history of the early church records many astonishing examples of the testimony of the children for the truth of God, but perhaps instances more the modern ones may be the most interesting. Fox tells us, in the Book of Martyrs, that when Mr. Lawrence was burned in Colchete, he was taken to the fire on a chair, because through the cruelty of the papists, he could not standing, several children came over to the fire, and cried, just like them Lord, strengthen your servant, and keep your promise. answered your prayer, for Mr. Lawrence died with firmness and calmness. as anyone might wish to breathe last. When one of the papist chaplains said to Wishart, the great Scottish martyr, that he had a demon in him, a child who stood up shouted: "A demon cannot "to speak words like what the other man speaks." Another example is still closer to our time. In a postscript to one of his letters, in which he details his persecution when he preached for the first time in Moorfields, Whitfield says: "I can't help but add that several boys and girls, who liked to sit around me on the pulpit while I was preaching, and handed me the notes of the people - although often attacked with eggs, dirt, etc. - thrown at me never gave in, but, on the contrary, every time I was hit, I raised my small watery eyes and it seemed they wanted to receive them blows for me. God makes them, in their years of growth, great and alive martyrs for him who, from the mouths of infants and nursing babies, perfects the Praise! He who delights in the songs of angels takes pleasure in honoring himself. in the eyes of their enemies by the praises of the little children. What a contrast between the glory above the heavens and the mouths of babies and breastfeeding! still thus, by the name of God it is done excellently.
Verses 3, 4. In the end of that excellent little manual entitled 'The Solar System Dick, we found an eloquent passage that beautifully exposes the text: A study of the solar system tends to moderate man's pride and promote humility. Pride is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a thin man and has been one of the main causes of all disputes, wars, devastations, systems of slavery and ambitious projects that they desolated and demoralized our sinful world. However, there is no more incongruous disposition for the character and circumstances of man.
Perhaps there are no rational beings throughout the universe, among which the pride would seem more inappropriate or incompatible than in man, considering the situation in which he is placed. He is exposed to numerous degradations and calamities, to the fury of storms and tempests, to devastations from earthquakes and volcanoes, to the fury of whirlwinds, and the waves stormy seas, the devastations of the sword, hunger, pestilence and numerous diseases; and in the end he must sink into the grave and his body must to become the companion of the worms! The most worthy and proud of the children men are subjected to these and similar degradations, as well as to but the meanest of the human family. However, under such circumstances, the man sees tiny dust, whose knowledge is so limited, and whose madness is so numerous and bright - it has the audacity to show off in all the arrogance of pride and boasting in your shame.
When other arguments and reasons have little effect in certain situations. minds, no consideration seems prone to have a stronger tendency powerful to counterbalance this deplorable propensity in human beings than those that are borrowed from the objects connected with the astronomy. They show us what an insignificant being is - how simple atom, in fact, man appears amidst the vastness of creation! Although he is an object of paternal care and the mercy of the Most High, he is just like a grain of sand to the whole Earth, when compared to the countless myriads of beings that inhabit the vastness of creation. What is the everything in this globe in which we find ourselves compared to the system solar? What contains a mass of matter ten thousand times greater? What is that? in comparison with the hundred million suns and worlds that through the telescope were observed by all the starred regions? What, then, is a kingdom, a province or a baronial territory, of which we are as proud as if we were the masters of the universe and for which we got involved in so much devastation and carnage? What are they, when put in competition with the glories of heaven? We could take our place on the high pinnacles from the sky, and despise this barely distinguishable piece of land, we must be ready to exclaim with Seneca: "It is for this small place that the Are the great designs and the great desires of men confined? "It is because this is why there is so much disturbance among the nations, so much carnage and so many wars ruinous? Oh, the madness of deceived men, to imagine great kingdoms in the the compass of an atom, raising armies to decide a point on earth with the sword! "Dr. Chalmers, in his Astronomical Discourses, says with much sincerity: "We only gave them a weak image of our comparative insignificance.
When we said that the glories of an extended forest would suffer no more with the fall of a single leaf, more than the glories of this extended universe sofreriam apesar do globo sobre o qual pisarmos, "e tudo o que ele herda, should be dissolved.
Verses 5-8. These verses may establish man's position among the creatures before he falls; but as they are, by the apostle Paul, appropriate to man as represented by Lord Jesus, it is better to give more weight to this meaning. In order of dignity, man was alongside the angels. and is a little lower than they; in the Lord Jesus this was achieved, for He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. The man in Eden had complete command over all creatures, and they they came before him receiving their names as an act of tribute to him as the vice regent of God for them. Jesus in his glory is now Lord, not only of all living things, but of all created things, and, with the exception of the one who put all things under him, Jesus is Lord of all, and your chosen ones are elevated to a broader domain than that of the first Adam, as will be more clearly seen in his coming. The psalmist could well... to marvel at the unique exaltation of man in the scale of being, when he marked his absolute nothingness compared to the starry universe.
You do it a little lower than the angels - a little lower in nature, since they are immortal, and a little, because time is short; and when this ends, the saints are no longer inferior to the angels. The margin says: 'A little less than.' You crown him. The dominion that God granted to man is a great glory and honor to him; because every dominion is honor, and the highest is the one who wears the crown. A complete list is given of the creatures subjugated, to show that all the dominion lost by sin is restored in Christ Jesus. May none of us allow the possession of let any earthly creature be a bond for us, but let us remember that we must reign over them and not allow them to reign over us. Under our feet, we must preserve the world we must avoid the base spirit that is content letting worldly worries and pleasures influence the empire of the immortal soul.
Verse 9
Here, like a good composer, the poet returns to his key note, returning, so to speak, to its first state of amazed admiration. The that he began as a proposition in the first verse, he concludes with a well-proven conclusion, with a kind of quand erat demonstrandum. Oh, for the grace of being worthy of that excellent name that has been named about us, and that we are committed to magnifying!