MARTIN CAREY | Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Life Assurance Ministries Board Member |
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. —Psalm 8:1-2 ESV
God’s name is majestic all over the world, everywhere, all the time. For those of us who can see His majesty, we call upon Him by name. David uses two different names for God in this chapter. The first name, LORD, is a translation of Yahweh, God’s personal, covenantal name He gave to Israel in Exodus 3. That name derives from the Hebrew for “I am who I am,” the Self-existent One. The second name David gives for God is “our Lord,” a translation of Adonay, meaning lord or master (Bible Hub, Adonay). The eternal, self-existent one is our personal Lord. Here we catch a glimpse of the Son of David who, as we shall see, comes after to fulfill the full meaning of Psalm 8.
Our Lord has placed His signature on great things, every continent, every mountain and hillside, every part of our privileged planet. We also find His glory shining in small things, on every leaf, even on the tiniest bugs that crawl. Have you ever studied a pill bug, also known as a roly-poly? I recommend you do so. Roly-polies are in your yard, humbly doing God’s bidding as His little soil recyclers. Take a look at them with your majesty glasses on. He designed and sustains all His little creatures. His glory fills all the earth, in plain sight for those with eyes to see.
Far above our planet and above the cosmos, the Psalmist tells us God has set His glory out of reach, out of sight, above the heavens. Everyone senses He is there, for even the hardest unbeliever knows the heavens show royal majesty. The nations have always believed that the heavenly bodies rule human lives and history, so they worshipped the stars. But here in Psalm 8, our Lord is unimaginably greater and more powerful than the zodiacal constellations. He has placed His glory and power above the stars, where He dwells in unapproachable light (1Tim. 6:16).
But then in verse 2 David suddenly brings us back down to earth:
“Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.”
Why does David suddenly take us from God’s immense glory above the heavens, to the mouths of babies? How does God’s majesty connect the greatest things above to weak, helpless little babies? Why would God establish His strength through little children because of His enemies? Let’s look closer. We begin to see this power-in-weakness theme all through chapter 8, where God perfects praise and defeats his enemies through the cries of little babies. In the same way, God placed great authority on weak little mankind to rule the earth. Compared to the stars, man is insignificant. “What is man that you are mindful of Him?” In choosing to show His power through weakness, His wisdom through our folly, God displays His glorious qualities. John Piper calls this God’s “mark of majesty.”
“So when Jesus, the God-man, came into the world, this was the mark of his majesty. God’s strength magnified in human weakness. God’s victory achieved through childlike lowliness. God’s rule of the world established through humble servanthood.” (https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-peculiar-mark-of-majesty-part-1)
We take comfort knowing that God is all-powerful, but how do babies defeat God’s enemies? Babies are helpless, needy, and weak. They lack understanding and have no political skills. Babies cry and shake their little fists, they squeal with delight, and they get our attention, but they are not warriors. We don’t see statues of babies in city squares, standing in heroic poses with raised swords. In the military, they train for strength and skill. When God conducts His warfare, however, He frustrates His foes by turning human values upside down. In Zechariah 9:9, Israel rejoices when their heroic future king appears in humility and weakness:
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey.
As Christians who grew up with the story of Jesus riding a donkey, it’s hard to imagine how strange this would seem to anyone who understood warfare. Earthly heroes never ride donkeys into battle. Victory is achieved with terror and intimidation with superior forces. Not so with Israel’s Son of David. Zecharia’s prophecy is fulfilled in Matthew 21, when Jesus rode a donkey colt into Jerusalem. The crowd sees the prophecy coming to life, they are ecstatic, and follow Him into the city. But not everyone was happy.
But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” —Matthew 21:15-16
There is chaos in the city. The noisy crowd watches as Jesus enters the temple court, acting with divine amazing authority, driving out the money changers, then healing all the sick that came to Him. The children are shouting “Hosanna!” which means “Salvation!” They praise Him as the Son of David, the Messiah. The priests and scribes are indignant, asking “Where are the parents? They have no idea what they are shouting!” In Luke’s description of this scene, Jesus tells the Pharisees “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” When they ask Jesus if He hears the unruly children, He captures the moment in one word, “Yes!” and He quotes Psalm 8, “Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise.” The enemies and avengers are silenced.
He hears what the children are crying out to Him, He accepts and approves of their words. Jesus clearly indicates that the Psalm is a prophecy about Him. Psalm 8:2 tells of children praising God, and on Palm Sunday, Jesus accepts this praise for Himself. God is glorified and prophecy is fulfilled when His children praise Him, the Majestic One.
Children are not only loved members of Christ’s kingdom, but are the only kind of people that qualify as members:
“At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” —Matthew 18:1-4
Likewise, the secrets of the kingdom of heaven are shown to the lowly and unsophisticated:
At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”—Matthew 11:25-26
Our Lord Jesus is majestic because He is gentle and lowly, the delightful childlike qualities he asks of us.
He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrowsand acquainted with grief.—Isaiah 53:2-3
Jesus humbled Himself as a servant, and was faithful to the point of death. That is why God gave Him a name above every name (Philippians 2:8). God set His glory above the heavens when His Son rose from the dead, and ascended to sit down by His Father’s side.
When we are converted and born again, we have a fresh, childlike humility that can love in a trusting and vulnerable way. We can be most comforted when we are suffering, remembering that our weakest times in life are times for our Lord to establish His strength. When Satan tries to beat us down with discouragement over our failures, we don’t defeat him by arguing with him, or by pretending to be strong. When we are feeling defeated and weak, we cry out like children to Jesus, and He will silence the enemy. He will still the avenger. Trusting in Jesus during hard times, we can claim those words said to the chronically suffering Paul,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
- Out of the Mouths of Babies - December 5, 2025
- Made Lower Than Angels - October 2, 2025
- A Creation Conversation: The Adventist Agenda - July 31, 2025