Expositions on the Psalms 8

To the end, concerning the winepresses. A psalm of David. 8. Argument. Of old, in the worship under the law, there was one vat before the press, namely the altar in the temple; but after the call of the Gentiles there are many winepresses; and these would be the churches, which receive the fruits of those who succeed in godliness. [“To the end” is said because the things prophesied have their fulfilment at the end of the ages. For he speaks of Christ and of the churches after the becoming man, since the Only-begotten is called a vine, and the faithful branches. And if the Jew insists that the psalm is spoken of man in general, let it be known even so that all things were subjected to him for this reason: because he came to be in the image of God, who was to become man.] “O Lord our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth!” He is amazed at the knowledge of God’s name given to men; for God is no longer known only to those in Judea. “Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise”: of those who, as God wills, are infants in wickedness. The Saviour too said this plainly, as it is recorded in the Gospels, when the Pharisees tried to silence the children who were blessing him. “Because of your enemies, to destroy the enemy and avenger.” Either the visible enemy, or the spiritual, or the Jewish people; for they drove Christ out as an enemy, while pretending to do this as avengers of the Father. That is why, depriving them of this defence on every side, he said, “Whoever hates me hates my Father also.” “Enemy and avenger”: the devil, clearly; since after compelling men to commit sin he also punishes those who sin, setting the greatness of the sin before their eyes. Or the people of the Jews, an enemy of the truth, but an avenger in seeming to avenge the law. “For I will see the heavens, the works of your fingers.” They are indignant when infants prepare praise; but I behold something so great and so beautiful—the heavens, I mean—as a small work of your craftsmanship. “What is man that you remember him, or the son of man that you visit him? You made him a little lower than the angels.” Since Paul clearly took these words of our Saviour, one must be content with that interpretation. “You subjected all things under his feet.” When God said, “Let us make man according to our image and likeness,” he added, “and let them rule over the fish of the sea,” and goes through the rest in turn, to which he adds, “Increase and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it”; for he gave the rule over all things to the rational nature, as made like God. And man, having received the power of the divine image, was appointed ruler of the things on earth, as God is king of all. But if it is said universally, “And you set him over the works of your hands,” and elsewhere it says, “And the heavens are the works of your hands,” it is clear that he set him over the heavens; and perhaps it signifies mysteriously the life in the heavens of those transferred there from the earth, when they are to inherit the kingdom of heaven, as has been promised. And Paul also says, “Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” So too “You subjected all things under his feet” is to be understood: now, the animals; but since a life equal to the angels is laid up for men in heaven, once set there over the works of his hands, he will be a beholder of the heavens and of what is in them. But blessed Paul took this too of the Saviour, as something to come about in the age to come. That is why the Father says to him, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” “Sheep and all oxen.” He hints at the believers from Israel. “And also the beasts of the field.” By these he means the Gentiles. “The birds of the sky”: those lifted up in their way of life and thinking high things, the most irrational of all. “O Lord our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth!” Taking it up again, he redoubles the wonder, amazed, as I said, at the knowledge of God that has come to men.