“To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.
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. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” -Psalm 8
Psalm 8 has a chiastic structure that should be contemplated as a whole before considering its parts.
A) refrain: The majesty of the Lord’s name (8:1a)
B) question: What is the value of humanity to God? (8:1b-4)
B’) answer: God has given him glory and made him to rule the earth. (8:5-8)
A’) refrain: The majesty of the Lord’s name (8:9)
The Psalm is framed with an inclusio that magnifies the majesty of the Lord yet contemplates man’s dignity as God’s representative on earth. David marvels that the Lord, Yahweh, should graciously honor mankind by appointing him to take dominion and rule over the earth, to be the stewards of His glorious creation.
Our first consideration—where we get our dignity as human beings—informs every other philosophical and practical question man will ever ask.