To Still the Enemy

Psalm 8

For most of my adult Christian life, I stayed away from the psalms. First of all, poetry. Yuk! But the psalms seems full of “church, religious” language that just sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher: blah, blah, blah, blah. But thanks to the persistent work of the Spirit who leads us into all truth, including the psalms, the prayer book of the Old Testament has come alive to me. These ancient prayers are a treasure trove of how to seek the Lord in all sorts of circumstances. But even so, to find the treasure, you do have to dig through some words.

Psalm 8 is a classic example of finding treasure in an unlikely place. This short psalm, only nine verses, appears to be a worship psalm, the words of David to lead the people of God to worship the beauty and greatness of who God is. It begins and ends with the same refrain: O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. However, a closer look reveals that there is much more than worship going on here.

The majesty of the name of the Lord is displayed in two primary ways, at least in this song. The first way is creation itself. The glory of God is set above the heavens (1), and the work of God’s fingers in the moon and stars (3) reveals His glory. It is very common for the psalmist to begin his or her praise from creation. If God is the creator and sustainer of all things, then there is great reason to not only call to Him in worship but also to call out to Him in need. If He is before all things, and creator of all things, and all things are created by Him and for Him, then asking for His help makes total sense. On the other hand, if God is a created being and not sovereign over all of creation, then why look to Him for help?

The second way that the glory of God is on display is in human beings. Not only do humans bear the image of God, but the Creator is mindful of and cares for each person (4). In fact, God has crowned men and women with glory, giving them dominion over all of His creation (5-6), whether sheep or oxen or birds or fish (7-8). What is man that God has created, cares for, and entrusted with so much?

The poem follows a very straightforward path. How majestic is the name of the Lord in all the earth. He has set his glory in the heavens, even the moon and stars. And look at the humans created in the image of God? What a great God who knows each of them, cares for them, and entrusts all of creation to their dominion! O Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! A nice, neat, concise poem.

But what do we do with verse 2?

In the logical flow of praise and worship as outlined in the previous paragraph, there was no room for verse 2. Verse 2 mentions babies and infants, which could just be examples of humans that God cares for and knows, except, that is not the emphasis of the verse. The psalm says that God, the Lord, the Creator of all things, has established strength to still the enemy and the avenger. Notice that enemy and avenger are singular. And the song is not talking about our enemies but the Lord’s enemy, the single enemy, Satan, and all those who follow Him including the spiritual forces of darkness but also those humans who refuse to follow the Lord. It seems that the Lord is giving strength to babies and infants (who grow up to be adults) to still the enemy and the avenger. And this strength, established by the Lord, is found in the form of the words that come out of the mouths of human babies and infants. Or as another translation puts it, “Through the praise of children and infants, you have established a stronghold against Your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger” (NIV).

Could it be that this simple song that calls us to see the majesty of the Lord in creation, to wonder of His care and knowledge of each one of us, is actually a call to be His instrument in creation to silence the Devil and the fallen angels? And this powerful weapon of spiritual warfare can be yielded by infants!

If this is true, it puts worship in a whole new perspective, doesn’t it? We don’t gather to sings songs simply because we like the tunes. The words of our mouth are THE way that the Creator of All Things silences His enemy!

This article is part of a yet to be published work by Pastor Todd Pylant entitled, “Ancient Problems, Modern Prayers.”