The Devil Hates Babies: Reflections on Psalm 8

Text

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! 
You have set your glory above the heavens. 
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, 
you have established strength because of your foes, 
to still the enemy and the avenger. 
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, 
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 
4  what is man that you are mindful of him, 
and the son of man that you care for him? 
5  Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings 
and crowned him with glory and honor. 
6  You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; 
you have put all things under his feet, 
7  all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 
8  the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, 
whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 
9  O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! 

An Introduction

The Devil loves it when you get the kids out of Sunday worship, and this Psalm tells us why.

Psalm 8 is often read as a text about the weak overcoming the strong. And while God indeed loves to overthrow the informed, the posh, the cosmopolitan, and the strong with the weak, the uncouth, the rednecks, and the uninformed, this Psalm is about a much larger story. It is essential we see the story David is alluding to here as he grounds his praise for Yahweh in the unfolding of this story in his own life and the history of the world. Two keys will help us interpret this Psalm correctly: Notice the use of singulars and plurals. The mouth. The Enemy. The Avenger. The son of man. Second, notice how the Psalm is organized: It is bookended with worship, and in the middle, it moves from a statement concerning what God has promised and accomplished through redemption in verse 2 to what he has established regarding the vocation of man in vv. 3-8. Let's look at these two sections in turn, and then I'll try to explain why the yelping of children in worship is good for the soul.

The Progression

There are several connections between Ps 8:2-8 and Genesis 1-3. These allusions set the context for David's progression. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God in Genesis 3, they were told that their sin would result in death. But even in this condemnation for their sin, the promise of the gospel is given by God in his condemnation of the Serpent, the Enemy, the Avenger. He says that the seed of the woman would "bruise" the head of the Serpent. Man was made to exercise dominion over the world - he was made to rule over all that God had created and to do so such that the world would be filled with the fruit of godly children, the society and fruitfulness that such children would bring, and thus the filling of the earth with the image and authority of God. In tempting man to rebel against God and, therefore, against his vocation, the Serpent becomes the "ruler of this age." With the judgment and consequence of death given to man, rule may seem unchallenged. But God speaks this word of judgment over the Serpent, and the promise is that there will be children given to Adam and Eve and that these children will bruise and eventually crush his "head" - they will overthrow his rule.

This is the meaning of verse 2. David, the shadow of the fulfillment of this promise given in the garden, alludes to this judgment and defeat of the Enemy. The voices of babes silence the Avenger. The Dragon's rebellion and tyranny will be overthrown in the coming of the Child, who comes to bruise his head. The bruising of the Dragon's head is synonymous with destroying his rule.

The Devil hates children. More specifically, he hates babies. He hates them because their cries, yelps, and laughter are sure signs of his defeat. The cries of Adam and Eve's children undoubtedly caused him to tremble in fear. The inarticulate sounds of a babe in its mother's arms bring terror to the heart of the Dragon.

The goal of this defeat of the Dragon is then described in vv. 3-8. Man, the sons and daughters of Adam, are given their God-created dominion. They are restored to their creational vocation: To exercise authority on the earth. To rule over what God has made. They are but a little under the heavenly beings in glory and authority. They are given honor.

So, the praise of God's name in all the earth is grounded in David's accounting of the good promises of God, and the purposes of God fulfilled in Jesus. The Serpent's rule is silenced and bruised by the mouths of babies and ultimately crushed in the coming of the babe born in Bethlehem.

Living and Singing Psalm 8

It is hard to miss the war on children in our age. From the "right" to tear a child limb-from-limb in the womb, the organ given to nurture life, to the ubiquitousness of social media culture cultivating despondency in adolescents - there is a shocking opposition to the flourishing of children. Parenting is marginalized to careers. Children are maimed in the name of "gender-affirming" "care." The implementation of the Serpent's rage is everywhere. Churches, too, have far too often removed the sound of God's victory over the Avenger by relegating children to some other room while the "real" church worships together. But while our songs declare the great victory of the lamb over the schemes of the Enemy, there is no more potent sound voicing the defeat of the Devil than the sounds coming from the mouths of babes during church's worship. May we learn to hear again the cries of children in our worship as what it is - the silencing of the Accuser.

So, too, may parents see how and why the Devil hates babies. There is a vital need in this hour of the West to defend our children from the onslaught of violent ideologies that seek to silence the glory that comes from the mouths of children. Do not underestimate the glory invested in those little years.

Finally, we ought to see the glory and the honor Jesus has redeemed us for: To rule in this world for the glory of our Maker and Redeemer. God has silenced our Enemy so that we might, in the redemption given to us in Jesus, by faith in his work and office, be a little lower than the heavenly beings: that we might bear his authority, under his word, in the whole world. How beautiful is the name of God in all the earth!