—Verses 6-9.
And now in recognition both of the glory of God revealed in the heavens and also of the goodness of God to man, the psalmist again exclaims out of the fullness of his heart:
Yahwe our lord,
How sublime is thy name in all the earth.
Psalm 8 takes a unique position among the Old Testament hymns of praise. It is addressed altogether in the second person to Yahwe, and to that extent takes on the form and nature of a prayer. But it has no suggestion of a petition, nor does it make any definite effort to express gratitude. It has something of the reflective attitude, as it seems to ponder over man’s place in the universe, but it is assuredly not a teaching nor a wisdom psalm. It has been maintained by some scholars that the first two and last two lines were meant to be sung by a chorus, while the body of the hymn is a solo. However, it is more natural to suppose that in the use of the plural, “Yahwe our Lord,” the psalmist is simply recognizing himself as one of the many followers of Yahwe, rather than that a choir is singing. The truth is that the psalm is intensely individualistic and dominated from beginning to end by the feeling of adoration for Yahwe, the Hebrews’ God and only God, whose name is glorious in all the earth. It is a hymn of praise, but one that stands apart because of the originality and beauty of its literary form, and the sincerity and profundity of the spiritual experience that inspired it.
Chapter V
HEBREW HYMNS IN PRAISE OF SACRED INSTITUTIONS
But there were in Hebrew religious poesie not only hymns in praise of deity, but also hymns in praise of sacred institutions. Especially prominent were hymns in praise of the sanctuary. Naturally however, only those that were written in praise of the temple in Jerusalem, or could be so interpreted had a chance for survival, and of those we have in the Psalter only 84, 122, 48, and 87.
It is best to begin with Psalm 84, for it represents a transition stage between the psalm of lamentation and petition and the hymn of praise. In great part Psalm 84 is addressed in the second person to deity, and it actually has, in verses 9, 10, a petition for Yahwe’s favor. The request in these verses is not explicit, yet the context, especially verses 3 and 11, makes it clear that our psalmist, like the author of Psalms 42-43, earnestly desires the privilege of worshipping in the temple. Moreover the petition of verses 9, 10 is reinforced by a profession of devotion in verses 11-13 that corresponds to the affirmation of faith, so characteristic a feature of the prayer of supplication. In so far this psalm is also itself a psalm of lamentation and supplication. On the other hand verses 2-8 are essentially an expression of devotion to the temple:
How lovely is thy dwelling,
O Yahwe of hosts!