A fundamental challenge of every human being is to strive to develop a healthy and accurate understanding of the Being described in Scripture whose name is Jehovah. When David twice exclaims “How excellent is Thy name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:1, 9), he was not engaging in hyperbole or flattery. Therefore, his praise-filled declaration (Psalm 8) ought to be probed and pondered carefully and often.
The Hebrew word translated “excellent” denotes the idea of superiority. Given the meaty facts about Jehovah that are sandwiched in between the psalm’s first and last verses, what other conclusion about Jehovah is there to draw?
Jehovah is superior to humanity in power as the star maker is to the star gazer (Psalm 8:3). In driving home this point to Job (and to us), Jehovah’s questions were: “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loose the belt of Orion? Can you bring out Mazzaroth in its season? Or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
Can you set their dominion over the earth?” (Job 38:31-33). No earthbound creature can do anything more than gaze in wonder at the heavenly work performed by the fingers of God. How puny is the power of any human in comparison to the Almighty!
Jehovah is superior to humanity in rank as the king is to the footman. Jehovah, to whom the angelic beings express utter reverence (Isaiah 6:1-3) and pristine obedience (Matthew 6:10), has made humanity a little lower than the angels (v. 5). Jehovah who rules the entire universe—heaven and earth—as king has set His glory above the heavens (v. 1); humanity has been assigned dominion over his footstool—one planet in the universe, earth (Isaiah 66:1). Whatever glory a human attains comes and goes like a blossoming flower (James 1:11).
Jehovah’s superiority in power and rank is neither transitory nor insignificant. How excellent it is! How imperative it is that every human in all the earth recognize it and rejoice therein!
