To the Chief Musician, on the Instrument of Gath, a Psalm of David
1. O Yahweh Our Lord,
how excellent is your name in all the earth,
who have set your splendor upon the heavens!
2. From the mouth of babes and nursing infants
you have founded strength
because of your adversaries
to cause to cease an enemy and one who takes vengeance.
3. When I see your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you have established,
4. What is a mortal that you should remember him,
and the son of man that you should visit him?
5. And you have made him a little lower than gods,
and with glory and honor you crowned him.
6. You made him rule over the works of your hands;
Everything you have set under his feet,
7. sheep and oxen, all of them,
and also beasts of the field,
8. birds of the heavens,
and fish of the sea,
whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
9. O Yahweh our Lord,
how excellent is your name in all the earth.
Psalm 8 is not just a psalm about the glory of man in the Lord’s original creation, but especially about the glory of man recreated, made a new creature and given dominion in the new creation. David would have had no reason to speak babies and nursing infants overcoming enemies and avengers, if he were speaking of the original creation. The enemies exist because God divided the human race into two parts, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, after the fall and put enmity between them.
Hebrews 2 confirms this. There the apostle warns us against neglecting the great salvation the Son of God has obtained for us in these last days and then quotes from this psalm to prove how great our salvation is. God has made us a little lower than the angels and crowned us with glory and honor.
However, we do not yet see all things put under us, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. The psalm is first a description of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ in the new creation, and secondarily aa description of the glory he gives to us as he unites us to himself and seats us with himself in heavenly places.