Why read Psalm 8?
Psalm 8 is a prayer of praise for creation and gratitude for human dignity. Its reflection on the heavens and humanity's place in the world encourages humility and responsible care for creation.
You can read this psalm when its themes speak to your circumstances, or as part of your regular reading of the Psalter. This explanation draws on the text itself; the psalm is not reserved for one particular need.
Psalm 8 opens the heart with the call “O Lord, our God, how wonderful...”. It is one of the 9-verse psalms in the 1st Kathisma and is recited both at services and in prayer at home — the Psalter being a foundational book for the Orthodox Christian.
The text of Psalm 8
1. O Lord, our God, how wonderful is Your name in all the earth! For Your glory has risen above the heavens.
2. From the mouths of infants and nursing children You have prepared praise because of Your enemies, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3. When I behold the heavens, the work of Your hands, the moon and the stars which You have established, I say to myself:
4. What is man that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You visit him?
5. You made him a little lower than the angels; with glory and honour You crowned him.
6. You set him over the work of Your hands; You subjected all things under his feet.
7. All sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field;
8. The birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, those that pass along the paths of the seas.
9. O Lord, our God, how wonderful is Your name in all the earth!
When Psalm 8 is read
- in praise and wonder before creation.
- At the end of each psalm, tradition adds: «Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.».
Adjacent psalms
Read also
The numbering follows the Orthodox Psalter (Septuagint). The same psalm may have a different number in other Bible editions.
