Изъяснение псалма 8-го.

Ps.8:1. To the head of the choir. On the gun of Gath. Psalm of David. “At the end about the sharpeners, a psalm to David.” You need to know that in every psalm in which the Seventy used the expression: “to the end,” Aquila and Theodotion translated: “To the victorious,” and Symmachus: “victorious.” So this Psalm is offered as a song of victory to the Victorious God, who crushed the “enemy and local” the devil, and finally freed people from his torment. The Prophet calls churches “presses,” because the Lord is also called a vine. For He Himself said in the Holy Gospel: “I am the true vine” (John 15:1). By collecting grapes from it, believers prepare mysterious wine. This serves as a great accusation against the unbelief of the Jews. For they, hearing about the multitude of sharpening stones, and clearly knowing that they were given a single sharpening point, or rather, not a sharpening point, but a fore-pressing point (it is said: “the sharpening stone of the gravestones is in Him, and he waited, that he might make the grapes, and create the thorns” - (Is. 5:2), they do not want to understand that the old things have ceased, but the grace of the New has appeared Covenant calling for the salvation of all people. Therefore, it is not according to the old law, not at one altar, that the priests cast human fruits into the winepress, but altars have been erected everywhere on earth and sea, exceeding any number. The eighty-third psalm shows this more clearly; because this one too, having the inscription: “about grindstones,” mentioned many altars. It says: “Since Your village is beloved, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs and ends for the courts of the Lord” (Ps. 83:2–3), and after a few words: “Thy altars, O Lord of hosts” (Ps. 83:4). And the last psalm, inscribed “about the grindstones,” predicts the salvation of the universe, shows God’s care for people, and predicts the incarnation of the Only Begotten. Ps.8:2. Lord our God! how majestic is Your name throughout the whole earth! Your glory extends above the heavens! “O Lord our Lord, for Your name is wonderful throughout all the earth, for Your splendor is exalted above the heavens.” The particle “like” is used here not for comparison, but for assertion of speech. Your name, Lord, says the Prophet, is hymned loudly. Everyone calls You the Creator of heaven and earth. What was said: “Your splendor will be exalted above the heavens,” means: everyone knew that You rule over heaven and earth and over everything. Although You Yourself always had splendor, people did not always know this. Blessed Habakkuk also predicts something similar. For, having said: “God will come from the south, and the Holy One from the overshadowed mountain,” he added: “The heavens have covered His virtue, and the earth is full of His praises” (Hab. 3:3). And God himself, appearing to Jacob, when he asked about his name, said: “What are you asking about my name? It’s a wonderful thing to eat” (Gen. 32:29). Ps.8:3. From the mouths of babes and sucklings You have made praise for the sake of Your enemies, in order to silence the enemy and the avenger. “From the mouth of a child and a pissing creature, you have made praise, O thy enemy, for the sake of destroying the enemy and the local.” In this way You especially showed Your power, that through people who were not trained in human wisdom, but in their simplicity were like nursing babies, you crushed this crafty tormentor, who, being always hostile to You God, and out of enmity towards You, seducing people, even as some formidable judge subjects them to punishment for deception. So, having set Ahithophel to give this advice, he put him to death by suicide. So, having armed Judas for betrayal, he rewarded him with a noose as a reward for his obedience. The truth of this prophecy can be learned from history. For in the Holy Gospel to the indignant Jews that the children, going ahead with the branches, said: “Hosanna in the highest: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” the Lord Christ answered: “Have you not said: from the mouth of a child and of those who piss you have made praise” (Matthew 21:9, 16)? Why do these children condemn the unrecognizable Jewish people, this, like the devil, “enemy and local”; because this people, always breaking the law of God, and doing contrary to God’s commands, then, as if struggling for the Lawgiver, crucified the Lord Christ, calling Him an adversary of God and a violator of the law. Ps.8:4. When I look at Your heavens - the work of Your fingers, at the moon and stars that You have set. “For I will see the heavens, the works of Your finger, the moon and the stars, which You founded.” As proof of Your greatness, Lord, the elements, the sky, the moon, the earth, the sun and their prosperity and splendor are sufficient. But Your Providence, which extends even to insignificant people, much more preaches Your ineffable love for mankind. Ps.8:5. What is man, that You remember him, and the son of man, that You visit him? “What is man, since you remember him? Or son of man, because you visit him? This is no longer said about creation, but about industry. The Prophet does not say: “as you created,” but: “as you remember and visit.” In another place, the insignificance of human nature is depicted more clearly in deplorable terms. For, he says, “man is like vanity: his days pass away like shadows” (Ps. 143:4). And again: “a man is like the grass of his days, like a flower of the field, so shall he blossom: like the spirit that has passed through him, he shall not be, and no man shall know his place” (Ps. 102:15-16). One can find thousands of other similar passages in the Divine Scriptures that demolish human pride. Therefore, here too the prophetic word cries out in surprise: “What is man, that you remember him? Or son of man, because you visit him? And you not only brought him into existence, but also bestowed well-being, and you never cease to remember, and you visit the sick. Ps.8:6. You made him a little lower than the Angels: You crowned him with glory and honor. Ps.8:7. You have made him ruler over the works of Your hands; He put everything under his feet. Ps.8:8. Sheep and oxen of all kinds, and also the beasts of the field. Ps.8:9. Birds of the air and fish of the sea, everything that passes along the sea paths. Ps.8:10. Lord our God! How majestic is Your name throughout the whole earth! “Thou art made a little less than an angel.” Here the Prophet brought to mind the definition pronounced on the crime, because man is lowered before the Angels by mortality. “You crowned him with glory and honor”: “And Thou didst place him over the works of Thy hand.” And this took on our nature after the incarnation of God and our Savior. For “by grace is salvation,” says the divine Apostle: “and rise with Him, and make us sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:5-6). “Thou hast subdued all things under His nose”: “All sheep and oxen, and also Polish cattle.” "The birds of the air and the fish of the sea, the passing paths of the sea." An accurate proof of Your love for mankind and power is the fact that You have filled the humiliated human nature with so much wisdom, and man rules not only over the animals of the earth, but also over birds and fish, and over those living in the water and on land, in ways invented by him, he captures both at height and at depth, and subjugates those flying in the air and hiding in the waters. And just as dominion over this is granted to all people in general, so God’s Word, having received the firstfruits of our nature, making it His own church, and calling it His own flesh, having accomplished an ineffable unity, sat “above all principality and power and dominion, and every name that is called, not only in this world, but also in coming. And subdue all things under your nose” (Eph. 1:21–22), not all sheep and oxen, but all visible and invisible creation, as the divine Apostle testifies to this, clearly crying: “We see Jesus as a little child of the angels, but because he accepted death, he was crowned with glory and honor” (Heb. 2:9). And a little higher he says: “Thou hast put all things under His nose” (Heb. 2:8). And in the Epistle to the Corinthians it is said: “Whenever you say that all things are subject to Him, you will find that all things are subject to Him” (1 Cor. 15:27). For one uncreated nature, as free, is excluded from this conquest. Nature, having received existence from the uncreated, whatever it may be, visible or invisible, is subordinate to the Lord Christ, both as God and as man. Human nature has received such an honor from the God of all. Why did the Prophet, at the conclusion of the psalm, repeat the very beginning: “O Lord our Lord, how wonderful is Your name throughout all the earth.” You might be interested in: