Tehilim Perek 8

Welcome to NachDaily, covering the entire TANACH one perek at a time. I’m Rabbi Shaya Sussman, and today we’ll be discussing Tehilim, perek ches.

The Rambam explains that a person who wants to come to the love and fear of God should look around at the creation and see the impeccable order and design that fills the world. In this perek we focus on God’s enormity.

When we take time and let our minds settle, the truth of this becomes significantly more apparent.

For the leader; on the gittis. A psalm of David.

When we take a look at the word “gitis,” we’ll gain insight into the time that Dovid wrote this kapital.

Rashi learns that gitis is the name of a musical instrument that the Leviim would use in the Beis Hamikdash when they sang this perek.

However, the Radak learns that Dovid wrote this perek when he was in “Gas,” which is where he fought Golius.

Furthermore, some of the Meforshim learn that Dovid wrote this perek when he was in the house of Oved Edom in Gas. In Shmuel Beis, perek vav, we learn that when the Plishtim returned the Ahron to Yisrael, it stayed in that house.

O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your Name throughout the earth, You who have covered the heavens with Your splendor!

The Radak explains that not only did Hashem create the earth, but He is still involved in every aspect of creation.

From the mouths of unborns and nursing babies You established Your might to encounter Your adversaries, to put an end to enemy and avenger.

The Malbim relates that man is powerless without Hashem. Even a fetus inside its mother’s womb is only sustained because Hashem allows it to be connected through the umbilical cord.

When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars that You set in place,

Now we come back to Hashem’s vastness. When people begin to sense their smallness in relation to His world, they automatically start to feel more humble.

While we all know that Hashem governs the natural order and the physical world, do we know that He also runs our mental, emotional and spiritual well-being?

We have to recognize that there is formless energy and intelligence behind life. All mankind is a manifestation of this Divine energy, which powers us.

Parenthetically, even physicists have come to recognize this on the most basic level. We are all made up of the same formless energy, the energy of God.

I had never totally understood that. While I believed very strongly in God, and that He runs everything, I failed to make the connection that this includes our psychological functioning. Essentially, therefore, I saw myself as separate from God. Now I know to ease up, and let God run the show.

Sure, we know that God is out there, but do we recognize that He is inside of us?

If we realize that we aren’t separate from God, but in fact are all manifestations of the formless Divine energy, we will go through life with less judgment, feel less worn down, be more graceful during our low points, and have more moments of peace of mind.

what is man that You have been mindful of him, mortal man that You have taken note of him?

Dovid asks why man is considered so great – if anything, he seems lowly.

In the next passuk we get our answer.

You have made him little less than Divine, and adorned him with glory and majesty;

The Malbim explains that Man is so high because his essence is his Divine soul. When all other creatures die, their existence is over. When humans die, the soul transcends on high and moves into a different world. It exists forever.

This is what is meant by the words V’tach’sirahu ma’at M’elokim. We are almost like God. Of course we are not God, but we are similar in that we are all manifestations of His energy.

We are a drop in the ocean, a spark from the flame. Mankind’s essence is Divine in nature. We are all created b’tselem Elokim.

You have made him master over Your handiwork, laying the world at his feet,

And here we see our ability to rule over creation.

Rashi gives the examples of Yehoshua stopping the sun, Moshe splitting the sea, and Eliyahu reviving the dead.

sheep and oxen, all of them, and wild beasts, too; the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, whatever travels the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name throughout the earth!

Have a wonderful day.