the mouth (as the means of blowing) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
babes
עֽוֹלְלִ֨ים'o.Lim
H5768
a suckling · noun, common masculine plural absolute
sucklings
וְֽיֹנְקִים֮ve.yo.ne.Kim
H3243
to suck · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural absolute
ordained
יִסַּ֪דְתָּ֫yi.Sad.ta
H3245
to set (literally or figuratively) · verb, piel perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
strength
עֹ֥ז'oz
H5797
strength in various applications (force · noun, common masculine singular absolute
enemies
צוֹרְרֶ֑יךָtzo.Rei.kha
H6887
to cramp · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
still
לְהַשְׁבִּ֥יתle.hash.Bit
H7673
to repose · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
enemy
א֝וֹיֵ֗ב'o.Yev
H341
hating · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
avenger
וּמִתְנַקֵּֽםu.mit.na.Kem
H5358
to grudge · conjunction + verb, hithpael active participle, masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Matthew 21:16 And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings…
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory…
Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and…
Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
1 Corinthians 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the t…
Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and…
Luke 10:21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the…
Psalms 44:16 For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 8:1-2
The psalmist here sets himself to give to God the glory due to his name. Dr. Hammond grounds a conjecture upon the title of this psalm concerning the occasion of penning it. It is said to be upon Gittith, which is generally taken for the tune, or musical instrument, with which this psalm was to be sung; but he renders it upon the Gittite, that is, Goliath the Gittite, whom he vanquished and slew (1 Sa. 17); that enemy was stilled by him who was, in comparison, but a babe and a suckling. The conjecture would be probable enough but that we find two other psalms with the same title, Ps. 81 and Psa 84:1. Two things David here admires: -
I. How plainly God displays his glory himself, Psa 8:1. He…
So manifest are God's perfections, that by very weak instruments He conclusively sets forth His praise. Infants are not only wonderful illustrations of God's power and skill, in their physical constitution, instincts, and early developed intelligence, but also in their spontaneous admiration of God's works, by which they put to shame--
still--or, silence men who rail and cavil against God. A special illustration of the passage is afforded in Mat 21:16, when our Saviour stilled the cavillers by quoting these words; for the glories with which God invested His incarnate Son, even in His humiliation, constitute a most wonderful display of the perfections of His wisdom, love, and power. In view…
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,.... Not literally such, though the Jewish writers (e) generally so understand it; as do some Christian interpreters, who explain it of the wonderful formation, nourishment, and growth of infants; and of the marvellous care of God in providing the breast for them; in filling it with milk, and teaching them to suck; which, being observed by men, occasion praise to God, to the confusion of atheists and infidels. But this is no other than what is common to brute creatures: rather the words are to be understood in a figurative sense. So Jarchi applies them to the priests and Levites in the temple: but it is best to interpret them of the apostles and first…
The Church Fathers
The meaning is this: you are worthy of praise not only from those who are perfect who know you fully, but you are proclaimed with the mouths of beginners in the faith and little children.… The psalmist professes that even infants proclaim God. By this he means those who have begun to come to the Lord in newness of faith, so that this wisdom might appear to have been conferred through God's intervention rather than to have been gleaned through human effort.
David composed the eighth psalm with reference to Christ, speaking of his divine nature in the first verses of it, as the Lord Christ himself also testifies of it in the Gospel, when they strewed his way with branches and praised him with shouts of welcome, saying: Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord! And when the Jews, finding themselves powerless to rebuke the multitudes and the children, (for it was a marvellous spectacle—to see boys, babes and sucklings, and the disciples and the multitudes joining in shouts of applause, and with loud voices praising him in song), took in hand to throw questions at him, and said to him: Hearest thou not what these are saying? But another evangelist says: Some from among the crowd said to him: Rebuke thy disciples; as if they would say—Why dost thou blaspheme, accepting a hymn which can be suitably applied to God alone? each of the parties who addressed him having the same purpose in view. Unto them the Lord said—to the one party: Yea, have ye never read; Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained praise? clearly indicating that the eighth psalm had reference to him.
"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast made perfect praise, because of Thine enemies" [Psalm 8:2]. I cannot take babes and sucklings to be any other than those to whom the Apostle says, "As unto babes in Christ I have given you milk to drink, not meat." [1 Corinthians 3:1-2] Who were meant by those who went before the Lord praising Him, of whom the Lord Himself used this testimony, when He answered the Jews who bade Him rebuke them, "Have ye not read, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast made perfect praise?" [Matthew 21:16] Now with good reason He says not, Thou hast made, but, "Thou hast made perfect praise." For there are in the Churches also those who now no more drink milk, but eat meat: whom the same Apostle points out, saying, "We speak wisdom among them that are perfect;" [1 Corinthians 2:6] but not by those only are the Churches perfected; for if there were only these, little consideration would be had of the human race. But consideration is had, when they too, who are not as yet capable of the knowledge of things spiritual and eternal, are nourished by the faith of the temporal history, which for our salvation after the Patriarchs and Prophets was administered by the most excellent Power and Wisdom of God, even in the Sacrament of the assumed Manhood, in which there is salvation for every one that believeth; to the end that moved by Its authority each one may obey Its precepts, whereby being purified and "rooted and grounded in love," he may be able to run with Saints, no more now a child in milk, but a young man in meat, "to comprehend the breadth, the length, the height, and depth, to know also the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ." [Ephesians 3:17-19]
Dictionary and topics
Astronomy — The Hebrews were devout students of the wonders of the starry firmanent (Amos 5:8; Ps. 19). In the Book of Job, which is the oldest book of the Bible in all probability, the constellations are…
Gittith — A stringed instrument of music. This word is found in the titles of Ps. 8, 81, 84. In these places the LXX. render the word by “on the wine-fats.” The Targum explains by “on the harp which David…
Music, Instrumental — Among instruments of music used by the Hebrews a principal place is given to stringed instruments. These were, (1.) The kinnor, the “harp.” (2.) The nebel, “a skin bottle,” rendered “psaltery.” (3.)…
Psalms, Book Of — The present Hebrew name of the book is Tehill’im, “Praises;” but in the actual superscriptions of the psalms the word Tehillah is applied only to one, (Psalms 145:1) ... which is indeed emphatically…
Agency · IN SALVATION OF MEN — IN SALVATION OF MEN
Babes · A symbol of the guileless — A symbol of the guileless
Children · Are capable of glorifying God — Are capable of glorifying God
Missionaries, All Christians Should Be As · Women and children as well as men — Women and children as well as men
Praise · UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
Preaching · UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
Psalm 8:2
2. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast founded thy strength, because of thy adversaries, that thou mightest put to flight the enemy and avenger.
He now enters upon the proof of the subject which he had undertaken to discourse upon, [132] declaring, that the providence of God, in order to make itself known to mankind, does not wait till men arrive at the age of maturity, but even from the very dawn of infancy shines forth so brightly as is sufficient to confute all the ungodly, who, through their profane contempt of God, would wish to extinguish his very name. [133]
The opinion of some, who think that mphy, mephi, out of the mouth, signifies kphy, kephi, in the mout…
(Heb.: 8:2-3) Here, for the first time, the subject speaking in the Psalm is not one individual, but a number of persons; and who should they be but the church of Jahve, which (as in Neh 10:30) can call Jahve its Lord (אדנינוּ, like אדני from אדנים plur. excellentiae, Ges. ֗108, 2); but knowing also at the same time that what it has become by grace it is called to be for the good of the whole earth? The שׁם of God is the impress (cognate Arabic wasm, a sign, Greek σῆμα) of His nature, which we see in His works of creation and His acts of salvation, a nature which can only be known from this visible and comprehensible representation (nomen = gnomen).
(Note: Cf. Oehler's art. Name in Herzog'…
silencing: The loud noise of the oppressors contrasts with the praise of God. In the end, the praise of God will overwhelm the sound of evil (31:18; 63:11; 101:5; 143:12). • Those who oppose God seethe with vindictive anger (2:1-3; 44:16; cp. 149:6-7).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 8:2
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
Nor only in the heavens above is the Lord seen, but the earth beneath is telling forth his majesty. In the sky, the massive orbs, rolling in their stupendous grandeur, are witnesses of his power in great things, while here below, the lisping utterances of babes are the manifestations of his strength in little ones. How often will children tell us of a God whom we have forgotten! How doth their simple prattle refute those learned fools who deny the being of God! Many men have been made to hold their tongues, while sucklings have borne witness to th…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Religion
· NATURAL
— NATURAL
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).