Like Psalms
81 and
84, Psalm 8 opens with a direction to the chief musician to perform upon the
gittit (). The
New King James Version calls it "the instrument of Gath". The Hebrew root () refers to a
winepress, indicating that these are joyful psalms. The word may also refer to the biblical city of
Gath, where a similar song was sung or a musical instrument was created; or to a song of
Obed-Edom the Gittite, in whose home the
Ark of the Covenant rested for three months (II Samuel 6:11); or to a song over
Goliath, who was from Gath. According to the
Midrash Tehillim, verses 5 through 10 in the Hebrew contain questions that the angels asked God as God was creating the world, referring to the righteous men of Israel: • "What is man that You are mindful of him"—referring to
Abraham (see Genesis 19:29); • "and the son of man that You remember him"—referring to Abraham's son
Isaac, who was born as a result of God remembering
Sarah (Genesis 21:1); • "Yet You made him less only than God"—referring to
Jacob, who was able to produce streaked, speckled, and spotted flocks (Genesis 30:39); • "And have crowned him with glory and honor"—referring to
Moses, whose face shone (Exodus 34:29); • "You give him dominion over the work of Your hands"—referring to
Joshua, who made the sun and moon stand still (Joshua 10:12-13); • "You put all things beneath his feet"—referring to
David, whose enemies fell before him (II Samuel 22:43); • "Sheep and oxen, all of them"—referring to
Solomon, who understood the language of beasts (I Kings 5:13); • "and the beasts of the field"—referring to either
Samson or
Daniel; • "the birds of the sky"—referring to
Elijah, who navigates the world like a bird, and who also received food from the ravens (I Kings 17:6); • "and the fish of the seas"—referring to
Jonah, who dwelled in the belly of a fish (Jonah 2:1). • "he traverses the ways of the seas"—referring to the
Israelites who walked through the sea on dry land (Exodus 15:19). • "O Lord, our Lord how glorious is Your name in all the earth"—thus the angels concluded, "Do what pleases You. Your glory is to sojourn with Your people and with Your children". Psalm 8 manifests a prevailing theme of man in creation, serving as a precursor to a sequential arrangement of acrostic Psalms 9 and 10. O Palmer Robertson, in his work "The Flow of the Psalms", identifies three analogous instances of creation-themed acrostics in Book 1 of Psalms, specifically: • Creation Psalm 8 preceding acrostic Psalm 9 and 10 • Creation Psalm 24 preceding acrostic Psalm 25 • Creation Psalm 33 preceding acrostic Psalm 34. ==Text==