One significance of Psalm 8 lies in its
poetic praise of God as the Creator of the world. Through his words the
psalmist creates the boundaries between God and human that Van der Leeuw. Verse
one states that God has set his glory in heaven. The poet sets God apart from
mere humans. By doing this he points out that God is worth his words of praise
because he is holy and divine creator of all, his creator. His words create a
separation between the psalm and the praise as well of the psalmist as well as
though the psalmist is not even worthy to utter praise for the divine God, who
created him. Verse 4 states, “what is man kind that you are mindful of them”
once again setting the divine apart from humans. Van der Leeuw talks about how
man meets his God in the word, which proceeds from him, but which derives from
God. In church I have heard that men write the Bible but is God inspired. Van
der Leeuw seems to be making a similar claim. However he seems to claim that
the power of words come from God himself. “God stands behind him [Poet] and
breathes into his creative spirit, he sings his most beautiful song in God’s
presence, and in praise of him who put it into his mouth” (149). The word is
divine because it is not from the mouths of a mere human but from God himself.
This reflection on theological word makes sense. People have always found
scripture and God inspired words to beautiful and powerful. It is interesting
how Van der Leeuw says that because words can have a great power to lift
spirit, cause revival, and move generations.
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