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The Septuagint title of Psa. 144:, to which we have already referred, is "a Psalm of
David concerning Goliath". There is, therefore, some scriptural connection between
these portions which, rightly appreciated, will help us in our understanding of them.
Goliath was not only gigantic in stature, but blasphemous in his defiance of the God of
Israel. David was but a "stripling", a "youth" (I Sam. 17: 33), but we remember that
Psa. 8: 2 declares that: "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."
Goliath, we are told, "disdained" the youthful David (I Sam. 17: 42) and cursed him "by
his gods" (I Sam. 17: 43), but, except for a sling, David went against him unarmed,
"in the name of the Lord of Hosts . . . . . Whom thou hast defied" (I Sam. 17: 45), and
was thus assured of victory: "that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel"
(I Sam. 17: 46). Is there not an echo of this in the opening and closing words of
Psa. 8:: "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!"
David's conflict with Goliath, and the use made by God of a stripling against the seed
of the Serpent and his god, is but a type of the great conflict of the ages, with man placed
upon the earth, no match, apparently, for the great spiritual enemy he has to meet, yet
ultimately triumphant because of the great purpose of the ages. So David begins to
answer his own question:--
"For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with
glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands, etc."
(Psa. 8: 5-8).
The word "angels" is the Hebrew Elohim, rendered "God" in a multitude of passages.
That it can bear a lower meaning Psa. 97: 7 testifies: "Worship Him, all ye gods."
Heb. 1: 6 says, "Let all the angels of God worship Him", and Heb. 2: 7 uses the word
"angel" in quoting Psa. 8: Again, Psa. 82: says:--
"God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; He judgeth among the gods . . . . . I
have said ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. But ye shall die like
men, and fall like one of the princes."
We know from I Cor. 10: 20 that there is a definite connection between idolatry and
demons. Satan makes it manifest in the temptation of the Lord and the establishment of
the beast (Matt. 4: and Rev. 13:) that his objects is to divert the worship of mankind
to himself. Man by his creation was made after the image and likeness of God, made a
little lower than the angels, and, did he but act in harmony with his creation, proof against
ever worshipping "the image and likeness" of anything on earth or in heaven.
Man at his creation was given dominion over the works of God's hands. Could we,
for example, speak of the noblest specimen of the brute creation, e.g., a horse, or a dog, in
any of the terms used in Psa. 8:? That there has been a fall the Scriptures testify. That
man can sink lower than the brute creation is seen alike on the pages of Scripture and of
secular history. These both call aloud for redemption and restoration. Psalm 8:,
however, says nothing as to the nature of man. Heb. 2:, after quoting part of Psa. 8:,
adds:--