Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 8:3

"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;" — Psalms 8:3 (ASV)

When I consider. — Literally, see, scan.

Ordained. — Or, as in margin, founded — i.e., created, formed; but the English word aptly introduces the idea of order in the kosmos. Compare:—

“Know the cause why music was ordained?”

—Shakespeare.

In our humid climate, we can hardly imagine the brilliance of an Eastern night. “There,” writes one about a night in Palestine, “it seems so, bearing down upon our heads with power are the steadfast splendours of that midnight sky.”

But, on the other hand, the fuller revelations of astronomy do more than take the place of this splendour. These revelations fill us with amazement and admiration at the vast spaces the stars fill, and their mighty movements in their measured orbits.