John Calvin Commentary Psalms 8:7-9

"All sheep and oxen, Yea, and the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O Jehovah, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth!" — Psalms 8:7-9 (ASV)

The preceding question, regarding the extent of humanity’s dominion over God’s works, does not yet seem to be fully answered. If the prophet here declares, by way of explanation, the extent to which God has subjected all things to us, this subjection, it seems, must be limited to what contributes to the temporal comfort and convenience of humanity while it continues in this world.

To this difficulty I answer that the Psalmist does not intend in these verses to give a complete enumeration of all the things subjected to human dominion, about which he had spoken generally in the preceding verse. Instead, he presents an example of this subjection in only one part or particular; indeed, he has especially chosen that part which provides clear and manifest evidence of the truth he intended to establish, even for those whose minds are uncultivated and slow to understand.

There is no one with a mind so dull and stupid who cannot see, if they take the trouble to open their eyes, that it is by God’s wonderful providence that horses and oxen yield their service to humans, that sheep produce wool to clothe them, and that all sorts of animals supply them with food for their nourishment and support, even from their own flesh.

And the more apparent this dominion is, the more we ought to be affected by a sense of the goodness and grace of our God whenever we eat food or enjoy any of the other comforts of life. Therefore, we are not to understand David as meaning that it is a proof that humanity is invested with dominion over all God’s works because humans clothe themselves with the wool and skins of animals, because they live on their flesh, and because they employ their labor for their own advantage; for this reasoning would be inconclusive.

He only presents this as an example, and as a mirror in which we may behold and contemplate the dominion over the works of his hands with which God has honored humanity. The sum is this: God, in creating humanity, demonstrated his infinite grace and more than fatherly love towards it, which rightly ought to strike us with amazement. And although, by the fall of humanity, that happy condition has been almost entirely ruined, yet there still remain within humanity some traces of the generosity God then displayed towards it, which should be enough to fill us with admiration.

In this mournful and wretched overthrow, it is true, the legitimate order which God originally established no longer shines forth, but the faithful whom God gathers to himself, under Christ their head, enjoy enough of the fragments of the good things they lost in Adam to provide them with abundant cause for wonder at the uniquely gracious manner in which God deals with them.

David here limits his attention to God’s temporal benefits, but it is our duty to rise higher: to contemplate the invaluable treasures of the kingdom of heaven which he has revealed in Christ, and all the gifts that belong to the spiritual life, so that by reflecting on these our hearts may be inflamed with love for God, so that we may be stirred up to practice godliness, and so that we may not allow ourselves to become lazy and negligent in celebrating his praises.