Fathers

Psalms 8

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O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. 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. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 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; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 8:8

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"Yea moreover," says he, "the beasts of the field." The addition of "moreover" is by no means idle. First, because by beasts of the plain may be understood both sheep and oxen: so that, if goats are the beasts of rocky and mountainous regions, sheep may be well taken to be the beasts of the field. Accordingly had it been written even thus, "all sheep and oxen and beasts of the field;" it might be reasonably asked what beasts of the plain meant, since even sheep and oxen could be taken as such. …

Exposition on Psalm 8 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Some are flying creatures, that is, birds: and some are swimming creatures, that is, fish. Second, the proud, the birds: Mt. 13: "The birds of the air devoured it": Dt. 32: "They shall be devoured by birds with a most bitter bite." Third, the greedy, who "traverse the paths of the sea," literally; or of the world: Ps. 11: "The wicked walk round about": Job 1: "I have gone around the earth, and walked through it."

Exposition on the Psalms of David ↗