Out of the Mouth of Babes (Psalm 8:2)

I have the verses of Psalm 8 posted next to my kitchen sink, and I’ve been thinking about verses 1 and 2 all week:

“O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!

Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger” (NKJV).

What does it mean?  What did David intend when he said that God ordains strength out of the mouth of babes?

Well, I pulled a trusty commentary off my shelf.  No, I pulled off two!  No, three!  Then I read the verses in several different versions.

Most commentaries agreed that this verse is a prophecy of what would happen a week before Jesus’ crucifixion…

“So the disciples went and [got a donkey] as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.  And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!
Hosanna in the highest!

“…But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant and said to Him, ‘Do You hear what these are saying?’
“And Jesus said to them, ‘Yes. Have you never read,

Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have perfected praise?'” (Matthew 21:6-9, 15-16, NKJV)

The Bible is very clear that we are all born with a sin nature.  However, we are also born knowing that there is a God.  Author Ted Tripp, author of Shepherding a Child’s Heart, says that we are born with a “Godward Orientation.”

Almighty God chose to reach through the crowds gathered that day in Jerusalem and allow the tiniest children to praise Jesus. Imagine!  The little ones, still in diapers and clinging to their mothers’ skirts, watching as Jesus came riding into the temple on a donkey.  They saw Him heal the blind and deaf people that they had seen congregating at the temple.

Maybe a little girl says, “Mommy, what is wrong with Old Joe’s eyes?”

“He is blind, Honey.  That means he can’t see.  It’s like when Mommy plays peek-a-boo with you and covers up your eyes, only he never gets to UN-cover his eyes.  It’s always dark for him.”

Baby Sister says, “Ow-wie, uh, oh,” and sticks out her bottom lip.

“Why does he sit at the temple every day, Mommy?” asks Big Sister.

“Well, he’s hoping that God will make his eyes all better, Dear One.” Inside her mind, the mother was thinking, “Yeah, and he sits there hoping to line his pockets with the coins of generous worshipers.”

“God WILL make them all better, won’t He, Mommy,” Big Sister confidently says.

“Awww bettah,” echoes Baby Sister.

Then, when Jesus arrives and really DOES heal the sick, the little, watching eyes grow wide and little lips start to sing.

“Hosanna!
Hosanna!
Hosanna to da Son of Day-bid!”

Little hands start to clap, little ones put wet kisses on their mommy’s faces, little feet start to dance…

And I think about the times when I wake up on the wrong side of the bed.  I stumble out to breakfast and holler at the kids to quiet down their racket. They’re already up and at the kitchen table, blank paper out and crayons busily working.  They stare at me with big eyes as I bang the pots and pans and slam the cupboard doors.  Everything gets quiet as I reach for something for my headache.  As I gloomily gulp my milk, I hear a 3-year-old singing,

“Jesus loves me,
This I know!
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong.
They are weak,
But He is strong…”

On the chorus, I hear a toddler voice join in.

“Yah, mmm mmm mmm meeee
Yah, mmm mmm mmm meeee
Yah, mmm mmm mmm meeee
Na mmm mmm na na oooooh.”

And life suddenly has perspective again.  When I am an enemy of God — when my Godward orientation naturally shifts to the idols of self — God can take the voice of a little child and remind me that He is in charge.  He knows what is going on in my day, and He holds the answers for all my problems.  I am weak, but He is strong.  And He loves me.  The Bible tells me so!

Perfect praise comes when I become as a little child, humbling myself before a righteous God and confessing my sins.

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’

“Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.

“‘Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea'” (Matthew 18:1-6).