You whose glory is spread over the heavens,
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings you have established strength,
Because of your adversaries,
That you might still the enemy and the avenger.'
Setting Psalms 8:1 b with Psalms 8:2 maintains the parallelism, is equally in accordance with the text, ties in with the contrasts in the first four verses, and agrees with the idea that the psalm opens and closes with the same majestic statement. It would seem therefore the right translation.
The One ‘Whose glory is spread over the heavens' (compare Habakkuk 3:3), which themselves speak of God (Psalms 19:1; Psalms 97:6), must be glorious indeed, yet the heavens in mind are but an ‘earthly' revelation of His glory. As the psalmist studied the moon and the stars shining brilliantly from the night sky, full of wonder at their all pervading splendour, he was filled with awe. ‘The invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and Godhood' (Romans 1:20).
But, he adds, He has spoken even more emphatically through babes and sucklings. Each tiny baby, with his budding morality, with his ability to think and reason, with his coming ability to do good in the earth, and with his prospective mastery of the world, is a wonder of creation and declares the glory of God. Here under God is the prospective lord of creation. For he is to be crowned with glory and honour (Psalms 8:5), he is to be set over all living things, and in relation to the world he is indeed little less than God Himself (compare Genesis 41:40). He is the image of God, that which in its own way, while still innocent, reveals and reflects God. It is an idealistic view of man as Hebrews 2:5-10 brings out. It is depicting God's final intention.
So the writer sees in the baby the image of what was before the fall and the image of what must be. Its innocent cry silences the enemies of God and strengthens God's position as Overlord of all things. Here is the prototype of God's purpose for man. Here is one who rebukes all who have fallen from that position. The babes and sucklings are not in opposition to God. They represent man in his obedience. They do not seek vengeance for fancied wrong. They have committed no sin. Their hearts are open. They are potentially the fulfillers of God's purposes.
These are in stark contrast to ‘the adversaries', those who oppose God. But who are these adversaries, ‘the enemy and the avenger?' Psalms 44:16 depicts them as those who reproach and blaspheme. In that psalm they are the nations of the world who are not in submission to YHWH, those Who reject His name and rule. But there the contrast is with God's people. Here, however, the contrast is with the innocent babe. Thus we must expand the idea to include all who are against God and who speak against His name, in contrast with this tiny child. He is a reproach and a rebuke to them all. He depicts what they might have been. And they are ‘stilled'. Their voices are silenced. Revealed innocence condemns them, for these babies are the prototype of what should be, and what should have been.
That is why Jesus regularly depicts those who would respond to Him and believe as themselves needing to become like the innocent babe (Matthew 11:25; Matthew 18:3-4; Matthew 19:14 compare Psalms 131:2), man restored to his innocence through faith. Thus the babes and sucklings in the end represent all who are true believers, restored to innocence and trust by the mercy of God. This must be so for otherwise the believers do not appear in the psalm, and it is finally dealing with the concept of ‘man'.
The words that follow must therefore be read in that light. They are not a paean of praise to man in general, but to man in ‘innocence', man as restored to the favour and mercy of God. It is not ‘men' who are to be ‘crowned' but ‘God's men', God's true people. Those who will still the enemy and the avenger. For that is why they were born.
It is, of course, true of all men potentially. But those who have risen against Him, those who have turned their backs on Him, are by their act excluded unless they repent and return to innocence. What is described, while potentially the lot of all men, can only actually be for those who are in submission to Him.
It is the same picture as that given by Hosea. ‘When Israel was a child, I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt' (Hosea 11:1). Again it was an idealistic picture. It was the picture of an ‘innocent' Israel in Egypt, God's babe, whom He taught to walk, whom He bore in His arms, whom He drew to Him with the reins of love, whom He ‘healed', whom He fed. But they fell from Him and rebelled against Him, and so He called on them to return to what that idealistic picture of what they had been when they were in Egypt. However there in God's inheritance they refused to return and were thus handed over to Assyria (Hosea 11:1-4). It is only to man walking in innocence with God that the promises will be fulfilled.