Commentary for Psalms 8:2

how mighty is Your name more than the strength of the measure of the earthlings. The earthlings did not deserve that You should cause Your Shechinah to rest among them.

O Lord, our Sovereign Lord: – for Thou art Lord of the created things, those above and those below.

for which You should bestow Your majesty upon the heavens It is fitting that You bestow it upon the heavens. But You, with Your great humility...

How Excellent is Thy Name: – Equivalent to How Excellent art Thou ! For His Name is He, and He is His Name. Name (here) is the Tetragrammaton, and is not a common noun; and it is Excellent.

in all the earth ! – He means to say: Thy power is seen in all the earth; whether in the inhabited parts, or in the desert, or in the sea in all the earth Thy might is seen; but the supreme glory and mightiest power are visible in the heavens, for the earth is but a tiny thing in comparison with the heavens, being like the point in the centre of the circle.

Who hast set Thy glory over the heavens: – The word תְּנָה (set) is the infinitive in place of (the perfect) נָתַתָּ (hast set), for the infinitive is used in place of a past tense, as (in the text) "calveth and forsaketh" (Jerem. 14:5), where the infinitive עָזוֹב is equivalent to עָזְבָה, and other instances besides; and also in place of a future and present participle, as we have expounded in the book Miklol in the grammatical section thereof. And the meaning of the verse is this: How Excellent is Thy Name in all the earth! And Excellent inasmuch as Thou hast set Thy glory over the heavens. And the interpretation of the word glory (הוד) is " might and splendour." And it is possible to explain Who hast set Thy glory over the heavens as the reason why Thy Name is Excellent in all the earth. His meaning (then) is: because Thou hast invested the higher, (elements) with power to control the lower; for the earth and all that it contains, the seas and all therein all are in the control of the higher (elements).