"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have You ordained strength because of your enemies, that You might still the enemy and the avenger." (Psalm 8:2)
Truly our God is a great God. He is so great in power that He can laugh at the combined forces of all His enemies; "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision." (Psalm 2:2-4) and when He proceeds to put them to confusion He employs means that make their shame complete.
Had He proceeded against them with all the pomp and majesty of His infinite power, they might say, "We did well to make any stand at all against such odds; certainly our defeat is no disgrace."
But when He puts them to flight by the power that He can exert through a babe, their mouths are forever stopped.
And here is the comfort of this for the struggling, trembling Christian: Since God can silence all His enemies by babes and sucklings, what an abundant deliverance must be ours when He bows the heavens and comes down, riding upon the heavens for our help, and in His excellency on the sky: "Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke." (Psalm 144:5) "There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rides upon the heaven in your help, and in His excellency on the sky." (Deuteronomy 33:26)
Compare Psalm 8:2 with Matthew 21:16. The one is: "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings You have ordained strength," (Psalm 8:2) and the other, which is Christ's rendering of it is: "You have perfected praise." (Matthew 21:16)
Praise and strength are the same; and we see that the perfection of strength is found in babes. How can this be? Because God's strength is made perfect in weakness. Jesus Christ, a babe in the manger, was "the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:24) "He was crucified through weakness." (2 Corinthians 13:4)
Yet the aroma is the power of God; and, "He lives by the power of God." (2 Corinthians 13:4)
Would you know how it is that the babe is the manifestation of the perfection of strength? It is because it is the perfection of trust.
It is helpless, but its helplessness is the very thing that ensures it the most tender care. In its helplessness it is far better protected than in after life, when the man has grown so strong and self-confident that he depends on himself.
So the one who like a babe rests confidingly in the everlasting arms, knowing that his weakness is a constant appeal to the loving sympathy of God, is strengthened with all might according to the power of His glory.--Present Truth, November 21, 1901--Psalm 8:2.