And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? Matthew 21:16
Jesus quoted this Scripture from Psalm 8 in response to the Pharisees command to quiet the children. The children had been praising God for Jesus coming to Jerusalem. When you look at Psalm 8:2 it might not make sense how Jesus quoted it. Jesus talked about perfected praise.
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.
Psalm 8:2
The Psalm says ordained strength and Jesus quoted it as perfected praise. What does one have to do with the other? I want to show you the connection. Starting with the prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was called to prophesy during a terrible time in Judah's history. The king was an idol worshipper. The king did not want to listen to Jeremiah's warning. The country was giving itself over to idolatry. Jeremiah prophesied warning the people of Babylon's invasion. He told them they needed to surrender to Babylon in order to live. Yet the people did not want to surrender. They believed God would save them even though they had completely turned their backs on Him. The considered Jeremiah's prophecies to be treason. Jeremiah was put into a dungeon. Read his lament.
O Lord, you have deceived me,
and I was deceived;
you are stronger than I,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all the day;
everyone mocks me.
8
For whenever I speak, I cry out,
I shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the Lord has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
9
If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
10
For I hear many whispering.
Terror is on every side!
“Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
say all my close friends,
watching for my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
then we can overcome him
and take our revenge on him.”
11
But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble;
they will not overcome me.
They will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonor
will never be forgotten.
12
O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous,
who sees the heart and the mind,[a]
let me see your vengeance upon them,
for to you have I committed my cause.
13
Sing to the Lord;
praise the Lord!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hand of evildoers.
14
Cursed be the day
on which I was born!
The day when my mother bore me,
let it not be blessed!
15
Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
“A son is born to you,”
making him very glad.
16
Let that man be like the cities
that the Lord overthrew without pity;
let him hear a cry in the morning
and an alarm at noon,
17
because he did not kill me in the womb;
so my mother would have been my grave,
and her womb forever great.
18
Why did I come out from the womb
to see toil and sorrow,
and spend my days in shame? Jeremiah 20
Did you see that? In the middle of Jeremiah's complaint he praised the Lord. "What good did that do?" you may ask. Do you feel like praising God in when you are in the middle of a problem? Espescially a problem you don't deserve. How about a situation you are in because you did what God told you to do? What is this perfected praise? To get a little closer to the answer let's look at Job.
We have the benefit of knowing what was going on in heaven before Job's trial. We know how Satan came to accuse Job of cheap service. In all of Job's faithfullness God allowed Satan to devastate Job. God had two purposes in mind in this situation. The first is that He would receive glory. The second was to shut up the devil. Did you see the last part of Psalm 8:2?
that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
Imagine what God could have said to the the devil when Job proclaimed, Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. (from Job 13:15)
"Now what do have to say about Job?" The devil had no answer. Job's praise to God shut up the enemy.
Now what are you going through? Is life not fair? Are situation impossible. I think it's time to turn on some perfected praise. Even though you don't understand what you're going through you can raise your voice in praise to Jesus. You can sing about His goodness and mercy to deliver you. I can promise you the devil will have nothing to say against you. That's perfected praise!
