Psalms 8:2
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. 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.
God ordains strength by bringing perfect praise out of the mouths of little children in order to silence the enemy and the avenger. This was fulfilled when Jesus cleansed the temple, healed the blind, lame, sick and little children, and the healed children led the rejoicing with palm branches and shouts of welcome to the Son of David until the temple echoed. When the priests and rulers in displeasure tried to stop their voices, He defended them with this word as praise ordained and accepted of God that answered His enemies and proved His authority. Their pure and grateful praise ascribed glory to Him as the promised King and mighty Healer and refreshed Him amid prejudice and jealousy. So the praise of children is appointed to proclaim His glory and make them His witnesses when priests and rulers refuse and when adult voices are silenced, as when the children took up the hosanna in the temple and as when little children carried the message of His soon coming in Scandinavia when preachers were imprisoned.
Words and Temple Fulfillment
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God ordains strength by perfecting praise in order to still the enemy and the avenger. That perfected praise is the strength ordained against His enemies and avengers.
In its wider psalm setting, the dominion over creation once consigned to Adam and forfeited by him will be given to Jesus. When Jesus comes the second time in power and glory as King and Deliverer over all the earth, the nature of animals will be changed and subdued unto Him. Then the groanings and lamentations of creation will cease, and universal peace with songs of praise and thanksgiving will prevail.
The verse was fulfilled when Jesus cleansed the temple courts and drove out buyers and sellers. There He healed the sick and dying to perfect health, including the blind and the lame and the diseased little children, and also the deaf, crippled, and diseased. That healing to perfect health in the cleansed temple is where praise was perfected out of the mouth of babes and sucklings.
The healed children then led the rejoicing and were foremost in it, waving palm branches with gladness and rejoicing and singing thanksgiving and praise to God for the healing. Some picked up palm branches from where the multitude had dropped them in the way and walked through the temple crying Hosanna, repeating the hosannas of the day before until the temple echoed. They shouted Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord, Behold thy King cometh unto thee just and having salvation, and Hosanna to the Son of David, which the terrified and hushed multitude that had cried Hosanna and the leaders dared not utter. In this their praise formed part of the acclamation of Him as the promised King.
When the chief priests, scribes, priests and rulers in displeasure and anger at the rejoicing tried to stop the happy, unrestrained voices as polluting the temple, they asked Jesus whether He heard what the children said. They valued cattle sales for money above that rejoicing. He defended the children with this verse, declaring their joyful hosannas to be praise perfected and ordained and accepted of God. That perfected praise answered His enemies and the displeasure of the chief priests and scribes, evidenced His divine authority, and showed that had their voices been silenced even the pillars of the temple would have sounded His praise.
Their pure, grateful, open and unaffected praise ascribed glory to the Saviour as the promised King, the Son of David, and the mighty Healer, and children restored to health praised Him as the mighty Healer. Their pure lips made music that refreshed Him amid Jewish hypocrisy, prejudice and jealousy. He was revealed as a lover of children who accepts their childish sympathy and open love, who on that day healed their maladies, clasped them in His arms, received their kisses, and let them fall asleep upon His breast while He taught. Yet their testimony did not overcome the prejudice and jealousy of the priests and elders.
Witness When Adults Silenced
The verse appoints the praise of children to proclaim the glory of Christ and to silence His enemies. When the priests and rulers of Israel refused to herald Him, God made children His witnesses, and their voices praising Jesus as King fulfilled the prophecy. At His first advent the rejoicing multitudes stopped their proclamation under threats from priests and rulers, and children in the temple courts took up the cry of Hosanna to the Son of David, which Jesus declared to be fulfillment of prophecy. He had cleansed the courts and healed the blind and the lame and the diseased little children, while the multitude that had cried Hosanna became terrified and hushed, and those healed little children picked up the palm branches dropped in the way and walked through the temple crying Hosanna, which the leaders dared not do.
In the same way, at the proclamation of the second advent in Scandinavia and Sweden, God worked through children to proclaim Christ's coming when His servants' voices were silenced. When the clergy of the State church had those who preached the Lord's soon coming thrown into prison and the preachers and adult servants were thus silenced and intimidated, God fulfilled the verse by sending the message in a miraculous manner through little children. He put His Spirit upon them to give the tidings of the Saviour's second advent, and because they were under age they could not be restrained by the law of the State but were permitted to speak unmolested. So the word that the proclamation of the Saviour's coming must be given to all peoples and tongues and nations would be fulfilled.
Children rightly educated will speak with a wisdom that astonishes those who regard their learning as superior. In the last days they will proclaim God's final warning when older workers are prevented from doing so. God uses children's lips and words to proclaim truths hidden from the understanding of adults. Through the weak and those regarded as foolish He confounds the wise and mighty. He can use even the words of very young children who from infancy have been taught to love and fear Him. Through them He teaches kindness, tenderness, and simple-hearted seeking of God, and children moved by the Spirit can proclaim the truth for this time when it is not presented simply enough for them to understand.