In this message I would like to ask if we consider ourselves as babes and sucklings? Perhaps some of us have a doctor's degree, or others are high school seniors. Are we seniors, or are we sucklings? If you would ask me, I would say that I am the smallest suckling. In the kingdom of God, there is no old person. The Lord Jesus told people, "Truly I say to you, Unless you turn and become like little children, you shall by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens" (Matt. 18:3). He also said, "Allow the little children and do not prevent them from coming to Me, for of such is the kingdom of the heavens" (19:14). The Lord stressed that to participate in the kingdom of the heavens, we must be like little children. All the people who are in the kingdom of the heavens are as babes. A brother may be over sixty years old, but in God's kingdom, he is a suckling.

Psalm 8 is poetry. Poetic writing should not be understood in a mere physical and literal way. We have to understand the terms according to a poetic way. Babes are not the real babes, and sucklings are not the real sucklings. These are the children of the kingdom of the heavens. All the people who are in the kingdom of the heavens are either babes or sucklings. If we consider that we are people with a high degree or status, that we have a doctor's degree, that we are seniors, we are not in the kingdom. The brothers and sisters who are seniors in high school should not take this standing in the church life. We should not be seniors, but sucklings. The psalmist means that we, the children of God, all are babes and sucklings, yet God could cause us to praise Him.

Psalm 8:2 says that the Lord has established strength out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. Seemingly, strength does not refer to something that comes out of the mouth. When the Lord quoted this verse in Matthew 21:16, He used the word praise instead of strength. Weaker ones in themselves cannot praise. To cry or weep does not require strength, but to praise requires strength. When we gossip, argue, or reason with people, that does not require strength. But without strength, we cannot praise the Lord. Some praises may come out of our mouth, but they cannot be considered as perfected praises, because they are not so full of strength. Praises should be full of strength. Many times when the saints are praising the Lord, we can see the strength.

The Septuagint version of the Psalms translated the Hebrew word for strength into praise in Psalm 8:2. This translation was quoted by the Lord in Matthew 21:16. This means that the Lord admitted that this translation was right. The scholars who translated the Old Testament into Greek for the Septuagint did have some kind of spiritual knowledge. To praise is to have the strength in our mouth. God can work in His redemption to such an extent that the weakest ones and the smallest ones can have the strength to praise Him. God has established this.

The Hebrew word for established is a hard word to translate. In the Lord's quotation in Matthew 21:16, it says that He has "perfected" praise out of the mouths of the babes and sucklings. Psalm 8 says that He established strength out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, but the Lord Jesus quoted it by saying that He perfected praise. Is our praise perfect? We have to admit that our praise is altogether imperfect. Psalm 8 is not a long psalm, but it is a completed, perfected, and perfect psalm. If we are short of strength, we cannot praise. If we do not have the extra strength, we cannot have a completed, perfected, and perfect praise.