Commentaries

Mizmor 008, Verse 007

תַּ֭מְשִׁילֵהוּ בְּמַעֲשֵׂ֣י יָדֶ֑יךָ כֹּ֝֗ל שַׁ֣תָּה תַֽחַת־רַגְלָֽיו

tamshiyleyhu bemaʿasey yodeycho kol shatto sachas–ragloyv

You have appointed him as steward over Your handiwork, laying the world at his feet.

MIDRASH TEHILLIM

1.....(8.7)
In saying - And made him to have dominion over the work of Your hands, they were referring to Yehoshua (Joshua), who caused the luminaries to stay still by saying, Sun stay you still upon Gibeon, and you Moon in the valley of Aijalon. And it is written: "...the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until..." (Yehoshua - Joshua 10:12-13).

RADAK

1.
You have put all things under his feet
The lower (beings) are all under him, as it says: "And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air." (Bereishit - Genesis 9:2)

Rabbi HIRSCH

1.
[מָשַׁל] (mashal) to rule, have dominion, reign
As Genesis 24:2 says of Eliezer: “who was steward over all things in Abraham's house”, and who thus assigned to everything its own proper purpose and task in accordance with Abraham's will. So God, too, has appointed man as a steward in the household of His terrestrial world. Man must not enforce his own proud will upon his fellow-creatures; it is his task merely to rule them in accordance with the purposes revealed to him by God. The world does not exist for his sake. It is he who exists for the sake of the world, to serve it; i.e. to bring it closer to its loftiest aims, to guard and to preserve it. It is for this reason that the Lord has put into the world man, a creature possessed of spirit and freedom of choice, in His image. It is for this purpose that “You have laid all things at his feet”. He has received dominion over the terrestrial world from God's hands as a loan. Supreme over all the other creatures on earth, he must answer to God for the use to which he puts his position of power.

WORDS