Oh Baby!

vo' the wuSDu' vo' ghupu' ... SoH ghaj established HoS

From the lips of babes ... you have established strength Psalm 8:2a

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Klingons, like humans, include in their language onomatopoeia - the process where a figure of speech or word employs a word, or words that sound like the thing they represent. Think of "bang" or "click". And not just in English. In Latin, "tuxtax" was like "bam" or "whack" and meant to imitate the sound of blows landing. Or in Japanese, "doki doki" is used to indicate the (speeding up of the) beating of a heart (and thus excitement).

So it's natural that the word here for "babes" (owlel in Hebrew) comes from the Klingon word "ghu" - baby.

There is nothing particularly STRONG about babies. Klingons, or humans, or anyone hearing David's declaration here in Psalm 8 will doubt the sense of it.

vo' the wuSDu' vo' ghupu' ... SoH ghaj established HoS

From the lips of babes ... you have established strength Psalm 8:2a

Even given the alternate reading "from the lips of babes.. you have established praise," it sounds unlikely. Babies, infants, may be MANY things, but they are neither strong or intelligible.

Here - as is often true - Scripture makes us stop to consider - WHAT does this mean?

Anyone familiar with Klingon culture would expect this claim - strength from the weak - to fall on deaf ears. It would as well for those of us who are human - who expect power and strength to come from the mighty, not infants.

Yet this is an important theme through the Bible. We may trust in POWER but God uses the weak, the helpless to accomplish his goals.

"My power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor 12.9) God told Paul - and it is well that Paul reminds us. For it isn't by force that God accomplishes his goals. As Paul writes elsewhere:

God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong (1 Cor 1.27)

If we HAVE accomplished much, and have GREAT power or wealth - the Bible should give us pause. God looks instead to the utterly dependant - ghupu', babies, to show his power. And it is true, for in each new life God begins the world again - it is wonderful beyond any power we have.

And those who are WEAK, who feel they don't measure up - take heart! You are truly God's building blocks. What you do, whatever you struggle to do - this is God's victory, and in you he will bring about something worthy of praise - take heart!

Klingons or humans, we all give ourselves far too much credit for our deeds, our power and abilities, when we forget that all we HAVE or ARE is God's gift, as much of a gift as the new life of one infant.

vo' the wuSDu' vo' ghupu' ... SoH ghaj established HoS

From the lips of babes ... you have established strength Psalm 8:2a