Rabbi Roodyn

ד) כִּי אֶרְאֶה שָׁמֶיךָ מַעֲשֵׂה אֶצְבְּעֹתֶיךָ יָרֵחַ וְכוֹכָבִים אֲשֶׁר כּוֹנָנְתָּה:

When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars that You have established.

From the wonders of creation we see the incredible wisdom that has gone into forming the universe , the intricate detail of intelligent design implies a creator.

Rav Hirsch notes that the pasuk refers to Hashem’s fingers rather than His hands. Had the pasuk referred to hands it would have just implied omnipotence. The use of the term ‘fingers’ points to creative wisdom, proven in its every work and detail. Every single star is an אצבע אלקים, finger of G-d, a special, individual sphere in the universe.  Also the word מעשה, work is in the singular rather than מעשי. The idea here is that the universe is one uniform work rather despite the diversity within it.

The Radak and other commentators note that the pasuk mentions the moon and the starts but doesn’t mention the sun. The Radak suggests that this psalm was written or recited at night time when David was looking upwards and contemplating the wonders of creation. He then offers another answer that the verse in pasuk 2 ‘’ Your majesty upon the heavens’’ is actually a reference to the sun.

Rav Hirsch develops this idea by saying that this psalm is uttered at the sight of the starry sky at night. By day, man, blinded by sunlight, sees only earth and the heaven arched over it, supplying the earth below with light warmth and moisture. It is only at night, when the earth has receded into the shadows and the sky above becomes visible with its starry host of shining worlds, that this earth shrinks to a mere speck in the universe and man on this speck becomes so infinitely small.