Can ChatGPT Praise the Lord
Psalm 8
ChatGPT, hereafter known simply as “Chat,” is really good at many things, especially the written word. Chat corrects grammar, suggests better phrasing, crafts creative titles, even rewriting for different audiences. But I wonder if the computer behind Chat can praise the Lord?
Of course, I know that Chat can write poetry, even poetry about the beauty and greatness of God. But is there a difference between good poetry and praise? Can you praise the Lord with only a mind and not a soul? So, I decided to try an experiment.
I have been practicing the spiritual discipline of praying the psalms for a couple of years now. As I continue to ask the Lord to teach me how to pray, the psalms are a rich treasure as the prayer book of God’s people. With each psalm, I look for the driving reason behind the prayer, what they believe about the beauty and greatness of God, how their faith is being challenged, and how they express their faith in God in the midst of the present challenge. And this spiritual discipline is teaching my soul how to pray and faith in a great God even in the midst of a great struggle.
Can Chat do that?
So, here is the experiment. I spent some time praying through Psalm 8 and wrote a short article on how this psalm was teaching me to pray. Then, I asked Chat to do the same with this simple prompt:
“Compose a short article (around 1000 words) based upon Psalm 8. The article should focus on how this psalm teaches us how to pray. The tone should be causal and professional, written from a pastor to his congregation.”
Below is the short article that Chat composed.
Chat on Psalm 8: Learning to Talk to God
When we think about learning to pray, most of us instinctively start with our needs—what we want God to do for us or the problems we hope He will fix. And while the Bible does invite us to “pour out our hearts” before the Lord (Psalm 62:8), prayer is so much more than handing God a to-do list. Psalm 8 offers a fresh perspective, reminding us that prayer begins and ends with God Himself. David’s psalm isn’t a list of requests; it’s a song of praise. In just nine verses, he gives us a framework for prayer that moves us away from self-centeredness and into the wide-open space of worship, wonder, and humility before God.
The psalm opens with, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.” David begins not with himself but with God’s majesty. He calls Him “LORD” (Yahweh—the covenant-keeping God) and “our Lord” (the one who rules over us). He is both personal and powerful. When we begin prayer with praise, we shift our focus from our circumstances to our Creator. A small view of God produces small, timid prayers. A big view of God produces bold, confident prayers. When we remember His greatness, our faith grows—and so does our joy in praying.
David’s next thought turns to creation: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place…” Out under the night sky, he sees not just random lights but the craftsmanship of God’s hands. Creation is one of the easiest ways to fuel our prayers. Watch the sunrise. Listen to the birds. Feel the wind. God has stitched His glory into the fabric of the world, and when we slow down to notice, our hearts are drawn to worship. Too often, we rush into prayer without letting our hearts catch up to the reality that we’re speaking to the Maker of all things. Psalm 8 reminds us that before we start talking, we can start looking, letting what we see shape what we say.
Standing under the vastness of the heavens, David asks, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” He isn’t feeling worthless—he’s feeling appropriately small. He’s not the center of the universe, and neither are we. Prayer is not about convincing God to orbit around us; it’s about bringing our hearts into orbit around Him. Humility is essential in prayer. When we remember who we are—finite, fragile, and dependent—it frees us from pretending we have everything under control. And it magnifies the wonder that God cares for us at all. The Creator of the cosmos knows your name, hears your voice, and cares about your needs. This humility doesn’t crush us—it comforts us.
But Psalm 8 doesn’t only highlight our smallness—it celebrates our significance. “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.” David marvels that God not only notices us but also gives us purpose and responsibility.
Humanity was created in God’s image to reflect His rule over the earth. Even though sin has distorted that calling, it hasn’t erased it. We don’t just come to God as beggars with empty hands; we come as image-bearers with a mission. Prayer becomes a way of aligning our lives with that mission, asking God to help us steward our time, relationships, and opportunities for His glory. The way we live is part of our worship, and the God we praise in prayer is the God we serve at work, at home, and in our communities. Psalm 8 reminds us that prayer is not simply a private moment—it is the fuel for a public calling.
The psalm closes exactly as it began: “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” David has taken us from the glory of God’s creation, to the humility of our smallness, to the dignity of our calling—but he ends where he began, praising the majesty of God’s name. This is a pattern worth imitating. Starting and ending with praise keeps our prayers from being swallowed by worry. Even when we bring our requests and concerns to God, praise bookends our prayers with the reminder that He is still on the throne and His glory still fills the earth.
Psalm 8, then, offers a rhythm for prayer. We begin by lifting our eyes to God’s greatness, taking time to notice His glory in the world around us. We let that vision of His majesty humble us, reminding us of our dependence. We rejoice that He has crowned us with honor and entrusted us with purpose. And we close as we began, anchored in worship. This pattern reshapes our conversations with God so they are less about us and more about Him.
If we’re honest, our prayers can easily become self-focused and short-sighted. We often come to God only when we’re in trouble or in need. But Psalm 8 teaches us that prayer is first about seeing God clearly. When we do, our problems shrink to their proper size—not because they aren’t real, but because we’ve been reminded of who holds the whole world in His hands. A Psalm 8 kind of prayer makes our faith bigger, our fears smaller, and our hearts lighter. It moves us from anxiety to adoration, from self-preoccupation to God-centered wonder. And over time, it trains us to live our whole lives in conversation with the One whose majesty fills the earth.
So tonight, maybe step outside and look up. Let the stars preach to you. Let creation lead you into praise. And then, like David, tell the Lord what you see: “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
Todd on Psalm 8: To Still the Enemy
For most of my adult Christian life, I stayed away from the psalms. First of all, poetry. Yuk! The psalms seem full of “church, religious” language that just sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher: “blah, blah, blah, blah.” But thanks to the persistent work of the Spirit who leads us into all truth, including the Psalms, the prayer book of the Old Testament has come alive to me. These ancient prayers are a treasure trove of how to seek the Lord in all sorts of circumstances.
But even so, to find the treasure, you do have to dig through some words.
Psalm 8 is a classic example of finding treasure in an unlikely place. This short psalm, only nine verses, appears to be a worship psalm, the words of David to lead the people of God to worship the beauty and greatness of who God is. It begins and ends with the same refrain: “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.” However, a closer look reveals that there is much more than worship going on here.
The majesty of the name of the Lord is displayed in two primary ways, at least in this song. The first way is creation itself. The glory of God is set above the heavens (1) and the work of God’s fingers in the moon and stars (3) reveals His glory. It is very common for the psalmist to begin his or her praise from creation. If God is the creator and sustainer of all things, then there is great reason to not only call to Him in worship but also to call out to Him in need. If He is before all things, and creator of all things, and all things are created by Him and for Him, then asking for His help makes total sense. On the other hand, if God is a created being and not sovereign over all of creation, then why look to Him for help?
The second way that the glory of God is on display is in human beings. Not only do humans bear the image of God, but the Creator is mindful of and cares for each person (4). In fact, God has crowned men and women with glory, giving them dominion over all of His creation (5-6), whether sheep or oxen or birds or fish (7-8). What is man that God has created, cares for, and entrusted with so much?
The poem follows a very straightforward path. How majestic is the name of the Lord in all the earth. He has set his glory in the heavens, even the moon and stars. And look at the humans created in the image of God? What a great God who knows each of them, cares for them, and entrusts all of creation to their dominion! O Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! A nice, neat, concise poem.
But what do we do with verse 2?
In the logical flow of praise and worship as outlined in the previous paragraph, there was no room for verse 2. Verse 2 mentions babies and infants, which could just be examples of humans whom God cares for and knows, except that is not the emphasis of the verse. The psalm says that God, the Lord, the Creator of all things, has established strength to still the enemy and the avenger. Notice that enemy and avenger are singular. And the song is not talking about our enemies but the Lord’s enemy, the single enemy, Satan, and all those who follow Him including the spiritual forces of darkness but also those humans who refuse to follow the Lord. It seems that the Lord is giving strength to babies and infants (who grow up to be adults) to still the enemy and the avenger. And this strength, established by the Lord, is found in the form of the words that come out of the mouths of human babies and infants. Or as another translation puts it, “Through the praise of children and infants, you have established a stronghold against Your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger” (NIV).
Could it be that this simple song that calls us to see the majesty of the Lord in creation, to wonder of His care and knowledge of each one of us, is actually a call to be His instrument in creation to silence the Devil and the fallen angels? And this powerful weapon of spiritual warfare can be yielded by infants!
If this is true, it puts worship in a whole new perspective, doesn’t it? We don’t gather to sing songs simply because we like the tunes. The words of our mouth are THE way that the Creator of All Things silences His enemy!
What might this look like in practice? David exercises this truth in lament songs like the one in Psalm 7. In this song, David cries out to the Lord regarding his pursuers (1), enemies (5), wicked men (9), who are plotting against him. What weapon does David yield to “still” his enemies? Certainly, he asks the Lord to arise (6), to lift Himself up against his enemies (6), to whet His sword (12), to make their evil come to an end (9). But, in addition to crying out to God and asking for His sovereign help, David uses the strong weapon given to him by His creator: the praise of His mouth. He praises the Lord as my God (1), Judge of the peoples (8), my shield (10), and righteous (17). The cry for help ends with this simple statement: “I will give to the Lord the thanks due to His righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High” (17).
In other words, the way the Lord will still the enemy is through the strong praise of His people.
As I battle against the spiritual forces of darkness today, how can I use this weapon of praise to still the enemy?
Comparing Chat and Todd
Now, let us take some time to compare these two reflections on Psalm 8.
With all due respect to Chat, his article is pretty good. Chat concisely outlines the psalm and correctly creates a rhythm for prayer. The observation of how the greatness of God humbles us even as His care for us comforts us is spot on. The bigness of God makes our problems look small, shrinking them to the proper size. And Chat is right, over time, Psalm 8 can train us to live our whole lives in conversation with the One whose majesty fills the earth.
However, did you notice that Chat said nothing about verse 2, nothing about stilling the enemy and the avenger, nothing about the strength of praise established by God. For Chat, praise keeps us from being self-focused and short-sighted, which is true. For Chat, prayer is about seeing God clearly, which is also true. For Chat, prayer makes our faith bigger and our fears smaller, which is also true.
But Chat missed the great truth of this prayer: the praise of His people is the established weapon to still the enemy of God. And while our dominion over all things is universal to man, our voluntary strong praise to still the avenger is given to His people who understand how to use it for His glory.
Outsourcing our Spiritual Development
This exercise began by wondering if Chat could praise the Lord without a soul, but it makes me ask another question: what do we stand to lose if we outsource our spiritual development?
As a preacher, it could be easy to ask Chat to write a sermon. In fact, I asked Chat to write a sermon based on Genesis 16, the text I am preaching on tomorrow. The sermon Chat came up with was theologically OK, but rather bland. While an accurate analysis of the text, what was missing was “the Word of the Lord.” I think it is hard for Chat to hear the Word of the Lord even as Chat is able to analyze the written words of Scripture.
But this is not really a new challenge to the church. We have been outsourcing our spiritual development for decades.
For example, when we rely on devotional books for our prayer time, we are really outsourcing our spiritual development. Instead of wrestling with the text, asking questions, talking to God, meditating and memorizing and then coming to understand the Word of the Lord to us for the day, we let someone else do that for us. Instead of the struggle, we accept the finished product of the devotional book. A nicely wrapped package with a cute story to boot.
We can do this with sermons, worship songs, retreats, books, even Seminary classrooms. Let someone else do the hard work. As Bill Parcells famously said, “Don’t tell me about the birthing, just show me the baby.”
But the real spiritual development happens in the birthing process. Yes, Chat can outline and analyze Psalm 8 and come up with some applications for Christians in general, but spiritual development is very personal, not general.
For example, why did verse 2 stand out to me and not to Chat? I think this was the Spirit prodding me to explore this verse, to wrestle with how this verse seemed at odds with the rest of the song. In other words, verse 2 spoke to my soul, and since Chat has no soul, Chat heard it not.
So, the next time you read a devotional book or hear a sermon, or read an article obviously written by Chat, let your soul wonder what you are missing because you let someone else, or something else, do the digging for you. The beauty of the diamond is not just in the jewel itself but in the discovery, in the removal of the dirt, in the holding it up to the light for the first time.
And when you do the work, you just might find something as beautiful as the strong weapon of praise that God uses to still the enemy.