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September 26/27, 2015
Jason Meyer | Psalms 8:1-9
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
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,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!—Psalm 8
Introduction: What is Man?
This week we are in Psalm 8 and we are holding up the importance of small groups. I want to try something today. I am going to ask a question about small groups now and then I won’t say anything about small groups until the very end of the sermon. You can ask yourself all throughout the sermon what all of this has to say about our small group gatherings.
Here is my question: Who gathers together in a small group? You might say, “people do.” Yes, but who are people? What is man? This is not self-evident to very many people in the world—either in history or today. The ancient Babylonian creation story has man created from the corpse of a god named Kingu in order to free the gods from any manual labor. He does the drudge work—all the jobs they don’t want to do.
This view may sound silly to you. But consider perhaps the dominant cultural story today. Consider the answer of evolution. Man is an evolved animal. We are a little above the apes. Humanity is caught up in the drama of nature: survival of the fittest. What happens when you die? When you die, that is it. You just get recycled in the ground. It is like we are trash that gets recycled.
The philosophy of Nihilism takes naturalism a step further. Nihilism is buying what evolution is selling—we have no dignity. We are just a series of chemical reactions and then we become individually extinct and we are recycled. We are trash. We have no worth. It is the kind of pill that gets stuck in your throat. As Dale Ralph Davis points out, this view says you are “as important as a newborn maggot inside your garbage can on a hot summer day.”
A 35-second play—with no human actors. A pile of trash on the stage, lit by a light that is dim at first, then gets brighter (but never fully) and then dims again. No words, just a recorded cry at first, an inhaled breath, an exhaled breath, and another recorded cry. Man is trash—just one breath—and our breath is bad.
Nobody wants to believe that they are worthless. Humanity is struggling with an their appalling sense of worthlessness. We want to have meaning and have purpose. But here is the problem. These views don’t allow you to believe what you deep down really want to believe. The Bible alone confirms that the deepest longings of your heart for meaning and significance are true. Humanity has incredible dignity and purpose. Our dignity is derived from God. When we get God wrong, we will get ourselves wrong as well.
That is why Psalm 8 begins by telling us who God is before it teaches us who man is.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. (v. 1)
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (v. 9)
Notice that the repeated words “LORD, our Lord” are two different forms of Lord. The first is the personal name for God, “Yahweh.” The second is the word for Lord or Master or Ruler. These two words together say: “O Yahweh, my Lord.” Knowing that the Psalmist says “O Yahweh, my Lord or Ruler” makes a clearer connection between Yahweh and the “majestic name” that the Psalmist celebrates. The gift of God’s name to Israel at the Exodus was a radical moment of self-revelation. God made himself known—by name.
Someone’s name signifies the essence of who they are or what they are known for. God’s name is another way of saying his character or his essence or his fame. Have you ever said someone’s name with reverence and held it in special esteem? That is what David is doing. He says that Yahweh has the greatest name because he is the greatest, most majestic, and excellent Being.
The reference to God’s majesty in all the earth and glory above the heavens signals the totality of what has been made. Day and night refer to the totality of 24 hours. The heavens and earth refer to the totality of creation. Earth and heaven mark out the two extremes of what God created. Both the heaven and the earth and everything in between come to the same conclusion: Yahweh is the greatest name of all. Let’s put this into perspective. Sometimes in a trial, the defense will call some people to testify as a character witness. If God’s greatness were on trial, he could summon everything from above the heavens all the way down to everything on the earth.
That raises the question: who will the Psalmist call to the witness stand out of all the possibilities? The groups selected are an ironic twist. God’s greatness is seen when God uses little children to defeat his enemies (v. 2) and when he uses little people to rule his world (vv. 3–8). God’s greatness is best seen against the backdrop of human weakness.
What are some examples?
Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
These words “foes” and “enemy” show we are still connected to Psalms 3–7. The repeated references to “foes” (3:1; 6:7; 7:4, 6) and “enemy” (3:7; 6:10; 7:5) and their defeat show that Psalm 8 is a response to the recurring situation in Psalms 3–7. We have driven through the dark tunnel of Psalms 3–7 and come out into a wide expanse in Psalm 8 that broadens the picture and re-examines and resizes all that David has and all that he is up against.
In terms of point 1, we could translate “babies and infants,” but we don’t need to restrict it too narrowly. Jeremiah uses the same word translated “babies” for children playing in the streets (Jeremiah 6:11, 9:21). The word for “infants” literally refers to nursing children, but women in the ancient world nursed their children until they were two or three years old. We could be talking about grade-school children or toddlers just learning to speak.
What is the strength that God brings from the mouths of these children? The Greek translation of the Old Testament interpreted the “strength” coming out of their mouths as “praise.” Their praise really packs a punch. They can draw the right conclusion and put the big shots to shame.
The best example of this whole dynamic comes in Matthew 21:14–16.
Jesus was healing the blind and the lame. The children saw the wonderful things he did and they cried out Hosanna to the Son of David! (Matthew 21:15). The scribes and the chief priests were indignant and asked Jesus if he heard what they were saying. He said he did. Far from rebuking the children, he commended them in a way that shamed the big shots.
Jesus pointed them to this psalm and said it was being fulfilled. God “prepared praise” from children. This is astounding in two ways. First, the scribes and chief priests are identified as the enemies of God and they are silenced and defeated by children.
Second, Jesus accepted their praise in a Psalm 8 way. That means Jesus accepted the praise of God for himself! He is God. He is worthy of worship! He has the great name!
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
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, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
The first thing the psalmist does in this stanza is take time to consider how small man is compared to the cosmic backdrop he looks up and sees. He is looking up into the sparkling night sky—like a 100,000 diamonds sparkling against a black velvet backdrop.
Have you ever looked up at the sky and just marveled with awe? How could any of us do that? I tried to build a log playhouse in my backyard this summer. I had a lot of fun doing it and a lot of help doing it. It would have been a lot harder though if I had to set it in the sky. I don’t even know how to conceive of doing that. Do you? You can’t use any supports—just hang it there in the air.
Now imagine doing that with the moon. That would be difficult. What would you use to lift the moon? Stars would be an extra degree of difficulty. Stars are massive burning balls of fire. The sun is a star. It is 900,000 miles across. If you think the earth is large, try to get your head around how big the sun is. If the sun were a hollow ball, you could fit about one million earths inside of it.
The psalmist was amazed by the little he knew about that night sky. We know much more. He didn’t know about solar systems and galaxies. Our solar system is the sun (a star) and everything bound to it by gravity (including our 8 planets and their moons, asteroids, comets, interplanetary dust, etc. Our galaxy is the Milky Way galaxy. A galaxy is a large system of stars held together by mutual gravitation and isolated from similar systems by vast distances.
Our solar system may seem large, but it is not all that impressive when compared to our galaxy. In fact, if the Milky Way Galaxy were the size of the continent of North America, then our solar system would fit in a coffee cup. Our Milky Way galaxy is the light of 200–400 billion stars turning like a giant pinwheel (100 light years across).
But the Milky Way galaxy is not all that impressive compared to how many galaxies exist. Edwin Hubble showed us that our galaxy is one of many galaxies in the universe (back in the 1920’s). The best estimate is that there are roughly 170 billion galaxies gathered in clusters. We can’t even get our head around how many zeros are in 170 billion or how many stars there are if there are 200–400 billion stars in a galaxy.
That sounds big and impressive, but God did it with ease. We sometimes talk about someone lifting a finger to do something. David calls all of this the finger work of God. Look what God can do with his fingers!
David now looks at humanity against this cosmic backdrop and he feels like a microscopic speck. I love the story of Teddy Roosevelt. At Sagamore Hill, William Beebe told about how Teddy Roosevelt would go out on the lawn and search the skies for a certain spot of star-like light near the lower left-hand corner of the Great Square of Pegasus. Then Roosevelt would recite: “That is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It consists of one hundred billion suns, each larger than our sun. Then Roosevelt would grin and say, “Now I think we are small enough! Let’s go to bed” (James Johnston, Psalms, Kindle loc. 1785).
He raises the question, “What is man?” There were many words for “humanity” that David could have used. He picked a specific one. The word enos most often emphasizes human weakness or frailty. Most people take “son of man” as emphasizing this fragile mortality even further, meaning we are derivative and dependent upon another.
The word for “mindful” means “call to mind,” implying that the majestic God of massive creation thinks of him in a way to do things for him, to meet his many needs. The verb “care for” adds further texture to “mindful.” God attends to and cares for the needs of weak and insignificant humanity.
The greatest mystery that perplexes the Psalmist is not that I am so small or that the universe is so big, but that God’s love is so big. We are so small—microscopic specks in the universe—and look at how much he cares for us!
The next stanza in this theme now looks at where humanity ranks in the created order. We are a little lower than the heavenly beings. This is very interesting. He could have said that we are a little above the animals, but he says we are a little lower than the angels. I think this point is massively important. More on this point in a moment! We are a mediating position—below the angels (heavenly beings), but above the animals (earthly beasts).
The phrase “crowned with glory and honor” means we were created in God’s image and given the dignified role of ruling as God’s representatives. We have been given dominion over everything. The psalmist reflects upon Genesis 1.
In Genesis 1:28 God blessed the man and woman, told them to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and then he granted them dominion over 1) the fish of the sea and over 2) the birds of the heavens and over 3) every living thing that moves on the earth. David works backwards through the beasts in Psalm 8:6–8 referencing the way that God put 3) all sheep and oxen . . . and also the beasts of the field, 2) birds of the heavens, and 1) fish of the sea under the feet of the man who stood over creation as God’s representative.
That is why the idea of “image of God” is so important. Humanity is created to have a relationship with God. Our dignity is derived from our relationship with God, not our size! No wonder we can’t defend human dignity—we have severed the link between God and humanity. We are not more related to monkeys than made in God’s image. The world won’t work right either. We miss the most obvious message of Psalm 8: how great God is. We alone have been created in his image. It is saying something about him. If you made a world and put 7.3 billion statues of yourself all over the world, wouldn’t you be trying to make a point that you are a kind of a big deal?
Application
Let’s return to our original question: “What is man?” How is the Christian answer different from other views?
In the ancient world, when I look at the heavens, the moon and the stars, I worship them for they represent the powers of the universe. They are capricious and unpredictable. Yet they control my fate so I need to do what I can to worship them and placate them. But the Psalm says that the moon and the stars should not be worshiped, they should cause us to worship—the great name of God!
The ancient Babylonian creation story has man as an accident and a slave. He does the drudge work—the jobs they don’t want to do. He is the garbage man of the gods. But the psalmist is amazed that God is caring for us, not us caring for God!
Here is the tragic downturn we have taken in human dignity. The ancient Babylonians have man as the garbage man: we have him as garbage. “What is man” today is answered as a 35 second pile of trash or a newborn maggot in a trash can. But the Bible says a resounding “no.” That teaching is trash—not us. The Bible gives man dignity. He is made in the image of God. He is not a little above the animals (closely related to the monkeys), he is a little below the heavenly beings.
Transition: The Contradiction of man
But this leads us to consider the contradiction of man. He has dignity and can do amazing things and control or tame almost anything—except himself.
The contradiction of man—man can control or tame almost everything—except himself. We can’t put everything under our feet.
We were never animals and we can’t become animals, but we can act like them when we fail to use our reason to worship God. That was the lesson that Nebuchadnezzar needed to learn in Daniel. Psalm 73 has the same story. The Psalmist said that he was like a brute beast that doubts God’s goodness and fails to praise him.
We are never more alive than when we are doing what we were created to do: worship God! Ascribe worth and excellence to his great name. The animals worship when they instinctively do what God made them to do. But we can think! We can reason! We can consider. When I look at your heavens (Psalm 8:3)!
So many people like to poke fun at Christians as if they are foolish and failing to use their brains. The Bible says that Christians are the only ones who are really using our brains. Others consider something for a moment, but do not go further to the consider the source of it all. You see the stars and marvel at how big they are without ever asking Who set them there? How did He set them there.
It is foolish to just look and then go on to the next thing. Stop and think about what you see. Evolution does not even pass the common sense test. No one looks at Mt. Rushmore and the intricate design of the faces and chalks it up to chance. They just happen to look like some of our most famous presidents. Isn’t erosion amazing?
That is what happens when you look at the moon and the stars without seeing God’s handiwork – God’s design. Isn’t evolution amazing? No. God is. The psalmist says it is the fool who says “there is no god.” You have to commit intellectual suicide to say that there is design everywhere but no designer.
But all of this raises a huge question. If Psalm 8 is true about God setting the moon and stars in the sky, is He wrong about man having everything under his feet? Is Psalm 8 a pipe dream? What about all of us who have failed to worship God’s great name like we ought?
Hebrews 2 says that Psalm 8 is all about seeing Jesus.
Conclusion: The redemption of man (vv. 5–8)
For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere,
“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Psalm 8 is not a pipe dream. Jesus came to fulfill it. This is an amazing psalm. It went back to the beginning in Genesis 1 and now it is showing us the end of all things. Jesus came and God is going to put everything under his feet.
That part of the plan has not yet happened yet, but what we see now is that Jesus was made lower than the angels for a little while (the Incarnation) and now he is crowned with glory and honor through his death and resurrection. He died and rose again so that he could save people from death!
But now you start working your way back through the Psalm and one realizes how much Jesus shines in this psalm. God shows his glory in overpowering his enemies with his weakness. God used a baby to defeat Satan, the enemy and hater. The weakness of the cross totally defeated our greatest enemies: sin and Satan. God used the weakness of the cross to confound the wisdom of the wise and the strength of the strong.
Jesus is called the Last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15 and also the one who will have everything under his feet (see also Psalm 110 and Ephesians 1)
But there is more. The greatest dignity for all humanity is the price paid to save us. The greatest example of how big God’s love is: not looking at how small we are compared to the moon and stars. The greatest, most breathtaking example of how big God’s love is – is that he took on humanity to die for us. He didn’t die for animals! There is no plan of salvation for sparrows or snakes or maggots or whatever. He died for us so that we could be reconciled to God and restored to our calling. Someday we will reign on the earth and Satan will soon be crushed underneath our feet.
Psalm 8 is all about Jesus. He is the God with the majestic name that should be praised. He is the baby that came and defeated God’s enemy, Satan. He is the Second Adam that came and put everything under his feet.
A small group is a gathering of people made to worship God, to celebrate as people who know God has the greatest name and can constantly declare to each other everywhere that they see it. They will see his glory reflected in the lives of others (evidences of grace). They will not lose heart because they know that God does his best work through weakness. They will testify of what they have seen that week that showed the glory of God. Everything about our lives has the potential to glorify God. We are limited in what we can talk about on a Sunday morning. We can ask about our calling as worshipers and have a context for accountability and community and live out our purpose together. It can be a place where we repent of all the times we live for ourselves and pretend the world revolves around us. Jesus has given us back our sense of meaning and significance and purpose and then he gives us a family to live it out and talk it out and consider it with together.
Sermon Discussion Questions
Outline
Main Point: The conclusion of all creation is this: God has the greatest name (vv. 1, 9).
Discussion Questions
Application Questions
Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to see, savor, and declare the greatness of God’s name.