Summer Psalm #1: Seeking - Psalm 8

 

Summer Psalm #1: Seeking - Psalm 8

Key Verse: What is man that thou art mindful of him?  Ps 8:4

Introduction:

We as a society have become lost. We don’t know who we are or why we are here or what we are supposed to do while we are here. We have teachers, groomers, child predators telling innocent children that they can be any perversion they want, boys can be girls, girls can be boy or if you don’t like those human genders then you can a furry and be a unicorn, a dog, a cat. Recently a mother went on Tik-Tok and with tears in her eyes complained about a veterinary who refused to treat her child who identified as a cat. She was broken hearted, that the vet couldn’t accept her child as a cat.

Because we have generations that doesn’t know who they are they also don’t know who they are supposed to love and marry. They don’t know how they are supposed to live or even if they are supposed to live. Schools have been teaching for decades, that each of us are just here by a random chance of evolution. We are no better than a bug on a sidewalk, so when things go wrong what does it matter if you squash the bug? Life is meaningless, whether that life is yours or a classroom full of children who made fun of you or a church full of Christians, or a mall full of people who don’t look, act or talk like you think they should. They exist by the random chance of evolution so why should they not cease to exist by the random shot of a gun?

Are we doomed to live this way from now on? Or is there another way? What if life isn’t random, or the future is not empty because we can find in God’s Word an answer that changes all the hopelessness to happiness, all the emptiness to fullness and all the pain to praise. I want you to look at Psalms 8, for here is one of the central truths of human  existence and it begins centers on the question, What is man?

God's Glory - Psalms 8:1-2

 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

Know God As God

David, the poet-King of Israel, begins this psalm by writing, O LORD, our Lord.

The first LORD is in all Caps so we can know that it is the word Jehovah / Yahweh, the "I am "of the burning bush. This is the personal name of God. So revered by the Jewish scribes who copied the Old Testament that they did not dare to write it out fully or to speak it out loud. In order to write it here in scripture, they took the consonants from Jehovah, and the vowels from the word Lord and made a new word that showed the name of God, pronounced as Lord, Adoni, but understood as Jehovah.

The second Lord in this verse is the word Adonai, it means controller, master "one who occupies the position of a master over a slave.

Then David moves from the address of his Lord God to praise for his Lord Creator. He says, How excellent is thy name in all the earth! God is lauded as sovereign in power and majesty. David imagines God in all His might and splendor ruling over all the earth.

From David's inspired perspective, he looks up into the heavens and his mind is filled with the wonder of his God.

He says that God's glory is set high above the heavens. Higher than can be fully seen, imagined or comprehended. God is higher than what David sees in the night sky, more majestic than what he can write down in a psalm and greater than his imagination can comprehend.

David then moves his psalms in a great sweep from the glories of heaven to the lips of a baby or a toddler. He says that even in the most elemental sounds of the human voice, even in the first steps of a human life, there is praise, strength, glory for their Creator, because God has ordained it.

In Psalms 19:1-4 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.  2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. 4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

Do you want to know why God created such a vast universe and put us in only a very small insignificant part of that universe? Psalms 19 and Psalm 8 give you the answer, the vastness of the universe shows the power and omnipotence of God. “The heavens declare, they shout it out, they make it plainly seen and impossible to overlook. They heavens declare the glory of God! I don’t see a cold, empty, impersonal universe, I see God’s revelation to me or His glory, power and eternity!

First Step In The Quest To Answer What Is Man?

If we are to find an answer that makes sense of this life, if we are to understand who and why we are here. If we are to overcome bad luck, bad circumstances, bad parents and even our own bad choices, then we must see and know God as David knew Him.

We must see Him as Jehovah, God Almighty, God of Creation, God of Power and yet God who also transcends the universe and makes Himself known by us personally. I must see Him as the creator of all, Sustainer of all, all powerful, all knowing, and in all places and all times, but I must also see him as savior, friend, guide and protector.

Perhaps even more important to knowing that Jehovah, Yahweh is God, I must also know Him as Adonai, the Lord of my life. He is my master, and I have fully given myself to serve Him. If life is going to amount to something worthwhile, if my time on this earth is to leave something lasting, then Jehovah God must be Lord God to me.

Remember the story of Thomas after the resurrection. John 20:26-29 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

The Lord and God that Thomas knew through the resurrection, the Lord and God that David knew through creation, must be the Lord and God we know if we are ever to answer the questions, “What is Man, and who am I?”

No King but Jesus

There is a famous saying attributed to John Adams just before the Revolutionary War. I’ve always liked it and I’m going to share it with you to finish this point. When a British Major ordered several of the founding fathers to disperse, he added the command “in the name of George the Sovereign King of England.” John Adams who had a great way of turning a phrase spoke up and said, “We recognize no Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!” -John Adams. (pretty good isn’t it.)

John Adams along with the other founders of our nation, changed the world and went from outlaws to heroes and much of what they did was because they believed in a God who held the universe in His hand, and they also had placed themselves in those very same hands.

Transition

To know what is man. To know who you are, you must first know who God is. Without that foundational knowledge you will never know yourself, your purpose or your potential in this life.

Transition: From God Himself, David now turns to God’s handiwork, His creation

God's Grandeur - Psalms 8:3

Psalms 8:3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

 Know God As Creator

David looked up into the night sky and he is astounded by the stars that he could see. At that time the visible eye could see about 3000 stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, or as the ancient called it, the “River of the Sky” that ran through that vast field of stars. Isn’t it ironic that today man has much greater knowledge of the universe than David ever could, but we are no longer in awe of God who spoke it into existence. Perhaps that is one of the things that has blinded us to our God, we see much more but we know much less about what we are seeing. We know so much less because we no longer want to see the One who put those stars, planets, galaxies, and nebulas there and so we won’t see that He also placed us in the middle of that river of the night sky. Today, we have gained scientific knowledge, but we have lost Biblical wisdom and perspective.

Biblical wisdom instructs us in Psalms 33:6  By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

Job 22:12  Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!

So, let’s consider God's Universe, let’s view as best we can, His Glory written in the heavens.

The Size of God’s Universe The universe is so vast that no scale model is possible.

If we tried to make a scale model that contained an earth only one inch in diameter, the nearest star at the same scale would be over 51,000 mile away, that is further away than anything on our planet.

Instead, let us use this scale in our model. Let us reduced the distance from the earth to the Sun, 93 million miles, to only the thickness of the page of my Bible, now we got something. Now the distance to the nearest star (4 1/2 light years) would be a stack of paper 71 feet high.

Our Galaxy, 100,000 light years across, at this scale would be a stack of paper 310 miles high.

The known edge of the universe would then be a stack of paper 1/3 of the way to the sun or 30 million miles. (but wait there’s more)

The Immensity of God’s universe. The universe is so immense that no one can count all the stars that fill it.

They estimate that there are over 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone, and they estimate again that there are over 100 million galaxies in the known universe.

In order to count to 100 billion, just the stars in our universe, you would have to count to 250 every minute for 1000 years. (So lets go ahead and get started we’ll wait finish the sermon in 1000 years. That would set a record wouldn’t it?)

In David's time, they had counted the 3000 stars they could see, and they stood in awe of the creation of God. How much more should we stand in awe when we consider the One who holds this vast universe in the palm of His hand?

Psalms 95:3-7 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.  6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.  7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

Seeing The One Behind Creation

What do you see when you behold the night sky? And please do yourself a favor and every once in a while, get out of town, go camping. Get yourself a blanket, or if you’re old like me and your back and knees can’t get easily after laying on the hard ground, then get a good reclining lawn chair and look up into the real star filled night sky. The same sky David looked into. What do you see? Do you just see stars, planets and darkness or do you see the craftmanship of Jehovah God who hung those stars in the fabric of space, like so many shining diamonds strew out on a vast background of black?

Do you see nothing, or do you see the glory, power and majesty of the Creator? And there behind that miracle of creation you will also see God and yourself as part of that creation.

Psalms 50:6  And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself.

Psalms 89:5-6 And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. 6 For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?

Romans 1:19-20 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

God is talking to us indirectly, through creation but He is talking directly to us in these passages from His word. what a difference that revelation makes. What such a reality, such a truth does for us and to us, who understand and define ourselves within God’s creation of the universe.

Transition: After consider God’s handiwork, David then looks at man in vs. 4 and asks the question that is the theme of our message and the central truth each of us must know if life is going to make sense. David asks, “What is man?”

God's Greatest - Psalms 8:4-8

Psalms 8:4-8 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: 7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;  8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

Know God As Savior

David looks at himself in the light of God’s incredible creation. After considering the vastness of the heavens, the glory of God seen in them, he then asks God, "Why do you bother with man? Why do you care about me? What is this insignificant man when compared to the greatness of the God who created the universe?

He not only asks what is man, but also, who am I? I am just a lowly, son of man? He asks, “God why would you visit me? Why did you reveal yourself to me?”

This question is the consequence of David seeing himself through the perspective of God’s creation. What is man in comparison to all that? Why did You care enough to reach down through the vastness of the universe and touch him?

David’s answer is the most amazing part of Psalms 8.

David says, “You have made man a little lower than the angels.” The Hebrew word here is actually, Elohim, the word for those who dwell in heaven, both angels and God. David is saying that in the order of ranking all of God’s creation, man is second only to God himself. We have been made as the highest creature in all of creation.

David says, “We have been crowned with honor and glory.” We have been made in the image of God. He breathed into us the breath of Life. He made us like Himself, having free will, having in our being both intellect and eternity, through that same image of Himself. That likeness has been terrible marred by sin, corrupted almost to the point that the image of God can no longer be seen, but praise God, it can be fully and beautifully restored through the gift of God, His own Son Jesus Christ.

David goes on and says, “All things have been placed under man's control. Thou made him to have dominion over the works of thy hands, you put all things under his feet, under his authority.”

And so here is the answer to David’s question, “What is man?” Man is God’s highest creation, made in God’s own image, to rule over all of God’s creation. But this truth, can only be fully understood by David or by us when we see ourselves in the light of God’s creation and in the light of a relationship with God though Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Finishing The Quest

To finish this quest. We must answer for ourselves the question, Who am I? Are you only an insignificant bit of nothing in a vast, empty universe? Are you only a cosmic random chance or an accident of blind, unguided evolution?

Many hopeless people are seeking as the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates counseled, To "Know Thyself." But many on this quest, don't like what they the person they find. So, they attempt to forget or change who they are. They use mindless activity, drugs, promiscuous sex, or catastrophic surgeries to try and change the person they are. Or if those things don’t work then they turn to violence, rage, or they stop caring about anyone or anything, including themselves. In the end many turn to suicide, thinking that will stop the questions, but that only reinforced for eternity the answer they did not want to hear while alive

And yet, the right question will bring fulfillment, joy and a life worth living to its fullest. When we know God as God, when we know God as Creator, when we know God as Savior, then we understand who we were meant to be.

We understand that in God, we have a purpose, we have power and we have the promise of eternity. Yes, man without God is hopeless, helpless and homeless, but when I realize who God is, when I realize who I am in light of God’s Word, when I see myself as so loved by God that He sent Jesus as my Redeemer to save me, then my life, my existence, my being has purpose.

I know who I am, through God and His love for me. I am not an insignificant speck in the fabric of time and space.  I am a beloved child of the King of the Universe.

This is what Psalms 8 says, we are God's greatest creation, second only to the Trinity. All of God’s creation has been given to our care, but this can only be understood in the truth of God’s Word and the love in the right relationship with God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

The final fulfillment of God’s design for man - Matthew 25:21 Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

That is what we were created for. That is our eternal purpose!

John Newton's before and after God

John Newton was an absolute lowlife; He was the captain of a slave ship that traded in human beings like so much livestock. He was even terrible at this low profession since he was also a drunkard that hated his men and was hated by them.  Once he was so drunk that he fell overboard in a storm. His men took a harpoon and tossed it at him as he struggled in the water. The harpoon struck in the leg and they used the attached rope to pull him back on-board.  Ultimately, he lost his job as on a slave ship due to his drinking and wasted life and was sold as a slave to the very people he used to transport as slaves out of Africa.

You might look back at John Newton and think that was a waste of a person, He was not fit to even be called human and you would be right. But this worthless piece of human flotsam in the sea of human history was changed when he was touched by God. He believed, he repented and then answered the call of God to pursue the purpose he was created for . After many rejections, he finally become a pastor of a small congregation. There he served God, by preaching and writing hymns and through those sermons and those hymns he changed the world and eternity. His most famous hymn is of course  Amazing Grace.

Amazing grace (how sweet the sound)
that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind, but now I see.

2 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved;
how precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed!

3 Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come:
'tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.

4 The Lord has promised good to me,
his word my hope secures;
he will my shield and portion be
as long as life endures.

5 Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
and mortal life shall cease:
I shall possess, within the veil,
a life of joy and peace.

6 The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
the sun forbear to shine;
but God, who called me here below,
will be forever mine.

If John Newton could rise from the empty, worthless, waste of his life by coming to a knowledge of and a relationship with God then any and all can rise as well.

Conclusion:  The highest praise - Psalms 8:9

O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

David finishes the Psalm as he began it, with the majesty of God. 

He has found his place in God's universe, because God has found him. As his Psalm of creation has come full circle, also his own circle of creation is complete. He knows what man is. Humanity is God's greatest creation. And David knows who he is, just a man but one that has been remade, redeemed, and repurposed by God. God chose David and He chose us to have a purpose in Him. As all the universe shows the glory of God, we also are to show forth His glory by worshiping, by serving, by going, by living for Him. Then one day we will join with all of creation, with all the redeemed, for all eternity and we will glorify the Lord our God.

Revelation 5:8-13 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. 9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; 10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
11 And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; 12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.
13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

Have you found your place in God's universe?  Has God found His place in your universe, your life?