How Majestic! - Psalm 8

INTRO

(DISCUSS MOVE BRIEFLY - 9AM - Be Engaged and patient - be in the word)

I remember meeting with my really good friend bobby in a random field in the middle of missouri in hopes of seeing an anomaly of the northern lights.

We went to the lowest light pollution spot we could find.

We stared up in the night sky and though we didn’t see the lights we did see the milky way and the stars glittering across the sky.

Take a look at this number.

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

This is a septillion, with 24 zeros.

When astronomers look into the most powerful telescopes and begin to estimate the number of stars in the observable universe, they figure about 400 billion stars in our average sized galaxy, the Milky Way.

They estimate around 160 billion galaxies.

Put those numbers together and you get a septillion.

That’s an unbelievable, unfathomable size.

God created the universe. How majestic is that! How majestic is our God!

The writer of Psalm 8, King David from ancient Israel, had no idea how huge the universe really was, but he knew how little he was in comparison.

He asks, “Who am I? What is man that you are mindful of him?”

Or of us?

Each one of us is just a teeny, tiny little speck in comparison to the vastness of God’s universe.

Put all the people who have ever lived into one spot, the billions and billions of people, and together we would still be just a minuscule, microscopic dot in a tiny corner of one galaxy out of billions.

Who am I? Who are you? Why would God even notice us?

Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.

John Calvin

Every week we share the welcome before we read the word.

We do this because often we feel worthless.

Many of us overcompensate trying to prove ourselves.

Some of us wallow in shame and spiral in depression.

Maybe when I speak of the magnitude of the universe that feeling of worthlessness creeps up again..

Friend this Psalm greets us today.

It points to the magnitude of our majestic God.

The Psalmist points us to see that this massive, incomparable God cares for you.

We have been walking through this series called Beautiful Savior, King of Creation.

We are looking at creation Psalms taking a cosmic view of the gospel story.

Advent is actually the start of the church calendar.

We start the year reflecting on the entrance of redemption and join in anticipating it’s final fulfillment.

This Psalm is known not only as a creation Psalm but a Messianic Psalm.

It is referenced multiple times in the New Testament.

Really this Psalm speaks of the meta-narrative of the gospel.

It tells the overarching story of God at work in his world.

Creation > Fall > Redemption > Restoration

As we walk through this gospel narrative, this story of the ages here is the Big Idea:

Big Idea: Worship the majestic King!

Our story starts where all good stories start, in the beginning.

I. Creation

Psalm 8:1 (ESV)

O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.

Now jump down to verse 4

Psalm 8:4–6 (ESV)

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,

This is a call back to the beginning pages of Scripture to remember that our good God in all his imminence spoke the world by a word of his power.

This God then made us in his image with a very good and distinct purpose.

We were called to worship the King as we steward his good creation.

King David looks at all God has created and says it’s the work of God’s fingers.

In Psalm 139, David says that God formed his inward parts; that God knit him together in his mother’s womb.

God’s fingers knitting him together.

He praises God because he is fearfully and wonderfully made.

It is the same for us.

God’s fingers knit us together when we were at our littlest, in our mothers’ wombs.

The God of the universe takes the time to fearfully and wonderfully knit us together, right down to our fingers.

What’s more, God even listens to the praise of the littlest of us—the children and babies.

In Matthew 21, Jesus quotes Psalm 8 when the children sing “Hosanna” to him in the temple and on Palm Sunday.

He mentions the praise for him that comes out of their mouths.

I think of how the youngest children in a Christmas program sing that praise.

For many of us, it might have been the first song we sang in the front of the church.

There’s a picture of me dressed up at Joseph when I was no more than 4 years old.

Whether you may have been Joseph or dressed as little angels or lambs, the voices would sing, “Away in a manger no crib for a bed. The little Lord Jesus lay down His sweet head.

The stars in the sky look down where He lay.

The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.”

From the septillion stars above to the littlest voices, all give praise to our majestic God.

But there’s more.

In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, which tells of how God created everything, we read that not only are we wonderfully made, but we are specially made in God’s image.

We are created to be in a special relationship with God.

We can think, feel, talk, love, and trust our God.

We can praise him. We are made just a little lower than the heavenly beings, David writes in Psalm 8.

In fact, God has placed us over the rest of his creation here on earth.

David wrote, “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.”

Sheep, oxen, birds, and fish, whatever.

We have been given the special task to take care of this incredible world he has given us to live in.

We are specially knit together right down to our fingers.

He listens to our praise even when we are so little.

Special relationship with God. Special responsibility to care for his creation.

No wonder King David gives praise: How majestic is your name, O Lord, in all the earth!

But we all feel the world is broken don’t we?

That brings us to the next step in this metanarrative, this gospel story.

II. Fall

Psalm 8:2 (ESV)

Out of the mouth of babies and infants,

you have established strength because of your foes,

to still the enemy and the avenger.

It’s not long before we move from the majesty of God to foes and enemies.

How little we have used our fingers, hands, and voices to live as his people.

We have not cared for his creation as he wanted us to.

In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve took that special relationship, being just a little lower than heavenly beings, and tried to be like God.

The one thing God told them not to do, they did.

Their fingers reached out for forbidden fruit, and ever since, our image and all of creation has suffered.

Animals kill people.

People kill each other.

Whole species are destroyed in the name of progress.

We invent machines and then pollution dirties the beauty of God’s handiwork.

We can split the atom to make energy or massive bombs.

The Internet brings information and speed to life (I found out how many stars there are by Googling the question), but also pornography, scams and identity theft.

Nature turns on us and firefighters lose their lives in a wildfire. Tornados ravage schools and homes.

The world is broken.

We feel it.

We were made in the image of God and given dominion.

When Adam sinned, he lost that dominion.

Romans 5 points out that there was a change of “kings”:

Death reigned , and sin reigned, but Adam no longer reigned.

Instead of a king, Adam had become a slave!

Advent is a time when we remember the fall.

We like Israel waited in longing.

We taste brokenness.

We feel the pain of loss.

Oh we feel it deeply.

Advent tells us to long for the light.

And praise God light has come.

Let’s see next Redemption

III. Redemption

Psalm 8:3–8 (ESV)

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.

We read this passage and wonder we see what we are created to be and wonder how humanity can be restored.

In the midst of this mess we’ve made of things, one star stands out from all the rest.

One star is given a special task.

One star shone bright long ago. Wise men were looking for a newborn king.

They have only a star to go by.

They have only the guidance of one out of a septillion to bring them to Jesus.

Yet that star does its work well. It shines its light on Jesus.

Jesus does just the opposite of Adam and Eve.

They wanted to move up and become like God.

Jesus comes down and becomes one of us.

God himself takes on a human body and is born in Bethlehem.

Mary holds Jesus in her hands.

Her fingers caress his face.

She puts her index finger into his hand and his little fingers wrap around it.

God’s fingers that created the septillion stars are now just like yours and mine.

He became one of us.

And he grows up to use his fingers, his hands to live up to the glory of his name: Jesus, which means, the One who saves us.

Watch him use his fingers.

A man with leprosy, a disease that made someone unclean and dead in the eyes of others, cries out for help.

Jesus’s fingers reach out to touch him, to touch him.

And in the majesty of God’s power, he is made whole in body and soul.

A woman is caught in adultery. The law says she should die.

The religious leaders bring her to Jesus. He writes something on the ground with his fingers. We don’t know what.

But then he tells the crowd that the one without sin is to throw the first stone. No one does. The woman goes away forgiven and free.

She goes away hearing Jesus’s words to not sin again.

A man is blind. He’s never seen anything.

Jesus comes along. He has compassion on the man.

He spits on the ground and makes some mud. His fingers rub it on the man’s eyes.

The majestic power of God is seen once again. The man sees. He does even more. He believes that Jesus is the One, the very Son of God, who will save him for life eternal.

Go back to Psalm 8.

It’s not just about us.

It’s about Jesus too.

He was made a little lower than the angels (Hebrews 2) when he became one of us.

He was crowned with glory and honor.

Crowned with honor?

Well, a crown of thorns doesn’t look like honor or glory.

But he is doing just what his name calls for him to do.

He is honoring what his Father gave him to do.

He is giving his life for us, for the whole of God’s creation.

When his fingers go limp on the cross, he brings forgiveness for our failures, life for our death, hope for our despair, joy for our sadness and peace for our violent world.

And then he was crowned with glory and honor on the third day.

His body comes back to life.

His fingers, once stiff in death, move once again. [You could stare at your own fingers and watch them move.]

A body broken is now glorified.

A body buried is now honored by knees that bow down to him and voices that sing his praise.

And God has placed all creation under his feet.

He is the risen king.

How majestic is the name of Jesus!

Christ has regained all that Adam lost because of sin.

God’s glory is no longer contained to a tent or temple but now it is above the heavens in Christ and in the hearts of ordinary believers like you and me.

This leads us finally to restoration

IV. Restoration

Psalm 8:9 (ESV)

O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Hebrews points to this Psalm.

It says in Hebrews 2:8

Hebrews 2:8 (ESV)

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.

We do not yet see all of nature put in subjection.

There are still floods and earthquakes and plagues.

Yes, but we see Jesus! (v. 9)

And the fact that He died for us is all the assurance we need that one day, when He returns, His people will reign over a renewed earth.

Friends Advent tells us we have a future glory

Romans 8:18–25 (ESV)

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

You were made to worship the king.

Creation was made to be subject to you as you in turn are subject to the king.

We were made for glory.

And believer…it is coming.

That’s the way God made us.

We can’t help but praise and rejoice in what we most enjoy.

The enjoyment itself is stunted and hindered if it is never expressed in joyful celebration.

Here’s how C.S. Lewis explained it:

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. _C.S. Lewis

So, Lewis is telling us that God’s pursuit of our praise of him is not weak self-seeking but the epitome of self-giving love!

So catch this.

If we have an incomplete satisfaction in God until we actually worship him because we see that he is all satisfying.

Then God desiring our worship is both the most loving thing he could possibly do for me and the most glorifying thing he could possibly do for himself.

For in our gladness in him is his glory in us.

Conclusion

As Christmas draws near we often have the temptation to take our eyes off Jesus.

I’m not just saying we forget the reason for the season.

I’m saying we hear the lie that comes with a hiss.

In the flurry of consumerism.

In the slavery to business.

We hear the same lie from the Garden that God is not good.

So we attempt to find goodness in all the wrong places.

I’ll close with a story.

Sammy - Loves the moon

Wants to see it every night.

This week has been a nightmare at times.

Losing a child, watching Hannah recoup, processing.

We got back from the hospital, I put Samuel on my shoulders.

We went outside and looked at the Christmas lights on our house and of course the moon.

My heart ached. I hated seeing my wife hurt. I felt the sting of loss holding my child on my shoulders.

My heart wonders, how could you let this happen God.

Then Sammy points to the moon.

It was waining seen only in part.

A thought came to mind a kids book we’ve read to Sammy when we tell him about Abner our first chil we lost - The Moon is Always round - Jonathan Gibson

Here is the story from him:

When our son Benjamin was about three-years old, I held him up to the window one evening and he pointed to the moon.

"Look. The moon!" he said.

It was a crescent moon. I explained to him that the moon could appear in different shapes, but the moon was always round. From that, I developed a simple catechism for him.

Q. Ben, what shape is the moon tonight?

A. The moon is a crescent moon, or a half-moon, or a gibbous moon, or a full moon.

Q. What shape is the moon always?

A. The moon is always round.

Q. What does that mean?

A. God is always good.

Little did I know that, even as a three-year old, the catechism would soon become so very important in his life.

Sometime later, on March 13, 2016, his younger sister, Leila Judith Grace, died at 39 weeks in her mother's womb.

Four days later, she was stillborn at 10:25am on March, 17, 2016. Ben came to meet her in the hospital later that afternoon. He gave her "Bazza" the giraffe as a gift. He held her, and them a few hours later, he said goodbye to her.

As I drove him home that night, he asked, "Daddy, will mommy ever grow a baby that wakes up?"

I told him I didn't know.

He asked, "Why isn't Leila coming home with us?"

I told him because she's gone to be with Jesus.

He asked, "Why has she gone to be with Jesus?"

I told him because Jesus called her name and she went to him.

He asked, "Will Leila come to us after a day with Jesus in heaven?"

I told him that when you meet Jesus, you don't want to go anywhere else.

He asked, "Why?" I told him because he is such a wonderful person.

He asked, "Does Leila not like us?"

I told him that she does like us, she just likes Jesus more.

He asked again, "But why is Leila not coming home with us?"

I said, "Ben, I don't really know why."

And then I recalled our catechism, so I started to talk to him about the moon.

We talked about how sometimes when we look up at the moon, we can only see a crescent moon or a half-moon or a gibbous moon.

And then I asked him, "What shape is the moon, Ben?"

"The moon is always round," he replied.

I said, "What does that mean?"

He said, "God is always good."

"That's right," I replied, and drove on in silence, tears streaming down my face.

That night after I tucked Ben into bed and left him under the care of a close friend, I went back to the hospital to be with Jackie and Leila.

Just before I got into the car, I looked up to see if there was a moon in the night sky. There was-a half-moon!

That captured exactly how Jackie and I felt.

We couldn't see the whole of God's goodness because Leila was dead.

But we knew that the moon was round, even though we couldn't see all of it.

The moon is always round

A few weeks later we held a funeral service for Leila.

I gave a eulogy for her, and at the end I addressed Ben.

I told him that as he grows up, he may have questions about why Leila died, but I wanted him to remember what he had learnt about the moon.

I asked him again in the service, "What shape is the moon, Ben?"

“The moon is always round," he replied.

I said, "What does that mean?" He said, "God is always good."

Out of the mouth of babes and infants God has ordained praise (Psalm 8:2).

Since then, the moon has become so meaningful to our family.

Ben has a picture of the moon above his bed.

Five simple words curve below the moon: "The moon is always round."

We pray that our story, and the story of Jesus on the cross, points others (of all ages) to the goodness of God, even in the darkness.

God is always good.

Psalm 8:3–4 (ESV)

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?

This God who spins cosmos from his fingers, he has knit me together, he has opened up this rib gage and removed a heart of stone for a heart of flesh.

He is the king of ages and I will worship him because it’s what I was made to do.

He is always good.

Coram Deo…worship the king!

He makes all things new!

CLOSING QUESTIONS

Have I considered the bigness of God? Does that lead me to worship?

How does the reality that Jesus has regained all that Adam lost encourage me?

Where is my hope? How can I look to Christ to be my hope and joy?

Where have I believed the lie that God is not good? How can I invite my community to encourage me to remember the truth?