The Ruler of Creation

Introduction

I don’t know about you but when I was growing up there was two things that I just loved: LEGOs and Star Wars. I loved being able to get a lego set, put it all together, and then bring it to the rest of my LEGO’s and have them all play together. And I especially loved my STAR WARS Legos. And I used to have this Star Wars spaceship that was probably my favorite one. I played with it ALL the time. But one week, my cousins that I barely ever get to see came to town and stayed at our house. And while I was excited to play with them, I was a little nervous about my little cousin Seattle breaking my spaceship while I went to school. That thing was like my baby! I was essentially the creator of the ship, and I was the one who was in charge of it. I was the ruler of my creation; it was my lego set.

Explanation

In a similar way, Psalm 8 tells us that God is the ruler of his creation. Let’s read Psalm 8 together:

Psalm 8 LSB

For the choir director. According to the Gittith. A Psalm of David. O Yahweh, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who displays Your splendor above the heavens! From the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have established; What is man that You remember him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the animals of the field, The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O Yahweh, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Let’s pray.

Now before the Psalm even starts, you’ll see in your Bible a little title and description of Psalm. In my translation, the title is “How Majestic Is Your Name,” and it says that it was written for the choir director. Then it says: According to the Gittith. A Gittith is probably a stringed instrument, but anything more than that isn’t very clear to biblical scholars. Finally, it says: A Psalm of David. So we know the author is King David, a great king, man after God’s heart who made a horrible mistake in his life which ultimately led to a lot of consequences on earth.

While it’s not super clear when or where he wrote this, to be honest, that probably means it isn’t super relevant to the Psalm. We don’t always need to understand everything, and sometimes it's best to come to a text like this and not get caught up on what we don’t know. There is so much packed into these nine verses that should be drawing our focus.

In verse one, we immediately see the first words out of the mouth of those singing Psalm 8 : O Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! They first address God with his personal name, then address him with his title of Lord, or master. He is the Lord God, ruler and king Yahweh.

But then right off the bat, we are able to understand the main point of the Psalm: God is the ruler of his creation. The rest of the Psalm is singing the praises of God because of this one truth. This first verse is telling us that all of the earth reveals the majesty of his name, all of the earth is full of his glory. Paul, writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit, speaks to this in Romans 1:20:

Romans 1:20 LSB

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

And not only the earth, but the heavens also display God’s splendor! David isn’t necessarily talking about the spiritual realm of God we call heaven, but is more so talking about the stars and sky that he sees. We’ll talk about that more later. Verse two then says that from the mouths of infants and nursing babies, God has established strength because of his adversaries, in order to make the enemy and revengeful stop, or cease. What does that even mean? Well remember, this Psalm is about creation and how God is the ruler of his creation. This includes the freshest and newest creations: infants and nursing babies! Their very life is a praise of God’s strength.

Jesus actually references this part of Psalm 8 in Matthew 21:15-17

Matthew 21:15–17 LSB

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the marvelous things which He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant and said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF’?” And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

He quotes from the greek version of the Old Testament, which uses the word “praise” instead of “strength,” but the point is the same: children are praising God. When the children praise Jesus, he references verse 2 to be essentially this verse being lived out: little one’s mouths praising God, which shows that Jesus see’s himself as God in the flesh.

After that part, however, verse 2 takes a turn. Those who reject and go against the Lord God are stopped by the strength and praise of God. The praise of the strength of God causes the adversaries of God to just.... stop.

Then, I imagine David looks up into the night sky and describes what he see’s: he says when I look at your heavens, the moon and stars you have established; what is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man that you care for him?

He stares into the night sky and ponders his place in all of it. He looks at the works of God’s creation, the moon and stars, and just realizes how small he is compared to everyone else. He thinks: who is mankind, that you remember them? Who are people, individuals, that you care for them? That’s probably one aspect of who he was originally referring to when he says “son of man”: individual humans. David humbly recognizes God’s love and grace, that though we seem small and insignificant compared to the vastness of creation, God cares for us. He remembers us.

Remember Genesis 1-2? God creates EVERYTHING.He creates all things, from light itself, to plants, to the moon and stars, to every living creature on the land and in the sea. His final creation was man and woman.

And that is what David is writing about. He is remembering the beginning of Genesis and wondering why God cares for and is concerned with his human creation. He continues speaking about the son of man: You have made him a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and majesty, made to rule over the works of God’s hand, with all things under his feet, all the animals of the land and of the sea. In this section, the son of man that David is referring to must mean more than just individual humans; he is referring to the first man: Adam, along with his bride Eve.

He told them in Genesis 1:28-30:

Genesis 1:28–30 LSB

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that creeps on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given to you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has the fruit of the tree yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that creeps on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.

They were the first in creation to be given the charge to subdue the earth and have authority over all creation and all animals. They were the ones to originally be made a little lower than angels, the first to rule over creation, the first with dominion. Yet, they were not the last.

Hebrews 2:6-9 exegetes this passage in particular. The author of hebrews writes:

Hebrews 2:6–9 LSB

But one has testified somewhere, saying, “WHAT IS MAN, THAT YOU REMEMBER HIM? OR THE SON OF MAN, THAT YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT HIM? “YOU HAVE MADE HIM FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS; YOU HAVE CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY AND HONOR, AND HAVE APPOINTED HIM OVER THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS; YOU HAVE PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET.” For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels—Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

The author of Hebrews wants us to see this passage in light of Jesus: Jesus is the ruler of his creation. Nothing is left that is not under his rule. We see Jesus, made lower than the angels for a short time. In his suffering on the cross and his brutal death, he was crowned with glory and honor, and by the grace of God, he has tasted death for all people. His death and suffering ea

Conclusion:

Think back to that Lego Star Wars ship I had. When I left for school that day, I asked my mom to make sure he didn’t play with it while I was gone. Well that afternoon, I came back to my favorite ship in PIECES! My little cousin had of course played with it and broken it immediately. I was so mad at my cousin and my mom for letting it happen. And the worst part: I had thrown away the instructions, so I didn’t even know how to put it back together. There was nothing I could do to fix what had been broken.