Sermon Tone Analysis

The Second Greatest Question!

Psalm 8

Sunday, August 12, 2007

 

Introduction: Today’s text is Psalm 8.  The Psalmist, David, asks the second most important question in the universe, “Who is Man?”

The first most important question and the answer to it have the most significant effect on man and his~/her eternal condition.

That question is, “Who is Christ?”

Jesus answers the question in John’s Gospel chapter 14, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, ESV) Every person—man, woman, child—must answer to the question of who is Christ for himself.

The answer and the effect of the answer is absolutely eternal—eternal life or eternal death!

Once you answer the most important question you ever have to answer, there is a second question you must answer, who is man?

I want us to take a few minutes and look at this question this morning!

Let’s Pray.

Follow along in your Bible or in the bulletin this morning as I read Psalm 8, where we find the question posed/.

“//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 babes 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 8:1-9, ESV)

          I give several quotes on who is man in our bulletin today—none of them very kind or complementary—notice the references to “animal.”  Warren Wiresbe one of my favorite Bible commentators makes this statement paraphrasing the thoughts of famous men,  “Is man only a highly developed animal as Darwin taught, or an underdeveloped child as Freud believed?

Or perhaps man is only an economic fact, as Karl Marx believed.”

What about others—famous philosophers?

Plato once defined man as a “featherless biped” and Blaise/ Pascal/ said, “Man is only a reed, the weakest thing in nature; but he is a reed that thinks.”

I want to suggest to you that “OUR” answer, man’s own answer to who or what man is, is really not very important and is almost always significantly lower than what God says about us.

If we are to really find out what or who man is, we must consult man’s creator—God!

Who does God say we are?

What is his opinion of us?

He answers that question in Psalm 8 through the words of David, the shepherd king of Israel.

Some have suggested that David wrote Psalm 8 as a young shepherd boy tending the flocks and others suggest that David wrote Psalm 8 after his battle with Goliath, the Philistine giant.

Frankly, I favor the second suggestion that David wrote Psalm 8 after slaying Goliath.

The parallels are stunning.

Goliath has been challenging the Israelites to battle and none will step forward except for David.

Listen as I read the battle scene from 1Samuel 17, /“//And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him.

//And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance.

//And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?”

And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

//The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.”

//Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

//This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head.

And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, //and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear.

For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

//When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.

//And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead.

The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.

//So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him.

There was no sword in the hand of David.

//Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it.

When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled…”/(1 Samuel 17:41-52, ESV

          David’s words in Psalm 8 surely reflect his heart after the battle with Goliath, /“//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 babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.”/

A boy, already crowned king, slays a giant and stills the words of the giant who has made fun of the God of Israel.

God’s answer to David’s question is very important for you and I.  Man has been created to be the ultimate completion, the highest being made in the image of God, of creation.

We may see ourselves as insignificant, but God sees us as created just a “little” lower than God himself (Elohim—in the Hebrew).

Listen to God’s word about our creation, “Then God said, /“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”//

//So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

//And 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 heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

/(Genesis 1:26-28, ESV)

          Don’t miss the idea of dominion in Genesis 1 and Psalm 8.  Dominion is a kingly concept—only kings have dominion—rule and authority over.

I think that David realizes, although he is not yet the king of Israel— Samuel has already anointed him, that God has given him dominion over the foes and enemies of the Lord—he can act and reign as a king even though he is still yet a shepherd boy.

The same applies to you and I—we have yet to receive our crowns, but we are seated in heavenly places with Jesus our Lord.

God says that when we face the giants in our life, He has equipped us for the battle—the triune God has acted and spoken.

Again I quote Warren Wiresbe, “God the Father created us as kings, God the son redeemed us to be kings, and God the Holy Spirit enables us to reign in life and live like kings.

/“//O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”/