How Majestic is Your God?
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Good morning, turn with me in your Bibles this morning to .
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 8:1-
I want to ask you a question this morning, HOW MAJESTIC IS YOUR GOD?
HOW MIGHTY IS YOUR GOD?
HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD?
is the first song of praise in the psalms psalms 1-2 are the dors that walk you into the psalms.
are filled with lament and sadness as David cries out to God fro deliverance from his troubles. This complaining continues in verse 9 and the following psalms but psalms 8 is total praise.
From start to finish this psalm celebrates the majesty of God, the heading over verse 1 which I believe is part of the psalm reads
TO THE CHOIRMASTER ACCORDING TO GITTITH. A PSALM OF DAVID
This is a song of praise written by David Gittith maybe talking about the musical tune that David wanted these phrases to be used with we dont know.
He addressed the psalm to the choirmaster insisting this song to be sung in worship, this is an example of what a hymn of praise should be its all about God.
is a celebration of the majesty of God. The majesty of God is seen here through the lense of creation. In fact is the first of 5 so called nature songs.
In verse 3 notice Gods majesty is put on display, in the creation of the moon and the stars, in verses 6-8 God’s majesty if put on display by the birds of the air the animals of the Earth and the fish and whatever passes along the paths of the sea, I think thats Davids way of saying in case theres something down there we dont know about God made it all.
teaches us that the majesty of God can be sen every time you look into a mirror. is about the majesty of God but it is also about the beauty of man.
ALL OF CREATION IS A CALL TO WORSHIP GOD, EVERYTHING IN THE CREATED WORLD IS CALLING US TO GIVE PRAISE TO THE GREATNESS AND GOODNESS OF GOD.
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
This question has baffled philosophers and professors throughout the years but the simple truth is psalm 8 you cannot answer the question what is man until you answer the question WHO IS GOD?
I think psalm 8 is saying you dont really know who God is if you dont worship His majesty.
We celebrate the majesty of God bc God is great and God is good.
Those are the 2 lessons of psalm 8 GOD IS GREAT, AND GOD IS GOOD
Think about this with me
GOD IS GREAT
GOD IS GREAT
begins and ends with a shout of praise to God OH LORD OUR LORD HOW MAJESTIC IS YOUR NAME IN ALL THE EARTH?
Here in 1-2 he declares the praise of Gods greatness.
God is great on the Earth (1)
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
The name is more than a means of ID it represents a persons ways and character and it is the same way with God.
Exodus 20:
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
The obeyed his command and how he addresses God in this psalm notice the
OH LORD OUR LORD
The children of Israel avoided using the personal name Yahweh, for God, Yahweh means the self existent one.
God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
They would more often call God adoni the Soverign One but even that name was treated with reverence and awe.
But David was so consumed with thegreatness of God here that he uses both names in this verse literaly in the Hebrew he says
Oh YAHWEH OUR ADONI
This is a statement of faith, he acknowledges there is only one god OH LORD no s on it just one. The true and living God is the god of Israel OH LORD OUR LORD.
David says OH LORD OUR LORD HOW MAJESTIC IS YOUR NAME IN ALL THE EARTH.
David is telling us that the name of the Lord is majestic, excellent, beautiful, awesome, but what does this word majestic mean?
MAJESTIC=IS THE OPEN DISPLAY OF HIS GLORY
MAJESTY IS GLORY SHOWING OFF
We give this honor to God.
The passage says that gods glory is revealed simply in His name, and its so great that you cant limit it. GODS NAME IS MAJESTIC IN ALL THE EARTH
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
God is great in the Earth but He is also great in the Heavens
The end of verse one says you have set your glory in the Heavens above the Heavens.
Glory is not one of the attributes of God. Glory is WHAT GOD IS
You put together all of the perfections of God and what you get is GLORY.
GLORY is the brilliance of who He is, Glory is the weight of His Character. We give glory to God we announce the glory of God we respond to the glory of God we rejoice at the gloryof God.
GOD IS NOT GLORIOUS BECAUSE WE PRAISE HIM, GOD IS GLORIOUS BC GOD IS GOD
To make sure we dont confuse human greatness with Gods glory, God has set His glory above the Heavens.
For the cherubim were spreading their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim covered the ark and its poles from above.
HEAVEN AND THE HIGHEST HEAVEN CANNOT CONTAIN YOU
SOLOMON SAYS in 1 Kings
Solomon is acknowledging there that nothing we do is good enough to fully honor the greatness of God, this is big bc there are some people who object tojoyful praise there are people who think it is wrong to get excited when you praise the Lord.
Claiming that it doesn’t take all of that, but nothing we offer can be enough much less too much for the god who sets His glory ABOVE THE HEAVENS
JMB- says God has placed His glory above the Heavens and it is certain that nothing under the heavens can adequately give Him praise.
God is worthy of the best you have,
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
and his greatness is unsearchable.
If God was an average god average praise would be ok, if God was a mediocre god then mediocre worship would be ok, but the LORD IS GREAT AND HE IS GREATLY TO BE PRAISED AND HIS GREATNESS IS UNSEARCHABLE
(1)
Talks about the praise of Gods greatness
(2) points us to the backwards nature of His greatness
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
This verse is often referenced when a little child says something insightful… “OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABIES”
but this verse is about more than that, the verse is meant to declare the greatness of god as seen in the difference between strength and weakness. Then he contrasts strength and weakness and this contrast between the two is presented against the backdrop of opposition against God
NOTICE IN THE TEXT THAT THERE IS OPPOSITION AGAINST THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD
There is alot of talk about enemies in the psalms they show up in this psalm as well, but with a twist bc here David is concerned about Gods enemies not his own.
he calls them foes and then the end of (2) calls them the enemy and the avenger, foes enemies and avengers rise up against god, this may be talking about Satan and his demonic forces of evil or some human king whose kingdom rises up against thr kingdom of God, but whether this refers to human spirits or spirit beings the strategy is the same God has enemies on the Earth that wanna overthrow His government of the world.
Psalm 2:1-
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”
Those 3 verses explain the problem with the world today. Rebellious sinners are trying to get rid of divine authority. its like the nations have met together to go towar to overthrow Gods chains and bonds
Notice in psalm 2 the Bible says while man is on Earth trying to get rid of God that God is in Heaven laughing at man.
this is what we find in verse 2 god has opposition, but this not only shows us the fact of spiritual opposition against god it shows us the failure of spiritual opposition against god.
OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABIES AND INFANTS YOU HAVE ESTABLISHED STRENGTH BC OF YOUR FOES TO STILL THE ENEMY AND THE AVENGER
God knows how to stop his enemies in their tracks.
But notice how God defeats His foes...
GOD ESTABLISHES STRENGTH OUT OF THE MOUTH OF WEAK VULNERABLE HELPLESS BABIES AND INFANTS
governments are in the great houses making laws to vote God out and god is saying here every time a new baby cries its proof I AM STILL IN CONTROL
the week Jesus was crucified He cleansed the Temple of the moneychangers and the dove sellers the children then came inot the Temple singing praises to Jesus and the religious leaders were indignant.
and they said to him, “Do you hear what these 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’?”
Matthew
Quoting psalm 8:2 Jesus declared Himself to be the Lord God who establishes strength out of the mouth of little children in the face of religious foes who refuse to acknowledge Him as Messiah KING.
This is how God always works, God displays His strength on a platform of weakness.
Thats why He saved us
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
1 Corinthians
GOD IS GREAT AND GOD ALONE IS GREAT
The rest of the psalm says not only is God great God is good
GOD IS GOOD
1-2 focus on God alone
its not until you get to verse 3 that we find Gods goodness
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
As David focuses on the majesty of God his focus shifts from what is above him to what is around him. as he looks around, he still sees the majesty of God on full display.
1-2 praise the greatness of God 3-8 praise the goodness of god
These 3 verses show us that we see gods goodness in His care for us and His creation of us.
God’s care for us
God’s care for us
When I observe Your heavens,
the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which You set in place,
what is man that You remember him,
the son of man that You look after him?
Psalm 8:3-4
GOD IS RIGHT WHERE YOU NEED HIM TO BE
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
for most of people the lights of the city block out the light of the stars,but not us, man we are blessed we can come out and see the beauty of the stars.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
David looked up at the clear sky in the darkness of the night when David looked up in the night sky HE SAW GOD EVERYWHERE
HE SAYS YOU HEAVENS
everything up there is Gods heavens its His heavens bc He created it all.
when God created the Heavens it didn’t take him long or much effort
David cllas the heavens the work of your fingers
In one sense we cannot see as good as David saw in another sense we are able to see better than David saw, we have telescopes and sattelites and space stations that allow us to see in the heavens morec learly than David
I dont care what scientific discovery you make it only proves that David is right all that up there is the work of Gods finger
The universe is divine finger painting I dont have enough faith to believe all of that got out there by itself. I DONT HAVEENOUGH FAITH TO BE AN ATHEIST I BELIEVE THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD
The sun moon and stars did not find their place in the heavens by a big bang almighty God set them in their appointed places this is the majesty of God
(4) asks a logical question
GOD SITS ON HIS THRONE FINGERPAINTING THE UNIVERSE
WHAT IS MAN THEN, THAT YOU ARE MINDFUL OF HIM AND THE SON OF MAN THAT YOU CARE FOR HIM?
The right answer to this question is nothing, God is so big that the creation of the universe is childs play to him, we are rebllious little creatures that exist temporarily on a puny rock on the far end of the universe we are nothing we are less than nothing, but the right answer is the wrong answrr
THE GOD WHO SITS ON HIS THRONE FINGERPAINTING THE UNIVEERSE THE SAME GOD TOUCHED YOU THIS MORNING WITH LOVE AND WHEN YOU ROLLED OVER AND SEE THE BLESSING OF A BRAND NEW DAY
THE SAME GOD THAT MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH LOVES YOU AND ME
he is a good God
I mean He has nations to oversee He got rivers and oceans and mountains and weather to orchestrate HES GOT UNIVERSES TO MANAGE AND YET HE KEEPS ON LOOKING OUT FOR YOU AND ME
Somebody came here tonight looking for encouragement
(4) if you are a Christian is a great encouragement to you I dont care what you are dealing with.
There are 2 truths concerning you that should bless you
(4) GOD IS MINDFUL OF YOU
You might think nobody is thinking of you but god says I want you to know you are always on my mind
O Lord, what is man that you regard him,
or the son of man that you think of him?
Man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow.
THE HEALTHIEST PERSON IN THIS ROOM IS STILL JUST ONE BREATH AWAY FROM DEATH
The most pwerful rich and influential person in this community is like a passing shadow we are here one minute and gone the next.
YET, God is mindful of us
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Be encouraged God has you on His mind
look what else 4 says
GOD CARES FOR YOU
God cares for the son of man, but the word here for care is more than just a feeling it means God longs for us. god seeks after us, God takes care of us.
THE GOD WHO HOLDS THE UNIVERSE WITH HIS OTHER HAND IS TAKING CARE OF YOU AND ME
As Christians we should know this better than David did.
David uses the phrase SON OF DAVID to describe human weakness some say
but in the gospels jesus uses the phrase son of man to describe Himself
by doing that Jesus identifies Himself as God who put on flesh to visit us with his redeeming love that died on the cross and rose from the dead the goodness of God is seen in how he loves us, but also in His creation of us.
god created man with dignity
WHAT IS MAN?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
YOU HAVE MADE HIM
David said whatever men are you made him
Theres something deeper than that going on, He is saying human beings are not evolved GOD CREATED US
Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
GOD MADE US
How did God make man?
A LITTLE LOWER THAN THE HEAVENLY BEINGS
This is hard to understand but easy to interpret
the word used for Heavenly beings is the word elohim it is normally used for God sometimes it used to refer to a false god or angels
It renders the word here angels
I grew up on the New King James which said you have made him a little lower than the angels
But this word elohim a name used for God
I think the most literal way to read it in the Hebrew
Is that God made man a little lower than God Himself
ESV plays it safe and just says the heavenly beings
but whatever way you translate it it means the same thing god created man with divine dignity we are not a little higher than the beats of the field we are a little lower than the HEavenly beings
He made us a LITTLE LOWER THAN HEAVENLY BEINGS AND HAS CROWNED US WITH GLORY AND HONOR
GLORY AND HONOR ARE BOTH ASCRIBED TO GOD
GOD CROWNED MANKIND WITH GLORY AND HONOR
Now listen
this does not mean, we are little gods
When verse 5 says you have made him little lower than heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor David is simply affirming
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
God created mankind and he created mankind as one race, and that one race is made up of only 2 genders MALE ANF FEMALE
GOD CREATED MAN WITH DIGNITY
BUT HEALSO CREATED US FOR DOMINON God created man to rule over the Earth
He made us to have dominion thats rule thats headship
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
God gave us dominion over the works of His hands and God put all things under his feet.
WE ARE STWERADS OF THE EARTH WHO ARE ACCOUNTABLE FOR WHAT WE DO WHILE WERE HERE
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.
God is given dominion over the creatures
HAVE YOU CAUGHT THAT leaves out an important part of the story
Our original design was marred by the fall, when sin entered the world dominion was marred by sin.
WE ARE MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD BUT BC OF SIN THE IMAGE OF GOD IN US IS TAINTED TWISTED
THERES A VIRUS IN OUR SOUL
It has affected our dominion the birds escape us fish elude us, no matter lies people tell about how many they catch
Animals attack us rather than submitting to our dominion the first Adam brought us into sin, but the second Adam brings humans to righteousness
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.
For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
Hebrews 2:
Hebrews is saying psalm 8 is ultimately about JEsus
JESUS IS GREATER THAN THE ANGELS BUT GOD MADE HIM FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS SO HE COULD TASTE DEATH FOR US
THATS GREAT NEWS
IT ALMOST MAKES YOU WANNA SAY
OH LORD OR LORD HOW MAJESTIC IS YOUR NAME IN ALL THE EARTH