How Majestic

Palm Sunday

Today begins Holy week…

Holy week in the christian calendar is a week that obviously comes every year.

Holy Week reminds me of a hill…Every year that same hill comes

When I started running, I started because I was hiking and constantly hitting these big hills…So I started running the hills …then eventually I would run the whole thing...

Its the same pain whether you go fast or slow…But you get way more out of it if you run…Your heart rate goes up higher…you build muscle…burn fat....

So I have learned to run lean in to the hills that are in front of me...

Because if you run them then they shape you and mold you

Life had many hills…And to the extent that you lean into them, to the extent that you embrace them, you will grow...

Don’t skip the hills!

This week is like a hill that you have run 50 times before…And there are many times that you face this week and almost say…Well I know the story and there is a tendency to say…I’ve done this before so no biggie....and then you tend to go mindlessly through the rest of the week...

I want to submit to you that if you lean into this week…If you “run the hills” so to speak, that you will come out of it changed, refreshed and renewed in your relationship with Jesus...

So , this Friday night at 7pm we will hold a Good Friday Service…Lean in

This Sunday we will have one big easter service at 10:30am, outdoors....Lean in

This week around your dinner table…read the stories & lean in, because I believe that God wants to do a new work of Grace in each of you this week!

Well Today is Palm Sunday and instead of going right to that story we are going to hang out in the psalms for a minute:

The Psalms:

2 Poem introduction

In introduces a key concept for the psalms...

The first two Psalms introduce the idea that God will deal with sin and evil in the world by raising up an anointed king…A king who can deal with the problems of sin

The Hebrew word for “Anointed” is MA-SHE-AH it’s where the word “Messiah” comes from...

This refers to a promise that God made to King David....He said a future messiah would come from David’s own family

Psalm 2 talks about how this messiah will reign and confront all of the evil rulers of the world

And the Messiah will be a fortress for anyone who takes refuge in him

So in Psalm 3-7: King David is reflecting on how his enemies are all around him…He is talking about having to run away from King Saul,

In these poems David cries out to God and calls him to deliver him to his role as king

And today we are going to look at Psalm 8…but first

After Psalm 8 is a group of Psalms 9-14 where David finds himself with the poor and afflicted ones …The people are oppressed by the empires of this world, and David Calls on God to vindicate God’s people

and in these Psalms both David and the afflicted ones are powerless and weak…and this is a key point

‘And Yet…These are the people whom God has chosen to rule the world

And this is what Psalm 8 is all about

Psalm 8

The New International Version Psalm 8

1 LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory

in the heavens.

So this is Royal language…Yahweh is Majestic....Get it…He is Majesty…His Royal power, can be seen all over the earth...

This line, “you have set your glory in the heavens…” is so key

I am always worried that when you read that word in the Bible that you somehow think…the heavens is a place way out there

But to the Hebrew mind, the heavens are both, way up there and also the air around you!

So King David is saying Yahweh…You are king and your Glory is literally everywhere! It is out there and right here

And this line is repeated again at the very end of the psalm...

And the reason why the psalmist writes these lines twice is that it is a signal to us the reader that everything in between these lines is about God’s royal power & kingship that fills all of creation.

So right before this Psalm, David is weak and powerless and right after it, David is with the afflicted ones…But right in the middle of it all he takes time to contemplate the power and majesty of God...

Let’s look at verse 2

The New International Version Psalm 8

2 Through the praise of children and infants

you have established a stronghold against your enemies,

to silence the foe and the avenger.

Ok this is where the Psalm gets a little strange…

Through the praise of children and infants…God will build a stronghold…and that word stronghold literally means a fortress

Why is The psalmist saying this? Babies are weak…They are powerless…They are the definition of dependent…Babies need their mothers to survive

And God is saying…Their praise is where God’s stronghold comes from

In other words …God loves to empower the powerless! This is what he is pleased to do....

But now he is going to unpack this statement…Because how do you just say,…God is building a fortress out of Baby babble ?

The New International Version Psalm 8

3 When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them? u

So the poet is reflecting on Genesis 1

God installs the heavenly lights above in all of the splendor…But he makes us out of the dust of the ground...

Did you ever get that dichotomy in the creation story? Everything is literally magnificent…Starts, the sun the moon, oceans, land! all of it! And then God makes humans and he literally picks up dirt and creates humans!

So imagine David standing up and looking at the stars…You look up and just feel small...

I spent a lot of time stargazing this summer looking at the comet NEOWISE…And you get the sense that we are just so small!

Its like the Psalmist is looking at all of the stars above and thinking…God you made these beautiful stars…You made them majestic…and we are just dirt people!

Who are we that you love us so much?

In the context of all of creation…You really care for humans! it is astounding!

The New International Version Psalm 8

5 You have made them a little lower than the angels v

and crowned them with glory and honor.

So in Genesis....God elevates the weak dirt people…Adam and Eve to rule over all of creation…It is actually a royal task...

See how David says that humans are crowned with Glory and honor?

Humans have to image God and rule over his creation…These pitiful dirt creatures…Humans…Get the royal task of bearing God’s image...

So God made all the wonders of the world....But he elevated the lowly …And this is why pride & celebrity and fame is just so silly…We are all literally just dirt people…and God enjoys elevating the lowly

And the psalm continues :

The New International Version Psalm 8

6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

you put everything under their feet:

7 all flocks and herds,

and the animals of the wild,

8 the birds in the sky,

and the fish in the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.

So do you get the theme of this psalm?

God wants to elevate the powerless…It is what he has been doing since the creation of the world...

I mean God made Stars! Stars people! and the moon and black holes and comets and everything that is astoundingly beautiful in the world…and yet, he chooses to put his own image into the little dirt creatures called humans?

So whether it is through babies or lowly humans, God loves to choose the weak & make them great.

I wonder if it is because when your weak and you know it, you can truly operate in God’s power

Then David ends the psalm where he started

The New International Version Psalm 8

9 LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

when you look at Psalm 8 its almost like, wow…Ok God…How amazing are you that you will elevate the lowly, that you put your royal image in human beings and that we get the royal task of showing you off to the world.

So just like the Psalms before Psalm 8 where David is running from his enemies and he is afflicted and lowly…and the psalms after Psalm 8 where David is with the weak and powerless...

All of these set the stage for who the messiah really is…

The question of the Psalms is, Who will the messiah of Psalm 2 actually be?

So this all goes forward to Matthew 21

Where we see Jesus ride into Jerusalem as a king! But he is not the kind of king that is riding in on a stallion…He is riding in on a donkey…That is a really humble ride…

It is a symbol of weakness and powerlessness

Donkeys are for cargo…not people!

and he is being praised by children and the weak and powerless!

Matthew 21:1-11

The New International Version Chapter 21

21 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

5 “Say to Daughter Zion,

‘See, your king comes to you,

gentle and riding on a donkey,

and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ” v

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” y

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

I am not sure if you saw it…But this is Psalm 8

It is God elevating the weak and the powerless.

It is God himself, strolling into the weakness of humanity...

Not on a powerful war horse…But a donkey…And the gospel of Mark says he rode on the colt…the Donkey’s baby

The Donkey

A donkey…Mark’s Gospel says “A colt that has never been ridden”

A colt that is not broken is dangerous...

Its bound to throw you off...

But in Mark’s Gospel there is this thread that weaves through the whole book that shows that Jesus is at one with the animals…

Its like Jesus is living in the garden of Eden when no one else is…and the animals are just his best buddies

Jesus is the new & unfallen Adam…Its a deep point but so important...

Just as Jesus walked on the water and calmed the sea, he has power over all creation

The life that Jesus is modeling is actually available to all of us

But there is another symbol at play here...

The historian Flavius Josephus recounts how Alexander the Great road into Jerusalem just over 300 years before this time…

He was on a war horse…Richly decorated…He had thousands of troops behind him…and the people were captivated by his wealth and his power…

Which took Israel down a dangerous path

The Splendor of Alexander the Great entering Jerusalem was something that was never forgotten…it lived so vividly in their memories…their ancestors had passed that story down...

Think of presidential motorcades today.

They have hundreds of moving parts, a limo with the president that is bombproof

It cost the tax payers hundreds thousands of dollars for the president to travel because you have the leader of the free world in there

And Jesus comes riding in on a donkey…Being praised by the lowly, the people with no status

And I think this is an important point.

A certain preacher made famous a few years ago that they called him king on palm Sunday and then shouted crucify him on Friday

And the reality is that historical research shows that this is probably not true at all…

Were there some who shouted both? Sure, I am sure there are people who just went with the crowd

But

1. We know who Jesus fan base was…It was the weak…The sinners and the common man

2. We know who wanted Jesus dead…It was the upper class Pharisees, religious leaders and leaders of society.

Modern historical research really reveals that it is not the same group of people shouting Hosanna as it was “crucify him”

So, Jesus rides in on a dirty animal that exists to cary a heavy load…Thats it!

So Jesus enters Jerusalem in this week lowly posture…And the people are praising him!

And Matthew kind of adds this line to explain

The New International Version Chapter 21

4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

5 “Say to Daughter Zion,

‘See, your king comes to you,

gentle and riding on a donkey,

and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ” v

You don’t get what you are looking at…This is the humble king...

The king that is talked about in Psalm 8

The one who is enthroned on the praises of infants

The one whose name is a stronghold for us…Comes to take our sins away…lowly riding on a donkey

And I love that Matthew quotes Zechariah here because

if you keep reading from that Zechariah passage

English Standard Version Chapter 9

12  Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;

today I declare that I will restore to you double.

What was the stronghold of Psalm 8?

The praise of the weak…and the powerless…the praise of Children

What is happening on that first Palm Sunday?

The weak and the powerless…and claiming Jesus as their king…and it somehow creates a stronghold...

Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope!

Response

Pride and Arrogance are such a problem in today’s world. We literally have the Bible telling us that all strength comes from giving praise to Jesus…and the reality is that we set ourselves up as kings and rulers of our own lives...

I think Jesus is like, listen Guys, if you want real strength…real power…real life then learn to lay yours down

learn to be less important!

Learn to organize your life around me...

But the problem with society today is that it is perfectly organized to make us autonomous kings of our own lives

And when we do invite Jesus in to our lives, we treat him as a personal assistant savour…Asking Jesus to do our dirty work

Asking Jesus to clean up our messes...

Asking Jesus only when all else fails...

But that is not how you treat a king.

2. Power: In what areas has god given you power? How can you use this power to elevate the weak \

This is the whole story of the Bible...

We are just dirt people

God has all power

And YET! He puts his image into us and elevates us to be important in his kingdom...

It is the story of Jesus. Literally in Jesus’ day there is a crucified class of people…The weak, the poor and the powerless…people who spoke the truth to power…These people were targeted for crucifixion! And Jesus was in this disposable class of people…And the huge reversal is that God used this to take away the sin of the world!

So where has God given you power & how can you use that to elevate the weak today ?

Let’s pray:

The New International Version Psalm 8

1 LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory

in the heavens.

2 Through the praise of children and infants

you have established a stronghold against your enemies,

to silence the foe and the avenger.

3 When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them? u

5 You have made them a little lower than the angels v

and crowned them with glory and honor.

6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

you put everything under their feet:

7 all flocks and herds,

and the animals of the wild,

8 the birds in the sky,

and the fish in the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!