The Excellence of God

Introduction

Good morning I hope you all have been enjoying our walk through the Book of Psalms. As I mentioned at the start of this series that the book of psalms is a collection of poems, hymns, songs that are meant to give us a deeper understanding of our worship of God. The book of psalms is full of doctrine and practical theology. And what I mean when I say practical theology i mean psalms gives us models of true worship. Lets be honest modern contemporary worship, the stuff you hear on klove or Mars hill, and even some in our very own hymn book, do not compare with the rich depth of the true hymn book, the book of psalms. Our attempt at worship when it comes to our songs of praise fail and fail hard. Modern lyricist attempt to appeal to the audience and woo a younger generation. The writers of the psalms did not try to appeal to audiences but tried to appeal to God himself. The Depth of the psalms compared to modern worship songs is the difference to Meat or potatoes.

One of the things that people are starving for is the greatness of God. How can a heart hungry and starving for God be filled? it can only be filled by beholding all over again and again the greatness and the glory of God. Much of what our background has taught us that we need a dumbed down version of God. Much of what we have come to expect is teaching and preaching and worship that displays a mediocre view of God and His majesty. We enjoy the milk when God wants us to feast of meat. I have been told many times, “preacher you preached over my head, I don't wanna work that hard to think when I come to church” my answer to that is God deserves our deep thoughts, and meditation. That leads us to our next psalm

There are a lot of Psalms that grab our attention. Psalm 23, psalm 91, psalm 121, psalm 119 all are amazing and all are worthy of meditation and memorization, in fact I have memorized a few of them myself yet there is one psalm that is absolutely quintessential when it comes to the purpose and message of the collection of the psalms (which is true praise and worship ) and that psalm is psalm 8. Some believe that this is the first psalm that was written by David, when he was a young shepherd boy keeping watch out in the fields before Samuel called for him. This psalm is special so we will be looking at this psalm for a few weeks

So lets turn to psalm 8

As you can see this psalm is rich and draws our attention to God’s Excellence, and Majesty. One of the problems that we see too often in Christianity is that we have become to familiar too comfortable with Almighty God. Now there is nothing wrong with referring to God as Father in fact we are encouraged to do so. We do have the tendency to lose the Awe of God, we fail to live with Godly fear and wonder of Gods Majesty. This has even been refered to in Psalm 50:21

Psalm 50:21 ESV

These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

Psalm 8 reminds us again that God is God. Mighty and powerful glorious and regal.

Today we are going to be looking at the first two verses of this Great psalm and asking the Lord to move us and convict us of God’s excellence and bring us to a proper and healthy fear of God. The first 2 verses shows us three things that we need to recognize and acknowledge

Psalm 8

I. Is an acknowledgement of God as Ultimate King. - Vs 1 This thought seems like a simple concept to understand after all God is God right? even for Christians this might seem like a no brainer, but in reality it is not. More often than not we don't consider our walk of faith as a commitment as if our souls depend on it. For most people We tend to have a casual and familial view of God. We read our Bible as mostly as suggestions and recommendations more than commands and law. The way we approach the world would be a lot different consider church life, home life, and our view of the world around us would change dramatically, If we understood God is king and Ultimate authority

vs 1 begins Ps 8:1 “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.”

The word that is translated in our English language as “Lord” is actually two different words in the Hebrew language here.

1. The first Lord is the Hebrew word Yahweh - This is Considered the Name God. Some translations say Jehovah. As considered as one of the personal names of God the Jewish people would omit the vowels from this word leaving only YHWH as to not violate the 3rd commandment. this is called the tetragrammaton. The proper translation would be “O God”

2. The second Lord that is written Adon, or Adoni - Which of course can be translated as lord. It has a deeper meaning though it refers to Master or King. The head of household, the supreme authority, or Sovereign.

If we see the gravity of the statement “O God, our King, our sovereign” then we will understand even though we can approach God as our heavenly father we are still approaching the King, God Almighty the Sovereign One… this should make us reevaluate our standing with Him. Do we have a casual “what up God, i see ya next week, oops nah might be in two weeks i got things to do” type of attitude of a reverence loyal and committed view. You want to know the secret of David success is that he knew God as His king.

this statement shows us a few things

A. Supremacy - Deut 10:17, 1 Chro 29:11-12, ps 115:3 … red sea, num 16 the earth opens, matt 8 the sea calms

B. Providence-Jere 29:11, Rom 8:28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Gen 50:20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” Isa 14:24 “The Lord of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,”

C. Sovereignty- Dan 4:35 “all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?””

Isa 46:10 “declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’”

Job 42:2 ““I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

God is king and has right to rule over this world and your life. Do you serve Him as king. Remember that Jewish prayer that I mentioned a few months ago, “Blessed be Adoni, our God and King of the universe”

Psalm 8 is an

II. Acknowledgement of God’s Majesty - vs 1 The word Majesty is the hebrew ‘Ad-deer’ comes from the word that means wide or large. It means excellent, gallant, glorious, powerful, noble. Our English word Majesty comes from the Latin that means greatness. Our thoughts about God are often times too small, often times our thoughts about God is too human. Yes he relates to us and knows us, but that is just because of us He does that for us. It is like an adult having a tea party at a little girls table.

Ps 50:21 “These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.”

Glorious - Heb 1:3-4 “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”

Renown - ps 135 , Ex 3:15 “God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” , Ex 34:14 “(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),”

Full of Awe, unseachable, unfathomable, Isa 6, Isa 42:8 “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”

III. Acknowledgement of God’s Will - vs 2 One of the things that we learn from scripture is that God does not rejoice with the strength of men, and does not entertain arrogance of those with precieved power. The pride of those in power is that they obtained power on their own. Power and authority is through God will. He ordains the weak and vulnerable. His wisdom is foolish in the worlds eyes and our wisdom is foolish to Him. 1 Peter 2:15 “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.” Rom 12:1-2 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Heb 13:20-21 “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

i. In weakness there is strength -

ii. In humility there is power -

iii. God’s will, will be accomplished no matter our efforts- 1 Corinthians 1:25 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” , Pro 13:10 “By insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom.” Isa 40:28 “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” Pro 16:16

Proverbs 16:16 ESV

How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.

Application

Know God and Understand His excellence - Isa 6:1-3 “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!””

Realize He is your King - That means not just His commitment to you but your Duty to Him

His will for your life will likely look like foolishness to the world and those around you - it will surely challenge you as well

Oh Lord, our Lord How majestic is you name in all the earth. let that alter your view of God Almighty. Yes He is your heavenly father, but He is your King and Captain