Sermon Tone Analysis

The Majesty of Jesus

The Name of God

The LORD

Jesus

How majestic is the name of God?

David begins and ends with the statement O LORD, Our Lord, how majestic is your name.

Whenever a Jew would have read or heard this Psalm the name of the Lord YAHWEH would have caused them to think on how God had revealed Himself initially to them in the Exodus from Egypt.

This is not some hidden invisible being.

This is the God of the universe who puts himself on full display so that he might be seen in and by all of his creation.

It is his will to be known not only by humanity but by all of creation as well.

This is the “name” of God that is put on full display within our Psalm.

And wherever God chooses to place his name - in the land, in the temple, or upon his people - that place becomes the residence of God Almighty the Creator of the Heavens and Earth.

HOW MAJESTIC!

In Psalm 2 last week we heard about how it is that we should approach God in both fear and trembling.

None of that is present here.

Rather there is nothing but adoration and amazement of our God, of our Lord, of of our Yahweh, our Lord.

There is a sense in this Psalm that is so impressed by the power that our God has put on display in creation that it is almost intimidating.

And our God has chosen to put this power of full display for all to see.

David writes of the Glory of God that has been set above the heavens.

This word in Hebrew has the sense of that inward defining essence of a being.

Divine or human.

And so David is saying that to see the Glory of God is to know Him as he truly is at the very core of his being.

It is this reason that to see the Glory of God is both dangerous and significant beyond imagination.

For a sinful human to stand before and know in an intimate way the Holy, perfectly righteous God is to invite destruction of their very being.

Because our being stands in such contradiction to the very divine essence that is Jesus.

And yet God puts on full display his Majesty.

All that he is can be seen.

His majesty in creation is God on full display.

And David find God’s Majesty before him in creation to be impressive, awe-inspiring, intimidating even.

And it is this great inspiration that causes him to rejoice at the presence of the glory and majesty of our Lord.

Often times we become so focused on Gods disgust and wrath towards sin that it can become difficult to live in a relationship with God that is one of true love and joy.

We are so fearful of his judgment that we miss his mercy.

We are so fearful of our sin that we lose focus on our savior.

Today I want to try to help us return our focus to the awe-inspiring, Glory and Majesty of Our Lord, Our Savior, Our Friend, Our Jesus.

So, Let’s look at Psalm chapter 2

In the first two verses David is focused on the creative power of Yahweh.

The Creative Power of Yahweh

We read

The Glory of God

I said earlier that the word Glory refers to the inward defining essence of a being.

That thing for instance that uniquely makes you, well you.

This is what this word glory speaks of here in our Psalm.

In the first verse we read that God has set his Glory above the heavens.

David begins with this majestic image of God’s glory being set above all things for all to gaze upon.

How many times have you looked upon a sunrise or a sunset and been awestruck by the sheer beauty.

This is the glory of God being seen in His creation.

This next phrase then in our Psalm in verse two reads,

This phrase “out of the mouth of babies and infants you have established strength” is saying that the greats display of the greatest of God’s majesty and glory is seen when he takes weak and feeble human beings causes them to stand in a strength that comes form Him and Him alone.

And God strengthens us to oppose the enemies of God.

God strengthens the frailty of infants into a powerful defense.

The Psalmist writes that God establishes his strength within us to bring our enemies to bring the avenger to a stand still, to nothing.

In the midst of the struggles and frailty of this life.

We need to lean upon the power of Jesus within us so that He might be the strength in which we stand daily.

When we do we will be overcomers, we will find victory in the face of human defeat.

One of the hardest things often times for us to do is to see ourselves clearly and as God does.

To see frail human beings who are affected and afflicted every day by the fall of humanity into sin.

And that sin affects everything.

Not only our thoughts and our actions, but all that we are, all that defines us has been touched by sin.

And it is this human frailty that God is now going to address.

Human Frailty

Our Psalmist began in the highest of heights and placed the glory of God on full display for all to see.

Now our Psalmist descends from the heavens and plants himself firmly on earth.

And he looks and he sees himself clearly and he writes in verses three and four.

David looks to the sky and finds awe and wonder.

As he gazes into the starlit sky he sees the precise clockwork dance of the moon and the stars.

The movement unalterable.

The precision of which is unimaginable.

Generations will come and Generations will go and yet the Sun, the moon, and the stars will continue.

All of this wondrous display is the creative artwork of our God, our Yahweh.

David says when I look at YOUR heavens.

They are owned and possessed by God alone.

No one else lays claim to them but he who has created them.

They are the works of HIS fingers.

When we gaze into the majesty and glory of the night sky.

We have to ask ourselves, What is man?

David looks into the night sky and finds himself overcome with insignificance at the vastness that stands before him.

And science hasn’t shown him yet just how vast the universe truly is.

In contrast to the enduring natural elements of the world all around us, what are we?

We live fragile and troubled lives.

And it seems in comparison to the sun, and the moon, and the stars as soon as we come on to the scene our time has come and we are gone.

What are we?

And yet God has taken a special interest in our lives.

What is man the you O Yahweh our Lord are mindful of us.

And yet you are.

The son of man.

Probably best the son of adam, humanity as a whole.

That you actually care for us.

But you do.

Though we are these weak fragile beings Oh Yahweh our lord you have created us.

You have empowered us.

And you have laid responsibility upon us.

Empowerment and Responsibility

I hope that one of the things that we can clearly see through out our looking at the first part of the bible so far is that we are no accident.

We are not an afterthought for God.

All of creation found it’s culmination and majesty in the creation of humanity in the very image of God.

And as such we empowered by him and given responsibility towards him for His creation.

And we see this come to play in the next several verses.

In psalm 8:5 we read.

The phrase heavenly beings is actually gods in Hebrew.

I don’t know what Davids original intent was for using this word.