Worship like a child

Psalm 8 is our reading this morning.

Psalm 8.

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, 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 honour.

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.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, good morning, everyone.

If you're visiting with us this morning,

my name's David.

I'm one of the pastors here.

It's great to have you here this morning.

Well, having just given thanks for and prayed

for these little human beings,

if next Sunday we got everyone to bring in their pet puppy

and we did the same thing,

we got them on stage

and we thanked God for our pet puppies

and prayed for them,

would you find that appropriate?

We love our puppies, right?

We name our puppies.

We give them names.

We dress them,

or some people do at least.

We send them to puppy school.

We order puppy chinos at the cafe.

We get pet insurance.

We let them sleep in our bed and cuddle them.

Some even call them their children.

And yet, intuitively,

I'm guessing all of us would think

having a puppy Thanksgiving and prayer service

service is out of place.

And anyone who took it seriously,

I don't know how to be politically correct

and finish that sentence.

But only human beings can ask the sort of questions

we find in Psalm 8

and contemplate the universe like Psalm 8,

what we've heard read.

What is my place in this universe?

Human beings,

we all ask that question.

There's something very different to human beings

than puppies.

What is my life about?

What is a human life about?

Where do I find value and purpose?

Asking those questions

and trying to find our value and purpose

in this great universe,

can I suggest is what a human being does.

We can't help it.

Can I suggest that's worship?

Now, I know I'm introducing a religious term there,

but it's not just when we gather like this

that we worship.

Worship is not a religious thing only.

It's a human thing.

We can't help it.

We all do it.

Because if you look in this universe and go,

what is important?

What am I going to base my life on?

What am I going to fill my mind and heart with?

What gives me purpose and value?

You're worshipping that thing,

whatever it is.

It's not a religious thing only.

It's a human thing to worship.

Here's a non-Christian who says that very thing.

David Wallace at a graduation speech at a university said,

there's no such thing as not worshipping.

Everybody worships.

The only choice we get is what to worship.

If you worship money and things,

then you'll never have enough.

Never feel you have enough.

He kept saying,

worship your body and beauty,

and you'll always feel ugly.

And when time and age start showing,

you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you.

You worship power.

You'll end up feeling weak and afraid.

And you'll need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear.

If you worship your intellect,

being seen as smart,

you'll end up feeling stupid,

a fraud,

always on the verge of being found out.

That was his conclusion.

He's saying,

we all worship.

That's just a human thing.

What's important in life?

Why am I important?

We all do it.

The only choice we get is

what we look to,

what we worship,

what we centre our lives on.

In Psalm 8,

we find a human being

contemplating the universe,

and we find him overwhelmed

at someone great,

and he's overwhelmed at his place

in this incredible universe.

My father-in-law, Clay,

I know anyone who comes to this church

knows who he is,

but for those visiting,

he's stuck stars

on Sam and Rory's bedroom ceiling,

and it's the constellations

that we would see

from our vantage point here in Australia.

And he's gone to great effort

to get the precise ratios of the distance.

Anyone who knows Clay knows why.

He's ordered it so beautifully

on the kid's ceiling.

My dad, Gary,

always loves to go back

to the country sky in Townworth

because his telescope is there.

He wants to be in the cold night air

just staring up at the sky.

He gets up in crazy hours

in the middle of the night

to go take pictures of Aurora Borealis.

What makes these grown men

act like children?

Obsessed with the night?

What's going on?

Well, they're in good company.

King David,

who wrote this psalm,

this song,

is doing the exact same thing.

He's looking at the stars going,

you have set your glory above the heavens.

He's just looking at this universe

and he's overwhelmed.

The light from the sun

takes only eight minutes to get to earth,

but the nearest star in the southern cross,

nearest star to us,

takes 90 years.

Now, the vastness of the universe,

you cannot fit in your head.

No one can.

It's too mind-boggling.

There's billions of stars and galaxies

behind billions of stars and galaxies.

Now, if the universe was made

just for our home

and our dwelling as human beings,

it's a bit excessive.

It's a bit...

Couldn't you just make the solar system

and that's...

Even then,

probably didn't even need that.

But,

if the universe was made

so that with David,

we can be like children

and just look up at the stars

and go,

wow,

God,

creator,

the grandeur

overwhelms me.

Then the universe is a pretty good size

for us to look up

and see just how amazing God is.

you are the greatest.

Majestic is your name.

The work of your fingers.

It's not his arm

as if it took a lot of strength.

He created it all with his fingers.

It's just...

He's that powerful.

He's like an artist with care.

He's declaring from the depths of his heart,

when I look at this universe,

it is impossible to add to your greatness, God.

When we sing,

we are not adding to God's greatness.

We can't add anything.

We're enjoying.

We're just enjoying his greatness.

That's what we're doing.

Your glory is above the heavens.

Your greatness is above the heavens.

And then verse 2,

it seems a bit odd.

Out of the mouth of babies and infants,

you have established strength or praise

because of your enemies.

What is that doing there?

I think what David is saying is,

okay, it's impossible to add to God's greatness,

but it's also impossible for you and me

to take away from God's greatness.

Enemies,

many people,

in the name of science,

make unscientific spiritual claims,

spiritual claims,

trying to remove God from this world,

from our minds,

from society.

Others, with their words,

try and redefine God

as this impersonal,

I don't know,

force,

like in Star Wars.

You've just got to connect in

and just,

you don't have to listen to God's words.

Others try and make themselves

the master of their life

and sing with Frank Sinatra,

I did it my way.

But then there's

religious people who,

false religion,

not true religion,

but false religion,

who

come to church,

but in their heart,

they're using God to get

X,

whatever X is.

I will pray to you to get X,

I will go to church to get

whatever it is,

health,

the benefit of my children even.

Whatever X is,

is your real God,

if you're using God

to some other end.

false religion,

tells God,

this is what you should be like.

You should be doing this in the world.

You should be doing this in my life.

False religion

claims to believe in God

and goes,

no,

this part of my life is mine.

Don't touch it,

God.

When you look at this universe,

you don't have a,

you don't ask the God of the universe

to come in and be your advisor in life.

You don't come and say,

hey,

can you counsel me in this situation?

God's not your personal assistant.

When you look at the universe,

we are made for him.

All these attempts,

there's non-religious attempts,

there's religious attempts

to try and rob God

of his place in the universe

and in our hearts.

Now,

what's God going to do about that?

How is he going to restore his honour?

Is he going to send angels?

Is he going to send armies?

Nope.

He's happy with children.

He is going to silence his enemies

with what we heard this morning,

the children singing,

my God is so big,

so strong and so mighty.

There's nothing my God cannot do.

That's true.

God uses the weak.

Those little children

are one day going to be proven

to be right.

They're in the position of strength.

They know what's going on in the universe.

With ease,

God created the universe.

With ease,

he's going to silence his enemies.

He's happy with children.

Praising him.

That's all he needs.

It's impossible

to add to God's greatness.

It is impossible

to take away

from his greatness.

And David,

contemplating

the universe,

asks a question

I think we all ask

in verses 3 to 4.

When I look at your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars

which you have set in place,

what is mankind,

what is man

that you're mindful of him

and the son of man

that you care for him.

Only human beings

ask this question.

What is my place

in this vast universe?

And it's a scary question.

does the universe care?

Now those who want to find

their meaning

without reference to God,

here's the kind of conclusion

you need to draw.

Here's Stephen

Jay Gould.

He's an evolutionary biologist.

We're here simply because

one odd group of fish

had a peculiar anatomy

that just happened

to be able to transform

itself into legs

for terrestrial preachers.

We're here just because

comets struck the earth

and wiped out dinosaurs

and gave mammals a chance.

We're here just for those reasons.

We yearn for a higher answer

but none exists.

Now this explanation,

though superficially troubling,

if not terrifying,

is ultimately liberating.

We have to construct

any meaning ourselves.

Any sense of human dignity,

any sense of human rights,

they're just feelings

that it helped our ancestors

to evolve.

It's not actually real.

Today you'll go into

a psychology session

and the problems

in your life

is because of low self-worth

and then you'll go

to a science class

and say,

well, you're actually

nothing special.

You're just evolved fish

and when the universe

runs out,

no one will remember

anything that you do.

There's a play

by Samuel Beckett

called Breath

and it lasts for 35 seconds

and you go in

and it's dark

and the lights

slowly come on

as you hear

whoosh

and the lights dim

as you hear

whoosh

and that's the end

of the play.

That's life.

If there's no God,

what's my place

in this universe?

Well,

we're surrounded

by the culture

that's saying

you don't have a place

in the universe.

Your universe

doesn't care about you.

Now,

even if you believe

in God,

it's a frightening question.

If we start

to get our head

around who God is,

his greatness,

why would he care

about little me?

I'm so finite

and fragile

and limited

before this unlimited God.

I'm here today

and gone tomorrow

before this everlasting God.

Does he care about me?

What's our place

in this universe?

And there's two

amazing answers

that Psalm 8 gives us.

The first is

we are created

to rule

God's world

as his representatives.

David uses two names

for God in this psalm.

O Lord,

our Lord.

The first one,

Sovereign Lord.

He's all-powerful.

We've already covered that.

But then

he's saying

Yahweh,

the personal name

of God.

He's saying

our Lord.

He's speaking

to this God.

He's not this

distant being.

God has created

us to know him.

Personal relationship.

And then David

recalls God's

original design

in Genesis chapter 1

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

of our purpose

as human beings

which launches him

into even more

worship of God.

If we just hear

the verbs,

you have crowned him.

You have crowned

mankind

with glory

and honour.

You have given him

dominion,

rule.

God's entrusted

the work of his hands

to you and me.

you have put

all things

under his feet.

Now these

terms are usually

reserved for God.

Glory,

honour,

dominion,

crown.

He's talking about

human beings.

Why has God

created us

like him

to represent him,

to rule the world

and show his

goodness,

his patience,

his justice,

his forgiveness,

his care

in all we do,

in all our

interactions.

He's put us here

to represent God.

God.

We're here to know

this God

and enjoy him

and we're here

to represent him

in all we say

and do.

Even changing

a nappy,

you can represent,

you're representing

God.

It's a beautiful

picture.

The God of the

universe

cares.

He's crowned us

with glory

and honour.

Now,

this sounds good

in theory,

but is it

our daily

experience?

Why is there

such beauty

in the world

but also

bombs?

Do we see

people treating

each other

as being

crowned

with glory

and honour?

Do the words

coming out

of my mouth

and your mouth

to other people

treat human

beings

with such

dignity?

We were made

to control

the world

under God

and yet

I can barely

control myself.

The man

writing this,

he failed

big time.

He did

some awful

things

to human

beings

crowned

in glory

and honour.

It's not

our daily

experience.

So,

by all

means,

if you're

at the

beach

overlooking

a sunset,

use

psalm,

pray

psalm,

sing

psalm.

mate,

it's

fitting

for that

because how

else are

you going

to describe

what you're

seeing?

It's a

beautiful

word

to praise

God.

But

a bigger

answer that

psalm 8

gives us

is what

God has

done to

restore us

to glory

and honour.

our

creator

doesn't

just

look down

and know

us,

he's

come down

as one

of us.

God

had promised

in the

Bible

another king

like David

who would

save and

put this

world right.

He would

save us.

God

Jesus

when he

walked

on earth

he came

into the

capital

city,

David's

capital

city

and he

announced

himself

as the

promised

saviour,

as the

promised

king.

There

was a

parade

like whoever

wins the

world cup

I'm guessing

there's going

to be a

great parade.

This

parade

it would

be more

ecstatic.

They were

looking forward

to this

saviour for

thousands

of years.

There was a

parade

and the

children got

caught up

in the

praise and

just praising

Jesus and

the enemies

of Jesus

were like

do you hear

what they're

saying?

They're

praising you.

They should

be praising

God.

That's

blasphemy.

Tell those

kids to be

quiet.

And Jesus

quotes Psalm

Psalms 8:2

8 verse

2.

Haven't

you read

out of the

mouths of

babies and

infants?

In other

words, I'm

the God of

Psalm 8.

It was my

fingers that

made the

heavens.

These little

children are

absolutely

right to

praise me.

And just

days later

these enemies

put him on

a cross

to silence

him.

Now their

plan would

have worked

except for

one thing.

Whose hands

these were

that they

were crucifying?

Hands that

touched the

blind and

they saw

for the very

first time.

Hands that

took a

dead 12

year old

cold limp

hand by the

hand and

raised her back

to life and

gave her back to

her parents.

Jesus'

majesty is

above the

heavens.

He showed

himself as

our creator.

And so he

rose to life

on the third

day.

All

authority in

heaven and

on earth is

under Jesus'

feet.

Our creator

came down and

did that for

us.

God

so all

human beings,

all of us

ask the

question,

what is my

place in the

universe?

You can only

find an answer

to that in

Jesus.

He didn't

just look down

from heaven,

he came down.

Even while

we were

putting our

lives on

everything except

for him,

even while we

were using

power to live

for ourselves

rather than

represent him,

even while we

were mistreating

the dignity

of human

beings,

he came

down.

And those

hands, those

fingers,

crucified for

us, to

rescue us, to

restore us

back to

himself, back

to the

dignity to be

crowned with

glory and

honour.

We have

lost every

right for our

creator to care

about us and

yet he did

that.

Does our

creator, is

he mindful of

you and

me?

Well,

that's how

much you

were in his

mind, that he

came down and

died for you.

psalm 8 leaves

us with a

choice.

All human

beings

worship.

We're all

singing and

living for

something, trying

to find our

purpose in

life somewhere.

You can't

help it, we

can't help it.

Our only choice

is where

are you going

to find your

purpose?

Whose song

are you going

to sing?

You can

join the

chorus of

those who

keep telling

us there

is no

meaning in

life, there

is no

God, who

try and rob

our creator

of his

greatness, who

try and rob

human beings

of our purpose

in the world,

who try and

rob themselves

of the peace

and wonder

of knowing

this God, who

try and use

God rather

than being

overwhelmed by

his love and

his greatness.

You can join

that chorus

or you can

join the

chorus of

children and

just be weak,

dependent,

and just

receive everything

as a gift

from Jesus.

who has come

and done

everything to

restore our

place.

He says when

he comes to

fix this world,

it's going to

be his children

are going to

rule.

He's done all

that for us.

So whose song

are you going

to sing?

To try and

put my

little kids

to sleep

at night,

I always

reach for

the children's

song.

Jesus

loves me,

this I

know,

for the

Bible tells

me so.

Little

ones,

sorry,

I don't know

why it's

getting too

big.

Little

ones to

him belong,

they are

weak,

but he

is strong.

Jesus

loves me,

he who

died,

heaven's

gate,

to open

wide,

he will

wash away

my sin,

let his

little

children

come in.

So it's

up to you,

what song

are you going

to sing?

Will you pray

with me?

Let's pray.

Father, I'm

deeply aware my

words can't

capture your

greatness of

in creation or

what you've done

to save us,

but your

words can.

I just pray for

each one of

us, you

would press on

our hearts

just the

wonder of

who you

are and

that you

care enough

that you

came down

to rescue

us, that

you love

us that

much.

Fill us

with that

wonder so

that we

may know

you and

live for

you and

treat others

with the

respect that

you call

for.

I pray

this in

Jesus'

name.

Amen.