What Is Man?

I believe that you normally stand for the

reading of God's word. So if you would

please stand with me in the honor of

the reading of God's word.

Again, this is Psalm 8. This is God's

holy word to us.

Oh, lord, our lord.

How majestic is your name in all the

earth.

You have set your glory above the heavens,

out of the mouths of babies and infants.

You have established strength because of your foes,

to still the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at the heavens,

the work of your fingers, the moon, and

the stars which you have set in place,

what is man that you're 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've 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 heaven, and the fish

of the sea, whatever passes along the paths

of the sea. Oh, lord, our lord,

How majestic

is your name

in all the earth.

The word of the lord.

Thanks be to god. You may be seated.

Well, let me ask you a question that

Psalm 8 asked us this morning.

A very important question, and it simply is

this, what is man?

Just that generic word for human beings, not

males,

but mankind, humanity, however we want to understand

that. But what is

man? And we'll see that that comes right

in the middle of our Psalm, but verse

1 and verse 9 book in the Psalm

with the majestic name of God. So there's

a big clue

that whatever,

however we're gonna answer that question, what is

man, we need to look to God for

him to tell us what it means to

be a human

being.

And that's simply what I wanna do this

morning is walk through Psalm 8,

section by section, and try to fill in

an answer to that all important question.

Yes, in our day and age, but really

in every day and age.

What is man? What does it mean to

be created

in the image

of God?

And when you first hear that question, I

wonder how you answer it in your own

mind. What are you? What is

a human

being?

I think one of the ways, at least

in our culture that we tend to answer

that question is by thinking about the name

that we're gonna make from ourselves,

the things that we are going to accomplish.

And deep down, we all love that story,

don't we? The rags to riches story or

someone who has a goal and puts their

minds to it and accomplishes

that

goal.

They make it big.

And that's not always a bad thing.

This quest to make a name for ourselves,

to understand who we are, like I said,

it's not just a modern question. Because if

we go all the way back to Genesis

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

chapter 11,

and the famous story about the tower

of Babel. It is Babel. Right? It's Babel

in New Zealand. I always forget how to

say it. Babel. I think it's the tower

of Babel.

Either way, you know what I'm talking about.

And there we see that making a name

for themselves is not this God given pursuit

to use the gifts and the talents and

the opportunity he's given us, but it's actually

to make a name for ourselves is to

put ourselves in the place of God.

And so in Genesis 11 chapter Genesis 11

Genesis 11:4

verse 4, excuse me, we read simply this,

the nations are talking, trying to metaphorically build

a temple up to the heavens. Let us

make a name

for ourselves.

See, they're seeking to answer that all important

question, what is man,

by putting themselves as the creator

instead of being the creature

that they are made

to be.

And so today, soulmate's gonna help us answer

this question.

What is man?

And and really what God is saying to

us

as we answer that question

is that you are a glorious

creature

created in his image, but you only find

that glory that your heart so desperately

craves

as you look to him,

and live in the safety and security

of his

majestic

name.

So Psalm 8 calls us back by faith

to God,

to live in that name

this morning.

This is how we begin to live the

truly human life.

So to answer that question, let's, let's take

it in 3 parts. We'll think first about

God's majestic name,

and then we'll think about humanity's

smallness,

but then we'll also think about humanity's

glory.

So let's jump in. God's glorious name.

This is verse

1, and also verse 9, that beautiful refrain

that we read from our Psalm. Oh Lord,

our Lord, how majestic is your name in

all the earth. So we start here with

a a name of God. David writing this

song is praising God using his name, and

notice what he's what he says, oh, Lord,

with the all capsulc up there,

and then our Lord.

We could translate that, oh, Yahweh, our sovereign,

or oh, Yahweh,

our creator, oh, Yahweh, our

lord.

And the order here seems important

that we have Yahweh and then

lord. The all caps lord,

by the way, is just a transliteration of

the Hebrew word Yahweh, but that's important because

Yahweh is God's relational,

personal,

covenantal

name.

We don't know the exact details of Psalm

8, but if we back up to Psalm

7, there's injustice and enemies of Israel all

around, and the Psalm ends by saying that

I will praise the Lord. Jump ahead to

Psalm 9,

there's injustice all around. Yet again, we find

that even though there's injustice, I will praise

the Lord, and we have Psalm 8, this

doxological

hymn of thanksgiving tucked right into the middle.

So there's probably enemies, trial, and trouble all

around, and David orders this name of God

intentionally saying that this God who we're gonna

praise, even though life is hard, is Yahweh.

He's God who initiates relationship with his people.

He's the God who keeps that wonderful promise

that really summarizes all of the Bible, I

will be your God and you will be

my people.

Now why is this order important? Well that

context,

it's hard. Life is hard. We have this

idealistic picture in Psalm 8 of created,

created, the created world and humans created in

God's image, but it comes to us in

this fallen context.

And so he wants to assure us that

this God who we stand up to praise

when life is difficult

is Yahweh, the God who cares, the God

who is present to help

and to redeem.

And only then does he remind us that

this God Yahweh is also our lord, our

our our master, our sovereign, our our governor

as the older translation sometimes

puts it.

So there's this twofold

name of God, our lord, our lord.

And following, scripture at this point, because back

in Exodus chapter 3, when God first makes

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

his name known to Israel, and the burning

bush that doesn't burn up, when he speaks

to Moses, he says, I am.

I am the eternal God. The one who

simply

is. The one who has life from his

self, who has no beginning and no end.

I simply am,

but he's also the God who hears the

cries of his people.

He's Yahweh

who sends Moses

to deliver Israel in the Exodus, that great

salvation event

of the old testament.

So this is our Lord,

our Lord. This twofold name and David is

saying how majestic is this name? You're both

sovereign, creator of all things. The Lord in

charge of charge of us. We owe you

our allegiance and worship, but yet you're so

gracious to us. You're Yahweh, you're ever present

and ready to help your people.

So his name

is majestic because God is majestic. That's what

David wants us to know as we begin

looking into Psalm 8.

But again, I said there's injustice and enemies

all around, and that helps us understand verse

2 if you look with me.

This verse is a little bit strange, but

it's beautiful.

Out of the mouths of babies and infants,

you have established strength because of your foes

to steal the enemy

in the avenger.

Now I'll I'll prove this to you in

a second, but what that is saying, or

I'll try to prove it to you in

a second, but what that verse is saying

is that our majestic God, what is man

remember we're answering that question. What does man,

well our majestic God thinks so highly of

us that he uses our prayers

to defeat his enemies.

He's so kind that he uses our prayers

to defeat his enemies. Why do I say

that? Well, well, notice that these children and

infants are speaking,

And that as they speak, a stronghold or

a bulwark is established.

Avengers

are overthrown, enemies

are silenced.

And this leads most commentators to the history

of reflection, and I think they're right to

conclude that this speaking,

the words that pour out of these infants

and children's mouths are the prayers of God's

people.

God's children who cry out to him

to right every wrong, to forgive sin, to

make enemies into friends as they are converted

by the gospel.

So God's name is majestic as it, comes

through the mouths of his children

in prayer, we might say.

And we have a big hint from the

life of Jesus that this is one way

we can understand this verse.

In Matthew chapter 21 verse 6,

Matthew 21:6

in the triumphal entry, as Jesus rides into

Jerusalem,

there's a literal fulfillment of Psalm 8:2.

Psalms 8:2

As Jesus rides in on a donkey, do

you remember what what happens?

The Hosannas cry out from whom?

The mouths of children.

So Jesus literally is carried along by the

prayers of children as he rides in to

do what? To cleanse the temple.

A sign of the coming judgment against the

religious leaders,

who instead of understanding that Christ is their

king, has have usurped his authority

and put himself as king.

And then what does he do? He goes

to the cross,

dies in our place to forgive our sins.

But Colossians 2 tells us as important as

that is, as he dies to forgive our

sins, he also defeats the rulers and authorities,

the powers

of the heavenly

places.

See Christ

in his life, death, and resurrection defeats our

enemies, but amazingly at least in part, he's

carried along by the prayers

of children. He accomplishes his purposes

through

his

people.

This God who is I am, this God

who is Yahweh, our sovereign

creator.

So what is man as we consider this

first point? Well, a weak creature,

yet one through whom God ordains prayers accomplishes

his purposes,

especially the purpose of making enemies

into friends.

And of course this is true of all

of our prayer life, but I think it's

especially true as we gather week by week

in corporate

worship.

What do we do lord's day by lord's

day? We remember and celebrate the resurrection.

We proclaim the lord's victory over sin and

death

and evil.

And something of that pours out from us,

and though we don't

see it through the ordinariness of what we're

doing this morning, God uses our praises to

do what? To build his church, to defeat

foes,

to

win the victory, you might say.

And it's kind of like, in sports, you'll

know that, oftentimes, a team wins a championship

and there's a victory

parade.

The Boston Celtics just won the NBA championship.

I'm not really an NBA fan. It's just

the most recent one I could find,

example I could find. And what do they

do? They go through the streets of Boston

with the fans gathering, and and cheering, and

adoring them because they just won the championship,

remembering the great victory that they have won

for their city.

Now that's a pales in comparison to what

we're doing here this morning,

but it is a small picture that week

by week as we come,

remember the Lord's victory over sin and death.

Remember the glorious resurrection

of Christ. Ephesians chapter 3 says that we're

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

actually proclaiming to that heavenly host, to Satan

himself, that Jesus wins.

And as we do that, as ordinary as

it sounds, as much as your kids might

have not put their shoes on this morning,

you're frustrated when you got in the car,

God's using all of that to accomplish his

his purposes.

What is man? A weak vessel,

but mighty when our faith is in the

majestic

name of God. And as we take those

praises upon our lips and make his victory,

the hope of the gospel

known.

So what is man?

That's the first part, but we can go

on from god's majestic name to the smallness

of human beings.

Excuse me. I'm not I'm deacclimated to the

humidity.

At one point in my life, I was

acclimated, but no longer.

So let's go on and and continue answering

this question, the smallness of human beings, verse

3.

Fills out our answer just a little bit

more. Now as as we look there, what's

going on? When I look at the heavens

or really, I think the best way to

take that is when I contemplate, when I

consider

the heavens.

We get the idea that David, perhaps wrote

this Psalm

on a clear night as he set up

perhaps on a rock looking up at the

sky.

The end of verse 2 has already told

us that God has set his glory above

the heavens. It's on display

in his creation.

And so David looks up or he contemplates,

he considers as he looks at the moon

and and the stars, all the works of

God's fingers

as verse 3 describes it.

And he he knows that to see God's

work on displaying creation is to reflect upon

God to make him think about just how

big and how great, how powerful

God is. And he asked verse 4 this

all important question, our guiding question this morning.

What is man that you are mindful of

him?

The universe is vast.

The night sky when it's clear is filled

with

stars.

David is recognizing just how small he is,

but also recognizing in the midst of enemies

that this is Yahweh our Lord, he's taking

care of us. Lord, why? Why are you

mindful of us? We're small and insignificant compared

to you in this vast creation, yet you

care for us

greatly.

And so he asked this question, what is

man? Thinking of humanity generally speaking.

And then what is the son of man?

A reference that not only do you care

for mankind, you care for me.

You care for individuals.

You care about the people

that you have

made. But he's overwhelmed as he looks at

the vastness of the night

sky. Well, Juan Carlos, mentioned that our family

lived for a time in New Zealand.

And most of New Zealand is quite rural,

and there's dark zones in certain areas of

New Zealand

where you're not allowed to actually build lights

and what and whatnot, and people come from

all over the world to do what David

is doing, to look at the stars.

And even in our small town that wasn't

in a dark zone, the night sky compared

to Houston is just full of stars.

But there's a place that we used to

go to called Lake Tekapo that was a

dark zone, and you would just look up

and even on a cloudy night, you're just

amazed for the things that you can see

in the sky. And you're overwhelmed, and you

and you have a feeling, some of you

will know this feeling in a night when

you see a starry sky, or you see

a grand mountain, or something like that. And

those moments where you just say, oh God,

I'm small compared to what's on display here.

Your world is so big, you are so

big and you're just overwhelmed.

And it's no surprise that David has that

feeling. It's no surprise that many of us,

or I think all of us at times

have that feeling because created in the image

of God we're supposed to look at his

world where he makes himself known in part,

and cry out with the psalmist, what is

man that you are mindful of him.

So one of the perennial questions

throughout history is this very question, what are

we? Who are we? Why are we here?

Alister McGrath says, few questions have so intrigued

humanity

as that of the meaning of the universe

and our place in it.

The sight of the star studded night can

make us feel quite

overwhelmed.

And as you think about the the beauty

on display in the sky and how big

it is, just consider,

the spacecraft Voyager. I know that's going back

a bit now, but it took Voyager 26

years

and 8,400,000,000

miles to leave our solar system.

And it would have to travel for another

40000

years

before it reached another star. That's

quite big.

So the universe is huge, but each detail

was put in place by the finger of

God.

And as big as the universe is compared

to God, it's tiny.

And we're tiny compared to the universe

in

God.

Okay. So what's the point of this section?

Well, the point is not to say you're

worthless or you're insignificant.

The next point will make that abundantly clear.

But it is to say this,

only God is infinite.

We are finite creatures.

Even apart from the fall, we were not

created to be God.

We have limits,

and that's not always a bad thing. And

I'll I'll stop there. I'll go on forever.

But, I mean, just for instance, I was

never gonna play in the NBA.

You can laugh. It's okay. It's a joke.

We have our limits. We're finite.

But so much,

gets out of whack, and what's playing out

in our culture is the tower of babble

all over again. What happens is we think

that we're the creator instead of the created

creature.

And so the point about the vast of

the universe and the smallness of man is

not to say that you're awful or worthless,

but it is to say, God is the

creator,

you are the creature.

And that's actually good news.

That's a good thing.

Because what it says is as the creator,

he names us.

He tells us who we are. He helps

us answer this all important question,

what is

man?

Okay. So God's majestic name, the smallness of

men, but now the glory of man.

Verses 5 through 8.

We are finite. Yes. Only God is infinite.

But we're glorious creatures created in his image.

You see there in verse 5. You've made

him a little lower than the heavenly being

or the angels and crowned him with glory

and honor.

And these verses here echo the creation account

in Genesis chapter 1 as the days of

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

creation unfold, and we get to the pinnacle

of creation day 6, and God creates man

and woman in his own image as the

pinnacle of creation. Not just as the highest

evolved

animal,

but as humans

alone in the image

of God.

And then he gives them a job to

do. Sometimes we call this the cultural mandate

to have dominion

over the earth, not to dominate the earth,

but to care for the earth, to rule

the world as my representatives

in the ways that I ask you to.

That spread the love and goodness and glory

of God. And and that's a kingly calling

in the ancient context.

So what is man? Well, we're creating the

image of God with this kingly

calling.

And we read this in Genesis 126.

Let us make man in our image, after

our likeness,

and let them have dominion over the fish

of the sea and the birds of the

heavens

and over the livestock and over all the

earth and over every creeping thing that creeps

on

earth.

Now stick with me just for a minute

because what we have here is is a

is 2 parts in Genesis 126

that's really important to help us answer the

question,

what is man?

In theology and philosophy, sometimes there's a distinction

that we don't have to make today, and

it's a distinction between this.

What is man

and who is man

are not the same question.

So what is man is asking, what is

the nature? What is the reality of this

thing called a human being?

And who is man

begins to fill in, what are we to

do? How are we

to live? And we find this actually in

the cultural mandate. Notice the first phrase, before

we're told of our royal task, we're told

of our nature

that we're made in the image of God,

and after his likeness. That's what you are,

most basically, that's what you are as a

human being. A creature

created

in the image

of God,

the pinnacle

of God's

creation.

And then that who question, the cultural mandate

goes on to say that you are God's

representative

with a task

to subdue the earth. How so? Through all

the various callings God has placed upon your

life,

through work, through being a parent, through being

a faithful church member. By pursuing those callings

in a way that honors the Lord, that

lines up with scripture, that promotes the love

and goodness of God, and the goodness and

love of of one another, we begin to

fulfill that

task.

We'll come back to the what question, but

consider the the coronation, I don't know if

you watched King Charles' coronation, or have seen

videos of it in the past.

There's a moment near the end where they

put the crown on the head of the

king or the queen.

And back when Queen Elizabeth

the second was,

coronated,

CS Lewis remarked this,

the pressing of that huge heavy crown on

that small young head

is a symbol of the situation of man.

God has called humanity to be his vice

regent on earth.

CS Lewis knows that the honor

that God has placed upon humanity in this

royal task to what we are called.

So who are we? Remember our what and

who distinction. Who are we? We'll revise regions

with a royal calling.

But now let's go back and think a

little bit about that question, what is

man? I wanna do that from using

by using the idea of identity, which is

all over age these days.

And this is so important because that question,

what is man? It's right here in Psalm

8, but on our theological and philosophical reflection,

what we've really done is we've erased that

question.

We haven't first thought about the nature of

what it means to be human, we've jumped

straight to the who question,

which is one reason identity

is all

of the rage.

Alright. Now I'm not convinced the question is

a totally bad question, it's been asked our

history in some ways, but as we find

it now, it is a quite

modern

question.

And if I can even say this especially

to the young people this morning,

it's actually a first world question.

And why do I say that? We live

in a very safe world. Maybe it doesn't

feel so safe this morning after what happened

yesterday, but by and large, we don't have

tanks outside in the street.

We live in a very safe place,

historically speaking.

Most of us in the room this morning

have plenty of food in the pantry when

we go home at night.

We might complain about inflation, but we're not

poor.

What does that mean? We have time to

sit around and think about identity.

When there's tanks in the streets, and you're

working day to day just to feed your

family, you don't have time to sit down

and ask this question.

You're just worried about making it through the

day. So I think we need to recognize

that the affluence of our postmodern Western world

has created a situation

where identity can be the dominating question that

it is, and when it wasn't even 25

years ago.

Alright.

And what what happens is our culture says,

remember we're asking this question right in the

middle of the song bookend by God's name.

So what happens when we go straight to

the question and we don't let it bookend

with God's name? We jump straight to the

who, or we just remove God out of

it. What happens was our culture tells us

that you find your identity not by looking

to God, and not by looking outside of

yourself, not by embracing the royal calling that

he's given you, but by looking within.

Now, if you're over about the age of

35 or 40,

you might look within and think you're going

to find that identity by work,

or pleasure,

or your bank account.

If you're younger,

now what you're being told is not to

chase it through these cultural idols, but to

look inside your heart and express any and

every desire that you might have.

What does it mean to be a human

being?

To be true to your own

desires.

That's what the world tells us today. But

the Bible says the heart is deceitful

and wicked above all things, if it hasn't

been made new by the grace

of God.

And if you think about for all the

emphasis on identity

that our culture presses upon us today,

mental health is horrible.

Social media is killing our young people. Because

why? It's an effort of self creation. It's

an attempt to make ourselves, but remember we're

not created.

We are created, we're not meant to be

the creator.

And so for all the emphasis on on

culture, I'm convinced

that our our world doesn't give us an

identity that really proves meaningful.

It's because when you take God out of

the equation,

you're really just a cosmic accident.

And then you're full of angst and anxiety

trying

to create an image for yourself, trying to

convince yourself and everyone else who's watching on

Instagram and TikTok,

or sometimes even at church

that you're really doing okay.

When the scripture says, no, look

to God. What is man? You're glorious. You're

crowned with glory and honor but you only

find that glory and honor as you relate

rightly to God and live in the safety

and security

of his

majestic

name.

Well, finally, we come to verse 9.

And in some ways, I've I've already said

this, but in some ways we have this

idealistic picture,

but we already have hints in Psalm 8

that the world is fallen. There's enemies all

around.

We know that this Psalm was written after

Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

We know in our own hearts that all

is not

well.

We are glorious creatures, we're still in the

image of God, but

sin that was let loose in the garden

frustrates God's created

purposes. It frustrates our calling. It frustrates how

we even answer that question, what is man?

See at the end of the day, for

all the other answers we could give, it's

sin that leads us to seek an identity

apart

from God.

But it's right here that the gospel gives

us great

hope.

God's created purposes is frustrated by sin, but

it's restored in Christ, and we know that

because in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 5,

Hebrews 2:5

Psalm 8 is quoted and applied to the

incarnate Lord Jesus Christ.

And what we're supposed to see by that

is that really Psalm 8 is about the

Lord Jesus Christ before it is about us,

that he is the truly human one.

The eternal Son of God who in the

fullness of time took on flesh and was

a true human being, lived a true human

life, experienced the things that we experience

living in a fallen world, except

one huge difference.

He never gave in to the temptation

of sin.

And because of that, he has defeated

death,

sin. He has defeated the enemies

of God.

See Psalm 8 prophetically looks forward to that

great day when the Lord Jesus

Christ will return.

Because even now not all things are in

subjection to him as we read in

Hebrews chapter 2. So it looks forward to

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

the first coming and the second coming of

Christ, the one who's truly human, who invites

us by faith into his life, death, and

resurrection to live in that

glorious

name. See what is man? The answer really

is Jesus Christ.

And we can say that because Philippians 2

says that the Lord has, that God the

father has given him the name that is

above every name.

And that his name everyday one knee will

bow and every tongue confess

that Jesus

is

Lord.

And see it's when we come to Christ

in faith, repenting of our sins, looking to

him for identity, meaning, purpose, for making a

name, whatever

phrase we wanna use to fill it in.

That's when we find that we begin to

truly live as we are created.

And if God is the creator, and we

are his created image bearers,

then even when it doesn't feel right living

in the ways that he asked us to,

we have to trust

and know that that's what's right and that

is what is good

for us.

And this has led theologians throughout Christian tradition

to say things like this, Saint Irenaeus,

the glory of God is man fully alive.

And the reformed theologian,

Amandas Paulinus,

the glory of man

is the living

God.

See we are glorious creatures,

that we only find that true lasting saving

glory

in the majestic name of God revealed in

Jesus

Christ.

And today Psalm 8 is quite simply calling

us by faith back to him.

What is man? Come to the Lord Jesus

Christ and he will show you. A weak

clay jar, but yet God will use your

prayers to accomplish his purposes.

Small

compared to God, because you're not the creator,

but that's good news, because the creator has

made you glorious,

and even though we've walked away and frustrated

his purposes and sin, by his grace he

comes to us in the person of Christ,

the truly human one, who through his life,

death, and resurrection

invites us back into that majestic

name of God.

What is man?

That's the answer.

Proverbs 18,

and we'll close with this, calls us to

Christ with these beautiful words.

The name of the Lord is a strong

tower.

The righteous man runs into it

and is safe.

In the name of the father,

son, and holy spirit.

Amen.