Psalm 8 - What is a Man?

A.W.

Tozer, famous Christian, has this quote, which he has many, many quotes, and one of his famous ones, probably his most famous one, he says, What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

And my question to you is, do you agree with Tozer in his opinion?

Is what you think about God, what comes into your mind when you think about God, the most important thing about you?

Maybe you're not sure what you believe about God.

And that's why you're here this morning, to kind of figure that out.

I would imagine for most of us, what we believe about God is rather settled.

Sure, we know that we can grow in our understanding and our knowledge of who God is, but we have the foundational things settled.

Psalm 8 is one of those beautiful passages of Scripture that pulls our eyes up so that we can behold God and His glory, his majesty, his kindness, and his tender mercy.

Sometimes I think that we can oversimplify God.

He's God, He made everything, He's beyond comprehension.

We know that all this stuff, and then we know that we get to heaven, we'll know everything we need to know.

Right?

We just kind of we oversimplify it.

I think at times we can also over-complicate, if that's even possible, our thoughts about God.

Obviously, God is more complex in a sense than we can ever imagine.

We get lost in our trying to understand who He is, and we will literally spend eternity growing in our knowledge and our understanding of who God is.

We can spend this time just trying to get all of our theology right and all these things locked in place.

And we forget who God is, that we are beholding God.

We are beholding his power that subdues his enemies, his power to create the universe, his power over all things, that he has looked upon mankind.

God is mindful and cares for us.

God, more complex than we can imagine, beyond our comprehension in every way.

The only reason that we can even understand anything about God is he gives us a little bit of capacity with our tiny little human brains.

He's more than we can imagine.

And Saulmade is just telling us behold him.

Look at what he has done, all of his creation, all of his power, all these things, and yet he's mindful of us.

I think it's helpful to understand a key theme of this passage is something that gives clarity to this is that the covenantal aspect of Psalm 8.

The psalm begins and ends the same way.

O Lord, our Lord.

And when it says, O Lord, there, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, it is the name Yahweh, God's covenant name, given to his people.

O Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

This Yahweh is built upon the I am, which is the name that God gives to Moses to give to the people in Exodus 3.

So when David is doing here, what he's doing here in Psalm 8, he's singing about the covenant keeping God, Yahweh.

This psalm is bookended, it's framed by God's covenant name.

O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

You have set your glory above the heavens.

This is a poetic language of Psalms when David sang, We can see the heavens.

But there's beyond what we can see, there is yet glory that God has set beyond our comprehension.

It's God's glory.

Romans 1 tells us that God's glory is revealed throughout creation.

That God has revealed Himself.

And David is encouraging others and singing, oh, look at our covenant-keeping God, who his glory has filled the earth.

His majestic name is filled the earth.

His glory is above the heavens.

Two points that I have this morning.

One is that God's majesty is revealed in his power to create.

God's majesty is revealed in his power to create, and God's majesty is revealed in his creation.

In his creation.

God's majesty is revealed in his power to create.

Look at verse 2.

Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes.

To still the enemy and the avenger.

The word for strength in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, is translated strength, an attribute or a song to God or a praise to God.

And we see this in Matthew 21.

In Matthew, if you will flip to the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 21, Jesus is interacting, is teaching.

In Matthew 21, and we look at this beginning in verse 14.

Matthew 21, 14.

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, Jesus, and he healed them.

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful thing that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant, and they said to him, Do you hear what these are saying?

And Jesus said to them, Yes.

Have you never read?

Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise.

Jesus is testifying in Matthew 21.

And David is speaking of him who is to come, that out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes.

Jesus is rebuking the false teachers as if, have you not read?

Do you not know your Bibles?

That this was not said to be to come.

Even David, singing about God's strength to still be over the enemy and still the Avenger.

Had firsthand strength.

In 1 Samuel 17, David is just a boy.

And he's alone.

And he is the lone one to go out and to slay Goliath.

It was not the mighty warriors of Israel who defeated the enemy.

It was not their covenant that they had, or their understanding of just doctrine and their covenant that delivered them, their head knowledge of something that delivered them.

It was not even their king.

The king that they so badly wanted, so they could be like the other nations.

The king that is supposedly so tall, head and shoulders above everyone else in Israel.

He was not the one to go out and to defeat Israel's enemy.

It was a boy.

A young man who came and defeated the enemy.

Who saved God's people.

God used to deliver his people, to avenge his enemy.

Out of the mouth of babes and infants.

You think about God's power and how he uses what seems foolish to the world to accomplish his mission.

1 Corinthians chapter 1 has this verse in verse 27 and 28.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are.

And how easy it is, as Christians, even, to have worldly thinking about these things.

Well, there's chaos in the world, and we need delivered from those things.

Let's look to worldly wisdom for that.

Sure, we know God is gracious and powerful.

But David is just telling the people, David who slayed Goliath, David the warrior, who's done all these things, and he's reminding the people of God's covenant that God is a covenant keeper, and that he is the one who, even out of infants and babies, will conquer his foes.

He's so powerful that he doesn't need standing armies, and he doesn't need all these powerful things in the world.

God is able to graciously deliver.

That is his power, his majesty.

He uses what seems foolish.

I think it's easy for us to follow this thinking ourselves.

We do this individually.

If I could just go to seminary and learn a lot about the Bible, there's nothing wrong with seminary.

If I could just memorize all these theological things, if I could just do all these things, then I would be really effective for the Lord.

Then I could know how to raise my kids and how to minister to others.

Then I would really, my Bible reading would be fruitful if I knew the Hebrew, if I understood the Greek.

All good things.

But what the Lord is after is hearts that worship him, that look to him and say, Lord, make me holy.

You've called me to be holy.

The Lord doesn't need us to do all these things in order to use us.

He can do it with infants.

Candace and I have had four infants.

They can't do anything.

Right?

They can't do anything but cry, eat a little bit, poop a lot.

It's just what they do.

And so the Lord is just like, listen, I don't need you for anything.

I can accomplish this with babies.

I can do all this without your help.

I can do all these things.

I've made the heavens.

I've created the universe.

My glory is everywhere.

I don't need your help.

However, God chooses to use us.

He reminds us of his power to create when you look at verse 3.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have put in place.

Think about creation and the universe and the expanse of the heavens and the galaxies, the atoms and the cells of creation.

From all the things we can see to all the things we cannot see.

It's all glory to God for these things.

It's amazing.

And God created these things for our pleasure, that we would enjoy his creation and praise him for it.

That when we walk down the street, we're out doing yard work, we see the sky, we see the rain, we see the stars.

We would behold those things and think, wow, God, the creator God, He made all these things.

How powerful is He, how majestic is He, that He made all these things.

He made creation.

He can conquer His enemies through infants and babies.

How amazing is He is.

And yet, verse 4, and what is man that you are mindful of Him.

And the Son of Man that you care for Him.

Amazing power, strength, majesty.

And yet God cares for man.

And what is man that you care for him, that you're mindful of him.

He's mindful of you.

I think we can have this default thought where because we're humans, we have this value, which is true.

We have value because we're made in God's image.

But we also have this assumption.

Well, then God has to care for us.

Because he's created us, because we're made in his image, he must care for us.

As if it's some kind of chip that we can take to the bargaining table or negotiate.

Well, Lord, you you've made us, so you have to do these things for us.

You have to consider us.

You have to be mindful of us.

You made the world and you're God.

That's not the approach of David.

It's not the approach that scripture reveals.

God doesn't have to do that.

Yet He does.

He's mindful of you.

He cares for you, for you, and for me.

If you've grown up in the church, you've been a Christian for a long time.

It's these kinds of truths that we can often fall asleep to, become numbed to.

He literally spoke into the existence.

Spoke into the existence and the world was there.

Oxygen was created.

Water was created.

All the things needed for creation, they were there.

He doesn't, he's all powerful.

He's sovereign.

And he's mindful of you.

I think this is one of the greatest difficulties as Christians.

To wrap our minds around, or even to get a hint of the idea that there is an all-powerful God who's created all these things.

And he's mindful of us.

And he cares about us.

Each one of you came in this morning with burdens.

For some of you, maybe it's a it's a sweet season in life, and the burdens are fewer.

And you just you feel like things are going your way, you feel encouraged, your time in the word in prayer has been good.

You just feel like you're good.

And praise the Lord for that.

Others, you're not sure where you're at, and some of you come in with very heavy burdens.

Life is not going how you had wanted it to go.

Things are becoming unraveled.

Dreams are being crushed.

Hope is feeling deferred.

These burdens are just they're weighing you down.

And the Almiter, Almighty Creator, God loves you.

He's mindful of you, He cares about you.

And you can hear me say that a thousand times.

And you can hear me say that a thousand different ways.

But until God's Spirit gives you understanding, and until you pray that God would make that truth, land in your heart, it's just gonna fly over our heads.

So we need to be diligent.

Lord, help us to know this.

Help us to believe.

Verse 4.

You're mindful of him and the Son of Man that you care for him.

And how is it that this can be?

How is it that an all mighty God, majestic God, sovereign, powerful in all of his ways, can be mindful of you and I?

It's because of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 8 is telling us that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come as the perfect Adam, as the King, having full dominion.

Jesus.

That He has lived the life that you and I should have lived.

He's kept the standard that you and I should keep.

Because He's atoned for our sin, because He is who He said He was, He lived the perfect life, and He died on the cross for your sins, for my sins.

Because that's true, verse 4 is true of you.

Because Jesus has done these things.

And this isn't, this isn't God just kind of saying, Well, I'm gonna be benevolent.

I have some creatures that I've created here on earth, and I'm gonna show them some of my glory, and I'm gonna tell them that I've thought of them.

And you know, they're in my thoughts.

So much more weighty than that.

That Jesus Christ would come, atone, die, live this perfect life, and then die, atone for our sins on the cross.

That the Creator God would, before time began, before eternity, before the world was created, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit would agree together to enter into this covenant with man to redeem God's people.

Before the foundations of the world.

That you would not just keep living a life of sin.

That you would not be a slave to the wisdom and the thinking of the world.

That you would be free to worship and adore Him.

That God is a covenant keeper.

And he has this power to create and to redeem his people.

And then point to God, his majesty has revealed his creation.

God's majesty is revealed his power to create the heavens, the glory of the earth.

You and me provide a way of salvation, and it's revealed in his creation.

Verse 5, yet you have made him, man, a little lower than the heavenly beings, and crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.

And you have put all things under his feet.

All sheep and oxen and all the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the path of the seas.

God created mankind and is mindful of him.

And God has placed him in a position of honor and power, made in God's image to reflect God.

A little lower than the heavenly beings, meaning angels.

He's placed us there.

And then part two, excuse me, part two of verse five, crowned him with glory and with honor.

Now this is an amazing thing.

So much to say about this.

This is why, as Christians, we are pro-life from conception to the grave.

All mankind is made in God's image and crowned with glory and honor.

Every human life is precious.

Every human life, your life is a gift.

You have been given an immense honor.

And your mission in life is to reflect God.

And Jesus is the perfect example of this.

He did this perfectly.

He modeled this for us.

And God has created all things and created us and put us in his creation that we might glorify him, that we might reflect him.

He's given us work to do, to things his steward that would glorify and point others to him.

Think about taking care of things.

Think about just taking care of plants, small plants.

Now, if you're a house per house plant person or not, you'll understand this.

If you're a house plant person, if I can say that correctly, guarantee you have multiple of these.

I've never met someone who just had one houseplant.

And you hit you start with one, of course, and then it goes, it goes, and you have the house plants everywhere, actually, eventually.

It's kind of an all-or-nothing thing.

The reality is whatever the Lord has given us to do: houseplants, gardening, the work before us in our jobs.

We're doing something that God has created us to do that reflects him.

We've been made in his image to reflect him.

He's given us work to do.

And because he's crowned us with glory and honor, that we might do it in a way that brings God glory and honor.

So we don't despise work.

We don't despise the working of our hands, the toil of the earth.

But these things, whether you're a farmer or a truck driver, or you're working on accounting or with computers, or you stay home with children.

What Psalm 8 is pulling our attention to is back to Genesis, where God has given his people work to do, land to steward, responsibility and dominion and authority.

That he's given us this dominion over the works of our hands.

He's put all these things under our feet.

That we would be good stewards of them, that we would use them well.

So we think about the things that the Lord has given us, our jobs.

If you are made in God's image, you are, then how you work should reflect God, his kindness, his character, the way that you go about your jobs, the way you handle your responsibilities.

It's a blessing to be able to understand what God has called us to, to replicate or to represent, to reflect Him.

You might read verse 6, you have been given dominion over the works of your hands, and have God's put all things under your feet.

And you might just scratch your head and think, man, what's that even mean?

Like in one sense, mankind has done amazing things, truly amazing.

But at the same time, we fall so quickly to the same old tricks.

The same old things chip us up again and again.

It's like we have an enemy who knows our weaknesses.

We are blind to our pride.

That we love pleasure.

And we will do almost anything to have it.

Whether that is sex or entertainment or food or the praise of man or comfort.

We love comfort.

We want to be comfortable and safe.

We're happy to follow Jesus.

We're happy to read Psalm 8 and say, yes, God's a covenant keeper and praise the Lord for his power and his majesty and look how he's looked upon mankind.

That's wonderful.

And look at the dominion and the responsibility that he gives to us.

We're made to honor him.

That's great.

I'm all in on that.

But let me keep my comfort.

Let me keep my little sinful habits that help me cope.

Let me keep these things, these few idols.

I'm happy to do all those things, but let me keep a couple of these things as well.

How is it that God has given us dominion?

And yet we do with this dominion, what do we do with it?

We can waste it.

Praying about this in our pastoral prayer that we would be fathers who take the responsibility that God has given us and steward that well.

No one has is a perfect earthly father.

No one has had a perfect earthly father.

So we're going to fall short in those things.

But what are we doing with the responsibility?

This glorious news that God is majestic and he's powerful and he's considerate and mindful of us and he's invited us into this relationship with him.

We're going to take what he's given us and use it for his glory and for the good of others?

Or will we squander it?

And this is why we need redeemed.

This is why we need redemption.

David in Soulmate is aware of Genesis 3.

He's aware in Genesis of Adam's sin and Eve's sin.

And how they forsook the promises of God.

And they listened to the lies of Satan.

He's aware of our fallness and our brokenness.

And yet, God has created us and made us to glorify him and to tend to his creation, to reflect God, to honor him in all these things.

And how is it that this is to take place?

This is how the Psalm ends.

O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

We need a covenant God who has defeated the enemy, who has redeemed his people, who's given us new thinking, new perspective.

So that when David says in Psalm 8 that it's out of the mouth of babies and infants, that he overcomes his enemies, that he's created the galaxies, and everything speaks to his glory and his majesty.

That we can just say, praise God.

And so that we are struggling with our own sin.

We don't say, well, let's just pull ourselves up, church, and let's just get after it.

Let's conquer sin, let's defeat sin.

But rather we look to our covenant keeping God.

In Genesis 3, 15, we have this promise, the first glimpse of this covenant that the man will defeat the serpent, the enemy, Satan, that God will keep his word.

Up to the Lord, that we might behold him, that we might say in our hearts and say with our mouths and live out with our lives that the Lord Yahweh is majestic and his glory and his name might fill the earth.

And it's out of that truth, in that understanding, that we then walk in obedience, that we forsake sin, that we forsake the things of this world.

We change, and we're changed by that.

Because he will keep his covenant, that he will not falter and he will not fail.

That he has made a covenant to redeem us.

A covenant is more than a promise.

It's more than just a, hey, listen, I have good intentions here.

I'll do my best.

I'll see what I can do.

In most covenants, including a marriage covenant, the agreement is we're going to enter into this, and it's binding for the rest of our life.

That's the intent.

And there are things that break those covenants.

And as humans, that's what we do.

We are unable to keep our covenants.

And so God in his mercy and his grace did not say that in the new covenant, listen, if you keep the covenant, if you keep this, I will be your God, you'll be my people, and I'll save you.

In the new covenant, he said, You will be my God, you will be my people, I will be your God, I will keep the covenant, even though I know you will fail, even though I know that you will break the covenant.

And here's how this is gonna work.

I will send my son to live a perfect life on the earth.

Sinless.

Sinless so that he can now be the sacrifice.

It wasn't just that Jesus died on the cross, it's that he lived a perfect life.

He did all that so that then his death would atone.

It would be, the price would be paid, so that I can enter into this covenant with you.

Because God is holy and righteous.

He will not overlook sin.

He cannot overlook sin.

So what's he do?

What's God do, the Trinity do before the foundations of the world?

Well, the Son.

The Son will go, and He will bear the wrath.

He will pay the price for the sin.

And because He pays the price for the sin, God will now keep His covenant.

He will not forsake, He will not neglect, He will not fall short, He will not fail.

He will keep His covenant.

He is a covenant keeper.

So when David says, Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, God is a covenant keeper.

There is none like him.

There is none like him.

No one else can keep the covenant.

No one else can hold fast.

It's the words that they have given.

Keep those who are lost, whom he has redeemed from being lost again.

God has saved us that we might reflect him, that we might be image-bearers, glorifying him.

And he's redeemed us that we might enjoy him.

And that what a blessing to be able, as Christians.

And there's again a lot happening this world, this week in the world.

But to be able to say, look at the galaxies.

My God made those.

Look at the creation, the trees, the grass.

My God has made those things.

Look at us as people with hearts beating, lungs pulling in breath.

My God has made these things.

And my hope is in my God.

That He is who He says he is.

God's word reveals truth.

Encourage those of you who are young.

You're hearing these words and you've heard the words of Psalm 8.

You've grown up, or you're growing up, and this is you're so this is all that you know.

God's powerful and He's sovereign and He created everything and He's good.

Well, these things will be tested.

These truths will be tested for you, young people.

Do you really believe this?

Do you really believe that God is majestic?

That He really is true and loving and powerful.

Don't be surprised when you feel pressure to doubt who God is.

Or when those tests come.

Cling to God.

Trust him.

And remember that your confidence isn't in your faith.

Your confidence isn't in your own faith.

Your confidence is in the one that your faith is in, in Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Your confidence is in Christ.

That He is who He said He is.

That God will keep His covenant.

So may we, church, be a people who are lifting our eyes up, looking to God, and may our hearts sing regularly, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name.

You've made these things.

You've made the universe.

You don't need us, but you choose to use us.

You're mindful of us.

You care for us because of what Christ has done.

And then you use us to glorify you as we steward the things around us.

We praise you for this, God, that you are a covenant-keeping God.

May that regularly be a song.

May that be the praise of our heart.

Imagine there are some this morning who are here who don't believe in the God of the Bible.

Or you have questions.

Maybe you want to believe.

But you're you have doubts.

Or you have fear.

Or you just love sin.

And you want to be your own God.

Jesus is your only hope.

There is no other way to salvation.

There's no other thing that might save you.

And not only that, you have been made by God to worship Him.

You've been made by God to enjoy Him.

You've been made by God to walk in His ways.

So I implore you this morning, be reconciled to Christ.

Forsake sin.

Let this day be the day of salvation for you.

You would repent of those things.

That God would give you faith and you would trust in Him and walk in His ways.

Church this morning.

With the burdens that you carry in, with the noise all around us.

When you think about God, may your heart praise Him.

May there be delight that comes to your soul.

May there be a rejoicing that this covenant keeping God has saved you.

That He will sustain you.

And that He will never, never fail you.

Church, let's pray.