(1) Sermon Script
Introduction
A while back we went to Cape Solander one Saturday to go and see the whales. On the radio they were saying the whales are migrating north. So we thought we’d go and see the whales. We didn’t see any whales of course. But we did see a lot of sea, and other people hoping to see whales, but who could see only sea. But seeing the sea was a sight to see, if you know what I mean!
As you stand there on the headland and gaze out to where you suspect New Zealand would be if you could see far enough away, you see the gentle curve of the horizon before you, and you get the full, 180 degree experience. You can’t take it all in in one look, and you have that ‘Aha’ sensation. That is not just the effects of the antarctic breeze, but the view that steals your breath. It is the sort of view that makes your photos too small, that makes you have to take three or four of them together and stick them end to end, so that you come close to recapturing the experience.
Well, thanks for enjoying my cliff-top experience with me. And I’m sure you’ve had the same experience, perhaps at the Blue Mountains, as you look over the vast expanse of valley, or perhaps elsewhere. It is a distinctively Australian thing to do. “I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of rugged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains, I love her far horizons, I love her dual sea, her beauty and her terror, this wide brown land with me.” It is the width and depth of our land that stirs the poet.
We often have that experience when we see nature. But do we have that same ‘aha’ experience when we contemplate God’s name. For in Psalm 8, we see it is God’s name, not his creation, that first stirs our poet into verse. ‘Special revelation’, not ‘general revelation’, kick starts this psalm. The first and last word of this psalm is God’s revealed name, Yahweh. [7]
[7] What captivates the poet more than anything else, however, is not so much the wonder which the contemplation of the starlit sky at night calls forth in his soul. And experience which he contentedly enjoys to the full. On the contrary, that contemplation leads him to a more profound insight. Behind the glorious splendour of the brilliant sky, his mind’s eye envisages him who has created that splendour: A Weiser, OTL, 140.
A Psalm of King David
But we need to notice some of the copyright information and directions to the musicians at the top of the psalm.
For the director of music. According to gittith. A psalm of David. (NIV)
This information comes with the psalm. We notice it is “For the director of music.” That means it is a song. We notice it is “according to gittith.” Well, no-one knows what that means. Perhaps it was an instrument, or the tempo or the feel of the song. And we notice it was a Psalm of David. It is David’s Psalm. He holds the copyright, if you like. He gets the royalties. It belonged to him, and almost certainly he was its author.
Now, this is important that we recognise that it is ‘David’s Psalm’. Because David was God’s King, the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. So it is the Christ’s Psalm. It belongs to the Christ.
God’s Name: A Panoramic Splendour (v. 1)
And the first thing the Christ does is get blown away by God’s name.
1O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
Notice the capital L-O-R-D, LORD. That tells us that the song writer is using God’s special covenant name. This is a song in praise of Yahweh, God of Israel. And it is his name that is majestic, as far as the king is concerned.
We know from earlier in the Old Testament that God had to reveal his name. God himself declared his name first to Moses, using the LORD, Yahweh, God’s name.
Yahweh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin, yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 34:6-7 NIV)
So Yahweh, the LORD, is God’s name, which represents his character of loving, faithful, and forgiving the guilty, but forgiving in a just way, and loving in a punishing way.
And this is what blows David, God’s king, away. He describes God’s name as ‘majestic’. The original word for ‘majestic’ was used of wide seas[8], or lofty trees. If you want to take a photo of God’s name, you have to go for the wide angle lens, or you need to take four pictures and sticky tape them end on end. God’s name, that is, his character is majestic, wide and broad, and awesome. How wide, and high, and long, and deep, is his love? How deep are the riches of wisdom? How vast are his judgments? Holy is his name!
[8] ICC, 65, BDB, 12.
Enemies Silenced By Baby Talk (vv. 2-3)
Even more incredible is that this majestic God stoops to include the weakest of humanity in his purposes. Look with me at verse 2:
2From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise [lit strength, a fortification]
It may be that the psalmist likens his own attempts to extol God’s name as baby talk. Or it may be that God gathers up the bablings of little children whom God has created, and these words are, as far as God is concerned, strength and praise.
In either case, the weakest aspects of humanity are accorded dignity, strength, and dominion. God is creator, and is kind to all his works. And even from the cradle, we humans are important to God.
But we see that all is not well in God’s world. Everything is not in submission to God. The second bit of verse 2, “because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.” God has enemies. In one sense, they are powerful enemies. We are not in the garden of Eden anymore. David, God’s king, rules in world hostile to God.
But in the hostile world of enmity, God is at work, though in an unexpected way. God has ordained that baby talk silences the hostile forces. For the infants’ gurglings and burblings are the last word spoken. They silence the enmity. As far as God is concerned, the noises of babies at the breast are all the knock down arguments he needs.
The Insignificance of Man (vv. 3-4)
But the king does more than walk into the creche to hear God’s praise. He also looks up to consider creation. The God who revealed his name as Yahweh, the God of Israel, is also the God who created the universe, Verses 3 to 4:
3When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, 4What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
Many think that this psalm was appointed to be sung at night. That is why David mentions not the sun, but the moon and the stars.
But it is interesting that when David the king looks up, his first thought is not the majesty of God, but the insignificance of man, verse 4, in the words “What is man that you remember him?” What is humanity?
Some time ago I read a story in the paper about how they think they have found a new planet in our solar system. There is something out there past Pluto that the scientists have somehow seen. And I had the the thought, “The universe is so vast. Could it be that its creator really is concerned for us, for me, and my life, my worries and concerns? Does he inspect my ways? Does he watch over my paths, my thoughts? Is there really a God? Is Christianity really true, with its concern about me, and the eternal significance of my life?” These were my thoughts.
Indeed, it seems that the things we have discovered about our universe have only intensified this feeling. As far as we know, the earth is the sole planet that has born life. And yet, as far as we know, the universe extends further than we can even thing about. If our solar system were on a beach, it would be a grain amidst the millions of tonnes of sand.
So you can see why people wonder whether we are significant at all, those who view the vastness of the universe, but don’t see the finger of God, nor hear the word of God about our value.
But we need to view the universe in the light of revelation and faith. Revelation and faith tell us the universe was created at the command of God. Revelation and faith tell us that the moon and the stars are the works of his fingers. But reason can only ask the question, “What am I, amidst all this?” I am nothing, dust, insignificant. And unaided by revelation, and without the shield of faith, a trust in God and his goodness and a knowledge of God’s providential care, we cannot move beyond the immensity of the universe and our insignificance.
However, revelation speaks a different word to us. God is mindful of us. God cares for us. And faith grasps these truths. The world is a big and unfriendly place, yes. But God speaks to us in it. I am here. I watch. I see. I care. I remember you. I continually uphold you.
The doctrine of creation accords each of us significance in God’s world. Our createdness gives us purpose and meaning in the universe, a meaning which stems from God’s original plan in creation.
Man in God’s Original Plan of Creation (vv. 5-8)
Verses 5 to 8:
5You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour. 6You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: 7all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, 8the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
God has made us. We are made. And that gives us significance. Here, king David is pointing us back to the creation story, and particularly Genesis 1:27 to 28:
So God created man in his own image In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them: ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.
There is humanity, created as kings and rulers over God’s world, vice-regents, if you like, who rule under one Lord. God rules the universe. And so humans bear his image and likeness. We too rule over the world. So king David points out that all of humanity is kingly. From the gurgling infants, to himself, a bubbling baby trying to articulate his praise to God—at once infants, yet also kings; insignificant, yet valued.
Finishing The Way It Starts (v. 9)
And so the song closes the way it started, with the gracious word of revelation which first evoked praise.
9O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Unresolved Problems
But the psalm still leaves us with some problems. Is it really true to say that everything is under our feet? King David took us back to creation but a lot has happened since then. We now have seen the entry of sin into our world. God now has enemies that need to be silenced. There is the foe and the avenger.
And is man really the ruler that this psalm speaks of? Verse 6 tells us that God “put everything under his feet”. But it is difficult to see this. Verse 8 talks about “all that swim in the paths of the sea”. Are the great sea creatures really ‘under our feet’. Is the Great White Shark ‘under our feet’?
It is undeniable that humanity rules our world. But we must deny that we have complete control of our world. We are not masters of our environment. We cannot control the earth which we rule.
We live in a country of drought and flooding rain. Is everything really ‘under our feet’. We have an impending salinity crisis affecting the Murray River. What was once good agricultural land is now ruined wasteland. Is everything really ‘under our feet’. On the train as you pass Wolli Creek, you see Weeping Willow trees covered by lantana, which continues to suffocate the Willow stands. We are rulers, yes. But under our feet, no. More likely, we’ve wiped our feet on it. And we wonder whether this Psalm really was written for us.
A Psalm of King Jesus
But then we need to ask ourselves, who does this psalm belong to? Who holds the copyright. And we look to the top of the psalm and read that it is king David. And since Jesus is the Son of David, the greater David, we know this psalm belongs ultimately to Jesus. This is Jesus’ psalm. For Jesus is the Christ, of which David was only a type and shadow. And when Jesus Christ steps into creation, he inherits this psalm as his own.
Holy Is Your Name
And just as king David marvels at Yahweh with the words, “O LORD, Our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth”, likewise we see king Jesus the Christ teaching us to praise God’s name. “Our Father in heaven, Holy is your name.” For the Christ is zealous for God’s name. And indeed, it is Jesus’ own name that is saving.
“At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, every tongue confess him ‘King of Glory now’, it is the Father’s pleasure we should call him Lord, who from the beginning was the mighty Word.”
There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved, except the name of Jesus. So all must hail the power of Jesus’ name.
The Foe Silenced By Children (Matt 21:15-16)
But Jesus like David lived in a hostile world. He had his own enemies, and avengers. The enemies of Christ were also the enemies of his Father. Matthew gives us one instance of the enmity that Christ faced. Jesus, the Son of David comes to his temple in Jerusalem and cleanses it. But not all appreciate it. Matthew 21 verse 15-16:
But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. Do you hear what these children are saying? They asked him. “Yes”, replied Jesus, “have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise’[9].” (Matt 21:15-16)
[9] ‘Lit, from the mouths of infants and sucking babes you furnished/prepared praise’.
Here are the powerful enemies, the chief priests and the teachers of the law. Yet it is the praise of these children, a childish song innocently sung, that takes their speech away, childish praise expressed towards Jesus as the Son of David. And this silences the foe and the avenger.
And this shows us God’s way of operating in the world. He is the God of reversals. He ordains foolishness and weakness to silence strength and power.
And we see it in the cross. We preach Christ and him crucified, then raised alive and glorified. And to some, many, this is childish foolishness. But God is the God of reversals. The shameful death of the Son of David is proclaimed as strength. Yet, God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. Here is the power of God, the wisdom of God, found hidden in apparent folly.
Everything Under Jesus’ Feet (Heb 2:8-9)
And though we don’t see humanity exercising complete dominion over the earth, we do see Jesus. Jesus is God’s king with complete dominion. For the New Testament helps us to see this psalm is a psalm belonging to king Jesus. Look at Hebrews 2:8-9:
8In putting everything under him [that is, humanity], God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. 9But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (NIV)
The reign of humanity over the created order is the dimmest reflection of God’s original intention in creation. It is the reflection of the image of God seen in a shattered mirror. We do not see everything subjected to humanity. As a race and species of kings, we have been failures. We cannot control our environment. We cannot even control ourselves.
But we see Jesus. Here is the true king of creation, the master of the environment and elements, who governs the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. And for a time, Jesus was made a little lower than the angels. Though he always has been the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, though he is God from God, as the creed says, Jesus stooped, he condescended and visited us. We sons of men were visited by the Son of Man. And for a short time he was “made a little lower than the angels.” Jesus has always been greater than the angels. He is their maker, and he is God, God the one and only, in very nature God, the exact representation of his being.
But for a short time, he was made a little lower than the angels. The Son of Man joined the sons of men and came as mortal man doomed to die. And he suffered death, not for himself, but “so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” And because he suffered death, Jesus is “now crowned with glory and honour.” And so we see Jesus as true humanity, humanity as it should have been, humanity as a royal race, with all things under his feet.
And God placed all things under his [Jesus’] feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (Eph 1:22)
Where do we go to find true manhood? Where is true humanity as king ruling, and defeating death? It is Jesus. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.
Let’s pray.
1To the Choirmaster. Upon the Gittith. A Psalm belonging to David.
2Yahweh, Our Lord! What panoramic splendour [is] your name in all the earth, who set [1] your splendour upon the heavens.
3From the mouth of infants and babes [2] you have established strength, [3] because of your foes to put to rest the enemy and the avenger.
4When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars [4] which you have set in place, 5What [is] mankind that you will remember him, and the son of adam, that you will visit him?
6And you have made him a little lower than elohim [5] and you have crowned him with glory and honour. 7You will cause him to rule over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet: 8sheep and cattle, all of them, and also the beasts of the fields, 9birds of the heavens, and fish of the sea, things passing over the paths of the seas. [6]
10Yahweh, our Lord, what panoramic splendour [is] your name in all the earth.
[1] Targ, Syr, Sym, Vg rel prn + cohort form of natan: ICC; compare Dahood: AB, ‘I will adore’; Shead ‘Let me worship’.
[2] Compare Matt 21:16 reflecting LXX, which suggests that God is praised by infants.
[3] RV, MT, Shead. Note LXX, Mt 21:16, NIV praise.
[4] Perhaps sung at night.
[5] Lit God: Aq, Sym, Theod; Alternatively gods, nb. LXX, T, S, V, angels. The last fits best with Heb 2:5.
[6] Sea monsters?