The Path Of Life
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Introduction
Introduction
Staring at the stars - light pollution.
Certain things that prevent us from seeing the full majesty of God.
But, when we can catch a full picture, it reveals to us two things:
God is infinitely superior to anything else.
Man is inferior to God.
Psalm 8 gives us these two thoughts and asks the question, “Why should God care about me?”
As David writes this hymn of praise (the first that is encountered in the reading of the Psalms) he doesn’t do so in an effort to beat people down, but to build them up.
A “Gittith” is also referenced in the heading of Psalms 81 and 84, both joyous psalms! Quite possibly it indicates that it was to be set to a more upbeat tune in worship.
Unique in that it is this joyous Psalm that is being spoken directly to God, rather than a call to worship.
David is going to use two directions that people look: up and in.
This is a Psalm for the stargazers and the soul searchers.
Maybe you have questions today.
Questions about God’s role in the world today.
Questions about your own role in God’s plan.
It’s normal for us to ask, “Why?”
This Psalm gives us a way to think about our own place in God’s creation.
Inclusion vv. 1, 9 - Envelope.
Structured like a letter to God from someone who has given these questions a lot of thought.
The Supremacy of God
The Supremacy of God
vv. 1-2
His name is majestic. Majestic = prominent.
Your name is more important than anything else or anybody else in all of the creation.
We might think about people who are important. God is higher than them.
We might think about parts of creation: the vastness of the Ocean, the grandeur of the Grand Canyon, the power of the sun, the endlessness of space. God is greater than them.
God holds a place of supremacy because He is the Creator.
His glory is above the heavens. This particular word of glory means a power that you can feel and is used to describe thunder, but not just any thunder. A thunder you can feel. Oklahoma thunderstorm.
This majesty has an effect on the creation in that it creates safety. “Strength.” More than that. “Bulwark or fortress.” Strength that provides refuge.
It creates a dynamic where children are loud and enemies are quiet.
A missionary in Uganda who worked with orphanages. One particular one he walked into, 100 beds filled with children, and it was completely quiet. It wasn’t at night and so it created an eerie condition. He asked one of the women working there why the babies weren’t crying. “They will cry until they realize no one is coming for them, no one is going to help them…then they just give up.”
A world absent of God has the sounds of war and not of children.
But, when God is honored as supreme, the enemies are drowned out and the children know they are cared for.
The Smallness of Mankind
The Smallness of Mankind
vv. 3-4
David here ponders the nighttime sky (v. 3)
The language reminds the read of day four of creation - filling the night sky, the moon that rules the sky.
16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.
As each day of creation continues, there is an amplification of complexity which culminates in humanity.
Yet, David looks at the nighttime sky and sees the power of the Creator in setting them in their place and wonders, “Who are we...”
Now, some people think that’s the question: “What is man?” But, notice the question is more than that.
“…that you are mindful of him…that you care for him?”
When we consider God’s awareness of our brokenness, of our rebellion, of our sin…why would He still care about us?
The remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Johnny Depp version not Gene Wilder.
It gives some of the backstory to Willie Wonka. His father was a dentist and didn’t want his son eating candy. After a night of gathering candy for Halloween, the dad sorts through the sack and with each piece tells how bad it is for his teeth.
Then, at the end of the movie, after Charlie wins the competition, he convinces Willie Wonka to make a visit to his father. There, on the wall, are numerous clippings from newspapers about his son the candy-maker. They are framed and placed prominently. Why? Because, in spite of the disagreement about the effects of candy on his teeth, the father was still proud of his son.
“God’s fatherly compassion motivates Him to be continually concerned with humankind.” - Brevard Childs.
Not only does the expansive creation humble us but...
We are humbled when we consider God’s expansive grace.
The Escalation of Humanity
The Escalation of Humanity
vv. 5-8
Because of God’s concern, He had created mankind a little lower than the angels, heavenly beings, God?
The word here is “elohim.” The same word used in Genesis 1 for God.
Man is created in the image of God and was given authority over creation.
God did this in spite of knowing what man would do, how Adam and Eve would rebel in the garden. How each of us would live out the legacy of our first father and mother in our own rebellion against God.
God loves you despite your sin.
He loved you before you could sin, knowing that you would sin.
Crowned him with glory and honor. Glory, different word than in v. 1. Weight. Honor is something that can be seen, an adornment. This crown is a weighty and beautiful crown.
These four verbs: made, crowned, given, put.
God is the subject of all these verbs and humanity is the object, the recipient of the actions.
Humbled humanity is picked up by God.
“What gives human beings dignity and value is not anything that humans have done for themselves, but rather something that God has done for them.” - Rolf Jacobson
Nothing reveals this greater than Jesus.
Jesus lifts sinners out of destruction and gives them value.
Conclusion
Conclusion
What does this reveal?
God is the infinite Creator.
Mankind is broken.
Yet, God, in his mercy, chooses to redeem us.
The point of this revelation, the envelope:
Redemption requires relationship.
“O LORD, Our Lord”
You need to make Jesus your Lord and Savior.