God's Majesty is Revealed in Creation - Pastor Tom Loghry
As we begin a new sermon series on the book of Psalms, we see God’s majesty revealed in creation, particularly in his human creatures. We see this both in his design and the redemption wrought in Christ.
Transcript:
Usually we have a scripture reading beforehand, but this summer we're gonna be going through the Psalms, and it turns out that many of, most of our call to worships use the Psalms. And so as I have opportunity, I'm just gonna let that stand as our scripture reading as a way for you to really kind of get involved with what we're doing here in going through the Psalms this summer. You find the Psalms in the middle of your Bible, and when you turn to the Book of Psalms, what you're really turning to is a hymn book.
We sometimes forget this. When we read the Psalms, the writing is poetic, even if some of the poetry is lost on us as English speakers, and yet it is not merely a book of poems. The Psalms have a prayerful quality about them and are useful for praying, but the Psalms are also not merely a book of prayers.
What we have in Psalms is lyrics without their musical notation. The word psalms comes from the Greek word psalmos, which is a translation of the Hebrew word, mizmor, meaning songs with the accompaniment of a string instrument. So if you do a word search for musicians in the Bible, you'll get many results related to the details of how a certain number of the Levites were dedicated to making music for the Lord.
Music that was especially to be used in the temple, and much of this music is found in the Psalms. Though he was not a Levite himself since he was of the tribe of Judah, King David was chief among all the musicians from his youth. He played the lyre, playing even to soothe King Saul until, until the king determined to make David his enemy.
And, and David continued to make songs throughout his life, practicing a tradition that preceded him and one that would also be carried on after his death. If you look across the scriptures in the Old Testament, we find various examples in Exodus, judges, 2nd Samuel, and also in Habakkuk of song right in the middle of the narrative that's being given.
It's a natural response of worship unto God for his mighty acts. So the Book of Psalms brings together songs mostly from the time of David and also thereafter in five books, parallel, paralleling the five books of Moses, the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. So you got the five books of Moses.
You have five books of Psalms. And those five books altogether contain 150 Psalms. 73 of the 150 are clearly attributed to David in the text itself. And we know this because of the superscriptions that are at the heading of 116 of the Psalms. It's almost like a little preview. And when Marilyn led us in the call to worship, she read the first part of that, which was the superscription.
These superscriptions give us the details regarding the purpose of the Psalm, musical instructions, and the author of the Psalm. But not every superscription contains all these details, and much of their meaning has been lost to history, especially, specifically the musical details. Sadly, no one knows the original tunes these psalms were played by. Other psalms are variously attributed to Asaph, 12 are attributed to him. The sons of Korah, 11, Solomon, two, Ethan, the Ezrahite, one, Heman. The Ezrahite, one, and also Moses. There's a Psalm by Moses. That's, and there's one of those.
Not every Psalm is alike. Psalms can be broken down into different genres, the Hebrew scholar Tremper Longman III breaks down the Psalms into the categories of praise, thanksgiving, lament, remembrance, confidence, wisdom, and kingship. I don't expect you to remember all that at once, but over this summer, and probably in summers to come, because we're certainly not gonna cover 150 Psalms this summer, we're gonna spend time in the Psalms cycling through these different genres.
And this morning we're gonna first begin with the hymn of praise that is found in Psalms eight, the Psalm we, that we responsively read this morning. So turning to that reading again, the first couple of verses for the Director of Music. According to gittith. A Psalm of David. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens.
Through the praise of children and infants, you have established a stronghold against your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger. So what you see in verse one is that superscription I was talking about, and again, we have some musical details that have been lost to us that we, that we don't understand.
It says, for the director of music, according to gittith. and what's been suggested by some commentators that is that gittith may be a type of instrument, maybe even of the area of Gath, but we don't understand completely what the significance of this is. We see also in Psalm 81 and Psalm 84, that those psalms are also according to gittith, and we see also in this superscription that this, as for many of the Psalms, is a Psalm of David, and the overall theme that we can just identify right at the outset of the psalm is again, it's a, it's a psalm of praise. It begins with a simple declaration, Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! If we ask, in what way is the Lord's name majestic in all the earth?
David's prepared to tell us those ways, and David specifically keys in on God's creative acts as those means by which God's Majesty is being testified to. And in these first couple verses, it's almost like we have a little appetizer to what he's going to spell out in further detail in the later verses.
So the first thing he identifies in, in verse, verse one is you have set your glory in the heavens. Now what David is talking about here is outer space. You look up in the sky, you see all the stars, the moon, the sun. We see the glory of God in the work of his hands. And then in verse two, we see that. God is glorified by the praise that he receives.
Says through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger. It seems maybe strange to think that God's majesty is best attested to by, attested to by the mouths of children. I, I think the way that we can understand of this is, is, is though out of the mouths of babes, they're testifying to this basic truth of the complete majesty and glory of God, so that it strips away all the pretensions of demonic pretenders.
Whether those be just spiritual demons or, or human beings who are under the influence of demonic powers, who would like to raise themself up to be God themselves. Children recognize that human beings are not so much, but they take wonder in God's work of creation and, and so by giving God the praise that He's due just naturally, and I think there's something to this, that how children are so much more easily brought to recognize God for who he is and how they become devoted to him and how it is very difficult as human beings very often for people to be brought to God later on once their hearts have been very much hardened and kind of preoccupied with themselves.
But children, they give God the glory that is due, that he is due so that anyone else who is pretending otherwise is, it's like the emperor who has no clothes on. Jesus talks about the glory that children offer by their praise in the Gospels in Matthew 11:25. He says, at that time, Jesus said, I praise you, father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
Now, when Jesus is talking about little children, children, sometimes it's meant to include more than just literal little children. He'll also refer to his disciples in that sort of way. But he also does talk about literal children also in Matthew 21. he's criticized because little children are singing his praises, singing Hosanna to the son of David.
And so in response, they, they say, do you hear what these children are saying, in Matthew 21:16, And he says, yes. Have you never read, from the lips of children and infants you, Lord have called forth your praise. And what Jesus is doing here is he's making an allusion to Psalms eight. He's applying it to himself.
He's saying, I'm fulfilling this. And the praise that they are offering is that which is due and it's defying all those religious leaders around him who are saying, you're nothing. You should be telling these children to shut up. He's saying, no, no, there's no quieting them.
We also have a reminder here that God's, God loves to see his glory displayed in weakness rather than in human strength because it makes it clear that God is not dependent on human strength. He's not dependent on famous human beings to make his name famous. First Corinthians 1 26 through 29, the Apostle Paul tells us this, brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called.
Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things --and the things that are not-- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.
God's glory is most manifest when those who have nothing to gain for themselves because they're not popular and they're not famous, they're not rich, and yet they offer God the praise that He is due. And so that's exactly the sort of people that God loves to draw in and make his children.
What we see here is that in a real way, praise ought to be natural, and I say ought to be because unfortunately, because of human sin, we don't do what should naturally occur to us. But again, because children are young, I think when they do engage in praise, it's just something that says. This is what we're supposed to be doing, and when we in fact do offer God the worship that he is due, we're stepping into our created purpose and it feels good.
We are created to be the sorts of creatures that offer praise, and the only one who is really due our praise ultimately, finally, is the God of all creation.
And so what we see here in the testimony of, of children is this bulwark of praise that God has set up. It can't, it can't be stamped out. It, the, the, the, the praise of our God will, will never cease. So, moving on to the remainder of the Psalm, David continues his praise of God's majesty now in further detail.
It says, when I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you're mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet; all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! So once again, David returns back to considering the heavens, looking to the stars, being filled with awe by what God has created. I don't know if, if you've ever done this, just go out on a starry night, dark night and just look up in the sky. It, you feel so small, but I don't know about you, but I feel, it fills me, me with such wonder, and knowing that God exists and that he created me in the midst of all this, I, I feel, I feel the love of God.
there's many ways you can feel small in this world. Sometimes when I'm in the city and there's tons of people, I feel small and that doesn't always make me feel good. Sometimes I feel insignificant cause there's just so many people around. But when I stand and I look up the stars and I said, and yet God did all this, and yet he created me and he knows me and he loves me, and he knows and loves each one of you, fills us with awe and wonder.
If you know anything about science, and I'm not a a scientist, I'm not an astronomer, but just to know that in the scale of things, of the whole cosmos, I mean just in our own solar system, we're this little planet here and you have all these other planets, and then you've the sun that's like huge over here, and yet God created us and has loved us and he is mindful.
This is the wonder with which David is filled. He says, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, in verse four, human beings that you care for them. Now, it's interesting when you go to the Book of Job, you have a similar sort of wondering on the part of Job because of everything that he's suffering in, in Job seven verses 17 through 18. He says, what is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention, that you examine them every morning and test them every moment? Sometimes we feel that way. Also, while we feel loved by God that he would create us and he's mindful of us in the midst of this vast creation, it also seems like he tries us.
Why does he care so much about how I turn out. Well, it all goes back to his created purpose for us, and Psalms eight is really hearkening back to Genesis one. In Genesis one, verses 26 through 28, we learn the purpose of mankind. God, it says there, God said, let us make mankind in our image, our likeness, so they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; 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 in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Our created purpose is to reflect God and his creation, to be his image bearers, to be as representatives in the created order. And what we see here in Genesis one is while we can think about how, you know, what does it mean to be made in the image of God, yes, there's a spiritual component to that that sets us apart from the other creatures, in that we can consciously know God and worship him and be in relationship with him.
But what we see here at the foremost is this idea of, of ruling and governing creation in the pattern that God himself rules and governs, and this is what we see being picked up here in Psalms eight verse five. It says, you have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the work of your hands and you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. We were created to be rulers.
Now, perhaps for some of you, when you hear that, maybe that makes you think, I don't know if that sounds all that great. The reason being is because we've been acquainted with so many terrible rulers, so many terrible human rulers, it raises the question of, well, what kind of rulers are we to be? See, even as God has created us to be rulers, there's something implicit in that, that we are to rule in the pattern of God.
There's a moral implication there, so that just as God is righteous, holy, loving, merciful, just, we are to be all those things as we rule in creation. And that doesn't mean that we're sitting on a big throne, but God, each one of us, God has given us a little domain, a little domain of influence in which we are to rule and reign.
And the question is, how are we doing that? Are we doing that in the pattern of God? And the honest report is that we've come up short of that. When we think about what sort of rule that we would desire here based on what David is presenting is we, we'd want some better man, some better, someone better, some better person than any of us are.
Jesus is the one that fulfills this want.
We turn to the epistles of the Hebrews, Hebrews two, and we'll read through verses five through 10. Once again referring directly to Psalms eight. The writer of Hebrew says, it is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified: what is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet. In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present, we do not see everything subject to them.
So what the writer of Hebrews is picking up on here is that there seems like there's, there's something wanting to be fulfilled, that even as God has created us for this purpose, we don't see it yet fulfilled in our day.
And yet this is what the writer has to say in the final verses. He says, but we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. So what the writer of Hebrews is saying is that Jesus is the one who has fulfilled Psalms eight. He is the one who has received all this authority and power in order that we might be brought along with him.
There's a recognition here. Yes, we are not who we are supposed to be. Our purpose is left unfulfilled, but in Christ it is fulfilled and will be fulfilled.
He's going to bring many sons and daughters to glory.
Now, Jesus, right at the outset of giving his commission to the disciples that they would go forth to the ends of the earth and make disciples. He reminds them of, of this reality, which is his, that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. That's what he tells him in Matthew 20:18.
The future that is to be revealed in Christ Paul testifies to in First Corinthians 15, verses 22 through 27 A, he says, for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; so saying Christ was the first one, he fulfilled. He was and is who we are supposed to be.
He's the first sign. Then when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the father, after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he has put everything under his feet. Again, another allusion pointing us back to Psalms eight here. So it is Christ alone who can fulfill Psalms eight, and yet we are going to reign with him. Christ is the one that's going to ensure that the end of of human creation, the purpose of human creation, is going to be fulfilled.
We see this, this dynamic present in Revelation five, how Christ is the only one, and yet we're going to be brought with him. In Revelation five, the Apostle John, his Revelation, he says, then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming a loud voice, who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll? But no one in heaven on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it.
I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, do not weep. See, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and it's seven seals. And jumping down to verse six, six, A, then I saw a lamb, looking as if it had been slain standing, at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.
And they sang a new song, saying: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God and they will reign on earth.
So I want you to keep both of those things in mind. Christ, Christ alone is worthy. He is, he is the lamb of God, the only one who can open the scroll. And yet the end we see here in verse 10 is this, is that he's come to redeem a people for himself so that we would be a kingdom and priests to serve our God and we will reign on earth, fulfilling that which is spoken of in Psalms eight.
Paul, in passing in 2 Timothy two 12 says as much, he says, if we endure, we will also reign with him. In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians six verses two through three, that we are even going to judge angels. Now if you ask me exactly what that's gonna look like, I don't know exactly what that's gonna look like, but he says, or do you not know that the Lord's people will judge the world?
And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we'll judge angels? How much more the things of this life! And this pairs up with what the Apostle John sees in Revelation 20, says I, it says in Revelation 20:4, I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. You see, at at one and the same time, we think both very little of ourselves and also too much of ourselves. We should be filled with awe as we consider both human weakness and greatness, that as frail and vulnerable as we are, less than a speck in the universe, we are these wondrous creatures that God has formed from the dust.
There is nothing more awesome in God's creation than you. But we become numb to this, as much as we might imagine Swiss villagers eventually become numb to the majestic splendor that surrounds them in their mountain valley abode. Yes, we do not wonder about ourselves enough. Instead, our eyes lately become more fascinated by our own creations.
Robots and artificial intelligence already, and I, I'm not, I'm, I'm speaking from knowledge here. I, I was listening to an interview recently from one of these industry leaders, already it is suggested that these products are more impressive than human beings, or at least will be, or that in order to keep up with them we ourselves must become cyborgs, transcending the weakness of human flesh by integrating technology with our bodies. And once again, I'm not making this up. This is what is being stipulated, even trying to suggest that this is some sort of fulfillment of the ethos of the Bible that we would reach for this.
Maybe this is getting way too futuristic for you, and I don't know about you, sometimes I feel like I wanna get off the ride now and you think, well, I would never do that, and many others might, and I think would say the same. But the point is this, the point is not what you will or will not do. The point is this, that even now we are being led by such innovators to consider human beings as ho-hum, to look at ourselves as inferior robots rather than as creatures crowned with glory and honor made in the image of God. We are being led to believe that we are obsolete, that we can do better than God by reinventing ourselves, and it's in this way that we think too much of ourselves.
It's here that we detect the slithering, deceitful way of the serpent.
Even so, God's stronghold remains secure. We mount our defense by singing praise to his majesty. The devil does indeed attack both God and his creation. He mocks and condemns saying, look at these miserable creatures, your broken images, your servants who have become pathetic slaves of sin. Look at their weakness, their disease, their mortality, their failure to rule and reign, and the response of our God is this. Look at my son.
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is worthy. He is the perfect image of the Father, the Son of God, the Son of man who by his blood, purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. In Jesus Christ we are made anew. We are made a kingdom and priests to serve our God.
We are made again, we are born again to reign on earth with him. You see, the new man the tech giants seek has already appeared. His name is Jesus Christ. No amount of fabrication can surpass the majesty of our God, who has both made mankind and redeemed mankind, and will also resurrect mankind through the word of God made flesh. Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Let us pray.
Dear Father, we come before you in the spirit of David, being filled with the awe that you would create us, though you have no need of us. That you would create us so that we know we would know you and we would share in your work, in your glory. Father, that even as, as we glorify you, father, we have enjoyment in that and, and glorifying you, father, we, we are humbled and, and filled with awe with what you have done.
Father, help us to not despair when we notice how far short we've, we've come in terms of our calling. We don't rule in the way that we ought to, father, we confess this Father, we give you praise, we give you thanks. And you have sent your son as the one true man, the human being who fulfills Psalm 8 because he is both the son of God and the Son of man.
And Father we thank you that in him, because he is the first fruits, we know that we too will become fruitful, that we are redeemed and will be restored in him. And that we will reign with him on this earth and that David's words here, we shall see them fulfilled.
Until that day, father, help us to persevere in giving you praise and being fascinated by your majesty more than all the pretense that might be put forward by the leaders in our society. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)