Psalm 8

Well, open with me to Psalm 8. We are studying Richard Phillips' book, Walking with God, Learning Discipleship in the Psalms. And Psalm 8 is the study for this morning.

The Son of Man that you care for Him.

You made Him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned Him with glory and honor. You made Him ruler over the works of Your hands.

You put everything under His feet, all flocks and herds and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the sea.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth. The Bible gives us a worldview.

What is a worldview? That's not a rhetorical question this morning. It's one to wake you up and get you thinking. What's a worldview?

How you view politics, how you view society, how you view the world in order. Good.

He's saying how you view, and he's mentioning different things. And worldview, how you view your world, right? Mark? Mark? Set up the assumption that you assume or prove about what you see around you.

All right? Now Mark's talking about a set of assumptions, things that you maybe presuppose to be true that help you interpret life, what's happening in your world and around you.

Anyone else want to add to that? All right? The Bible gives us a worldview. The Bible fleshes out reality.

It tells us how we're to look at that tree out there, where it came from, who made it, why it's there. Everyone has a worldview, by the way.

You might not have sat down and thought about it and written it out in your assumptions, but you're working on some worldview. Everyone's working on a worldview, a way that they interpret life.

Some worldviews are based on lies and some upon the truth. Someone has said that our worldview is comprised of what we think about four basic questions.

Who am I? Number one. It's the nature of, what is the nature of human beings? What's our task, our purpose? Who am I? And where am I?

What's the nature of the world in which we live? Three, what is wrong? What's the basic problem in this world that keeps me from attaining fulfillment and joy?

And lastly, what is the remedy? How can I overcome the problem? How do I find salvation? However, that may be defined in one system. Now, thankfully, the Bible answers all those questions for us with the truth of God.

And so as we embrace the Word of God, we have a biblical worldview. We have the answer to these most basic questions in life. And we have a grid through which to interpret our world, everything that's happening to me and around me.

Now, the author tells us that Psalm 8 goes a long way in setting forth these four basic questions. Two of them are very apparent in the text. The other two, the last two, will take the New Testament's interpretation of Psalm 8 in order to make it clear.

So we see then a biblical worldview from Psalm 8. First of all, who am I? And the question is asked in verse 4, isn't it? What is man?

There's our question. What is man? And the answer is found in verses 5 through 8. And it starts, you made him. Who is man? He's a created being.

Made by God. And then it goes on to say that God put all things under his feet. He's been given a task to rule over all the creation. That's who man is.

He's a being made by God. Made in the image of God. And just as God rules, so he's made us to rule over all of his creation.

We will never make sense of life until we rightly understand who we are in terms of our relationship to God. I'm a creature made by God.

Made in his image to rule over all the creation. That's my God-given task and reason for being. Number two, where am I?

Psalm 8 answers, we live in a world created by God and for God. This question about the world that we live in is answered quite plainly in this text.

The universe derives its existence and meaning from God as well. It exists through him and exists to glorify and honor him. And we'll consider the other two questions later on.

But for now, think about those two questions of the worldview. They're really quite basic, aren't they? Knowing who we are and knowing the world in which we live. They're elementary, so much so that we take them for granted.

And yet, these answers, the biblical answers to them, greatly affect so much of the way that we live. Consider from Psalm 8, three results of a biblical worldview.

If we have this view of ourselves and the world, God and all that's in it, there are these three results. Wonder, W-O, not W-A.

Wonder, humility, and dignity. All three are found in our psalm. First of all, wonder, amazement, and awe is the result of this biblical worldview.

Where does David see the glory of God demonstrated in Psalm 8? I'm asking you. Creation. More specific. The heavens.

Anything else? The sea. The sea. Fish. Birds.

Cattle. We go back to the original answer that was given. All creation. Right? That's where he sees the glory of God demonstrated.

David. And he refers to the heavens as the work of his fingers, the moon and stars, that he's put in place.

Remember the Moody Science film we saw a couple weeks ago about our solar system and beyond? We saw the billions and billions of galaxies, of stars.

And then we come back to passages like this. And we see that's just the work of his fingers. And he puts them in place. Or Isaiah says, lift your eyes and look to the heavens.

Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host, one by one. We talk about specificity of God's providence over all he's made.

Those billions and billions of stars. And he brings them all out, one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. So, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name.

And it's not only majestic in the heavens, but in all the earth. Right? That's the passage. All the earth. It's not just the heavens. There was a statement in the video that made it sound like the heavens are unique and that they, in a way that nothing else, reveals the glory of God.

I think it was overstatement. Yes, they're wonderful, as we saw, but the scriptures teach that God's glory is manifested in all the earth. The heavens declare the glory of God, but so does everything in the earth.

All that he's made. All the works of his hands. Fish, birds, beasts of the field. Children and infants. E.J.

Young comments, the entirety of creation, visible and invisible, speaks with a voice clear and positive of the glory of the Holy God. Wherever we turn our eyes, we see the marks of his majesty and we should lift our praise, our hearts in praise to him who is holy.

This is his world, the wide theater in which his perfect glory is displayed. Think of the world as a theater and there's a play going on and it's the glory of God.

The whole world is the theater then on which his glory is being seen. Just as the sun and stars have a voice that proclaims the glory of God in every land, Psalm 19, so do the birds, so do the trees.

You say, trees don't talk, trees don't make noises. No, but neither does the sun. And yet, David says in Psalm 19 that there's not a language where its voice is not heard.

The hand that made me is divine. Every bit of creation points to the divine creator. Even babies, as we're reminded here.

And then he says, you have set your glory above the heavens. We looked at the heavens on the screen and just saw how massive and expansive it is and will we ever find the end to it?

Is there an end to it? Is it infinite, the universe? But, you've set your glory above the heavens. Even above this, there is a place and it reminds us of that place where all the angels with their six wings, with two they fly, with two they cover their feet or faces, and two they cover their feet and they're ever crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

The whole what? The whole earth is full of His glory. So there, above the heavens, He set His praise. He's being praised in the heavens.

But the very next verse, verse 2 says, but there's an echo declaring His praises back here in the nursery from the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.

because of your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger. So praise is given above the heavens and even in the nursery with the cry of a baby.

Because when a baby cries, it too says, consider me the work of God's hands. Consider me the wonder of creation. I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

Look at me. Think of the wonder of a single human cell. There it is. It's just one tiny little cell. And then it divides.

And now it's two. And it divides again. And now it's four. And then again, it's eight, sixteen, thirty-two. And it goes on dividing until it's a baby crying in its mother's arms.

Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Even the cry of the baby draws attention to the marvel of your creation.

The instructions found in the DNA of a newly formed human cell, that cell before it divides, that one little cell has this genetic information in it, enough to fill a thousand six hundred page books.

I brought volume one of the complete works of Matthew Henry, some six hundred pages. And we could line these up starting right here in the front and go right on around the room all the way over to here.

A thousand six hundred page books. And that's how much information is in every human cell. And you've got millions and millions.

I don't think I'd be extending it if I said billions, would I, Sue? Some of you nurses, some of you that know, it's incredible. And man is so proud of what he's learned about this DNA.

But what of him who created it? Who designed it? Oh, Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. But amid this chorus of praise that fills the universe of every creature that contributes to the glory of this creator God, there's a contrary voice.

And it's coming from the enemies of the Lord. Not all share this wonderful view of our wonderful Lord. Not all stare in wonder at his glories.

There are many who oppose the maker. We see that in the end of verse 2. Because of your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger.

There are those who would not give God the glory of his creation and attribute it rather to time and to chance and to macroevolution.

There are those who would reject this God and his Christ. But just a little baby's cry is enough to bring praise to God and so to silence his foes.

That's what verse 2 is telling us. What would this awesome God do? Well, he'll just have one of his little ones cry out and that will silence the foe.

Okay, you who contend with your maker, you who rob him of his glory, put your creations up against his. Come on. Let's match wits and power and might with this God and you put what you've made beside his.

Put it beside his vast galaxies. Put it beside his tiny human cell. Silence the foes, you see. It's a passage that reaches fulfillment on Palm Sunday.

The first Palm Sunday is Jesus rode into Jerusalem and you remember the whole crowd was singing Hosanna to the Son of David and even the children were shouting the same in the temple area doing what they were created to do.

Praising Him who is the Christ, the Lord of all. And the religious leaders of the Jews were jealous and indignant and so they said to Jesus, do you hear what these children are saying?

They're praising you as if you're the Messiah, the Son of God. Yes, replied Jesus, have you never read?

Now he flips in his own mind back to Psalm 8 and verse 2. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise. This is the way it was meant to be, Jewish leaders.

And that would make you the enemies, you the foe, you the avengers that are being silenced by the lips of children. Now isn't it true that when you come to know God through Jesus Christ, your eyes are opened to the wonder of this God in creation.

You see glory where you didn't see it before. You were blind once I was blind but now I see and nothing looks the same now that you have new eyes.

Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. We begin to see just how majestic his name is in the earth. The hymn writer put it this way, heaven above is soft or blue, earth around is sweet or green.

Something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen. Birds with gladder songs or flow, flowers with deeper beauty shine. Since I know as now I know I am his and he is mine.

When we can say, oh Lord, our Lord, when we see that I am his and he is mine, all of creation is alive with beauty and glory.

The grass is greener, the sky is bluer, the flowers are darker in color, the birds sing a gladder song. Pastor Steve Martin of the Heritage Church in Fayetteville, Georgia often quotes that song in his preaching from the pulpit and the reality that that song reflects.

And one young girl in his congregation was converted and called on the Lord to save her one evening. The next morning she woke up and she was quite distraught and disappointed and her mother said, what's wrong, honey?

She says, Pastor Martin said that the grass would be greener if you're a real Christian and the sky would be bluer and the birds would sing gladder songs and mommy, it all looks the same to me and it sounds the same.

Well, she misunderstood the imagery, didn't she, in the song, the beautiful reality. It's not always just with the physical eye that we see that the grass is greener but with the eye of faith and we know this God is mine and when I see the grass it's more full of wonder.

This God made every blade of grass and numbers them all. He's my God and we stand in awe of Him. When G. Campbell Morgan was a boy he met an old man in a garden who was a friend of his father's and he'd just been converted a couple days and he was holding something small and gazing into his hand with a sense of obvious wonder and the young Morgan asked him what it was and with a voice filled with awe the man showed him a leaf that had fallen from a tree and he replied the beauty of God the beauty of God.

What are you looking at man? I'm seeing in this leaf the beauty of God that I had not seen all my life now that I've been given new eyes to see. Isaac Watts agrees in his hymn there's not a plant or flower below but makes thy glories known and clouds arise and tempests blow by order from thy throne Lord how thy wonders are displayed where'er I turn my eye if I survey the ground I tread or gaze upon the sky.

How different was the experience of Charles Darwin the father of the theory of evolution turned his back on God the creator and committed himself to secular humanism just time plus chance.

His biographer reveals that in so doing he lost his taste for life and as he grew older he admitted that he could no longer get anything out of poetry music and art life lost its flavor for him and he lived out his days in a world without wonder without awe but David who knows the Lord as his Lord says how majestic is your name in all the earth it's with a biblical world view he saw the wonder of God in creation and so do we this whole world opens up new vistas of God's glory and when we see it we should praise him when we see that double rainbow in the sky when we see that bird and that flower we should praise him notice that many of our hymns are filled with praises to the creator that's because that's what we're told to do in this

Psalter this song book the Old Testament song book any comments or questions on this first point when we have a biblical world view we have wonder we see wonder in God and in his creation before we go on to the other two questions comments alright let's go on knowing God and knowing that this is his world gives us a sense of wonder but as we're struck with awe about our God and the wonders of his creation there's a reflex reaction that will happen and that's humility we see it in verses 3 and 4 when I consider your heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have set in place what is man that you are mindful of him the son of man that you care for him it's beside that vastness of God's creation that we feel so puny and insignificant and what a check that is to all the inflated views of self that are so popular today and are popular with my own flesh what is man and if David felt this way looking into the night sky with the naked eye how much more should we with all of our

Hubble spacecraft or telescopes and satellites lights and cameras as we looked at the screen we saw that the earth on which we live this big big place where we live is just a tiny piece of cosmic dust in the whole scheme of things and we have to shake our heads what is man then crawling around on this little piece of dust what is man that he's even mindful of him that even should take notice of us much less care for us like he does as seen in this privileged planet this planet has had much care and concern given to it we saw that didn't we it's the only place we find life and all the systems that have to be in perfect balance for there to be life he not only takes notice of us but he cares for us and then cares for us by sending his own son to die for us what is man where do we find this significance there's a humility and our author says this humility is a ready test to determine if someone has really come to know

God or not because wherever people come to know God the reflex reaction is humility you find it throughout the Bible Job he's standing before the wonders of creation he puts his hand over his mouth repents in dust and ashes so how proud he was and now he's humbled before this awesome God Peter put out your nets and he wonders what's this preacher doing telling me to fish and how to fish where to fish when to fish and his nets are filled go away from me Lord I'm a sinful man he realizes the one who controls the fish of the sea is in the boat with him he's humbled John falls at his feet as one dead in Revelation 1.10 Isaiah woe is me David we see it here what is man to see the glory of God is to be humbled before him so there we have our first two points the world view of the

Bible shows us a God of wonder and seeing his wonders were humbled and yet it also gives man a sense of dignity as they see their God given role dignity verses 5 through 8 you made him what is man here's the answer you made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor you made him ruler over the works of your hands you put everything under his feet all flocks and herds and the beasts of the field the birds of the air and the fish of the sea all that swim the paths of the sea you see you are special and here's why David says notice man's dignity does not arise from himself if you ever try to ground your dignity in yourself you're on sinking sand no man's dignity is founded upon the one who made him you made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor that's why man has dignity because

God made him and made him in his own image and crowned him with the glory and honor of being his vice regent to rule over as he says to rule over the works of his hands you put everything under his feet so man is the crown of God's creation and was entrusted with the rule over all the rest of creation that's what makes us special this is our crown of glory and honor and so the assignment given to God given by God to man gives us great dignity we're his stewards in charge of all the creation everything under our feet now what is the godless worldview of many today due to the dignity of man if God is removed and man is no longer the creation of God charged by God to rule over the earth what happens to the view of the world and what happens again to the world itself well if

God's removed and man's just another animal further along the chain of evolution and by rejecting God we've rejected our own dignity as God's stewards in God's creation we no longer have more of a right to this planet than the red spider mites the monkeys and anything else that exists here we're no better we're no different we're all one much of the radical environmental movement is undergirded with this worldview that man is nothing special because there's no God who made him something special and charged him with a special job to do and tell man long enough that he's just an animal and he'll start living like it remember what we saw from Psalm 1 what controls the mind controls the man listen to the counsel of the ungodly that counsel will control you so people are living more like animals than glorious creatures made in the image of God we need the biblical worldview we need to let our minds soak day and night in the law of the Lord so in knowing God we have wonder we have humility and we have a sense of dignity indeed we have dignity but something spoiled this dignity right do you find everything under your feet do you find yourself in control of all things and everything you're subjected and subdued everything beneath your feet not at all and this brings us to the third question in the worldview what's wrong with the world today you've got to have an answer for that every man must answer what's wrong with the world you watch the news and every man's worldview must answer that question or it's not worth having what's wrong with the world today what has spoiled man's dignity and rule over the rest of creation well the

Bible's one word answer is sin and against his own God-given identity and calling in life to glorify God and to rule over creation and thereby honor him for although they knew God they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him Romans one says so man's in rebellion against his maker against his God-given identity and tasks so the image of God has been shattered in man and man's forfeited his dignified role as steward over all creation all creation is not under his feet rather man dragged down the whole creation when he fell into sin he dragged the whole creation down with him cursed is the ground for man's sake Genesis 3 the creation was subjected to frustration and now is in bondage to decay the whole creation is groaning Romans 8 you see it's not under subjection to man man can't even bring himself under subjection he can't even bring that little thing that wiggles between his teeth his tongue into subjection

James says our author writes man is largely at the mercy of the weather our food supply even today is greatly influenced by forces outside the farmer's control mankind is starving bleeding crying and suffering all over this globe hurricanes and droughts tornadoes and floods these beat against man with unmastered fury indeed man is not able to control his own self his own passions even his own thoughts a quick look at the newspaper will display this as we read about international as well as individual crises all over the world we don't see the whole created order subjected to man so men have sought their dignity through the lie that it's found in independence from god here's where your dignity is found you be a big boy and you walk on your own away from god and following the lie he's lost his dignity and he's lost his reign and rule over the creation but the bible doesn't end with the bad news instead it answers the fourth question what's the remedy and it points us to the lord jesus christ the remedy is another man capital m who to whom these words of psalm 8 apply now the new testament is over and over referring to the lord jesus from psalm 8 it says jesus christ is the man who brings to fulfillment what was said in psalm 8 we've seen it already in the temple on palm sunday this passage referring to the children praising jesus and we see it again in first corinthians 15 and ephesians 1 more on that later but turn to hebrews chapter 2 where this passage is quoted at length hebrews chapter 2 this whole book starts out in which the writer is spending a lot of time showing the supremacy of jesus christ over the angels and here in verse 5 he says of chapter 2 it's not to angels that he subjected the world to come about which we're speaking no he didn't subject the world to come to angels but to christ and then he quotes psalm 8 verse 6 of

Hebrews 2 but there is a place where someone has testified and we know who and where it's David and it's psalm 8 what is man that you are mindful of him the son of man that you care for him you made him a little lower than the angels you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet now as we read that in psalm 8 we think of Adam and the original creation but as we read it in Hebrews 2 we're made to think about Jesus Christ the second the last Adam the perfect man the representative of the new creation and the whole message of Hebrews 2 is that through Christ fallen man's dignity is recovered and God's original purposes for man are restored look how he says it in the last half of verse 8 in putting everything under him God left nothing that is not subject to him yet at present we do not see everything subject to him when

God put everything in subjection to man he left nothing out from under subjection to man nothing created yet at present we do not see everything subject to man that's just what we've been saying the news doesn't show it your life doesn't experience it we've not yet seen the fulfillment of Psalm 8 with everything perfectly realized and subjection to us but he goes on to say don't judge by mere appearance for with the eye of faith in spite of everything you see around you to the contrary we see Jesus verse 9 but we see Jesus he he he who was made a new man who's the head of a new creation of man a new mankind we see him who was made a little lower than the angels that's his incarnation he who was

God took on in flesh and as a human being he became an earthly being not a heavenly being like the angels he became one who's capable of dying a little lower than the angels but we see him now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death now crowned with glory and honor that's what we see with the eye of faith and you look away with the biblical world view and you see Jesus Christ this morning and he's crowned he's already been crowned coronation day has happened the father has seated him here you reign right here Ephesians chapter 1 in verse 22 God placed all things past tense God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church 1 Corinthians 15 27 he has put everything under his feet so

Hebrews 2 is making this wonderful point that the purpose of the incarnation of the son of God the reason he became man and became a little lower than the angels was in order to by dying then by glorification actually restore man to his original intended design to rule over all the creation indeed the passages are too numerous to point to we will reign with Christ you are even now seated with Christ in the heavenlies there on the throne ruling!

over all of creation and Christ's glorification guarantees ours he's there as our representative he's there as our forerunner is he there enthroned and crowned now we too one day will be there with him you can't separate Christ in his body and so the fact that he is now crowned with glory and honor is the certainty and guarantee that we will share in that glory and honor of reigning over all things oh it meant a great stoop for him didn't it meant him becoming a little lower than the angels and stooping all the way to tasting death experiencing death that he might be glorified and bring many sons to glory in Christ the dominion for which man was originally created is forever fulfilled then it's only through this perfect man that we fallen creatures become what

God intended us to be and so fulfill the role assigned to us in creation it's all through Christ that's the message of the gospel that's the message of psalm 8 Jesus the perfect man regains by righteousness what mankind lost by sin paradise lost in Adam is regained in Christ the last Adam it's through Christ that we're clean cleansed from sin restored to God and once restored to God we know God we know his son we're restored to a sense of wonder at him and all he's made all he's done and we're humbled before him and we're raised to dignity sons of God reigning with Christ over all creation psalm 8 finds its terminus its end in Jesus Christ any questions or comments before we leave this this psalm for your encouragement as you look at a world out of control to know

Christ is reigning now and one day we'll put all of his enemies under his feet and the last enemy is death he'll have it under his feet at his final resurrection and then forever Jesus will reign and we will reign with him for if he's crowned with glory and honor we too will be crowned with glory and honor