The Majesty of God

Someone once said that the Psalms express “the most profound of human feelings; that they have the sentiment and the insights into the human experience and how we pray, praise, and lament.”

Today’s Psalm, Psalm 8, is a poetic prayer that was sung as a song of praise that comes on the heels of a few psalms of lament  that we’ve gone through the last few weeks.

Let me take a step back and give you an aerial view of the structure of this  Psalm, and the plan of how were going to go through it. Verses 1 and 9 bookend the Psalm with a personal praise to God. This starts to give us something of a theme about God’s glory and majesty. In the second half of v.1 through v.3  we’re going to explore how God’s glory is related to his creation while taking a detour in v.2 to see how Jesus uses this verse.  Then verses 4-8 we’ll see how God’s glory relates to humanity and our purpose and then we’ll conclude by going back to the New Testament to see how Jesus fulfills this Psalm.

When reading through Psalm 8 one of the things to be noticed is that it begins and ends with the same phrase.

O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens. (Ps. 8:1)

God’s majesty is closely related to his glory and here is used to describe the worthiness of his personal name, Yahweh, which as Pastor David pointed out in Psalm 6, a couple of weeks ago, is translated as the word “LORD” with all caps. The second “Lord” is more of a title and affirms that God is King. And so we see this refrain of direct praise start this Psalm and then end this Psalm. One pastor commenting on this psalm stated that even though this Psalm is mostly centered on creation and humanity, it still starts with God and ends with God. (James Montgomery Boice).

We see at the end of v.1 it says “You have set your glory above the heavens.” There’s a lot to unpack from that phrase. And so I want to come back and double click on that and see how there is an underlying reality in that phrase that informs the rest of the Bible.

So the second half of v.1 “You have  set your glory above the heavens.” And then it continues in v.2  by saying “Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.”

There isn’t a clear consensus of what this means.

But it seems to be saying that God is so glorious that he can use the seemingly weak cry or praise of babies to silence and defeat his enemies who appear strong. That God can take something weak and make something great and strong from it against those who oppose God.

There’s a similar concept in 1 Corinthians when the Apostle Paul says:

God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. (1 Cor. 1:27)

So the idea here in verse 2 is that it is praise that comes out of the mouths of infants and babies, and that God establishes his strength through what the world would consider weak and foolish and God uses it to silence the enemies of God. Jesus actually uses this verse in Matthew 21.

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things 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?'" And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. (Mt. 21:12–17)

 Jesus enters the temple, in Jerusalem, and pronounces judgment on the religious leaders that have turned a place of prayer and worship into a place that extorts money from people and exploits them in the name of God and Jesus is not happy and he is flipping over tables. And I assume he starts delivering a message because he quotes them the scripture when God through the Prophets said “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.” And then he starts visibly bringing God’s restoration to peoples lives. The blind come to him, those who are physically disabled come to him and he is healing them. The temple had become a place where the ones who had money were getting all the attention and special privileges but Jesus doesn’t care about outer appearances, he came to bring God’s peace to those who were humble and looking for God, not for those who thought they can get ahead with there status and money.

And so the people were seeing these amazing actions by Jesus, Things were exciting, people were rejoicing, and one of the things that it mentions is that “children were crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’” But it says that “the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple…” and “they were indignant.” They saw people getting healed and the words of God being preached and yet they were angry.

They saw there money laundering business getting called out and then on top of that they hear children praising Jesus as the Messiah, the anointed one, who was supposed to deliver Israel. And so they go to Jesus, and they’re probably upset about a lot of things but they specifically question him about what the kids are saying, praising him as the Messiah, “The Son of David” and Jesus responds by saying, “Yes, I hear them, haven’t you read that, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” And you’ve got to understand was that this probably made them even angrier. This was a straight shot at them. Because in Psalm 8 that wasn’t about praising the Messiah, this is about praising God. And so Jesus not only is saying he is receiving praise as “The Son of David” but he is receiving praise as Yahweh, and on top of that these religious leaders knew their bibles, the context of God receiving praise in Psalm 8:2 is that he does it through children in opposition to God’s enemies. Jesus makes it clear, the Chief Priests and the scribes were the enemy of Psalm 8:2:

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

The irony of the passage is that the blind, the ones that couldn’t see, saw Jesus, and the priests and the scribes, the ones that could see, were blind to the reality of who Jesus was. “Jesus saves the weak and the childlike even as he condemns the proud” (James Hamilton).

Like these children we have an enemy that hates it when we praise Jesus. - praise the Lord, not our circumstances, not what our eyes see, not what our ears hear. We don’t have power within ourselves but that God is the strength of our praise. There is power when we praise the Living God.

Let’s go back to that phrase at the end of v.1 “You have set your glory above the heavens.” So I said there is an underlying reality in that phrase that informs this Psalm and really the Bible. There is a glory in creation, and it actually communicates to us about God. There can be this idea that the physical world is bad and evil and that the spiritual world is good and is all that matters. But Psalm 19 says:

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his hands work." (Ps. 19:1)

So not only has God placed his glory in creation, this glory actually says something about God.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. (Rom. 1:20)

Pastor Joe has written on this, he has a great chapter called Creation as Communication in his book Things of Earth. In there he says:

“Created reality brings God’s perfections home to us in ways that are visible, concrete, and particular. They keep God’s attributes and characteristics from being mere abstractions, because it’s impossible for us to love a list of qualities.”

And so we have to understand that here in v.3 , David is looking at the sky, and the moon, and the stars. And as he is looking up, and he’s thinking about it and reflecting on it and he’s feeling it, he feels small, he feels insignificant compared to the vast expanse of the sky. And even right now with our knowledge realizing how massive the universe is and how we are an invisible speck in this thing. The universe is speaking of the greatness of God. The sky and the stars and moon and the glory they have is meant to instill in us awe, reverence, and wonder.

There are echoes in all of reality, even in our daily lives, that declare to us who God is, and what he is like. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said that the way the devil works in our daily lives, is that he doesn’t try to make Christians hate God but he tries to make them forget God.

We need to be reminded of David here in this Psalm to open our eyes to the glory of God around us, to be aware of his reality all around us and to be awakened to his presence.

So all of creation reflects God in some way but humanity reflects God in a unique way. And so verses 4-8 deal with this idea of God’s glory in humanity ruling over creation. The whole section alludes to Genesis 1. As verse 4 says:

"What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" (Ps. 8:4)

It’s an incredible thought that humanity though small in the midst of this universe and even in the world that God still has a special place in the mind of God. Ps. 139 talks about how God knows us completely, how he “formed our inward parts; and knitted us together in our mother's womb.” How we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” God knows us. We are frail creatures who are very dependent on a lot of things just to live and survive and yet God thinks of us and provides for us. Verses five to eight continue, and it’s almost like David here is meditating on Genesis 1:26. He says:

"Yet you have made him 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; you have put all things under his feet. All sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the seas." (Ps. 8:5-8)

God has placed humanity above the rest of the physical creation, and we are exalted in that role because God had crowned humanity with glory and honor in that humanity was created in the image of God. So we bear the image of the King, and we reflect and represent his kingship in how we take dominion over the rest of creation.

It’s this idea of God creating an ordered universe with natural laws that govern it while he sustains it all at all times. And so we have earth and there is a whole world of unharnessed energy and natural properties that can be modified and improved. God intentionally created the earth so that humanity can use their creativity and reason like God and develop the earth’s potential for human flourishing not as a license to abuse God’s creation or as an excuse to worship creation but as an invitation to join God in reflecting him by building, caring for, and governing God’s creation.

We have been put into the world to develop its potential and to be good stewards it. And with that tremendous God given authority comes great responsibility. When Adam, the head of humanity rebelled against God’s words it brought sin into the world. We call it “the fall.” It didn’t just affect humanity but it affected the creation as well. In Romans 8:21 it talks about how creation is under a bondage to corruption. Though rays of God’s glory and goodness are still all around us, it is also not hard to see that there is a brokenness, a knowing that things aren’t the way they’re supposed to be. All people know that something has gone wrong. It’s interesting that every culture and society on earth has some version of a fall narrative, where something went wrong, and usually with that there's some form of redemption. An echo of the promise in the cultures of the world. The verse rings true that “God has placed eternity in man’s heart.”

Last week Pastor Jonathan mentioned how injustice and suffering are common in this world, but they are not natural. They are common in a world corrupted by sin, but they’re never natural to the moral order of God’s design.

We feel this corruption in our world when we see or hear about natural disasters and all sorts of tragedies. Things are broken, things are disordered, in the world.

It reminds me of when I was trying to contact my mom when she was in Puerto Rico helping our family after the hurricane a couple years ago. It was a few months after Hurricane Maria and most places didn’t have electricity or running water and there was barely any cell phone service. For her to get cell phone service she had to drive 40 minutes away to an area that had a little bit of reception. And one time she called there were about a couple hundred people there also making calls and the reception and signals were so disordered that the reception from the calls were actually mixing with each other so in the middle of my conversation with my mom as I’m trying to figure out what kind of generator my grandparents needed over there, all of a sudden I’m talking to someone else who was also in that area. It was the strangest thing, it’s was almost like my mom just handed the phone to someone and they were speaking through her phone. But it became clear that the person on the other line was just as confused as I was.

And so our phones worked but they weren’t working the way they were supposed to. And that’s like a microcosm of just how things are not the way there supposed to be, the world is disordered and corrupted by sin.

And this includes humanity. We hear about and see the evil things people can do to one another. And we feel this corruption not just in the world but in ourselves. I mean forget about God’s standards for a second, we don’t even consistently live up to the standards that we set for ourselves.

In our sin it was like we have forfeited the image of God in us,  it was like we ripped off the glory that God had crowned us with, and threw it back in his face. We exchanged his glory for lesser glories. We loved our sin and yet we knew something wasn’t right.

The conscience inside us, a flickering of the image of God,  showing us that our way has left us unsatisfied and empty, the spirit whispering to our souls that there must be more to life.

To live in our sin, to live like we’re our own God is like eating cotton candy. It tastes sweet on our tongue, but dissolves before we even have a chance to swallow.

Jesus never tasted sin, but he tasted death for us. When commenting on Psalm 8 the author of Hebrews says at the end of chapter 2 v.9 “Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so  that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

It has been testified somewhere, "What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?" You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Heb. 2:6-9)

This passage makes clear that Jesus fulfillment of this Psalm. That in his incarnation, When God the Son took on flesh, he was made for a little while lower than the angels, and he became a person and he lived perfectly unlike us. Where Adam as the head of humanity failed, where we have failed, Jesus succeeded. But though he was sinless, and was blameless before God, he chose to go to the cross to fulfill his mission, and suffer on our behalf and taste death. And so he tasted death in all its dimensions, not just physically but spiritually, he literally took on hell for us, and bore the wrath and justice of God that we deserved.

But that’s not the end of the story, the author of Hebrews continues, Jesus was crowned with glory and honor. This speaks to his resurrection and exaltation. Death couldn’t keep him, the grave couldn’t hold him. Jesus was victorious and not only did he rise from the dead but he ascended into the heavenly realm, sent the Spirit to be with us and right now he’s reigning as King.

But the author of Hebrews makes an interesting observation in v.8, commenting on the quote from Psalm 8:6 where it says “You have put all things are under his feet” he comments about Jesus “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.”

There is an aspect that Jesus has conquered death, and he reigns as King, and that he has been given all authority. But in this verse the author of Hebrews is acknowledging that, yes Jesus reigns, but his Kingdom isn’t fully here. This isn’t the new earth yet. We still see a lot of death and brokenness in this world. There this tension in God’s kingdom of what theologians call “already/but not yet.”

God’s Promise

Jesus’ reign is already here evidenced by how he is transforming lives and how there is a lot of good being done. And yet, it’s not fully here, And yet one day the promise found in scripture will be fulfilled. And all of this is possible because as it says in Philippians, 2:6-10:

[Jesus], who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:6-10)

 And in that day, Habakkuk 2:14 says:

"The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."

And then the phrase from Psalm 8 verses 1 and 9 will take on new meaning.

The Table

 Which brings us to the table. If you want to know the majestic name of God that will fill the earth, call on Jesus, the one whom it says, has been given the name above all names. If you want to see God’s majesty, look to Jesus. 2 Peter 1:16 says

“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

 If you trust in Jesus, and would say with us that you would give your all to him because he has given his all to us, then come, eat and drink with us.

Jesus ate the bread of despair so that we can eat and taste his hope and peace. And Jesus drank and tasted God’s justice and wrath so that we can drink and taste God’s mercy and grace.

Jesus tasted death so that we can taste life.