Jesus, Human King
Preached by Jason Abbott
August 18, 2013
Psalm 8
1 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
5 You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
1. What does this tell us about God (vv. 1-2, 9)?
To begin, we want to establish what is being said about God in this psalm. When we start to look, we see that the psalmist’s guiding theme is God’s glory. Our Creator God has not left his creation without the marks of his majestic glory. So we find that:
a. God has set his glory in all the earth.
The earth is full of God’s glory. “He, the glorious One, has endowed the earth with glory! [And] A hymn of praise is sometimes the only way man can express his amazement at God’s glorious rule. The ‘majesty’ of Yahweh’s name radiates from his works….”1
The Apostle Paul expresses this in his letter to the Romans when he writes:
…[God’s] 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 (1:20).
This is perhaps why so many people wrongly worship nature. If you go to any place on the face of this earth that is noted for its majestic natural beauty, you will likely find nature worshipers there.
When my family spent a couple weeks on the west face of the Grand Tetons, we met no shortage of people who had moved there to worship their nature god. To hike and ski and bike and climb the great mountains—these, for them, were acts of worship. Some would even explicitly proclaim “Mother Nature” as deity. In fact, just the other day here in Harrisburg I passed a car with a bumper sticker that said: “Nature Is God.”
It should thus not surprise the Christian in the least when non-believers do this. For, these non-Christians are simply seeing in nature what is actually there—the mark of God’s glory. So instead of scoffing at such nature worship, it’s better (as Paul did in Athens) to use what they confess which is partially true so as to engage them concerning what is totally true. We must always remember that there is no difference between us and them but for the grace of God in Jesus Christ!
So the earth proclaims God’s glory! But his glory is not exclusively proclaimed there for:
b. God has set his glory above the heavens.
What is said here is said also in other psalms. Consider for example how Psalm 19 begins:
The heavens declare the glory of God, / and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. / Day to day pours out speech, / and night to night reveals knowledge. / There is no speech, nor are there words, / whose voice is not heard. / Their voice goes out through all the earth, / and their words to the end of the world (vv. 1-4).
We think we know so much about the heavens, about outer-space and the universe. And it’s fair to say that we have begun to understand some things that those in the days of the psalmist couldn’t have known. However, it is also fair to say that they pondered far more often and far more clearly the heavens than the average individual does today.
Have you ever been way out in the country and gazed up at the night sky? When we separate ourselves from all the lights that pollute our view of the stars, we find a glorious and natural array of night lights! Some 3,000 stars are visible with the naked eye on such a clear evening. However, with a little homemade telescope you could see 10 times that many stars! In the Milky Way Galaxy alone, there are some 200,000 million stars!
In faith, I encourage you to take a look at some of the images being sent back from the space telescopes (e.g. Spitzer or Hubble) which NASA has sent out. They should sing the praises of God’s celestial glories to you if you are a follower of Jesus! Certainly, God has set his glory above the heavens!
Finally this psalm tells us that:
c. God’s glory will silence his enemies
Here we find an interesting purpose for our praising and glorifying of God. The psalmist explains that praising God is an act of war against evil, and he further explains that this war is fought by an army of rather unlikely soldiers. He writes:
Through the praise of children and infants / you have established a stronghold against your enemies, / to silence the foe and the avenger (v. 2).
We must ask: What does this mean?
I have often heard people ask or been tempted to ask myself some form of the clichéd question: What’s the matter with kids today? The implication is that they aren’t of the same ilk as we are—unlike us, they are wayward and in danger.
However, this is both right and wrong. It is right that they are in danger and heading down a destructive path. Yet, it is wrong in claiming that we were any different. The Bible doesn’t make distinctions between the sinful dispositions of generations! We are all sinners from birth and heading down a destructive path from our beginnings! Again, apart from God’s grace, we are all doomed!
In contrast to this, verse 2 tells us that “God is able to build up a people of weakness as a force to oppose his enemies.”2 God can and will raise up a most unlikely band of worshipers (i.e. babies and children), and their worship will silence all his most powerful enemies!
I cannot help but think of Elijah moaning before God about being the only faithful follower left who has not bowed before idols! Yet, God says to him:
I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him (1 Kings 19:18).
In the face of overwhelming opposition, in the face of the most powerful enemies, God says, “I have thousands who I have reserved to silence those who have set themselves against me!”
So, one commentator explains about Psalm 8:
The sound of the children is concrete evidence of God’s fortress on earth….The sound of opposition is silenced by the babbling and chatter of children. What a contrast! What a King!3
How like God to choose the weak things of the world to shame the strong!
Now we must turn our attention to the second question:
2. What does this tell us about mankind (vv. 3-8)?
First, I think this psalm tells us that:
a. Mankind is humble.
When we begin to ponder God’s glory in the earth and the heavens, when we start to recognize how amazing our Creator is, we also begin to recognize how small and seemingly insignificant we are. So the psalmist asks:
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 are mindful of them, / human beings that you care for them (vv. 3-4)?
The psalmist sees God’s glory and is rightly humbled. He does not boast that it is necessary for God to care for him or for mankind in general. He does not, upon looking at the glory of God visible in creation, become puffed up with his own significance. Instead, he wonders that such an infinitely glorious Creator would care for such weak human creatures!
Second, I think this psalm tells us that:
b. Mankind is exalted.
For, God certainly does care for his human creatures even though we are small and sinful and weak. The psalmist marvels at this:
You have made them [human beings] 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 (vv. 5-8).
The psalmist is amazed with how God exalts such lowly creatures, and we should be amazed too! The biblical doctrine of mankind both humbles and exalts us! The gospel also both humbles and exalts us. In it, we recognize our sin and weakness and need. Yet, we also recognize in it God’s love and glorious plan for us! Tim Keller explains this when he writes:
The power of the gospel comes in two movements. It first says, “I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe,” but then quickly follows with, “I am more accepted and loved than I ever dared hope.”4
This (I believe) is precisely what the psalmist is communicating here, and this is what he is awestruck by! Are you amazed by this truth?
Finally we must ask:
3. What does this tell us about God’s purposes?
Here is where we begin to get at the big picture. For, we were always created by God to rule, and this psalm marvels that such a plan, following our sinful rebellion, is still in play:
You made them [human beings] rulers over the works of your hands; / you put everything under their feet (v. 6).
However, biblical history records the repeated cycle of human failure in ruling over creation to the glory of God.
Adam and Eve were to “rule over…every living creature” (Genesis 1:26).
Noah and his family were given a similar dominion (Genesis 9:3).
The nation of Israel was to rule over the promise land as a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6).
Such examples only scratch the surface of our failure to rule to God’s glory.5 But, they emphasize something important concerning God’s purposes! In short, they tell us that God’s purposes will not be stopped. His image bearers will rule over his creation. His creation purposes will not be dashed!
Thus, we find where the first man had failed—and repeatedly failed through his children afterwards—the second man would succeed! When God put on flesh, when God became man, he did so to do that which we could not do. He did so to fulfill the original purposes of God for humanity. So that, at the name of Jesus, the Human King, all creation would bow and all creation would confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).
1Willem A. VanGemeren, Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Psalms, 110.
2G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, 944.
3VanGemeren, 111
4Timothy Keller, Center Church, 48.
5For a robust outline of this commission see G. K. Beale’s A New Testament Biblical Theology pages 46-52.
