Ever thought about our place in this vast galaxy we live in? With billions of stars casting their light from light years away there is a sum of some One Billion stars making up the community of stars just in our galaxy alone, and our Galaxy is a member of a small cluster of 19 Galaxies that occupies an area close to three million light years in diameter. The nearest galaxy to us is a large cluster is Thirty million light years containing over 100 Galaxies and Scientists tell us that they can observe over One Billion Galaxies that is 1 to the power of 23 (a 1 followed by 23 naught’s) worth of stars; and so amongst all this immensity is our small rock called earth is a small speck in a large Universe were something remarkable is happening. On this 3rdrock from the Sun God formed people in his own image and set us apart with a special place in the world in the universe to have a special place with the creator himself
“O LORD our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
God is King of the Universe, who is ready to be praised. God shows his greatness by using our weakness to show his glory. The thing is how often does that hit us in unexpected ways?God’s unexpected glory and love should choosesomething as insignificant, so small on this scale to reflect his glory. As Psalm 8 tells us that you and I matter to God, and we are made in God’s image to be his agents on this earth, so what amazes me is that when King David wrote this Psalmis that he got this even though he hadn’t looked through a telescope, as David hadn’t seen pictures of the firmament of our heavens through the Hubbell telescope or heard of Capernaum. With his naked eye he gazed up at the nights skycelebrating the wonder and praise of God, we don’t have to look too far to grasp that. The question is how do we celebrate God’s wonder? Look again at verse 1 you will see Lord laid out in two ways, there is one LORD one in upper case; and the other Lord in lower case. These are two words about God give a different emphasis about his character. The first LORD the one in upper case. In Hebrew is Yahweh, the Great I am, the name revealed to Moses as the one who’s name is what it is, the one who is without beginning or end. The second Lord in lower case is the Hebrew word Adonai. In the sense of master , lord Governor, God is both almighty and powerful creating and holding the whole universe together by his will showing himself as the God who rolls up his sleaves that is by governing and ruling over all creation. There is one other word I want us to take up in this Psalm, it is a simple word that appears between the two Lord’s cutting right to the centre of it. This Lord is “OUR Lord”, the Lord who makes a covenant with us, with all who trust him, is OURS. God’s name is majestic and glorious “IN ALL THE EARTH.” These same words are repeated at the end of this Hymntell us this is importantthat God’s majesty is seen on the earth as it is in heaven. We are invited to celebrate God’s sufficiency and care, as we read in verse 2
“From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.”
It is the lips of these children God uses to silence his enemies to praise his name. The Mujahidin in Afghanistan, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo may arm their children to fight as soldiers. God isn’t training children for this type of warfare; as God’s warfare isn’t directed down the end of a gun barrel. David reminds us God’s unexpected glory is declared in this unexpected way by the babble of a child in their formative years or the coo of a suckling child at their mothers breast. The crowning moment of God’s glory is that through weakness God’s glory is displayed; just as through Christ’s death God’s glory is see. King David writes about the dignity for the life God has infused us with in verses 3-8
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 man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
God’s greatness is displayed in all its splendor as we read in Genesis 2 of the nearness of God. The image of God flinging stars into their orbits, and fashioning the moon making the earth separating the depth’s, and turning the void into a place teeming with life. The high point of creation where God creates us. It is a human caricature of God, a family portrait with God described with human like features. When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the starsvs. 3and verse 6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet. God crowned people with glory and majesty and everything God made he put it all under our feet. This makes us lords of the earth, as God in this place then sets us to work, like Adam did in the garden of Eden naming the animals, reflecting praise and worshiping the creator in everything he did until the fall where the nature of work change from glorious to toil. We know now our lives aren’t all that majestic are they! We all know how things have changed from what they were in the beginning with how want and waste mars us to the very core of our being; and so we replace God’s glory with a glory that looks to an image of ourselves. It reveals to us we are thirsty for God that we want to quench it as sometimes we look for it in all the wrong places. So how we apply this Psalm is important as the writer of Hebrews reminds us Hebrews 2:5-9
“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 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.” 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. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering” Hebrews 2:5-10
Everything is brought under the Lordship of Jesus and Jesus brings healing and forgiveness to the world restoring our broken relationship with God. Jesus displays the full glory of God through his death and so what death did to Jesus is nothing compared to what Jesus did to death. Jesus is the pioneer to eternal life. So when you look up at the night sky and it brings you to praise God, remember Jesus is the one we’re to look to for our salvation. As Psalm 8 shows us. The question is do we see God’s unexpected glory at work? Do we gaze at the intricate design of the rose petals or the wattle flowers while meditating upon God’s special design and care for you as God’s creation is the thumb print that he was here first? We so easily pervert all this. So by way of reflection are any of us obsessed with having a beautiful body, and so we can starve or harm ourselves. In the struggle for affirmations from others we can often hurt the ones we love the most. In our relationships we can so quickly stop consciously loving our friends or wife or husband, taking them for granted. We were made for a relationship with God is what this Psalm gets at, in Christ each and every one of us is called to declare our weakness our absolute dependence upon him. God’s glory comes in unexpected ways and in Jesus the joy is he is making us new in him.
“O Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth.”
Let’s pray…
David Hassan @ Tamworth Community Presbyterian Church 22/4/18