Psalm 8

The year of 2022 Grasping the Word will focus on a Psalm of the month and a Proverb of the month.  We learn to worship according to "His excellent greatness" with the Psalmists and to "walk in wisdom"  through the Proverbs.

A key component in Spiritual growth is a relationship with God through prayer and the Word of God.  GRASP 2022 highlights one Psalm a month each can read, hear, meditate upon, memorize and study.  In addition, there will be one verse of the books of wisdom each month.  By all of us focusing on the same verses we grow individually and also in unity as the body of Christ. 

For the Grasping the Word schedule and more information go to
https://www.southernoaksupc.org/grasp-2022

Transcript

In that our purpose for looking in the Psalms is to grasp enough to advance our worship,  I don’t want to get too deep into this Psalm in the podcast. Our purpose is to inspire more than educate. 

This 8th Psalm clearly shows the excellence or majesty and glory of God above the heavens and on earth.  Yet, this all-powerful creator, all-knowing ruler and eternal God.  Is mindful of man!

First in verse two:  God’s attention is upon the infant child and its cries.

Some may view a baby as insignificant,  but God does not.  

David’s perception of the value God places upon a human baby is evident in Psalm 139.  

He emphasized that God’s puts his attention and care upon a child even before its birth.

13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.

14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.

The gospel writer, Mark told of children being brought to Jesus and his disciples rebuking those that brought them .

Mark 10

14“But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. 

15 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” 

16 And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them.

When we look at infants,  we see the most dependent and the weakest of mortal men.  Nevertheless,  The great God of heaven, values them having great concern and offers protection.

This shows the favor of God toward humanity.

Psalm 8 continues  (reading from the ESV):

8:3 When I look up at the heavens, which your fingers made,  and see the moon and the stars, which you set in place, 

8:4 Of what importance is the human race, that you should notice them? Of what importance is mankind, that you should pay attention to them, 

David looking at the heavens which God made,  thought truly God has more important things to do than keep his eye and hand on me!

But look at the place of prominence God made man in creation.

• Just a little lower than the angels. 
• Not lower than the stars as far as value to God.
• Not lower than the trees or the beasts of the field or the birds of the air.  
• Of all the material things created by God,  God chose to make Man a living soul.
• Where all matter has a propensity to decay (Murphy’s 2nd Law of Thermodynamics) God made man with an eternal soul.  
• It becomes possible as the Apostle Paul wrote,  “. . .though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Jesus (God manifest in the flesh)  reflected God’s view of mankind above the other creatures of God:

Matthew 10

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. 

30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Matthew 12

11 Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? 

12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

to think this majestic, glorious excellent God.  Cares for people to the extent that

• The noise of a child sounds like praise to his ear.
• He gives me an open invitation to bring my needs to him in prayer.
• He is concerned about every dimension of my life:  Physical, Emotional and Spiritual.

And most of all,  he loves me so much he laid down His life for me through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.- 1 Jn 3:16

In the words of the ESV

O LORD, our sovereign Master, how magnificent is your reputation throughout the earth!  You reveal your majesty in the heavens above!

Derek Kidner (Psalms 1-72 [IVP], pp. 65-66) comments,

This psalm is an unsurpassed example of what a hymn should be, celebrating as it does the glory and grace of God, rehearsing who He is and what He has done, and relating us and our world to Him; all with a masterly economy of words, and in a spirit of mingled joy and awe….

The range of thought takes us not only “above the heavens” (1) and back to the beginning (3, 6-8) but, as the New Testament points out, on to the very end.

3

1. We should observe God through His creation.

Psalms 19:1

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;

and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Psalms 8:3

3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 

2.. We should worship in awe before our majestic Creator!

This psalm should humble us and cause us to marvel at God’s grace and love in caring for us from the beginning to the end.

3. We should treat each person with value and respect as beings created in God’s image.

John Piper has said, “You cannot worship and glorify the majesty of God while treating his supreme creation with contempt.” 

4.. We should remain firm against the atrocity of abortion, which treats God’s most prized creation as waste.

From the point of conception, the only difference between the baby in the mother’s womb and you and I is time and nurture. To kill children simply because it is inconvenient to care for them, is a horrible sin against God and humanity. 

5. We must intentionally teach the biblical doctrine of creation and denounce the absurd theory of evolution.  Evolution degrades mankind,  Creation reveals a God who values mankind above all physical creation and creatures.

5. We should walk in love and rear our children to love, fear, and serve God as the only way to make life count.

All of us are significant to God and eternity.  Our life here on earth is but a vapor the appeared for a little while and then vanishes away.  

1 John 2:17 - And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

7.  We should always remember that God loves human kind so much that he manifested himself in flesh,  to become the perfect sacrifice for our salvation.

As a song says, “He became like us, so we could become like Him.”

Words to Song:
Down from His Glory, William E. Booth-Clibborn, 1921