Dr. Jason Thacker: Well, good morning, Church.
Dr. Jason Thacker: How are we this morning?
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's good to see you all.
Dr. Jason Thacker: As Bob said, my name is Jason Thacker, and it's been a real privilege to be with you all this weekend, especially last night at our underground session.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We got to talk about some really interesting topics, especially in terms of what it means to be human.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That's one of the questions we're asking today from Psalm 8.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But I want us to slow down a little bit.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Psalm 8 is one of those passages that many of us have parts of it memorized, that we've been crowned with glory and honor.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But sometimes I think because of how familiar we are with this passage, we sometimes gloss over the whole point of the passage in the first place.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But it's been a real joy to be with you all throughout this weekend last night at the Underground Session as we talked about the question of what is a human being, but specifically who is a moral person.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And if that sounds kind of like a difference without a distinction, it's because that's the way God designed it to be.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Many today in contemporary society will say that someone could be a human person, maybe the baby in the womb.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That's a human being, but they're not yet a moral person, that somehow our value, our dignity, and worth exist on a sliding scale, that somehow we develop those things over time.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That our rights and the care, the duty, protection that we owe others is something that we gain at some point, whether it's at birth or whether it's sometime after birth, or even something, remember, friends, if it can be gained, also to remind you that it also can be lost, especially at the end of life, where we see the very essence of human life being devalued in ways that frankly are quite distressing and overwhelming and heartbreaking.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But the God, God's word is a good reminder of where our true value and worth really lie.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And so last night we dug in deep on this question of who is a person.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This morning we're going to dive in a little bit deeper into Psalm 8 to see what God says about us, but more importantly, what he says about himself.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That's our key point this morning, especially in Psalm 8, is the majesty and the glory of God, not only seen in his majestic reign and rule, but also his creation of humanity, and then also the jobs and roles he gives us, the responsibilities we have as his image bearers.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I'll say that it's also deeply encouraging one to join you all, especially this year, because it's just, I'll be honest, it's such an encouraging thing to see a congregation celebrating 175 years of gospel service in this community.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That's incredible, friends, to see the faithful brothers and sisters and saints who have come before you and to you be sitting here at this place at this time that God's called you to this work in this community, and He's given us all we need.
Dr. Jason Thacker: His word is more than sufficient to navigate the challenges of the day.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And so to be reminded of that and just to be able to celebrate 175 years of gospel service, that's a testament to God's kindness to you all as a church body, but also the call on this church and this community at this time.
Dr. Jason Thacker: As I've said, our theme this weekend has been talking about questions and the debates over human dignity.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We talked about this kind of developmental idea of the human person, which I argued is directly contrary to a biblical vision.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You don't gain it at some point, and you also don't lose it at some point.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's something intricate to who you are, more importantly, of who God says you are.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That's where our identity is fixed.
Dr. Jason Thacker: What's interesting when we get into Psalm 8 is I said this is a classic text that informs many, uh, often within the Christian church, about how we have long thought about what it means to be human and specifically God's call on our lives as his creatures.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's one of those psalms that's easy for us often to memorize certain aspects of, but I think our familiarity with it at times obscures the point of really what this psalm is really meant to be.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But regardless of how familiar we are, whether we're brand new to church, we're kind of exploring these ideas, maybe we're here because a friend brought us, or maybe we're here and we've long been here.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We were born and bred in the church, and we know the text inside and out.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I promise you this morning, friends, God has something for you, a word for you, a reminder, or if not, good news for you this morning.
Dr. Jason Thacker: So I our goal this morning is to slow down a little bit and to think deeply about the picture that Psalm 8 paints for us of the majesty of God and what it means to be human.
Dr. Jason Thacker: As I told you, Psalm 8 is one of the classic psalms within the Christian tradition.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Specifically, it's one of King David's Psalms, and it's long been considered a song of praise, more specifically, of creation praise.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We're gonna see that in the text.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's actually reminding us, calling us back to even the Genesis creation account of Genesis 1 and 2.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But in a little twist, we often go to this text to say, okay, what does it mean to be human?
Dr. Jason Thacker: But friends, I want to put forth to you that this text actually answers that yes, but the central message of this psalm is not so much about human dignity per se, but it's centered on God's majestic glory and his power that is manifested throughout all of creation.
Dr. Jason Thacker: David will remind us in a day where we're often tempted, back then and today, friends, to look around and to compare ourselves to other parts of creation, and maybe even to other people at times, even in this room and our family, our co-workers, those in our community, to say, well, they have this and they have this, and I'm not as valuable, I'm not as useful.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We look around to determine, posit the differences between us and the rest of creation.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God's word, specifically Psalm 8, is trying to reorient our gaze.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's not about looking around, it's actually about looking up to see God and his majestic glory and who he is as he's revealed himself in Scripture.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Not to look out to the world to understand our dignity, value, and worth, but to simply look up.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It is so common for us to look around at what God has made and identify the differences between an animal and a human being and say, well, that must be what it means to be human.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That may be true in part, but this text is actually calling us to do something different, which is to look up.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This psalm redirects our attention upward to understand our value and our dignity is not something dependent upon how we relate to others or the value that others see in us, but actually the value that God has said about us, that we are loved, and that is where our value comes from, as one theologian once said, God doesn't love you, friend, because you're so valuable.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You're valuable because God loves you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That is the central truth that we see here in Psalm 8, but we really see throughout the breadth of Scripture.
Dr. Jason Thacker: As the theologian John Calvin once noted, when we have a greater understanding of God, we will also have a greater understanding of ourselves.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Why?
Dr. Jason Thacker: Scripture tells us we're made in the image of God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Look up.
Dr. Jason Thacker: The greater understanding we have of God, the greater understanding we will have of our own value, dignity, and worth.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But friends, the vice versa is true as well.
Dr. Jason Thacker: The greater understanding we have of our true selves, not what we determine, not what we fix, not what we think about, what we think about ourselves or what other people think about us, but what is our true identity found in Christ, we will actually have a greater appreciation and understanding of God Himself as well.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Because He is the creator, we are the creature.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We cannot truly understand our value and ourselves as human beings without a corresponding knowledge of God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And that brings us to our text here in Psalm 8.
Dr. Jason Thacker: So if you have a copy of God's word, I encourage you to open it to Psalm 8.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And I'm going to read God's word for us and to sit under the authority of God's word as we talk about this question of not only God's glory, but also what it means to be human.
Dr. Jason Thacker: The psalmist writes, David writes in 8:1, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You have set your glory above the heavens.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger.
Dr. Jason Thacker: When I look at your heavens and the work of your fingers, the moon's moon and the star which you have set in place.
Dr. Jason Thacker: What is man that you are mindful of him?
Dr. Jason Thacker: And the son of man that you care for him.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You have given him dominion over the work of your hands.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, all the beasts of the field, the birds of the heaven, the fish of the sea, and whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Let us pray.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Father God, I thank you for this morning.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I thank you for this church.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I thank you for the gospel outreach and out gospel post here at Millington Baptist Church and for the faithful service over these last 175 years.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And God, I pray that you would continue to grow this church, deepen us all as members of the Universal Church and our understanding of who you are and what you've done for us through the person work of Christ.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I pray this morning that you would help us to see you in Scripture, that you would give us eyes to see what you are doing.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Father, that you would give us ears to hear what you are saying, minds that can comprehend the majesty and the glory of who you are.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But all of these things are worthless if we don't have a heart that loves you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God, I pray that you would instill and cultivate a heart, a posture of seeking to love you into seeking to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God, that you would fill us with your spirit, remind us of the good work that Christ has done.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Father, how you've transferred us from the domain and kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of your beloved Son and whom you love.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And that Jesus, we know that you are sitting at the right hand of the Father, that you are praying for us even as we pray to the Father.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And I pray that you would also remind us that the Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, fully God, if we are in Christ, dwells in us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That you are here, Spirit.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And I pray that you would speak to us, remind us of Christ, and for the glory and majesty and honor of the Father.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Remind us of who you are and what you've done for us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And we pray that you would help us to grow in likeness of Christ in every way.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We pray in his name.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Amen.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Friends, no matter where we turn today, we're seeing immense challenges to human dignity, as many today seek to redefine our identity in ways that are contrary to what God shows us about who we really are, and specifically what we see about what's true of us in the scripture, whether we doubt it or not, believe it or not, these things are true of us because God is our creator and it has spoken these things.
Dr. Jason Thacker: From questions from the very beginning of life and the horrors of abortion to questions of reproductive technologies, how to best care for the sick among us, those facing various disabilities, even how to navigate the difficult and heart-wrenching end-of-life decisions.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Friends, we don't like to think about death, but it is coming for all of us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But also as Christians, we live in light of the fact that Jesus has defeated the great enemy, that death no longer has things.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It has already been beaten.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But it seems from now that we're talking about the beginning of life to the very end of life and basically everything in between, we cannot get past the question of what does it mean to be human that is front and center in our culture today and ought to be front and center in the church as well.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But we have a different orientation, a different understanding of human dignity.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's not something that is self-defined, it's not something that's gained or lost over time.
Dr. Jason Thacker: What God says is true about us flows from who He is.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That's the whole point of this passage, to remind us of the glory and the majesty of God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This question of what does it mean to be human informs and forms so many of the contemporary debates, from ethical debates and moral debates, social debates, political debates, where our dignity as human beings is often tied to what we do, what we contribute, and how other people view us and see us, rather than what God says is true about us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That can't be lost, it can't be gained, it just is because of how God has made us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Psalm 8 reminds us that our true dignity and value is found in relation to God, not in something we define or create for ourselves.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We live in a society that says you have to justify your existence.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Friends, it's already been justified.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's done.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We live in light of those truths.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We live in light of who God is, what he has said, and what he has done for us, and that is where our true value and dignity comes from.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You don't have to justify your value.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God has already declared it.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And that's what we see here in Psalm 8 that has a distinct pattern and a distinct flow that I want us to unpack this morning.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You see three parts is listed in today's outline.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And I was when I was kind of working through it this week.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I originally had very different points here.
Dr. Jason Thacker: They were all the same points, but I had the language mixed up a little bit.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And the more I steeped in Psalm 8, look, friends, I've studied, I've known this passage, I've taught this passage, and I was just hit fresh this week.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's all about God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's always been about God from the very beginning to the very end.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And so I reordered the entirety of the points and reworded them to start with God's majesty as our creator.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That's the point of the passage.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We see that in verses 1 and 2, but also in verse 9.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Remember, it's kind of a sandwich.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's all about his majesty and glory from the beginning to the end.
Dr. Jason Thacker: In verses 3 through 5, we see God's creation of humanity.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Remember fronting the fact of God, God's majesty, God's creation.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And then lastly, in verses 6 through 8, we see God's role for humanity.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He has called us to do something, not to earn our identity, not to earn our favor, and definitely not to earn our salvation.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But if we were in Christ, Ephesians 2.10, if we're in Christ, there are works that have been created beforehand that we ought to live into.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But it's for by grace that you've been saved through faith.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This is not of your own doing, so that no one may boast.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But we are, verse 10, Christ's workmanship created to do good works.
Dr. Jason Thacker: So let's dive into verses 1, 2, and also 9.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We'll come back to this.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God's majesty as our creator.
Dr. Jason Thacker: At the both the beginning and the end of this Psalm, we see the same line repeated.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You don't have to be a Bible scholar to know when something is repeated, it's valuable.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You need to hold on to it.
Dr. Jason Thacker: When the Word of God says something over and over again, we better believe it because it is true.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's being emphasized.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Verses run and two read this: O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You have set your glory above the heavens.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This psalm begins with an exclamation of praise and a reminder, this song of praise and of worship to God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Many scholars actually think that Psalm 8 was a worship song, that we would, that early church would have sang these things, that the Jewish people would have sang this, and it's actually something we should probably put to music at some point, just to be reminded of God's word and what he says.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But it starts with praise.
Dr. Jason Thacker: David here is proclaiming the majesty of God and drawing our gaze upward to the heavens, away from the here and now, upward to the heaven to behold who God is and what he has done for us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It begins with an acknowledgement, friends.
Dr. Jason Thacker: An acknowledgement of God as our eternal creator, through whom all things come to being, including each of us as image-bearers.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It begins with God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Even as we start to unpack and think through this question of what does it mean to be human, we must, as David is reminding us here, start and end with God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Within a Christian framework or a worldview for understanding the nature of who God is, what he says about us as human beings, and how we navigate the world around us, long within the Christian tradition, we've recognized a fundamental distinction, a distinction between God as our creator and we as his creatures.
Dr. Jason Thacker: There's a fundamental creator-creature distinction.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Friends, we are like God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We see that in Genesis 1 and 2.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We're like God, we're created in the image of God, but we're not God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: There's a fundamental difference.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He is God, we are his creatures.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He is infinite, we are finite.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God is all-knowing, and we very often struggle with knowing and understanding and comprehending and understanding what God is doing, especially when we face suffering, trials, and tribulations and persecution.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We don't know what's going on, but God does.
Dr. Jason Thacker: There's a fundamental difference.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God did not make the world out of himself.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God is the eternal God, the creator God, the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit from all eternity.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Who chose out of the abundance of his love to make everything, including you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God, that's the God we serve.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That's the majestic nature of him.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Here's a truth, friends, that's hard to hear at first, but I'll tell you, it's deeply, deeply freeing once you embrace it.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God doesn't need you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God is all-powerful.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You are not.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He is infinite.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You are finite.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God doesn't need us, but he chose to make us at an abundance of his love.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He is our creator.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We are his creatures.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's vital for us to maintain this distinction, to continue to champion, especially as we navigate key issues of human dignity in the public square, but not just out there, friends.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Also in here, in our own families, when we're navigating key issues of bioethics and human dignity, to recognize and to remember there's a clear distinction between God as the creator and we as his creature.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And who are we, that Isaiah reminds us, who are we to call out to the potter, why have you made me this way?
Dr. Jason Thacker: He is the creator, we are the creature.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He is the potter, we are the clay.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You can't comprehend God in his fullness.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But David's trying to lift your gaze up to begin to comprehend him.
Dr. Jason Thacker: How majestic he is.
Dr. Jason Thacker: There is a clear distinction between God as our creator, we as his creature, that's often blurred or to be honest with you, completely ignored in contemporary society.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And sometimes, unfortunately, in the church as well.
Dr. Jason Thacker: In a world that champions autonomy, just a fancy way to say it's about me, myself, and I, it's my body, it's my choice, it's my truth, it's my reality, it's about me.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I'm autonomous.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Auto namos literally means self-law, self-rule, self-mastery.
Dr. Jason Thacker: In an age of autonomy and hyper-individuality, Christians must remember you are an individual.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God knows you intimately.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Friend, he knows you better than you know yourself.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We'll get to that in a little bit.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We are known by God, we are loved by God, but we are not autonomous beings.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We never were.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You were created.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Meaning you are utterly and completely and wholly dependent upon another.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Not just your mother's womb, not just others in your family when you grow old, but you are utterly dependent, completely and totally dependent on God, and you are interdependent on each other.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We need each other.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's actually the good news of gathering as the church body.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We remind ourselves ultimately of our dependence upon God, but also we need one another.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You need to be here.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I need you, you need me.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We need each other.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That is contrary to often a cultural vision of what it means to be human.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Everything we have and everything that we are is given to us by God Himself.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And nothing, this is also one of those hard truths that's also freeing, nothing happens outside of his power and sovereignty and love as our creator, our sustainer, and our redeemer.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We as humans are set apart.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Yes, we are unique in creation, but we are utterly and completely dependent upon God for all things.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You get that in verse 1 and 2.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But in verse 2, we're also reminded of God's power and his authority over all things, as well as his, he is the standard of goodness and of true justice.
Dr. Jason Thacker: When we want to go about justice in society, we have to look for a biblical vision of justice rooted in God Himself and what he says about himself, what he's revealed about himself.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And in verse 2, we see some of that to start to come out.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Again, that's not the point of the passage per se, but it is lifting our gaze up to God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: First, we see in verse 2 how God routinely uses the weak and the vulnerable and the helpless to show strength, his strength, to a watching world.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He takes the weakest, he takes the helpless, he uses them for his own glory, showing off, showing who he is, reminding the world of His power and his majesty and his glory.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This is directly contrary to what so much of the world sees.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That your value, your dignity, and your worth is rooted in the things you do rather than the God you serve.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's always about me and what I do.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's about strength, how we this counter-cultural message about strength and power is not about what we do, but what God has already done and what he is doing.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God in his great power and strength could have used anyone and could have done anything, but he chooses out of love to use the weak and the helpless, the babies and infants, to shame the world of the strong and to manifest his immense power.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But a second part of this, he also uses the most vulnerable to bring about justice.
Dr. Jason Thacker: See in the text here.
Dr. Jason Thacker: To still the enemy and the avenger.
Dr. Jason Thacker: There is a great enemy, friends.
Dr. Jason Thacker: There are it, there are grave injustices in our world.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But we as Christians, we do go about the pursuit of justice only because of who God is and what he's done.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He is the author of justice.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He is the true God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It flows from who he is.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Our God is a God of justice and it's rooted in who he is and his character.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He establishes his strength and the pursuit of justice for his people and reminds them, kind of looking forward, the church has long used this text and seen in this text.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It looks forward because remember, friends, this entire book is about Jesus.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Don't take my word for it, take Jesus' Luke 24, 27.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He explained to them on the road of Emmaus all of Scripture, the law and the prophets concerning himself.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We don't have to read Jesus into the text because he's already here.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He is the Logos, the Word of God from the very beginning, John 1.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But what's interesting here, distill the enemy and the Avenger, the great enemy is death.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I've got good news for you, Christian.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Death has already been defeated.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's over, it's finished.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Say Phonee.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Go read Revelation.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Revelation isn't about getting our frelt boards out and trying to decide exactly what's happening when Jesus is coming back.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Those are fun conversations to have.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But we don't need that because the apocalyptic literature, revelation itself, is actually to give us hope.
Dr. Jason Thacker: In the midst of the trials, the suffering, the persecution, when we feel overwhelmed and crushed by the burden of life, to be reminded that death has already been defeated.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That we will gather around the throne saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is yet to come.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Death has been defeated.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Death is dead in its grave.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That's what we get to celebrate, by the way, here in a few weeks in Easter.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That Christ is risen.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He is risen indeed.
Dr. Jason Thacker: When he rose to new life, he put death in its grave forever.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And we live in between the times because Jesus is coming back, friends.
Dr. Jason Thacker: When we navigate the challenges of human dignity, especially in the public square today, we should be some of the most hopeful people around.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Why?
Dr. Jason Thacker: Because if we have a reason for the hope that's within us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: So let's make a defense for it.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You can't make a defense in what Peter tells us in 1 Peter.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You can't make a defense for something you don't have.
Dr. Jason Thacker: If you have no hope, how are you going to defend it?
Dr. Jason Thacker: And why would people say, why are you so hopeful?
Dr. Jason Thacker: They can't ask it if they don't see it.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Friends, we have to have hope because we know hope has a name.
Dr. Jason Thacker: His name is Jesus, and he is beaten death.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's done.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Sephine, it's over.
Dr. Jason Thacker: So let's live in light of that.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We should be marked as some of the most hopeful people ever because we have the greatest hope of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
Dr. Jason Thacker: No one and nothing can stand against our God, not even the great enemy of sin and death.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But here we see verses 1 and 2, especially verse 1, is actually repeated again in verse 9 because it's showing there's a high, there's a structure to this.
Dr. Jason Thacker: There's a purposeful psalm of praise going on here.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Starting with the majesty and glory of God, ending with the majesty and glory of God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But sandwiched in between us are some really beautiful truths about what it means to be human.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Here, God's creation of humanity, verses 3 through 5.
Dr. Jason Thacker: In verses 3 through 5, we see more about the creation of man and woman.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Read the text with me.
Dr. Jason Thacker: When I looked at the heavens, I looked at your heavens, the work of your fingers, you see the your, it's always about going back to God, speaking to God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: When I looked at your heavens, and when I looked at the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you're mindful of him, and the Son of Man that you care for him?
Dr. Jason Thacker: You have created him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This is one of the most well-known sections of this passage in Psalm 8, but I want you not to miss the backdrop.
Dr. Jason Thacker: What did we just see?
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's about the glory and majesty of God and what he's done.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And then you get the picture of who we are.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He shifts from looking at all that God has made and starts to shift to say, Me?
Dr. Jason Thacker: Really?
Dr. Jason Thacker: Like of all the things you've done, the great victory you've accomplished, you care about me?
Dr. Jason Thacker: You know me?
Dr. Jason Thacker: I seem so insignificant.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God's majesty here is so profound that the heavens and the moon and the stars, basically, we don't fully understand how all that works, are moved by his fingers.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He's so big.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He doesn't actually have fingers other than the incarnation of Christ.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But the idea, the picture here is that it's so insignificant, it's so small for him.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But not as if he just so majestic and glorious, it's also the fact of what we see here that God knows us and loves us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He knows not just us, plural, but you specifically.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He knows you, he cares for you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It always reminds me of this kind of fact of this kind of the majesty and glory of God and how small we often are when I go to the beach.
Dr. Jason Thacker: So later this week we're going to Orange Beach in Alabama.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We're taking our RV.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Yes, we're those people.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And we have a big RV.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I'm going to take my boys, Hollis and Porter.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Hollis is nine, Porter 7, my wife of almost 13 years, Dory.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We're all four gonna get in our truck because I'm a Kentuckian, you have to have a truck.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We're gonna have our truck and we're gonna go to Orange Beach, Alabama.
Dr. Jason Thacker: When we get there, I can guarantee you what's gonna happen.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We're gonna have lots of fun.
Dr. Jason Thacker: There's probably gonna be a lot of craziness on the way down there.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I have two boys under 10, remember, and a like six, seven-hour car ride, which will be fun.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But nevertheless, we're gonna get there.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And then we're gonna go out to the beach.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Anybody like the beach?
Dr. Jason Thacker: I love the beach.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's fascinating to me what happens at the beginning at sunrise and sunset, though.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Everybody flocks to the beach, right?
Dr. Jason Thacker: And it's interesting.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We flock to the beach, and about 90% of us, I saw in the first service, some people going like this to their spouse, like, oh, this is you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: What ends up happening is we take, what do we do?
Dr. Jason Thacker: We pull out our phones and we start videoing the sunset and the sunrise.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Not looking at the sunrise and sunset, by the way, but looking at it on our phone.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's kind of weird.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We do that with fireworks too, and I don't totally understand it.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You're never gonna re-watch those videos.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I don't know why we do that.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But anyway, another story for another day.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But we behold, there's something about going to the beach, especially when I can just stand there for a minute and just behold the glory and just see the beauty of creation.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Guess what it does, friends?
Dr. Jason Thacker: It one lifts my gaze up, but two, there's also this corresponding feeling of how small I really am.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This happens maybe not for you at the beach, maybe at the mountains, maybe at the canyon, maybe it's just looking at your child one day.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I remember especially with Hollis and Porter, it'll just be kind of daddy and Porter, and I'll look into his.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I'm just I'm just blown away that God has made him and given him to me.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But there's something about beholding these glorious sights, the beauty of creation, that lift our gaze up, right?
Dr. Jason Thacker: This also will happen later today when I get on the plane.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I'll be heading home back to Louisville, and when we get above about 30,000 feet, and you kind of look down, especially it's not a super cloudy day, I get to see just how seemingly insignificant I really am in the grand scheme of things.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That is true in one part, but something I have to mention here, when we think about this, it doesn't just help us to see the glory and the majesty of God, how big he really is.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But here's the really amazing countercultural, kind of ironic truth.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God still knows you and cares for you individually.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He is the creator God, the infinite, majestic creator of the universe, and he knows you and loves you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He knows every single hair on your head or the lack thereof.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He also knows every single gray hair in my, especially right here and right here, my boys like to point it out.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He knows you better than you know yourself, friend.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And he's still the creator, majestic God of the universe.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That's the beautiful, ironic truth, a little bit within the Christian belief and understanding of who God is and what he's done for us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: David here is pointing out in the light of the vastness and the greatness of creation that it's natural to go, me?
Dr. Jason Thacker: Why are you mindful of me?
Dr. Jason Thacker: Why does God care for us?
Dr. Jason Thacker: Why does he know us?
Dr. Jason Thacker: Why would God, who needs nothing, create us?
Dr. Jason Thacker: Why is he mindful of us?
Dr. Jason Thacker: God created all things, eternally existed as a triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, crafted all things, upholds the universe.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Me?
Dr. Jason Thacker: You care about me?
Dr. Jason Thacker: You know me?
Dr. Jason Thacker: This is a central truth of the Christian tradition.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Your value, your dignity, and your worth is not rooted in the things you do, how impressive you are or not, what other people see about you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Your value, your dignity and worth flows from who God is and what he says about you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Because, friends, despite what we were told when I was growing up, I'm not that special.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You're not that unique.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You're not that valuable on your own.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's your value flows from the fact it's not because you're so valuable, that's why God loves you, as the theologian tells us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's actually that you're loved, and that's where your value comes from.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We see here that he's mindful of us, that he cares for us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: The language here that David writes conveys God's love for us, that God loved us so much that he's mindful of us and cares for us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He knows, friend, I don't know what's going on in your life right now.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I don't know what you're feeling, I don't know what the challenges you're facing.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Maybe even on the way here this morning.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Maybe you're not looking forward to tomorrow or the next day.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You have a big doctor's appointment come up, you have a big job issue coming up, you have another thing.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's political season.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We have all these things swirling around us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Friend, he sees you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That's part of being mindful and caring for you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He remembers you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He doesn't have to, but he chooses to.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He knows you better than you know yourself.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That's deeply freeing to know that you are not only fully known, but also fully loved, as the late Tim Keller once said.
Dr. Jason Thacker: In the vastness of all that God has made, he takes time to know us and he takes time to reveal himself to us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: No matter the failures that you've had this week, maybe last night, this morning, or the failures you will have this week, the brokenness, the challenges, the suffering, the pain, the heartache, whatever you are facing, let me tell you the good news of the gospel.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Not only has death been defeated, but Jesus has sent the Spirit to be here with you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This is the beauty, the glory of the gospel message that Christ has sent the helper.
Dr. Jason Thacker: If you are in Christ, Colossians 3, if you are in Christ, the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You have not been abandoned.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You need to know that.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Some of us need to hear that viscerally right now.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You are not alone.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You have not been abandoned.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Your God sees you and knows you and remembers you, and you are a created being that serves an uncreated creator.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He has no beginning, he has no end, yet he still knows us, sees us, loves us, and has fashioned us a little lower than himself.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Verse 5.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor, depending on the translation you have, and this is kind of a nerd fact, but it's kind of fun anyway, of the translation here, a little lower than the heavenly beings, the ESV says.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Other translations say a little lower than God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: There's actually a little bit of a debate on exactly what the word means, but I can tell you the point of it and what it actually means.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It means you're not God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God is God, you are not.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You are created lower than him, lower than the heavenly beings, lower than God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And that's actually deeply freeing.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Genesis 1 and 2 tell us we're made like God, but we're not God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We're made in his image, but we are not God's ourselves.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We are set apart in creation, and we have been given, note the text, you have been, we are crowned with glory and honor, meaning it's given to us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's derivative.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It comes from God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's God giving to us a status.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Glory and honor are only fitting for a king.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But we have been given glory and honor, which are attributes of God's kingship, and it's extended to us as a royal status.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This is what God says about you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Think of 1 Peter when you see Peter talk about being a royal priesthood, a chosen people, a people called for his own name.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This is your new identity if you are indeed in Christ.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You reign under his sovereign rule.
Dr. Jason Thacker: The psalmist is reminding us of our unalterable status.
Dr. Jason Thacker: In a day and age, it says you have to earn it.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God says, this is who you are, so live like it.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's given to us by God, and it's not dependent upon us in any way.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This status isn't dependent on our actions because we are sinful and broken people outside of Christ.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But we are given glory.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We're crowned with glory and honor because of what God has done.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Not because you're so special, not because you're so worthy, but because of his great love for us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Let's finish up the text here.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Verses six through eight, we read about God's role for humanity.
Dr. Jason Thacker: So we start with the majesty of God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We also end with it.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Remember verse 9?
Dr. Jason Thacker: But you also see here not only God's creation of humanity, but God's purpose and role for humanity.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That's what verses 3 through 5 is highlighting God's creation of humanity.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Verses 6 through 8 expands that theme to remind us that our ultimate purpose in this life is actually to honor God and go about the work he's called us to do.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He's going to equip you, he's going to give you the power, the strength.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's all given by him.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You didn't earn it, you don't deserve it, but he still nevertheless gave it.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You see here in verses 6 through 8.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You, God, have given him humanity to dominion over the works of your hands.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You've put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen over the beasts of the field, the birds of the heaven, the fish of the sea.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Basically everything, friends.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And whatever path passes along the paths of the sea.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I want you to note something.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Does this remind you of something else in Scripture?
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's almost a direct reminder, direct allusion going back to Genesis 1, after the creation of man.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He says to be fruitful and to multiply, to take dominion over the earth and to steward it.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And then goes through a very similar list, basically seeing everything.
Dr. Jason Thacker: There's something unique about humanity.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Humanity has been given by God and his sovereign plan dominion over creation itself, and thus we are entrusted with a great responsibility.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We're accountable to him.
Dr. Jason Thacker: No other part of creation was given this type of role, this type of purpose.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Remember, your value isn't found in what you do, though.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's found in who you are.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You are freed to do the works that God has planned beforehand, but your salvation and value and dignity does not depend on those works.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We are endowed, we're crowned with glory and honor under his majestic rule, and thus we also are equipped and given power and responsibility to honor God and to steward his creation.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Real practical example here.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Your work matters.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Whether you're a student, whether you're a career employee, whether you're looking for a job, whether you're underemployed, whatever it is, your work matters.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Not because it puts food on the table, not because it takes care of your family, all of those things are true, but because you've been called by God to do that.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You're a student, your work matters.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's not just some arbitrary thing that you just have to do.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's actually part of you stewarding the gifts God's given you for his glory.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This stewardship is not because of our great power, though.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We have to see in the text.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's not because of our intellect, it's not because of our prowessness.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's given to us by God that sets us apart from the rest of creation.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And he has a good plan for your life.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You want to know what you should do?
Dr. Jason Thacker: That's the big question, especially young people often.
Dr. Jason Thacker: What should I do?
Dr. Jason Thacker: What am I called to do?
Dr. Jason Thacker: What's God's calling on my life?
Dr. Jason Thacker: Let me tell you what God's calling is on your life.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You don't need Thacker to tell you this.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Jesus tells you in Matthew 22.
Dr. Jason Thacker: What is the greatest commandment?
Dr. Jason Thacker: What am I to do?
Dr. Jason Thacker: Love God with every heart, every five year of your being, your heart, body, soul, mind, and strength.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And guess what?
Dr. Jason Thacker: The second is like it.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You are to love your neighbor as yourself.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You see the orientation here?
Dr. Jason Thacker: In a day that says it's about me, myself, and I.
Dr. Jason Thacker: The Christian gospel, the message of how we ought to live, is actually calling us something deeply other oriented.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Ultimately, God, to love God and to love our neighbor as ourself.
Dr. Jason Thacker: You fulfill the second by fulfilling the first.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself.
Dr. Jason Thacker: The language here in verses 7 and 8, though, remind us of the creation mandate or ought to remind us of the creation mandate that God gave Adam and Eve in the garden, Genesis 1, 28 through 31.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We know 26 through 28.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Let us make man in our image after our likeness, male and female, he created them.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And then the word of God says, and he blessed them.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And then you get the listing that we just saw here in Psalm 8.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's alluding to it, it's reminding us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And then at the very end of the days, so the five days God creates, he speaks, it comes into being, and then what does he say?
Dr. Jason Thacker: It was good.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Fascinating what happens on day six, though.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God speaks, it comes into existence, specifically that of humanity, and then he looked at what he had made and said, It is very good.
Dr. Jason Thacker: There's something different.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Not because they're so special, but because what God has said.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This mandate, this cultural mandate was given to us before the fall.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And it speaks as one way that we're able to manifest and model God's majesty, remember the point of the passage, in the world around us.
Dr. Jason Thacker: The work that God has given us is a divine blessing and responsibility that we are up to steward well.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We are not to take those things for granted.
Dr. Jason Thacker: God chose us, he didn't have to, not because you're so special, but because of his great love.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He chooses to use you.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He also chooses to use you, NBC, for the last 175 years in this community, out of an abundance of his love.
Dr. Jason Thacker: His love not only for you, but also for this community.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Now we can't miss what's happening here, though.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Remember, I told you we were coming back to verse 1?
Dr. Jason Thacker: So, verse 1 and 2, the majesty and glory of God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Verses 3 through 5, focusing on God's creation of humanity, and verses 6 through 8, focusing on God's role, his calling, the purpose on our lives.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And then you get verse 9.
Dr. Jason Thacker: O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It begins with praise and it ends with praise.
Dr. Jason Thacker: This psalm is a song of praise for our God and all that he has done through his people.
Dr. Jason Thacker: As we welcome the worship team back up here to lead us in a final song, I want us to be remembered and to take away here how this psalm has held such a special place in the hearts of God's people for millennia and for good reason.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It reminds us of the majesty of God, what he has done, who he is, and what he's done for his people.
Dr. Jason Thacker: But also, note something here, it also points us forward to the day we see in verse 5, the great enemy will be defeated.
Dr. Jason Thacker: The author of Hebrews, and remember it's all one story, friends, and it's all about Jesus.
Dr. Jason Thacker: The author of Hebrews actually points to this very passage, by the way, in chapter 2, verses 6 through 8.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And he does so in a little bit of a different context.
Dr. Jason Thacker: We often read this in the sense of, what is man that you're mindful of him?
Dr. Jason Thacker: But then you see in Hebrews that the context is actually about Christ himself, who similarly is crowned with glory and honor.
Dr. Jason Thacker: The early church saw this as pointing forward to Jesus.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Why?
Dr. Jason Thacker: The whole story is about him, and he's our only hope in life and death.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's only because of the shed blood of Christ that we have life.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's only because of Christ's incarnation when he took on flesh.
Dr. Jason Thacker: That also speaks, by the way, it's a very visual example of our value, because God took on flesh.
Dr. Jason Thacker: He didn't have to, but he chose to.
Dr. Jason Thacker: It's only through his blood that we can be made new and that we can actually live as God would call us to live, as creatures in a broken world.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Creatures, yes, but crowned with glory and honor for the praise and glory of our God.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Let's pray.
Dr. Jason Thacker: Father God, I thank you for this day.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I thank you for your grace and mercy.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I thank you for who you are and what you've done for us through Christ.
Dr. Jason Thacker: I thank you for this church as a gospel outpost.
Dr. Jason Thacker: And I pray, God, that you will continue to bless this body, continue to help us as we can love you and to love our neighbors ourselves in every way.