O LORD, Our Lord, How Excellent is Your Name in All the Earth

Please open your Bibles with me to psalm number eight we are considering our

Walk through the psalms and it brings us today to one of my truly favorite psalms psalm number eight

Psalm 8 these are the words of God To the chief musician on the instrument of Gath a psalm of David Oh Lord our

Lord how excellent is your name in all the earth? You have set your glory above the heavens

Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength because of your enemies

That you may silence the enemy and the Avenger When I consider your heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have ordained

What is man that you are mindful of him in the son of man that you visit him?

For you have made him a little lower than the angels and you have crowned him with glory and honor

You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands

You have put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen

Even the beasts of the field the birds of the air and the fish of the sea

That pass through the paths of the sea. Oh Lord our

Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth? Well, let us pray

Almighty eternal and merciful God Whose word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path

Open and illuminate our minds that we may purely and perfectly understand your word and That our lives may be conformed to what we have rightly understood

That in nothing we may be displeasing to your majesty We ask all this through the name of Jesus Christ our

Lord Amen, you may be seated You may remember

That we had this as Psalm 8 as a psalm of the month some years ago

And it was the very month to which the national abortion

Allowance and Roe v. Wade was overturned. I Said at that time it was a very fitting psalm of the month for that Type of thing as we will see when we look at verse 2

But as you also remember that as we started our consideration of the various psalms

But I noted that one of the things that the psalm does for us. It gives us an accurate picture of the character of God of the majesty of God It gives us compelling reasons

To come and to worship him and this psalm is an excellent example of it

It states what should be every believer's ultimate priority to give glory to God You may remember the question in the

Westminster Sorter Catechism the very first question. What is the chief end of man? It is to glorify

God and enjoy him forever and this psalm

Properly orients our our praise and adoration to our great God Well, we have a lot to cover today.

So we might just as well start now Let us take a look at the first verse.

Oh Lord our Lord How excellent is your name in all the earth who have set your glory above the heavens?

You first might notice what appears to be a repetition Oh Lord our

Lord But you may also notice that the first Lord is in capital

L -O -R -D When you see that that is a tip from our translators that that word is the covenant name of our

God Yahweh Jehovah, so we may properly say

Oh Yahweh The second Lord is Adonai Oh Yahweh our

Adonai Oh Yahweh our sovereign and majestic God Jehovah is the covenant name of God the one and true

God the Lord of all angels and men The Lord and King of the saints of God.

He is our God and we are his people Adonai as I have just mentioned conveys sovereignty

It literally means sovereign or master He is sovereign over all creation

We can truly say Yahweh our Adonai Jehovah our sovereign master

How excellent is your name in all the earth? I'd like to call to your attention that it says how excellent is

Your name in all the earth. It does not say how excellent your name should be in all the earth

It is a straightforward Declaration of the majesty of God.

It is a straightforward declaration of the facts. I Know I have said this on more than one occasion, but Christianity gives an accounting of facts

Christianity is not pie -in -the -sky wish fulfillment religion no, it gives an accounting of facts and Nothing may be more factual than the majesty and excellence of our

God This should call the mind almost immediately that prayer which we commonly refer to as the

Lord's Prayer We from time to time use that as a framework for our prayers of the people we find it in Matthew 6 and also in Luke's Gospel and It is quite familiar to us and it begins our

Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name. That's the sense here

This is another straightforward declaration that the name of our Father is holy

There are many that will teach you that this is a command to make our

Father's name holy that is the first petition But it is a straightforward fact that God's name is

Holy in our text the word translated excellent literally means wide and large

When you study Hebrew words and see what the words actually mean, it's enlightening our

God's name is wide and large It is all -encompassing

Figuratively, it means powerful Excellent as we see here famous glorious goodly noble worthy what the name of our covenant -keeping

God Jehovah is is wide and encompassing it Covers and fills everything it is mighty powerful excellent famous Glorious and noble and worthy of all our praise and Notice it is his name

That is excellent and majestic and glorious How we use names today is quite a bit different than how names were used in old times especially in the time of the

Hebrews and also in in the time of of the New Testament period where the primary language was

Greek names conveyed a depth of meaning Something that we perhaps don't see in our day except perhaps in nicknames

But in old days names conveyed something conspicuous something obvious Something that was well known something that we could see or something that we could conjure up in our minds eye

We have a little bit of this today With certain names from history or from sports or some other field when we mention the name you can conjure up What it implies?

But in the old days That's what all names did it called something to mind something that was obvious The name or a name can can convey by implication honor

Authority and character We have some examples in Scripture We'll take a look at a negative example in a couple of positive examples

The negative example is Nabal the husband of Abigail Nabal literally means fool

And it was a very accurate description of Nabal But some positive ones we have

Abraham father of a multitude remember the promise to Abraham That his descendants would be like the stars of the sky or the sand of the seashore

Now we are here several thousand years later and his physical descendants are in the billions

But when we take the true meaning of that promise his spiritual descendants are

Much much Greater he is indeed a father of a multitude

We see that with Israel. We also see that with his given name Jacob But Israel says he will rule as God We know the true

Israel of God was the Lord Jesus Christ And then of course our last example is

Jesus himself his Hebrew name is Yeshua Yah, that is Yahweh saves in this name

Jehovah the character of our God is bound up in it. We see his character

We had see his sovereignty his power and might his knowledge and wisdom

His being over all creation remember wide and large all -encompassing

His holiness his love his justice his goodness his righteousness. That is his name

When we use his name it conveys all those things This is why we have that prohibition in the

Ten Commandments against the misuse of God's name in The third commandment we have you shall not take the name of the

Lord your God in vain For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain

Far too often. We think this is using our Lord's name as a swear word And it does mean that but that word that we translate vain means ascribing evil

To that which is good Misusing God's name in the case in the prohibition in the third commandment is rather than ascribing excellence and majesty to the name we describe things that are evil immoral false or useless

We are saying that the character of God is akin to the character of the devil

That's what happens when we misuse the name of God It is the root of the unforgivable sin, and he will not hold us guiltless

Is this not what the devil had done in the garden You remember in Genesis 3 the devil called and to question the very character of God Saying that he spoke falsely to Adam and Eve You will not surely die

God was afraid that if you took to the Apple you would be like him. He caused cast into question the character of God and we have this name upon us as His people we have the name of God on us

We see this in numbers 6 22 through 27 that we occasionally use as a benediction and it's very familiar to us and the

Lord spoke to Moses saying Speak to Aaron and his sons saying this is the way you shall bless the children of Israel say to them

Now this is what we're very familiar with the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be

Gracious to you the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace

Then the next verse says this So they shall put my name on The children of Israel and I will bless them

We have the very name of God put on us and in the new covenant. We have it in a special way

We are the adopted children of God our Father With the new birth.

It's like we get a new birth certificate You may remember when I preached to Ephesians 1 in our identity in Christ I had made mentioned this when we are converted

We have the new birth certificate where Yahweh is in place for our

Father Our old birth certificate had Adam there in a right way we could be called

Yahweh son it is that name

That we have on us But we have to admit That man has a temptation to make a name for himself to make his name excellent in all the earth

We had seen this in the garden But I think a great example in the Old Testament Comes from the

Tower of Babel We have this temptation to make our name

Sovereign to make our names majestic in all the earth. We read this in Genesis 11

Now the whole earth had one language in one speech. This was after the flood Noah's descendants were fruitful and multiplied and it came to pass as they journeyed to the east

They found the plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there Then they said to one another come let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly

They had brick for stone and they had asphalt for mortar and They said come let us build ourselves a city in a tower whose top is in the heavens.

Let us make a name for ourselves Lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth

They wanted to make a name for themselves not a name that would not only rival

God's But surpass it Well, there are other examples we could call

Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar to mind But in the

New Testament, we have an example we must remember that during the

New Testament period the period of our Lord and Savior's earthly ministry the period of the

Apostolic Church laying the foundations of what we can now have as our apostolic tradition

They were in the context of Rome and the emperors of Rome called themselves

Caesar and They considered themselves gods We can see this but the with the ascension of a man by the name of Octavian Who when he became

Emperor took the name? Augustus meaning the majestic Mighty or august one.

He was also called the DV Phileas the son of the divine and When a kingdom or tribe was conquered by Rome, they made a pronounce it.

They called it the Elon Galeon the good news and It required a submission to Rome that said this

There is no other name under heaven by which you make but you can be saved save for Augustus or whoever the

Emperor was This is nothing more than an absolute presumption by Caesar to be not only a

God But the God and you may remember that the first century

Christians got in a lot of trouble for their failure To say one thing their failure to say

Caesar is Lord Kaiser Kyrios They would pay their taxes

They would live peaceably with their neighbors. They would submit to the laws But they would not say that Caesar is supreme

Did that Elon Galeon message of Rome sound familiar to you?

It should It's the context of what Paul what Peter rather said to the

Sanhedrin or the council in Acts chapter 4 you remember Peter and John were arrested for healing in the name of Jesus and then we have this account

Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them rulers of the peoples and elders of Israel if We this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man

By what means he was made he has been made well let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth Whom you crucified who

God raised from the dead by him this man now stands before you whole

This is the stone which you which was rejected by you builders Which has become the chief cornerstone

Nor is there salvation in any other there is no name no other name under heaven

Given among men by which we must be saved Well, it's interesting that Peter would use that term

But you have to remember that the Sanhedrin were those men who said the pilot we have no king but Caesar So this was a very challenge that the name of Christ the name of God was higher than the name of Caesar what we see this in our own day.

Do we not? We see men Constantly trying to make a name for themselves

But let us continue Verse 1 also says you have set your glory

Above the heavens God's glory his shining greatness of his character

Cannot be contained in the created order Although his glory fills all things his name is wide and large and it fills all things

His exceeding greatness and glory cannot be contained within the heights of creation

But there is enough there to condemn us This is what

Paul points out in Romans 1 He said the entire created order displays the majesty character and glory of God in Such a way that man is without excuse

O Lord our Lord how excellent is your name in all the earth There isn't one corner of this universe that we do not see the excellence of the name of our

God Well, let us continue on to verse 2 out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants.

You have ordained strength Because of your enemies that you may silence the enemy and the

Avenger This is a straightforward declaration by David about the character of God The Lord does not use the strong and mighty of this world

To further his kingdom and to defeat his enemies He uses the weak and seemingly helpless

This is a matter by which God's greatness is further revealed His strength is sufficient to empower the weakness the weakest of men to overturn the mightiest of foes

And this is undeniably true We have this from Paul in 1st Corinthians 1 27 through 29, but God has chosen

The foolish things of the world to put the shame to put the shame the wise

Have you ever been called foolish? Have you ever been called a corn pone or a doofus for Christ That You don't know what you're talking about because you believe in some weird religion

The foolish things of this world to put the shame the wise God has chosen the weak things of the world to put the shame the things which are mighty and the base things of the world and the things which are despised

God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that our

That are that no flesh should glory in his presence many commentators and many sermons preached on this verse would say that this means that the foolishness of Foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men and that the weakness of God is stronger than the strength of men

And we would say yes and amen to that But that's not exactly what this verse says

In here is a great and glorious reality that our

God and Father has established or ordained strength and We need this strength because of his enemies

Which are our enemies and we should immediately be thinking about who is the chief enemy?

the devil He is our adversary He is the chief enemy, but remember there's an unholy

Trinity the world the flesh and the devil That's what's in mind here.

These are the enemies of God and they are our enemy They are our enemies and God has given us the strength to deal with those enemies

More appropriately God says that he would deal with these our enemies through this established

Strength and we should thank God that he has given us given us this strength, but how does he do it?

By the weakness of men, right Yes, we could say that By the weak things of the world, right?

Yes, we could say that But let's take a closer look Not just weak men not just weak things but literally children

David under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says that the means by which God will destroy his enemies the strength that he has ordained and established the one that will silence the enemy and the

Avenger are Children But not just children infants

Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants The word translated babe means suckling or nursing infant the word translated nursing infant means suckling or Nursing infant.

I wonder if God is trying to tell us something by this repetition. I Often think that sometimes the

Lord leaves clues like this because we're slow I've said this about the creation order

When we see That was the first day the second day and the third day and so on it also says for those who are real slow

It was morning and evening And I think we have another case here that out of the mouth of infants nursing infants

He has ordained strength Well, what comes out of the mouth of these nursing infants?

Well, the one word is praise and you'll say well that's not actually reference to your mark. I don't see that well, this verse was quoted by our

Lord and Savior during his earthly ministry and Matthew 21 verses 15 and 16

And a lot of times and this is true The New Testament is inspired commentary on the Old Testament It provides a greater insight on the things which we read in the

Old Testament And here's what we have in Matthew's Gospel But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple

Saying hosanna to the Son of David. They were indignant and 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 babes and nursing infants you have perfected?

praise quoting this very Bible verse Now we have to remember that the

Bible in Jesus's time was the Septuagint the Greek translation of the

Old Testament and That's how the Greek the the translators of that Greek New Testament that Greek Old Testament translated this verse and Jesus quotes it

Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have perfect perfected praise and it's not just praise it's perfected praise the highest type of praise

That's the kind of praise That comes out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants

That's the praise that the Lord has ordained as the strength

To destroy his enemies Well, that'll give you some clarity on why the enemies of God hate children so much

We have seen the attack on children throughout history child sacrifice

Causing children to pass through the fire of Molech in our modern worship of Molech in abortion

The enemies of God must destroy children because children are his chosen means of Destroying them his enemies and if they cannot destroy them in the womb

They will look to mutilate their flesh in the so -called transgender surgeries

Or they will medicate them and dope them into docility with medication

Or they'll fill their heads with false philosophies about their origin and their destination

Not being created in the image of God, but a cosmic mistake Going nowhere and we could see this war against children spilling out in other areas

I've alluded to some already attacks on the family and attacks on education

The damning influence of social media peer pressure and violence against children in our culture and in the schools and It is to our shame

That the church goes along with it. Does that surprise you that I said that?

For after all do we really go along with the war on children? Are we really aiding the enemies of God?

Don't we stand against abortion? Yes, we do Don't we stand against state -sponsored education?

Yes Don't we stand for the family and for Christian education?

Yes, we can say yes and amen to all of these things But do we deny the very words of this verse when we say that infants cannot praise

God When we deny baptism to an infant

Stating they cannot know two things of God until they get older Fundamentally denying that they can praise

God and not only praise God but offer perfected praise When we deny children access to the table

Because we say although baptized they cannot know or understand the things of God and discern the body

Thus denying that they cannot only give praise to God, but which Jesus himself said was perfected praise

Out of the mouths of infants. Yes, we do deny the very words of this verse if we hold to those views and We add aid and comfort to the enemies of God Because we deny the very truth of Scripture We also see this when

Christian men and women marry and deny themselves from having children Not because the

Lord has closed the womb but because they have May this never be amongst us and the

Lord would give us grace to repent of these things if it is true If it is amongst us

For out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength Because of your enemies that you may silence the enemy and the

Avenger what the Avenger? Well, I'm gonna have to hustle now to get through the rest of the psalm

So let us take a look at verses 3 through 5 When I consider your heavens the work of your fingers the moon the stars which you have ordained

What is man that you are mindful of him and the Son of Man that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels and have crowned him with glory and honor

This is a breathtaking statement. Really all of Scripture is a breathtaking statement We're being called upon to consider the heavens the

Sun the moon the stars the galaxy the immensity of the universe the power and majesty that it conveys it is glorious and awesome, but it is just the work of God's fingers as As if David to say that this is an easy thing for God to do

I don't know if you've ever been engaged with somebody in an argument about a six -day biblical account of creation and the millions of years nonsense

Where you feel like six days versus millions of years. Maybe you should throw in a question

I wonder what took him so long because these are easy for him.

It is the work of his fingers But it goes on to tell us contemplate this You have been made a little lower than the angels

When we compare ourselves to God we can easily say that we are weak and insignificant but when we think of angels mighty in power able to stand in the presence of God and Able to serve him perfectly.

We may be overwhelmed. We are weak. We're as weak as those infants We just talked about and even full -grown and full of strength

We have nothing to commend ourselves and even if we tried we may be guilty of trying to make a name for ourselves

We know we are fallen that we have sinned that we have not obeyed God We do not love

God with all of our heart our soul mind and strength We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

We haven't even loved ourselves the way God wanted us to but yet He is mindful of us

And he cares for us And not just us all of the created order

He causes the rain to fall on the just and on the unjust He feeds the very birds of the air and the animals of the field, but he has a special care for his people.

We'll just Use the summary verse from Philippians 4 19 and my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus Our God not only meets our needs he supplies them all bountifully

We were commanded not to worry about the things which we need But seek first the kingdom of God That is how our mindful

God cares for us But he does much more than that as we continue reading in verse 5 going through verse 8

You have crowned him with glory and honor

You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands You have put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen every beast

Even the beasts of the field the birds of the air and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the sea

He has crowned us with glory and honor Now you may ask yourself

How could this be? Well, you may have forgotten our past Man is the crown of creation

He is the last creature Created and we are the only part of creation

That is in the image of God in Genesis 1 26

Then God said let us make man in our image according to our likeness

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea Over the birds of the air and over the cattle and all earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth

Not only do we have this great and glorious position that he has given us the crown of creation

We have dominion over all things, but this was gloriously ratified

When the word became flesh and dwelt among us The word the only begotten

Son of the Father the Lord Jesus Christ Came into the created order Not as a star or the moon

Not as any of the animals nor as an angelic being But he took on flesh and became man we live in an age where the dignity of man is under attack

We had talked about the war on children. There's also a war on man What CS Lewis called an insane attempt to abolish man in the abolition of man?

It's a bizarre suicide cult that we see in our culture today Where man is trying to make man?

Extinct First he does so by saying that we are equal to the animals

That we are no different than an animal or a tree That man is not seen as created in the image of God the crown of creation

But rather a giant cosmic mistake the end results of millions of years of mistakes

There is no more dignity in man than there is in any other cosmic mistake over these supposed millions of years

And not only that the very nature of man is under attack He created us male and female

They say that's no more. There is no male. There is no female. There is no inherent dignity in man

Man is a cosmic loser And we can even see this with these nutjobs

That are pushing AI their modern Tower of Babel project The seed machines as the crowning achievement to them

That man is the measure of all things They say well This is going to be much greater than evolution because evolution had a blind

Processes a bunch of mistakes that created us, but we are doing this intentionally he who sits in the heavens laughs the people plot in vain and imagine a

Imagine a vain thing how preposterous with every birth of a child out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants with every praising baby in this congregation and Congregations throughout the world

God puts his enemies to flight and we have been given

Dominion Man is a Dominion taking creature Our first parents were given the

Dominion command Be fruitful and multiply fill the earth and subdue it have

Dominion Over the fish of the sea over the birds of the air over every living thing that moves on the earth

We see this in our in our day We can look at the

Chinese communists they believe in Dominion they're taking it We could look in the the

Muslim world. They believe in Dominion They're taking it and the secular humanists of our day believe in Dominion as well

They're taking it it seems that the only group that has any concerns or trepidation about taking

Dominion Our Bible believing evangelical Christians They refuse to take

Dominion And it's very odd that they do We know that this verse these verses here are applied to the

Lord Jesus Christ the writer of the book of Hebrews Writes this in Hebrews 2 5 through 10

For he has not put the world to come the world that we live in of which we speak in Subjection to angels, but one testified in a certain place saying

What is man that you were mindful of him and the son of man that you take care of him You have made him a little lower than the angels

You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him above the works of your hands

You have put all things under subject all things in subject in under his feet

For in that he put all in subjection under him. He let nothing that is not put under him

But we do not yet see all things put under him the writer of Hebrews wrote this Many many years ago and we would agree.

We don't see all things put on their subjection under the Lord Jesus Christ But we know that he will reign in heaven until they all are

He continues, but we do see Jesus Who is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor

That he by the grace of God might taste death death for everyone for it is fitting for him for whom all things

For whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings he is the man

He is the second Adam He is the one who has fulfilled the covenant of works he is the one who has earned true dominion

He is the one that brings many sons to glory that's us He is the captain of our salvation and we should emulate him and then he said

This he's given us orders to do so This is another way of saying this is all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations Baptizing them in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit And you shall be my witnesses to the ends of the earth

We have a command to take dominion in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ Not an ungodly dominion in our own name but in the name of Christ for after all

God has also highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and those under the earth and That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the glory of God the Father Well that brings us to our last verse.

Oh Lord our Lord how excellent is your name in all the earth the psalm ends where it began

The book ends of the glory of God. Oh Lord our Lord how excellent is your name?

We have considered that the name is his character is bound up in that name That there is only one name under heaven by which we must be saved the

Lord Jesus Christ that his name implies dominion and that we should go and take dominion go therefore and make disciples of all nations and When we reflect on these things that we have considered

May this be our constant refrain in all that we do

In all that we think or say as we raise our families as we work in our jobs as we minister here in this local community or in the communities around our homes as We minister in this congregation

That everything would have this resounding in our ears through our actions.

Oh Lord our Lord How excellent is your name? In all the earth let us pray

Our gracious God and Father. We thank you. Oh Lord that you have given us this name You have placed your name upon us and that we are called by your name we pray father that we would emulate our elder brother in the

Lord Jesus Christ and Do the works that you have given us to do as Jesus once said my father works and I work

Lord let us go forth in the labors that you have given us to do Knowing that you have empowered us to do that and may us hear that joyful refrain of those babes and nursing infants

For in that you have ordained strength to defeat your enemies We ask you

Oh Lord to give us the grace to trust in you and with our whole heart and lean not on our own

Understanding then all our ways you would direct our steps. We ask this in the name of Christ Jesus our