Book of Psalms - Psa. 8, Vs. 1-9 (11/27/2022)

The Happy and Awe-Inspiring Tone of Psalm 8

All right, good morning. We're gonna start we are in Psalm chapter 8. We've just kind of been going through the Psalms for those of you have not been able to join us recently glad to have you. We are in Psalm chapter 8.

We've gone from 1 to 2 to 3 4. We're just going right through them. It may take my entire lifetime to get through all the Psalms because there's so many of them. Don't know if we'll get through all of it.

I say that pretty much every week, but I think we might. This is kind of a shorter Psalm. In light of the season we're in we just celebrated Thanksgiving. I think this is a super appropriate Psalm because this one kind of has a feeling of thanks to it.

It is. You know, we've been we've been looking at David's prayer life and how he deals with Trouble and how he works through that trouble and how the Lord lifts him up out of that trouble and How he goes from a low place to a high place and we've seen the different.

The different mental states he's been in. Today we get kind of a happy song. This one's just like an awe-inspiring one and we look at The very beginning of it. It says to the chief musician upon Giddeth a Psalm of David.

Would Giddeth. We don't really know what that is. But here's what we do know about Giddeth. It's used in two other places. It's used in Psalm 81. It's also used in Psalm 84 and These are both happy Psalms.

There's speculation about what the Giddeth would be. Some people think it's a musical instrument from Gath. Some people say it may have been a song of Obed, how do you say this? Obed-edom? Obed-edom?

Obed-edom of Gittite? He or Obed-edom the Gittite is how he's called. And I'll just remind you of who this guy is. Basically when the Ark was being transported back to the land of David and they stick it on wheels.

Remember they weren't supposed to do that. They put it on a cart and They're supposed to be carrying it. So they're getting kind of lazy about how they carry the Ark and at one point the Ark jostles and one of the men Puts his name his name is Uzzah puts his name on there.

He puts his hand on the Ark to kind of steady it and that angers the Lord and he kills Uzzah. And he's dead and that's it. Like can you imagine? Oops like that's how it goes like completely dead and This kind of gets David all riled up.

Like how can the Ark reside with me? This is terrible. So he ends up leaving the Ark with Obed-edom. I can't really say this guy's name. It's so weird. It's like Obed-edom. You've been studying the Edomites, right?

It's a combination of the two. But anyway, it stays at his house for three months it stays there and Like his life gets awesome. Apparently things go really well with him while the Ark is residing in his house and word gets sent to David that things are going great for Obed-edom the Gittite.

And and so then David goes, okay, let's bring the Ark. Let's go ahead and send for it. So it was a very happy time for this guy because the Ark is in his house and things are flourishing so some people think that this This Gittite thing might be a song of him.

But it's generally accepted that it is an instrument. That was used one of those ancient instruments. We've seen a few of these. Especially since it says it's to be played upon a Gittite kind of implies that it would be a musical instrument and It's most likely an instrument that was used at the time of vintage.

Which closed the civil year of the Jews? And it was considered to be like something where you're looking forward to God's kingdom coming. And so it's also considered a very happy thing, right? So even though we don't really know what Gittite is and we don't know where where it came from.

We can pretty much assume this means it's happy and this is a happy psalm. So we'll start in that frame of mind today right instead of thinking of all David's kind of feeling heavy like we've done in some of the other psalms this one is kind of a happier one and Think about what we've seen.

We've seen him overcome quite a bit in the first few psalms. And so now this is almost like a time of praise. So that's where we are in Psalm chapter 8 verse 1 the second part of that verse says How excellent is thy name or it starts with Oh Lord our God or Oh Lord our Lord.

How excellent is thy name in all the earth who has set thy glory above the heavens? Now It starts with the word Oh and it's almost like it's Whoa, you know, it's how do you get this word out? Like how can you even say it when you say something?

And you can't even find the words to say it. Sometimes you might start with oh You know like this is a an awe-inspiring Thought that's being Portrayed here. Oh Lord our Lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth?

Take a lonely hike through the woods. Listen to the birds the bugs the babbling brooks you like my alliteration there. All of these speak of the Lord. The animals are scared away by your footprints. They might hear you coming and they might all run away but before you came they were quite peaceful and restful.

But God was there the whole time so you can go out in the loneliest woods and there he is. Why. I'm the highest mountain which by the way is Everest. Its altitude is at twenty nine thousand thirty two feet.

That's pretty high. Rise above those clouds get to the summit look out into the distance. God is there. He's just as there on the summit. As he is on the horizon that you can see. As far out as you can look walk in the crevice of the canyons in arizona.

With all their twists and their turns their narrow pathways. And their dark caves. God's there to Plunge into the depths of the sea and travel to the deepest of the deep where even the tip of everest Couldn't reach the surface.

It's over 35 000 feet deep at the deepest part. That's below the beach. In the darkest blackest coldest basins undisturbed by human exploration. There's God. You could even look in places you cannot go grab a microscope.

And see the realm of the micro organisms explore the cellular structures of the world. And know that god's name is stamped on all of it. I recently read something pretty amazing. About our human dna. Which stands for deoxyribonucleic acid.

I remembered that from high school. That's about the best I can do for biology the rest. I have to read. But in your dna there are four components it's made up of these four uh different. Nucleic acids.

Um, and I had the names of them somewhere. I think they're in my. I thought they were in my notes. Yeah, they are adenine thiamine cytosine and guanine. It's a lot of enes in your dna. So there's four different of these.

And they are bound together by A nuclide acid. All right. So each each one is bound together by nuclide acids. The first one adenine is bound together at every 10 nucleotides. The second one thiamine is bound together at every five nucleotides.

Cytosine is bound together at every six and guanine Is bound together at every five? Um, what's the significance of that? Well, that's just the way the lord made it, right? But what's interesting is that if you take the hebrew alphabet and you take The number value of the letters in the alphabet.

The tenth would be y. The fifth would be h. The sixth would be v. And the fifth of course would be h. So with these four they're bound together at 10 5 6 5 that's why hvh which is how you spell The name of god.

Is that cool? So the very glue that holds your dna together has god's name stamped on it. That'll give you goosebumps. Um. Go to the great sahara desert. Where life seems absent? And the omnipresent god Of life is there travel to the vast cornfields of illinois.

Haiti knows this they are quite quiet right. Stand in the middle of the natural sound absorbing crops and scream for help. You may not be heard by man, but you can still bend the ear of the almighty god.

How excellent is his name in all the earth. Travel to space. To escape your earthly home. Go beyond the grasp of gravity or the boundaries of breathable air. And you will find yourself yet in the presence of our lord.

Consider the vastness of the universe. Let's talk about that for a second it extends 46 billion light years. From us in every direction. Every direction you go 46 billion light years and in case you don't know what a light year is who knows what light year is.

I bet zag does mr. Engineer there. You want to share? Yeah, the time that it takes light to travel for one whole look the distance it can go for one whole year, right? So like if you take light And you shoot it out and let it travel at the speed of light for an entire year the distance it would go Would be considered a light year.

So we use light years to measure distance. Distance really really really long distances because light travels at a speed of 186 282 miles every second. That's really far that means it could go around the earth seven and a half times in a single second.

Because the earth is about 25 000 miles in circumference. Cool. So think about how how far that is. 186 282 miles every second. And a light year Is how far that travels in a whole year? I've done a little math.

That goes approximately 5 .87. Little more than that. Trillion miles in one year. All right. That's how far light will travel. 5 .87 trillion miles. And the universe Is 46 billion light years in every direction.

That's really big. Now imagine if you traveled 5 .87 trillion miles. And you did this For 46 Billion times. You would reach what is known as the end of our observable universe. What does that imply? There's something beyond the observable universe.

You know what that is? The non-observable universe. That's what it is and so. Because it's 46 billion light years in every direction. That means if you went all the way that way and all the way that way.

You're at 92 billion light years from tip to tip. In every direction. Do we have anything to describe this non-observable universe that is beyond it? I think we might. But yes, there's the movie reference to infinity and beyond right fuzz light year.

Um. Look at the next verse or rather The second the second half of this verse how excellent is thy name in all the earth. Who has set thy glory? Above the heavens. The word for heavens means visible universe.

So there's your observable universe. It's the visible part. Um above means outside or beyond. So if you want a word or or something to describe what is beyond 92 billion light years of universe. God's glory at least.

It's beyond that. It it extends that far because this observable universe with as big as it is can't contain his glory. It has it Within it. It's seen you can see Parts of it, but he has set his glory even beyond that.

So if you want something to describe it There's a start at least. Um. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings has thou ordained strength because of thine enemies. That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

Now I want to I want to actually read some spurgeon at this point because he just you know, you try to you try to go and and get something from Commentators and go. Okay. I'm gonna share this or i'm gonna i'm gonna rephrase that or i'm gonna i'm gonna use this over here.

But so often with him it's like well, I can't do anything better than that. So let's just read what he put. Okay, so Listen to this. It in relation to verse two did not the children cry hosanna in the temple When proud pharisees were silent and contemptuous.

It did not the savior quote these very words as a justification of their infantile cries. Early church history records many amazing instances of the testimony of children for the truth of god. But perhaps more modern instances will be the most interesting.

Fox and fox book of martyrs tells us That when mr. Lawrence was burnt in cold colchester He was carried to the fire in a chair. Because through the cruelty of the papist he could not stand upright. Several young children came about the fire and cried as well as they could speak lord Strengthen thy servant and keep thy promise kids.

Coming to the aid of this martyr God answered their prayer for mr. Lawrence died as firmly and calmly as anyone could wish to breathe his last. When one of the poppish chaplains told mr. Wishart the great scottish martyr That he had a devil in him a child that stood By cried out a devil cannot speak such words as yonder man speaketh Ha.

Isn't that amazing like a kid just standing up to the religious authorities and speaking truth. One more instance is still nearer to our time in a postscript one of his letters in which he details his persecution.

When first preaching in moorfields Whitfield says I cannot help adding That several little boys and girls who were fond of sitting around me on the pulpit while I preached and handed to me people's notes.

Though they were often pelted with eggs dirt and thrown at me. Never once gave way but on the contrary every time I was struck Turned up their little weeping eyes and seemed to wish they could receive the blows for me.

God make them in every God make them in their growing years great and living martyrs for him who out of the mouths of babes and sucklings perfects praise. He who delights in the songs of angels is pleased to honor himself in the eyes of his enemies by the praises of little children.

What a contrast between the glory above the heavens and the mouths of babes and sucklings. Yet by both the name of god is made excellent. Isn't that cool? God's glory is everywhere and yet he also chose to stick it in the little kids.

Pretty awesome. When I consider thy heavens The work of thy fingers the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained. What is man that thou art mindful of him. And the son of man that thou visitest him.

Think of how big God really is. And now Consider for a moment how small We actually are in a system of different planets and a star. Uh that make up our solar system we are just itty-bitty right. We're tiny uh.

Think of this there are different solar systems. So we're itty-bitty on our solar system. But there are multiple solar systems That together make up a galaxy in a collection Of billions of galaxies. That's massive billions of galaxies.

And we're on but one. And on a planet not even the biggest in that one. And we're itty-bitty on this planet. The galaxy in which our solar system exists is known as the milky way. In our galaxy alone, there are about 100 to 500 billion solar systems.

That's in our galaxy in the whole universe about two million million galaxies are observable. Then the number of unobservable galaxies or the total number of galaxies Is exceptional that's the only word we can use for it.

You can't even get to the number. This gives us an idea of just how large our universe is. And it's expanding every second larger and larger and larger and yet we are itty-bitty tiny. Now let's take a look at just how tiny the size of an average human Is 176 .5 centimeters.

I forgot to convert that into feet. I'll let y 'all do that. Or 1 .76 meters. While the diameter of the solar system alone Is 287 .46 Times 10 to the 11th power. Something it's just massive in fact I don't even know how it's actually not 10.

It's times 1011 m meters so 287 .46 times 1011 meters that's how big. Just our solar system is and we are 176 .5 centimeters, which is one one hundredth of a meter. Crazy Crazy. Therefore the solar system is a hundred and i've got i've got notes on this but my Computer went and put up in a whole bunch of extra things.

So i'm having to Slowly read through it and i'll apologize for that our solar system is about 163 .33 times one 1011 times greater than a human. Then the universe must be infinite times greater than a human.

That's that's the conclusion according to scientists they didn't even try to do the number they just said it's infinitely times greater than a human. Uh, if you take all of human life and you add it all together.

We make up point zero zero one percent of all the life that's just on our earth. So we are Itty bitty. I don't think we can even describe ourselves as itty bitty. It's not small enough. Microscopic isn't even small enough so consider that that god took man who's just dust.

And consider what god did with man. So here in in verse three when I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers the moon and the stars. Which thou hast ordained that's the that is what david has in his mind as he's about to try and think through.

What god does with man? All this massiveness. And i'm just itty bitty. He says what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him. For thou has made him a little lower than the angels and has crowned him with the glory with glory and honor.

Who's this talking about? It definitely is talking about jesus, but in the broader scope it's actually talking about man. It is without a doubt a reference to jesus. Um, but I want you to think about.

The way it's written. It's written. What is man? Why is it written that way? So if you see a If you see dust, how much value does it have? Value have. Does dust have much value. Not really, right? None.

Wars have been fought over land from which the dust settles. But as that dust blows up and away in the wind it is no longer valued. But instead it's seen as just the opposite it's valueless. If you see a desert in a movie.

It looks dry and it looks hot. That's worthless enough as it is. Would you agree? But then they have the wind blow and there's this little bit of dust that comes up and blows in the In the desert and that just makes it work look even worse.

Like ah, like there's a desert. It's hot. It's dead. It's but then there's Sand blowing in the air and it's oh now it's miserable. It's not just hot and dead. It's miserable. So dust is just beyond Worthless.

We sweep away dust. We throw it out of our houses. It's unwanted. It's unsightly. It's unimportant. And it's unclean and that Is what god chose to form man out of? Think about that. He's like what can I use?

Dust let's go with that. Not oak. Big and strong, you know not water. Adaptable can move through anything right like bruce lee said when he poured into a pot. It becomes the pot. Pour it into a teacup.

It becomes the teacup. No god's not gonna use he's not gonna form us out of the water. Yes, our bodies are 75 80 percent of water. But what did he form us out of? Dust and we know. That as part of the curse come on in yeah, we're one of those churches.

Lock the doors. Well, that's true. Dust can have dominion. Oh that door locked on you, didn't it? You didn't know we were one of those cultish groups, right? We we get you in we lock the door. You can't leave until church is over.

You make a profession of faith then you can leave. I'm kidding. Okay, so yeah dust it's just it's unvaluable it's it's it's Worthless, it's meaningless. That's what god decided that he was going to make us out of.

But then unlike any of his other creation He scooped up that valueless mess and he began to form us. He did not merely speak us into existence with his words the powerful logos With which he set those billions of stars in heaven or gave the planets their shape.

No. He got way more intimate with us. The scripture tells us that he formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed life. The very breath of the creator imparted more than the spark of life into man.

He gave him a soul. Setting him apart from all other creation. See what the world wants to do Is remind us Of the dusty part of us. They want to make us Just dust again. The world wants to say well you're just like the animals you're just they'll they'll categorize you as a mammal.

You're just Evolved from a monkey or a fish. A frog. I think I would have been a frog. I have. I like to jump. I have a lot of problems with my voice sometimes. So I must have been a frog. If it were up to to man, that's what I would have been.

That's what I would have evolved from. But by doing that they deny the very Life that god breathed into you the soul that he gave you. You're vastly different. You were fearfully and wonderfully made.

Scripture tells us that he knit you in your mother's womb. He didn't do that with anybody else or anything else right. Only people. Only man why you know is for his glory. It's for it's for him for his pleasure and so He set us apart from everything in genesis chapter 1 verse 27 We see god creating man.

And when the scripture says something it's important. Would you agree? What about when it says it twice? Typically more important. Yes, twice twice as important, but when it says something three times.

There's something truly special about it. It's it's it it's almost like a completeness god uses three To describe even the fullness of the godhead right the father the son and the holy ghost. And he made us in his image and he gave us a body soul and spirit right and then.

Then When he created us look at how he describes it in genesis 1 27, so god created man, there's one he created man in his own image in the image of god created he him. Male and female created he them it said created three times.

Which I like to think means god was at his most and complete creativity. At his most creative he was completely creative when he created you. He was pretty creative when he spoke everything else in existence, there's no denying that.

You have billions of life forms on this earth you have So many different varieties if you just think about the the flavors of food. The amount of variety in just the flavor of food is just astonishing.

You can never run out of flavors. There's always new flavor combinations right. That's amazing and that came from god and yet He was more creative When he made us out of dirt. Like it took some creativity to do that, right?

And then We messed it all up, didn't we? We mucked it up good. Because he gave us dominion because not only did he put man on this earth and used Like the highest level of creativity to do it. He then gave man dominion over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air and everything that creepeth on the land like he gave us dominion gave us a place of honor and glory and to the point of Parading the animals in front of adam now think of this has anyone ever done anything artsy.

Like tried to paint or draw or anything? Right. Did you spend some time on it? Was it kind of hard? Took it took a lot of effort. And when you were done, it was your piece of art, wasn't it? And You get to name it.

Don't you? Yeah. And like i've always been that way like I did this i'm gonna give it a name, you know. But then I found out. Once you have kids. You almost kind of want them to do it, you know, like I made this I made it for you.

What are you gonna call it, you know? And then you get joy out of seeing what your kids would do with it. What do you think it is? I'm not gonna tell you you tell me. And that's what god did with man because he thought we were so special he was like.

Let's see what adam names all these things that i'm making. Isn't that cool? And so adam gets to name all the animals. God parades all of them in front of him. Really really cool. That's the kind of dominion.

That's the kind of position we had past tense. Because that relationship was severed broken when man sin messed it all up. And so this verse. That it says what is man that thou art mindful of him. It kind of pictures just how special man is to god.

Because out of all the billions and trillions of things in the universe known and unknown He chose us to give the attention to. That's where his attention is. And the scripture makes us know that he his thoughts are continually towards us.

They're always about us. It's like he just can't stop thinking about us. You ever been in love? Right. When you know how that feeling that you have where you just can't stop thinking about the person that you love.

Like that's how god is with us. His thoughts are consumed with us the almighty god. Weird. Because we were just dust. And he gave that dust value. And put it at a really high place. That's what the first part of verse Four is showing us but then it brings in this other concept when it says and the son of man.

That thou visitest him. Who's the son of man? That's jesus. Because then it goes on to describe jesus for thou has made him A little lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory and honor. See this amazing super creation that god made and man rose up against god.

And became enemies with the lord. And god who was so in love with this creation decided. All right. I'm gonna make my kid go And save this creation. I've done a lot of artsy things in my life. I like to do art.

I love to sketch. That's my thing. I like to do things on the computer. I do like graphic design and stuff. I will never let my kids die for my creation. It's just never gonna happen so. For god to love his creation that much Is beyond my comprehension.

And so Jesus also known as the second adam. Not formed by god like we were but begotten of god Was sent to restore that relationship with us. God's very child not just his handiwork. Like we are. No, this was his offspring the light of the world and the apple of his eye.

What a much greater estate he has than we had. And yet he gave up his position in heaven To come to earth a spiritual sacrifice. He lived a perfect life for 30 some odd years a mental sacrifice. And then he died on a cross.

Physically for our sins physical sacrifice. He sacrificed mind Body and spirit all of it just all of it for us. That was the estate that jesus had god's kid. And he came and gave up Everything for us.

He was made a little lower than the angels. See the angels are eternal man In a sense is eternal as well see. It's because we have we have the saints we have us right we have those who who god has redeemed.

When he does that we are now made in a sense eternally where we get to be Living with him forever. So while man and jesus is the man pictured here was made lower than the angels. That's only momentary because then jesus ascends back to the throne.

And is now higher than the angels and here's the coolest part. To them gave he power to become the sons of god. To those who would believe on his name. So what does that mean for the dust the handiwork?

Those who God formed who raised up against him to become an enemy instead of destroying his creation. He not only saved us he is now giving us an even higher estate than we had in the past. Higher than adam's first estate.

Think about that. There's no Way, you can make that make logical sense to man. It has to be a step of faith just like it has to be a step of faith for you to want to be evolved from a monkey. Right like that you can either have faith that you are Great enough to Somehow evolve from a monkey and rise up against god who created the monkey in the first place right.

Okay, it came from a big bang. God who made the big bang in the first place like none of that makes sense. You can think that it's all about you, but when you really stop and consider just how tiny you really are.

How ridiculous is it that we have pride? How ridiculous is it that we have anything that we think we should be prideful about? The only reason why we would have anything to think we should be prideful about is that we can look and see something beneath us.

But why is it beneath us. Because god put it there. He gave us dominion over it. So anything that we can say gives us value comes from the lord. Which is funny because we came from the lord. The concept of value comes from the lord.

The concept of anything comes from the lord. The concept of concepts comes from the lord. You can't get to the start of the lord and god crowned us with glory. And honor. And now the psalmist here will go on to Describe what that looks like.

Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Just like the first adam was supposed to have. And jesus restored that Thou has put all things under his feet. That's how we know it's talking about jesus.

All sheep because now in case there's anything that you forgot it's going to be everything but all sheep and oxen. Yay, and all the beasts of the field. That would be great and small. The fowl of the air.

The fish of the sea and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea. What is that? I mean like like it's like anything else you can think of that could possibly be thrown into the sea or pushed through the sea.

All of it's under his feet. So he has complete dominion over all things everywhere at all times. Never seen or even imagined. Yeah. So it's everything you can think of and everything you can't. He has dominion over all of it and as co-heirs with christ, so do we Think about that.

Because of the finished work of jesus. We have a greater dominion than we've ever had and so appropriately. The psalm ends the way it began. Oh lord our lord. How excellent is thy name in all the earth.

Because it's the name of god that Activates it all. That enables it all that gives us meaning it gives us purpose. It gives us power. It gives us position. It all comes from god and it's all for god and it's all.

So that We can learn more about him when we use our microscopes to look deep into Microbiology. We will eventually get to see god's name stamped on dna. When we look far out as far as our telescopes will let us see.

And get to the edge. We realize that edge is only there For about a second and then expands out farther. And we'll never reach it. And god's glory extends beyond it because he set his glory above the heavens.

And so when we look at all the creation around us and we even look at all the creation inside us. It should be a humbling thought. Because all the value that we have and we do truly have tremendous value that far surpasses 72 billion light years in both directions.

That's our value. It surpasses that all with inside you. We should remind ourselves that that value originates And extends. And is only because of god's glory. And god's name. How excellent is thy name in all the earth?

Isn't that cool? So that's psalm chapter 8. And does anybody want to add anything? We got a couple of minutes. Thank you. I'll applaud the king james version as well because that's where it all came from.

All right, well. Let us pray. Heavenly father lord. We just thank you for the vastness of you we thank you for Uh the the glory that you have set above the heavens. And that you direct all of your glory and all of your attention and all of your thoughts.

Towards something that would otherwise be completely meaningless and dust but because You've directed your thoughts towards us. We now have greater value than anything else That can even be imagined. We thank you for that.

We thank you for your son who you Who you sent to pay the price to redeem that value? And we thank you that We have a lot to be thankful for this thanksgiving season. We just ask that you remind us of that at all times.

Because it's when we become unthankful that we begin down a pretty dark road of sin. So help us to always be mindful And thankful. We love you and it's in your name. We ask these things. Amen.