“Majesty & ME!”
When was the last time you looked into the mirror and said, “PRAISE THE LORD?” Genuinely, when was the last time you looked into the mirror, saw majesty, and said, “Praise the LORD?” In Psalm 8, David shouts, “Praise the Lord” when he sees majesty in himself. In short, Psalm 8 is an intimate journal entry from the pen of David revealing that God’s manifest Majesty can be seen in all the earth, most explicitly, it is seen in his supreme creation – humans, who have been made in His IMAGE. Read Psalm.
Psalm 8
1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise
because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you
care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned
him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put
everything under his feet:
7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the
paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
What a picture of God’s majesty! This psalm is the first Psalm of praise in the Psalter. This short poem contains only 70 Hebrew words, but elicits a response of words that a journal could not handle. David does not leave us wondering what the purpose of this psalm is…it is to praise the uniqueness of our Great God! We see this theme stated in verse one and then repeated in verse 9.
1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
David praises the Lord in this psalm because he is LORD! He writes, “O Lord…” David’s God is the Great I AM, the only God who is without beginning and ending and utterly self-sufficient and capable of anything! Not only is this LORD, the LORD, David records for us that He is “our LORD”! He is not a God who exists out of space and time and doesn’t know His people…He is a God with whom we can be in relationship with. He is Yahweh, “the God who saves”, as revealed to the Nation of Israel. The God of the Bible is a personal God, one you can know. Finally, David records for us that the LORD’s name is in ALL THE EARTH! There is nowhere that God is not! His identity, character, nature and reputation can be seen all over this globe! His splendor is above the heavens. What an introduction!
David praises God that His name is over all the earth. What first comes to your mind when you think of God’s name being in all the Earth? For me, I immediately thought of places I have been. I have erupted in praise to God when it comes to seeing His name, His majesty in all the earth! In Playa Del Carmen, Mexico I saw at least six different colors of blue out in the ocean. It was amazing! I praised God for His creativity! O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! On top of Mt. Sneffles one fourth of July, Julie and I saw and felt God’s name, character, nature and power as we looked 360 degrees around us. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! I have seen the majesty of His name in the Grand Canyon…The power and creativity displayed on those canyon walls are almost incomprehensible…you cannot help worship God for his incomparable Majesty O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! His name is all over the earth! David declares this, he says, his majesty is so great, that it is above the heavens. Not even the heavens can hold his majesty.
But, this morning David’s journal records for us a truth we often overlook and it is the main point in this journal entry! Did you catch it in our reading? So often we think of the majestic name of the LORD only in creation, but here in Psalm 8, David praises the Lord for that Majesty being evident in him! David’s journal screams to us this morning that while we can look at the Caribbean, climb a 14’er, gaze upon the Grand Canyon, and even look above the heavens to find His majesty and great name, we can find that majesty even more in His supreme creation – US! Why can we find it even more in us? Because we were made in His image! Remember Genesis, “Let us make man in our IMAGE” declared God.
The Caribbean, Mt. Sneffles, the Grand Canyon…all reflect His majesty, but they were not made in HIS IMAGE! Majesty & Me! ME, YOU, and US – we reflect God’s Majesty because we were made in His IMAGE! God’s manifest Majesty can be seen in all the earth, most explicitly, it is seen in His supreme creation – humans, who have been made in His IMAGE
Let’s look at how David gets to this all-important truth!
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of
your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4
what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 5
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory
and honor. 6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you
put everything under his feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the
beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the
sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
In verses 3-8 we get so see exactly why he praises God for His uniqueness. We now get to see the HEART of our great forefather. It is here that we get to read some very intimate words from the heart of a man who followed hard after God. If you have ever wondered about what the writers of the Bible thought about God, if you have ever wondered what they experienced when they came into communion with Him, today we get to take a look. I know you have thought about this. I have always wanted to talk to Moses and find out what it was like to experience God with the burning bush! HERE, today, we get to look into the deep recesses of David’s journal and see why the majesty of the Lord leads him to GREAT PRAISE! We get a little glimpse into what David thought when he considered the work of God’s fingers! And he did not even have the Hubble Telescope…I wondered what David might have journeyed had he seen the images.
David knows that God’s majesty is in Him because He knows that God is mindful of him.
I recently heard this described this way. Take a golf ball and a grain of sugar on a football field. Let the golf ball at one end of the field represent the sun and let the grain of sugar at the fifty-yard line represent earth. This equates roughly, and I say roughly, the earth’s size in comparison to the sun. Now imagine 6 billion people, the world’s population, living on that grain of sugar! What’s more, the sun, that is the closest star to us!
In the vastness of such a universe, what are we that God should be mindful of us, that God should care deeply for us? God is mindful of everyone on that grain of sugar!
How does David know that he is cared for? How can we know that we are cared for? One of the six billion on that grain of sugar?
It is simple. David and you and me were made into the image of that God! Look at what he says beginning in verse 5…
As God’s greatest manifestation of his majesty we were…
1. Made a little lower than the heavenly beings…angels…God
2. Crowned with Glory
3. Crowned with Honor
4. Made rule over the works of God’s hands
5. In charge of all other created things!
What’s more, let’s not forget verse 2! 2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. We can even see the majesty of God in children, even babies! All of humanity screams the majesty of God!
Why is that what comes out of the mouths of babies and children can silence enemies? Because they are made in His image…He, GOD, OUR LORD, knit those babies together in their mother’s womb and he crowned them with glory and honor. This is a picture of my second child. Crowned with glory and honor! What this means is that even babies are given the supreme place in the created order, a little lower than God (angels) and that at that stage, when they open their` little mouths to cry, coo or babble they bear witness to their place in creation and therefore to the majesty of God’s name in all the earth! God doesn’t wait for this baby to rationally understand how to ascribe to Him glory, rather when a baby opens its mouth God is praised! God is praised because out of that mouth literally screams the truth that a human creation made in the image of our Majestic LORD is there!
The God of David, my God, your God has gone a long way to make Majesty known. He has done it in the earth and it is breath taking. But more importantly, He has done it you and me! WE ARE BREATH TAKING! Why? Because we reflect the image of our Majestic God! It is no wonder DAVID ERUPTS in praise! And I believe it is not a mistake that in the first Psalm of praise David draws out this all-important truth!
When was the last time you looked into the mirror and said,
“PRAISE THE LORD!”
Majesty and ME! Majesty & YOU! Majesty and US!
David erupts in praise because he knows that in him is the majesty of God…the image of God!
I wonder this morning if we know this? Do we know this in ourselves? Do we know this in others? Do we shout praises to God for His supreme creation?
This psalm has turned me on my head this week! God’s majesty is in ME! Now I know some of you are questioning this truth if you know me or your students have been in the youth ministry! But, David records for me a truth that I need to hear…that we need to hear! Seriously, I can’t remember the last time I looked into the mirror and screamed, “PRAISE THE LORD!” Usually when I look into the mirror it is, “How many freckles do you have?” “How did they get there?” But God says to me and to you, that we are greater than the Himalayas! We are made in His image!
I took some time to journal a response this week from this psalm. Here are some of my thoughts.
For me, I have thought this week, “Dan, genuinely, when was the last time you looked at Julie and erupted in praise to God for His supreme creation – your wife, who bears the very image of the God you serve?” Especially during the hard times, this is not easy…when for you was the last time your erupted in praise over your spouse?
“Dan, how will you live out a life of praise in front of Noah so that he will know that he is God’s supreme creation, who bears the very image of the God you serve?” I wonder how many children and students in this church today know that they are God’s supreme creation? We must not let another day go by without our kids knowing that God’s majesty is in them! They must know that it does not matter what they wear or whether they one the state title this weekend in basketball (make reference to those in the crowd who are from D’Evelyn), what matters is that our kids know that they are greater in majesty than the Himalayas because they bear the very image of Almighty God!
I thought this week about one of my friends… I said to myself, “Dan, when was the last time you looked into the eyes of Sam and erupted in praise to God for his supreme creation who bears the very image of the God you serve?” You see, it was very hard for me to think about Sam. Sam is an atheist! He doesn’t believe in this God David writes about! He hates the God I serve. I can’t remember the last time I thought of Sam as being made into the image of God.
Finally, I was humbled and brought to my knees when I asked myself this final question, “Dan, do you realize that Jesus, is God’s precious gift given to you as the ultimate expression of His majestic name in all the earth? When was the last time you erupted into praise?” Yeah, I heard the words of Jesus echo through my heart… “Follow ME!” “Follow ME!” “Follow ME!”
No wonder David screams 1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Our God is to be worshipped for all things! From above the heavens, but especially on the lips of a child! Especially for his majesty being in me. Especially for His majesty being in you! Especially for his majesty being in your kids! Especially for his majesty being in that person who does yet know God and know of this great truth! And ultimately, GOD is to be worshipped for JESUS, the ultimate expression of His majesty in humanity!
Join me know as we praise the OUR LORD! The LORD of David and the LORD of our lives.
As we praise him, let us as a body consider, how we are treating God’s supreme creation!
A David psalm
1GOD, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.
2Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble.
3I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
4Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
5Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods,
bright with Eden's dawn light.
6You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
7Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
even animals out in the wild,
8Birds flying and fish swimming,
whales singing in the ocean deeps.
9GOD, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.