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Well, good morning, everyone. 
It's good to see you. Greetings from Surrey Reformed 
Baptist Church. It's a pleasure to be here at Free Grace, worshiping 
with you this morning. And we'll just get right to it. 
Turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 8. That's Psalm 8. Surrey Reformed Baptists in our 
evening service, we went through Psalms of the Messiah, Psalms 
that explicitly pointed forward and prophesied the coming of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the third Psalm that we looked at 
was Psalm number 8. So turn with me to Psalm 8. Psalm number 8, begin reading 
at verse 1. To the chief musician on the 
instrument of Gath, a psalm of David. O Lord, our Lord, how 
excellent is your name in all the earth, who 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 might silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider 
your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and 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 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 seas. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent 
is Your name in all the earth. Amen. Well, let us pray. O God, 
our God, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all 
the earth, O God. You are the God who demonstrates 
in Your creation Your eternal power and divine nature, O God, 
that no man is without excuse before You. But, O God, we know 
that as You reveal Yourself in creation, this does not save. 
We need special revelation, O God. We need Your Word, we need the 
preaching of the Gospel, we need the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're 
thankful, O God, that this psalm does point forward to the coming 
of the great and wonderful Lord Jesus Christ, as we sing the 
praises, even, to the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You, O God, 
that He is the Creator, and He is the Redeemer, O God. He is 
the One who came, born of a woman, to save those, O God. He was 
the One who was made a little lower than the angels, O God, 
that He might bring many sons to glory. O God, we are thankful 
for your plan of redemption. We are thankful even for your 
creation as it shows forth who you are, O God. And O God, even 
as we consider you, as we consider the great God of heaven and earth, 
the one who is holy other than us, who is man that you are mindful 
of him, O God, even in creation, but how much more sinful man 
in salvation, O God. how we need your help, how we 
need your illumination, how we need your Holy Spirit to understand 
the things that are found in your word here for us, O God. 
As we study divine matters, as we study divine things, we pray 
that you would give us divine aid, O God. For those that know 
you today, may we have a better sense and better awe of who you 
are, O God, and give praise and honor to you, the praise that 
is due unto you. Stir us unto praise to our great 
God. And for those that do not know you, O God, we pray that 
you'd show them that they are without excuse. Show them their 
wickedness. Show them their sin, that they 
might see, even in creation, the great power of our God, that 
they might even better come to saving knowledge in the Lord 
Jesus Christ through the preaching of your Word. So we pray that 
your preaching would go forth. We pray that your Word would 
go forth. We pray that your Holy Spirit would be with us. We pray 
these things in the name of Christ. Amen. Well, in order to understand 
the whole Psalter, we have to understand Psalms 1 and Psalm 
2. If you understand both those 
Psalms, then you will understand the rest of the book and what 
it's saying. Psalm 1 gives us the purpose 
of the Psalter, that is, the way of happiness, focusing on 
the person, our personal focus, but it's tied to the message 
of the Psalter found in Psalm 2, the message of the Kingdom 
of God that focuses on the reign of the Messiah. You see, any 
way of happiness is tied to only one, is tied to this Davidic 
king, is tied to the one who would come. And in Psalm number 
2, we saw this royal psalm that focused on the Davidic monarchy. And then we come to Psalm 8, 
which is a little different. It's a hymn of praise. Specifically 
focusing on creation. How we come and understand who 
our God is. As we see our God, evidence himself, reveal himself 
in creation, that we might have a better sense and awe of who 
our God actually is. You see, Psalm 8 is situated 
in such a way that it's surrounded by psalms that are very bleak. You see, as we put the Psalter 
together, or as the writers put the Psalter together, it's not 
just a bunch of random hymns that they put in this place. 
Psalm 8's here because it's Psalm 8. It's put in different places 
for different reasons. And there are five books of the 
Psalter. And book one, Robert Godfrey 
calls, The King's Confidence in God's Care. And there's a 
lot of laments in these psalms. O God, where are you? O God, 
where are you in my troubles? Give ear to my words, O God. Lord, do not rebuke me in your 
anger, nor chasten me in your heart. O Lord, my God, on you 
I put my trust. Save me from all those who persecute 
me and deliver me. But then Psalm 8 gives us a psalm 
of hope, a glimpse of hope as we ponder who our God is. And 
it really focuses on this idea of creation, the glory of the 
Lord in creation. Perhaps we can ask the question 
as we go through this psalm this morning, when you look at creation, 
when you look at the heavens, what response does that evoke 
from you? When you look at the birds of the air, when you look 
at the fish of the sea, when you look at the intricacies of 
the way the world is ordered, how do you respond? And we will 
look at this idea of creation under two headings this morning. 
We'll try to answer even those questions as we go through this 
morning under three headings. First of all, God's majestic 
name in verses 1 and 2. Secondly, God's mindfulness of 
man in verses 3 through 5. And then lastly, God's role for 
man in verses 6 through 9. So God's majestic name, God's 
mindfulness of man, and God's role for man. Let's first look 
then at God's majestic name in verses 1 and 2. And you notice 
the psalm begins and ends with the same call to praise. O Lord, 
our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. It sets 
the stage for us of who the psalm is primarily about. And that's 
important as we come to verses 3 through 5 and 6 through 8. 
We must remember who this psalm is primarily talking about. It is the God of heaven and earth. 
O Lord, our Lord. How majestic or how excellent 
is Your name in all the earth. He is the object of our praise. 
He is the one we give glory and honor to. He is the one we sing 
praises unto. Even today when we sing these 
words, oh, four thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise. And one way we can perhaps better 
praise our God is to understand who our God is. O Lord, our Lord, 
how majestic is your name. And even here the language, O 
Lord, our Lord, there's two words for God here. Yahweh, the first 
one, the covenant name of our Lord, and Adonai, our Lord. Some have talked that it's focusing, 
yes, on this covenant name of the Lord and with O Lord, the 
capitals, all of them are capitalized, and then the second one, Our 
Lord with Adonai, as God is the governor. But perhaps it could 
be better taken as an honorific title, namely the Lord of Lords. O Lord of Lords, how majestic 
is your name throughout all the world. Because you see, there's 
no one like our God. He is high and lofty above all. He is totally other than what 
you and I are. Sometimes we think God is just 
on the same spectrum as you and I, don't we? He's just a little 
bit stronger, a little bit more powerful than we are. He knows 
a little bit more than we do. But God is totally different, 
wholly other, of a complete and different order than you and 
I. Yet even here we see something 
of intimacy connected to our God, O Lord, our Lord. This God 
who is high and lofty, David, can call Him and call upon Him 
in an intimate way, very similar to the New Covenant people of 
God when we pray, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be 
Thy name. And so it's similar here, David 
can call upon this one, O Lord, our Lord, and notice how he praises 
God, how excellent is your name in all the earth, or how majestic 
is your name in all the earth. When we're talking about God's 
name, Calvin says, it refers to the knowledge of the character 
and perfections of God, insofar as he makes himself known to 
us. It's referring to who God is, 
how majestic is your name, and even the creation proclaims something 
and gives us something about who our God is. As we read in 
Romans 1, the eternal power and divine nature is clearly seen 
in the creation. But what's even more special 
for the people of Israel, they know the God of heaven and earth 
in a special way. The name of God is proclaimed 
to them. Exodus 34, the Lord passes by and proclaims the name 
of the Lord. The Lord, the Lord. a God slow 
to anger and abounding in steadfast love, who will not visit iniquity 
even to the third and fourth generation." So the people of 
Israel knew God in a special, intimate way, even in Exodus 
34. So it's referring, even in the language of name here, it's 
encompassing for us who our God is, His attributes, His works, 
who He is and what He's done, who He is in Himself, and how 
He acts towards the creation. Has studying the attributes of 
God done anyone harm? Has studying who our God is been 
bad for us? You see, as Calvin starts his 
institute, what does he say? The more we study God, the more 
we know or we see how little we actually are, isn't it? And 
we know how small we actually are, and the reality is, brothers 
and sisters, we do not know our God as we should, do we? We do 
not study the attributes as we ought. Even when we think about 
the former generations, I'm sad to say, we live in the age not 
of the dodo, but of the dum-dum. Sorry if that offends you, but 
we don't know our God as we should. Stephen Charnock's Existence 
and Attributes of God, that massive book about who our God is, are 
sermons written for the people in the pew. Or even think about 
Calvin, it was written as an introduction for those to the 
Christian faith. Or others, Wilhelmus of Brackel 
has four volumes written again for the lay people. Brothers 
and sisters, perhaps we have struggles in our life because 
we have a small God. Perhaps we have difficulties 
that we go through and sins that we cannot shake because we do 
not understand who our God is. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic 
is your name in all the earth, that we might know and have a 
better sense of who our God is. Notice it's spread throughout 
all the earth, proclaimed throughout all of it. Even the language 
of majestic here, I like the idea of majestic, excellent works 
too, highlights a high and lofty one. It's figurative of our king, 
figurative of kings and how high they actually are. And there 
are many ways we see God majestic throughout the scriptures. One 
writer, Wilhelm van Gemmeren, highlights four of them. We see 
God's majesty in his victories, Exodus 15.6. We see God's majesty 
in his judgment, in his power, in his might, in verse Samuel 
4. We see God's majesty in his law in Isaiah 42. And we see 
God's majesty in his rule over creation in Psalm 8, verse 1. How majestic is your name throughout 
all the earth. And then notice, who have set 
your glory above the heavens. What this highlights for us, 
it's the place where God displays his glory and might. You see, 
even when we see the glories of heaven, when we look up and 
see the wonders of heaven, there are but sparks about who our 
God actually is, isn't it? There are glimpses and foretastes 
of who our God is, because if God were to reveal Himself in 
His fullness, we could not stand before Him. As our confession 
says, we cannot know God in His essence, only in the ways in 
which He has revealed Himself to us, and He has revealed Himself 
to us in the creation, and even more importantly, He's revealed 
Himself to us in His Word. who have set Your glory above 
the heavens, Your divine splendor. And even this for us should recall 
perhaps in our minds Genesis 1-1. I know you guys have been 
going through the book of Genesis in your Wednesday night studies. 
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic 
is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above 
the heavens. Now, it's important for us to 
see the majesty of God in verse 1, because verse 2 is going to 
contrast with weakness. And perhaps even further, we 
see God's strength in weakness in verse 2. Notice. 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. And the point is, He's going 
to ordain strength through His name. Verse 2 is intimately connected 
with verse 1. He's going to sing praises through 
these weak ones. Even the imagery here, mouth 
of babes and nursing infants. They cannot care for themselves 
that God is going to demonstrate His might and His power through 
these ones, against adversity, when He brings out these ideas 
of enemies, silencing the enemies and the avenger. And again, what 
we talked about already, Psalm number 8 is really a very, very 
positive psalm, but we still see a glimpse of fallen man in 
verse 2. Again, surrounded again by the 
psalms that are surrounding Psalm 8, by psalms that very much highlight 
fallen humanity. out of the mouths of babes and 
nursing infants, you have ordained strength." And you see, the point 
is, those who are weak, and even as he goes on to say, because 
of your enemies that you may silence them. What does this silence 
mean? It means that those who are weak will silence those who 
are strong. As Peter Craigie says, the Lord 
establishes His strength through symbols of weakness. It's like 
a childlike recognition, not one of power. And how does God 
then demonstrate His power over these strong ones? He does it 
through the name of the Lord. and perhaps even further, praising 
the name of the Lord. Do you realize the praises of 
God drown out the adversary? When we sing, when we utter praises 
to our God, it's to shut the mouths of those around us. There was an example several 
months ago that we read in the Voice of the Martyrs update. 
One man named Ian Squires was a prisoner in Nigeria. In order 
to perhaps strengthen the brethren in Nigeria, he sang amazing grace 
until he was shot, to drown out those enemies that sought to 
bring down the Lord. Perhaps even going back further 
in history, when we think of the Reformation, we perhaps think 
of Luther in Germany, or we think of the Baptists in England, but 
I think we forget about the Reformation in France, don't we? And perhaps 
we should remember that Jean Calvin is from France. But one of the beauties of what 
are called the Huguenots, it looks like, but they're the French 
reformers, is they sung the Reformation into France. You know why? because 
they were able to get the songs in their vernacular, in their 
common tongue. When the Roman Catholic Church 
would preach in Latin, they wouldn't understand, but then they got 
the words through song. They sang and drowned out the 
adversaries through singing. Brothers and sisters, perhaps 
even when you struggle with sin, start singing the glories of 
God. Perhaps you struggle with the 
various providences of life. Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught 
me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul." Even singing, 
even perhaps even when we sing before our God even in church. 
Sometimes we just sing the words, but they're helpful in good theology 
to ponder and remember who our God actually is. As Robert Godfrey 
says, the chorus of praise raised by creation silences all the 
voices of wickedness. You are wholly enthroned on the 
praises of Israel. Here we see the power and importance 
of praise. Here we see why God has given 
us a book of praises. Now there's also a New Testament 
example of one shutting the mouth of the adversaries, and this 
is found in Matthew chapter 21. This is where we see the first 
instance where this psalmist quoted Matthew 21. Jesus has just come into Jerusalem. 
It's this triumphal entry period. He's coming in on the donkey 
and the people cry out in verse 9, Hosanna to the son of David, 
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in 
the highest. Then Jesus cleanses the temple 
and then in verse 14 it reads, then the blind and the lame came 
to him in the temple and he healed them. But when the chief priests 
and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children 
crying out in the temple and 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. He's quoting Psalm number 
8 here in verse 21, but perhaps he has the entire psalm in mind, 
because it says, "...out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants," 
which is good, but then it changes to, "...you have perfected praise," 
because it's tied in with the entire psalm. You see, when they 
quote the Old Testament, usually they have the entire thing in 
the back of their minds. And what is Jesus doing using 
this psalm? He's shutting the mouths of the chief priests. 
They get jealous. They don't like that these ones 
are crying out to the Son of David. Children crying out to 
the Son of David. Do you hear what these ones are 
saying? And Jesus silences them with 
the truth, with Psalm 8. Because clearly, as Jesus is 
implying, as Jesus is showing throughout this text, as Psalm 
118 is quoted in verse 9 of Matthew 21, we see that Jesus is the 
Messiah that Psalm 8 points forward to. And even further, and even 
more, there's an implication going on here, as we see, as 
it's connected with Psalm 8. O Lord, our Lord, These ones, 
these children, are praising Christ, who is our O Lord, our 
Lord. He is Yahweh, the covenant Lord. John 8, 58, before Abraham was, 
I am Yahweh. Or even, not only is He Yahweh, 
He's also the Creator. John 1.1, In the beginning was 
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. By 
Him and through Him all things are created. So Jesus is showing 
that He is the true Messiah that Psalm 8 points forward to, and 
even more so, He is Yahweh, He is the Creator, He is God. And 
truly our God is a strong one in our weaknesses, one who helps 
us in our praises when they are weak, one who strengthens us 
in our battles, for he is good. Out of the mouths of babes and 
nursing infants, you have ordained strength. Because of your enemies, 
that you may silence the enemy and the avenger. Well, that's 
the first point. Let's go on to the second point. 
God's mindfulness of man in verses three through five. Notice the 
language when. That is, it happens often. Perhaps 
the psalmist goes out and he looks at the stars of the heavens, 
he looks at the flowers of the ground, he looks at the birds 
of the air, and he begins to ponder the things of God. When I consider your heavens, 
when I look up and see what you have done, oh great God. And 
then notice further descriptive of this, the works of your fingers. Now notice the imagery there, 
the works of your fingers. It's an anthropomorphism, it's 
describing something of God, speaking in the manner of man, 
we know God doesn't actually have fingers, but describing something 
wonderful and glorious about our king. Namely his vastness, 
his infiniteness, his infinity who is not like anything other, 
and even the imagery that we see here with this, don't we? 
The heavens, The works of your fingers. He's got the heavens 
in His fingers. He holds the heavens in His hands. 
He's got the entire universe in the tips of His fingers. When 
I consider the works of heaven, when I consider your heavens, 
the works of your fingers, then He goes on to describe the moon 
and the stars which you have ordained. Remember in Genesis 
1.14, the moon and the stars were meant to govern the heavens. 
You see, everything has a place. Everything has an order. There 
is a created order that we see throughout the world. Even the 
Proverbs draw these things out, don't they? If you're lazy, what 
does the Proverbs say? Look at the ant who works hard. But even further, this psalm, 
the David, is considering further the heavens. And even when we 
think about fingers, not only does it describe vastness, but 
it describes meaning. It describes detail, describes 
intricacy. Again, with the idea, perhaps, 
there's really not a lot of illustrations, and it's probably going to be 
a bad illustration, but I kind of think of the idea of Lego. 
When you're holding it in your hand, it's very small. When you're 
holding it in your hand, it's very tiny, but it's very intricate 
in the way you build certain things. That in no way describes 
what's going on, but the language really here is describing God's 
detail and God's vastness. A great and mighty God, a great 
and mighty King. And then notice really the order 
and what he's doing here. So he considers these things. 
He considers the moon, he considers the stars, and then notice what 
he says in verse four. What is man that you are mindful 
of him? The son of man that you visit 
him. If God created the heavens and 
the earth with his fingers, if he holds the entire heavens with 
his fingers, yet he considers one who is a speck on his fingers. And even in this instance, he's 
really talking about creation, isn't he? Even in the created 
order that you consider man, you consider him. He would even 
make him, as we'll talk about further, a vice-regent, a one 
who acts on his behalf at creation. What is man that you are mindful 
of him, O our God? When we think about creation, 
it really should evoke this from us, shouldn't it? Sometimes we 
just drive taking those things we see for granted, especially 
in this part of the world. We live in a really nice part 
of the world that should evoke tons of praise. We should just 
be like, wow, I see the flowers, praise God. Wow, the grass, wonderful. All the various things that we 
see, it should cause us to praise our God and to consider the condescension 
and love of our God. What is man that you are mindful 
of him and the son of man that even you visit him? And the language 
visit here carries with it the idea to pay attention with care. God cares for his people. God 
cares for creation. God works and gives good gifts. Now sadly, brothers and sisters, 
what are humans like without a proper consideration of God? 
What are humans like with a proper understanding of the deity? They 
take things like creation and they glorify them. They take 
things even like man and we glorify ourselves. You see, we make ourselves 
little gods. As one writer says, every false 
view of who we are as human beings and our role in this world is 
due in part to a faulty understanding of God. Why do we have to again 
have a proper understanding of who our God is to study who our 
God is? We might have a proper understanding of ourselves and 
what we are not. We are not God, brothers and 
sisters. We are idolatrous, we are wicked, we are terrible, 
and without our God working in us, we will just make ourselves 
little idols all the time. As Calvin says, our hearts are 
like idol factories, aren't they? And we thank God for the coming 
Lord Jesus Christ, who saves us from our wickedness, saves 
us from our idolatry, that we've come to Him. But even our sanctification, 
we still have those battles and struggles with idolatry, and 
we will until Christ comes, or until one of us dies, or until 
we die. It's gonna be that way. But again, hopefully to help 
mitigate those things is a proper study of who our God actually 
is. Now if you're an unbeliever, 
your plight in this world, your disease in this world, is really 
this idea of idolatry. It's not the idea of you have 
to stop drinking, stop smoking, stop whatever doing. It's the 
reality that you think yourself as God. Look to the Lord in faith. Look to the Lord in hope. Look 
to the Christ who is truly God and you shall be saved and your 
disease shall be cleansed and you shall find forgiveness of 
sins. This is your plight in the world. 
This is your problem. You love yourselves and you do 
not love God. Who is man that you are mindful 
of him? And then Psalmist goes on to say and begins to explain 
it in verse 5. For you have made him a little 
lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and 
honor. The language here is you have 
lower than the angels, that is, those different beings, supernatural 
beings, we see them in Psalm 82.1 and 1 Samuel 28.13, but 
you've made even man lower than these angels. But it's going to be for a little 
while. Because verse 5, even though you've made him lower 
than the angels, you have crowned him with glory and honor. And it is derived glory given 
by God. It is derived glory granted by 
God, and we'll draw out this further when we look at verses 
6 through 9. But there is another New Testament 
application, really in verses 3 through 6. So we're kind of 
getting ahead of ourselves a little bit. But you can turn with me 
to Hebrews chapter 2. This is the second place Psalm 
number 8 is quoted. Hebrews chapter 2, we really 
begin reading at verse 5, but if you remember in Hebrews chapter 
1, we see how God, or the Son, the Lord Jesus, is superior to 
the angels. Then he begins to talk about 
Christ, or continues to talk about Christ in verse 5 in connection 
to the angels. Verse 5. But one testified in a certain 
place, saying, what is man that you are mindful of him, or the 
son of man that you take care of him? You have made him a little 
lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and 
honor, and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all 
things in subjection under his feet. And then the writer exposits 
for us what this means. For in that he put all in subjection 
under him. He left nothing that is not put 
under him. But now we do not see all things put under him, 
but we see Jesus. who was 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 for 
everyone. And even the writer of Hebrews 
connects it with creation. Verse 10, for it was fitting 
for him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in 
bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their 
salvation perfect through suffering. For both he who sanctifies and 
those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason 
he is not ashamed to call them brethren. So you see what he's 
doing here, he's connecting Christ's incarnation, and he's using Psalm 
8 to demonstrate the incarnation. You see, we have to understand 
the Old Testament in order to understand the New. As one writer 
said, was pointing. And we see this 
here. Christ became man. He became a little lower than 
the angels, that he might bring many sons to glory, that we might 
be raised up. And even in Philippians 2, 9, 
11, he's given this name above all names. He's given glory above 
all glory. Really, Christ subjects new creation 
to Himself. He's the one who's purchased 
new creation for His people. He's purchased the world to come 
by His coming, living, dying, and rising again. So Hebrews 
2, 6-8 quotes for us Psalm 8, verses 3-6 in connection with 
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And our application that 
we can see here is really God's great condescension, certainly 
in creation. Don't we see that? We see God's 
mercy and kindness. Every gift you've been given 
in this life, a temporal blessing, food, shelter, clothing on your 
backs, is all a gift from God. Isn't it? We forget that, don't 
we? We whine, we grumble, we complain, 
even in those temporal things. But how much more so, brothers 
and sisters, do we see God's condescension in salvation? Christ came into the world we 
just saw. Christ came and suffered that 
He might bring many sons to glory. You see, you and I don't deserve 
any of that. You and I don't deserve salvation, 
we don't deserve to be part of the world to come, but because 
of Christ's work, we can be part of that. As Calvin says, how 
is it that God comes forth from so noble and glorious a part 
of his works and stoops down to us, poor worms of the earth, 
if it is not to magnify and to give a more illustrious manifestation 
of his goodness? Really, you see, the focus of 
the psalm really is not on our failure, but it's on the goodness 
and mercy and wonderfulness of our God. So God's condescension 
in creation and salvation. So that's God's mindfulness of 
man. Let's then look, thirdly and finally, God's role for man 
in verses six through nine. Notice we see him give this one, 
give mankind, an authority. Verse 6, you have made him to 
have dominion over the works of your hands, and you have put 
all things under his feet. It's the language of rule, kind 
of like that again, of a king. And perhaps again we should draw 
our attention back to Genesis chapter 1 and even perhaps Genesis 
chapter 2. What does God say in Genesis 
chapter 1, 26? He says, be fruitful and multiply. Have dominion over the world. 
Rule over the world. You see, in a lot of ways, Adam, 
as we think back to the first Adam, he really is a king, isn't 
he? meant to have dominion, meant 
to rule over the fish of the sea, meant to be a vice-regent 
of creation. It's one who acts on behalf of 
another. And even again, though man is 
small, God has made him the pinnacle of creation. Though man is a 
speck on God's hand, so to speak, the focus really of this psalm, 
which is interesting, even though the bookends are about God, the 
center of the psalm is about man as that pinnacle of creation. As one writer says, though the 
universe is vast and imparts to mankind a sense of smallness 
and insignificance, nevertheless God has given mankind a position 
of extraordinary strength within the universe. Hasn't he? But 
you see, this shouldn't then puff us up. us to think that 
we are above God, or even to worship ourselves. It's meant 
to highlight God's goodness for us. Even though man is the pinnacle 
of creation, it's a gift granted by God to us. So we should not 
even then puff ourselves up. Sadly, that happens all the time. And then notice we see the extent 
of the dominion given from God, the works of your hands. That 
is, God's beautifully designed world is granted to mankind. And it's man out of all the creatures 
who is only created in God's image, isn't it? We're the ones 
creating God's image, and when we think about God's image, certainly 
we believe and the confession says and the catechism says that 
we believe we are creating God's image and God's holiness, God's 
righteousness. I can't remember the third one. 
God's holiness, righteousness. The last one's escaping me. It's 
there somewhere. It's gone. But another thing 
we need to think through with respect to that is the idea of 
the creation mandate. Kingly activity. Dominion. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the 
earth, and subdue it. Rule over this area. God has 
given dignity to mankind. Man is created in God's image. 
God has given his special imprint upon them. This doesn't mean 
we need to be hippie tree-huggers, brothers and sisters, but it 
means we need to love God's world, care for God's world, and even 
further, praise God for God's world, and praise God for in 
creation making man. over all things. You have put 
all things under this man's feet, even the extent further, 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 
seas." So we see God has granted man this great gift, and we see 
another New Testament application of this in 1 Corinthians 15, 
27. 1 Corinthians 15, 27, we see Psalm 
8, as we've seen throughout, fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and this will also be another fulfillment in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. When we think about this idea 
of dominion, as Peter Craigie says, dominion of mankind is 
given a Christological significance with respect to the dominion 
of Christ in His resurrection and exaltation. You see, Adam 
was meant to rule over the earth, wasn't he? He was meant to be 
fruitful and multiply. He was meant to not eat from 
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil lest he dies. That Adam 
failed to do that. Then comes another Adam, the 
Lord Christ, the one who comes, who in dominion, who comes and 
conquers sin. We can even think of Christ's 
life as one of conquest, going on conquest, destroying sin, 
destroying the forces of darkness, destroying those things in which 
he lived a perfect life and died as that perfect sacrifice on 
the cross. So even as Adam was meant to 
have dominion, we see it fulfilled in the last Adam, the one who 
has dominion over all. Really, Psalm 8 is a two Adams 
text in the Old Testament, isn't it? Even as we think about Psalm 
8, what I love about the Old Testament especially is not only 
does it point forward to Christ, but it points backward to various 
texts as well. So it is a two-atoms text for 
us, and notice 1 Corinthians 15. It's one of our two-atoms 
texts in the New Testament. For as in Adam all die, even 
so Christ all shall be made alive, but each one in his own order. 
Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ at his coming. 
Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, 
when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 
For he must reign till he's put all enemies under his feet. The 
last enemy that will be destroyed is death. And then notice, he 
quotes Psalm 8, for he's put all things under his feet. But 
when he says all things are put under him, it is evident that 
he who puts all things under him is accepted. Now when all 
things are made subject to him, then the son himself will also 
be subject to him who put all things under him that God may 
be all in all. Christ, as a representative of 
His people, purchases new creation for His people. The new creation 
that shall have no end. And even we get glimpse and foretaste 
of this new creation now. Christ has final dominion, both 
now and forever and ever. Oh man, isn't it wonderful? Christ 
is the one who has purchased for us this new heavens, new 
earth, where we will be with Him. As Adam failed to fulfill 
the old creation, Christ comes and fulfills and purchases new 
creation for His people. And then we see in Psalm 8, as 
we come to a close, there is this final call once again to 
praise. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic 
is your name throughout all the earth. Brothers and sisters, 
when we think about creation, what should it do for us? What 
should it evoke? It should evoke praise. It should evoke awe and 
wonder of who our God is. But even not only creation, how 
much more salvation as well. Brothers and sisters, we are 
worms. I'm really sorry if that really 
offends you, but it's just true. We're sinful, we're terrible, 
we're wretched, we don't deserve salvation. It's because of God's 
wonderful, loving condescension in the coming of Christ the King, 
Christ being made a little lower than the angels, that he might 
come and die on behalf of his people and purchase new creation 
for his people. As Van Gemeren says once again, 
the biblical account of creation is phenomenal, and it was intended 
to help Israel to praise Yahweh as the sole creator of everything 
in heaven, on earth, and in the sea. So let us praise our God 
and give him the glory that is due unto him. Study your God, 
know him as he's revealed himself to us in his word, that we might 
better know how to praise him. And if you're an unbeliever here 
today, look around you. Look at the world that our God 
has created. This gives you no excuse before 
the God of heaven and earth. The eternal power and divine 
nature gives you no excuse before our God because you see the intricacies 
of the world around you. The ways in which we can walk 
around this world breathing without choking is because of the wonderful 
oxygen and the processes that God has created. God has demonstrated 
and shown His eternal power in those things that you are without 
excuse. But yet you are sinful. And you have sinned against God. 
And you take those good things and you make them images. You 
make yourself images. You make yourself idols. Your 
problem is your idolatry. Look to this Christ. Look to 
this Lord. Look to this One who is made lower than the angels. 
You must believe on Him. The One whom Psalm 8 speaks about. You shall receive a crown of 
glory. You shall receive and be part 
of the new creation as you are connected to the one who really 
is new creation, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look with him in faith, 
for this old creation is going to pass away. It will be destroyed, 
and all those who are part of it will be destroyed with it. 
look to Christ in faith, look to our Lord, look to Him, and 
you shall have everlasting life. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic 
is your name in all the earth. Well, let us pray. Our great God, Truly you are 
a wonderful and mighty and powerful God. Forgive us, O God, for our 
slowness to think of you. Forgive us for our forgetfulness 
of who you are, O God. We are thankful that in your 
history, in your providence, O God, you preserved wonderful 
definitions of who you are, O God. You are a spirit. You are infinite, 
eternal, unchangeable. In your being, your power, your 
justice, your goodness, your wisdom, and your truth, and so 
many more things, O God. O God, we are thankful that you 
are mindful of us, even in creation, but even more so in salvation. 
O God, even before the foundation of the world, you promised to 
save sinners in Christ Jesus. So God, we pray that you would 
help us, give us illumination by your spirit to better know 
you, that you might stir our hearts unto you, O God, that 
you might help us to live in a way that is pleasing unto our 
great and wonderful and glorious God. For truly, O God, you are 
mindful of us and you care for us. And why would you, O God? 
Only evidence is and demonstrates that you are a loving God, a 
gracious God, a merciful God, for we would not be as patient 
as we are with ourselves as you are with us. So God, forgive 
us, wash us in the blood of the Lord Jesus, even protect us as 
we go into the world. For those that do not know you, 
O God, we pray that you would work in them, that you'd be pleased 
to save them, that you'd be pleased to work salvation in them, that 
they would be part of the new creation. We're thankful, O God, 
for who you are. We're thankful for what you've 
done. Truly, O God, your name is proclaimed throughout all 
the earth. Truly, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name. 
And we pray that you'd be glorified now in the name of Christ. Amen. 
We'll close with a brief time of meditation, then you're dismissed.