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.
Introduction
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.
God's Majestic Name
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,
The Divine Name: Yahweh and Adonai
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.
The Extent of God's Majesty
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.
Strength Ordained Through Weakness
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
Matthew 21: Christ Silences His Enemies
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.
God's Mindfulness of Man
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.
Creation Considered: Man's Smallness
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.
Idolatry as the Root Human Problem
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.
Hebrews 2: Christ Made Lower Than Angels
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.
God's Role for 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.
The Creation Mandate and Vice-Regency
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
1 Corinthians 15: The Last Adam's Dominion
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.
Closing Prayer
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.