Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth, who has set Thy glory above the heavens! Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength, because of Thine enemies that Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet. all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. The verses three and four of that brief psalm is the word of God that I want to open unto you this evening. Psalm 8, 3 and 4 reads, When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of man, that thou visitest him? Beloved in the Lord, Psalm 8 is a psalm of wonder. It faithfully records the wonder that David experienced when his thoughts mused upon God and the works of God. And the purpose of this psalm in the scriptures is that we are filled with that same wonder and amazement when we consider the works of God. The keynote of Psalm 8 is given in the very first verse, O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. Then after the reason is given for that great statement of worship, the psalm ends with the very same words, the same note, Jehovah, Jehovah, how excellent is thy name In all the earth, notice that, in all the earth there is no speech or language where that testimony of creation is not heard. Yet there are those who deny the excellency of God's name, the shining forth of His glory in all of His works, They are mentioned in verse 2 as the enemies of God, enemies who must be stilled or silenced. Lest anyone think that the excellency of God's name is recognized only by the adults, or confessed only by those who have some special knowledge or insights, David says that God has ordained strength out of the mouth of babes and sucklings. Even tiny children recognize the glory of God round about them in the creation. Why is that? How is that possible? Well, according to Matthew 11, 26, God is pleased to reveal himself unto babes and to hide the things of salvation from the wise and the prudent. And according to Matthew 21, 16, when Jesus entered into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and the little children shouted, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, the priests and the elders were sore displeased. And Jesus said to them, Yea, have ye never read, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? The glory of God, which is higher than the heavens, is seen and confessed. It is exclaimed over by members of the church everywhere, and of every age. And therefore we trust also that the little children who are present here tonight will understand most, if not all, of what we have to say on the basis of Psalm 8. You children will understand it. The picture that we are to have before us as we consider this word of God, is this. David is out walking through a field on a warm summer evening. Overhead, there's that endless blue vault of the heavens, sparkling with uncountable stars and the light of the moon as well. Immediately, his thoughts turn to God. He says, those heavens are the works of God's fingers. The moon and the stars are ordained by God. It's all His great work. As he continues to gaze upward into the heavens, he considers the number of the stars and he tries to count them. But he has to stop. He can't keep them all straight. And then he begins to think of the distance between the earth and the moon, the distance between one star and another, and he becomes faint just thinking about it. When he understands the immensity of the heavens, and when he knows that the glory of God is higher than those heavens, he becomes faint. He can only murmur to himself, what is man? What is man? Psalm 8 is not the only place in Holy Scripture where that question is asked. I want to mention two other passages at this point because we have to include them in our exposition of this Word of God. The first place there is Job 7, verses 17 and 18. In Job chapter 7, this man of God is loathing himself and loathing earthly life lived apart from God. He asks the question, What is man that thou shouldest magnify him, and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him, and that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment? That will add a great deal to our understanding of our text tonight, Job 7. In the second place, our text is quoted by the writer to the Hebrews, chapter 2, which we have read. In fact, most of Psalm 8 is quoted by the writer to the Hebrews. And the quotation is followed by these words, but now we see not yet all things put under him, that is, under man. We don't see all things put under man, but we do see something. We see Jesus. who is made a little more than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." With these thoughts in mind, we call your attention to our theme, which is man's proper amazement. Man's proper amazement. Notice first, because of what he is. Secondly, because of what God has done. And thirdly, because of our glorious future. Man's proper amazement because of what he is, because of what God does, and because of his glorious future. What is man? That's the question we do well to ask of ourselves periodically all our life through. In fact, we must live every day in the consciousness of the correct answer to the question, what is man? There are several preliminary points that we ought to make, first of all. First, we are not of a mind to change the question, what is man, to the question, what is a human being, or the question, what is humankind? In the minds of many, the feminists and so on, Our text is just another example of sexist language and we must go through the entire scripture and get rid of all sexist wording so that God may not be referred to as masculine but the deity may be feminine or neutral. Who knows? All ideas relating to the headship of the male must be eradicated from the word of God. And then our text also comes under the knife of the feminist. It is accused of expressing a male bias, and therefore the question should really be rephrased, what is a human being? If not, what is a woman? But our text says, what is man? And we must let that stand, not only to be faithful to the word of God, but to understand what the text is really saying to us. In the second place, to answer the question, what is man? Whatever you do, or whatever I do, don't ask man for an answer. You'll never get at the truth in that kind of an approach. Man will say about himself that he's a product of a long evolutionary process, that he has animal forbearers and non-human ancestors, and therefore he is a creature that is on the rise, he's getting better and better and higher and higher all the time. In fact, The evolutionists of different types will tell you that you really cannot answer that question, what is man, because any answer you might bring forth will only apply for a short time anyway. We can tell you what man is today, or perhaps during the rest of this year or century, but he will continue to change and improve So the answer that is given, what is man, will only be temporary and approximate. Don't ask man what he is, secondly, because he is a fallen sinner, and by nature he will only lie. He lies about God, he lies about the neighbor, and he lies about himself. And he's proud of himself and all of his accomplishments. He gives himself way too much credit for what he has done. He glosses over weaknesses and shortcomings and exaggerates his worth and attainments. I say, don't ask man. Go to God. Go to the Word of God, which is truth regarding all things. hear from the Creator of man, hear from the Lord and Master of man, who and what you are. In verse four, the text reveals indirectly what man is by the use of two terms, man and son of man. In the Hebrew language, there are Four words for man, and two of those words are used in verse four. What is man? Literally, the term is enosh, meaning frail, weak, and miserable. The emphasis of this word is upon the complete lack of strength or power. What is the son of man? Literally, the word there is Adam. Adam means man, the name of our first father, the first man who ever lived. But the word Adam is related to Adamah, which means earth, dirt, and ground. That's also the truth regarding man. Not only is he weak and without any strength, but his beginning and his end is the earth. He's made of the dust of the earth, and to the dust of the earth he shall return. That's the idea of those terms. And the psalmist makes man's innate weakness, his lowliness, his smallness stand out the more vividly by putting it in the form of two questions. What is man? What is the son of man? And the idea is that if God, whose glory is above the heavens, compared to whom we are just little specks of dust, If God would totally ignore us, forget about us completely, God would not be doing any injustice to us at all. Miserable man, moving around on the face of the earth, mingling with all kinds of lower creatures, why doesn't God simply despise us and reckon us as of no account? And yet, that great, that glorious, that eternal, that unchangeable, that excellent God, Khan descends to such a weak and vile creature as man and adorns him with great glory and enriches him with countless blessing. Isn't it proper then, beloved, that we're filled with amazement as we live under the measureless heavens which God has made, when we consider that his glory is greater than the glory of the sun and the moon and the stars, and when we remember as well that we are sinners of the deepest stain, that God is mindful of us and visits us. Who can understand it? Who can embrace such a wonderful truth? How humbling. If we are not astonished and deeply affected by that miracle of condescension, we can only be ungrateful, stiff-necked, and hard. That creature of the dust, you and I, and every child of God, whoever lived or shall live, God takes and magnifies. He crowns the speck of dust with glory and honor. In the first place, God makes of man a creature that is a little lower than the angels. That's our position in the scheme of things, in the great universal plan of God, in respect to the present time. Just a tiny little bit lower than the angels of heaven. And the reference is to the holy angels. the elect angels who never fell and never shall fall. They are spiritual beings whose proper abode is heaven, there to stand in the presence of God, adoring Him, singing constantly, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, the whole earth is filled with Thy glory, doing His will perfectly, sent betimes as messengers from heaven to earth with the word of God for certain men or women at great turning points in the history of salvation. Some are archangels, some are cherubim, others seraphims, all arranged by God around the great white throne. while the child of God occupies a position just below those angels in the present time, present life. Further, as far as the rest of the earthly creation is concerned, God has made man to have dominion, to be a king over all other creatures that God has made. God has put all things under our feet, man's feet. Sheep and oxen, the beasts of the field, the fowl, the fish, everything that passes through the paths of the seas. Man is the king of the earth. Every creature is subject to him and is there for man's use. Once again, a lot of people don't believe that today. We have all kinds of animal rights activists. We don't deny, of course, that animals have some rights. We do deny the rest of their philosophy and position, and that is that man is no different from or is certainly not above any animal. Man and a dog are the same from every point of view. That's a sin to say that, to believe that. That's contrary to the word of God. We must be good stewards of the animals that God entrusts to our care. Farmers must take good care of their cows and flocks and chickens and hogs and all the rest of it. Of course we must. We may mistreat them. But we are over them. God gives them to us for our use. And we may certainly use them for our welfare, either eating them or even using them for tests of different kinds. Strange, isn't it? Isn't it strange how that all these anti-biblical positions, feminism, animal rights movement, tree huggers, they all get in bed with each other. Isn't that strange? What unites them? What brings them together? What makes them a party in this country, a considerable force? Their opposition to God and His Word. That's what unites them. Man, little more than the angels, with all earthly creatures under his feet. That is the contents that the psalm gives to God's being mindful of us and visiting us. That's our position according to creation. And although we lost that wonderful position, that high estate as the canons call it, we lost that through the fall into sin, nevertheless, We are restored to such royal position and such great honor through Jesus Christ and his salvation. But there is more. God does even more for us than make us rulers of the earth. It is here that we must consider the words of Job. Not only does God magnify man to such a high position, But God has set his heart on man, says Job. God has set his heart on you and everyone whom he loves. What a powerful way to set forth the love of God for his people. To say that God has set his heart on us. for the new human race of the elect. That heart of God, of course, is a Father heart. God's heart is filled with an eternal, strong love. God's heart cannot rest until all of his will and all his desire regarding his people has been met and reached and fulfilled. When you speak of the heart of God, beloved, You are speaking of Jesus Christ, our Lord. David was a man after God's own heart. The children know that from their catechism lessons. God replaced Saul, the first king of Israel, in throne David, blessed David, God had made him to be and caused him to be a man after his own heart. It doesn't mean he was sinless, oh no. David sinned, did not love God perfectly at all times. But David was the great figure and the great type of Jesus Christ the man after God's own heart, par excellence, without equal. Never at any time or in any way did Christ fail to love God and serve the purpose of the glory of God. God set his love upon his people. His love went out to bind us unto himself. and to bring us unto Himself in mansions of glory, and that required the giving, the sending, the sacrificing of Jesus Christ on the cross. Christ came, He made this world, the world would not receive Him. No room for Christ. He came unto his own, his own would not receive him. The church didn't have room for him either. But he came anyway, and he made room for himself, irresistibly smashing the hard hearts of men, and then faithfully going all the way to the death of the cross. although we are all called sons of man in the psalm, that was the favorite name of Jesus. Jesus, in reference to himself, used the name son of man more often than any other name. He could have walked up and down palisades saying, son of God, that's what I am. Royal son of David, that's what I am. Savior of the world, he said, son of man. I had a Greek instructor who told the class one day, as he translated the book of Mark, that nothing proved more conclusively and powerfully that Jesus was the Son of God than when he constantly referred to himself as the Son of Man. He is God, and he is man. life unto us in all things, sin excepted." God so loved the world with a Father heart, He loved this entire cosmos, including the new human race of the elect that He sent, His only begotten Son, out of heaven, out of His Father heart, from His Father's side, that He should taste death for every man given unto him." Now when we read of these things in Hebrews chapter 2, that long quote from Psalm 8, the writer to the Hebrews makes a certain concession. He admits that something is not quite true. He says God made us a little lower than the angels or inferior to the angels for a little while. He writes that man is crowned by God with glory and honor. He says that man is set over the works of God's hands and all things are put in subjection under him. But then he says this, But now we see not yet all things put under him. And he means we see not yet all things put under the feet of man. We don't see that yet. That doesn't mean it's not true. Scripture says it's true, but it's true in a beginning way only, it's true as a principle matter. We don't experience and live our kingship over all creatures of the earth fully and perfectly. Having said that, the writer to the Hebrews says, going on, but we see Jesus, who is the Son of Man, who also was made a little lower than the angels. We see him suffering in death and then crowned with glory and honor. Christ, the Son of God in our flesh, the Son of God in truth, who partook of the flesh and blood of his brothers, he suffered and died, he rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven. And we see him there at God's right hand, glorified in the human nature with the glory that he had with God from the foundations of the world. And because he is our head, because we belong to him for time and eternity, his glorification speaks of our glorification, His being crowned with glory and honor means, assuredly, undoubtedly, so shall that be our portion. Only there will be a change when the church joins her head in heaven, a change that God had in mind from eternity a change that was always in God's heart concerning us, and that's what we call our glorious future. For that glorious future promised to us in the Word of God also ought to fill us with amazement. Notice, we were made a little lower than the angels We were put in a royal position in respect to all earthly things. Creatures are made subject to us. Comes the day in heaven we will be higher than the angels and all things in heaven and on earth shall be under our feet. Can you understand that? Can your mind get around that gospel truth? It's almost too much, isn't it? It's overwhelming. We must believe it. By faith, we must receive that Word of God and embrace that Word of God and love that Word of God. Creatures without any power or strength of the earth earthy are destined by God in Jesus Christ to that kind of a future. Well it's necessary to prove these things, first of all to prove that Jesus Christ in the human nature was exalted above all the angels. That's clear in Hebrews chapter 2 verses 2 and 3 when the word of the Lord Jesus Christ is contrasted to the word of angels and said to be more powerful. That's clear in verse 5 where we read that God did not put the world to come under the angels, but God did this in regard to Christ. And that's clear from every passage that speaks of Christ's exaltation to God's right hand, such as Philippians 2.10 where we read, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth. Every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. Christ, made Lord and the angels for the suffering of death, is exalted a mediator's reward, exalted to the pinnacle of the entire universe. Not only do we confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ, world without end, we will participate in that Lordship over all things. For, Hebrews 2, for both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 Paul criticizes the saints at Corinth because they went before a worldly court for financial matters. A brother in the church claimed that somebody had defrauded him. He wanted his money, so he went to a worldly court. And Paul writes to them, Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? Know ye not that ye shall judge angels? That puts the member of the church, every one of them, far above the world of unbelief, far above all the angels, because the greater judges the lesser. Our destiny is to be raised up by Christ to have body and soul joined together once more. Our destiny is to be judged by Jesus Christ before all others are judged. Now follow me very closely here. We'll be raised up. The books will be open, Revelation chapter 20. All the sins that we and every other rational, moral being has ever committed is going to be revealed. And then another book will be opened, the Book of Life, the Lamb's Book of Life, and we'll be perfectly justified. But I was saying the Church, every member of the Church, is going to be judged before all others. And we have been judged and found righteous in Jesus Christ. solely for the sake of His obedience and holiness and righteousness, solely because of His shed blood, we will be declared innocent before the judgment seat of God. Then we will go that host of the redeemed and stand with Christ. All the assembly of the elect will stand next to Christ, and then they will judge the devils, and they will judge the holy angels, and they will judge all unbelieving wicked men. With Christ, we're going to participate in that great final judgment. When separation is finally made between the sheep and the goats, between the wheat and the tares, then we shall enter into the everlasting Kingdom of God. We will sit on thrones, we will wear crowns, and with Christ rule over everything forever and ever and ever. Now let's return for a few moments to an earlier thought. When I walk outside at night and I consider the heavens, the work of God's hands, the moon and the stars which God hath ordained, what is man? Who am I? weak, frail, whose beginning is in the dust, and whose end is the dust. What am I that thou art mindful of me, and doth visit me every day, that thou hast set thy love upon me, and sent Christ for me? What am I to have such a high place in thy counsel, with all the saints, that I may live and reign with Christ in the new heavens and new earth? What can explain such things? Nothing in you, nothing in me, O man, But only the grace and mercy of God can ever explain such tremendous things. How unsearchable are His judgment and His ways past finding out. For all things are of Him, aren't they? All things are through Him, are they not? And all things are unto Him. whom be the glory forever. Amen. And let all the people say, Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, thy word is truth. Thy word is a deep mind of precious jewels and truths. and thy word is sure. Bless this word to us tonight, O Father. Give us to embrace it with faith, to take it to heart, to live as more than conquerors in Jesus Christ. We confess that we are not worthy of such attention as when thou dost condescend unto us in Christ and visit us every day with blessings. We do not deserve to have such a future that is staggering to our minds. Give us grace to live worthy of our callings. Forgive our sins tonight as we listen to thy word and as we spoke thy word. For Jesus' sake, amen.