I. I guess I'm feeling very spiritual today, I don't know. Let's bow for prayer. Father, thank you for the wonderful week that we've enjoyed at PBS. Pray now that you'll focus our thoughts here as we look into your word, and may your word be a blessing to us today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, God's glory and man's dominion in Psalm number eight. There are many different types of Psalms. By that I mean many different emphases. One list that I checked listed 20 different classifications of Psalms, and I'm not going to take time to go through them all. But many of the Psalms, of course, are cries of anguish, petitions for help, Even the imprecatory psalms which call for God's judgment upon the wicked and upon the enemies of God's people. But this particular psalm is upbeat. It's uplifting. It is positive in tone. And it leaves the reader encouraged and even enthused. And the heading of the psalm, if you look at the, right there above where the psalm actually starts, it says, to the chief musician, upon Gidath, a psalm of David. So that tells us two things. First of all, that the psalm was written by David. And secondly, it was to be performed upon Gidath. We don't really know exactly what that phrase means. Some thinks it is a musical direction. You know, when the pastor leads the choir and they're learning a new song, he'll say, now this song is quiet and it's slow. And other times he'll say, now this one's gonna be upbeat and happy and enthused. So that may be something here in that. I personally think that it was probably a musical instrument. As a matter of fact, we know that the psalms are associated with instrumentation. The very basic definition of the word psalm is instrumental music. So a psalm is a hymn to be sung and accompanied by a musical instrument. If you'll let me chase a really small rabbit here, you've got the primitive Baptists and some branches of the Church of Christ that they believe that God forbids musical instruments in the church. And I'm not sure how they justify that by scripture, but at least three times in the New Testament we were told to sing psalms. This is not Old Testament, this is New Testament. Sing psalms. Ephesians 5.19, Colossians 3.16, and James 5.13. So I suggest that the folks that do not use instruments perhaps are being disobedient to God's word. Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently wrong with acapella singing. But you can't properly sing psalms without accompaniment. So my rant on that is over. So let's now look at Psalm number eight as we search the text. Point number one, we see Majesty, majesty. Verse one says, oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens. Let's look at that phrase, oh Lord, our Lord. You say, well, he's just being repetitive. No, in the Hebrew, there's a distinction between these two. You'll notice that the first Lord, at least in my Bible, and probably in yours as well, in the first word, Lord, all the letters are capitalized. In the second Lord it is capitalized but then lowercase in the ORD. The first word Lord is the word Jehovah or Yahweh as you hear a lot of people pronounce it and that was the Jewish common way to pronounce Jehovah. It had to do with their reverence for the name of God and they didn't believe that Saying the full name of God was appropriate and so they shortened it to Yahweh But the the word there Jehovah or Yahweh means self existent one this has to do with the very essence of God God was not created God never came into existence God is self existent I don't Our minds are focused in time. We can't really comprehend eternity, but Jehovah God is the self-existent one then he says Oh Lord our Lord that second word is the word Adonai which means the sovereign or the master of or the owner you can see that yahweh or jehovah uh... refers to god irrespective of any connection with his creation he just is before abraham was i am jesus said that always boggled my mind when i was a kid that doesn't make sense there's no agreement between the first clause and the second clause but in god's case uh... that is uh... am and so Jehovah is self-existent but then when you when you consider his connection to his creation with us we see that he is sovereign he is the master he's actually the owner he owns all creation if he created it he owns it so our lord our lord Oh Lord, the self-existent one, our Lord, the master, the sovereign to whom we relate. And so I hope that is helpful. And it's a blessing to me to think of God in those two ways, in those two names, the self-existent one and the sovereign, the master, the owner. So within those two names of God, we're reminded both of both God's person and his work. We move on. Oh, Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth? Have you ever been so utterly amazed at something that it defies description? You may you may see something happen or or see an object or hear something you say, wow, How amazing is that? I mean, we're not really describing it, we're just saying, wow, what an occurrence, what an object, what an amazing thing that is. That's David's attitude here. He just says, how marvelous, how extraordinary. is thy name in all the earth." The word excellent means majestic, glorious, noble. He said, how excellent is thy name. Now he's not just talking about the actual title or the word that describes God, when he says the name, he's talking about the honor or the authority, the character of God. It's not just a written name. When he says, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, he has authority in all the earth. He has honor in all the earth. He has sovereignty in all the earth. When we pray in Jesus name, We do that a lot. Most of us, if we pray, especially in a public setting, us men, we pray, we ask all these things in Jesus' name. And then we say, Amen. Well, praying in Jesus' name is not merely saying, The name Jesus, it means praying in Christ's authority. Those of you that were here for the Bible class, I'm sorry you're stuck with me again today, but you remember probably that I said this as we were studying. It means praying in Christ's authority, praying as you believe that Jesus would desire things to be done. You know, that's why we don't pray, Lord, I'd like a new Cadillac and I want a bigger house. And, you know, if I were praying that I would pray for another restroom in my house. I got one and four people sharing it. And it's not easy. So that's probably what I would pray for. But do I believe that that's what Jesus would have me pray for? No. So I don't do that. I pray for that which I believe Jesus would be pleased with and would be pleased to provide in my life or to cause to occur in the life of someone else. God is to be honored, magnified, glorified in all the earth. as the creator, the sovereign ruler, and the controller of all things. Moving on, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens. Not only is the glory of God seen and proclaimed in the earth, and it should be, but above the heavens as well. Do you remember what Lucifer said over in Isaiah 14? The Bible says, how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. In other words, I'm gonna be greater than God. And God said, that's what you think. And Lucifer was cast out of heaven because no one sits any higher than the Almighty God. His glory is set above the heavens even, above all creation. He is glorious. Verse 2 now, we move on. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies. Well, let's go on. That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger or to silence those that oppose God. Out of the mouth of babes, the idea here is that God can and does use feeble instrumentalities to accomplish great and mighty purposes. We see examples of that all through the Bible. You see Gideon and his 300 men. They didn't even have swords. You know, Gideon started out with 32,000. God said, you got too many. Tell the ones that are afraid to go home. 22,000 of them went home. And he's left with 10,000 against this huge army of the Midianites. God said, still got too many. So he set up a test. And he says, those that do one thing, you put them over here. Those that do another, you put them over here and hit me. 9,700 on one side and 300 on the other. And by that time, I think Gideon had that sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, God is going to send me into battle with these 300 men. Then they didn't even have weapons. They had trumpets and lamps. Not exactly what you think about in going to battle, but that's what they had. And God accomplished a great victory through a very weak instrumentality. Moses was weak of speech. Perhaps he stuttered. We don't know. David was the run of the family, you know, they had brought out all the sons of Jesse to appear before Samuel and Samuel looked them all over and he says, no, no, none of these is going to be the king. Is that it? They said, well, we got one more, but he's not much to look at. I'm paraphrasing, but you know, Jesse said he's just out tending sheep, and we didn't even feel like it was even necessary to bring him in. And the Sampson said, bring the boy in. And when David came in, Samuel said, yes, that's the one. Remember the widow and her two mites? I'm saying these examples emphasize that the victory in any battle, the provision in any need belongs to the Lord. God often uses the weak things of the world, so it's obvious where the provision and where the power comes from. 1 Corinthians 1 27, God had chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. That seems the wrong way around. Wise people should be able to confound the foolish, but that's not the way God set it up. And God had chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. So he's great, he's lifted up, his name is excellent in all the earth and even out of the mouth of babes. God has raised up great things. I could preach on that all day, but I'm not going to because we need to move on to the second point, and that is there's a mystery here. Not only do we see majesty, but a mystery. Verse three, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained." And we'll stop there. He's getting ready to make a point. This is an introductory, but let's think about this for a minute. When I consider Thy heavens, the splendor and intricacy of nature reveals the existence of God. Why are there atheists? Do you ever think about that? How come there are atheists? Because they are willingly ignorant of God and the works of creation, according to 2 Peter 3, 5. We will not read it, but in Romans chapter 1, It says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen. Notice that clearly seen being understood. Not only do people see But they understand being understood by the things that are made is eternal power and Godhead So that they are without excuse now seeing nature seeing God's creation will not by itself Bring you to salvation People do not look at nature and trust Christ as Savior. There has to be the communication of the Gospel message. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. But, even though nature will not lead to salvation, it does lead to a knowledge that there is a God, and that He exists. I mean, It clearly shows that there is a creator God, and it will render every human being, as it says, without excuse. And notice he goes on to say, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers. This is an example of an anthropomorphism. say, why are you throwing these big words at us? Because, I mean, I can look it up, you know. But actually, this is something maybe you might hear another time. And anthropomorphism means ascribing I didn't put it in there, but it is describing human characteristics to God. In John 4, 24, it says, God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. That's why God does not want us to have pictures of what we see or what we think that Jesus might have looked like. This is why God doesn't want us having statues. images of Christ that we might worship based on our thinking and our perception of those things. No, we need to worship Him in spirit and in truth. But God does sometimes give us these anthropomorphisms. It's a literary device that enables us to somewhat understand the essence of God. God doesn't have literal fingers. just like he does not have hands, feet, and other human features. But we cannot fully comprehend a true spirit being. Like we can't comprehend eternity, we can't comprehend a true spirit being. So the Bible uses this kind of language to give us an idea of what God is like. He says, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, it is Really, it is mind-boggling to realize that there are people in this world reasonably intelligent. who believe that the universe and all that is in it came about by chance, some cosmic explosion of some kind. All around us, all above us, we see order. You see that from the word ordained, right? Order, planets orbiting their stars, Earth in particular. We're always the right distance from the sun to support our fragile existence. Intelligent life, meaning us. And the more we learn about the human body, the more amazing it is how it all works. And some of it doesn't work as well as we get older, but it's still working. And we're still upright, still here. And are we to believe that just happened? at random, and yet people latch on to the idea of evolution and the Big Bang and one-celled amoebas that eventually become intelligent human beings. Why? because they do not want to believe that there's a creator God. Romans one, I didn't read the verse, but it says they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. They didn't want to think about God. Why? If there is a creator God and we are his creation, that means we are accountable to him. And people don't like that. They don't want to be accountable to anyone, especially not God. So, what does man do? Man makes himself God. And that's the whole concept of humanism. What if some do not believe? What if the majority believes in evolution and happenstance and things just coming about and that there is no God? Or if there is a God, he's, as I said during the week, he's a cosmic teddy bear. He's Santa Claus sitting in heaven just dispensing gifts to all the good and bad little boys of the world. That's not true, but it doesn't change the truth one bit. God is God, and he will continue to be God, and all of the atheism in the world will not alter that fact even one iota. You say, well, there's a whole lot of people that believe that. Let God be true in every man, a liar if necessary. So returning to the flow of the idea, when I look at creation, and consider its amazing structure and consider God's sovereignty and all this thing. He goes on now in verse four, what is man? that thou art mindful of him. Compared to the mighty excellence of God, what is man? That's a rhetorical question. It means you don't have to answer it. The answer is obvious. What is man compared to God? Compared to the Creator, the creation is lowly. Would God even remember that He had made such frail creatures of dust? I mean, could He have made us and then got distracted and said, you know, don't worry about them anymore? No, God is mindful of us. He pays attention to us. He remembers us. What is man that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that thou visitest him. Now that for a son of man, literally it means the son of Adam. The Greek word for man or the Hebrew word for man there is Adam. So, what is man speaks of the lowliness of man, but this phrase reminds us of the fallen nature of man. Son of Adam. We're not just men, not just human beings, but we are the sons of Adam. And what happens in Adam? In Adam, all die. Why? Because the sin nature is passed down from generation to generation. And yet, fallen mankind is visited by God, visited with grace and mercy. look at verse five for thou hast made him a little lower now just to sort of explain what he's saying there what he means is he's made just a little lower he's saying we're almost at the status at the power status of angels thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory and honor Hebrews 2 9 notice this and this is interesting it says but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels sound familiar for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor so here it looks like David is talking about us about man and yet this also has a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ who is to come. Now, does this mean that God does visit us? Yes, it does. In Matthew Pool, I don't think I did. Let me just read, listen as I read this. man, fallen and lost man, who is indeed actually crowned and restored to the glory and dominion here, here following, not in his own person, but in Christ, his head and representative, who received this crown and dominion, not so much for himself, who did not need it, as for man's good and in his stead. In other words, we are the beneficiaries of the glory bestowed upon Jesus Christ. So David, I'm not sure if David even realized when he wrote this that he was writing a messianic prophecy. He may have known, or he may have thought he was writing about us, about man, and was through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writing about Jesus Christ. The Bible does talk about the fact that the prophets that wrote the Old Testament, they had to go back and read what they had written. They had to go back and study what they had written to learn about God. So perhaps that happened here in David's case. So let's just go on because there's more to it. Notice the mastery here. In verse six, thou hast made us to him to have dominion or mastery over the works of thy hands. Thou has put all things under his feet. And here again, we can't help but see the reference to Christ in Ephesians 1, 22, and has put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church. He goes on, verse 7, all sheep and oxen, yea, the beast of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. So he said, he's giving him dominion over all these things. all the animals of the field. He didn't mention the plant life, but let's just look at Genesis chapter 1. And God blessed them and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion. It's what we just read. Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. So that was the first Adam. Jesus is called the second Adam. That was the first Adam. And he was given dominion over all of the things of the earth. And the second Adam. who is Christ, has all authority over these domains, and in some measure, he delegates that power to us. If you don't get anything else out of this lesson today, get this. We don't belong to the earth. Don't buy into that mother earth nonsense. We don't belong to the earth. The earth belongs to us. Now, should we take care of it? Yes, we should. But in Psalm 115, verse 16, the heaven, even the heavens are the Lord's. But the earth hath he given to the children of men. God created the world all so it would be ready for Adam and Eve when he placed them there in the garden. The earth was created for us. And so there's a sense of mastery that God has given to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has allowed us to get in on that. And we had dominion over the earth and subdue him. Now I got to get on to the last point while I got two minutes left. He starts with majesty in the Lord our Lord. How excellent is thy name in all the earth? How does it end? It ends with majesty as well. Verse 9, O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. David ends the psalm in the same way that he begins it with a statement of absolute awe, absolute total wonder. He can't really describe what he sees as he sees the glory of God. And he just says, how excellent is your name in all the earth? So as we set the application, what would it be? Never forget who God is and who you are. Are we special? We're special to God, but we're only special because God has made us special. We're special to him. We're the apple of his eye. While you heard it during the opening exercise, us, we are the greatest, the ultimate of God's creation. But don't ever start thinking, well, you know, God can't get along without me. God sure made something good when he made me. God is the one who is excellent. His name is majestic in all the earth. Father, thank you for this time that we can look at this great song. We do praise you, we worship you, we recognize today your excellence in all the earth. As we see the creation that you have put down here, We recognize, Lord, that you are awesome. You are wonderful. You are majestic. Nothing compares with you. May we worship you today in spirit and in truth. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.