Well, we just sang Psalm 8, now you can turn in your Bibles to Psalm 8. And that was pretty much the sermon that we just sang. Psalm 8, to the choir master, according to the Gidduth, a Psalm of David. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings, and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Let's pray together. Oh Father, it's been our delight and joy to praise you. Help us to continue to do that with your word open before us. I pray, Father, that you would thrill our hearts with your word. You would awaken us to the grandeur of Your glory, the greatness of Your creation, and the greatness of Your care for us. Help us to see, Father. By Your Spirit, help us to see. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. This psalm has bookends, verse 1 and verse 9, "'O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth,' and then again verse 9 repeats that. So it's not mysterious to us what the point of the psalmist is. But there's also a center to it, and that's verse 4. The question that is asked in verse 4 is really the center of the meaning of the psalm. It unpacks how the Lord's name is majestic in all the earth when it asks, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? And I think the goal of this psalm is to look at that first line, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Accept it, feel it, but by the end of the psalm have a better understanding of what that means so that when you say it again in verse 9, you know in what way his name is majestic in all the earth. I find that question in verse 4 to be an interesting and controversial question. If you just narrow it down to those three words in verse 4, what is man? What is man? That question does go on to ask a fuller question, what is man that you're mindful of him? But in order to answer that longer question, you really have to address the shorter question, what is man? That question is asking about the nature of man. It's looking for a definition of what man is. And by the way, when this verse says man, it's not looking for an answer to the question about male as opposed to female, although that's a rather interesting question in itself. But the question is about mankind or humankind. In the scientific jargon, it would be, what is Homo sapiens? Well, you could go somewhere else and look for an answer to that question, say, Wikipedia, for example, the source of what seems to be all human knowledge found there. And it would have a lengthy article about humans, Homo sapiens, or modern humans, and it says this about what humans are. It says, humans, Homo sapiens or modern humans, are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus Homo. They are great apes, characterized by their hairlessness, bipedalism, and high intelligence. Humans have large brains, enabling more advanced cognitive skills that enable them to thrive and adapt in varied environments, develop highly complex tools, and form complex social structures and civilizations. Humans are highly social, with individual humans tending to belong to a multi-layered network of cooperating, distinct, or even competing social groups, from families and peer groups to corporations and political states. As such, social interactions between humans have established a wide variety of values, social norms, languages, and traditions, collectively termed institutions, each of which bolsters human society. Humans are also highly curious. The desire to understand and influence phenomena has motivated humanity's development of science, technology, philosophy, mythology, religion, and other frameworks of knowledge. Humans also study themselves through such domains as anthropology, social science, history, psychology, and medicine. There are estimated to be more than 8 billion humans alive. An article goes on, in case you want to read it for yourselves, feel free. But at that core of that description or definition is a description of what we do rather than what we are. It's an answer, in its answer to what we are, did you notice what it said that we are? It said that we are a species of primate, that humans are great apes. Great apes is a category or family, including orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and modern humans. In the Wikipedia article on great apes, there is a series of photos that places this family together, gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, and humans, showing they all belong to the same family. In those series of photos, again, containing gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and humans, can you guess which one is smiling? Can you guess which one is wearing makeup, wearing clothing, has a haircut, is next to a clothed child holding a teddy bear, invented the thing that took the pictures in the first place? studies all the other creatures in that list, wrote the article about great apes, developed a system of classification for such hierarchical relationships, invented computers and the internet that can disseminate such inventions, writes books, creates libraries, domesticates animals. Which great ape does that? Well, while that article would go on to describe the evolution of so-called great apes, It does not really get to the heart of the question, what is man? It might try to, but it leaves a discord between what we intuitively know is true about ourselves and what the evolutionary textbook says. If it is true that we simply belong to the family of great apes, then we possess no greater value than an orangutan, gorilla, and chimpanzee, and what you do with your life is of no more consequence than how many ticks a chimp picked off its mate's back, and how many genes it passed on to the next generation. But for those who have not lost all hope, we know that our lives are more valuable than that. But why are they? Why are they more valuable than that? And why do we intuitively know that human life is more valuable than that? We need to switch gears for a moment before we come back to that question of what is man? Because again, Psalm 8 begins in verse 1 with this declaration about the majestic name of God. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. We need to consider for a moment, moving away from man to God, the majesty in God's name. And as we consider that, it will help us understand better the value and definition of what is man. When verse 1 and verse 9 of Psalm 8 says, O Lord our Lord, it is not using the same word in the Hebrew as it is in the English. You should notice in your English Bible, the first LORD is all caps. It is the way that in English we represent the divine name of God in the Old Testament, Yahweh. And the lowercase lord is the Hebrew word Adonai, which means master or sovereign ruler. And so this is basically saying, O Yahweh, our Master. They're very different words, even though the English is a little clumsy. O Yahweh, our Adonai. O Yahweh, our Master. Yahweh is that name that God revealed to himself, revealed of himself to Moses at the burning bush. It means, I am who I am. And so this exclamation of praise is at the mightiness of God's name, Yahweh, who is David and Israel's master and sovereign ruler. And this is another psalm of David, and you'll maybe notice if you've been following along with the past psalms that this psalm strikes a different tone than the past ones. The past psalms of David have been full of lament and cries for deliverance, but here we see David turning rather to praise and adoration. And it begins simply with David declaring how majestic or mighty the name of Yahweh is. And in saying that his name is majestic, he's acknowledging that the name of God really represents all of who God is. He's not just saying, God, you have a great name, it sounds really good, it rolls off the tongue really well. He's rather describing the name of God, encapsulating all of who God is, and so all of who God is is majestic. It's an exclamation. of praise at the majesty of God's name in all the earth. It means that God's name, God's excellency, wherever you go, is majestic. It's really a statement of fact, not just of experience. It is not true that everywhere you go, everyone acknowledges how majestic God's name is. But it is a fact that wherever you go, God's name is majestic. And beyond just being a statement of fact, it is a statement of praise. As David says this, he's not saying it in a dry, uncaring manner. He is saying it from a heart overflowing with amazement at the God whom he is praising. This is the heart of one who knows something personally about the majesty of God and from his heart desires to declare His greatness. I hope you know something about that. I hope you know that God is so great, has been so good and excellent to you that you cannot keep your praise to yourself. You have to overflow and declare how great he is. You declare truth about who he is, but as you declare that truth about who he is, you care about what you say. You mean it. You have a heart of sincerity. It seems to be what David is doing here. He's overflowing with adoration for the grandness of his God. Not only is David declaring that Yahweh's name is majestic in all the earth wherever you go, he's also declaring, you have set your glory above the heavens. It's an exclamation of praise at the majesty of God's name above the heavens. We see God's glory is set beyond the farthest reaches of what mankind can attain. Majesty in all the earth, glory above the heavens. The very way that this is phrased should begin to evoke some familiarity in you if you know the beginning of the Bible. The very first verse, as a matter of fact. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And David is making this almost creation hymn here, declaring the greatness of God in creation, that God is great in all the earth, God's glory is above all the heavens. It's a way to say wherever God is and whatever God has made, He is glorious. And also, when God created the heavens and the earth, He did not dissociate Himself from it. He is not a God, as some people conceive Him to be, as one who made everything, sets it running, and steps back with an uncaring view of what His creation does. That is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible created the heavens and the earth so that His name would be shown to be glorious. He is the point of what has been made. The glory of His name is the point of the world that He made. And so it should not be surprising that His name is majestic in all the earth and that His glory has been set above the heavens. He is greater than what He has made, and so His glory extends beyond it. The heavens, in a sense, could be conceived of both all that we see above us from the sun and the moon and the stars, but also all that the space that contains those things. It's really impossible for us to imagine, as these finite small humans that we are, just how vast the space is that God made. We can never reach the end of it. You could spend your whole life traveling and you could never come to the end of the space that God made. And it says that God's glory is set above the heavens. How do you get above the heavens? And yet God's glory is set above it. God's glory, His power, is grander and bigger than even the heavens. The biggest thing that we can conceive of, His glory exceeds even that. And while these opening lines present to us a poetic way of describing how we think and feel about the greatness of our God, they don't exactly give us reasons for why we have this attitude of praise to God. And that's really where the rest of the psalm leads us. It sets us up for knowing God's name is majestic, that his majesty extends beyond all of his creation. But then it leads us into these unexpected ways and an unexpected place where we see God's majestic name displayed. God doesn't really do things the way that we might expect. Have you noticed that about Him? He kind of takes you off guard. He surprises you. He keeps you on your toes. It's as if He doesn't like to be contained or constrained. We might expect that a powerful God like this God, whose glory is above the heavens and the earth, would primarily display his strength through fire in the sky or a trembling earth. And certainly there are levels of our creation that reveal to us something of the power of God. But this psalm goes in a different direction. It gives us an unexpected way that God displays his majestic name. God is not a God who conforms to our human expectations. That seems to be standard. It's almost as if you should expect that God does not conform to your expectations. Why does He do that? Well, do you remember His name, Yahweh? I am who I am. It can also be translated, I will be what I will be. His name is not, I will be what you want me to be. He is the I am who I am. And so He does things that are unexpected to us. In the human economy, we have expected ways things will work. The strong will survive, the powerful will win. But when we look for how God's majestic name is displayed, we don't look in the expected places. Because it's not going to be found there. He points us somewhere else. He says in verse two, out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. Babies, infants, children, were you expecting to look there? in their mouths for the declaration of the majestic name of God. The words here can refer to babies or just in a wider variety of children. Infants are those who are still nursing, and in that society they would have nursed probably a longer time than in our culture. The child was weaned age three, four. And it's from their mouth, those who are exceptionally weak, those who are needy, those who kind of contribute nothing to society but just kind of soak things up, are the ones in which God establishes strength. It could be translated in a more concrete way, you lay the foundation of the fortification out of the mouths of babies and infants. And why does God do this? Why does He establish strength from these young ones who are kind of babblers? Why does He establish strength out of the mouth of children? Well, it tells us, because of your foes, because of His enemies. God establishes strength out of the mouth of children because of his foes. In other words, he does this thing of establishing strength because his foes are such that they need to be defeated by God's strength established in the weakest things of all, so that they know that their attempts to overthrow God can be overcome by God from the most unlikely of sources. Children. And in this way, it says, the enemy and the avenger will be stilled. They will be stopped. In Psalm 2, it talks about the nations of the earth and the kings of the earth. It asks the question, why do the nations rage? Why do they plot together? for the breaking of the bonds of God and of his anointed? Why do they do that? It pictures these nations who are collaborating together to try to break off the shackles of God and of his Messiah. It shows them plotting, raging. This is verbal. It is even murmuring under their breath, trying to come up with a plan that will defeat God. These are enemies who are in their hearts raging with such vehemence against God that they will do anything to overthrow Him. How is God going to overcome them? How is God going to conquer them? How is God going to shut up their mouths? The answer of Psalm 8, out of the mouths of babies, He will shut them up. Why does he do that? Can you imagine any more unlikely source of defeating the nations than the mouth of babbling babies? Well, where do we see this? You can turn to Matthew 21. Jesus has come to Jerusalem. He's about to enter. He's made preparations with his disciples to acquire a colt of a donkey. And as he mounts this colt of a donkey, he fulfills Zechariah 9. It says in verse 5 of Matthew 21, say to your daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden, showing that he is a humble king, but he's a king nonetheless. And he comes, and you know what happens in verse nine, the crowds are going before him, and they're laying down their cloaks, and they're spreading palm trees on the road before him, and they're crying out, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And they're shouting these things, and it's this great uproar that's happening. And then Jesus goes into the temple, and he drives out All those who sold and bought in the temple. Overturning the tables of the money changers in verse 12. And the seats of those who sold pigeons. He's going against the people who are raging against God. The people who are trying to take God's temple and turn it into profit for themselves. He's going against the enemies of God. And then the blind and the lame come to him and he heals them. But the leaders of the temple, the chief priests and the scribes, see these things that he's doing. And they hear something. They hear children, it says in verse 15. Children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David. They picked up the refrain. The children are repeating what they've heard their parents saying, what they've heard the crowd saying. They're saying it in the temple. If they know all that they're saying, we don't know. They've heard this song and they're singing it. But the chief priests and the scribes hear this, and they are indignant. They're raging. And they say to Jesus, do you hear what these are saying in verse 16? Do you hear? Of course he hears. And Jesus said to them, yes. Have you never read, out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise? And we know how the verse goes on. Why does he do that? To stop the enemies of God. They can rage all they want. But those children speak the truth and the enemies follow a lie. And on the day of judgment, who is going to be found right and who is going to be found wrong? The elite raging enemies of God or babies? The babies win the day. and the mouths of the enemies of God will be stopped by the infants who declare the praise of God. I don't think this psalm is meant for us to stop and simply think, this is just for babies, so if I'm past age three or four, you know, this doesn't apply to us. The principle here is that God chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong. You may feel like you have very little to combat the raging enemies of God. You may feel like you have nothing to contribute to make God's majesty look strong. You would rather have some battle armor and notch some victories in your belt Perhaps you even watch videos of great Christian apologists and how they dismantle the arguments of the foes of God out there. And you wonder, how can I ever keep up with these people who know so much? Well, Jesus said, unless you become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of God. So what should you do? Praise the majestic name of God. And in doing so, you defeat the strong This is not anti-intellectualism. It's not saying don't use the mind that God gave you, but it is saying that God doesn't need your intellect to magnify the greatness of his name. He doesn't need your strength to make his name strong. When you praise him for how strong he is, no matter how weak you are, it is enough to stop the raging of God's enemies. What an unlikely way for God's name to be displayed as majestic. But that's how He works. So the psalm shows us that unlikely way that God's name is shown to be majestic in all the earth. It's by the praise of the weak. But it also goes on to show us the unlikely place for God's majestic name. The unlikely place for God's majestic name. We shouldn't be surprised at this point that God finds an unlikely place for his name to be shown to be great. The psalmist moves on in verse 3, no longer looking at infants and children, but now he looks up. He looks up at the stars of the sky, the moon, the heavens. I went outside last night trying to prepare for this message and get some inspiration. It was dark, and my eyes had been in the light, and so they needed some time to adjust, and I go outside and begin looking up, and I see the stars begin to appear. At first, I thought it was just totally cloudy, and then I begin to see, one by one, I can see a star here, a star there. I haven't done that for a while. And it was really enjoyable, thinking about the magnitude of God's creation. these stars that look so tiny, but we know that they are massive. And it's not as though David didn't realize this. He's not stupid. He would understand that it is far away, very far away, so far away he could never reach it, and therefore to be able to see it must be absolutely massive. And I'm enjoying this site and thinking about the grandeur of God's creation, star after star. My eyes are suddenly completely acclimating to the dark, really getting a view of the beauty of the night sky. And then I smelled a skunk. So I ran back inside. David spent time outside. a shepherd, spending the night with his sheep. He had time to contemplate the vastness of what he saw. He looked up, and as he puts it to song, he describes what he sees. Your heavens. A lot of people look up. A lot of people look through telescopes, and they are in awe of what they see. They're brought to great emotions by what they see. but they don't describe it as your heavens. When David describes it as your heavens, he knows who the owner and creator is. They belong to Yahweh. He made them. They are for him. And clearly David believed in Genesis 1 and 2 You don't even need Genesis 1 and 2 to look at the heavens and know they are not an accident. It is general revelation. They are not made by some impersonal force. They're made by someone. To be that brilliant, to be that emotionally stirring, to be that staggering when we look at them, that is not made by some impersonal force. That is made by somebody who knows beauty and has vast and unending intelligence. your heavens, the work of your fingers. To say that the heavens are the work of Yahweh's fingers doesn't mean that He has fingers. God is spirit. But it's an imaginative way of pointing to the sculptor-like creativity of God. It's also a way to point to the ease with which He made them. People could look at some of the work of my fingers, and they wouldn't think it was easy or well done, but you look at the stars of the heavens, and if you describe those as the work of God's fingers, you know then that this is an unbelievably intelligent, creative being, who is not exhausted by creating the stars. It did not strain him. It did not tire him out. It did not deplete him or leave him exhausted of physical or mental energy. They are the work of his fingers, done with excellence. The moon and the stars which you have set in place. David's looking up at night. He sees that where the moon is, is no accident. It was set there. He sees the stars. He knows that where they are is no accident. They were set there. This was before Newton's gravitational laws were publicized. And even though David is in a pre-scientific era, that doesn't mean he's unintelligent. He knows that there is regularity to what he sees. He knows that they are not moving around and bouncing around in the sky. He knows the moon appears on a monthly cycle. He knows that the stars come in seasonal cycles. How do they sit there? Well, scientific people say, well, gravity holds it in place. But why does gravity do that? Well, because that's the way matter interacts with each other. Why does matter interact with each other like that? You've got to ask the question why at least five times to get to the bottom of something. You ask why long enough, and those who hold the gravity as the only force that is sustaining this universe, you have no reason for why it actually does that. You need someone who actually put it in a place, who has the brilliant mind that can design things with such specificity that it can hold the planets in place, the stars where they are, the moon where it needs to be. How do they sit there? Yes, gravity, but go beyond that. God set them there. God designed it that way. But all that is almost beside the point because David is looking at these stars and it generates a question in him and begins to interpret what he sees. And as he looks up, he starts to think about himself and other humans. And he asks this question, what is man? In light of seeing all of that grandeur of creation, he now asks the question, what am I? What is man? What is mankind? And the reason that this question comes up is quite obvious. When you compare yourself to what you look at out there, you have to ask that question, what am I? We are so small in comparison to God's heavens. I mean, so utterly insignificant. Would the stars in heaven and the moon change if every single human being were wiped out? What if you or I just disappeared? Are the stars and the moons going to care? They're going to go on shining. What do I really matter? Even if I live a relatively popular or well-known life, even if you make it into the history books, when you look up at the stars, you think, what's the significance? I've had the opportunity to fly into Los Angeles a number of times, and I always try to get a window seat. I love looking out. And you begin to enter the Los Angeles basin. And the amount of humanity that is there is absolutely staggering. For as far as you can see, houses and buildings and roads, it's jaw-dropping. But as I look down, I think, there are millions of people down there. I don't know the name of a single one of them. And they could disappear, and I wouldn't even know. What is man? What is man? But if you're thinking like David, you're not just thinking of the incongruity between the size of the heavens and the size of mankind, but you're also struck by the fact that there is somebody who is greater than the heavens. What am I in comparison to the maker of the heavens? He made those heavens, those giant things, with his fingers. What am I? Despite the immensity of God's being, David's thought is not despair. It's rather amazement that God is mindful and caring of mankind. What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? with all the fragility of man and all the massiveness of God and the universe He has made, it should be a staggering thought that we are not forgotten by Him. We are not lost in this universe. We are not insignificant to Him. And so as you ask the question and try to answer, what is man? If you try to define who you are apart from God, you're nothing. But as soon as you know that God cares about you, he remembers you, then you're something. You're something. God made the universe enormous. And I believe he did that in part to help us know how enormous he is and how enormous his care is for us. Why does God care for us? Does he look at us and find that he's impressed with us? You should laugh. Of course not. Your life would be meaningless, valueless, empty, futile, if the Lord of the universe and the maker of all things had not assigned meaning and value to your life. Well, what has he done? Oh, he's put you in a position of honor, verse 5. You've made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. This is hearkening back to Genesis chapter 1. When God created man, male and female, as the pinnacle of His creation, Genesis 1, 26, let us make man in our image after our likeness. So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them. What is man? Man is the only part of God's creation that is made in the image of God. This is one of those concepts I don't think you really come to the bottom of. But essentially, I take it to mean that humanity was made by God as unique in the world to represent Him on this planet. And if you did not have the image of God emblazoned upon your being, As a human, you would be utterly insignificant. But because God has made you this way, you are placed in a position of glory and honor. And not only that, there is a role of prominence that is given to humankind. We have been given dominion, it says in verse 6, over the works of your hands. Can you believe that? The very things that we look at and are staggered by that God has made, He has made mankind to be the one who has dominion over those things that He has made that we are amazed at. This is why I have no problem with trying to colonize Mars. Because God has given mankind dominion over this world, this universe. And he goes on, not just all of the works of your hands, all things under his feet. He goes to elaborate some of those things, sheep and ox and beasts of the field, birds and heavens, fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. So what is man? A great ape? Oh, we are a creature, for sure. I can, in one sense, understand why we would come to the conclusion that we are related. Because we are so finite, so small. But it's the wrong conclusion. We have similarities in our frailties with the rest of creation. But there is something distinct about us. We are creatures made in the image of God. And because of that, we have a special value in God's plan. And we have been given the role of exercising dominion over the creation of God, reflecting Him in all that we do. And so if we were to write a Wikipedia article, We could say something like this. Humans are the pinnacle of God's creation. Made on the sixth day, they are the only creatures God made in his own image. They possess an inherent value. God has given them the right and privilege to exercise caring dominion over his creation, and as such are characterized by high intelligence. Humans have large brains and can go on from there. But it's because God made us that way. There's a problem. You think God's majestic name is going to be displayed in humanity because we were made in His image, but the problem is that we have rebelled against our Creator. Even though He's placed us in a position of honor and glory, even though He has given us dominion over His works, even though He has put all things under mankind's feet, we have sinned, and death comes through sin. So our rule is corrupted, and our rule is temporary. We see that all the way in our world. We see mankind trying to exercise dominion, but it's so corrupted. We see the value of human beings, but it's so marred. We see the image of God in humans, but it's so disfigured that it's barely recognizable at times to distinguish us from animals. Well, what's the solution? Well, Hebrews chapter 2, verses 6 through 9. It has been testified somewhere. What is man that you are mindful of him? Or the son of man that you care for him? You made him, for a little while, lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. Now, in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. And get this, at present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. That's the time that we live in. We look around at mankind and we realize, yeah, not everything's the way it's supposed to be. There's chaos. Bears try to attack humans. Wolves go after them. There are diseases and plagues. Mosquitoes infect us. There's all of this incongruity between mankind and the realm that we're supposed to rule. But what do we see? Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. The solution, once again, is the humble Son of God who even put death in subjection to Him when He died and rose again. And so now all who belong to Him have Him as our King, the ultimate man, the second Adam, the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth, the one who is bringing His kingdom the one who has a kingdom of righteousness and peace. His kingdom is described this way in Isaiah 11 verse 5 through 9. He says, The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That's the kingdom of Christ, and it's coming. And He will exercise that complete and total dominion. And guess what? Those who belong to Him will rule with Him. It's an unexpected place to see God's majestic name displayed in frail, weak humanity. Even more surprising to see it displayed in sinful, God-rejecting people who have been redeemed by the blood of the Son, who submit to the King of kings and follow Him as your Lord, so that where you are and where you rule with Him, His majestic name is displayed. All we look forward to is kingdom coming. This world is still broken. It's not what it's supposed to be. We don't get to tame the bears and the lions yet, but we get to spread the good news of the king who is coming and let them know, let the world know that his praise is deserving. His name is great. His name is majestic. Let's pray. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You work in such unexpected ways, and it delights us. Father, we want to be a people who praise you and so share in stopping the mouths of your enemies by the praise that we give you. And we want to wait for our King, the Lord Jesus Christ, and so rule with Him when He comes. And Father, until that day, help us to follow Him and help us to bear the image that we are being recreated into, the image of our Savior. Help us to bear that in this world. And we pray, Father, that you'd have mercy on the lost and the dying around us, that they would turn to you in faith and become people who praise you. You are a merciful God, and you save sinners, and we trust, O Lord, that your name will be majestic in all the earth, for your glory is set above the heavens. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.