WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.700 But Psalm 8, let me read and then I'll hand over to Ray and pray for us. 00:00:11.259 --> 00:00:17.280 Psalm 8, for the director of music, according to Gittith, a Psalm of David. 00:00:19.059 --> 00:00:24.000 Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:35.620 You have set your glory in the heavens. Through the praise of children and infants, you have established a stronghold against your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger. 00:00:36.539 --> 00:00:45.480 When I considered your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them? 00:00:46.340 --> 00:00:48.260 Human beings that you care for them. 00:00:49.060 --> 00:00:53.740 You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour. 00:00:54.439 --> 00:00:57.340 You made them rulers over the works of your hands. 00:00:58.039 --> 00:01:08.840 You put everything under their feet, all flocks and herds and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. 00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:14.299 Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. 00:01:15.299 --> 00:01:16.700 Ray, over to you. 00:01:16.700 --> 00:01:17.700 Amen. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:35.939 Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for the opportunity to look at it together tonight. 00:01:35.939 --> 00:01:44.980 We are very conscious that we need you to speak to us and I do pray that you will do that. 00:01:45.620 --> 00:01:53.859 You would show us some of your glory, show us some of your wonder and give us hearts that respond, we pray. 00:01:53.859 --> 00:01:54.099 Amen. 00:01:56.040 --> 00:01:57.540 In Jesus' name. Amen. 00:01:57.859 --> 00:01:58.060 Amen. 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:06.000 Okay, we just read Psalm 8, so I won't read it again, but we will read bits as we go through. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:17.000 um this psalm answers the two biggest questions that we can ask tonight that is who is god 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:24.759 and what is man and we'll use these questions to explore what god says to us through david 00:02:24.759 --> 00:02:31.740 in this psalm but in in this psalm david is bowled over if you may have picked that up from 00:02:31.740 --> 00:02:38.820 from the reading there he's amazed at the glory and the graciousness of god his glory is seen in 00:02:38.820 --> 00:02:46.140 the heavens he has made and his grace in giving mankind such a place of honor in his creation 00:02:46.140 --> 00:02:54.040 david opens and closes you might notice there in verse one and the last verse there a kind of summary 00:02:54.039 --> 00:03:02.139 of who this glorious god is and the verses in between pack that out and give us more information 00:03:02.139 --> 00:03:11.459 and detail about how he sees his glory so first of all who is god this psalm opens by saying that god 00:03:11.459 --> 00:03:19.919 is an excellent sovereign it says lord our lord how majestic is your name in all the earth 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:32.579 lord our lord in the hebrew is yahweh our adonai in other words he's saying lord our sovereign our ruler 00:03:32.579 --> 00:03:43.859 so lord is the title the sovereign is who he is how majestic or how excellent is your name in all the 00:03:43.860 --> 00:03:53.520 earth here he's declaring boldly god is the worthy king and ruler of all people all people everywhere 00:03:53.520 --> 00:04:05.680 on earth so why is his name excellent when we read that phrase in god's word your name talking about god 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:15.800 you may know that he's talking about his character who he is so his name is more than yahweh it's actually 00:04:15.800 --> 00:04:26.720 his very being and that's what he's saying your very being is altogether excellent and it's seen in how 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:35.399 you rule he is the excellent sovereign verses one to three also tell us about god who is god 00:04:35.399 --> 00:04:41.659 he's the powerful creator let me read to you and follow along please in your bibles 00:04:41.659 --> 00:04:50.699 you have set your glory up in the heavens through the praise of children and infants you have established 00:04:50.699 --> 00:04:58.099 a stronghold against your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger when i consider your heavens 00:04:58.100 --> 00:05:06.960 the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have set in place what is mankind that you 00:05:06.960 --> 00:05:15.480 are mindful of them human beings that you care for them so here we're told that god's glory is seen in 00:05:15.480 --> 00:05:21.980 what he's made i don't know whether you're familiar with psalm 19 but that is very similar it has a similar 00:05:21.980 --> 00:05:31.180 theme verse one of psalm 19 says the heavens declare the glory of god the skies proclaim the work of his 00:05:31.180 --> 00:05:41.379 hands so in psalm 19 we see the way that sun tracks across the sky and how it makes a circuit which is 00:05:41.379 --> 00:05:46.060 rather wonderful because people didn't realize that the earth was around in those days it makes it 00:05:46.060 --> 00:05:55.060 a circuit and david is wondering full of wonder in psalm 19 at the daytime sky but here in psalm 8 00:05:55.060 --> 00:06:01.800 he looks at the moon and the stars the night sky and he's filled again with wonder and worship 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:12.160 think of this he didn't have the benefit of modern astronomy i mean this is thousands of years ago isn't 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:20.560 it the astronomy that's available to us today he could only see a snapshot of the sky uh that's the 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:29.400 that which is visible to the naked eye and and as he looked up that's that's all he could see now you 00:06:29.400 --> 00:06:35.720 and i if we take the bother to investigate and i tried this but after a while it was just beyond me so i had to 00:06:35.720 --> 00:06:43.600 give up uh i tried to investigate it a bit um we understand to some extent the the universe is not 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:48.580 made up of just that little snapshot we can see when we look up at the night sky 00:06:48.580 --> 00:07:01.140 but it's our galaxy is massive and that galaxy we see is just one of many all right so you can only 00:07:01.139 --> 00:07:08.659 see a tiny bit of the galaxy but that galaxy is a tiny bit of what is there the heavens that god has 00:07:08.659 --> 00:07:16.659 made just to help us to to investigate this a bit more um how massive and glorious our universe is 00:07:16.659 --> 00:07:24.339 let me give you some facts about the stars all right there are about 5 000 stars 00:07:24.339 --> 00:07:45.620 that are visible to the human eye okay 5 000 that's a lot all right but the number of the stars in the 00:07:45.620 --> 00:07:51.939 universe is estimated between 200 billion trillion 00:07:54.180 --> 00:08:01.379 and one septillion now we forget septillion let's take the base here let's let's take the lowest thing 00:08:01.379 --> 00:08:09.060 all right which is 200 which is 200 billion trillion the number of the minimum number of stars 00:08:09.060 --> 00:08:21.620 uh it's about it's described like this right it's 10 times the number of cups of water in all the oceans 00:08:21.620 --> 00:08:30.340 on earth so if you had to take a cup i can't tell you what size cup right but a cup and you take water out 00:08:30.340 --> 00:08:37.860 of that it's 10 times the number of cups of water in all the oceans isn't that amazing that's how many 00:08:37.860 --> 00:08:44.340 that's how many stars we have that's that's not just the planets and the other stuff but god has made 00:08:44.340 --> 00:08:52.019 all of that verse 3 tells us in psalm 8 that not only did god create the moon and all the stars 00:08:52.980 --> 00:09:02.820 but he set each one in place think about this just for a minute the planets and we're talking about our 00:09:02.820 --> 00:09:08.900 solar system now not everything else that is out there but just this tiny bit of our solar system 00:09:09.860 --> 00:09:18.500 the planets orbit the sun the moon orbits the earth and the billions and trillions of stars are all set 00:09:18.500 --> 00:09:28.100 in place and they don't collide and they don't spin off now gravity still works and it all behaves as it 00:09:28.100 --> 00:09:37.060 as it's about to be able to do because god has created a wonderful universe and that universe obey their creator 00:09:38.820 --> 00:09:42.180 so who is god he's the powerful creator 00:09:44.259 --> 00:09:48.340 here's another question for you why did god 00:09:48.340 --> 00:10:01.060 create the universe why did god create them why do we have creation stop to think about that 00:10:02.820 --> 00:10:11.940 any ideas to show his glory exactly okay we can see a glimpse of his glory this is the reason god created 00:10:11.940 --> 00:10:21.140 us to show his glory to show his glory to show how glorious he is 00:10:23.860 --> 00:10:33.220 do you see it do you see the glory in what is made david looks up and says how glorious you are 00:10:33.220 --> 00:10:44.500 the next verse down okay i think it's first verse two tells us that god's creative power is excellent is so obvious 00:10:45.220 --> 00:10:47.700 that even small children can see it 00:10:49.300 --> 00:10:52.580 and we're told though the enemies of god refuse to acknowledge him 00:10:53.460 --> 00:10:59.220 little children can see it and when they see it they praise him 00:10:59.220 --> 00:11:05.860 him and listen to this by their praise god's enemies are silenced 00:11:07.460 --> 00:11:10.180 we've got an example of this haven't we in matthew's gospel 00:11:10.740 --> 00:11:16.580 where the religious leaders who should have known far better of course they refused to believe jesus 00:11:17.139 --> 00:11:22.500 but their little children cried out his praise if you want to turn to it's matthew 21 00:11:22.500 --> 00:11:29.620 i'm going to read to you verses 14 to 17 matthew 21 00:11:32.980 --> 00:11:38.740 the blind and the lame came to him at the temple and he healed them but when the chief priests and 00:11:38.740 --> 00:11:44.659 the leaders of the law and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children 00:11:44.659 --> 00:11:53.620 shouting in the temple courts hosanna to the son of david they were indignant do you hear what these 00:11:53.620 --> 00:12:02.419 children are saying they asked him yes jesus replied have you never read from the lips of children and 00:12:02.419 --> 00:12:11.459 infants you lord have called forth your praise and he left them and went out of the city to bethany 00:12:11.460 --> 00:12:20.340 where he spent the night the chief priests and the scribes were silenced here by the praise of children to their savior 00:12:23.300 --> 00:12:31.460 so here in matthew 21 jesus is claiming psalm 8 for himself 00:12:31.460 --> 00:12:44.100 as god is glorified by the children's praise in psalm 8 so jesus is glorified by the children's praise in psalm 21 00:12:45.940 --> 00:12:52.420 do you see what the children saw in that reading we we just read they saw that jesus was the messiah 00:12:52.419 --> 00:13:02.019 the son of david and their response was to shout hosanna which means save 00:13:04.339 --> 00:13:10.579 so the children teach us two things here let's learn from these children first of all they teach us that 00:13:10.579 --> 00:13:11.539 jesus is god 00:13:11.539 --> 00:13:18.980 uh we see this because jesus accepted their praise in the in the context of psalm 8 00:13:19.620 --> 00:13:22.980 where it was said of god now it's said of jesus 00:13:24.659 --> 00:13:31.299 and the second thing is it teaches us what the correct response is to seeing god's glory 00:13:32.179 --> 00:13:34.099 because we all see god's glory 00:13:34.100 --> 00:13:41.060 it's it's it's it's all around us it's in what is made and it's particularly seen 00:13:41.620 --> 00:13:50.420 in our lord jesus christ so we all see god's glory the question for us is what is our response to that 00:13:54.980 --> 00:14:01.060 i'm challenged to think how much time i take to thank him to reflect on his glory 00:14:01.059 --> 00:14:12.739 and do i like um like the children call out in praise do i fall on my feet fall on my knees in worship 00:14:14.339 --> 00:14:19.699 it should have some his glory is so marvelous it should have some profound impact on us 00:14:23.539 --> 00:14:26.899 when david sees a glimpse of the vast heavens 00:14:26.899 --> 00:14:35.379 he then sees how small and seemingly insignificant in relation to the amazing creation he is 00:14:36.179 --> 00:14:46.500 and he asks in verse 4 our second major question what is man what is mankind that you are mindful of them 00:14:46.980 --> 00:14:53.539 human beings that you care for them and he sees the answer to his question in the order of creation 00:14:53.539 --> 00:15:00.659 he sees god's care in the risk position and responsibility that god gave human beings 00:15:00.659 --> 00:15:06.339 back in genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2 which is reflected here in psalm 8 00:15:09.699 --> 00:15:16.740 so what is man the first thing we learn about ourselves here is that we were created to rule 00:15:16.740 --> 00:15:26.899 man was created to be a ruler not in the sense that god is sovereign ruler obviously but man made in god's 00:15:26.899 --> 00:15:35.539 image was made to rule reflecting that image of god to take care and to rule over god's creation 00:15:36.659 --> 00:15:40.659 look down will you at verse 5 and follow through with me the next few verses 00:15:40.659 --> 00:15:48.579 you have made them a little lower than the angels you crowned them with glory and honor you made them 00:15:48.579 --> 00:15:56.419 rulers over the works of your hands you put everything under their feet all flocks and herds and the animals 00:15:56.419 --> 00:16:03.779 of the wild the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea all that swim in the paths of the seas 00:16:03.779 --> 00:16:14.500 the sea now here's an amazing fact you and i are created a little lower than the angels 00:16:16.819 --> 00:16:26.500 would you believe it isn't that amazing we are we were created a little lower than the angels so not 00:16:26.500 --> 00:16:37.139 insignificant as we may count ourselves but loved by god and given glory and honor as it says here in verse 5 00:16:40.100 --> 00:16:46.980 in god's care for us we're given responsibility to care for his creation to reflect the creator 00:16:49.379 --> 00:16:54.980 but we know don't we that our next thing for what is man we have to say that man has fallen 00:16:54.980 --> 00:17:04.980 from that glorious state how miserably we failed the position the honor the glory given in genesis chapter 1 and 2 00:17:05.700 --> 00:17:12.420 was spoiled tainted marred by the rebellion to god in genesis chapter 3 00:17:15.140 --> 00:17:19.460 so here's a more amazing fact than the first amazing fact 00:17:19.460 --> 00:17:30.819 god god again showed his care for us by sending jesus made a little lower than the angels 00:17:32.259 --> 00:17:35.059 that he might suffer and restore us to god 00:17:37.380 --> 00:17:39.940 turn with me if you can to hebrews chapter 2 00:17:39.940 --> 00:17:47.460 verses 6 to 8 pick up this uh these words of psalm 8 again 00:17:49.700 --> 00:17:58.740 and what david was saying so halfway through verse 6 what is mankind's that you are mindful of them 00:17:59.779 --> 00:18:06.740 a son of man that you care for him you made them a little lower than the angels you crowned them with 00:18:06.740 --> 00:18:13.299 glory and honor and put everything under their feet in putting everything under them 00:18:15.140 --> 00:18:17.779 god left nothing that is not subject to them 00:18:19.059 --> 00:18:26.500 yet at present we do not see everything subject to them but we do see jesus who was made lower than 00:18:26.500 --> 00:18:33.779 the angels for a little while now clapped crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that 00:18:33.779 --> 00:18:37.940 by the grace of god he might taste death for everyone 00:18:40.180 --> 00:18:48.819 i do like the um esv version of this if you have an esv you will see that it actually uses 00:18:49.700 --> 00:18:55.379 the word man rather than mankind and the reason i like that is because you can see how wonderful 00:18:55.380 --> 00:19:04.100 jesus just is just slipped into this picture that god not only created man uh he gave jesus this the 00:19:04.100 --> 00:19:08.020 second adam um to die for our sins 00:19:14.020 --> 00:19:22.340 so it struck me how amazing it is that christ should be made a little lower than the angels 00:19:22.339 --> 00:19:28.419 the one who created the angels the one who created all that we see and all that we don't see 00:19:29.699 --> 00:19:38.980 amazing so man is uh was created to be ruler man is fallen but man is restored 00:19:42.179 --> 00:19:48.980 jesus the creator god the son made lower than his creation why would he do this that he might suffer 00:19:48.980 --> 00:19:54.900 death and restore us and win us back his rebellious creatures 00:19:57.460 --> 00:20:05.059 but we in creation how we are today you and i standing or sitting here tonight we're not yet back 00:20:06.339 --> 00:20:11.779 in genesis chapter 2 there is still that fallenness in our world we still 00:20:11.779 --> 00:20:21.940 we still sin we still die and there still continues to be brokenness and we don't as 00:20:25.619 --> 00:20:33.940 many of the climate change advocates will tell you we don't care for creation and they're dead right 00:20:33.940 --> 00:20:46.580 we are not back to genesis 1 and 2 but this is only because god's wonderful plan of redemption 00:20:46.580 --> 00:20:53.539 is not finished yet now hear me carefully in this i'm not saying that christ's work on the cross 00:20:53.539 --> 00:21:00.740 wasn't finished of course it was finished but his restoring us is not finished yet 00:21:00.740 --> 00:21:11.539 one day we will be restored to rule again with christ in heaven so our rule will be in some 00:21:11.539 --> 00:21:18.900 measure given back to us we will be with christ in heaven no more sin no more death no more brokenness 00:21:20.180 --> 00:21:26.660 2 timothy chapter 2 verse 12 i'll read it to you it's just two verses here is a trustworthy saying if we died 00:21:26.660 --> 00:21:38.820 with him we will also live with him if we endure we will reign with him reigning with christ for the rest of eternity 00:21:41.620 --> 00:21:41.860 now 00:21:44.580 --> 00:21:51.460 two things here we haven't got time but also i i i wasn't able to prepare this properly i couldn't get 00:21:51.460 --> 00:21:59.620 my head around it properly but i just wanted to mention christ's reign here christ's reign in 2 00:21:59.620 --> 00:22:10.740 timothy chapter 2 that we just read is future but what does christ's reign look like now today this evening 00:22:12.259 --> 00:22:17.860 you can look up 1 corinthians 15 and ephesians chapter 1 and they both 00:22:17.859 --> 00:22:26.419 when you get home if you want to they both reflect psalm 8 and hebrews 2 in recalling this fact 00:22:27.379 --> 00:22:30.899 he has put everything under his feet 00:22:32.419 --> 00:22:40.899 ephesians 1 tells us that christ was raised from the dead seated in power in heaven given the highest 00:22:40.899 --> 00:22:46.419 place all things put under his feet he was pointed head of his church 00:22:46.420 --> 00:22:50.900 the highest place he was raised from the dead seated in power in the dead seated in power in the dead 00:22:50.900 --> 00:22:58.420 and 1 corinthians 15 tells us that he is still putting things under his feet 00:22:59.539 --> 00:23:02.900 one last thing to put under his feet is death 00:23:04.580 --> 00:23:10.500 so christ is still doing his marvelous work for us in heaven 00:23:10.500 --> 00:23:16.660 so let's conclude now david concludes this psalm as he started it 00:23:17.779 --> 00:23:24.099 verse 9 lord our lord how majestic is your name in all the earth 00:23:24.980 --> 00:23:30.980 yahweh our sovereign ruler how excellent is your name in all the earth 00:23:30.980 --> 00:23:34.579 so as we go into this week um 00:23:37.140 --> 00:23:42.740 i and you need to take time to wonder and worship at god's amazing creation 00:23:44.099 --> 00:23:48.819 you're in london so there's not much not much hope of seeing many stars as you look up 00:23:48.819 --> 00:23:50.900 but you can see god's creation in other ways 00:23:50.900 --> 00:24:02.180 so take time to worship god for his creation and his beautiful but costly plan in saving us thank you 00:24:03.940 --> 00:24:04.740 shall i just pray 00:24:06.580 --> 00:24:12.660 father i do thank you for psalm 8 i do thank you for the truth of it and lord 00:24:12.660 --> 00:24:21.300 um our failing is that we sometimes can't see it we certainly can't see it as to all of your glory 00:24:22.259 --> 00:24:29.700 help us to do so this week we pray in jesus name amen