Psalm 8
Date: February 25th, 2023
Speaker: Sam Crites
Scripture: Psalm 8
Exegetical Outline
MIT: The Lord is seen as glorious when he rescues the son of man from his weakness and gives him dominion and authority.
1a: O Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth.
1b-4: You have shown your glory in the weakness of man.
5-8: You have elevated man with glory and dominion over all your creation.
9: O Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth.
MIS: God’s majesty is seen in the glory of the son of man.
God’s majestic name fills the earth.
God’s majesty is seen in rescuing the son of man.
God’s majesty is seen in glorifying the son of man.
Introduction:
[What does it mean to see God? To see his majesty?]
What is majesty? Psalm 8 is all about majesty. Majesty is a term that we don’t really use in our ordinary everyday life. In fact, for something to be majestic, it must be out of the ordinary. We might consider a wedding to be majestic, or a presidential parade. Maybe we think of the Grand Canyon as majestic or the Hoover Dam. Majesty by its very nature is extra-ordinary.
Molly and I love to watch the Crown. In the most recent season, Tony Blair was attempting to convince the queen to modernize the monarchy. So Queen Elizabeth went through a top to bottom survey of every person employed by the royal family, from the Hereditary Grand Falconer to the Queens Herb Strewer to the Washer of the Sovereign’s Hands to the Warden of the Swans, wrestling with the question whether these hereditary roles were warranted in a modern, pluralistic Great Britain. In attacking the pageantry and pomp that surrounded the royal family, Blair was attacking transcendence, the majesty, of the royal family.
Queen Elizabeth’s response at the end of the episode encapsulates the concept of majesty. She said, “The monarchy is not rational. It is not democratic or logical or fair. Haven’t we all learned that by now? People do not want to come to a royal palace and get what they could get at home. When they come for an investiture or a state visit, when they brush up against us, they want the magic and the mystery. And the arcane, and the eccentric, and the symbolic. And…the transcendent. They want to feel like they have entered another world. That is our duty. To lift people up and transport them into another realm, not to bring them down to earth and remind them of what they already have.” The trade of the family of Great Britain is majesty, transcendence.
Such human majesty is a mere glimmer, a shadow and a reflection of what David is describing in Psalm 8. Majesty is not something that the common American is familiar with or experiences on a daily basis, but David says that all of creation is filled with it. How can someone that is so transcendent and mysterious as God be so commonplace as to fill all of creation? Let’s read Psalm 8 and find out.
8 To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8 is framed between two identical statements that come to us in verses 1 and 9. “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” David declares that God’s majestic splendor which is fundamentally not of this world, fills our world so completely that all of creation reminds him of it. The question is how? It seem that David is saying that God’s transcendent majesty is visible in the mundane, common, everyday goings on of the world. It is a paradox that is brought into harmony in our sermon text. The main idea of Psalm 8 is this: God’s majesty is seen in the glory of the son of man.
Our sermon will have three points. First, David tells us that God’s majestic name fills the earth. This is the frame of our psalm this week. The reality that God’s majestic name fills the earth. The question is, can we see it? The answer given by Romans chapter 1 is no. The natural man is blind to the majesty of God revealed in his creation. Every time the glory of God, namely his eternal power and divine nature, is glimpsed in his creation men suppress what God has revealed so that his name goes unheard and his majesty goes unappreciated.
So how is God’s majesty seen? David gives us two ways that the majesty of God is seen on the earth. The second thing David teaches us about the majesty of God is that it is particularly seen in rescuing the son of man. I do not mean this generically, as in, God’s majesty is seen in saving men, but particularly, God’s majesty is seen in rescuing the true son of man, Jesus Christ, from death. Jesus meekly went to his execution at the hands of sinful men and God rescued him through resurrection. In the weakness and frailty of the Son, the majesty of God was made manifest. Although his enemies thought they had won by putting him to death, they actually handed God the victory over death and the grave through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Finally, the third thing David teaches us about the majesty of God is that it is not only seen in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is seen in his elevation to lordship over all of creation. In Christ, the curse of Adam has been reversed and the dominion of Adam has been reestablished. Christ is the greater Adam that has inaugurated a new race of humanity that reclaims what was lost in the fall. In this, the majesty of God is seen in the glory of the Son. Like an emperor of a conquered land, God has the power and majesty necessary to elevate Christ over all. In elevating the Son, we see the strength of God.
It is easy for us to lose sight of God’s majesty. To my knowledge, none of us have ever come in direct contact with him like Isaiah did. We have not seen him robed in splendor, sitting on his throne with the Seraphim perpetually singing his praises. But we have seen Christ. We have seen his meekness. We have seen his kindness. We have seen him glorified and sitting at the right hand of the Father. To see Christ is to see God, because the majesty of God is seen in the glory of the son of man.
God’s majestic name fills the earth.
As we have been studying the Psalms, we have seen that Psalms 3-9 were all written during one particular episode of David’s life, namely, his flight from Absalom. Absalom, one of David’s sons, led a rebellion against David and attempted to overthrow David and take his kingdom for himself. Psalms 3-7 are David’s prayers to God during his flight.
Sometime between Psalm 7 and Psalm 8, God delivered David. Absalom was defeated and David was able to return to Jerusalem. If you have been with us the last two months, Psalm 8 should be a happy change of pace. Psalms 3-7 are a mix of lament, imprecation, and intercession. They are David’s prayers in his darkest hour. Psalm 8 is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving. David has been rescued and he sings this psalm to God.
He begins and ends the psalm with the exact same phrase. Look at verse 1:
Psalm 8:1
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
What is majesty? As we saw in our introduction, majesty is royal power. The authority and splendor of the king is brought together in his majesty. David is saying that the earth puts on display the authority and splendor of God.
We see this all throughout Scripture. Psalm 19 says:
Psalm 19:1-6
1 The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
Creation declares the glory of God, not in words or songs but in the path the sun tracks across the sky and in the turning of the planets and in the movement of the wind. The waterfalls roar his name and the lightning illumines his magnificence. Every goat that bleats and every bird that sings is joining a constant chorus of praises to God.
But there is a problem. While this is taking place all around us, we do not have the ability to perceive it. Turn with me to Romans 1:16-23:
Romans 1:16-23
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Paul affirms what David sings in Psalm 8. Creation is full of the splendor and majesty of God. His invisible nature is made visible in the things that he has made. The problem is that anytime a natural man perceives the merest glimmer of God’s beauty, he automatically suppresses the truth in unrighteousness. Every man, woman, and child is without excuse before God because what God has taught them in creation they have rejected, suppressed and traded for anything and everything else.
So when David begins and ends Psalm 8 worshipping the majesty of God’s name throughout the earth, he is speaking to an invisible reality that must be made visible. We need some sort of accommodation. We need our vision corrected. What we originally were supposed to perceive plainly, we must now perceive in other ways.
God’s majesty is seen by rescuing the son of man.
Which is the point of the rest of Psalm 8. David gives us two ways that God’s majesty is put on display throughout the earth. The first thing David shows us, and the second point of our sermon, is that God’s majesty is seen when he rescues the son of man from his weakness. Look with me at verses 1-4, beginning in the second part of verse 1.
Psalm 8:1b-4
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
God rescued David from Absalom. In 2 Samuel 18, the armies of David, led by Joab, defeat Absalom’s armies and Absalom is slain. The most interesting thing about David’s victory is that David does not lift a finger. He does not lead the army or strategize on how to achieve victory. He is told by a messenger and instead of celebrating, he weeps and mourns for the loss of his son.
The only one that can be credited with saving David is God himself. God delivered David from his enemies and from his son. So as we read the end of verse 1 and verse 2, it seems pretty clear that David is recognizing and admitting his weakness. He did not save himself. He was like a baby. God came in and did everything for David. And this is how it has always been for David. God called from being a shepherd to being a king. God guided his stone to strike Goliath in the one, unarmored part of his body. God protected him from Saul and removed Saul from the throne. Over and over and over again, God favored, rescued, and established David’s kingdom for him.
But this time is different. Verses 3 and 4 are like the morning after you have a near death experience. The sun seems a little brighter, your bacon is a little more savory, the birds sing a little sweeter. You seem to be able to perceive everything with a little more clarity. In that clarity, David realized just how miraculous his salvation was. He deserved everything that was happening to him. So, David is not only shocked that God saved him, but that God even thinks of him. That the creator of the universe would set his mind on David or care about David is more than David can comprehend. By saving David in his weakness, and especially when he didn’t deserve to be saved, God shows that he is a God that is able to rescue his anointed from any circumstance. He is powerful and majestic and able to save in spite of David’s weakness.
And this is not the last time that God would save his anointed one in spite of his weakness. David intentionally wrote Psalm 8 to point us to remind us of the promise God made in the Garden and point forward to that son that he was still waiting to come. Look at verse 4 a little closer.
Psalm 8:4
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
In Hebrew, there is a play on words here that we miss in the English. There are two different Hebrew words being used in verse 4 for the word man. The first man is enosh and the second man is adam. So it would read in the Hebrew something like “what is enosh that you are mindful of him and the son of adam that you care for him?”
This is significant, because the first man was Adam, the son of Adam was Seth, and the Son of Seth was Enosh. David just referenced the three progenitors of the Messianic bloodline. The son of man that would crush the head of the serpent as God promised Eve, would come from that bloodline, David’s own bloodline. Verse four is like an arrow shot from Genesis 3 through Psalm 8 to the foot of the cross. It tells a greater story than God rescuing David from Absalom. It tells of a son of man that would come who would appear weak, but would put on full display the majesty of God on the earth. So who is this future son of man?
When Philip was sent to the Ethiopian eunuch, he came upon him while he was reading from Isaiah 53. Listen to what Philip told the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 6:32-35:
Acts 6:32-35
32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.
Psalm 8 is also about Jesus Christ. He was also weak before his enemies. He did not defend himself, although he could have. He was silent and did not open his mouth. He was unjustly put to death, humiliated, betrayed, and alone.
Well not completely alone. Though he was abandoned and betrayed by everyone in his life, God did not abandon him. Psalm 16:10 says:
Psalm 16:10
10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.
Though Christ died a murderers death, though it looked like his enemies had won, though it looked like there was no hope and that the disciples were wrong about who was the true Messiah, God did not abandon the son of man. He did not leave Jesus to the corruption of death. And corruption it is, because death was not part of the original purpose of God in creation. God did not abandon David to Absalom’s revenge and he did not abandon Christ to the plans of the enemy.
It is the weakness of Christ that allows the power and majesty of God to be seen because three days after the enemies of Christ declared victory, he walked out of the tomb conquering sin, death, and the grave. This is the seminal moment of all of history. When the champion of God seemed not just weak, but totally defeated, God did what no one expected. How magnificent and power must God be that not even death is a barrier to his call?
What are your weaknesses? What are the sins that constantly plague your life? Perhaps you struggle with anger. You tend to go through life just a little frustrated. It’s not your fault, people can never seem to do things the right way or they are constantly doing that one thing that annoys you. If you were to become known for your patience and internal peace so that you no longer snapped at your wife or were harsh with your children, if you dedicated yourself to reading the Scriptures of the God who promises you peace, would God not be seen as powerful and majestic?
What if you struggled with apathy? You are a starter but not a finisher. If you were to persistently persevere in sharing the Gospel with your co-worker and God called them from death to life, would he not be seen as majestic?
If you were known as someone that struggled showing compassion and really have never had a desire to get to know people or maybe you would even say that you don’t really like people, what would people think if you became an elder? And not the kind of elder that is just a glorified church administrator. But an elder that disciples, counsels, and teaches God’s word to God’s people, caring for them because God cares for them. What would people think of the God that changed you so dramatically?
Our God is a God that does the impossible. He takes our weaknesses and turns them into his strengths. Christ did not defend himself or fight back on the way to cross because he couldn’t fight back. He is the creator of the universe. He could have just willed them to stop existing. Christ chose the path of weakness to demonstrate the majesty of God. And in response, God elevated him and gave him a name above every name.
The majesty of God is seen in the glorification of the son of man.
Which brings us to our third and final point. David gives us one more way that the majesty of God is seen in creation. The majesty of God is seen in the glorification of the son of man. Let’s read verses 5-8 again:
Psalm 8:5-8
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
David speaks in these verses about how God has not only rescued man from his weaknesses and frailties, but how he has glorified, or elevated, the son of man to a place that is a little lower than angels.
If you are reading the CSB, your translation will say that man was made a little lower than God. The word in the Hebrew is elohim which can refer to God or it can just mean heavenly beings. The ESV follows the author of Hebrews and renders it heavenly beings in Psalm 8. The point is that God has elevated the son of man to the pinnacle of earthly authority.
To understand what is taking place in these verses we have to remember what we saw in verse 4. What began with Adam is continued in David and fulfilled by Christ. Adam was set over God’s creation as his vice-regent. He was the ruler and steward over all that God had made in God’s place. But Adam failed. He fell into sin and the dominion of Adam was broken. In the midst of the fall, God made Adam a promise that a son would come that would crush the head of the serpent and fix what was broken.
The reign of David was in some ways a reconstitution of the dominion that God intended man to have. David was king and priest over God’s people in the special place that God had made for them. David also failed to steward God’s kingdom. He fell into sin. But in the middle of David’s judgment, God put away his sin and made a promise to him as well. He promised that David would always have a son to sit on the throne.
Christ is the new and better Adam and the new and better David. The dominion they were supposed to have and failed to steward has been re-inaugurated in Christ. Which is the exact thing the author of Hebrews is teaching us when he quotes Psalm 8 in Hebrews 2. Look with me at Hebrews 2:5-9:
Hebrews 2:5-9
5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere,
“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 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.
Do you see the beauty of Psalm 8? Because Jesus suffered and died. Because he was obedient to take on our weakness and suffering. Because he quietly went to the cross, not defending himself, dying a traitor’s death, beaten and abused, stripped and abandoned. Because he was obedient when his forefathers were not. God has elevated him above every ruler and power and crowned him with glory and honor.
Which might make you ask the question, what does this have to do with the majesty of God? The answer is everything! Jesus Christ has fulfilled the original purpose of man. God made Adam in his own image to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. As Adam’s descendants spread over the earth, the glory of God would have gone with them. They would have literally filled the earth with the majesty of his name because they carried his name wherever they went. But mankind failed.
Then, God chose a specific group of people to bear his name. Israel was supposed to be a people for God’s own possession, a city set on a hill to give light to a dark and broken world. As their kingdom grew and expanded, they would have filled the earth with God’s majesty and splendor. But Israel failed.
Finally, God chose an only begotten son to be his new Adam and to establish a new people. Where the first Adam disobeyed, the second Adam submitted to the will of the Father. Where the first kingdom rebelled, the new kingdom was established and not even the gates of hell will prevail against it. Jesus Christ restores mankind to their rightful role, spreading the majesty and glory of God throughout the earth, in the Church.
We are a new mankind under a new Adam. We are a new people of God under a new David. We are the majesty of God made visible throughout the earth because Jesus Christ has been crowned with glory and honor and everything in all of creation has been put under his feet. We are united to him and he is image of the glory of God.
Conclusion
As we conclude, Psalm 8 is a psalm about the majesty of God. But that majesty is not seen in jewels and crowns. It is not seen in throne rooms and tapestries. It is seen in an only begotten son who humbled himself in obedience to the Father. He was weak and frail so that the strength of God could be demonstrated by rescuing him through death. And when he was called back to life, God made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. He was corrected the sins and failings of his fathers and was given their dominion, to rule and reign in righteous over the people of God.
This is how we see the majesty of God on the earth. It does not have to be fabricated with pomp and pageantry. It is self-evident. The invisible God was made visible in the incarnation of the Son, and his majesty and splendor is spread throughout the world by his Church.
Let’s pray.