So Psalm chapter eight, please listen as I read the word of God. To the choir master, according to the Gitteth, 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 babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes. You 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 all beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the path of the seas. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. This is the very word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well, I prayed about being Distracted. Are you distracted? I've heard that we live in an age of distraction, and I want to see where that phrase came from. You know, in sermons I often will connect it to something going on in society or whatever, and so as I started researching the phrase, the age of distraction, I got completely distracted. And I don't know how much time went by and I was on a completely different topic because that's what the internet will do to you. And that's just the world we live in. It's the age of distraction or the information age. All this information at our fingertips and messages and emails and phone calls and things we have to buy and do. And they fill our time and they distract us. which makes us less productive, because if we're distracted from doing what we're supposed to be doing, then it's taking us longer to do what we need to do, giving us less time. Of course, this time of year, this time between Thanksgiving and New Year's is a very busy time of year, maybe the busiest time of year, which makes it the most distracted time of year. There's shopping to do and parties to go to and dinners and gatherings. in the midst of our already distracted lives. So for a minute, I want to take us back. Back to a time before smartphones and cell phones. Before the internet. Yes, kids, a time existed. Back before automobiles, cars. Back before electricity. Back to when people would wake up early somehow, probably because they went to bed early, and they saw beautiful sunrises, and they took walks on chilly mornings, or they looked up in the middle of the night into the skies with no light pollution and just saw glitter everywhere. Remind us that we're very small and insignificant in the scheme of a natural and powerful world. What would you be thinking about? What would you be dreaming? It wouldn't be about what age you can possibly retire at or what your 401k is doing or what the stock market's doing. Wouldn't be about the latest cultural trend or what you can buy. Perhaps you'd ponder life and what it means to be alive and your place in the world. And would you feel big in a small world or small in a big world? Would you feel important or insignificant? It's hard to know, right? I'm not trying to romanticize what it would be like to live in that world. I appreciate electricity and heat and air conditioning and indoor plumbing. Thank God for indoor plumbing. But somehow we've lost our ability to reflect, to be still. God tells us, be still and know I'm God. We've lost the ability to wait with anticipation, to exercise patience, because nothing would have come easy or quick back then. This Advent season, which is something we think about these weeks, it's not dogmatically a holiday we follow in the Reformed world, but Advent means arrival or coming. It's a waiting or looking forward to the arrival of Jesus. Of course he has came, but it's for his celebration, and we think like the Old Testament saints for centuries, for millennia, were waiting for that arrival. And we too are waiting for a second coming. And to do that in this time, we are in the Psalms of David as he awaited to be king. It's an extension of our sermon series in 1 Samuel. We're at a point where David has been anointed king, He's in the house of Saul. He just killed Goliath and became a hero, and now Saul is jealous of David, and David's on the run. And David is supposed to be the king. These four weeks, we're looking at the heart of a man that's called a man after God's own heart, who spent a lot of time reflecting. Whether it was because when he was on the run and hiding in caves, Alone. We can read those Psalms, and we will probably next year. Or when he was still a shepherd, watching over sheep in the middle of the night. So last week, Pastor Pablo preached on Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He leads me lie down in green pastures. as David was pondering being a shepherd, maybe writing it as he was a shepherd, thinking about God the good shepherd, but then reminding us of this season when Jesus Christ comes and he says, I am the good shepherd, and who are the first people to greet him as at birth but shepherds, who are keeping watch at night like David would. Maybe they were reflecting. when angels appeared in the sky and they said, behold, the child is born who will be the king, he's the son of David, in the town of David, in Bethlehem. Today maybe there's a similar scene. where Shepherd David, in the many nights he kept watch over the sheep, is just reflecting, staring off into the heavens and the vastness of the Lord's work, and he writes, oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. Let's read this psalm in awe of two things. The greatness of God and God's great love for us. That's what David's saying. Greatness of God and God's great love for us, and that's not the outline. Actually, the outline is very simply David, Jesus, us. Let's look at what David does in this psalm. It's like he's tracing Genesis 1. You know Genesis 1, it starts off, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And here David says, how majestic is your name in all the earth, you have set your glory above the heavens. And then as Genesis one goes on, what do we see but God fills the heavens with a moon and stars and all the planets. And verse three, when I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place. And the next thing in creation is God will then fill the earth. the skies and the land and the seas with birds and beasts and fishes, and David ponders that too in verse seven and eight. All the sheep and oxen, all the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, and whatever passes along the paths of the seas. And so David is reflecting on creation, and then what's that pinnacle of creation, but God creating man and woman in his image. But not just that, giving them dominion over all that he created. And that's right at the center of the psalm, and the central point of this psalm is where the focus is, but in Genesis 1, that's the pinnacle of creation. What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings, and crown him with glory and honor. You have given dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet. It reminds us of Genesis 1 26, then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, over the livestock, and over all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And then God declares it all very good. So there's a reflection there on creation. And David in a sense is saying, you made all this. You care about me? What is man that you were mindful of him? You put me in charge of over all this? Were us, as humanity, made in the image of God? Of course, David very literally would be as the king over all of it. Give a look at creation and just see that and see the magnitude of the magnificence of what God has made. I shared a video on my Facebook page. You could see it on gratuitous beauty. Beauty that is in creation and what God has made that was for no other reason than but to be beautiful. And tropical fish, and birds, and flowers, and just the way animals move, and how they look, and the diversity. And then you think, God did all that, and He made us. And we can appreciate beauty. Like, it's one thing for beauty to exist, but we appreciate it. How do we have this hunger for beauty? And we know it. What does it mean that you're mindful of Him? David can't believe it. Can you believe it? When is David writing this? We don't know for sure. Again, there's a sense that he's looking up at the heavens, but I would guess David did that a lot, again, as a shepherd or when he was on the run or whenever. But many commentators believe this is written around the time or right after David slays Goliath. This is conjecture now, but there's connections between this psalm and that story, and it begins with the opening note. To the choir master according to the Gittith, a psalm of David. And that word Gittith is from the derivation of the word Gittite. And a Gittite is somebody from Gath. So in the Old Testament, you can look up, do a search for Gittite, and you'll see it's this person was, you know, from the Philistines at Gittite, or sometimes it'll say from Gath. And so, who are the Philistines? Well, this was where Goliath was from, and Gath was a city of the Philistines. The word Gath actually means wine press. And that word had carried over into the Hebrew, and so some commentators say, no, no, this is a psalm at the grape harvest. And this note is on three psalms, actually. One of them is not even the Psalm of David. And so maybe this was a psalm that was sung at the harvest of the grape harvest. And yet others said, no, no, no, the word Gittite just remains from Gath. This is maybe sung to a hymn or a musical composition from Gath of the Philistines. And others said, no, no, this is to be played on an instrument from Gath, on the Gittite, the Gittite instrument. It's interesting because the word guitar has in its etymology Gittite. at least some think, so it's a stringed instrument. Whatever it is, it's from Gath. All those three meanings, it's from Gath and Gath is of the Philistines, and where do we meet Gath, this place of the Philistines, but Goliath of Gath? And so whether David wrote this as a response to his victory over the hero of that city, Or it's just some other success that David had. It can apply. Can you imagine in that story, David is coming in from watching the sheep. He's Saul's armor bearer, but he's going back and forth between Bethlehem and Saul. He's going to watch his father's sheep and help his father, and his brothers are off at war. And he comes in one day, and his father says, go to the battlefield and bring these supplies, food to your brothers, and to their commander. He probably wants to butter up the commander to give the brothers a better place or something. And so David is sent into the battle, and he's excited, because he's a kid. He wants to see some action. He's either like a ball boy or a water boy. Right? He's like a ball boy. He's carrying Saul's armor. He's like a water boy. He's carrying the supplies for the athletes, for the soldiers. But he gets there, and they're not soldiering. They're not fighting. They're actually fighting amongst themselves. And they're afraid. He's like, you guys are not... And then him, the ball boy, gets put in the game. And he wins the championship. He defeats Saul. The victory goes to Israel. He defeats Goliath. The victory goes to Israel. And he's suddenly a hero. One minute an obscure pretty boy, the next minute the hero of Israel. And he ponders. What is man that you're mindful of him, Lord? How did this happen? That's a concept that we see in the scriptures quite often. David says that in Psalm 144. Oh Lord, what is man that you regard him or the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath. His days are like a passing shadow. We come and we go. And yet you care about us. Job says it in the midst of suffering. He was odious and he tells God, what is man that you make so much of him that you set your heart on him? Leave me be, I'm terrible. Isaiah in reflecting on the greatness of God and then what man is like says in Isaiah 40, to whom then will you liken God or what likeness can compare with him? A few verses later, do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, like nothing. compared to the Creator. And yet, it is He who makes us strong, because He cares about us. We see other parts of this Psalm fit the David and Goliath story, beside just the Gath connection. In 1 Samuel 17, in that David and Goliath story, David goes down to Goliath, he's gonna meet him in battle, and it says, when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods, and the Philistine said to David, come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. And David said to the Philistine, you come to me with sword and with spear, and with Javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. And David goes on and he says, this day the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head and give the dead bodies of the hosts of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And at this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand. And in that exchange you see so much of this psalm. How majestic is your name in all the earth and David says by the name of the Lord of hosts and then all the earth will know. And in this psalm, man is given dominion over the animals and the beasts and the birds, and David says, I'm gonna feed your rotting corpse to them. And out of the mouth and babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger, and does not Goliath consider him a babe? You boy. And so it's very likely that David, after this victory or some victory, could have written this psalm just Unimaginable! You see what David is doing, he's well acquainted with his place in the universe, as we've said, and the God of all this, from the largest stars, to the littlest speck, from the heavens, to the helpless influence, that God shows his might through. And David realizes, he made me king over all this. Remember, he was anointed to be king. Right now he's a water boy. And it dawns on him. You ever have that happen? Like I think of like high school students nowadays, and you're like, they're doing good, they know they're gonna graduate high school. For many nowadays, it's not like a question. I know in past generations there are still people in places where they're not sure, but you go to high school, you're gonna graduate, but when it happens, there's still excitement. The excitement of graduation is not removed because you know you're gonna graduate. And David knows he's gonna be king, and yet when it becomes like real, like this might really happen. What? Or do you ever take things for granted in your life? We do, right? We wake up, get ready for work or school. We go. Go about your day. Every day, I mean, goes by. A year goes by. We're at the end of 2021 already. But then, like, there's moments that just kind of hit you. Like, you gave me this, God? Like, I'm sitting here, like, taking it for granted. I think of that when I think of my wife and my kids. Like, you gave me this wife, Susan, and these kids, Adam, Ariel, Asher, like, you know what kind of life I live? I don't deserve this. I take it for granted that it hits me. Or pastoring this church, like, like, like my friends from my former life can't believe I'm a pastor. And I look out and I say, like, The Lord has me as an under-shepherd to y'all. Like, what? Who am I? What's it for you? You ever sit and reflect? You have time to think of the daily blessings in your life, and in our life, and then realize that God, the Creator of the universe, has blessed you in these ways. Who are you? David is reflecting, and whether he's king already, or he's amazed that he's going to be king, he's like, what is happening? And yet David knew that he wasn't the man. David looked forward to his own son in another psalm where he said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. And it's interesting, because our psalm says, oh Lord, our Lord, and that psalm says, the Lord said to my Lord, and both psalms use two words for Lord. The first one being Yahweh, the covenant name of God, and the other one is Adonai, ruler, king. And so when David uses that same construction, he says, the Lord, that being God, said to my Lord, the one I consider king, he's not referring to himself, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. And our psalm today says, placed under your feet. David realizes he's not ultimately the man. There will be another. And Jesus applies this to himself as the Messiah. And we see David is gonna fail in a major way, probably next year when we get back to 1 Samuel. And just as Adam was the pinnacle of God's creation, God's king in creation and falls, David represents the pinnacle of God's work in fallen creation. We have to understand David's significance. Man falls in the garden. God has reestablished a new creation Israel, a new garden, a land flowing with milk and honey and figs and pomegranates. And he sets up a new son, Adam, David. Pablo last year taught about how the king was to be a son of God. And yet David causes another exile out of the garden, being Israel. And you say, well, wait a minute, how does that happen? That's centuries later. David's sin with Bathsheba and his multiple wives and how he handles his kids filters through to Solomon, and Solomon has many wives who turn his heart away from the Lord, and does the same mistakes with his kids until the kingdom splits and until they're ultimately exiled. You gotta see, this is a new garden and a new fall. And God's son has failed again. Adam, David. And that is why many commentators point to this psalm as a messianic psalm. You say, what is a messianic psalm? Because, first of all, I could show you how every single psalm I read will point us to Christ. I could show you every one. But not every one is foretelling Christ. There are some very specifically that are prophesying who Christ is. And you read this one, and not everybody considers it messianic because it is a general statement on creation and man's place in creation. But it's quoted three times in the New Testament, at least, three very specifically, applying it to Jesus Christ. So Hebrews 2, for instance, quotes it in an extensive fashion. Hebrews 2.5, for it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 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 a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and with honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. And then Hebrews goes on and says, now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present we do not see everything in subjection to him, but we will, but we see him for a little while while he 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. So Hebrews is applying this to Jesus Christ, that he is the man. in which everything will truly be placed in their subjection under his feet. But then get this, for it is fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist, he's creator, in bringing many sons to glory. That connects us back with the psalm, because what does it say? You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. And so now it's back to us. David's applying it to himself, it foreshadows Christ, and then it comes right back on us because in Christ's glorification, he brings us to glory. It's also quoted in 1 Corinthians 15, that all things will be placed in subjection under his feet. Jesus quotes this to the religious leaders in Matthew chapter 21. When he comes into Jerusalem, right before his crucifixion, when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David. They were indignant, and they said to him, do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, yes, have you not read, out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes, you have prepared praise. And that's what this says. Out of the mouths and babes, you have established strength because of your foes. You still the enemy and the avenger. that 1st Corinthians 15 and saying he will put all things in subjection under his feet, says the last thing will be death itself. Because before resurrection and glory there must be suffering, because it's a fallen creation. We need to be restored. Ultimately we see what David is saying here, because as he ponders God's works, and then he realizes, this God loves me, he could do nothing else but glorify the Lord. We see that in the refrain, in the beginning and the end. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. at the beginning in verse one and in verse nine. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Jesus' name means something. And at his birth, when the angel comes to Joseph, he says, you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. And then a few verses later it says, And they, being the people, will call His name Emmanuel, which means God with us. In other words, this man named Jesus, when people look at Him, they will say, God is with us. It's a beautiful Christmas verse. It also shows the two intentions of our Lord, because He is Savior God in the name Jesus, and He is the God who dwells with us, in the name Emmanuel. As I've taught before, that's the Exodus paradigm. Exodus 1-20 shows God as Deliverer or Savior, and Exodus 20-40 shows God as dwelling with His people. That is the name of Jesus. But the New Testament applies to Jesus' name this same glory. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth. In Acts chapter 3 and 4, we see Peter and John, they heal a lame man. The guy comes to them. They say, he wants money, he doesn't want healing. Peter says, I don't have any money to give you, but what I have is far greater. In the name of Jesus Christ, rise and walk. The man walks. And then they go on to say, there is salvation in no other name, but in the name of Jesus Christ. So the religious authorities, they arrest these disciples, and they don't know what to do with it, and they can't really come down hard on them because they're popular. And so they say, well just send them off and tell them to stop preaching and doing things in that name. Peter says, you think I'm gonna listen to you over the Lord? There's salvation in no other name but the name of Jesus. Philippians 2, at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now, you ever hear somebody say, where's it say in the Bible that Jesus is God? I'm gonna give it to you. Acts chapter 2 and Romans 10 say, Acts 2, all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Romans 10 says everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. They both apply that to Jesus. Now you might say, well that's the word kyrios in the Greek, and that means, you know, yeah, Jesus was a Lord, doesn't mean he's God. They're quoting from Joel 2.32, that's your key verse. When Joel talks about the spirit being poured out, in Acts 2 is that fulfillment of that in Pentecost. And it says, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Do you know what word it uses for Lord? Yahweh. The covenant name of God. Only one God. In other words, when the New Testament says, all call upon the name of the Lord will be saved, they're quoting the Old Testament, which says that is God. And these passages say that is Jesus. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. And that brings us to us. I've already said we are in this passage too because this is a general passage, not only about Adam, not only about David, yes, pointing to Christ, amen. But this is a psalm on all of our lips, I hope. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You've set your glory above the heavens. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place. Man, what am I that you're mindful of me? Who am I? Am I just applying that? That's exactly what Jesus tells us. In Acts chapter one, verse eight, at Christ's ascension. He said to him, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria to the end of the earth. Let me fill that in before I explain it. At the end of Matthew, at the Great Commission, All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. David opens the psalm, of course, that you're, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You set your glory upon the heavens. All that authority has been given to Jesus, has been put under his feet, as our psalm tells us. Then he says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. In other words, we are restored back to the original purpose in the garden, to be fruitful and multiply and fill and subdue the earth. Christ is putting all things under subjection under us, but not to lead it in power, but in weakness and humility, as he is raising us to positions of glory in him. You get it? Jesus is the perfect man who restores us to our place in the garden, to one day we will be. That's why the last two chapters of the Bible reflect the first two chapters of the Bible. We're back in a garden-like existence with God, and he's dwelling with his people. Until then, we reflect him, we image him forth in creation. And the only way to do that, because man has always tried to do that out of power, is out of a position of humility. And the only way to do that is to think like this psalm. To stand in awe of Creator God and Savior God, who sent His only begotten Son, so that you can be called a son and daughter of God. Look at the work of His hands. And He has a job for you. I pray that this Christmas we're reminded of this great truth. And I think maybe Mary, the mother of Christ on earth, helps us there. There's a song that's out around Christmastime about Mary. Mary, did you know? And it usually gets attacked by people saying, well, yes, she knew. God told her. And there's articles about this. How silly of a song, Mary, did you know? Yes, she knew. So song has these lyrics. Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water? Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters? Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new? This child that you delivered will soon deliver you. And it goes on and on, and they say, well, of course she knew that he was gonna, his name is Jesus, it means God saves. And I'm like, man, that just doesn't live in the real world. That's like if we sang a song to the disciples and said, well, Peter, did you know that Jesus would be delivered over and crucified and go into grave, but he'd rise in three days? By the way, did it look like Peter knew that? Was he told that? Three times at least. There's all kinds of things we know in our heads, or maybe, and we don't under, and then when it happens, you ponder them. And you see that in Mary's life. When the shepherds come and visit, it says she treasured these things in her heart. She pondered them. She rolled them around, like this is really happening. When Jesus was lost at the temple, she kind of scolded him. And then she rebuked him when he was, he was bringing too much attention on the family when he was an adult. Did Mary know? She was a great woman of faith, and I believe she trusted God, but I don't think she knew it to what we, and even if she knew it in her head, did she really know it? And yet, when that promise was made to her, and we see that in Luke's gospel, Mary's song, the Magnificat, she sings of the Lord and magnifies the Lord, it's as if she's saying, What is woman that you are mindful of her? Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked on the humble estate of His servant. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. Can you picture her saying, oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth? This Christmas season, Advent season, Christmastime, whatever you wanna call it, perhaps take some time, some morning, wake up early, Or some in the evening go out, take a walk, sit on your porch, watch the sun rise or set, look at the stars, just imagine God. Think of his greatness in creation. Look at something beautiful and breathtaking. And then think he knows you. And he loves you. And you will say this psalm. Maybe read this psalm as you're doing it. Who am I that you are mindful of me? You care for me. God did all this, Creator God. And He looks at you and smiles on you on account of His Son, Jesus. That is why Jesus came. He is Savior God. His name means Savior. And He came to dwell with us. To be your King. Is He your King? He could be by faith. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Let's pray.