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assistance in the service. People
who've been here for a while and know me, there's an acronym,
OTS, means an opportunity to serve. And what some people will
tell you is when I say it's an OTS, it's an opportunity for
somebody else to do the service. And that's what dear Daniel found
out when I asked him if he would do the children's sermon, and
I very much appreciate it. Years ago, we had a younger member
of this congregation, and we had the live nativity up on Main
Street at that time. And I was looking for him to
clean up, and he was nowhere to be found. And so I went inside,
and he was hiding behind the computers that we used to process
the photographs that we did for people. And I said, well, I'll
just call him Joe. And I said, Joe, I've been looking
for you. He said, well, I knew you were looking for me, because
there was going to be an OTS outside. And it's cold, and I
don't want to be there. So at least he confessed that
he knew I was after him. OK, we're in Psalm 8 this morning.
This is a great psalm. Kevin and Daniel have given us
a head start, which is great. Let me just read it. This is
out of the English Standard Version. The first line, interestingly,
in fact, in the French Bible, the first line is what you have
in your Bible that's kind of the instructions to the choir
master. That's actually verse one in French, because it's part
of the psalm. So it says this, to the choir master, according
to the critique, the liturgical term, 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
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. The Word of the Living
God, let's pray that He will bless this time that we have
together studying it. This is a glorious psalm, Father
God, so much we could talk about and preach about. But we pray
that you will open our eyes to see the beauty of you, your creation,
of our standing in that creation, of the special place that you
have given us in that creation, and the great work that Christ
has done so that we can have a right relationship with you
in that creation. We pray these things in his name,
amen. just want to start a little advertisement. Somebody, and
I don't know if this is out on the bookcase or not, but someone
gave a Christmas gift to Julie and me, and it's Dane Ortlund.
You might have heard of Dane Ortlund. He's written several
books. In the Lord I Take Refuge is the title. In the Lord I Take
Refuge. And it is a devotional book on
the Psalms, 150 devotionals. And we've been reading from it,
Julie and I have, and it's excellent. It's really a wonderful, wonderful
devotional book. In fact, I've given it to two
other people since then because I liked it so much. Dane Ortland,
In the Lord I Take Refuge. This psalm is a psalm that C.S. Lewis called a short, exquisite
lyric. It's a direct messianic psalm
of praise. I was in seminary and somebody
said, how many Psalms are messianic? And people came up with 12, 10,
15, and the professor said, all 150. messianic, but there are some
that are directly messianic in the sense as early Elder Kevin
Horne said they're quoted directly in the New Testament and this
is one of them. And it continues, if you have a Bible open or if
you're on your phone you can go back up to Psalm 7 and the
last verse of that Psalm is, I will give thanks to the Lord
because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name
of the Lord Most High and then this starts, O Lord our Lord
how majestic is your name in all the earth. So it's really
a continuation of that psalm. The themes are the glory of God,
his excellent and majestic name proclaimed even by infants, and
man's privileged place in his creation. So if you're taking
notes, the first point is the majesty of God is unfathomable. In other words, it cannot be
completely understood. The majesty of God is unfathomable. God is gloriously majestic and
has created a universe around us that nobody can fully grasp
or comprehend. I've always had some interest
in astronomy, although I'm not very good at it. Some of you may have followed
this James Webb telescope that's about three times the size of
the Hubble telescope, which was launched, obviously, some time
back. It's close to a million miles from Earth. And it's opening
vistas of the universe that were previously unseen, were theorized,
but unseen. And of course, what we're finding
is the universe is enormous, much bigger than anybody thought,
and is absolutely full of galaxies and stars. It is, in a sense,
incomprehensible. We can't completely understand
or grasp it. And you know, the writers of
the Old Testament understand this. Do you remember when, if
you've read the book of Job, you remember when you get to
the end of it, there's Job and they're the comforters, and then
this young Turk is one of my seminary professors called him.
Elihu comes in to offer his advice to Job, right? And then in 38,
39, 40, 41, and 42, we had Job's confrontation, his encounter,
we can call it, with God. And how does God start? Well,
here's how he starts. Where were you When I laid the
foundation of the earth, tell me if you have understanding.
Well, that's a starter for you. Where were you when I laid the
foundation of the earth? And then keep reading. What does
he say? Can you stop a wave on the sand?
Did you put the Pleiades into the sky? On and on and on. What
happens at the end? Job says, oh yeah, I understand.
No, what does he say? I spoke of things I shouldn't have. I
didn't even know what I was talking about. I repent in sackcloth and ashes. And then what happens? God blesses
him. It's just wonderful. Okay, Job 38.4, sermons about
Psalm 8. Isaiah 40, who has measured the
waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens by
the span and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure and
weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales. Wow. You see, the Old Testament
writers had a grasp of God's enormity. Some of you have been
here a long time and realize that before I went into the ministry,
I had a career in banking. And I remember one day a customer
who was a physicist had a business that we were helping with and
he was in the bank and he was talking to me in my office and
he said, you know, when you get to the origin of the universe,
you're out of the realm of physics and you're into the realm of
theology. Some of us are old enough to remember that at one
time, theology was called, what, does anybody remember? The queen
of the sciences. The queen of the sciences, why?
Because, yeah, Silas knows it, because, why? Because the assumption,
which no longer holds in our culture, was that theology informed
everybody's worldview. What's our view of God? What's
our view of God? Are we in awe of His immense
and unfathomable power? Does our daily devotional and
contemplation include thinking of the enormity, the incomprehensibility
of God? I confess this is a personal
shortcoming for me. I don't think I meditate enough.
on God's greatness and studying this psalm and preparing it for
the message today made me think more and more about how I need
to contemplate that, I need to think about it, I need to grasp
the enormity of God. Do we look at the creation around
us and worship God as its creator? My dear father-in-law who went
on to heaven a number of years ago, some of you in this congregation
knew, and he said the real moment of coming to Christ was where
he stopped worshiping the creation and started worshiping the Creator.
He stopped worshiping the creation and started worshiping the Creator.
Because you see every encounter in the Bible, Old Testament and
in the New as well, where there's an encounter with the living
God. there is awe. Job I just mentioned, Moses,
take off your sandals, you're on holy ground, right? Manoah
and his wife, Samson, remember the God appearing in the flame? I mean these are ones just coming
off the top of my head, there are plenty of others. In the
Old Testament there is always a sense of I don't even belong
here with you. So we need to have that view that the majesty
of God is unfathomable. And what's interesting, look
in verse 2. Out of the mouth of babes and infants you have
established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy
and the avenger." Now Jesus quotes this, not only is Psalm 8 quoted
directly in Hebrews chapter 2, Jesus quotes this in the triumphal
entry. What happens? He comes in, he's cleansed the
temple, he's healing people. And the scriptures say the Pharisees
and the teachers of the law are indignant. And so, you know,
this is bellows on the fire from Jesus. So he quotes this. He
says, haven't you ever heard out of the mouth of babes and
infants you have established praise? He quotes it, Matthew
21, 16, I think it is. He quotes it to say, look Pharisees,
this is who I am, I'm God. I am God incarnate. So he affirms he's the son of
David, the Lord worthy of praise. There is a direct Messianic connection
with Psalm 8. So we join with David in our
wonder at God's immensity, his enormity, and his unfathomable
majesty. Now, majesty of God is unfathomable. Second point is, man's significance
comes from a right relationship with God. Man's significance,
that is our meaning, comes from a right relationship with God. Where does our sense of significance
come from? Is it where we live? Is it our
money? Is it our accomplishments, our
family, where our kids went to school, what they're doing now,
what we're doing in retirement, where we're traveling? Fill in
the blank. The list goes on. If you're younger,
maybe it's your popularity at school, your Instagram account,
your social media page. whatever is on this and whatever
you're communicating with this, the college you'll attend, again,
the list goes on. And David, you see, asks that
question about significance. When I look at your heavens,
verse three, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars
that you set in place, isn't that personification beautiful?
The work of your fingers. What is man that you are mindful
of him and the son of man that you care for him? David lived
in a time where there wasn't, I believe it's called ambient
light, where there's light from cities or streetlights or whatever. So as he had sheep and he's looking
up in the heavens, what happens? It's very, very dark, so he can
see this vast universe that's around him. And he's thinking,
man, who am I? Who is man? Who are we in this
vast universe that you created? Who are we that you are mindful
of us? The son of man that you care for him. Now, there's a
sense in which man is insignificant. The scripture, Psalm 103, as
for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of
the field. The wind blows over it and it
is gone and its place remembers it no more. James chapter four,
what is your life? You are a mist that appears for
a little while and then vanishes. Wow. So we need to be careful
not to have an exaggerated sense of self-importance. Even the
longest life is short relative to human history, certainly relative
to eternity. I had a great uncle that is my
grandfather's youngest brother. So two generations before me.
He just died within the last, I'd say, 12 or 15 years. He was
102. So he had a very long life. But even his life ended and he
went on to heaven. The expression that graveyards
are full of indispensable people has some truth to it. I was from
a former ruling elder here about 35 years ago. Graveyards are
full of indispensable people. When I was at the bank where
I told you about earlier, in 1996 I had the year of my life.
A great year of, there's a story coming to this, it's not just
I'm bragging. I don't want somebody to think I'm bragging, but I
had a great year by God's grace. And so another bank came in to
purchase us. Some of you have been through
this in the corporate world. And I thought, great, I'm all set.
I'm in mental management. I'll get the same job or a better
job. This company will see me as a really valuable employee.
So imagine my surprise, and some of you who've been here a long
time will remember this. Imagine my surprise when they
called me in and said, you know, we don't think you're going to
be a fit with this new company. That's what you call an exaggerated
sense of self-importance. So out the door, I went. But
you know what? God had a plan, because I had a wonderful severance
package. I worked for two years for another bank, and then I
came here, and this church put me through seminary, and I'm
standing in front of you today. So God had a plan in all of it,
even though it wasn't apparent at that time. Here's the neat part. Here's
the neat part. Look what God has done. Look
what God has done. Verse five, you have made him,
yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly being.
Some of you may have God in your translation, so we can talk about
that during the sermon discussion. the words Elohim in Hebrew, 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. And he lists in verses seven and eight everything that
the Lord has dominion over. So what's he done? He's made
us a little lower than the heavenly beings. I mean, this is exciting
stuff. And you can read through this
psalm, especially if you've read it a lot, and just not really
grasp hold of that. Say, wow. has made us a little
lower than the heavenly beings, crowned us with honor and glory,
and as Genesis 1, 26, 27, and 28, he's given us dominion over
the earth. He has given us, as the title
of the sermon indicates, a special place, a special place in his
creation. So God's the creator, and we
are the created beings. Yet we're significant only because
of what he says here in verses five and six. We're significant
because of what God has done, right? The only meaning in life comes
from a right relationship with God who has given man a very
special place in his creation. Now, one of my seminary professors
said, what is the best part of the meal? Well, for some of us,
maybe not for all of us, but for some of us, and certainly
for me, it's the dessert. Right, it's the dessert. Julie made a pie for her grandmother
years ago, and her mother went in, and all she had eaten was
the dessert. There was a whole meal there, and the lemon pie
was all eaten up. She was like 97, so you know,
it was fine. Nobody's gonna be a food policeman for somebody
who's 97 years old. But what did my seminary professors
say? Man was made last because he's the best. You have all the
creation and then you get, right, in the Genesis account, who's
the last to be created? Adam, right, and then Eve. That's
the story, right? That's the account in Genesis. So man's significance comes from
a right relationship with God and point number three, Christ
makes our relationship with God right. Now I want us to really
look at this because We want to ask the questions, how do
we have a right relationship with God, and how do we live
a meaningful life? How do we live a meaningful life? When I took French in college,
I actually studied the existentialists, Sartre, Camus, and some of the
others, and some of you may have studied them too. In English,
I remember there was a book by Sartre called Lettres et le néant,
Being and Nothingness, and you would think, well, Being and
Nothingness can't be that long, and it's like 700 pages. It's
really a long book. And their argument was, well,
we just can't have any meaning. We have to have meaning in the
moment, right? Because there's no exterior force. There's nobody like God. And
we can't have a right relationship. But I believe Psalm 8 and the
Bible teach we can have the right relationship, and we do have
it. Here's the problem, we have to talk about that first. We've
turned from God, from the fall in Genesis 3, the murder of Abel
in Genesis 4, and the rest of Old Testament covenant history,
what do we have? We have, all through here, We
have the problems of Israel. We did a series in this congregation
a couple of years ago on the kings, a sermon series. Some
of you probably remember it because you were here. And we went through
the books of first and second kings. And what happens? Oh,
the next king will be the one. The next king will be the one.
The next king, oh, we have David. And look what happened to him.
Oh, we have Solomon, the divided kingdom. Oh, well, we're in Jerusalem
and we're in Judah. So we're in the kingdom where
the holy city is, the city of David. We're okay. And then what? No. A good king, a bad king,
a good king, a bad king, and finally what? The covenant breaking
and the Israelites deservedly go into exile in Babylonia, right? That's the history of the Old
Testament. And the prophets are sent and
they warn the people and they come and they talk to them and
they don't pay any attention. So the exile was the just punishment
for Israel's idolatry. So our natural tendency is to
turn away from God, exalt ourselves rather than this marvelous creator
of the universe. The culture around us is turned
from God. There's not respect for human dignity. There's terrible
violence around us. We have the scourge of abortion
in our land. We have terrible crime. There is so much that shows that
we are not following God, as Daniel said in his sermon, that
we're not, in fact, being good stewards of what he has given
us. there are many scientific and utilitarian explanations
rather than theological ones. For some reason the machine I'm
on at the particular gym I go to in Manassas has the History
Channel in front of it and most of, I guess it's the time of
day I go, it's the same programming I suppose and it's usually on
the relationship of ancient documents like the Bible here to extraterrestrials. And theories like extraterrestrials,
the Garden of Eden is a laboratory for extraterrestrials and the
certain angels that we're seeing in the Bible were really visitors
from another planet. Now, you know, some of us are
chuckling and I understand why, but you know what? There are
people who believe that. And that's one reason we need
to watch that is so that we can engage them and say, well, let
me give you an alternative. There's an alternative right
here. And it's not an extraterrestrial laboratory. It's actually where
God put the first two human beings, Adam and Eve. And it's a way
to engage people. So when I was first watching
it, I was like, oh my goodness, what is this? And then after two or three
times there, I thought, well, God must have me here at this
time of day for a reason so that I see this and learn to engage.
with people who believe that, because that's a preeminent thought.
We're on a spectrum, right? We're on a spectrum. We're not
unique. It's all around us. We haven't
made good respondents to the honor that God has given us.
We've not taken good care of his creation. But don't miss
this. God, in his mercy, has provided
a savior for us. This section from Hebrews is
short, so just bear with me. What is man that you are mindful
of him? This is a direct quote out of the psalm in Hebrews.
The son of man that you care for him, you made him a little
lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor and
put everything under his feet. In putting everything under him,
God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present,
we do not see everything subject to him. But we see who? What was the right answer for
the kids? Jesus, exactly. We see Jesus, who was made where? A little lower than the angels,
now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so
that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. Wow,
you could think about that all afternoon. Jesus willingly became
lower than the angels in order to identify with us, to save
us, to call us into salvation and to reconcile our relationship
to God. God whose fingers made the moon
and stars sent his son in order to reconcile us to him. The reason
that we are crowned with honor and glory is that Christ's redeeming
work that is buying us out of slavery to sin, has made us fit
to be crowned with honor and glory. And it came at a high
price, the author of Hebrews tells us. It came by his death. And in him, in Jesus, we are
made whole and restored. A seminary professor of Gospels,
probably is retired now, and this was 20, 21 years ago. And
I remember this was a man who knew the Greek New Testament
probably as well or better than I know the Spanish Bible. And
one night he was talking to us, and he said, you know, I don't
know. There's going to be some seminary
language here, but I'll explain it. He said, you know, I don't
think as long as I study the Gospels, I will ever understand
the humiliation of Christ. Now, what did he mean by the
humiliation of Christ? Well, what he meant, he went on to
explain, actually, was that Christ came out of the glory of heaven.
Sometimes, you know, we think of Christ at the incarnation,
and it's true. That's when he came in his human
form. But let's not forget. Triune God, right, exists forever,
no beginning, no end, right? Father, Son, Holy Spirit, we're
all agreed on that? Okay, so no beginning, no end,
right? And so the unbroken fellowship,
the unbroken fellowship, Al Muinne, my professor said, in heaven,
of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and Jesus willingly,
the scriptures say, came down here to save us after the mess
we made. He said, nope, I'm going to save
you. I'm going to rescue you. I'm going to buy you back. And
I'm going to make you like me. That's what Hebrews is saying
when it not only confirms the identity of Christ, that he's
the second person of the Trinity, but when it says, here's what
he had to do. It's unbelievable. How do you view your life? Are you searching for purpose
in your life? We used to use the word numbing, now I think
the word that people use is medicate. How do we medicate ourselves?
Do we medicate ourselves with TV, with recreation, with alcohol,
with drugs, with money, with spending, with the internet,
with entertainment, with busyness? Are we medicating ourselves with
anything other than this? Do you have an intimate relationship
with the creator of the universe or do you feel distant from him?
If you have an intimate relationship, keep cultivating it. Keep on
going. Keep on doing what you're doing.
If you feel distant, scriptures have a great promise. I believe
it's James chapter four. Draw near to God and he will
draw near to you. Draw near to God and he will
draw near to you. That's right there in James.
So draw near to him. There's nobody in this room today. There's nobody sitting here today.
I don't care what your situation is. You might be saying, boy,
there's no way I can draw close to God. Oh, yes, there is. And
you can do it today. You can do it today right in
this room, right in this sanctuary. If you haven't reached the point
of trusting God, he's not inaccessible. He's very accessible. He's not
an unknown God. He's not a distant God. He's
not a capricious God. He's the God who crowned you
with honor and glory. He's revealed himself to us by the prophets
and in these last days in his son, Hebrews 1 says. We do not
worship an unknowable God who is unattainable, but we worship
a living being who came in the form of human flesh in order
to identify with us so that we might know him and enjoy him
forever. You know, there was something
interesting. that in the preamble in the French
here, and if you know French, you might have understood it,
but it asked, the Pele family said, do you identify yourselves
with this church? In other words, are you becoming
members here? Well, that's what Jesus did. He identified with
us, you see. This magnificent, powerful creator
of the universe described in Psalm 8 has fellowship with us
through Jesus Christ. Hear the free offer of the gospel
today. Whether I've done it well or not, it's there. Here at the
free offer of the gospel, we're crowned with honor and glory,
but we're crowned with honor and glory because we have one
who is crowned for us. We have a special place. Psalm
8 is a beautiful hymn of praise to our wonderful God, the creator
of this vast universe around us, but also the one who gives
us our significance. Be encouraged today, be encouraged
today that the Lord of all creation has entered into an intensely
deep and personal relationship with you through Christ, and
that he has crowned you, and he has crowned me, and he has
crowned everyone with honor and glory. Rejoice and give thanks
that Jesus suffered death, as the author of Hebrews states,
so that you can live eternally with God. And he not only suffered
death, I'll confess I missed this on my seminary exam and
a dear brother whom I know for many years said, Rob, you missed
a really important part. Jesus rose from the dead. So
it's not just that he suffered death, but it's that he rose
from the dead and he reigns at the right hand of the Father.
Jesus is alive with a body in heaven waiting to return to consummate
his kingdom. Do I hear an amen? Thank you. I preach once a month in the
Hispanic church, so I'm used to, you know, hearing lots of, amen,
senor, and things like that, so I'm, and it's fine, it's fine,
it's fine that you're quiet, there's nothing wrong, there's
nothing wrong with it, but I just, every once in a while, I still
have that in my DNA. Okay, so rejoice and give thanks
that Jesus suffered death, as the author of Hebrews states,
so that you can live eternally with God. Seek intimacy with
God through the word and the sacraments, which we're about
to have here, so that you might draw close to the living creator
of the universe. His name is majestic throughout
all the earth. Let's pray. Let us pray. Father, this is a wonderful psalm.
In many ways it just preaches itself. It's just so beautiful
and we are astonished that in this vast universe that we really
are unable to comprehend because of its greatness and because
of its its vastness and because of its enormity, you are mindful
of us. You care for us and that you
have crowned us with glory and honor. You have made us in your
image. It's amazing. Don't let us read these scriptures.
Some of us who are older have read them many, many times. Don't
let us read them without being amazed and without being delighted
and without being overcome by your greatness. Cause us to meditate on that
greatness and to desire to tell others about it. We are surrounded
by a culture that doesn't know God. Cause us to be those lights,
as we heard in the call to worship, because you were light to our
neighbors, to our colleagues, to our families, to our children. Oh Lord Christ, thank you for
coming out of the glory of heaven. that unbroken fellowship that
is unimaginable in some ways of the Trinity, and coming down
here to live a perfect life, to obey the law perfectly, and
to be our Savior. Oh, how indebted we are to you. I pray if there's anyone here
this morning who, anybody who's struggling, that person will
be comforted. Somebody who doesn't know you,
that that person today will come to know you. And that all of
us, will be so overcome by this song that we are singing your
praises for the rest of our lives. We pray in your name, Lord Christ,
amen.
A Special Place
| Sermon ID | 129231654385975 |
| Duration | 31:39 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Psalm 8 |
| Language | English |
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