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.