This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. If you have your Bibles, let's open up to Psalm 8. Psalm 8. Psalm 8. To the choir master, according to the Geteeth, 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 mouths of babies 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. This is the reading of God's word. Let's open in prayer and we'll dive right in. Our Father, thank you for this psalm. Thank you for your glorious majesty. Would you open our eyes to see it afresh, to see it anew, to understand you just a little bit more. May we today be able to glory in how great you are. Please be with the preaching and the hearing of the word. We ask this in Jesus's name, amen. So this Psalm begins on a note that we should find very familiar. Verse one, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. David celebrates something that peculiarly belongs to God, majesty. He celebrates his majesty. And while this language might be very common among Christians, I wouldn't be surprised if the heart of this Psalm is lacking in many of us. We might praise God for his glory and thank him for his salvation. in all the ways he has blessed us, but how often do we step back and marvel at the majesty of our God? This Psalm draws us into the world as it really is. It draws us toward the heart that we are meant to have. You'll notice that David opens and ends the psalm with the very same refrain. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. That's verses one and nine. David has wrapped this psalm in the greatness of God. Everything in this psalm relates to God's greatness. It all relates to his majesty. God is majestic. He is lofty. He is noble. He is high. He is splendid. He is mighty and sovereign over all. He is greater than anything that exists in creation. That includes the earth below, it includes the heavens above. In this opening passage, David declares the truth of God's majesty. And one point at a time through the Psalm, he is going to explain that majesty for us. So he starts someplace that you might not expect. Verse two, the majesty of God is shown in the way he demonstrates strength through weakness. Read it for you again. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger. Now, the exact meaning of this verse is actually not really clear. If you read that and you thought, huh, I'm not exactly sure what's going on here. You aren't crazy. It's not actually totally obvious. It's a famous verse. So famous that it's actually in just common vernacular, believing or not. We say things like, out of the mouth of babes. Right? And you say that when a kid said something that seemed too wise for them or too smart for them or that the adult should have figured out. And my personal opinion is that we have taken out of the mouth of babes and we've basically meant or defined it to mean, don't kids say the darndest things? Do you think that's what David means here? Don't kids say the darndest things? The specifics of this verse are actually not entirely clear. The general meaning, thankfully, is fairly clear. What generally seems to be the thrust here, what clearly seems to be the thrust here, is God works strength and victory over his enemies through seemingly weak means. As one commentator said, what seems inconsequential has overwhelmed the mighty. Now that is right in line with what we have seen of our God across all time, isn't it? He delights in showing his strength through weak means. He loves it. It brings him glory. So the general meaning we get, it's the specific details that are more difficult. What exactly is this saying? What is this strength he has ordained? The strength we're talking about, it may well be that of praising God. Praising God. This is actually the direction that the Greek translation of the Old Testament takes it. And in turn, it's the direction that Jesus Christ takes it in Matthew 21 when he quotes it. So if that's the case, the picture then is the weakness of a child praising God This faithful act is powerful enough to silence the mightiest of God's enemies. There's this beautiful irony about that. It is the greatness of God in the weakness of man. And we know, we remember that even the weakness of God is infinitely more powerful than the might of man. David sees the majesty of God written all over God's triumph in weakness over the strength of the world. Verses three and four. After reflecting on God's greatness and the irony of his power, David reflects on God's greatness in the mystery of his care. Mystery of his care, it's a phrase I borrowed from another commentator, because it's just good. The mystery of his care. Read him for you again, verses three and four. 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? David considers the heavens, not just actually any old heavens, your heavens. He considers your heavens. He calls them the work of God's fingers. There's actually a lovely point to be made there. Fingers. The use of the fingers, it emphasizes something of a delicate work on God's part. This mighty work to put the cosmos in place was delicately done by the fingers of God, setting the moon and the stars in place. You just unpack that for a minute. How big is the moon? Well, I looked it up, lucky for you. In terms of pure surface area, it's just a little smaller than Asia. Does that strike you as a big task to place Asia floating around in space? How big are the stars? Well, take it from this angle. Our sun dwarfs the earth. Many stars dwarf our sun. We are the tiniest, most insubstantial specks compared to the stars around us. So, imagine this picture then. God is pictured as being so mighty and so powerful that he must delicately place the stars with his fingers. You see, this language isn't, he didn't heave the stars into place. He broke a sweat. I'm gonna be tired and sore after that one. He sets them in place with his fingers. The moon and the stars required a delicate touch, lest he snuff them out by handling them too roughly. David looks at the night sky spread above him and he concludes what we have all concluded at some point. Man is so small compared to everything. Man seems so insignificant. And if we realize that we are but dust, isn't it natural to look at the heavens that God created and think, who am I? Who am I? The wonders of the night sky have had this effect from the beginning. We look into the depths of a dark night We put our eyes to a telescope and we see a nebula stretched across light years of the heavens. And again, we ask, who are we compared to all of this? Who are we? The heavens are one of the most awe-inspiring and humility-inducing sites in all of creation. And frankly, it is a mark of absurdity that anyone can stand with the vastness of the heavens above them and still consider themselves a big deal. Absurd. But the magnificent truth of God's work is that even though we are but dust, we are His. We are His dust. He has taken the dust and he has fashioned his image in it. See, David's emphasis in this Psalm, it's not actually the insignificance of man. Not exactly. To quote Dale Ralph Davis, David at least has no doubt that he does matter. He's just baffled to bits over why. Why should he matter? See, the question isn't about whether we matter to God. There is no question that we matter to God. David is in awe that God says we do in fact matter. That is the emphasis here. And in this awe, David finds another reason to proclaim God's greatness. God's greatness, it is obvious in the moon and in the stars, but it's also present in the special placement of mankind. The great one over all creation chose to have concern for us. He is mindful of us. He is mindful of our hearts and of our minds. of our physical state and our wellbeing. He's certainly mindful of the wellbeing of our souls. God in all of his greatness has chosen to be mindful of the creations of dust. What God is this? The stars are a wonder all their own. But what wonder is this, that the one who created the stars cares for people like us. You continue on in the Psalm verses five through eight, David continues by noting the incredible blessings God has bestowed on mankind. Picking up in the text, 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 will 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. Now here we have actually another passage with a clear meaning despite some unclear specifics. The clear meaning is this, God has exalted humanity above the rest of his creation. He has given humanity a special dignity and a special authority. David talks about that God has crowned humanity with glory and with honor. And this is truly a privilege when you realize that glory and honor, who do they belong to? God alone. Yet God in his grace bestows them on his creation. Now the unclear part of the text is in the opening words of verse five. Yet you have made him a little lower than what? See, you've got actually a number of translations here. What I read is the ESV and they said heavenly beings. You also see that in the net Bible, right? You see it also translated angels, that's in the King James, that's in the NIV, that's in, again, the Greek translation of the Old Testament picked up in the book of Hebrews. Then you have the NAS translating it, God. And all these things have reasons behind them, and it's fairly hard to navigate through. But I'll give you just a brief shortcut here, and it is a shortcut, I'm gonna grant, but the specific word is definitely interesting. And there's definitely some edification to come from it for pursuing it. But thankfully we can see David's main point without the specific word being figured out. Though we may wonder where are we on this hierarchy that God has created? Where exactly are we? David's point is not where exactly are we, David's point is we are in an exalted position because God graciously put us there. For all the mysteries about the word used here, the meaning is clear. We are in an exalted position because God graciously put us there. And in that exalted position, humanity exercises authority over creation. God crowned him, so he rules. God has placed all things under his feet. What you see in actually verses seven and eight, that's just a poetic retelling of creation. And it's also a reminder of the sweeping extent of mankind's dominion. Now we should make something clear though. We are God's stewards. We are not tyrants. And there's a big difference there. You see our dominion, it is not selfish and it is not merely for our own good. Our dominion is over the works of our God. His creation remains His, and we need to honor that. Our exalted place, it doesn't cancel out the fact that we too are His creations, and we're still accountable to Him, and we still serve Him. All of those things are still in place. It pains me when I see Christians making selfish arguments out of the dominion that God has given us. God wouldn't grant that argument. The creation is His and we must honor that. We don't rule like it just belongs to us. We rule seeking God's glory and God's honor. When Christ returns, we will all have to answer for how we have stewarded the many gifts we have been given, true? And every Christian servant longs to hear his master say what? Well done, good and faithful servant. Our Lord will call us to give an account of the way we have exercised our dominion. So may we be able to say that we exercise our dominion for His glory, not merely for our selfish gain. The dominion of man stands within the confines of the one who truly and supremely rules, and it is our God. And these are the confines of the Psalm, verses one and nine, remember? They remind us that our experience, that our exaltation, that our dominion, it is wrapped in the preeminence of the greatness of God. As we come to this last verse, we are going to pause good and long here. Let the greatness of God envelop your heart and your mind as it is supposed to. I'll read verse nine for you again. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. we should soak in the greatness of God. Brothers and sisters, the greatness of God should change how you think about just about anything. The greatness of God will transform your prayers. It'll transform them from empty conversations with yourself to astounding audiences with the Almighty King. The greatness of God will transform the scriptures from ancient literature to gripping accounts of how eternity has broken through into the bounds of time so that God could rescue his people. The greatness of God will transform ordinary Sundays, ordinary church, into the Lord's special and chosen day. The day where the Lord himself gathers his people so that he might bless his people with himself. I'm not sure that there are any limits to the number of things that will be transformed when they encounter the greatness of God. The majesty of our God, it transforms and it uplifts. It strengthens and it humbles. You will be transformed the more you are exposed to the majesty of God. So my goal then as a preacher is to expose you as much as possible to the majesty of God. And this Psalm, it is abounding in the majesty and the greatness of God. Yet, 2000 years ago, God revealed that the abundance of this psalm was just a glimpse of things to come. If you want majesty, pure, unadulterated majesty, behold the son of God. And maybe you didn't realize it, but he's everywhere in this psalm. David marveled that God could use the weak to bring about victory over the strongest of enemies. That's my son, by the way. God ordained strength out of the mouths of babies and infants. David marveled that God could use the weak to bring about victory over the strongest of enemies. But David didn't even know the half of it. We marvel because we saw the victory of God and it was no ordinary victory. God took on frail flesh and crushed the serpent's head. In the weakness of the cross, the Savior conquered death itself. David marveled at the delicate work of God's fingers as he set the stars in their place. Brothers and sisters, forget the stars, we've seen the sun. When David was marveling at creation, he was marveling at the work of Jesus Christ in creation. Jesus is the one who created all things. It was his fingers at work. It was his fingers that placed the stars. You know, we couldn't even get within a million miles of a star without it consuming us. and the fingers of Christ handled those stars like specks of delicate sand. Truths like this begin to give you a taste of how incredible the incarnation was. You see, the one who scattered the stars became a man, became a babe, The star scatterer himself wrapped delicate fingers around the finger of his mother. In the simplest nutshell, this is the wonder of our savior who took on human flesh to save his people. The baby grew up to be a boy who grew up to be a man And one stormy evening on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus' disciples were on their way home, sailing home through fierce waters. When they get quite a surprise, you know the story. Jesus strolling along like he's gonna walk right past them on the water. Fast forward through some of the events. When they go and realize that it's him, Peter, in faith, he steps out of the boat to join his master. And for a moment, for a moment, it holds. But then he wavers, then he doubts and he begins to sink and he cries out. Immediately, Jesus reaches out his hand and takes hold of his doubting disciple and he wrapped those fingers tight around the hand of Peter and rescued him from the consequences of his doubt and the storm he sees below. These mighty fingers of Christ, these compassionate, fingers of Christ. They would one day grip their own judgment. The Savior took hold of the rough and splintered wood of his own cross, hauling it up Calvary for his own crucifixion. And there he paid the penalty. He paid our penalty for the sins we committed, not him. There he paid it all and he bore the wrath of perfect justice. The fingers of God and the fingers of the God man, what majesty we have seen. Returning to the Psalm, David marveled that his God would care for those so infinitely beneath him. Didn't we see the exact same thing with Jesus Christ? Christ labored with thick headed and unbelieving disciples. Christ ministered to the lowest of humanity, to the lepers, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, to those who had no place in society, Christ ministered to them. Here's the one you may not have noticed. David marveled that the dominion God had given man over the works of God's hands. To flush this one out, you can ask yourself a question. Who here feels like they are experiencing the exalted dominion over creation that David's talking about? The truth is we're not. We aren't experiencing that dominion. And it's because something broke in the created order when Adam sinned. Far from having everything submissively under his feet, man finds opposition throughout creation. And you know this, you experience this every day. Everything from the weeds in your garden, to the dog who chews up your couch, to the bear who raids your trash can, Every single one of them is testifying that our dominion has been compromised. In all of humanity's power and ability, it seems that we possess a pale shadow of the dominion that God intended. But in Christ, it is restored. The one who ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God possesses all authority. And at his return, that rule will be fully exercised and all things will be under his feet. There should be a longing in us, a longing in us when we feel the disconnect between us and the creation. And then when we realize that Christ will come back and he will assume the rule, All things will be under his feet. He will fulfill the way things were meant to be. That is good news. That is something to rejoice in. The promised dominion of mankind will be a complete and present reality under the perfect kingship of Jesus Christ. In the end, we see that this Psalm shouts the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the son of God, showcases the majesty and glory of God. Jesus, the redeemer of humanity, stoops to enter his creation and fulfill what it was intended to be. If you want to behold the majesty of our God, you can start with the heavens and you'll get a glimpse. You can look at the works of his hands and you'll see yet more. But if you want to see the whole thing, behold the son of God who became a man. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would give us eyes to see and hearts to believe. Your majesty is all around us, how great you are. Lord, I pray that you would show us more and more of your majesty and may we see it most clearly in Jesus Christ. Give us the faith to see that, the faith to take hold of that and truly transform us. Transform us because we serve a majestic God, because we pray to a majestic God, because we come together on these days and we worship a majestic God. May we never again go back to a God who is plain and ordinary and unimpressive. No God, you are majestic. May we believe it, may we walk in it, may we revel in it. We pray these things in Jesus's name, amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.