let's take our copies of god's word psalm chapter eight psalm chapter eight we're going to be looking at man's dignity and god's glory man's dignity and god's glory psalm eight is called a messianic psalm because it's quoted in the new testament in direct reference to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Some have called Psalm chapter 8 a masterpiece of praise, describing man's dignity and God's glory. And its subject can never be exhausted. I remember as a young boy just having gotten saved, The Lord finally brought us into a good Bible-believing church. And I always used to wonder as a young boy, how does the preacher find all of those things to preach on without struggling to find out what to preach about? Each time he has something different to give every time he preaches. Doesn't he ever exhaust the subject? Well, the truth of the matter is, no one can ever exhaust the content of the Word of God. Such is the case in Psalm chapter 8. You'll notice in Psalm 8, there is the inscription to the chief musician upon Gidduth. Well, the chief musician is the lead instrumentalist. is generally interpreted as a musical instrument. Bible teachers differ widely as to the origin of the word, but more than likely the word Gidath is of Philistine origin. The word Gidath is taken from the word Gath, and it was an instrument, a musical instrument, that was known in Gath. It was an instrument that David probably learned how to play a stringed instrument, which he learned how to play while he was in Gath, fleeing from the wrath of King Saul. The setting of Psalm chapter 8 describes David in the wilderness, looking up, perhaps with a straw in his mouth, looking up into the majesty and the beauty of the evening He sees the heavens and the Spirit of God begins to bubble forth out of His heart and He looks into the beauty of the heavens and the infinite nature of the heavens and He begins to utter these wonders that are given to us in the content of Psalm chapter 8. We're going to look at several aspects of this passage, but I want you to notice David, in verse 1, first of all, meditates on the name of the Lord. We're going to see four things as he looks up into the sky, four things that David meditates on. The first thing that he meditates on is the name of the Lord. Notice he begins by saying, O Lord our... You know, this passage here reveals the fact that the Lord can be our Lord in a personal way. Notice the word, our. That means a lot when you're going through a trial and testing. He's not just David's Lord. He's our Lord. And this can only be possible in our day today by knowing Jesus Christ as personal Savior." We must not read into this text the liberal doctrine of the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of men. On the contrary, the Word of God says that we are members of His family only by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior. And then he mentions, and he continues meditating on the name of the Lord, he says, how excellent is thy name in all of the earth who have set thy glory above the heavens. You know the Lord's name is excellent and worthy to be adored. A person's name depicts his person and his character and yet today how many people the only time they ever use the name of the Lord is in blasphemy. how we need to be careful that we do not utter the name of the Lord in swear words. Many times, even those who claim to know the Lord as Savior will do so. Now, I come from a Spanish culture. Even though I was born in Long Island, New York, my parents came from the old country. And I'll admit to you openly that among Spanish and among Italian and many Latin groups The name of the Lord is used very loosely. Often times you'll hear people say, Oh my God, for everything in the world. And they'll use the word, very often you'll hear people, and I don't say it sacrilegiously, but they'll use the word Jesus, and Gosh, and all of these things that are euphemisms for using the name of the Lord in vain. We need to be careful. The Word of God says, How excellent is thy name. And when we utter the name of the Lord in anger or in malice, we're using His name in vain. You know, the Lord's name is excellent. To Abraham, God's name was the Almighty God, the El Shaddai, the covenant-keeping God. To Isaac, he was Jehovah-Jireh, who would provide the sacrifice in place of his son Isaac. To Hannah, it was Jehovah-Sabaoth, our God in time of need, during her barrenness in the midst of her adversary. To Moses, it was Yahweh, the Eternal Self-existing One. To David, it was Jehovah-Rah-ah, the Lord my Shepherd. And His name is all of this and much more to us who are His children." So David in verse 1, first of all, meditates upon the name of the Lord. But secondly, I want you to notice, in verse 2, David meditates on something else. He meditates not only on the name of the Lord, but in verse 2, he meditates upon the wisdom of the Lord. it says here in verse 2, "...out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger." Did you know that this passage of Scripture was quoted in the New Testament by none other than the Lord Himself? Don't lose your place in Psalm 8 But if you turn to the book of Matthew chapter 21, your mind will quickly go to the cleansing of the temple. And in Matthew chapter 21, you recall in verse 16, as the Lord is purifying the temple for the second occasion, I might add, it says that He had come and he cleansed the temple. And notice verse 15, when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David. Who was actually saying those words, Hosanna to the Son of David? It was the children crying in the street. Then it says in verse 16, He said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea, have ye never read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings? Thou hast perfected praise." How often and how many times have we seen children be the first ones to come to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? How many times have I seen in my pastoral ministry over the years children bringing home Sunday school material, explaining it to the parents, and actually being instrumental in leading the parents to come to the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior. I've seen it many times, where reaching out to children was an avenue whereby the testimony of children was a great avenue to lead parents to the Lord. I've seen children Take home memory verses. And by the way, I want to challenge, let me just take this quick moment to challenge all of our Sunday school teachers to make scripture memory a part of the diet and practice of your teaching with your children. They must get the Word of God. But oftentimes, children will take passages home. You tell the children, ask mom and dad to help you memorize these verses. And as the children are able to explain the verses, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength. Even in the kingdom it says, a little child shall lead them. Well here, the Lord is establishing the fact that children respond to biblical truth, where often times adult religious leaders, such as the Jews here in Jesus' day, and the spiritual leaders reject truth and we see that true today Jesus said in Matthew 18 and verse 3 verily verily I say unto you except you be converted and become as little children you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven so here we have Psalm chapter 8 and verse 2 quoted in the New Testament and truly it's Oftentimes, children that predominantly respond to truth. If I were to ask how many here were saved prior to age 15 or 16, I wager to say that the majority of us would raise our hands, especially if we are second generation Christians. But here, David meditates, number one, on the name of the Lord. Verse 2, he meditates upon the wisdom of the Lord. Lord, in your wisdom, you've seen fit to reveal your truth to those who are babes chronologically, but also babes in heart, who are willing to respond by faith. And we're living in such a rationalistic society today. Now in verses 3-8, we're going to notice that David, meditates as he's looking into the sky now, he meditates not only on the name of the Lord, beginning with the Lord, and he meditates upon God's wisdom, but he meditates now on the nature of man, in verses 3 through 8. And while his eyes are looking heavenward, notice verse 3. It says in verse 3, When I consider thy heavens, The work of thy fingers. Does it surprise you that David was a creationist? By the way, Darwin is a creationist. He became a creationist one minute after he died. When I look at heaven, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained. Now notice, heavens is plural here. We know that there is the heaven, the atmospheric heaven, then there's the space heaven, and then there's the third heaven, the abode of the angels and of God. But speaking as he looks into spatial heaven, through the atmospheric heaven, and he sees all of God's creation, do you know there are over 13,000 galaxies outside of our own Milky Way? The closest galaxy outside of our Milky Way, Andromeda, is two million light years away. In other words, ten quill-tillion miles. David calls the heavens the work of God's fingers. Just think, the work of his fingers. I've seen people that I've known in churches be so handy in working with their hands. and yet the beauty, the beauty of God's creation. You go here in South Florida or in Central Florida and you see how landscaped and beautiful man is able to make all of these attractions and how beautiful they are and yet it does not begin with the beauty of God. Then he mentions not only the heavens but he mentions the moon, 239,000 miles from the earth. Some of you may complain because your car has 150,000 miles on it, or 100,000 miles. Well, you wouldn't even arrive at the moon yet with it. Then he mentions the stars. 2,500 stars visible on a clear day to the naked, unaided eye. The nearest star, the sun, 93 million miles away. And yet God is acquainted with little old you and little old me. He knows our prayer requests. Here we are praying in a little huddle, little clusters, one here, one here, one back there, another one up here, children next door, and God is able to hear our individual prayers, whether done simultaneously or one by one, God is able to hear our prayers. Oh, what a joy! You know, the second to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, 4.3 light years away, 26 trillion miles, and yet God is the God who created the stars. He says here, which thou hast ordained, God created them. and He created them with a purpose. Colossians 1.17 says, By Him all things consist. And the word susteni consist means held together. God is holding them together. And He begins to meditate now on the nature of man in this passage. First of all, He meditates on man's selection. on the fact that that god even shows you know the astronomer as he look at the and then city of the universe he he especially with the hobble he he's driven actually towards depression and he's driven towards the conclusion humanly speaking we're just aspect we are not paying We're a speck in a universe of chance. But when you realize that God, a purposeful, loving God, created this, and He has revealed Himself to us through His Word, the immensity of the universe, rather than driving you to depression and suicidal thoughts, on the contrary, amazes you. Look how huge and yet you have chosen man and mankind to be made uniquely in the image of God. And that's why David says, what is man that thou art mindful of him? Now the normal Hebrew word for man is the word Adam. I have a son named Adam and it means man. Well, that's not the word that David uses here. He uses the word Enush, which means frail man, little, puny, little, teeny, tiny man. In other words, he's not elevating man at all. He's saying, in a paraphrased way, what I call the Pereira free translation here, when I consider the immensity of the universe, what is puny, little man? Enush, frail, puny, little, micro-organistic man that you should pay attention to him. Then he meditates in verse 5 on man's original position. He says here in verse 5, Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory and honor. This is looking at man and his original creation. He was only made a little lower than the angels, and he was invested with the vice regency of the lowest order of creation. Genesis 126 says, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, over the cattle, the earth, creeping things, everything that creeps upon the earth. Now, after the fall, man is still in the image of God. However, the image has been marred by the introduction of man's sin nature. And he has lost a great deal of his authority over the animal kingdom. And we can see, you can go to SeaWorld, or you can go to Animal Kingdom, and you can see that man has attempted to regain a lot of his authority. But then you look at Isaiah chapter 35 and other messianic kingdom passages, and you can see that man by no means has the authority that he will someday regain in the kingdom when Jesus Christ rules and reigns in majesty. Here it's interesting. It says that man was made a little lower than the angels. Now that's not the word translated angels as we know it. It's actually the word Elohim. but we need to understand that elohim in the old testament is often used of people who are uh... representatives of god as human beings used of people who would be spokesman for god elohim was sometimes used to describe angels and sometimes elohim was used to describe god himself the origin of the word elohim simply means strong ones but when you compare this passage with the New Testament you can see in Hebrews chapter 2 that this passage is best translated as the King James translators translated it angels and man has been made originally lower than the angels the Word of God says but now let's look on a little bit further at the third thing that he meditates on in verses through 8. He meditates on His original dominion here. It says in verse 6, Thou madest Him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands. Thou hast put all things under His feet. Now that's originally the case. It will be perhaps restored certainly, and certainly in Christ Jesus, all things will be put under our Lord's feet. It says in 1 Corinthians 15, and when he establishes his kingdom. But notice, sheep, oxen, yea, the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, whatsoever passes through the paths of the sea. And of course, all of this is quoted in Hebrews 2, verse 5. And this is the passage of Scripture that speaks of man's original dominion which will be reinstated during the kingdom period. And read Isaiah chapter 11, for instance, and you can hear about man's dominion over nature being regained. Now, he meditates fourthly in verse 9 on the name of the Lord again. Isn't it interesting that he begins meditating on the name of the Lord in verse 1, and he completes his meditation on the Lord as well. He finishes by saying, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all of the earth. He meditates on the name of the Lord. He ends up where he started off. And you know, mankind in Christ Jesus has dignity, but only Christ has majesty. Our dignity can only come when we recognize His work of divine grace in our lives and receive Him as our personal Savior. So, as we go to prayer tonight, let's thank the Lord for His name. Let's thank the Lord for His works in our lives. Let's thank the Lord for what He is accomplishing in each and every one of our lives And considering our nature, we can once again claim God's mercy and grace. And someday, the prayer of the saints of old will be answered. Thy kingdom come. We have the privilege of prayer, and we're so thankful for that. Let's bow our heads together. Lord, thank you for your word. And Lord, for the reminder that, Lord, this infinite universe is just an indication of an infinite God that has created it. And the creation can never be greater than the Creator. Thank You, Father, for Your hands that have fashioned it, and Lord, Your hands that have fashioned our lives. Help us, Lord, to bow our knee to Your Lordship over our lives individually. Help us, Lord, to regain In new measure, a realization of how wonderful it is that Lord, you're acquainted with every aspect of our lives. As infinite as you are, the very hairs of our head are numbered. So Lord, we thank you and bring our requests to you with the assurance that you hear our prayers. In Jesus' name, we thank you. Amen.