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All right, we are at Psalm 8, so you have to grab a Bible. There's Bibles right there if you need one. I usually try to put them on the table, and I forgot. So there's Bibles. If you need one, you'll have to have your own Bible. Now, I'll tell you what. I'll put this cart right over here so that way you don't feel embarrassed by coming to the front and picking up a Bible. So there you go. Yeah, I should go back further. So next week, Scott promises me that he will be ready for class next week. And then, so his class will be about four weeks long. It's gonna be, well, I won't give away, but anyways, I think you'll enjoy the class. It fits in, it'll actually fit in with the catechism sermon tonight that Wes is gonna be doing on that part of the catechism on the word and other things. So now we're at Psalm 8. And I want you to notice how it breaks down. As you're looking at your copy of Psalm 8, I'm calling this God's impetus. Just because I was trying to say with I sounds, I's, I think. So verse one and two, and then verse nine is inflection. Think about like a musical inflection. So think about, so inflection, verses one, two, and nine. And then verses three through four is inception. And then verses 5 through 8 is intention. That's how I'm breaking this down. We're going to read it just straight through, but that's how we're going to break it down. So, you need to think about verse 1 and verse 9 kind of like bookends. You see my bookends up here? That's how verse one and nine actually work with Psalm 8. I mean, they just hug it. OK, so it's always that's going to be the primary focus of really of Psalm 8. So here we go. Let's dive into Psalm 8. So I need some readers. I need somebody to do verse one, the inscription and then verse one and two. Who will do that? OK, got one here that I need somebody to pick up at verse three and four. Okay, got two volunteers over here, they can fight for it. All right, and then verses five through eight, who will read, okay, Scott, and then we're all gonna read together, even though you got different translations, we're all gonna read together verse nine. Okay, how's that sound? All right, so let's have the inscription of verse one and two. Uh-huh. Okay. Okay, verse 9, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Amen. Okay, so we are in Psalm 8. If you came in a little late, we're in Psalm 8. So you can open there. And as I said, you'll notice how verse 1 and verse 9 are like bookends to the psalm. So let's look at the inscription first. Kind of an opening question, nothing really heavy here, it should be a pretty simple answer, but what use and purpose of this psalm can you draw from the inscription? Yeah, it's a psalm. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a song. Yeah, to the choir master, so what do you know, what does that seem to imply? Pretty clearly. Huh? It's a praise to God and? Yeah, there's a choir master and it's part of worship. So this is meant for public consumption and use. Nothing really heavy, just what you kind of expect. So that's Psalm 8 in Scripture. For those of you coming in, we are in Psalm 8. Here's a side note. There are only three Psalms in the Psalter that are according to the Giddith. They are Psalm 8, Psalm 81, and Psalm 84. Those three, say, for the Giddith or according to the Giddith or whatever. And what does that mean? Well, I just pulled this off of BibleStudy.com, BibleStudyTools.com. It's a stringed instrument of music, it seems. The Targum, which is a Jewish commentary of some sorts of the Old Testament. from early, early on. The Targum explains by, on the harp, with David brought from Gath. Notice that explanation. It's a harp brought from Gath. So it's the only stringed instrument named in the titles of the Psalms. The likelihood is that it is a local musical instrument from the Philistines, actually, from God. Remember, where's Goliath from? Yeah, right. So it's just a local instrument, and that's what they're going to use. Just a side note, I just thought that was kind of interesting. So there you go. All right. So there's our opening question. So we're going to look at verse 1, 2. And because verse 9 echoes verse 1, we'll be, I guess you'd say, we'll be also looking at verse 9. So here we go. So inflection. So who is being spoken to in verse 1 and verse 9? The Lord, yes. That's who's being spoken to. So I want you to look at the way that it's printed in your Bibles. Look at the style of printing and state what is unique and what it means. What do you notice? Alright, so notice the first Lord, how is that printed? All caps. The second Lord is printed how? Yeah, capital L, and then the rest of it's lower caps, okay? And I know you've heard this before, but it's always good to remind us, all right, what that is, is that first one is God's personal name, Yahweh, okay? Or in the old Germanic, Anglicized version, Jehovah, okay? Sometimes we've seen that in the Psalters, Jehovah. It's a long story, but anyways, Jehovah is Yahweh, okay? And so notice that, O LORD, all caps, that's Yahweh, and then O LORD, so O LORD, our Lord, the capital L, little O, little R, little D, is a different word. It's not a name, it's a title. So here it is in Hebrew, Yahweh our master, Yahweh our captain, Yahweh our sovereign, something like that. Does that make sense? So it's good to know because as you pay attention to those things and you begin to realize how personal David is in his psalm, he's talking to God by name. But he's also calling Him what He is, Lord, Master. This will become important when we finally get one day, 20,000 years from now to Psalm 110, to Psalm 110 because Jesus is going to make hay out of Psalm 110 when it says, Yahweh said to my Adonai, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. And he will say, hmm, how does that fit? And it does. It fits very well. So you just need to pay attention to that. It's really helpful. So Adonai Adonainu, or Yahweh Adonainu. The personable, the communal personableness of this majestic God. How do you see the communal personableness here? Our, just like when Jesus said, when you pray, say, my own individual father and nobody else's. Is that what he says? What did he say? Our father. Okay? That communal personableness. Isn't that interesting? Oh, Yahweh, our majestic master. Okay? Very good. By the way, if you need to stop me, do stop me, because I'll be speeding along here if I'm not careful. Alright, any questions before we get on here? Alright, so notice verse 1 goes high. I mean, it literally goes up. This was where I was getting inflection. Think about high notes, low notes, things like that, right? It goes high. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth. You have set Your glory above the heavens. It's high. And then verse 2 goes where? Huh? Where? Yeah, it goes low. So you go from the majestic Lord to little babies who can't do anything, right? Except just coo and scream and things like that, right? Okay, and that's very intriguing because he goes that way and then notice what he does. He could have said all these things about Yahweh in verse 2, but notice he goes to babes and infants, okay? And so what does he start saying in verse 2? There's a contrast in verse 2. What's the contrast? Out of the mouth of babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger. There's a contrast there. What's the contrast? Yeah, that's right. Strength and weakness. Human strength and human weakness. Foes, enemies, avengers, mighty strong guards and little babes. And you use little bitty babes to trump the big bad foes. Isn't that interesting? There's that contrast in verse 2. We already kind of dealt with this as it is, but what is God doing with and through the weak and lowly and what is He using? What's he doing to the weak and lowly and what is he using? Yeah, isn't that interesting? He's defeating, he's quieting, he's closing down the enemies, the foes, the Avengers with little babies. Okay, with the weak, with the epitome of weakness. Okay, when was the last time you saw a little baby picking up 500 pounds, right? Now I do have a picture of Derek. When he was about four, we were out harvesting our sweet potatoes in Midland, and he just, he hated wearing shirts, he wanted to show his muscles, and so he's out there in sweatpants and no shirt, and he's got a hoe, and he's like this. You know, it's great. It's Derek. What you think about, when you think about babes and infants, you think of no power, no ability, right? Do babies have a lot of abilities? No, they don't have a lot of abilities. They can wake you up just fine. Yes, a lot of needs. Do what? Yes, they do change your life. That's right, they do. It's funny, they do have a lot of power, but it's because of their neediness and helplessness, right? They can't change their diapers, can't feed themselves. So it's really intriguing to me that David goes here, He's not necessarily focusing on babies. He's using babes and infants as an example of how God uses the weak and the lowly to bring down the giants. Does that sound familiar to anyone? David and Goliath. David was a nobody, just a mealy, little squirmy-armed shepherd, and he used a sling. And there's Goliath all hunkered down in body armor and helmets and big spear and big shield, so big he had to have a shield bearer in front of him, right? And all those things. That's what David's driving at. God uses, very often, he overwhelms the mighty through the modest. You notice I worked a long time to come up with those ends, okay? You need to be happy with those ends. God overwhelms the mighty through the modest, But also notice what God uses. He overpowers the potent with the praise of his people. Out of the mouth of babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger. which is synonyms for various aspects of power, I guess, or potency, whatever. Foes, enemies, avengers. Usually when the writer, especially in Psalms, piles on names like that, he's making this big, dominable picture so you get the idea. It's a good question, though. So here's what Ralph Davis says in his little book on this. He says, there's this contrast in the text between the foes, the enemy, and the seeker of revenge, and the children and infants. I love this. I think Ralph Davis was thinking of me, because I was in his office a lot when I was in seminary. And you know I have tattoos. I've got lots of tattoos. between these hairy-chested brutes who flex their muscles and show off their tattoos and these helpless babes. The point is, what seems inconsequential has overwhelmed the mighty. That's Psalm 8, verse 2, how he puts that there. And so, he goes on to say, Sometimes the mightiest weapon in God's arsenal is not argument, nor brilliance, nor eloquence, nor philosophy, but praise. And the humblest believer can use it. What do you think about that statement? Yes. Yes. Yes, that's exactly like in Psalm 108 and some others that says, we can't stand against the foe for vain is the salvation of man. The only one who can triumph over the foe is God himself. I mean, it's just that same kind of acknowledgement, right? So I think this is very helpful just to remind ourselves of the power of what we do Sunday morning. When we gather, I don't know if we get this, but when we gather on the Lord's Day in the Lord's name to worship the Lord, the heavens and the dark realms tremble. And we're not doing anything potent and powerful. We're walking around with our own .45 calibers ready to pull them out. We're saying, you're the God of heaven and earth. All things have to bow the knee to you. I mean, that's huge. This is one reason why, as pesky Presbyterians, we put high capital on public worship. And why we're not happy with, for example, I mean, we had to do it during the pandemic, so don't get me wrong, but we're not happy with virtual worship. When you're far away and you're falling asleep and you're just in your slippers and you bail out whenever you want to and all that, we want to be together to worship the Lord because it's mighty. Not mighty because of us, it's mighty because of Him. Does that make sense? Okay, any questions about verse 1 and 2 before we move on? I do have an illustration for you. Anybody? Yeah? Praise with a foe? Which one are you trying to read, this one or this one? Sometimes the mightiest weapon in God's arsenal is not argument, brilliance, eloquence, philosophy, but praise, and the humblest believer can use it. Okay, so as I was thinking through this psalm, An illustration came to mind. Has anybody ever read Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago? You know who Alexander Solzhenitsyn was? Okay, good. I'm starting to sweat bullets here. I would highly encourage you to read the Gulag Archipelago. I know it's big, but there's an abridged version, which is the one I read. Right? And it's really insightful. Alexander Solzhenitsyn was on World War II outside of, in the middle of the fight with the Nazis, and because he had written a letter or something, I don't remember what it was, the powers that be, the Stalinists, came and grabbed him off the front lines in the heat of battle and took him off to a gulag, which is a prison. A gulag archipelago is a prison island. Took him off to a prison. And so the whole story is about, the whole book is primarily tales upon tales of how the, for example, how the interrogators destroyed people through their interrogation, the things they used, and then how some people actually prevailed. And so I want you to listen to this, because this came to my mind, and there's a story that goes with it, and I'll tell you the story. Solzhenitsyn says, and hopefully you can see this, if you can't, come up a little closer, or whatever. So Solzhenitsyn wrote, he says, what do you need to make you stronger than the interrogator and the whole trap? From the moment you go to prison, you must put your cozy past firmly behind you. At the very threshold, you must say to yourself, my life is over. A little early to be sure, but there's nothing to be done about it. I shall never return to freedom. I am condemned to die, now or a little later. But later on, in truth, it will be even harder. And so the sooner the better. I no longer have any property whatsoever. For me, those I love have died and for them I have died. From today on, my body is useless and alien to me. Only my spirit and my conscience remain precious and important to me. And so confronted by such a prisoner, the interrogator will tremble. Only the man who has renounced everything can win the victory. And then he goes on to tell a couple of stories and one of them that always sticks stuck with me. This is what came to my mind. I have read the book probably 15, 20 years ago. And this story is the only story I remember from the book. It was an old grandmother. She had been arrested because she had harbored a renegade Christian leader and had let him go on his way. She knew exactly where he went and everything, but she got arrested. And as the interrogators were intimidating her and trying to bully up on her and stuff, she finally said to them, she says to them something like this. She goes, I'm not afraid of you. You, what are you going to do to me? You're going to kill me? Okay, fine. But you're afraid. You're afraid of your bosses. You're afraid of a little old lady like me. You're afraid. And so she points those things out and she never gives up. And she actually ends up getting released later. She didn't do anything. She finally ends her statement by saying, look, you can kill me right now. I'm going to go be with God. I'm done. It's okay. And they had no power. I mean, that just stuck in my head, and that's kind of an example of what David is writing about in Psalm 8, verses 1 and 2. All right. So if you ever get a chance, you ought to read that book. I think you would find it useful. I'm not going to say you would enjoy it. I'm saying you would find it useful. Any questions about verse 1 and 2? OK. So let's move on to inception, verse 3 and 4. By the way, if you don't have a Bible, there are Bibles right over there if you want to grab one so you can follow along. So what, where does David turn in this hymn as you look at verse 3 and 4? Yes! He goes to Genesis 1. In fact, the rest of the psalm will stay in Genesis 1, creation and then the creation of humankind. That'll be verses five through eight. But remember that he is actually drawing on scripture, okay? He's actually rehearsing and recounting scripture. So that's what I asked. What specific season or period is David recalling? So I already told you. So notice that David is the man of Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates day and night. And what's David doing in Psalm 8? Meditating on the law of the Lord. Genesis 1 is part of the Torah, the law, okay? So David is an example of that, of how the Psalter actually begins. He dwells on it, and by dwelling on it, he cannot help but worship God. Does that make sense? Okay. Secondly, notice as you look at verse 3 and 4, I think Derek Kidner, in his little commentary, puts it well. As you look at verse three and four, when I look at your hands, the work of your fingers, the moon, the stars, which you have set in place, what is man at your mind, et cetera. As Derek Kidner says, God planned no meaningless and empty universe, but a home for his family. Or as another commentator said, that David did not think it was a God-vacant universe, but a God-full universe. Okay, so there's where he goes. Because of Genesis 1, he goes and looks around, and even though there's foes and enemies and avengers everywhere, he sees a God-filled universe, okay? So then in verse 4, he turns, David turns, and David voices the age-old question. And what's the age-old question in verse 4? Yeah, it is who am I, but what is man specifically is, right? So there is that aspect of who am I, but it's broader. It's including all humanity in a sense. So what is man that you're mindful of? The son of man that you take care of and that you care about, OK? It's the age old question. The question will actually get asked Oops, I missed, I got ahead, sorry. So the question will actually be asked by Job and Eliphaz in Job 7, 17 and 15, 14 with a little twinge of cynicism. Okay, not that Job was cynical in the sense of unbelieving, but there's a sense of cynicism in his question and then Eliphaz's question. What is man, but just, you know, dust and that's all there is. And then David will ask the question again in Psalm 144, verses three and four, where he's actually emphasizing the brevity of humanity. What is man but just a bare breathe, breath in the air, that's it. Okay, so the question's gonna get asked in the scriptures again and again. So how do other perspectives, I'm giving this away, sorry. How do other perspectives actually answer the question? So think about Hinduism. Anybody know enough about Hinduism to know how they answer the question? Yeah, what? Yeah, yeah. So you're hoping one day to become so pure that you finally just go off with Plato to the stars or whatever. Yes. Yeah, right. Right. And so then what happens to you now is a result of your last life. So you had this whole pile up and build up from the previous existences. Did you know that General George S. Patton thought he was reincarnated? That he was Caesar? He had been Caesar once, right? No surprise. If you watch George C. Scott do it. And by the way, I want you to know, George C. Scott did a great job. My grandfather on my mother's side served under General Patton. And after that movie came out, he said, that's exactly what the man was like. So but you can't miss the ego. I mean, it's bigger than Dallas and Dallas is pretty big All right. So that's how Hinduism would answer the question. How does Islam answer the question? What is man No way measured we're here to be faithful and that's all there is to the story really right, huh? Yeah, okay anybody else How does How does humanism answer the question, what is man? Nothing, just an evolutionary blip, an accident. And totally alone, there is no God. And if there is, he's so far away he doesn't pay attention to us anyway. So that's humanism. There's actually more to it than that. But what about Marxism? How does Marxism answer the question, what is man? Okay, cog in the wheel. Or the oppressor, yeah, yeah, right, right. And they see man, they see the answer to the question what is man has to do primarily with one aspect of Marxism is the economic man. Okay, things like that. There's all kinds of little pieces, we could go through more and more and more of those. But that's how you do that. You listen to that question, you go, that's the age old question. How do these other perspectives answer that question? And then you come here again and you look. David asks this question in the light of creation and in the light of God's majesty, and he's gonna answer that question. So remember that, David is asking here in Psalm 8 this question, what is man in the light of creation and in the light of God's majesty? You know that because we already said, hey, he's looking at Genesis chapter one. So we know he's looking at humankind from creation and from the perspective of God's majesty. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. So before we go on, anybody have any questions about inception? The reason I call it inception is because it's the creation, the beginning. Yes? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Right, right. Yeah, I mean, it's metaphorical in many ways, but definitely seeing the very activity of God. He was really active in what he was doing, OK? Yes, right. Yes. Yes. Yeah, so if you've ever studied Plato or Platonism, then you know that that kind of throws Platonism out the door a little bit. So intention, verses 5 through 8. Thinking about, you know, the ideal and all that. All right, intention, verses five through eight. We now move into a mystery. What is man? And so he goes and he answers the question. David is still looking at what episode, what epoch? Creation, he's looking now at Genesis 1, 26 through 28, okay? He's looking at Genesis 1, 26 through 28. There he finds the answer to his question. What is man? What is a son of man? And the resounding answer is what? You can cheat and look at what I wrote, or you can come up with your own words. What's his answer? It's in verse 5 through 8. Yes. Yes, and notice the regal language. You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings or the Elohim, the angels, whatever, and crowned him. You hear the regal language? You've crowned him with glory and honor. You've given him dominion. There's the regal language again. Dominion over the works of your hands you have put all things under his feet or some translations say all things in subjection to him Okay, that's very regal language. So notice that the answer to David's question What is man that your mind for him the son of man that you care for him? The resounding answer is that man matters because man is royalty by God's own design Humanity is royalty Okay Under God we are world. Does that make sense? You see that there? Okay. Yes What do you think it means what do you think it means what do you think it means So, for one thing, we have three things we have to do, because we have so much to do with each other. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. We are not the same. Right, right. It's not very easily definable but other than the sense of you think about when Jesus and John John 12 and then again John 7 the reason why the Pharisees wouldn't follow Jesus because they wanted glory for men Right, and then the King James and other translations translate that word don't say glory as they want an honor for men They wanted praise for men So one aspect of glory is that idea of his reputation is elevated, there's praise, there's honor, which actually fits here because it's glory and honor, almost as if there's some synonymous connection there. That was a hard word to say, I don't know why. So there's some connection between glory and honor, they fit together. So if you think of glory, sometimes glory means like brilliant majesty, kind of a light thing, right? But here it's definitely, it's an elevation, yeah, a sense of a higher purpose and calling, okay? Good question. So let me ask you a simple question. Why does David affirm this in verse 5 through 8? Why does he affirm this? Why does he believe it? Here's the answer. Because I know you want the answer. Because the Bible said, told him so. It's just that simple. He's not going to get it from science. He's not going to get it from philosophy. He's not going to get it from those things. It's the Bible itself has declared that. And Genesis 1, remember, is written in the context of the larger social context. It's written in the context of the Mesopotamians and Akkadian religions at the time. that we're all saying that the reason why God's created humankind is for the humankind to come and feed them. Humankind to come and clean up their mess. Humankind to come here and do this for them. And then you read Genesis 1, and God makes humankind, and He begins by saying what? He does something completely different there than you would see in Mesopotamia and Acadia and their religions. He says to humankind, let's make man in our own image after our own likeness. And we'll give them dominion of the world. And then what happens right after that? Right after he creates humankind in Genesis 1, see if you can, I'm checking your memory, where does he put them and how is it described? Put them in a garden. It's very good, what? What'd you say, Ben? Huh? To maintain the garden, that's in chapter 2, but notice, You can eat all of this, God goes on to say. Notice that? Totally different than Mesopotamia and Acadia where it says, feed me, the gods say. God says, I don't need you to feed me. I'm going to feed you. And it's going to be plenty. And Adam and Eve go. Right, you know, and that's how that begets totally formed, all these other paradigms and perspectives. And so David goes to Genesis 1, this is what the Bible tells us, and that's what he's meditating on, okay? Right, and so, yeah, and so Romans 4, 13, Paul says that the promise that was actually made to Abraham is that he would inherit the world. And then Paul goes on to show how we become the descendants, the offspring of Abraham, thus we're the inheritor of the world, et cetera. So it's back to the same thing, yes. All right. So if not this from Genesis 1, if not this, then what are we left with? If not Psalm 8, verses 5 through 8, if that's not true, then what are we left with? An accident. Right. Yeah, meaningless. No different than the animals. Left to our own devices. Yeah. how we define perfection in this moment. Yes. If not, Psalm 8, verses 5 through 8, drawn from Genesis 1, then what are we left with? I mean, what a great question to ask as you're reading Psalm 8, right? Just say yes, please, please. Thank you. And so, here's John Calvin. It's always good to quote John Calvin. In the very, very beginning of his institutes, he makes this statement. Our wisdom, insofar as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts. The knowledge of God and of ourselves. And then a little bit later on he goes on to say, it is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he has previously contemplated the face of God and come down after such contemplation to look unto himself. Look at Psalm 8, that's exactly what David is doing. Oh Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name, your glory is in all the earth. So he's contemplating the face of God, and now he can begin to answer the question, and so what is man that you remind him of the Son of Man that you care for him? Do you hear that? His knowledge of God impacts the knowledge of himself, of ourselves. Okay? And that's where he goes. He's doing exactly what John Calvin was doing. Or maybe John Calvin was saying what David, whatever. Anyway, you get it. So let me go, any questions before I go on? I've got some place I want to go. Any observations, consternations, conflagrations? Yes? Right, right. So this is why we start here. And by the way, if you think about this in evangelism, talking to your kids, grandkids, your neighbors, this is a good place to start, is with the goodness of creation. When you start evangelizing, you start with the goodness of creation and the goodness of God and what He created. So that way then the fall looks like a real fall and sin really is sin. I'm going to give you an example. It's in the Garden of Plenty. They have everything they could want Adam and Eve do. Up slithers the serpent. Psst, psst, psst. Hey, God doesn't want you to be like him. He wants you, he's afraid of you. Go ahead and eat the fruit. And so in the face of plenty, Eve reaches over and grabs a fruit. Never forget, Adam was there with her. I want to sock him in the nose. He's right there, it says in Genesis, and they take the fruit and eat it. In the face of plenty, in the face of God's goodness, in the face of God's grace, in the face of God's mercy, they say, we don't want it, we're gonna do our own thing. Wow, that's what sin looks like. Oh, and then you start to see how sinful sin really is. Does that make sense? Okay, yeah. Right. Yep. Yeah. Now I want to go somewhere. So notice your translation. If you're using the ESV, the New American Standard of the King James, and the 1984 edition of the NIV. If you're using those, notice the difference in that language to what we're going to see here in just a minute. This is a side note, but this is important. Notice that it's all singular. What is man that you were mindful in, the son of man that you cared for him, you made him a little lower than the angels, et cetera, and so forth. And I'll explain in a minute why it's so significant to not go down the path of the gender neutral translations, but this is a great place to start. So look at Psalm, here's how Psalm 8 is translated. By the 2011 NIV, the 2011, you gotta check the copyright on your NIV. Make sure you don't have a 20,000. I'm sorry, I just don't like it. And here's one reason why. What is mankind? Notice the genericness of it, right? It's bigger, and then it goes on that you are mindful of Him, human beings, that you care for them. Notice the plural now. You hear the plural? That you care for them. You have made them a little lower than the angels. You've crowned them with glory and honor. And then it gets even more specific when you get into the new revised standard version. It stays the same way, but what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. I'm not denying that that's part of the intention of what David is asking, but David asks in a very gender-specific, singular fashion, and that's important, and I'll show you part of why in a minute. The big reason why in just a minute. But what do you see there? Do you hear a change from the singular and the specific, the gender specific, to the broader? What do you hear? What is missing? What did the translators completely miss? The order of creation. Yeah. Yes, it becomes impersonal. It drops, it actually ends up dropping the memory of Genesis chapter one because there it's very specific. Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and then male and female, et cetera, right? So it starts to miss that by going this broader plural form, okay? Yeah, yeah, then there's the collective, right? Yep. So that's big, but then you get to the New Testament. Where is Jesus in Psalm 8? So we're gonna look at two, oh, wow. Man, I waxed eloquent. Look at the time. All right, so just very quickly, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. and you're gonna hear the specificity, and you'll understand then why the specific is important, and why going the way they went actually, at the minimum, makes it harder to see Jesus in Psalm 8, and at the worst, removes Jesus from Psalm 8. That's actually my contention with them. But in 1 Corinthians 15, I won't read all of verses 20 through 27, but notice as you get down to verse 26, the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Verse 27, for, and now it's quoting Psalm 8, for God has put all things in subjection under His feet. Who is Paul talking about? Jesus! Right? So notice that by removing the specificity of Psalm 8, they are removing at the least, they're dropping the connection with Jesus. At the most, they're removing Jesus from Psalm 8. The writers of the New Testament cannot help but see Jesus in Psalm 8. He's the epitome of Psalm 8. Okay? We've got to be very, very careful and if I had translators here I would tell them that too. Look over at Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews 2. Here it's even more specific. Hebrews 2, starting at verse 5. For it was not to the angels that God subjected the world to come of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere. Psalm eight verses four through eight. What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him. You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You crown him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. Now I'm putting everything in subjection to him. He left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not see everything in subjection to him. But we see him, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist and bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. All my point is, is that staying with the specific in the original text like that is extremely important. You begin to start seeing you can't miss Jesus. Right. And Psalm eight, once you realize how specific that is and why it's specific, then you begin to realize, oh, this is huge. This is talking about Jesus. By the way, the writer of Hebrews is saying, and it's talking not about every man, woman, boy and girl throughout creation is talking about Jesus and those who belong to Jesus. Going back to something Ben said, all things will be put in subjection under our feet if we belong to Jesus. One day, not now, don't go with the word of faith movement, it hadn't happened yet, okay? But it's happening, it will happen. And so Psalm 8, yeah, is talking about us sort of, but it's primarily talking about Jesus. Okay, that's why we have to be careful about going down that path with those kinds of translations. And so I love the way, this is an Eastern Orthodox writer who used to be an Episcopal priest named Patrick Henry Reardon. And his book, which I've shown you before, called Christ and the Psalms. It's a great little book. He says, Christ is the archetype of man bearing all humanity in himself. And then he goes on to say, a little bit later, Christ is no afterthought. He is the original meaning of humanity. Christ is what God had in mind when he reached down and formed that first lump of mud into a man. I just think that's very helpful. In Psalm 8, when you start realizing it's talking about Jesus, you realize exactly what Reardon is saying, that Christ is the template. Jesus, what he was going to be when he was incarnate, is the template of what we were made to reflect clearly. Okay. So, and then we end, of course, with verse nine, which started out at verse one. Again, we're back to praising God for all of this, that God has made all things, and he made us, and he gave us this place in his image, and specifically, that this is who Jesus is and what he's going to do. There you go, okay? So, as you look at Psalm eight, First off, I'd say follow David's path by delighting in the law and meditating on it day and night. You have an example of what that looks like right here in Psalm 8. Delight in the law and meditate on it day and night. OK? Secondly, when confronted with the ontological, these are big words. Ontos is being, my own being. Confront them with the ontological and the teleological. Teleology is the, End result or the end aim of all things. Okay, so when confronted with the ontological and teleological questions of science politics philosophy eugenics psychology, etc, etc listen to them and then compare their answers to What is man compare their answers to the scriptures and tell me who has the higher view in the end? When seeking the wisdom of self-knowledge, begin with David and Calvin and contemplate the face of God first. Then come down to look at yourself. That's Psalm 8. Finally, no matter how puny or powerless you may feel, lift up your voices and pray. Lift up your voices and pray. Any questions at all about Psalm 8 or anything you want clarification for? No? Okay. Let's pray. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. So out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, but still the enemy and the avenger. Thank you for calling us and your children and bring us into your assembly to worship you. Thank you that you use our praise to cause the avenger, the foe, the enemy to tremble and to be still. When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you've set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him? What is the son of man that you care for him? Lord, thank you that we live in a God-filled universe, not a God-vacant universe. That you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings. crowned him with glory and honor, have given him dominion over the works of your hands, have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, all beasts of the field, birds of the heavens, fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. Lord, we thank you that all things are truly in subjection to Jesus and that his return will restore and transform all creation and all those who are his. We long for that day. and we rejoice in what you've done. Lord, as we gather into the great assembly to worship you, we pray for your spirit to lift our hearts, to fortify us, to be the peace of those who are in turmoil, to be the strength of those who are weak, to be the hope of those who feel in despair. Lord, fill us with your spirit that we may be filled with your joy and your peace. And Lord, may we worship you in spirit and in truth. In Jesus' name, amen.
God's Impetus
సిరీస్ Psalms
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వ్యవధి | 52:23 |
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