Psalm 8
For the director of music. According to “gittith.” A psalm of David.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies
to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider 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, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:
all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
I have always had a fascination for the night skies. As a kid I used to climb up on our roof at night (without my mom or dad knowing it) and just gaze up and look around. It became a hobby of mine to study star charts and learn the constellations and star names – I have forgotten a lot but even now I can look up and see Arcturus and Regulus or the Andromeda Galaxy or Ring Nebulae, maybe even call them out to Jennifer or the girls trying to impress them with my vast knowledge! From my earliest memories as I would gaze up, my thoughts have always been about how all of this came to be – and if God was responsible for creating the whole universe with so many more stars and galaxies that are even beyond reach of our strongest telescopes… how is it even possible that he would care for me?
There is a contemporary song called Who Am I which is really another take off from the idea of this Psalm. The pre-chorus of the song is – “Not because of who I am, but because of what You’ve done; not because of what I’ve done, but because of who You are.” Pure praise in its most fundamental form… the unmatchable majesty of our great God in heaven compared to us mere human creations. We have sung Tom Fettke’s The Majesty and Glory of His Name, again a paraphrase of Psalm 8. This is one of the questions that mankind has asked through the centuries about God – if God is really God how can he care for each of us? How is that even possible?
I think this is something that all of us have to come to some kind of understanding, because it’s too easy for any of us humans to ignore it because it just doesn’t make sense. And if it doesn’t make sense in our brains with all of our ‘vast knowledge’ and technical advances, it just can’t be true… right? I believe this is the main problem we have with the witnessing process. We have a hard time believing it’s true, so how in the world are we going to feel comfortable talking to a non-church friend and inviting them to come to our church and hear about the God that we even have trouble believing?
Charles Spurgeon called this Psalm “The Song of the Astronomer”, which I agree because this is one of my favorite Psalms. I would, and still do, think about these words every time I look up at the stars, and while I look and think about the words I ask myself “Who am I?” Who am I that God would even spend one micron of a thousandth of a second thinking of me when he has a lot more important things going on through his vast creation?
This song tells us that God has placed mankind above the other creatures on earth but just a little lower than the heavenly beings. It is important to understand that this order isn’t anything that man has done, but it’s all by the hand of God himself.
I’ve always wondered about the meaning of the second verse. I think about the pure and unrestrained praise from a child because they haven’t learned our inhibitions – when they praise God it comes from their absolute love and devotion with no strings attached. That is the picture of how we should praise and worship… free from all the stuff we tie on to it and added attachments written by human hands which are there to make us feel more important. If we had that same kind of heart for worship, it would be so noticed to the world around us it would silence any who would talk against it and God. There is no offense that can penetrate real worship – no enemy or avenger that can overpower the hand of God when real worship is in action.
It’s an opportunity we have to share with the world that there is nothing or no one that is more majestic than our God. We have what everyone wants to have, a connection to the Creator through his son Jesus Christ. No matter if we can conceive how it’s even possible or not, that’s the way it is… or what I hear a lot of sports people saying these days… “it is what it is!” Well, that’s what it is – we are nothing compared to the majesty of our God, except that God himself gave us a place next to his throne through Jesus. Our only worth in God’s eyes is what is seen through Jesus who gave his life for us. That’s what we have to share with our friends in Fredericksburg!
Not because of who I am… but because of who You are.