Week 11: For the Season of Belittlement (Psalm 8) Memory Verse Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. Psalm 8:5 [1] O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. [2] Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. [3] When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, [4] what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? [5] Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. [6] You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, [7] all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, [8] the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. [9] O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! 130
Sermon Notes 131
Monday Psalm 8 begins and ends with the same line. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. This is a common theme throughout Scripture. God s majesty and glory are proclaimed in all the world, and they are worthy of our attention. In 1 Chronicles 29:10-14, David reflected on God s glory after watching his people, Israel, give their precious resources to build the temple. David gave God all the credit for this free display of worship. Consider God s glory today as you read David s words. In the words of the Protestant Reformers, Soli Deo Gloria! To the glory of God alone! 1 Chronicles 29:10-14 Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. 132
Notes & Prayers Rejoice - How does the text lead you to thank God? Repent How does the text lead you back to God? Request How does the text lead you to ask for God s help? 133
Tuesday In Psalm 8:6 we read that God has given us dominion over the works of His hands. This is the same language that is used in Genesis 1:26 to describe humanity s role. Dominion is a word that is used with royalty. As sons and daughters of the King, we are God s royal image in the world. As Dr. Richard Pratt explains, Pharaohs of Egypt, the Emperors of Babylon, and the kings of other empires used images of themselves to display their authority and power. Just as human kings had their images, the divine King ordained that the human race would be his royal image. (Pratt, Designed for Dignity) This is an amazing thought! God has made us His royal representatives on the earth. Genesis 1:26-28 Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. 134
Notes & Prayers Rejoice - How does the text lead you to thank God? Repent How does the text lead you back to God? Request How does the text lead you to ask for God s help? 135
Wednesday Psalm 8:5-8 is quoted in Hebrews 2:6-9, but instead of talking about humanity, the author uses these words to describe Jesus. Under the curse of sin, our dominion over the earth was broken, but by Jesus suffering, death, and resurrection, it has been redeemed. In Jesus, God s plan for humanity is perfectly fulfilled. When we are united to Jesus Christ in saving faith, our role as God s image bearers is restored as a free gift! Hebrews 2:6-9 It has been testified somewhere, What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 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. 136
Notes & Prayers Rejoice - How does the text lead you to thank God? Repent How does the text lead you back to God? Request How does the text lead you to ask for God s help? 137
Thursday Like the author of Hebrews, Paul understood Psalm 8 to be about Jesus. He borrowed the phrase from verse 6 to say that all things are under the feet of Jesus, and the church lives out His dominion on the earth (Ephesians 1:22-23). However, at the same time we live in the tension that Jesus enemies are not yet under His feet because He is yet to make His final return (1 Corinthians 15:22, 25). As Oscar Cullman famously illustrated, we are like troops during World War II living between D- Day when allied forces won the decisive battle at Normandy and V- Day when the war was finally over. Let us have great confidence to live out the dominion that is ALREADY here as we look forward to the NOT YET victory at Christ s second coming! Ephesians 1:22-23 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. 1 Corinthians 15:24-27 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. 138
Notes & Prayers Rejoice - How does the text lead you to thank God? Repent How does the text lead you back to God? Request How does the text lead you to ask for God s help? 139
Friday Jesus understood David s words about the LORD in Psalm 8 to be about Him! This is a staggering claim. Jesus is the Eternal God around whom all of life is meant to revolve. We could say, O Jesus, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! This Jesus who restores our dominion is, as the Nicene Creed famously states, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. As you read this scripture join your voice with the little children and praise Him! Matthew 21:14-17 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the Son of David! they were indignant, and they said to him, Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes; have you never read, Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise? And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. 140
Notes & Prayers Rejoice - How does the text lead you to thank God? Repent How does the text lead you back to God? Request How does the text lead you to ask for God s help? 141