How To Enjoy God Through His Creation - Psalm 8:1-2 Series

Psalm 8: For the director of music. According to gittith. A psalm of David. 1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. 3 When I consider 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, the son of man that you care for him? 5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Introduction

What Does It Mean to be Human?

What does it mean to be human? Right in the center of this psalm David asks the question, What is man? That is a striking question. There is a huge variety within humanity. Think of how different a 3-month-old is from a 90-year-old. Or how different a man is from a woman. Or Goliath the Philistine and a modern philosophy professor. Eve in the Garden of Eden and the Antichrist. Jesus Christ and Judas. Everyone in that list is in the category of “human,” so there is a huge range of very different beings that all fit in that category: human. And yet, it’s a very distinct category. There is also a huge range that fit in the category of animals. Everything from a little bug to a blue whale to a chimpanzee whose genetic code is 97% the same as humans. An endless variety of beings who are all very definitely in the category of animal and not human. There is a clear distinction between animals and humans and there is a clear distinction between angels and humans.

What does it mean to be human and not animal, and what does it mean to be human and not angelic? What is the purpose of humanity? And what’s the difference between our ultimate purpose and that of angels and heavenly beings and animals?

And how does that all come into play when you have feelings of worthlessness? Or feelings of inflated self-importance? The answers to all those questions are here is Psalm 8.

Significance of Psalm 8

Psalm 8 is a very important chapter in the Bible. It’s probably the most important chapter in the Bible on the doctrine of man, and it is referenced three times in the NT – one of those is when Jesus quotes it is a fascinating way. So this is an important psalm to know.

Not only that, but it’s an incredibly encouraging and inspiring psalm. It will make you want to worship God, and it will give you profound meaning in your life – your job, your role in the church, and your whole existence in general.

Astonishment

It begins with these words: for the director of music. According to gittith. A Psalm of David. We don’t know what according to gittith means - evidently at some kind of a musical notation. We don’t know if I had to do with the musical style or the mood of the song, but we can ask this question, what is the overall mood of this psalm? Some songs are dark and somber, some are happy and bouncy, contemplative, celebrative, forceful – what’s the mood of this psalm? I would say the best word to describe it is astonishment. He doesn’t just make a statement: “God is majestic.” He exclaims, “Oh, how majestic” That’s an emotional outcry. He begins and ends that way. You also feel the astonishment at the center point of the psalm where, after looking at the vastness of the universe David says, “What is man that you are mindful of him” David is astonished at the greatness of God, and the surprising role that mankind plays in his greatness.

Yahweh our Adonai

So let’s take a look at verse one.

Psalm 8:1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

Look at how he addresses God: O LORD our Lord. You’ll notice the first “LORD” is spelled out in all capital letters. The reason the English translators do that is to let you know these are two different Hebrew words. When it’s in all caps, the Hebrew word is Yahweh. When it just has the first letter capitalized, the Hebrew word is Adonai. So what David wrote was, “O Yahweh our Adonai, how majestic is your name in all the earth.”