Finding Who You Are In Who God Is

Finding Who You Are in Who God Is (Psalm 8)

Do you ever think that maybe Galileo and Copernicus got it wrong, that our solar system doesn’t really revolve around the sun? Because on some days it seems like the universe just revolves around ... you? Now let’s be honest. We all have our moments of self-centeredness, right? Or on the other hand, maybe you have times when you wonder if you really matter to God at all! Maybe you think God gave up on you long ago. Either way, today’s psalm calls us to adjust our perspective as we examine the worth of a human being in the eyes of our Creator. Please listen to Psalm 8:

1 LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory

in the heavens.

2 Through the praise of children and infants

you have established a stronghold against 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 mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?

5 You have made them a little lower than the angels

and crowned them with glory and honor.

6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

you put everything under their feet:

7 all flocks and herds,

and the animals of the wild,

8 the birds in the sky,

and the fish in the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

There are a lot of self-help books out today that will recommend how to build your self-esteem. Let’s find our true self-esteem in what God thinks about us. We can do that as we walk with the psalm writer David through four seemingly contradictory statements about God and us. First, consider that...

1. God is really something!

David starts and ends his psalm with the same exact words. Verses 1 and 9 read,

“LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

Or if you ever remember Sandi Patty or Michael W. Smith’s version, you have to sing it... [singing the tune]

Now the first three words here sound repetitive, like why is David saying “Lord” twice? It’s a weird translation device you find in most English language Bibles. You’ll notice one “Lord” is in all caps and one is not. There’s an important reason for that. The all-capitalized “L-O-R-D” is the Hebrew word from which we get “Yahweh” or “Jehovah.” We don’t know exactly how to say it today, because the original Hebrew scribes didn’t record vowels, just the consonants. So we have this “Tetragrammaton” (I learned that in seminary!) of four Hebrew letters: Y-H-W-H. It’s the actual name for God. It’s the same name God gave Moses at the burning bush, when Moses asked, “Who shall I say sent me?” God replied, “I am who I am” or “I will be who I will be.” That’s the rough meaning of “Yahweh” or “Jehovah.” God is the great “I am,” the absolutely existing one. He always has been and always will be. He never changes. He is not created. He just...is.

The second word for “Lord” only capitalizes the “L” and translates the Hebrew word, “Adonai,” which means the “master” or “boss” or “ruler.” So the first “LORD” is a name and the second “Lord” is a title. David is saying, “Yahweh, you are our Master.” God is over all, and as such, his name—his character, his being—deserves to be praised and worshiped across the entire earth. God, this one true God Yahweh, this God is really something! He is majestic. His majesty fills the entire earth!

Now if you think of yourself relative to this amazing God of all creation, it might be comparing a grape to the sun! And so you might think, #2...

2. Compared to God, we are nothing.

David writes in verses 3 and 4, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”

You can picture the sheep-herder David gazing at the night sky as he writes these words and takes in the absolute glory of the heavens. Indeed, the universe is an amazing creation. Consider the sheer size of it: The earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter. For comparison sake, if the earth were the size of a grape, then our star, the sun, would be about the size of a giant beach ball. One of the largest stars in the galaxy, Canis Majoris, could hold over 2,000 beach balls, or 2,000 of our suns within it!