God Made You To Rule (Psalm 8) Series

We continue our "sons of God" series today by working our way through Psalm 8. This psalm, is a great psalm. It has a lot to say about who God is, what He is doing, and what God created us to be. We read it, and it makes us think backward to Genesis, and forward to Hebrews, and maybe to the book of Revelation.

There's no one right way to read it, or preach it. There's a richness to it, that defies simple explanation. By the end, hopefully, we will find ourselves praising God in new ways, for new reasons.

I'll start by simply reading it, and then I'll try to unpack it (Hebrew numbering throughout). Also, let me say one other thing. Almost every line in this psalm is tricky. It's tough Hebrew. And what I've chosen to do today, is try to unpack it. So this is going to be one of the sermons where I lean nerd, and you will have to work at listening carefully:

(1) For the choir director upon the gittim. A song for/of David.

(2) Yahweh, our Lord,

How majestic [is] your name in all the earth,

you who put/set your splendor upon/over/above the heavens.

(3) At the word of babies and infants you laid a foundation for a fortress on account of your enemies,

to put an end to the enemy and the avenger.

(4) When I see your heavens, the works of your fingers,

the moon and stars that you set in place,

(5) who/what is a man,

that you remember/consider him,

and the son of man,

that you attend to him,

(6) and you made him lack a little of [being exactly like] Elohim/God/gods,

while glory and honor you are crowning him with.

(7) You make him rule over the works of your hands,

Everything you have placed under his feet,

flocks and cattle, all of them,

and also the beasts of the field,

birds of the heavens and fish of the sea passing through the paths of the seas.

(10) Yahweh, our Lord, how mighty is your name in all the earth.

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Verses 1-2:

(1) For the choir director upon the guitar. A song for/of David.

(2) Yahweh, our Lord,

How majestic [is] your name in all the earth,

you who put/set your splendor upon/over/above the heavens.

The psalmist begins by calling out to God, noting how majestic Yahweh's name is, all over the world.

We hear this, and we feel our spirits lift. We find ourselves praising God along with the psalmist. But what does majestic mean? If we stop and think about this, we maybe realize, we're not actually sure. We "feel" the word, but we can't explain it.

Let's turn to Psalm 76:4-6 (NRSV):

Glorious are you, more majestic

than the everlasting mountains.[a]

5 The stout-hearted were stripped of their spoil;

they sank into sleep;

none of the troops

was able to lift a hand.

6 At your rebuke, O God of Jacob,

both rider and horse lay stunned.

"Majestic" is a power word in Hebrew. When we hear language about Yahweh's majesty, we are supposed to think about God's power [Hebrew lexicons also gloss it as "might."]. No one can stand against him. God is unstoppable. He is one who loots the spoil of warriors (cf. Mark 3:27). And, returning to Psalm 8, Yahweh's name is majestic in all the earth. Yahweh is not just the God of Israel. His power doesn't end with Israel's boundary lines. Or at the walls of this church. Yahweh's name is majestic/powerful in all the earth.

Now let's add the second line:

(2) Yahweh, our Lord,

How majestic [is] your name in all the earth,

you who put/set/made your splendor upon/over/above the heavens.

Let's start thinking about this line, by talking about what "splendor" is. "Splendor" is also a power word. Let's turn to Isaiah 30:26-30 to get a feel for it (ESV):

26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar,

burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;[d]

his lips are full of fury,

and his tongue is like a devouring fire;

28 his breath is like an overflowing stream

that reaches up to the neck;

to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,

and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.

29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Rock of Israel. 30 And Yahweh will cause the splendor of his voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. 31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of Yahweh, when he strikes with his rod. 32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that Yahweh lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them.33 For a burning place[e] has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.