How Majestic Is Your Name Series

HOW MAJESTIC IS YOUR NAME (PSALM 8)

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We’ve picked out some of the most awe-inspiring and meaningful moments from the history of humanity’s journey to space.

1. Ed White, 3 June 1965, 1965, Gemini 4, pilot, he became the first American to “walk” in space: “I’m coming back in… and it’s the saddest moment of my life.”

2. Neil Armstrong on looking back at the Earth from the Moon in July 1969: “I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.”

3. Frank Borman, Apollo 8: It makes us realize that we all do exist on one small globe. For from 230,000 miles away it really is a small planet.

4. Alan Shepard, Apollo 14: If somebody'd said before the flight, “Are you going to get carried away looking at the earth from the moon?” I would have say, “No, no way.” But yet when I first looked back at the earth, standing on the moon, I cried.

5. Roger B Chaffee, Apollo 1: The world itself looks cleaner and so much more beautiful. Maybe we can make it that way—the way God intended it to be—by giving everybody that new perspective from out in space.

6. James B. Irwin, Apollo 15: As we got further and further away, it [the Earth] diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man.

7. Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14: My view of our planet was a glimpse of divinity.”

http://www.spacequotations.com/earth.html

The creation of the world and man is one of the strongest arguments for the existence of God. Many believers are uncomfortable and prefer not to call creation a theory rather than a truth. Genesis begins emphatically, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). All life origins from God and is a gift from Him. Life is an intelligent design, a complex matter and a divine gift.

Why did God create the heavens and the earth? What is the chief purpose of man? How are we to govern the world He gave us?

Sing His Praise

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.

A visiting farmer stopped at a city restaurant to eat lunch. When he was served his food he bowed his head and gave thanks to the Lord. Some teenagers sitting at a nearby table noticed the farmer’s prayer and shouted, “Hey, pops, back where you come from does everybody pray before they eat?”

Their laughter was silenced when the unmoved farmer answered, “No, the hogs don’t.”

“O Lord our Lord” is not a word repetition because the titles are different in Hebrew. The first title (Yahweh) is the name of Israel’s God, but the second title (Adonai) is translated as “lord” 228 times and “master” 105 times in KJV, therefore it should be correctly translated as O Lord our Master.” Out of respect for the name that has no vowel, The Jews substitute Adonai for YHWH in reading, thus the English translation O Lord our Lord. The difference between the two is that the first is strictly the title, the respect, translated as Lord, O Lord or the Lord, whereas the second is the trust, a relationship. In the Psalms He is our Lord (Ps 8:1, 147:5), thy Lord (Ps 45:11), the Lord of the whole earth (Ps 97:5), my Lord (Ps 110:1), the Lord (Ps 114:7), the Lord of lords (Ps 136:3) in the Psalms. The first is His rule and the second the respect, the designation versus the devotion. The first speaks of his omnipotence, omniscience and ownership, but the second smacks of obedience, openness and obligation. It serves as an acknowledgement, an admiration and an assurance.

The three translations for majestic are excellent (KJV), majestic (NASB) and magnificent (Holman), which reminds me of a regular episode from “Justice Bao” when the court officials strike their rods on the ground at the same time shouting, “Majesty!” to the alarm suffered by the person brought to the court to bejudged and sentenced. To be majestic is not the same as to be glorious or great. To be glorious is to be bulky or heavy is Hebrew, to be great is to be many in Hebrew, but to be excellent is to be vastness, to be like the ocean far, wide and deep. The closest thing to the word “majestic” is like the heavens or sky, the sea or the ocean, as space itself, which is rolling and never resting, flowing and never finishing, hastening and never halting. In the Psalms “heavens” refer to the height of His sanctuary (Ps 102:19). It is high above the earth (Ps 103:11) and God stretches out the heavens like a curtain (Ps 104:2).