Is Jesus In Psalm 8? A Mind-Blowing Journey Through God’s Majesty Series

Psalm 8: For the director of music. According to gittith. A psalm of David. 1 O Yahweh our Adonai, 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 Yahweh our Adonai, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Introduction

Do you remember those books “Where’s Waldo”? where you have to try to find Waldo in a crowd of people? Tonight we’re going to play a game of “Where’s Jesus?” and see if we can spot where he is in the verses of Psalm 8. And I told you it’s a trick question, and not only that, but a double trick question. And when we get to the end tonight, I’ll show you what I mean.

Fulfillment in Christ

We Don’t See It

Psalm 8 is about how God shows his majesty in all the earth in 2 ways:

1) by using the weakest and lowliest of people to defeat his enemies (vv.2-3), and

2) by using lowly mankind to rule the world as his deputies (vv.4-8).

And last time I talked at length about how mankind is higher than the animals, and we rule over them and the rest of creation. But there’s a slight problem. We rule the creation sort of, but it doesn’t seem like we rule to the degree this psalm describes. Last time I gave examples of a lot of things in the creation that we have subdued. But David doesn’t say, “You put a lot of things under man’s feet.” He says “all things.”

When you look around, do you see every single thing in the creation under man’s feet? Can we control hurricanes? No - we can’t even control a gentle breeze. We can’t control earthquakes or tornados or floods, or droughts. We can’t even control ourselves.

James 3:7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8 but no man can tame the tongue.

We can’t even control our own mouths. We can’t cure cancer, or even the common cold. With all our modern medicine and doctors and surgery, disease is still rampant. And ultimately, we all die – even the doctors. Doctors die, scientists die – the smartest people the strongest people – death ends up getting the better of every single one of us. If we’re honest, we have to admit - we do not have the creation under our feet.

So how do we explain that? How do I deal with the fact that the Bible says everything is under man’s feet, but I don’t see it? The Bible says man is crowned with glory and honor, but I look in the mirror and what I see is decidedly non-glorious. I don’t see Psalm 8 happening.

You want to hear something amazing? The writer of the book of Hebrews didn’t see it either. He quotes Psalm 8.

Hebrews 2:6 But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 7 You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor 8 and put everything under his feet.” In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.

The Bible itself says - Psalm 8 is not happening. So what does that mean? Psalm 8 is false? Just didn’t work out? No – the writer of Hebrews is using Psalm 8 to prove his whole point in ch.2, so obviously he believes Psalm 8 is true. And yet he admits, what we see when we look at our world is not what is described in Ps.8. So what’s the explanation? Let’s look at what he says.

Christ Fulfills Humanity

Hebrews 2:8 [you] put everything under his feet.” In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him.