You may have read some articles over the past couple weeks about a group of atheists in Santa Monica, California who have essentially prevented the display of a 14 scene Christmas diorama that has been a 60 year old tradition in that city. The local committee that has been responsible for the display is now going to court to sue the city.
Although scenes like that are certainly becoming more prevalent in our culture, I think that most people in our country still hold a view that is probably closer to that expressed by Ben Stein in his famous “confessions for the Holidays” commentary delivered in December 2005 which included these words:
My confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
Most people don’t mind that someone else says “Merry Christmas”. And even those who don’t either understand the significance of the birth of Jesus or have not changed their life in any way because of what it means are still likely to participate in many of the traditions of the season. They might even put up a nativity scene of their own. And many of those who would claim they aren’t “religious” don’t have a problem with celebrating the birth of a baby who brings a spirit of peace and joy into the world.
But the event that we celebrate at Christmas each year, the incarnation of Jesus, is so much more than just the birth of a baby over 2,000 years ago. So what I’d like to do this Christmas season is to continue our journey that we’ve been in through the Psalms.
But we’re going to change our focus a bit from the fifteen Psalms of Ascent that we looked at over the past few months and instead focus on several Psalms that are considered to be “Messianic Psalms” because they reveal something about the Messiah, Jesus. As we’ve seen over the past few months nearly every Psalm reveals Jesus in some way, but the Psalms that we’ll look at over the next five weeks leading up to Christmas do that in a much deeper way. My prayer is that as we look at these Psalms they will help to keep us focused on why the incarnation of Jesus is so important. And perhaps none of the Psalms do that better than the one we’ll look at this morning – Psalm 8.
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8:1-9 (ESV)
As we will see with a number of the Messianic Psalms we’ll be looking at, the key to understanding the Messianic implications of this Psalm is to recognize that…
This Psalm operates on 2 levels:
By now, this shouldn’t really be anything new for us. We certainly saw that same thing when we looked at many of the Old Testament prophecies regarding the day of the Lord. You’ll remember that many of those prophecies had both a short term fulfillment that took place shortly after the prophecy was given and then a far term fulfillment that will take place at a future time.
When David penned this Psalm under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it is quite likely that he only understood the near term application:
1. It reveals the greatness of God
Perhaps David was out tending his sheep one night and looked up into the sky. And as he observed the stars in the sky he was reminded of the greatness of God.
I know that I can personally relate to that. I have always been fascinated by astronomy. Even though I was a business major in college, I took an astronomy course as one of my electives. And several years ago after Mary and I attended the Sky Nights program at the U of A Observatory on Mt. Lemmon, I bought Mary a telescope for her birthday. Although I know she shares my love for looking at the objects in the night sky, if the truth be known that was probably more a present for me than for her.
But every time that we get that telescope out and look at planets that are hundreds of thousands of miles from the earth or even a galaxy like Andromeda that can be seen with the naked eye that is about 2.5 million light years from earth, I am reminded about how big God is and how small I am in comparison.
In this Psalm, David points out how God’s greatness is revealed in three different ways:
• God’s greatness is revealed in His creation
As David looks out at the heavens, there is not thought on his part that what he sees is the result of a “big bang” or some random process where matter just magically comes together somehow. There is no doubt in his mind that God set the moon and the stars in place. And that creation which David sees testifies to the greatness of God.
Hundreds of years later, Paul made a similar observation:
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Romans 1:19-20 (ESV)
Paul confirms the idea that God’s creation reveals God’s greatness – His eternal power and His divine nature in particular.
This is a good reminder for us that part of fearing God is seeing Him all around us in His creation and letting the magnificence of that creation to take our breath away. Whether it’s the beautiful sunrise in the morning, or the towering Catalina Mountains, or a colorful butterfly fluttering through the flowers or looking at the stars through a telescope, God’s creation is designed to help us see His greatness so we can give God praise for it.
• God ‘s greatness is revealed in the weakness of man
Without a doubt, verse 2 is the most difficult part of this Psalm to handle. But I think this is one of those instances where we need to stand back and take a look at the big picture rather than get caught up in the details. The overall idea here seems to be that even though God is big enough to have placed the moon and stars in the sky, He also chooses to work though what has proven to be the weak link in His creation – man. And just to make the point even clearer, David points out that God can use the words of even the weakest of man – infants and babies – to overcome His foes.
Let’s face it, God certainly doesn’t need man to handle His foes. He is certainly capable of doing that all by Himself. But by using that which the world perceives to be the very weakest aspect of creation to overcome his enemies, God is actually displaying His greatness. Just think, if that which is the least of His creation can overcome His foes, then that means God must be extremely powerful and great.
Once again, we see Paul confirms this same idea in the New Testament:
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
1 Corinthians 1:27-29 (ESV)
God chooses to work through those things that are foolish and weak in the eyes of the world, so that no man can boast. Instead we are to boast in the God who demonstrates His greatness by working through those things that the world considers to be weak.
• God’s greatness is revealed in man’s dominion
In verses 7 and 8, David describes man’s dominion over Gods’ creation. In reading those verses we’re reminded of the words of God in the creation account in Genesis 1:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26 (ESV)
The fact that God was able to create another creature in His own image who would be capable of having dominion over the rest of creation is certainly a testament to the greatness of God. And for some period of time, Adam demonstrated the greatness of God by perfectly carrying out God’s plan. His dominion over those animals was so complete that when God commanded Adam to name the animals, he didn’t have to chase them down, they actually came to him.
But because of sin, by the time David wrote this Psalm, that kind of perfect dominion was no longer operating on the earth. In a sense, Adam’s sin had partially obscured God’s glory because man’s dominion that was intended to show God’s greatness was no longer working as God intended.
But that certainly didn’t catch God by surprise. God knew before He ever created Adam t that Adam would mess things up and that God would have to provide a way to restore things to their original perfection. That’s where the second level of this Psalm comes into play. In the same Psalm that revealed the greatness of God through His creation, through weakness and through man’s dominion, we find that at the same time…
2. It reveals the humility of Jesus
Although we might pick up on the reference to the “son of man” in verse 4 and wonder whether that is a reference to Jesus, the writer of Hebrews provides us with a commentary on this Psalm that leaves no doubt that Jesus is at the heart of this Psalm:
For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere,
“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Hebrews 2:5-9 (ESV)
Here the writer of Hebrews quotes verses 4-6 of Psalm 8. You will note that the wording is slightly different because the author of Hebrews is quoting from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. But under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the author makes it clear that Psalm 8 pictures the humility of Jesus, who for a little while left the glory of heaven and humbled Himself and became lower than the angels – the very angels that He had created. That humility is demonstrated by two specific actions that Jesus takes:
• Jesus’ humility is revealed in the incarnation
I don’t think it is possible for our finite human minds to ever fully comprehend the amount of humility that was required for Jesus to voluntarily leave the glory of heaven where He received continual worship and become flesh and come to earth and to experience firsthand the way that sin had defiled His perfect creation. Paul makes an attempt to describe that kind of humility in his letter to the Philippian church:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Philippians 2:5-7 (ESV)
Jesus did not, as some claim, cease to be God or give up His deity. But He did, as the writer of Hebrews explains, voluntarily give up, for a “little while” His right to utilize the powers He possessed as God. He took on the body of a man and willingly experienced everything that man experiences in life here on earth.
The event that we celebrate at Christmas is far more than just the birth of a baby boy in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. It is the greatest act of humility that the world has ever or will ever see. And that is what I’m convinced most people, even many who claim to be Christians, fail to recognize.
But the humility of Jesus didn’t stop there…
• Jesus’ humility is revealed in the crucifixion
The writer of Hebrews reveals that Jesus was crowned with glory and honor as a result of another act of humility – His death on the cross. In Philippians 2, Paul goes on to describe that act of humility.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:8 (ESV)
Crucifixion was the most painful and shameful way to die in the culture of Jesus’ time here on earth. But in His humility, Jesus was willing to offer Himself up to die like that, not for His own benefit, but for ours.
As a result of those two acts of humility – His incarnation and His death on the cross, the writer of Hebrews reveals that…
• Jesus’ humility restores man’s dominion
When we look around at this world it is pretty easy for us to see what the writer of Hebrews reveals in this passage – God’s creation is not currently in subjection to man. That is because once sin entered the world, God’s plan for man to have dominion over His creation was ruined.
As David wrote Psalm 8 and reflected on how God had placed all the animals in subjection to man, I think he, too, must have been thinking that he saw little evidence that was actually occurring around him.
But God wasn’t caught off guard by any of this. In fact, He had a plan in place before He ever created this world to deal with the brokenness that would enter the world through man’s sin. And that plan always revolved around the two humble acts of the incarnation and crucifixion of Jesus. As a result of those two acts God’s ideal has been restored
Part of that restoration has already occurred since Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father and the Father has placed all things under His feet – a fact that Paul also refers to frequently in his letters. But the ultimate fulfillment of that restoration awaits the return of Jesus to this earth, at which time God has promised that those who have placed their faith in Jesus will be restored to their place of dominion and reign with Him.
The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
2 Timothy 2:11-13 (ESV)
Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:6 (ESV)
The humility of Jesus that we see in Psalm 8 is remarkable. But we need to do more than just understand that humility in our minds, we need to change the way that we live our daily lives based on that truth. Remember how Paul began the passage that we looked at in Philippians 2:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…
We are to develop a mind that is characterized by the same kind of humility that Jesus demonstrated in His incarnation and His death on the cross.
HOW PSALM 8 SHOULD IMPACT MY LIFE
There are probably quite a few applications that we could make from what we’ve learned this morning, but let me share just two of the most important ones.
• I need to allow God to work through my weaknesses
Since it is true that God’s greatness is revealed through my weakness, then it follows that I need to allow God to work through my weaknesses so that others might see His greatness through me.
For most of us, when we’re dealing with things that are areas of strength for us, we have a tendency to just ignore God and handle things on our own. And when that happens, we not only fail to exhibit humility, we certainly don’t allow God’s greatness to be demonstrated in our lives.
But when we come to the end of our rope and have nowhere else to turn but God, then we find that God can demonstrate His greatness as He works in our lives. The apostle Paul certainly learned that lesson in dealing with His “thorn in the flesh”:
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (ESV)
I’m convinced that this is an area of my life where I need some work because it seems like God has been bringing a lot of things into my life where I’ve been forced to stand back and say, “God, I can’t handle this, so I’m turning it over to you.”
So I’d like to ask you to join me this morning in thinking about some of the weaknesses in your life that God can work through in order to demonstrate His greatness.
What are some weaknesses that God can work through in:
o My family?
o My work?
o My friendships?
o My activities?
• I need to act with humility toward God and others
Far too often, even Christians tend to view God as this big genie in the sky that they can order around and ask Him to do their bidding. They view Him merely as the means to get something that they want. But Jesus’ example of humility ought to cause us to approach God with great humility, understanding that the only reason that we can even approach Him is because of what Jesus has done for us.
As James writes, we are to…
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
James 4:10 (ESV)
Once again this idea of humility before God ought to be reflected in some very practical ways in my everyday life. So I constantly need to be asking…
What are some ways I can demonstrate humility toward God in:
o My family?
o My work?
o My friendships?
o My activities?
Finally, the humility of Jesus ought to impact my relationships with other people. Paul prefaced the passage we read earlier from Philippians 2 with these words:
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:3-4 (ESV)
This is probably the most important way that we can apply what we’ve learned this morning. If Jesus was willing to act with humility toward all of us, how dare we do any less in our relationships with others? So I want to encourage you to make this very practical in your life by asking…
What are some ways I can demonstrate humility toward others in:
o My family?
o My work?
o My friendships?
o My activities?
Because this is such a practical message, I am convinced that every one of us this morning can find at least one way that we can apply this message in our lives this week. So during the response time in just a moment, I want to encourage each one of us to ask those questions that you’ll find in your sermon outline and then write down at least one thing that you will commit to do this week in order to put the message into practice – maybe one weakness in your life that you’re going to turn over to God, one thing that you’re going to do to demonstrate humility before God or something that you’re going to do to treat someone else with humility.
