Our theme this year is Hope Found Here, and this month we are considering the Hope we have in our Creator, Our Heavenly Father, the one who created everything we see, and everything we can’t see.
God, is the Creator, He exists, He is not a product of man’s imagination, He is real, He is the basis of our Hope.
This morning I want us to consider together a Psalm written by King David to proclaim the majesty of our Creator.
In Psalm 8 King David speaks of looking at everything God has created, in the heavens, in the sky and on the Earth.
David is amazed that in all of this vast creation of everything we can see, and everything we can’t, God cares about individual people.
Listen to the words of Psalm 8 from the New Living Translation, O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens. You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you. When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honour. You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
King David begins and ends this Psalm with the same statement - “O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!”
O LORD, our Lord. In the original Hebrew David uses two different names for God, the first is Yahweh and second is Adonai. “O Yahweh, our Adonai, your majestic name fills the earth!”. Yahweh means “(the) self Existent or Eternal God” - God is, has always been, and always will be. Right at the start of this Psalm David is proclaiming God is God and God is eternal. The Hebrew root of Adonai is Adon, it describes the one who occupies the position of a “master” or “lord” over a slave or servant. When David addresses God as Adonai, he is expressing the truth that God is the one who is in control, God is his Master and David is His willing servant. A more literal translation of the first and last verse is “O Eternal God, our Lord and Master, your majestic name fills the Earth!”.
David willingly surrendered control of his life to God, David followed the commandments of God and submitted himself to God’s will and plans. David was not perfect, there were times when he stumbled, times when he sinned, times when he chose his own desires and wants. Yet David repented and returned to God. David was obedient to God.
In Acts 13:22 the Apostle Paul writes about what God thought about David, “I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.” I wonder, would God say that of you or me? Do we do everything that God wants us to do?Do we live every day as servants to our Master, to our Creator, to our Lord?
There are many who have accepted Jesus as their Saviour, but if we truly want to be disciples of Christ, then we must also choose to follow Him as Lord. We may call Him our Lord when we pray, but do we truly follow Him as our Master? Yahweh is Lord of all things by His majesty and might, Adonai is OUR Lord and Master by our willing submission to Him in a covenant relationship, a covenant sealed with the blood of Jesus.
Psalm 8:3, When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place
Long before David became king he was a shepherd. Can you imagine him as a young man after a long day looking after the sheep, looking up at the stars and seeing the glory and majesty of God in the night sky.
Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying when he looked at the sky filled with stars he felt he was looking at the face of God. Lincoln also said “I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up, into the heavens and say there is no God.”
Whatever your views of science and the Bible, of creation or evolution or Intelligent Design, the Bible teaches us that everything begins with God. God was in the beginning, actually, God was prior to what we consider the beginning of creation.
God, our creator, is bigger than we can understand. God is eternal. This is something that our finite human minds struggle to comprehend. We expect things to have a beginning and an end.
This incredible universe that God spoke into being, is amazing, God created the heavens and the earth and everything in between: stars and insects, trees and galaxies, planets and animals, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, and human beings, us.
David gazed into the night sky amazed at what he could see with his own eyes. What words of wonder would David have written if he could have seen the night sky with a modern telescope? Yet, David, even with his limited view of the universe knew God was far greater than he could imagine.
There is far more out there than David could see, all those galaxies, all those stars and planets, but David knew everything was created by God, the work of God’s finger. David knows God is creator, God is omnipotent, God is mighty and God is powerful. In verse 4 David asks God, what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?
How can a God who has created everything, a creation so vast even our most powerful telescopes can not see the edges of it; How can God who is bigger than all of His creation care about David?
Let’s make it personal, in all this vast creation, all of it’s diversity, all it’s beauty, why does God care about you and me? The amazing answer is, the Creator of the Universe, the creator of Heaven and Earth, loves you.God loves you. You, just a small part of His creation, He knows you, He loves you, He cares for you, He has a plan for you.
God loves you and He wants to have a personal relationship with you. Without God we would have no hope, our days would be nothing, no order, no purpose, no existence. With God we have hope, we have purpose, we have a destiny ordained by God.
We have hope in our Creator, God has created us, God has provided a way for us to be saved from the penalty of our sins by trusting in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. When we repent and turn to Jesus, when we become His follower, His disciple, the Holy Spirit comes and resides inside us, He empowers us and helps us to be the people God created us to be, He helps us to be the people God has saved us to be. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
God is the creator of the heavens and the earth, and God is our creator. Our Creator, great and majestic is your God, you are His child and He loves you. It’s more than just hope, it is a blessed assurance, if you are in Christ, you are His child, be encouraged this morning, God knows you and loves you and has a plan, a purpose, a destiny for your life!
Listen to verse 5 again, Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honour.
God has made us a little lower than Himself, we are created in His image. God is our Creator. Listen to the words of David from Psalm 139:13-18, “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!”
There is hope found here. Even in our mother’s womb, God was with us. God is not distant, God is with us. God watches over us. God cares for us. God thinks about us. The God of the Universe is with you. Alpha & Omega, beginning and the end. God is with you. You are valuable to Him, to save you’ He sent His only begotten son to die so that you your sins could be forgiven. Jesus died the death we deserve so that we could have eternal life by repenting and turning to Him.
You are not an accident of evolution. You are created in the image of God. Handmade by God, every detail of your DNA crafted by the creator of the universe! Your race, your skin colour, your hair, the colour of your eyes and everything else that makes you you. You are not insignificant, you are God’s creation.
You are unique, you are custom-made, your life has value, God cares for you. God created you and God loves you.
God has created us with a finite life span here on Earth, but for everyone who trusts in Jesus as Lord and Saviour there is an eternal destiny that awaits, an eternity with God, we will see God in all of His glory and majesty.
If you ever feel small or insignificant, remember that you and your eternal destiny matter to God.
I will close with this. This morning we have experienced the majesty and power of God through the eyes of King David. We have glimpsed just a little of the Hope that David found in His Lord, in His Creator, in His God. May each of us be filled afresh with Hope.May each of us be filled afresh with love for our Creator, our Saviour, our loving and majestic God.
Hope is found here in our Creator for God creates, and our hope must be in Him and Him alone. AMEN
