God’s Majesty
Psalm 8
June 24, 2018
I think it’s safe to say we live in an unbelieving world. Too many people don’t believe in God, and what they do believe in is not what I want to believe in. Some who believe in God, have their own made up view of what God is supposed to be like and look like. I don’t want that either. We come across too many people who simply don’t believe.
Too often we try to rationalize with these folks, and it just doesn’t seem to work. One thought is not to explain away who God is. The Psalm we’re looking at today is about God’s majesty. And next week, we’ll look at the same psalm to see how God cares for us and loves.
Sometimes we try to argue who God is, but one thought is to ask the person you’re talking with this question ~ “You don't believe in God. Tell me what God you don't believe in. Maybe I don't believe in Him, either.” The point is to let the other person do the talking. Have them describe their concept of God, because you may very well not believe in the god they are describing.
Maybe it was a parental figure who was more of a tyrant than a loving parent? Maybe they were abused and have never moved on from that?
Maybe they had a horrendous experience in a church or from a leader?
Maybe there was a sickness, a death - - or a terrible accident and they blame God.
Maybe you wouldn’t believe in their concept of God either! Now hold onto that thought for a bit . . .
Have you ever really taken a look at the sky? It’s a clear night and you feel like you can see for ever in the sky. Or maybe you heard the international space station is going to be visible and you get ready to look into the sky. Or maybe there will be meteor showers that night, so we focus our attention to the sky.
Well, I can picture David taking care of the sheep, walking in the pastures, lying down at night with his sheep to protect them. It’s a clear, quiet night, the sheep are sleeping and David is looking at the sky. He begins to hum, maybe sing a little and these words come out ~
1 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at 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, and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! – Psalm 8:1-9
Can you picture yourself writing something like this as you look at the sky, marveling at God’s gift of creation. The telescope wasn’t invented until the early 1600's and maybe looking at the sky very simply with your eyes works as well. Is it possible that because we can look deeper into the galaxy, we’ve lost our sense of awe at what God did?
Now, I want to give you some facts about the world we live in. As I studied this week I was really overwhelmed at the dimensions of our universe.
For instance we live in a galaxy that is moving like a great, oblong pinwheel through time and space. We, you and I on planet Earth are moving around the center of our galaxy at about 136 miles per second, or 490,000 miles per hour. That’s moving pretty quickly. Yet, in God’s design, gravity holds us in place.
Have you ever gone to the amusement park and you get on that old ride that spins you around and around and then the floor drops out. But you don’t fall, you can move and climb the walls and have a blast. It’s kind of like that, but better, we don’t even feel like we’re spinning around and around.
I’m not sure what they thought in David’s day about the Earth being flat. But their view of the world was really finite. Today, with all of our technology, the satellites, the Hubble telescope and more, we can see beyond what was thought possible.
Look at it this way . . . if you want to go across our galaxy in the shortest way possible; and if you move at the speed of light - - and you know the speed of light is traveling at 186,000 miles per second; then you’d move across the narrowest part of our galaxy in 20,000 years. Did you get that? It would take 20,000 years moving at 186,000 miles per second.
If you go the long way, it will take 100,000 light years. Our galaxy is about five times as long as it is wide.
Now understand this - - - The Sun is 864,400 miles across. That’s about 109 times the diameter of Earth. The sun is so large that about 1,300,000 planet Earths can fit inside of it.
You know, we think of the sun as huge and hot. And relatively speaking it is, yet, there’s a super giant star called Antares, which is 700 times the sun’s diameter and 10,000 times brighter. It’s the main star in Scorpio.
Now, there are about one billion other galaxies like our own. Astronomers tell us the number of stars in the universe exceeds the grains of sand on all the beaches of the entire earth.
There’s your summer science lesson. My purpose in going through all of that is to show God’s amazing creation. He created this world out of nothing. It started in the beginning with these words ~
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. – Genesis 1:1
God is the Creator. He is the maker of heaven and earth and everything inbetween! In fact, we can take it a little further and remind ourselves what Paul said in Colossians 1:17-18 ~
16 For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through Him and for Him.
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Jesus is the one Paul is referring to. By Jesus all things were created, and I like what Paul said as a way of explanation . . . whether it’s visible or invisible . . . He is the Creator and He is the One who holds all of this craziness we call this world together.
So, David is looking up at the sky, and he doesn’t know all of these facts. Yet, the star Antares was discovered somewhere around 1100 BC, so it was there. But how fast is the Earth moving, how big is the sun and all of that were unknowns. Yet as David looked to the sky, he had this strange thought. . .
4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
In the midst of looking at this great expanse, David must have felt incredibly small and insignificant. He may not have realized he would be a future king. He was just a shepherd. And through it all, he wondered . . . Lord, why did you create us, why do you even care about us?
Great questions, which we will look at next week.
When we look to the sky, we should be as awe struck as David. When we look at this world, the way it operates, the exact oxygen and hydrogen we need to survive, it’s not an accident. It’s a God thing. So, when someone says, I don’t believe in God, find out what God they don’t believe in so you can tell them what God you believe in. Because I might not believe in their God either.
So, when you’re questioned about the Bible and you’re questioned about God, we have this great opportunity to talk about the God of all creation. That this great God loves me and cares for me and even thought of me before this world was created. That this great big God created this great big world and planted us in this planet, and wants to relate to us . . . and even sent His Son to die for us. Yup, that’s the God I believe in, not the God I don’t believe in.
Folks, if God is so powerful He could create this universe with the billions of galaxies, if He’s really that powerful, then is it out of the question that God could speak to me?
If God is that powerful, then couldn’t He separate the waters when Moses and the Israelites left Egypt. How can you believe in Jonah, some guy who doesn’t listen to God and he gets swallowed by a big fish? Come on? Really!! Well, if God created the heavens and the stars and everything inbetween ... is that too difficult?
Tell me, do you really believe God could send His Son into this world through a young woman named Mary? That this Jesus would actually live and heal people, and cast out demons, and He would die and come back to life again, and ascend to heaven? Really! That’s pretty far fetched.
Oh, but who created the heavens? Who had you in mind when they created the universe? Who gives us the ability to split atoms and perform transplants and send rockets to Venus and beyond? Yes, the very same God!
So, tell me about the God you don’t believe in? Because I believe in this God!!
And if God is really real! If God is the Creator and Redeemer and Sustainer, then He can do anything, He can be everywhere all at the same time. He’s on this side of the planet and the other side, all at the same time. He’s checking out what’s happening in some outer galaxy, and He’s here in our midst this morning.
And if you put your faith in Him, He promises to be with you always. He will transform your life into something more than it is today. He will give you the possibility of an abundant life today and eternal life tomorrow. He will give you full purpose, if you’re willing to seek it.
So, in the end, what does all of this mean. This great big God who created the heavens and the earth. The God who made the moon and the stars and Antares and the galaxies we don’t even know about - - - and created you. But more about that next week!!
Here’s the point, and I think this is the main point other than all of those facts I mentioned earlier.
If you believe in this God, if this is your God - - the Creator of the universe. Then let me ask you this question - -
If all of that is true, if you have no doubts, then when troubles and problems come your way - - when life seems to big and complicated for you, could it be your problems are too big for God to handle?
Can your problems, whatever they are, and I’m not mocking them, but can they be so big that God can’t handle them? Are your problems catching God by surprise?
Is God going to say, “Oops, I missed that one, WOW! That stinks, I’d hate to be in their shoes right now! Hey Gabriel, any thoughts about what to do next? I’m clueless - - - totally out of ideas!”
Can you imagine your God being lost, dazed, confused about the events of this world? Sure, some things don’t make sense. I agree, there’s too much violence and hatred, and evil and intolerance and that list could go on, but I don’t believe any of it is catching God by surprise.
God is the author of creation. He’s the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
Is there some problem that is too big for God to deal with? Maybe you’re dealing with an illness or disease, maybe it’s grief, maybe it’s a different physical issue; or financial; or it’s an emotional issue, or a work issue . . . it doesn’t matter what it is, the question comes back to this . . .
Can we hold onto a passage like Jeremiah 32:17, where the prophet tells us ~
17 ‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. – Jeremiah 32:17
Is your God able to handle whatever your problems are?
Folks, the same God who made the heavens and the earth is the same God who created each and every star in the sky, and is the same God who helped Moses and the Israelites make it through the Red Sea -
is the same God who helped David kill Goliath and see the power of God in the night sky - -
is the same God who sent Jesus into our world and is the same God who rose from the dead - -
and is the same God who created you and I and is the same God we cry out to and praise. He is the same God who we sing and proclaim His Majesty
We exalt the name of Jesus
We Magnify and glorify the name of
Christ Jesus the King
Our Lord, Our God, Our Savior, the maker of heaven and earth is the same God who sent His Son for us . . . and as Jeremiah tells us NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR OUR GOD.
And remember when Jeremiah wrote this. It was during the period when Judah was being destroyed by the Babylonians and they were being taken prisoner and into exile. Yet, Jeremiah wrote those great words of comfort and power.
Friends, if God can create the heavens and the earth, then nothing is too hard for Him to handle. He is here for you and will never abandon you, never forsake you. He loves you!
