We continue our "sons of God" series today by working our way through Psalm 8. This psalm, is a great psalm. It has a lot to say about who God is, what He is doing, and what God created us to be. We read it, and it makes us think backward to Genesis, and forward to Hebrews, and maybe to the book of Revelation.
There's no one right way to read it, or preach it. There's a richness to it, that defies simple explanation. By the end, hopefully, we will find ourselves praising God in new ways, for new reasons.
I'll start by simply reading it, and then I'll try to unpack it (Hebrew numbering throughout). Also, let me say one other thing. Almost every line in this psalm is tricky. It's tough Hebrew. And what I've chosen to do today, is try to unpack it. So this is going to be one of the sermons where I lean nerd, and you will have to work at listening carefully:
(1) For the choir director upon the gittim. A song for/of David.
(2) Yahweh, our Lord,
How majestic [is] your name in all the earth,
you who put/set your splendor upon/over/above the heavens.
(3) At the word of babies and infants you laid a foundation for a fortress on account of your enemies,
to put an end to the enemy and the avenger.
(4) When I see your heavens, the works of your fingers,
the moon and stars that you set in place,
(5) who/what is a man,
that you remember/consider him,
and the son of man,
that you attend to him,
(6) and you made him lack a little of [being exactly like] Elohim/God/gods,
while glory and honor you are crowning him with.
(7) You make him rule over the works of your hands,
Everything you have placed under his feet,
flocks and cattle, all of them,
and also the beasts of the field,
birds of the heavens and fish of the sea passing through the paths of the seas.
(10) Yahweh, our Lord, how mighty is your name in all the earth.
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Verses 1-2:
(1) For the choir director upon the guitar. A song for/of David.
(2) Yahweh, our Lord,
How majestic [is] your name in all the earth,
you who put/set your splendor upon/over/above the heavens.
The psalmist begins by calling out to God, noting how majestic Yahweh's name is, all over the world.
We hear this, and we feel our spirits lift. We find ourselves praising God along with the psalmist. But what does majestic mean? If we stop and think about this, we maybe realize, we're not actually sure. We "feel" the word, but we can't explain it.
Let's turn to Psalm 76:4-6 (NRSV):
Glorious are you, more majestic
than the everlasting mountains.[a]
5 The stout-hearted were stripped of their spoil;
they sank into sleep;
none of the troops
was able to lift a hand.
6 At your rebuke, O God of Jacob,
both rider and horse lay stunned.
"Majestic" is a power word in Hebrew. When we hear language about Yahweh's majesty, we are supposed to think about God's power [Hebrew lexicons also gloss it as "might."]. No one can stand against him. God is unstoppable. He is one who loots the spoil of warriors (cf. Mark 3:27). And, returning to Psalm 8, Yahweh's name is majestic in all the earth. Yahweh is not just the God of Israel. His power doesn't end with Israel's boundary lines. Or at the walls of this church. Yahweh's name is majestic/powerful in all the earth.
Now let's add the second line:
(2) Yahweh, our Lord,
How majestic [is] your name in all the earth,
you who put/set/made your splendor upon/over/above the heavens.
Let's start thinking about this line, by talking about what "splendor" is. "Splendor" is also a power word. Let's turn to Isaiah 30:26-30 to get a feel for it (ESV):
26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar,
burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;[d]
his lips are full of fury,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
28 his breath is like an overflowing stream
that reaches up to the neck;
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.
29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Rock of Israel. 30 And Yahweh will cause the splendor of his voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. 31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of Yahweh, when he strikes with his rod. 32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that Yahweh lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them.33 For a burning place[e] has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
When we hear the words "majesty" and "splendor," we are supposed to think about Yahweh's power. If we were God's enemies, Yahweh's majesty and splendor would be terrifying. But for us, as God's people, who live faithfully toward him, all of this should be a great comfort. We may be surrounded by troubles and enemies, but Yahweh is our Protector. Yahweh fights for us.
And if we ever find ourselves doubting God's power, all we have to do, is look up. God's power is very obviously displayed in the heavens. His splendor is obvious. And the power we see in the heavens, is the power that's
available for us on earth.
And, if we read this from a NT perspective, we know that God's power isn't just available for us on earth. It's not just that God's arm can stretch out, and rescue us anywhere. God's power isn't just available for us. God's power is in us. We received God's power, when we received the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). We know that greater is the One living inside of us, than he who is the in the world (1 John 4:4). We are a people who understand power, and dominion, and authority, and rule. And we know that part of how God's name is majestic in all the earth, is through us.
Verse 3 is really, really difficult:
(3) At the word of babies and infants you laid a foundation for a fortress on account of your enemies,
to put an end to the enemy and the avenger.
When we talk about babies and infants, we normally talk about how cute, and adorable, and perfect they are. The OT doesn't talk that often about babies and infants, but when it does, it's usually in the context of terrible things happening to them. Isaiah 13:16; Hosea 14:1; 2 Kings 8:12; Jeremiah 44:7; Lamentations 2:20.
Babies and infants are vulnerable; they're helpless. In the OT, they get their heads smashed against rocks. They wilt when they are starving. They get eaten by desperate parents. When the OT talks about babies, and infants, it's in the context of how fragile they are.
Now, when babies need something, what do they do? They cry. This is "the word of babies." So, returning to verse 3, it was "at the word babies and infants that Yahweh laid a foundation for a fortress on account of his enemies."
Still confused? This is tricky.
Picture babies crying. Hear the grating cry, that you just can't ignore, no matter how tired you are. God heard their crying, and when God heard crying, He found it impossible to ignore. Crying--weeping-- is one of the surest ways in the Bible of getting God's attention. So Yahweh hears babies crying, probably, because they are suffering, probably, and He responds by pouring the foundations for a fortress. God is going to make a place where they can live in safety. The day will come when they won't die of starvation. They won't get their heads smashed in. God has started to build a new kingdom, and this kingdom will put an end to the enemy and the avenger (Matthew 5:1-12).
Verse 4-5:
(4) When I see your heavens, the works of your fingers,
the moon and stars that you set in place,
(5) who/what is a man,
that you remember/consider him,
and the son of man,
that you attend to him,
Some of you never go outside at night, or if you do, it's in the city, where there's light pollution everywhere. What you ought to do some time, on a starry night, is go somewhere, and just sit under the moon and the stars and watch them. The heavens are so big, and so impressive, that all we can do-- if we slow down, and take the time-- is marvel. And if we do this--when we do this--we will realize how small and insignificant we humans are.
In verse 5, there are two parallel lines. The first describes a "man," the second "the son of man." These basically mean the same thing here. What is man that you consider him; the son of man that you attend to him? It's crazy, when you look at the world, and what God created, that God thinks about us. That He helps us.
Verse 6:
(6) and you made him lack a little of Elohim/God/gods,
while glory and honor you crown him with.
The easiest way to jump into verse 6 is by comparing three different English translations. This will show 2 tricky things here:
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings[b]
and crowned him with glory and honor. (ESV).
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,[a]
and crowned them with glory and honor. (NRSV)
Yet thou hast made him little less than God,
and dost crown him with glory and honor (RSV).
When we read these 3 translations, we should have two questions:
(1) Did God make people a little lower than Elohim (ESV, NRSV), or did he make them a little less than Elohim (RSV)?
(2) Is humanity being compared to heavenly beings (ESV, NIV) or God (NRSV; RSV)? The Hebrew word, is the same word we've been looking at: "Elohim." It can mean "God," or "gods." It can describe Yahweh, and it can also describe the sons of God (Psalm 82).
I'll take these in order.
(1) Did God make people a little lower than Elohim (ESV, NRSV), or did he make them a little less than Elohim (RSV)?
We find the same expression-- this verb plus "of/from", in a very different context, in one other passage in the Bible, Ecclesiastes 4:7-8.
7 Again, I saw vanity under the sun:8 one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.
Ecclesiastes pictures a guy who has no family, and yet works like a dog from morning to sunset, never happy with his riches, and never taking the time to enjoy what he's earned. He scrimps and saves, and for what? For whom?
What's the point, of living like that? The verb from Psalm 8 is found in his question. "For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?"
He is causing himself to lack of pleasure. He is depriving himself of pleasure.
This is the same expression found in Psalm 8, except instead of being about "pleasure," it's about "Elohim."
God caused people to lack a little of being Elohim. God deprived people a little of being Elohim.
So God made people awesome. We are really something special. And evidence that he made us something really special, is that we are very nearly Elohim. He deprived us just a little from being of Elohim. So I would say the RSV is probably the best translation here, except the RSV softens this a little. The idea is God deliberately deprived us a little of Elohim.
I read this, and I can't help but think of Genesis 3:22. After Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, God says this:
"Look! The human has become like one of us,
knowing good and evil,
and so then--lest he stretch out his hand
and take also from the tree of life
and eat
and live forever--
Yahweh God exiled him from the garden of Eden
to cultivate the ground which he was taken from,
and He drove out the human."
At the risk of rabbit-trailing (too late!), when Yahweh says, "The human has become like one of us," I think Yahweh is speaking to his divine council-- to the other elohim that are with him. He's saying, "We have to kick him out of the garden before he becomes completely like us, living forever."
So in Psalm 8, when the psalmist says that Yahweh deprived us a little of Elohim, I think he is reflecting on Genesis 1 and Genesis 3. We are very nearly elohim. We are made in God's image, and we know good and evil.
But we were made in a way, that we aren't quite on the level of Elohim. And Yahweh deliberately kicked people out of the Garden of Eden, to keep us from attaining that.
The question is, why? Why did God say that, and do that? Did God not want people to be like him? Was the serpent right-- is this something that God feared?
At this point, we are ready for 2 Peter 1:3-4. Let's rabbit trail again!
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to[c] his own glory and excellence,[d] 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
Through Jesus, we now have the divine nature. We are like God. Someday, I'll try to explain this better. But not today. This is just something to think about-- what people wanted in the garden of Eden, to be like God, and they tried to take by rebelling against God-- is something God has always wanted to give his people. No one forced him to plant the tree of life. No one forced him to make us sharers in the divine nature. God has always wanted to make us like God/Elohim/gods, but the path to this is through Jesus.
So why did humans get kicked out of the Garden of Eden? I think the answer is that God could only give us that divine nature, if we were sinless. Beings who are corrupted by sin, and slaves to sin, should not live forever (Psalm 82). There needs to be an end to their wickedness. They have to die, for the good of the world.
The second question in Psalm 8:6 was this:
(2) Who is "Elohim" in verse 6? Heavenly beings (ESV, NIV), or God (NRSV; RSV)?
The very first interpreters of Psalm 8-- the translators of the Greek OT, the Septuagint-- read this, and they heard "gods." Heavenly beings. The ones who were the "sons of God" we've been talking about throughout this series. And so they translated it in Greek as "angels." And the book of Hebrews, using the Septuagint, understands Psalm 8 this way (Hebrews 2:7).
And I think the ESV/NIV is right. When God first made us, He created us in a way that deprived us just a little of being like "gods/divine beings." We came up just short, originally. And so here we have another clear example of where "elohim" can mean "divine beings."
So, let's try to get back to the psalm. Verse 6:
(6) and you made him lack a little of elohim/gods,
while glory and honor you crown him with.
(7) You make him rule over the works of your hands,
Everything you have placed under his feet,
flocks and cattle, all of them,
and also the beasts of the field,
birds of the havens and fish of the sea passing through the paths of the seas.
So what has Yahweh done for us? We look at the heavens, and we think about how small we are. And we marvel. Yahweh, our God of majesty, the maker of heaven and earth, pays attention to us. He attends to us, helping us. He crowns us with glory and honor. God made everything we see, and He is the rightful ruler over all of it. But God makes us rule over all the works of his hands. What has God put under our feet? Everything.
Now, when we think about Yahweh placing everything under our feet, there is something about this that should bother us. We've read, four times (in this series-- the others will be found on sermoncentral, eventually, in my series on the Gospel of John) in Deuteronomy 32:8-9, that Yahweh gave the sons of God authority over the nations. He put them in charge.
How can the sons of God be in charge, and yet we are supposed to rule over everything? There is a tension here.
This tension is resolved in the NT, in Jesus. In Ephesians 1:20, we read this:
20 God[f] put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22 And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Because Jesus obeyed God, even to death, God placed him above all the rulers and authorities on earth, and in the heavens. Through the cross and resurrection, Jesus defeated the rulers and authorities, and he was given authority over them.
And then, through Jesus, God gives us that same authority. Let's read Ephesians 2:6-7:
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
When we became Christians, and were joined to Christ, God raised us up with Christ, and seated us in the heavenly reams with/in Jesus. We are enthroned with Jesus in the heavenlies. We have authority over all authorities, and powers, and dominions-- in Christ. This is a present reality, if we have the understanding to realize it, and the faith to claim it. We have retaken the position in the world, that God originally created us for.
[And every time we cast out sickness and disease, and demons, in the name of Jesus, we are using the authority God has given us, for their good, and God's glory].
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So when we look at Psalm 8--which is what this sermon was supposed to be on-- what should you learn about yourselves?
God pays attention to you. God attends to you, giving you help. God made you to rule over everything. God crowns you with glory and honor. God originally deprived you just a little from being like elohim. But even this, He changed through Jesus. We now share in the divine nature through Jesus (2 Pet. 1:4).
At the time of Psalm 8, and even now, some of these things are still in progress. God has poured the foundation for his fortress--but it's not yet complete. God made us to rule over everything-- but we know that God's kingdom is still a work in progress. We haven't finished invading and conquering Satan's kingdom. There is a battle still to be won.
In the meantime, we know that we were made to rule. Not over each other. Not over humans. [Husbands, not over your wives.] We were made to rule over all creation. So let us exercise the authority that God gave to us.
Let's be, what we were created to be-- more than conquerors, through him who loves us, and strengthens us. And the things that hinder us in this-- sin-- let's cast off.
So that's what God has done for us, and what God wants to give to us.
Now, let's stop and think about God. God did all of this for us, even though HE is the majestic one. He is the one whose splendor reaches above the heavens. He is the One whose name is great throughout the earth. He is the one who created the heavens and earth, and who is the rightful ruler over everything.
What does this tell us about God?
Know that God is a God who shares. God shares the world with us. God shared his son with us. There is nothing that God has withheld from us. And so, when we think about who God is, and what he has done for us, there can be only one response, in the end.
I didn't actually read the last verse of verse 8, but it's this:
(10) Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic/mighty is your name in all the earth!
The psalm begins and ends with praise to God. All of God's people, across the face of the earth, should praise God for his generosity. Praise the God who is powerful, and who shares his power.
