Psalm 8 - Nothing Is Too Hard For God

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.