Psalms 8:1-9 (KJV)
O LORD our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the
heavens.
Out of the mouth of
babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that
thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
When I consider thy
heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast
ordained;
What is man, that thou
art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a
little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou madest him to have
dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
All sheep and oxen, yea,
and the beasts of the field;
The fowl of the air, and
the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
O LORD our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth!
If you are like me, you
probably give a bit confused whenever you read of those early years of David
when his name goes from being one his father hardly paid attention to, to when
he became the closest thing Israel had at the time to a superstar.
When Samuel anointed him
to be king instead of Saul, he was an absolute unknown.
· Samuel didn’t know Jesse had an eighth son and
· Jesse wasn’t that keen to introduce them
But it wasn’t long after
Samuel had pronounced that the kingdom would be removed from Saul and given to
another that Saul started demonstrating this “evil spirit” and it was
recommended that someone be found to play good music to sooth the king’s mood
whenever that spirit came upon him.
That one who was found
was David.
Interestingly, the Bible
says of him that he was already a man of war[1].
1 Samuel 16:15-23 (KJV)
And Saul's servants said
unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.
Let our lord now command
thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player
on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon
thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well.
And Saul said unto his
servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me.
Then answered one of the
servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that
is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent
in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him.
Wherefore Saul sent
messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the
sheep.
And Jesse took an ass
laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his
son unto Saul.
And David came to Saul,
and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer.
And Saul sent to Jesse,
saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favour in my
sight.
And it came to pass,
when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and
played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit
departed from him.
Yet it is in the next
chapter that David killed Goliath and Saul inquires who he is.
1 Samuel 17:55-58 (KJV)
And when Saul saw David
go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host,
Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, O king, I
cannot tell.
And the king said,
Enquire thou whose son the stripling is.
And as David returned
from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before
Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.
And Saul said to him,
Whose son art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy
servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.
Some scholars have suggested that it is very possible that
when David began playing to sooth the king, Saul never paid attention to who he
was.
It is very common that,
a crowd may be in a room hearing beautiful music, and even read a sign
announcing who the musician is, but the crowd is so focused on other things
that they do not even try to remember the name and face.
Others suggest that this section of the Bible employs a very
typical Jewish writing style where they:
· Tell you what they are going to tell you
· Tell you and than
· Tell you what they told you
It happens in Genesis
chapters 1-2 where in chapter 1 we are told that God created man and in chapter
2 we are given a description of that creation.
One old scholar has
attempted to give us a possible timeline for this piece of David’s life like
this[2]:
1. David is anointed by Samuel;
2. Carries provisions to his brethren in
the army;
3. Fights with and kills Goliath;
4. Is received into the king’s court,
5. Contracts a friendship with Jonathan;
6. Incurs Saul’s jealousy;
7. Retires to his father’s house;
8. Is after some time sent for by Saul
to sooth his melancholy with his harp;
9. Again excites Saul’s jealousy, who
endeavors to smite him with his javelin.
It is believed that
David wrote Psalm 8 during this transitional period.
See David trapped
between those hills where he watches his father’s sheep and the court where
hears the chants of the people, “Saul has slain his thousands, but David his
tens of thousands.”
Indeed, there is some
similarity of expression between David’s Psalm and his response when he is
offered the hand of Saul’s daughter in marriage,
Psalms 8:4
What is man, that thou
art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
1 Samuel 18:17-23 (KJV)
And Saul said to David,
Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou
valiant for me, and fight the LORD'S battles. For Saul said, Let not mine hand
be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.
And David said unto
Saul, Who am I? and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I
should be son in law to the king?
But it came to pass at
the time when Merab Saul's daughter should have been given to David, that she
was given unto Adriel the Meholathite to wife.
And Michal Saul's
daughter loved David: and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.
And Saul said, I will
give him her, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines
may be against him. Wherefore Saul said to David, Thou shalt this day be my son
in law in the one of the twain.
And Saul commanded his
servants, saying, Commune with David secretly, and say, Behold, the king hath
delight in thee, and all his servants love thee: now therefore be the king's
son in law.
And Saul's servants
spake those words in the ears of David. And David said, Seemeth it to you a
light thing to be a king's son in law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly
esteemed?
I suggest to you that we find the essence of a heart after God’s
in Psalm 8.
Psalms 8:1-9 (KJV)
O LORD our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the
heavens.
Out of the mouth of
babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that
thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
When I consider thy
heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast
ordained;
What is man, that thou
art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a
little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou madest him to have
dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
All sheep and oxen, yea,
and the beasts of the field;
The fowl of the air, and
the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
O LORD our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth!
First, the heart after
God
I. IS GROUNDED
WITH PRAISE FOR GOD
Psalms 8:1 (KJV)
O LORD our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the
heavens.
Psalms 8:9 (KJV)
O LORD our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth!
I view this as the
foundation of a man’s life.
He begins and he ends
his days in the very same place.
There is something to be
said for:
· Waking up in the same place every morning
· Coming home to the same address every evening
· Kissing the same wife and children every day and
· Laying down in the same bed every night
You begin and you end
every day in the very same place.
These are the things
that root us in our world.
They give us an anchor.
· When troubles come
· When darkness sets in
· When burdens weigh us down
The thing that keeps us
steady is the place where we begin and we end.
Isn’t it interesting
that this is one of the names of Jesus?
Revelation 1:8 (KJV)
I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and
which is to come, the Almighty.
Picture David trapped in
this “no man’s land.”
· One day is he tending his father’s few sheep
· The next day he is playing his harp before the king
· The next day he is leading the soldiers of Israel in combat
· The next day he is dodging the spear of his king
· The next day he returns to his father’s sheep and
· Then he is sitting in the king’s court again
He is a young man right
now, probably not twenty.
Where does he find
stability, an anchor; where does he go to be rooted and grounded in the midst
of all of this turmoil.
He begins with the
excellency of God and, before his day is done, he is sure to be in that same
place once again.
Second, the heart after
God
II. MEDITATES
UPON GOD’S HANDIWORK
Psalms 8:3 (KJV)
When I consider thy
heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
I want to say first of
all that the word consider really has to do with everything in this Psalm.
David considers, the
excellency of God’s name.
The he considers the
work of God’s finger which,
Leads him to consider
what is the rest of this Psalm.
He considers the work of
God’s fingers
· Thy heavens
· The moon and
· The stars
· They belong to God
· They were created by God and
· They have been ordained – arranged, ordered purposed by God
The word ordained
contradicts every notion of evolutionary theory.
There is a direct
correlation between:
· The teaching of evolution
· The dismissing of Creation and
· The terrible shooting of 17 people at the Florida school
this last week.
There is no way to
understand the Christian faith except to understand it in the backdrop of
Creation.
So, after the shooting
· Some people start blaming guns
· Some people start blaming mental illness
But
· The real culprit is the theory of evolution
· There have always been weapons and violence using weapons
· There have always been mentally ill people and violence by
them
But the thing that can
be measured is this,
· When science replaced Creation with evolution
· When God was kicked out of schools and children were taught
responsible to the One who made them
· Violence of all sorts and
· Mental illness of all sorts
began to increase
measurably.
Sanity and human
responsibility is painted on the backdrop of God’s handiwork.
· The teaching of creation
· The understanding of it and
· The meditation of it
Is fundamental to our
understanding or our place in this universe.
Without it, we are but
animals and have proven we will act like animals.
The heart after God
III. CONTEMPLATES ON MAN’S LOWLINESS
Psalms 8:4-5 (KJV)
What is man, that thou
art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a
little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
To this we may add,
Psalms 8:2 (KJV)
Out of the mouth of
babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that
thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
Think of David.
He is nothing more than
a shepherd boy.
He is a “babe” if, you will.
But he is the one
ordained of God to slay the Goliath, the enemy of God.
He is a lowly musician.
But he is the one
ordained of God to slay the tens of thousands of the Philistines.
He is the youngest of his father’s children.
But he is the one
ordained of God to become the next king in Israel.
No wonder he wrote,
What is man that thou
art mindful of him?
God can,
· Do anything
· Make anything
· Choose anyone
That God thinks of David
at all is a wonderment in his soul.
I would never advocate self-belittlement.
It serves no good to be
self-deprecating.
I am not speaking about a spiritual pity party where you whip yourself
into tears at how rotten and ungodly you are.
Everyone of us is of
great worth in the sight of God and, should our sins seem overwhelming, Jesus
Christ, remember is our advocate before the Father.
What is a healthy exercise is to place ourselves in contrast to God
behind the backdrop of Creation.
What will happen is that
you will start to see where you fit into the bigger picture and you will begin
to realize two things:
· How insignificant you appear in the scheme of God’s creation
and
· How significant you are to the plan for God’s creation
By the way – that’s humility;
You see how little you
are and at the same time, important you are to God.
The heart that seeks God
· Is Grounded in Praise for God
· Meditates on the Handiwork of God
· Contemplates the Lowliness of Man
Finally, the heart that
seeks God
IV. ACKNOWLEDGES
MAN’S DUTY
Psalms 8:5-8 (KJV)
For thou hast made him a
little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou madest him to have
dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
All sheep and oxen, yea,
and the beasts of the field;
The fowl of the air, and
the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
· It is humbling to think that God is mindful of us but
· It is inspiring to think that God uses us
A. He
uses us to still His enemies
Psalms 8:2 (KJV)
Out of the mouth of
babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that
thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
Notice that it is His
enemy and not ours. We leave our enemies up to Him.
B. He uses us in ways He will not use the
angels
Psalms 8:5 (KJV)
For thou hast made him a
little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
C. He uses us give order to the earth
Psalms 8:5-6 (KJV)
For thou hast made him a
little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou madest him to have
dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
The word “dominion:
means to rule or govern.
By implication, it means
· To set boundaries,
· To make walls and
· To fence in
David is, I believe,
meditating on Samuel anointing him to be the next king.
God has crowned him to
govern and lead the people, God’s sheep.
He will make and enforce
laws for the honor of God and the good of all people.
He knows he is not
worthy, but he does not shrink from this calling.
Conclusion
The word that most
accurately represents the lesson of this Psalm is humility.
The heart that seeks
after God is a humble heart:
· Surrounded by the greatness of God
· Awed by lowliness of man and yet
· Bound to action by God’s call upon his life
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