"How Majestic Is Your Name"
[Psalm 8:1-9]
June 3, 2007 Second Reformed Church
David begins and ends this Psalm with the same cry of rapturous joy: YHWH, Mighty Elohim, O Lord, our Lord, O Lord, our Sovereign: how majestic is Your Name in all the earth David leads the singers of this Psalm into the throne room of God, to worship before our God, our Triune God, the God of our Salvation, and he begins with a chorus of praise. He begins with the only proper response to the knowledge of Who God is: God Who is a Person, God Who is Almighty, God Who is One and Three, God Who is our God, we praise You, we magnify You, we lift up Your Name. Glorious are You, worthy are You, majestic are You, God Who is greater and more beautiful than anything and everything else in all of Creation.
How do we know that?
David tells us at least three things about God:
First, God has set His Glory above the heavens and uses the weak and the small to defeat His enemies and showcase His Strength.
David tells us that God has set His Glory above the heavens, and that doesn't mean that it is merely physically above the heavens. David is saying that God’s Glory is known to us as greater than the heavens, greater than the greatest things we can know in all of Creation. God is Greater. God is more Majestic. And we see God's Strength -- God showcases His Strength -- God, in fact, defeats His enemies, by using the weak and the small, the unlearned and the fallen. God uses babies, infants, children, to declare Who He is, and what He has come to do.
We remember when Jesus cleansed the temple, "the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them, but when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, 'Hosanna to the Son of David!' they were indignant, and they said to him, 'Do you hear what these are saying?' And Jesus said to them, 'Yes, have you never read, "Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise"?'" (Matthew 21:14-16).
The young children were crying out, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" that is "Salvation comes from this Son of David, Jesus." The children we crying out, acknowledging, praising Jesus as the long awaited Savior, and the chief priests and the scribes were angry, and wanted to know if Jesus was going to denounce the children. And see what Jesus did, he quoted from Psalm 8 to answer them, "God is using the children to declare the truth about Me: I am God the Savior."
God chose to use children to identify Jesus before the religious scholars, who should have known Who He is. And God uses Christians, now, to spread His Gospel. And Paul reminds us, "For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many of you were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord'" (I Corinthians 1:26-31).
We were chosen because our lack of wisdom, our lack of strength, our lack of ability, would showcase God's Wisdom, Strength, and Ability. God usually uses common people and people that the world considers on the bottom rung of society. God does not often use big, powerful, and well-known people. God usually uses people through whom He can emphasize His Glory. Look at Paul: yes, Paul was well-educated, but he was a murderer, the chief persecutor of Christians, and God chose Him to write so much of the New Testament, to travel such great distances to preach the Salvation of the Jesus he had persecuted. Look at Peter: an uneducated fisherman who trembled and lied and betrayed Jesus before a little girl in the night, and God chose Him to be part of the inner-circle of the disciples, as well as write the Epistles we are examining.
So we see that, God has set His Glory above the heavens and uses the weak and the small to defeat His enemies and showcase His Strength.
Second, God is the Creator of the Universe, and He especially cares for humans.
David, the shepherd, had days and weeks and months and years of tending to the sheep, protecting them from wild animals and the weather, and he had nights to watch the sky. And David was awe-struck, he was filled with wonder, that this God Who created everything that exists, all of the heavens, the moon and the stars, everything that God formed and molded with His Fingers, everything that God has established and set in existence, planned their times and seasons, their growth and livelihood -- this same God of the Universe, the Creator of all, cares for humans beings. He takes notice of us. He engages us. He is involved in our history. And, of course, so much more -- God is intimately involved with every detail of all of the Creation, but we humans, He especially cares for.
And David raises the question, "Why?" Why us? Why humans? Look at the rest of the Creation. The various and glorious things that God has brought into existence. Why are we the ones that God cares for? Why does God condescend to enter into covenant, into relationship, with us? Even if we were perfect in all our ways, would we ever conceive that God would engage us in relationship? And especially since we know we are not perfect, in fact, we are the only members of the Creation who sin against God, and despise Him, and reject Him, and refuse Him. Why would God choose to care? Why would He do anything for us?
David, in Psalm 62, describes humans like this, "Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in their balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath" (Psalm 62:9). And Paul quoted from the Psalms, when he wrote, "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God: All have turned aside, together thy have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they uses their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes" (Romans 3:10b-18). Ought we not be in awe with the Psalmist?
The Psalmist doesn't give an answer to the question; he moves on to the place and the responsibility of humans. But, we may find some answer in the confession of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon: "[the Most High God's] dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, 'What have you done?'" (Daniel 4:34b-35). In other words, God does what God pleases, according to His Will. And it pleased God, in accordance with His Will, to care for humans.
Thirdly, God created humans as the height of the physical creation and gave us the responsibility of dominion over the earth.
Our text says, "Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor." Now, the word "God" in this text is Elohim, which is usually translated "God" or "gods," which is what the NRSV has chosen to do, and they were mistaken to do so. Every other translation that I looked at translates Elohim, in this case, as "heavenly beings" or "angels," and the NRSV does put that in a footnote. And we might question whether this is really a point worth debating, since, either way, humans are less than God and "greater" than the rest of the Creation. But it does matter, for this reason: we understand and believe that the Bible is inerrant, and it cannot contradict itself. It is the Word of God, and God has made sure that it has been recorded, over thousands of years, without error or contradiction. And the rule of thumb is this: interpret the less clear passages by the clear passages.
The author of Hebrews quoted this Psalm when referring to the fact that Jesus' Salvation is for humans, not angels, or any other beings, and he wrote, "What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet" (Hebrews 2:7-8a). The author of Hebrews translated the Hebrew word Elohim as the Greek word angelous, which means "angels" or, more generally, "messengers." It cannot mean "God" or "gods." So, if the texts are not to contradict, and they cannot, as the Word of God, the NRSV is mistaken in their translation.
Understand, I take the time to go over this, not because the meaning of the text changes significantly, but because it makes a difference as we keep in mind that the Bible is the Word of God and cannot contradict itself.
So, let us read verse five: "Yet you have made them a little lower than the angels, and crowned them with glory and honor." Human beings are the height of the physical Creation. We know that also in Genesis, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness'" (Genesis 1:26a). Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God -- no other member of the Creation has been created in the image and likeness of God. We are unique and blessed in our creation.
And we have been given a unique responsibility by God, "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth" (Genesis 1:26b). And David says the same thing within this praise to God, "You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas."
What does that mean? Many think it means that the earth and all its creatures are ours to do with them whatever we want. But that is most certainly not what God is saying -- that is not the responsibility that we have been called to -- the words that are used in Genesis and this Psalm that are translated as "dominion" have to do with be governing stewards. We are called to rule the earth on God's behalf, care for the planet on God's behalf, care for the animals on God's behalf.
How have we done, stewarding, governing the earth on God's behalf? Have we lived and governed and managed and cared for the Creation in a way that has brought glory to God? Have we cared for the rest of the Creation in the likeness of the care that God has shown to us? The ability to govern like this on God's behalf is part of what it means that we were created in His Likeness. It brings glory to God when we do what is good and right and pleasing in caring for the Creation -- like God cares for the Creation and especially cares for us.
So, we see that God has created humans as the height of the physical Creation and given us the responsibility of dominion over the earth.
It is because these things are true -- that God has set His Glory above the heavens and uses the weak and the small to defeat His enemies and showcase His Strength, that God is the Creator of the Universe, and He especially cares for humans, and that God has created humans as the height of the physical Creation and given us the responsibility of dominion over the earth -- that David looked at the Creation and humanity -- he looked at himself -- he knew his sin, his failure -- he knew that his only hope before God was in the Savior that God promised. And in that hope, and in complete amazement, he cried out again:
YHWH, Mighty Elohim, O Lord, our Lord, O Lord, our Sovereign: how majestic is Your Name in all the earth!
As we come to the Lord's Table, we know that God is the Creator of everything that is, and He has chosen to use us for His Glory and to put down His enemies. We know that He created us in His Likeness, with a place a honor in Creation, and with a special responsibility to be His caretakers of Creation. And we know that He cares for us. Yes, even that He loves us, and gave us His Son that the debt for our sins would be paid, and we would be made righteous and holy, for His Sake and for His Glory. So we can come before Him and partake of Him and receive Him without fear, and in hope.
So let us pray:
Almighty God, we are amazed, with David, that You choose to use us, that You have made us in Your Likeness, and have given us great responsibility. We are amazed that You choose to care for humans and even love Your people. This is not a Creation or a plan that we would ever have devised. So we say with David, "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth!" In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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