Scripture: Psalm 8
Sermon: When I Consider ….
Topics:
Preached: July 12, 2015
Rev. Mike Abma
Preamble
It was the evening of Tuesday, June 23.
Our family was in southern California, and we had just spent the day in Joshua Tree National Park.
It had been over 100 degrees.
But the sun had set.
The temperatures had cooled.
And the stars had come out.
Stars in the desert,
where there are few buildings,
few lights, and hardly any trees,
Stars in a desert fill the night sky.
We lay on our backs looking up,
allowing ourselves to be swallowed
by the immensity of the universe.
We allowed ourselves to feel
the seeming smallness of our lives
compared with the vastness of the cosmos.
That juxtaposition,
that contrast,
between what is large and what is small,
what is great and what is tiny,
what is majestic and what is miniscule
is at the heart of Psalm 8.
Let me read it to you now.
1 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honour.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
After reading, and rereading this Psalm,
I think there is a way to express it in a series of mathematical equations.
By equations, I mean,
we could express things using
either a greater than > or lesser than < sign —
You remember those horizontal V’s.
Sandwiched between a refrain
that both begins and ends this psalm,
there are 3 main equations,
dealing with God,
the Heavens
and Humanity.
GLORY OF GOD >
Let’s start with the first equation dealing with God.
The First Equation refers to the glory of God in verse 1.
You have set your glory above the heavens.
In other words, the Glory of God is above or greater than the glory of the heavens.
The Glory of God > the glory of the heavens.
This was a profound statement when it was written, and it has only become more profound.
The Psalmist who wrote this Psalm knew the desert.
They knew the overwhelming expanse of the starry night sky.
At the time when the Psalmist wrote this Psalm,
there was the general belief
that far above the earth there was a firmament.
Imagine a huge bowl-shaped ceiling over the earth,
With the sun, moon, and stars
either hanging from that ceiling
or as openings in that ceiling.
That ceiling was the firmament.
That was their cosmology.
Now we know that the sun, moon, and stars are not that close.
The sun and moon are relatively close,
But the closest star is over 4 light years away
The closest galaxy is over 42,000 light years away
And the closest large galaxy is over 2 million light years away.
The expanse of the universe is bigger than our minds can imagine.
The glory of space is practically infinite.
And yet, what this psalm says remains true:
The glory of God remains greater than the glory of the heavens.
THE HEAVENS >?
The second equation involves the heavens in relation to humanity.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
The psalmist first includes a reminder of equation 1.
The Glory of God is greater than the Glory of the heavens,
because it is God’s fingers that placed the moon and the stars in their place.
But when we look at God’s handiwork in the heavens,
the moon, the stars, the planets,
than what are we?
It is a rhetorical question.
Isn’t obvious that
in comparison to the moon, the stars, the planets
we are so much smaller.
This too has become an even more poignant observation
in our day and age.
As our understanding of the cosmos has grown,
as we have looked into space and found
no boundaries,
no end,
no limit,
We have become much more aware
that planet earth
is simply a speck in the universe
and we humans are but miniscule moving dots on that speck.
So this next equation looks quite clear
The heavens are greater than humanity.
Heavens > Humanity.
HUMANITY >!
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honour
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
Here is the wild mathematics of God.
By any rational calculus,
the heavens and the rest of creation should be greater than humanity.
But in God’s mathematics
His glory is greater than humanity,
Yet humanity’s glory and honor
is greater than the rest of creation.
Humanity’s glory and honor
is greater than the works of God’s hands:
the animals of the land
the birds of the air
the fish of the sea
humanity’s glory and honor
is greater than the works of God’s fingers:
the moon, the stars, the planets.
That is the great, stunning surprise of this psalm.
Where we think we should rightfully be small, very small,
we are made large, very large.
So large that humanity’s honor and glory are just a little lower than God’s.
So when we read the opening Refrain
O Lord, our Sovereign Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
We are simply acknowledging the full majesty of God.
But by the time we get to the end of this psalm,
and repeat this refrain
although we are saying the exact same words,
we are saying them for a different reason.
For now we are saying them
because of the unexpected grace
that has elevated us small creatures
to an amazing place
of honor, glory, and responsibility
in God’s creation.
NEW HORIZON SPACECRAFT
Perhaps you have been following the news reports on the New Horizons spacecraft.
The New Horizons spacecraft was launched in 2006.
It was launched on the fastest rocket we had so that it could travel at a speed of 10 miles a second.
Now, 9 years later, it is finally nearing its destination – Pluto;
Pluto, that planet that got demoted
to dwarf – planet or proto-planet status.
New Horizons is a long, long way from us.
So far that it takes 4.5 hours for messages from earth to get to it,
and 4.5 hours for messages from it to get to earth.
Here is the thing I find amazing.
This is a small spacecraft.
It is only the size of a baby grand piano.
In the cosmic scope of things, it is tiny.
It is also vulnerable.
If it happens to hit something as small as a grain of rice,
it will be either destroyed or totally disabled.
And yet,
yet,
this spunky space-traveler has managed to make it to the very
edge of our solar system.
It will pass by Pluto on Tuesday
and use its 7 sensors and cameras
to give us the best look we have ever had of Pluto.
As tiny, small, and insignificant as it may appear in the cosmos,
it was made in our image.
It was made to be
inquisitive,
curious,
a gatherer of information.
I see in this tiny spacecraft
something of a mirror to us, to humanity.
Though small and seemingly insignificant given the expanse of the Cosmos,
we have been made in our Creator’s image:
not simply inquisitive,
curious,
and gatherers of information,
but more.
We have been made to be
interpreters of what we see
appreciators of what we learn
lovers of beauty
and celebrators of life.
We may be puny creatures,
but we are treasured creatures
and our Creator has given us an exalted status
in this vast creation.
CONCLUSION
There is one part of this psalm I have not mentioned.
That is the part that talks about
the mouth of babes and infants
Being a bulwark against foes
And being able to silence enemies and avengers.
That part has always confused me.
But now I think I know how it fits.
You see, we are the babes and infants that are mentioned.
We humans are small and we are vulnerable —
If we are struck by the tiniest of viruses, or bacteria, or blood clots,
our lives would be over.
And yet the praises from our mouth,
the gratitude from our hearts
and the faith of our souls
these have the power to silence
much greater enemies,
and resist much larger foes.
In the arithmetic of God’s grace,
our praise, our gratitude, our faith
is surprisingly greater
than the power of darkness
and the greater than the power of death.
That is why we sing again and again:
O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Amen
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