Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church.

There are times that we are our own worst critics and then there are times where our outside critics are just harsh.

This is often no more evident than in the music industry.

In 2002 Genesis front man Phil Collins put out an album named “Testify” that didn’t charm the music world.

One critic wrote “Middle-age is no excuse for such an unforgivably bland collection of over-emoted love songs.”

Now before you check your bulletin, yes you are at Dishman Baptist Church and no, no one has body snatched your lead pastor.

The reason I mention that is because we are on a whirlwind tour through the Psalter in these latter days of summer and we’re going to be looking at the 8th Psalm this morning.

Last week we looked at Psalms 2 and saw what a beautiful picture it gave us not only of who God is but also who His Son Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us and how that Psalm foreshadowed Christ as the Messiah.

This morning’s Psalm is going to give us a little different picture of the coming Messiah.

But the intervening Psalms - Psalms 3-7 are some very depressing passages and then nine and ten follow suit.

In fact every single one of them is in the category of Psalms known as lament.

If these Psalms were being reviewed by a critic they would say something along the lines of “The first few songs are so depressing that I couldn’t even get to the rest of the album.”

But Psalms 8 bursts on the scene with such exuberant joy and praise that it almost seems shocking to the ear.

Much like a priceless diamond set on a field of black velvet the surrounding lament passages make this Psalms shine all the greater as it presents images of the witnesses to God and His Son.

Let’s look at these verses together and then carefully pull them apart to see how Christ is revealed in this passage and what it means for us today in our lives and worship.

Please open your Bibles with me to Psalms 8.

What beautiful words.

Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth.

Just let those words wash over you for a second.

Is this the God that you have come here to worship this morning?

A personal Lord?

The Psalmist here calls Him “our Lord”.

First he refers to Him by the name that was given to Him - Yahweh.

The great I AM.

This name is was so holy to the Jewish people that they wouldn’t even write it out fully.

This is the God who embodies holiness.

Who dwells in unapproachable light.

This is also the God who is our Lord and Master.

The Psalmist here uses not simply Yahweh but also the term “adonai” designating God as both Lord and Master.

And yet, this God has chosen to reveal Himself to His people.

This Psalm delivers three witnesses that proclaim the beauty of the name of the Lord and puts Him on display in all His splendor.

The First Witness - Creation

It’s been quite a week here in the Valley.

Monday night Jeremiah and I took some time and hiked Iller Creek.

We got a late start because he had swimming lessons but we managed to hike 4 miles through beautiful landscape just a few miles from where we are this morning.

And thankfully we did that on Monday night because Tuesday night brought upon the Valley that fierce wind, rain and thunderstorm.

Many of you probably lost power because of the system that blew through.

Two different nights, two glorious displays of God’s handiwork and awesome power.

One of my favorite activities when I was in the Navy was to step out on the bridgewings at night and look up.

Much like the Psalmist is it was incredibly humbling to realize how large the universe was and how beautiful the night sky was.

He writes “You have covered the heavens with your majesty” and then later “When I observe Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place” - this is pure exaltation.

The Psalmist focuses here on the night sky and the way that it proclaims the majesty of our God.

Can there be any doubt that the universe had to have a creator?

Just to look at the majesty of the night sky - the beauty of the stars, the placement of the planets, the exquisite detail that is in the night sky alone cries out that there is a creator.

And yet that is not our only source of witness.

As we focus back from the sky to the earth how could we deny the existence of God.

What joy He must have taken as His finger carved out the Grand Canyon or pushed up the Rockies to scrape the sky.

As He crafted and put to flight the eagle and observed that first majestic flight.

Or built the cheetah and watched as it sped across the savannah for the first time.

What magnificence He has put into the changing of the seasons.

His power is such that Paul would write

Yet there are many in our day who deny the God exists or that creation points to a creator.

Instead they have exchanged the God of creation for false gods, idols and worship the creation rather than the creator.

And so there must be another witness.

And for this purpose God has provided the highest and best of all His creations but also the most feeble and vulnerable.

The Second Witness - Mankind

The Psalmist writes

In the great, vast expanse of space, in all of His creation it is a wonder that God has bestowed so much effort on mankind.

We really are the most feeble and weak of creatures.

Here in the Pacific Northwest that is demonstrated as we go out to pick huckleberries and we have to carry weapons with us to protect us from bears because we’re not powerful enough to overcome them.

We are the most vulnerable of creatures.

And yet God has bestowed upon us the greatest of honors - that we bear His image and are His vice regents here on earth.

We are told here that

This is in accordance with the first commands that God gave Adam.

We are to be the caretakers and overseers of the earth - but for what purpose?

We are to take care of this world because all of it bears witness to Him.

A part of taking care of the world is to see mankind flourish and utilizing those parts of the earth the God has put in place for that to happen.

But we are to be more than just automaton caretakers of His planet - we are to proclaim the beauty of His name.

The Psalmist writes

It is important to note here that it is not from the strong and learned that God establishes His stronghold - but instead it is through the mouths of infants and nursing babies.

After Jesus had ridden in to Jerusalem and had been acclaimed by the crowds Matthew recounts the story of His cleansing the Temple and then closes with the scene of Jesus healing the lame and the blind in the Temple courts.

Matthew tells us

Jesus refers back to our passage in reference to the children who were praising Him when His enemies sought to disparage Him.

This has always been and is now the way that Christianity spreads.

Paul would later write

There is nothing more foolish than the uneducated babbling or speech of an infant or nursing baby.

And yet this is often the witness that God chooses to bless and to have point to Himself the most.

And it is the way that we point to God the most.

It is not our intellectual prowess or our oratorical might that most points to God but the simple and humble profession that despite all the reasons against it, God has chosen to redeem me from the self-destructive, sinful lifestyle that I was living.

Taking me off the road to Hell and placing me squarely within His Kingdom as a redeemed saint.

It is that truth that is the stronghold that is erected on account of His adversaries and which silences the enemies and the avenger.

Notice that the stronghold is not erected on account of the enemies of the babies or the nursing infants.

And the stronghold of the testimony of our God is not erected on account of our enemies today.

Yes we as Christians may be among the most hated and persecuted people group or belief system in the world - but that hate isn’t really directed at us.

Instead it is directed at God through us.

It is like Paul wrote in Colossians that he was making up what was lacking in Christ’s afflictions for us because the world could no longer inflict their attacks on Christ but could attack His followers.

Yet it is a privilege to suffer on account of His name and we can recognize that should that day come for us that our future is secure and that we have a greater witness who not only proclaims our redemption to the Father but is the perfect witness of Him to the world that is attacking us.

The True and Better Witness - Christ

Yes this Psalm points to the provision that God has made for us as humans.

We truly are His vice-regents here on earth and charged with care taking and shepherding His creation.

We are charged with witnessing and proclaiming the magnificence of His name.

But we are the ever imperfect witnesses.

We are ever the infants and nursing babes babbling incoherently about what we only grasp in part.

There is One who witnessed to Him completely because He came from Him.

Because He is Him.

The Psalmist writes

In the New Testament the writer of Hebrews would look back to this verse as he would write

Of all the witnesses that God has provided - creation both in the universe at large and on earth in particular, mankind and our imperfect proclamations of His glory and grandeur - none is so complete or so compelling as the person of His Son.

Earlier in his epistle the writer of Hebrews would write