Majesty of God, baby's rule!
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Intro
Point 1 – The glory of God in his creation
Question: Do you grasp the immensity of God glory in his creation?
Illustration: Horses that are used to drive carts or carriages have blinders put on them. This stops them from becoming distracted or panicked by what is behind or beside them. It helps the driver get them from point A to B without meandering or pausing.
Point: In a very similar to do this. It is not intentional, but in the business of our lives and the desire to achieve our goals we fix blinders to our eyes, to our time. This is great for getting from point A to point B. But how many wonderful things in life and creation do we plod right past in the process. How much of Gods majesty are we blinded to. This morning I want to spend some time, taking off those blinders. Put off reaching the next goal for a moment and stop and smell the roses. Let us do as the Psalmist is doing and consider the immensity of God’s glory in his creation. And be for a time in awe of God.
Bible:
1 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
Here we begin to get a feel for exactly where the psalmist was when he first began to muse upon this psalm. He was on a night time stroll, or perhaps laying down and staring up at the moon and stars. To get into the psalmist shoes, and mind we should do the same.
Moon and Stars slide
And because we cannot just sit here in silence for the next few minutes I thought I would share some space information that I gathered from a Louie Giglio video. These are not facts so that we might understand. Because as you will see in a moment, you cannot grasp the dimensions of God’s heavenly creation like a rubber ball in your hand. No we cannot grasp space, as you will see. Space grasps us.
Many of you will know that we live inside of the Milkyway Galaxy. More to add
Application: In answer to the question I asked at the start of this point. Do you grasp the immensity of God’s glory in his creation, the answer is of course No! Even where we to watch the best highlights reel of all time, and spend all of eternity staring into the stars we would never come to a point where we even perceived of the outside dimensions of God’s glory in creation. As the Psalmist said in v1 “You have set your glory above the heavens”. It extends even beyond this wonderful creation. But I pray that this morning, we have for a moment been able to throw aside the blinkers and simply be in Awe for God! And say along with the psalmist “O Lord, our Lord, how Majestic is your name in all the earth”.
Point 2 – Man’s tiny stature
Question: …it is here, in this space of considering the majesty of God that the psalmist expresses a feeling in the form of a question.
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
This is not a question like “tell me God, what is man for? or made off?”. It is a question highlighting the Psalmists feeling of tininess and powerlessness. In the light of God’s immense majesty displayed in the heavens we are tiny. We are powerless, and to paint an extreme picture we are pathetic.
Last Sunday My family and I were on a plane coming into Adelaide. As we flew over north Adelaide the lives of people playing out at a distance. I could see cars like ants, moving from place to place. I could see houses, expensive and cheap. I could see varying yard sizes filled with pools and trampolines. And they where all… tiny and insignificant. The material stuff we strive for, some times for our entire lives… reduced to a kids play miniatures.
8:2 speaks of babies and infants. There is nothing weaker. Nothing more incapable than a new born baby. This is how the psalmist is feeling in light of considering the immensity of God’s Majesty. That we are, kinda pathetic. How can such a majestic God, that creates the stars and moons, and galaxies on scales that we cannot conceive of care for us? Such small irrelevant creatures in the universe.
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
What a crap feeling. There is a sense of worthlessness here.
Point 3 – Man’s elevated position
Question: But 4 is not where the psalm ends. Praise God. The psalmist quickly goes on and provides an answer to the question of as verse 5 shows, it is not the right feeling. We are not left thinking that man is nothing in the eyes of God. But told that God has placed us, in a position of rulership over all of this immense, and beautiful creation.
Bible:
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.
Point: The reason that the Psalmist is proclaiming the majesty of God in this psalm is not the size of creation. But his awe that God would put the infants in a position of rulership over all of it. That God would put you and I in a position of stewardship overall of creation. An awe that God would value humanity so much more than all the rest of creation. We are still small, But it is God’s elevation of the small, the innocent, the weak to be and do the incredible that is truly majestic about him.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
These versus set up a dynamic at the beginning of the of the psalm for us to understand. How does God show his strength? How does he beat his foes? His enemies? And those that would oppose him? How does God rule his vast creation?
He shows his strength in the faithful cry of babies. Not strong capable men and women. Capable of great feats of strength, intellect or charisma. But the simple faithful word of a child.
What does a baby bring to the table of war? Or to a rulers throne? Strength of arm or voice? Weaponry? A keen mind for strategy? No. none of those things. A baby cannot stand on its own two legs. Its only strength is faithful reliance upon the one it calls father.
And it is with babies of faith, small men and women, that God defeats his enemies, and rules all of creation.
Is man small when God uses them in such powerful ways? I think not. We are instead crowned with glory and honor. Only a little lower than God. We are not small. But we are to be humble. Because it is never our strength that is established through our crys, but the strength of God.
Application:
A question we must ask our selves is this? When in service to our God? Are we trying to bring strength of our own to the war table? Are to trying to rule creation with our own intellectual abilities or, are we babies crying our faithfully to our father?
Point 4 – We have abandoned our position
Question:
How incredible a position that man has been put in. Rulers of creation! We perceive a little now I think of the grandness of the vastness of the created realms of space. And It is incredible to think that we have been placed in charge of all that. But lets turn our eyes away from the heavens for a moment, and consider the wonder of being in rulers even over the earth and all that it holds by watch this quick video reel from Planet Earth 2.
Illustration: Video 4min
Point: Again this morning I pray, especially after having been reminded of how God uses us. That we have been able to join with the psalmist in saying “O Lord, our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth”. How incredible is God’s creation. How full of beauty, wonder, and life is it! And we have been placed in a position of glory and honour over it! Amazing…
But perhaps for a few of us here this morning, while being in awe of creation, we are not in awe of the role we have over it. Perhaps it feels like just another responsibility, when we are already struggling with the very few we have in our lives. Or perhaps we are wrestling with the question, or guilt of how well we are doing at this role? How well is humanity doing in being rulers of Gods creation?
Climate change, extinct animals, overtaxing earths resources, recycling! I know that there are a lot of different opinions about these types of things. But in general, the idea that humanity has in recent decade gone to far… and sealed the fate of the planet is an accepted one. Does it surprise you to be told that this is not what the bible teaches. These things didn’t stuff up the earth, and the planet has not been doomed to destruction in the past century… It happened the moment that sin entered the world at the hands of those that where in charge of it. The world is, and was our responsibility. It along with us will find it’s end because of sin.
So much time, money and resources are spent in identifying, understanding and seeking solutions to the ailments of the earth like green house gasses. But it doesn’t matter how much you recycle and walk and ride instead of driving if these are only the symptoms. The true issue that has sealed the fate of the earth is the sinful nature of it’s rulers.
It is the reason why, so many of us here this morning. After seeing, and hearing about the incredible position of value that we have been put into by God as rulers of creation find it difficult to join with the psalmist declaring God’s majesty. Because we have failed. And to look at creation, is not to be in awe of God, but be confronted with our guilt.
Point 5 – Jesus has fulfilled our command
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Conclusion
Where does this leave us? In a place where we can toot our own horns.