"The Majesty of God"
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Introduction: The overwhelming sense of smallness. When I was a teenager in New Mexico, we lived about 25 minutes outside of Albuquerque. To the east of the city there is a mountain range. We lived on the other side of those mountains, and there was very little light pollution, very much like out here. We had a house that had a second story balcony that was connected to my parents bedroom, and at the end of that balcony, you could jump onto the roof of the garage. It was there that I would often lay look up at the stars. The first time I did that, I was astounded. Having moved from Fort Worth, TX, you could see stars, but not like this. I never knew there were that many.
King David, before the invention of electricity, I imagine looked up and saw those same stars in the desert one evening. As a shepherd, as king. Good days and bad, he could look up and see and wonder, who are we as man? Because, when we see the majesty of God, the majesty of the King, it should cause us to be astounded and worshipful at His greatness.
CTS: Witness the majesty of our King Jesus!
Background: Psalms 1-2 have established the blessed man, and that blessed man is found to be Christ, the promised King who sits on the throne. Chris made that point clear in his sermon, and then Andrew continued that theme in Psalm 3, that in God, salvation is found alone, and that salvation is ultimately provided for in God’s grand redemptive plan through Jesus.
Psalms 3-7 as written by David show his struggles with the wicked throughout. Jesus would come and sit on the throne of David, the promised Messiah. So, those Psalms point us to the Jesus who is the one who faced His enemies and victorious overcame them. His righteousness defended him, and he obeyed completely the will of His Father will faithfulness and right rule as king.
Guess what? This Psalm is another chiasm! As Chris and Andrew so deftly explained, this Psalm is framed at the beginning and the end with the sentence, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” That framing is intention of the Psalm, that God’s people would praise God for his majesty. David points us to the majesty of the Lord, the King over all things. Here are three ways the King shows his majesty...
I. The King Silences the Enemy (1b-2)
I. The King Silences the Enemy (1b-2)
Verse 1 contains the introductory framing of the Psalm. It also continues with an establishment of how his majesty is set, or his glory, as the second part of the verse says.
His glory and majesty are evident throughout all the earth and above the heavens. This is a clear explanation of the witness of God’s majesty. His dominion spreads throughout heaven and earth. There is no place in which God has not created and does not have dominion over.
David clearly and rightly wants His people, God’s people, to recognize that God is majestic and glorious, and that glory spreads to all places. The omnipresence of God and the results of his presence are seen. His power is displayed throughout creation. Everywhere we look, we can see God’s handiwork. The earth below and the skies above. The cosmic rule of the Lord is evident.
And then we have a curious and albeit surprising revelation that continues the theme of the glory of God. As the whole earth and heavens declare the glory of God, we also see that babies and infants declare the glory of God. But what is curious is that it is these babies and infants establish a stronghold that defeats the enemies. The praises of the children are the ones that silence the singular enemy.
The singular enemy here is important, and in relation to the creation order, we know that in Genesis 1-2 that God creates the world and that he also creates man. In Genesis 3, we see that the Enemy, the serpent, which we know as Satan, deceives God’s creation of man in which they sin, and that we see the results of sin and destruction take place. Satan is the author of lies, and the one described throughout the Bible as the capital E enemy of God.
With this background in mind, alongside what has been seen in Psalms 1-3 and really 4-7 as well, the enemy against the Lord continues to rebel against Him. And here, children, the offspring, the seed of the woman, silence the enemy.
Illustration: Moms and Dads, you remember when your children were babies right? The awe and stopping in your tracks when you first saw your child outside the womb? You remember that the baby also ruled the house, right? Every cry, and noise they made, everything was stopped to attend to that baby. In the same vein, the infant, the baby of this text silences and stops the Enemy in his tracks...
Why is this so important? That seed is established in Genesis 3, that from Eve’s offspring would come one that would crush the head of the serpent. From then on, we are looking for the head-crusher. So every child born since then, through the promise of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the promised offspring of David that would sit on the throne forever as King. That offspring, every child in that line, declares the promise and strength of God that leads to the promised seed, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. It is in Him that that the enemy is silenced. He is crushed. His is stilled.
Application: The grand redemption of God’s work, is that our enemy Satan himself is silenced. Where sin abounded, where deception reigns, we can be confident that baby born on Christmas morning silences the enemy. It is through Jesus that we claim victory over our foes. The victory over sin, the victory over Satan. Jesus our King has won the battle.
Because of that, we remember that victory and ask the Lord to fight on our behalf in our own lives. Our personal battle against sin and the flesh. To fight against the onslaught of the enemy as he tries to blunt our witness. To fight the battle in the hearts of our families, to silence the enemy and that he would save them. To fight the battle in our workplaces as we point people to the reigning King as he removes the veil of deception from their eyes. To fight the battle in our churches as we fight sin and strive to live as a faithful, Christ-honoring, on-mission people of God.
Transition: So, the majestic King Jesus silences the enemy, our Lord defeats Him through His death on the cross and his resurrection. That work is a work of grace, as He is mindful of us...
II. The King Gives Grace to Man (3-4)
II. The King Gives Grace to Man (3-4)
David continues to write and to continue in his exaltation of the King. Like all of us when we look at creation, we are astounded at the power and majesty of God. I love when I see you as church members take pictures of the sunsets and sunrises of our area. We are truly blessed to experience those things here, to see the beauty of God’s creation in such wondrous form.
The work of creation is described so beautifully here, emphasizing the careful crafting of our God as the made each mountain, valley, river, sea, ocean, desert. As me made the stars, the planets, the galaxies, the universe, all with purpose and all with perfect alignment as where they need to be. All at the hand of a perfect and all-powerful Creator.
And when we see such astounding work and power, how can we not alongside David be in awe? As he does, we can wonder ourselves: who are we in light of all this? Who is man? What is man? And why does God even give us the time of day? Why do you care for us, mere mortals?
The answer to that question comes later, but I want us to sit on that for a minute, and to really think about how small we really are in relation to our world. Even the greatest rulers, most powerful people on earth, pale in comparison to the God who merely speaks and creates our of nothing. How amazing is our God? How powerful is He?
And isn’t it amazing that this same God created us and also cares for us? He minds us. This sovereign ruler, holy and perfect, all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere at once, is also one who is with us. And that is exemplified in Jesus himself. That idea of presence is so crucial to our reading of the Bible, crucial to the life of the people of God. God with us.
God was with Adam and Eve. God was with Abraham. God was with Moses. God was with His people in the tabernacle. God was with His people in the Temple…and God is with us in the greatest way, that God would become one of us, to come into our neighborhood, as Eugene Peterson says in John 1, and dwells with us.
What grace of God that He cares for us? Provides for us? Sustains us? And what grace of God that He would come and dwell with us, to put us in right relationship with Him? Our God is not a deistic god who cares nothing about his creation, who doesn’t relate, and just leaves us be. No, he is intimately involved, even despite ourselves. Despite ourselves, he comes to save us. Why? Because of His overwhelming compassion, His incredible grace, to save sinners such as us and put us back in right relationship with God.
This isn’t a question to be answered, but a question to provoke our praise and worship of the God who cares for us!
Application: Do we truly reflect on the greatness of God and then become overwhelmed by His grace that He cares for us? Are we astounded by God’s goodness and kindness, even despite ourselves? Do our lives reflect that astounding in all we do and say? Are we grateful that God has shed His grace upon us, relates to us, cares for us, and loves us? Do we share that gratefulness to one another? To the lost around us, and tell them of this great grace that they can experience themselves?
III. The King Rules Everything (5-8)
III. The King Rules Everything (5-8)
The answer to the question is not really meant be answered, but rather, an acknowledgment of the grace of God and praise toward him. That continuing them of grace is that God has chosen to give us dominion, to show his dominion over the earth. His people are not given power and dominion for their own glory, but rather, as vice-regents of this world, we are going as His people showing forth His glory across the earth, spreading His majesty.
This is seen clearly in the command in Genesis 1-2 that man is given dominion over the earth, to rule and subdue it.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. 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.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
They would also be commanded to be fruitful and multiply, to multiply God’s dominion over the earth. The offspring would continue to grow and to show forth the praises of God and His majesty.
Yet we know that this command hasn’t been fulfilled. Man fails in this command, and still does so today. Rather than steward, we pursue to control and dominate.
“Dominion has become domination; rule has become ruin; subordination in the divine purpose has become subjection to human sinfulness. The creatures suffer.” - James Mays
We see this all around. Creation is abused. Man desires domination. Man desires their own glory rather than the glory of God. Our intention was to have dominion to point to the majesty of the King. Yet we fail and use it for our own devices.
God then sends His own Son, the Son of Man, to come and to obey where we did not, to truly have dominion and to truly spread His glory throughout the world through Himself. His death, His burial, His resurrection, makes people lost in sin, deserving of judgment for our desire to serve and worship ourselves, alive. He makes us as we were created to be, to serve the King and able to serve Him. We are not kings and queens ourselves, but rather servants of the true and perfect King.
He was made lower than the angels, made like us. He was crowned with a crown of thorns so that he would be the exalted Savior of humanity and creation. He was made like us so to save us, to restore His dominion in fallen sinners such as us, to restore us to what we were created to be.
5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? 7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, 8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
He is given dominion over all of creation, because He is the Creator of it all. All things are under his feet, under subjection to Him. All beasts, all creatures, even the serpent himself who is under his foot, crushed and defeated.
Jesus is the epitome of what it means to be man, fully and righteously having dominion, and also fully God as rightful ruler and the one who is the majestic King. He is what all of creation was looking for and longing for. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus is God with us, God ruling, and God making us His own.
Application: Worship Jesus this morning as the King made like us, to save us, and to transform us as His people, made to bring Him glory throughout the earth.
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Conclusion: The Enemy is silenced. God is mindful of us, cares for us, so much so that He became like us to save us, to have dominion over that which we broke. How majestic is Jesus? Do you see His majesty this morning? Do you see His glory in full? Are you grateful for a King that is this powerful yet so gracious, this glorious yet so approachable, this holy yet so merciful? God loves us so much that he was willing to give His Son, so to be made like us, so that he would taste death for us, to have dominion over us. Are you thankful that despite ourselves, despite our sin, He still cares to save people like us. Let’s worship this majestic King!
Conclusion: The Enemy is silenced. God is mindful of us, cares for us, so much so that He became like us to save us, to have dominion over that which we broke. How majestic is Jesus? Do you see His majesty this morning? Do you see His glory in full? Are you grateful for a King that is this powerful yet so gracious, this glorious yet so approachable, this holy yet so merciful? God loves us so much that he was willing to give His Son, so to be made like us, so that he would taste death for us, to have dominion over us. Are you thankful that despite ourselves, despite our sin, He still cares to save people like us. Let’s worship this majestic King!