Rev. David Holwick ZG
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
November 2, 2014
Psalm 8
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I. It is easy to feel small.
A. Considering the heavens.
There have been some spectacular failures this week.
A supply rocket for the Space Station blew up after liftoff.
An experimental tourist space plane crashed as well.
Other missions seem to be doing well.
In eleven days, the European Rosetta spacecraft should put
a lander on a comet - this has never been done before.
The lander has screws on its feet so it doesn't bounce off
into space the moment it touches down.
The American spacecraft called New Horizons is within a year
of reaching Pluto, the farthest planet (or it used to be).
The spacecraft has already been traveling 8 years and is
2.8 billion miles away from us.
Its signals travel at the speed of light, but still take four
hours to reach us.
To put this in perspective, a super-bullet going at the speed
of light would circle the earth seven times each second.
All of this is taking place inside our solar system.
To make it to the nearest star, light has to travel not four
hours, but four years.
To reach the Andromeda Galaxy? 2.4 million years.
And that is the closest galaxy of our own size.
There are billions of other galaxies like it, and many that
are far larger.
It is difficult to comprehend how many stars they would contain.
And in this vast universe, you still think you are pretty
special, don't you?
B. David makes a realistic assessment.
1) When you consider how big the heavens are, humans don't
seem like they are worth God's time.
2) There are probably times you feel like this, too.
a) The writers of the Bible often did. Psalm 144:3-4 uses
similar language to note we don't last very long:
"O LORD, what is man that you care for him,
the son of man that you think of him?
Man is like a breath;
his days are like a fleeting shadow."
b) When Job's friend Bildad considered humanity, he
was pretty down on us:
Job 25:5-6
"If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not
pure in his eyes,
how much less man, who is but a maggot--a son of man,
who is only a worm!"
1> Look at his argument - if even the heavens are puny
compared to God, how do we rate at all?
2> We are no better than grubby worms. (I like that.)
C. Fortunately, God doesn't look at us this way.
1) Instead of flicking us against a wall, he cherishes us.
2) This is the kind of God you should want to get to know.
II. The way God looks at humans.
A. God thinks we are awesome.
1) We are only a little lower than the angels.
a) Angels are supernatural creatures.
b) We are material, which doesn't seem quite as awesome
as supernatural.
1> After all, angels can fly. Rev 14:6
c) The upside is that we gain a closer relationship with
God than angels do.
1> Our salvation is something very special.
2> 1 Peter 1:12 says angels long to look into this.
2) God crowns us with glory and honor - and salvation.
B. We have been given dominion over creation.
1) Every creature that moves, belongs to us.
a) We have tamed a great variety of animals.
1> Cows, pigs, horses, dogs.
2> Even bugs and bacteria have been manipulated to
serve our purposes.
b) James 3:7-8 says that humans can tame everything -
except ourselves.
2) Our dominion goes even beyond living creatures.
a) Everything God created is at our disposal. v. 6
1> That is why we put our flags on the Moon, a comet,
and anything else we want.
2> Maybe we can't fly like angels, but we can create
aircraft and spacecraft that do.
b) God has given us the ability to use the materials of
his universe to create incredible things.
3) We have altered the Earth itself.
a) Massive holes in the ground, concrete everywhere.
b) Roxbury was a vast swamp before humans arrived and
put up all the Walmarts.
C. We are endowed by God to do great things.
1) We can build houses and businesses and church and families.
2) Everything Almighty God created is at our disposal.
3) What have you accomplished in your life?
III. Our dominion can seem rather limited.
A. Reality seems to fall short of the promise.
The author of Hebrews analyzed Psalm 8 and noticed this.
Hebrews 2:6-8 --
"But there is a place where someone has testified:
'What is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
'You made him a little lower than the angels;
you crowned him with glory and honor
and put everything under his feet.’
In putting everything under him, God left nothing that
is not subject to him.
Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him."
B. We don't control much, and what we do we mess up.
1) Think of the devastation of Hurricane Sandy and the slow
efforts to fix the Shore.
2) All those reclaimed beaches will wash away again, and
probably sooner rather than later.
3) We have conquered countless diseases, yet the hint of
Ebola sends us running to the hills.
a) A RiteAid in Hackettstown was shut down last night after
they suspected a customer had the disease. He didn't.
4) We can drill deep into the Earth to get fossil fuels, but
there are always side effects.
a) It is nice to see gas prices drop this season.
b) Do you think it is going to last?
c) And will all that carbon dioxide change our climate
forever?
C. We don't have to look to nature to see our limitations.
1) Our own lives have enough turmoil to give us pause.
a) Just when we think we have everything under control,
the rug is pulled out from under us.
b) You work your way up to a great job, then your division
is sold to another company and you are out of a job.
c) You invest your life in another person and build a
family, only to have everything fall apart.
2) Hebrews is quite right when it says, "at present we do not
see everything subject to him."
IV. There is One we can count on.
A. The author of Hebrews adds this note: "But we see Jesus."
1) The earliest Christians believed Psalm 8 was not just
about humans.
2) It looks beyond us to a sort of superhero, the Messiah.
a) The key term is "son of man."
B. It is not always clear in modern translations.
1) The newest version of the NIV, attempting to be neutral
about gender, translates verse 4 this way:
"What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?"
2) This is accurate but it can obscure the play on words.
(It is interesting that it translates Hebrews 2:6 as
"son of man".)
a) The Jews used parallelism in their poetry, emphasizing
something by saying it twice with slight differences
(or, saying the opposite).
b) In this psalm, the literal "man" and "son of man" mean
the same thing, humans.
c) But sometimes it means something special.
C. Ordinary guy or conquering Messiah?
1) "Son of man" came to be a code word for the Messiah.
Daniel 7:13 says,
"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me
was one like a son of man,
coming with the clouds of heaven."
2) "Like a son of man" means he looked like a regular person,
but in the following verses he takes charge of
God's Kingdom so he is the Messiah.
D. Jesus usually referred to himself as the "son of man."
1) It was ambiguous - people couldn't tell if he was calling
himself just an average guy or the ruler of the universe.
2) It was only at his trial that Jesus claimed to be the
Messiah and applied Daniel 7:13 to himself.
3) So early Christians, and the author of Hebrews, believed
Psalm 8 looked beyond humans to Jesus himself.
a) You might say he is the ultimate human.
b) Jesus shows us what we can become with God's help.
V. God's blessings should lead us to praise him.
A. The psalm begins and ends with praise directed to God.
1) It is natural even for children to praise him.
2) Jesus quoted this on Palm Sunday as children honored him.
a) It is interesting that he accepts praise we are
supposed to give to God alone. Matt 21:16
b) Jesus knew something many of them did not.
B. If we are awesome, it is because our God is more awesome.
1) He created everything, including us.
2) He has created a future for us that is beyond our
comprehension.
3) He will sustain us in our present, and defend us from our
enemies.
4) With God on your side, you can't lose.
C. To find your place in life, find God.
1) Victoria Osteen - worship is all about us.
Victoria Osteen, Joel's wife and co-pastor, recently told
their congregation that their devotion to God is not
really about God.
It's about themselves.
She said, "I just want to encourage every one of us to
realize when we obey God, we're not doing it for God...
we're doing it for ourselves, because God takes
pleasure when we are happy....
That's the thing that gives Him the greatest joy...."
#64607
2) Actually, worship IS about God.
a) He is joyful when we acknowledge him and trust in him.
b) He wants us to accomplish great things in his Name.
c) Do you know this awesome God?
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SOURCE FOR ILLUSTRATION USED IN THIS SERMON:
#64607 “The Osteen Predicament — Mere Happiness Cannot Bear The Weight of
the Gospel,” Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., President of Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary, http://www.albertmohler.com,
September 3, 2014.
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