Psalm 8
1 O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: 7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; 8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
The slogan “Make America Great Again” is okay. I’m glad the economy is doing well, but the nation’s greatness will only be if she turns back to God. When we read the first and last verses we see just about the same thing. I read this Psalm often. It puts me in my place. Whether I recognize it or not, God is above all. He exists apart from my belief in him. If the whole world said “I don’t believe in God” what would happen to the Lord? Does that make him no more? To think that puts God on the level of the Easter bunny or Tinkerbell or the tooth fairy. He becomes a myth. But GOD IS. He is independent of what we think. He is the solitary God, the only one who has ever been or ever will be. God said not to make for ourselves any graven image. When we make an image we take something that the very God we ignore has made to make it. God is! He is Lord!
What opens our heart is when we can say “our Lord.” Because we trust him we can say “He is my God, my Lord.” That’s a bond as strong as the power of the resurrection. It’s because of the Son of God that man is able to call God “my God” and “my Lord.” We then don’t think of him as a separate being unconnected from us. David says it straightforwardly. To say God is “my God” is a connection. It binds us together. To be saved means the only God is our God and he is our Lord. Satan is not our ruler.
By reading verse 2 we know that God appreciates our acknowledgement of him and his majesty. When a little one prays, we might laugh but God appreciates their heart. Little Harrison gets up and sings not worrying how he looks or sounds. He’s not worried about anything but singing. Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is made of them. In fact, on the day of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, it was the little ones shouting hosanna that so irritated the rulers.
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? Everything was made by God. Go back and read verse 3. You and I are different from the animals. We did not descend from apes. We were formed from the dust of the ground and God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life. Only in man does creation have a soul. He made the world with three words “let there be…” But yet he took the time to scoop up mankind from the dust.
Our position is a little lower than the angels. All the animal world is under mankind. As much as God does for us, we should praise him. Every blessing is because he wants to bless. The Son of Man has victory over it all. Through the dying of his body, he crushes the power of the devil. No wonder David ended the Psalm as he did. This mess will one day be over and God will present us, the saved, to God. We’ll see “our God” in his fullness. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
Adwolfe Freewill Baptist Church 