Or, God's Majesty on the Night Shift
Scripture: Psalm 8:1-9
Date: October 19, 2014
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Martin Luther wrote an entire book for his barber in order to teach his barber to pray. The book is titled, A Simple Way to Pray, and there is a great edition with introduction and explanation by Archie Parish. Luther spilled most of his ink showing how to use the Lord’s Prayer, the 10 Commandments, and even the Apostle’s Creed in daily prayer. He also mentioned his own use of the Psalter and recommended its use whenever possible.
The Lord’s Prayer is hard to beat as a prayer prompt since Jesus Himself taught it to His disciples. It was no doubt useful to a day-worker like a barber. But if Luther had written for a friend who worked the night shift, he would have had a hard time starting anywhere better than Psalm 8.
We’re picking up with Psalm 8 after having considered Psalms 1-7 last fall. We saw Psalms 1 and 2 as a double-front door to the entire book and then Psalms 3-7 all related to some difficulty requiring deliverance.
Psalm 8 does not seek deliverance from sickness but it does boost morale for men struggling with their place in the world. Psalm 8 isn’t calling on God for protection from enemies but it does explain a surprising way in which God’s enemies are put to shame. Here is a song about the universe and man in it. Both the cosmos and humankind are a real piece of work. And because of that reality, every man has real opportunities not only to see, but also to show God’s majesty, even men who work the night shift.
This is a song that was used in temple worship: To the Choirmaster , though it was meant to be learned for singing outside the sanctuary, too. It’s according to the Gittith , which no one quite knows what that meant. And it is A Psalm of David . Based on the clues in verse 3, it’s likely that David wrote it when he was out watching his flock at night. Or perhaps it was on a night watch while in the military due to the enemies mentioned verse 2.
We’ll see three movements in this Psalm, not equally divided. Verses 1-2 are about God’s majesty, verses 3-8 are about man’s dignity, and verse 9 goes back to God’s majesty.
This song starts at 70 miles an hour. It doesn’t get up to speed by changing gears, it gets up to speed by jumping out of an airplane. In other words, hope you’re ready.
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
(Psalm 8:1a)
No reason comes before the exclamation; reasons follow it. David, and the congregation after him, addresses “O Yahweh, our Ruler.” The small capitals in the first LORD translate God’s covenant name, Yahweh, and the lowercase letters in the second Lord translate Adonai, a term of office or position.
How majestic is your name . This name isn’t Yahweh, or Adonai, though both the name of the eternally existent “I Am” and the sovereign master say a lot. Name includes everything true about God as He reveals Himself. As God is, so His name is majestic . He is beautifully impressive. He is impressively beautiful. He is royal and recognized in all the earth . His magnificence isn’t limited to a local tribal deity. The same expression finishes the song, though it means even more (if possible) after the next seven and a half verses.
The second half of verse one through verse two communicate two vastly different manifestations of majesty.
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
(Psalm 8:1b–2)
We’ll see more about the heavens in verse 3. For the moment it brings to mind the stretch of sky and space and the place where God dwells. We cannot reach the end of the heavens even in our imagination. Once we think we’ve hit the edge, we will still wonder what’s on the other side. God has set or “ordained” (NIV) or “displayed” (NASB) His glory above the heavens . His glory covers the earth like the ocean swallows a grain of sand. God’s glory, His heavy value, shows impressively in the heavens. This is macro level majesty.
His majesty is also declared on the micro level by those too young to speak: Out of the mouths of babies and infants . Both babies and infants (ESV) refer to very young children. Infants (yoneqim), in fact, could be translated as “sucklings,” (YLT) as “nursing babes” (NASB). These kids haven’t learned to talk and yet out of their mouths they declare. Their cooing and crying (maybe) in dependence is a sign of God’s strength.
That would be a surprising mouthful of theology as is, but to say that out of these symbols of tininess and weakness God has established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger seems impossibly naive. How exactly are enemies and avengers “stilled” by babies? And what does this have to do with the song?
We are being prepared for the main course of the song in verses 3-8. The taste in verse 2 tells us that being big isn’t what makes man great, and God doesn’t need great men to make His glory big. God delights to make big meals from small potatoes. Babies who haven’t grown too big for their britches are in a better position than men who have.
The word still is from the same Hebrew root as “Sabbath,” to stop, to “cease” (NASB). God’s enemies are stopped by the weak, and they cannot stop the praise of God by babies. Adversaries of heaven may hate and suppress the truth about God’s majesty in their own thinking (Romans 1:18-20), but they cannot repress it, even from infants.
Those who are dependent glorify God, no matter how small and inarticulate, not those who think they themselves are impressive.
Not only is this the longest part of the song, it is the central take-away of the song.
In comparison to the seemingly infinite expanse that God created, where does man fit into God’s list of things He cares about?
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
(Psalm 8:3–4)
Because there is no mention of the sun but only the moon and the stars , the question apparently struck David while he was outside at night. To look up and see the countless stars and the moon hanging from nothing, set in place by God, and then to realize that the Creator is bigger than the creation, pushes our mental RAM into the blue screen of death. Consider the following numbers:
in one second a beam of light travels 186,000 miles, which is about seven times around the earth. It takes eight minutes for that beam to go from the sun to the earth. In a year the same beam travels almost six trillion miles. Scientists call this a “light-year.” Eight billion light-years from earth is halfway to the edge of the known universe (Donald Williams, Psalms in “The Preacher’s Commentary Series”).
All of this God made by the work of your fingers . It isn’t that God has physical fingers, but that the moon and the stars are like little pieces that He pokes around on one of the tables in His craft room.
Under the night light, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the song of man that you care for him? If David could have flown in a plane, or seen satellite imagery of the earth, he would have had another perspective to think about how small we are all together, let alone each individual. But size doesn’t keep God from being mindful or caring , verbs mean that God “remembers” and God “visits.”
The rhetorical question depends on two realities: 1) God created man to be small in comparison to the solar system and 2) God cares more about man than all the stars in the heavens.
Being big is not always what’s required to be glorious. Being created, crowned, and commissioned by God is what gives man dignity. God does care (verse 4).
Yet you have made him a little lower
than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
(Psalm 8:5)
Who are the heavenly beings ? The Hebrew word is elohim which usually refers to God in the Old Testament. David may be saying that God made man just a little lower than Himself. The author of Hebrews makes it angels (Hebrews 2:7) following the Septuagint. But I think it probably means “lower than God” rather than a “lower than angels,” since there is another word for angels, or even for beings in the heavens, a word we’ve already read twice. Man is made in God’s image, after God’s likeness. Either way, this is not demeaning but rather ennobling.
God crowned him with glory and honor . Though men are not made with size like stars, they are more special than stars. We might say that men are the true stars of God’s creation. Man, and man alone in all creation, is given glory and honor by God.
How does man have it? He does not have it by taking it or by trying to puff himself up in competition to God. He is glorious when he submits to God’s greatness and when he accepts His place from God. Do not try to be like God, Genesis 3, or you will lose glory. Do not wish to be the moon, you will lose honor. Instead, do man’s work.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
(Psalm 8:6–8)
David knew Genesis 1 (and Genesis 9:1-3, 7, when God recommissioned Noah after the flood). When God said that He would make man, He immediately mentioned the purpose He had in mind for them (Genesis 1:16). After He made man, male and female (Genesis 1:27), He immediately asserted the mandate (Genesis 1:28). This is part of man’s glory and honor: to work as a steward and developer of all creation, including other breathing creatures.
Dominion means control, not like that of a tyrant but like a representative. To exercise dominion means to provide structure, to govern. This dominion includes the works of [God’s] hands , all things . God gives it to man, man doesn’t deserve it, let alone take it.
Verses 7 and 8 mention land, sky, and sea creatures. David probably saw a flock by moonlight that provoked him to think about the rest. Shepherds often work the night shift, so do fishermen. Animals can be used for clothing, food, and service (they cannot be used for companionship, because they are not “fit for” man, Genesis 2:18-20). Animals can be used for fuel. Whether a man breeds, boards, barters, buys, butchers, or banquets on animals, he is involved in this honorable stewardship. All of creation is meant for man to work.
Great, but why sing about it?
Small, dependent, industrious men working the night shift are part of God’s majesty being known in all the earth. If babies can still the enemies, then can’t men who know how to talk?
Second “verse,” same as the first part of verse one.
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
(Psalm 8:9)
Consummate means complete or perfect. His majesty is all-inclusive. His name is supreme everywhere.
The verses of this Psalm are connected. God’s name is majestic in all the earth and His strength is established through the seemingly small and insignificant. Actually, all men seem small and insignificant when compared to the universe. But men who believe that God made them, men who work responsibly on earth, are at the moment of work magnifying the majestic name of God in all the earth.
The gods of ancient Mesopotamia hated men. Men were made to be slaves. The more modern god of materialism (the daughter of Darwinian evolution and naturalism) hates men, too. Materialism makes men slaves as well. There is no purpose other than survival of the organism or protoplasm seeking more power. There is no meaning, no hope.
One reason that the Psalms are good for us today is because most of our contemporary Christian songs are so heavenly lyric-ed that they are only earthly good on Sunday. That’s an overstatement. But we are divided, combating materialism with spiritualism.
Theology is for thinking about everything, about Christ and the cross and justification by faith and about business partners, real estate deals, beaver pelt pricing, and organic soda bottling. Google is great, the almanac has been really helpful, but neither of those resources provide purpose for our work or dignity to men.
In a post Genesis 3 world, a world with foes, enemies, and avengers as verse 2 refers to, the dignity of man has been marred but it is not extinct.
Theology humanizes. Sin and unbelief and denial gut the heart from humanity. Another way to say it is, humility humanizes and pride dehumanizes. This is why work can’t be fulfilling apart from worship of our Creator. Work can be done by common grace, it can be amazing, but it can’t be fully satisfying without being done consciously in God’s image.
Singing (or praying) something like Psalm 8 should boost the morale of every believer who works. It isn’t only for Israel; Israel didn’t exist yet in Genesis 1. As human beings made in God’s image, we are representing the Lord and repressing His enemies. Praise is not hindered by being puny but by being proud. Sunday morning singing informs Tuesday night significance.
We are a piece of God’s work. We occupy a small but special spot in creation. When we work, we see God’s majesty. When we work, we spread God’s majesty.
Those who change, or better, those who season the culture are not the powerful, the pretty, the healthy, or the smart. Those who season the culture are those with grace, God’s grace given to them. You do not need a pain-free, criticism-free, distraction-free, easy environment to show off God’s name. You need His grace. He might give you trouble so that you’ll realize it.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9–10, ESV)