Psalm 8  The Lord’s Glory and Man’s Dignity.

O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
² From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

³ When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
⁴ What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
⁵ Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
⁶ You make him to rule 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 through the paths of the seas.

⁹ O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;  What is man that You take thought of him?      It is hard to imagine how anyone, looking around at the beauty, the splendor and the intricacies of creation could arrogantly question the existence of or equate themselves with God. When we realize how small we are in the scheme of things, what small part we are in the present let alone in eternity how can we possibly be arrogant or boastful? How can we not if we our honest with ourselves say, like the psalmist; How majestic is Your name in all the earth?

Yet it is that majestic God, the creator of heaven and earth, the one who is above all, who is all knowing, all powerful, eternal and ever present; It is God Himself who has crowned us, His creation with glory and majesty. It is God who said:    “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness”(Genesis 1:26)    The psalmist acknowledges what God said at creation:    You make him to rule 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 through the paths of the seas.    Genesis 1:26-28 continues:   let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Unfortunately man has been unable to rule the affairs of man let alone rule God’s creation. While we were created in God’s image, to rule like Him, with righteousness, justice and love, mercy and grace we have fallen well short of the mark. As Romans 3:10-12 says:   as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”    Yet in spite of our condition, in spite of the fact that we have fallen short of God’s plan for us, in spite of our worthlessness; He created us as worthy and so He made a way that we can be all that He created us to be.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.(Romans 5:8) “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.(John 3:16)  In John 10:10 Jesus says:   “ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”      The abundant life that Jesus came to give us is a life which is fully redeemed from the fall and restored to the fullness of God’s intention. Jesus came that we could indeed be crowned with glory and majesty, that we could rule over the work of God’s hands; that we would be like Him, recreated in His image.  

O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!   Amen