What a great Psalm of praise we have before us today. In it we see God exalted through a meditation on His works of creation, both those in the heavens and those on earth. Consider a few notes but not without reflecting on where we personally fit in this Psalm.
·
v1a, 9: The Psalm begins and ends with the same
refrain. Don’t overlook the two uses of
the term “Lord” … LORD (all caps) to
speak of the self-proclaimed name of the one true God (YAHWEH or Jehovah, the self-existent One) and Lord (Adonai, Master). God’s name is “excellent” or great in all the earth. This is the context of this Psalm, how great
God is on earth. Yet …
·
v1b: He has set His glory above the heavens, “as if
earth were too small a theater for it’s display” (JFB).
·
v2: Yet even on earth God’s glory is on display in
the way He uses the smallest and weakest of things to silence those who deny
His glory. Perhaps David is reminded of
how he, as a young man, was enabled by God to kill the giant. The greatest Son of David referred to these
words as He rode into Jerusalem (Matt. 21:16).
The small children got it right
while the enemies of Messiah missed the point of that eventful day.
·
v3-8: Having established the premise, that the
greatness and excellence of the “LORD our Lord” wherever you look in the
universe, he now reflects on the place of man in the mind and heart of the
Creator.
·
v3: Who has not had this experience? You step outside on a dark, clear night and
see the magnificent display of stars visible to the naked eye. Or, perhaps, you magnify it with a
telescope. Maybe you have seen some of
those amazing pictures from the Hubble telescope of not only our galaxy but the
neighboring galaxies.
·
v4: If you “consider” (observe with some thought)
what you are seeing does it not make you feel somewhat small? You might wonder why God would give man a
thought (remember him, given all the great
things in creation that must occupy His attention) or even “visit” him (pay
attention, a more involved term of the two synonyms). Whether or not David understands this as
involving the incarnation, he is saying that his God has not gone off and
forgotten about what He made; He is a God closely
involved.
·
v5: Vs. 3-4 have parallel lines that are
synonymous; v6 has parallel lines that contrast. The point is that man was made lower than the
angels (Elohim, mighty ones, used of God but also of angels and of mighty ones
on earth) in the sense of not being as powerful; and yet man, not angels,is
crowned with glory and honor.
·
v6-8: Man is in the prominent position on earth,
being the only being created in God’s image and given dominion over the rest
(Gen. 1:27f). The point is emphasized by
the listing of the various living things.
This Psalm takes on great significance in the New
Testament, not only in the triumphal entry quoting of v2 but in the way that it
anticipates our Lord, Jesus Christ. In
Christ God’s greatest “visitation” of mankind took place. Zecharias used this term in referring to the
coming of Messiah (Luke 1:68) as did Christ of His offering of Himself to
Israel (Lk. 19:44). When Christ returns
it will again be a great “visitation” (1 Peter 2:12).
But perhaps the greatest use of this Psalm in the
New Testament is in Heb. 2:5-9 where the writer seeks to make clear that Jesus
was not an angel who came to earth to do God’s will but was fully human. In fact He is “Man” in the fullest sense of
Psalm 8:5. The first Adam failed in the
task of “dominion” because of his prideful sin.
And since then mankind has struggled with the God-given task. Man even seeks to exalt himself by suppressing the truth about the Creator
(Rom. 1:18ff). But Jesus became man, the
lowest of men who are lower than the angels; He bore our sins in His body on
the tree. But His humiliation is now
being followed by His exaltation which will conclude when He rules over all.
When we consider creation AND Christ, truly we must
say, “Oh LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth.”
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