Psalm 8 - You Are Important To God

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. We are in a great portion of scripture this morning.

We are in Psalm 8, and this is a particular set of verses in this song that is referenced in several other places in scripture, especially I can think even a little bit in Acts, and there's some also in the Book of Hebrews that as the writer of

Hebrews is talking with those Jewish believers that were undergoing heavy persecution, as they were dealing with wondering, hey, should we just turn back to Judaism, turn our back on Jesus and Christianity? This Psalm is one of the places that the

writer goes to go to tell them, hey, no, like, don't turn back. Jesus is so much better.

And in Hebrews 2 and verses 6 through 8, he talks through this, he says this, actually I'll start off Hebrews 2 and verse number 5, for he did not subject to angels the world to come.

So he's saying in the coming age, in the kingdom of heaven, when Jesus returns, it's not going to be the spiritual beings that rule. Instead, it will be the believers in Christ.

He says, but someone has testified somewhere saying, what is man that you think of him, or a son of man that you are concerned about him? You have made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor.

You have put everything in subjection under his feet. So kind of want to start off with that.

Obviously, we're in the Psalms, and there's lots of different things, lots of different thoughts that we could look at, and you could go, all right, well, this is kind of cool, but like, what does it have to do with the rest of the Bible?

Wanted to start off with that saying, this was one of those sections that as the New Testament writers were penning words of scripture, they thought back to what God had said here through David and used his words to talk about Jesus and his place and

kind of our outlook on the future and our hope. So let's go into this Psalm with that same hope that says, all right, God has a plan for me. He has an eternal plan for me that involves incredible things that I don't even know about yet.

Let's look at how God deals with us. Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

You who have displayed your splendor above the heavens, from the mouths of infants and nursing babies, you have established strength because of your enemies to do away with the enemy and the revengeful.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars which you have set in place, what is man that you think of him and a son of man that you are concerned about him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the gods, the angels, the spiritual beings, and you crown him with glory and majesty. You have him rule over the work of your hands.

You have put everything under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also the animals of the field, the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the sea. Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

Here, as David writes this Psalm, he's looking at all of creation. Like he's looking at the sun, the moon, the stars. He's looking at the animals and the things on land.

He's looking in the sea at the fish. And as he looks at everything, he goes, God, why do you care about us? Like, what makes us special?

And here, I look even in verse number two, he says, from the mouths of infants and nursing babes, you have established strength because of your enemies, to do away with the enemy and the revengeful.

Here he says, God, you care about us so much, and you are not reliant on like our ability. So strength and power and God's working is not done through maybe the best of mankind.

Instead, he says, you care about the little babies, and you have like put your protection on them, on infants. You care about those who can do nothing, who are nothing, who can't sacrifice anything to you. You care about them.

How incredible is that? You defeat your enemies, and the enemies of God aren't the ones that have strength. It's little babies.

They're the ones that are big and important in God's eyes.

When he looks at the skies, and we've talked before here on the podcast about the fact that the heavenly hosts, the heavenly armies were often thought of, of, okay, I can see these things and the innumerable stars, and they often connected that

thought of the stars that they could see, the heavenly beings that they could see, and connected that to the spiritual beings that they could not see. But since God exists, since we know that Satan exists, and Scripture talks about the accuser of the

brethren, the devil, the one who kind of orchestrates and works much of the evil in this world, since those exist, then they also have others, the angels that we hear about in Scripture. And he says, as I think about the angels, the sun, moon and

stars, both the visible heavenly beings and the spiritual heavenly beings, he says, when I look at them, I go, God, why do you care about us? I hear about the death angel that came and rescued the children of Israel out of Egypt by the killing of the

first born Egyptians for everyone that did not follow God's instructions for the Passover. I think about the angel armies that would surround, obviously this wasn't David thinking this, this would be after his time, but about Elisha and where he is

in danger and his servant looks out at a kind of army of Syrians that has surrounded their city and he's freaking out and he's going, oh no. And Elisha tells him like, hey, Lord, please open his eyes to see what's really happening.

And there was an army of angels that was surrounding the army surrounding them. There's a popular song, it may look like I'm surrounded, but I'm surrounded by you kind of taken from that story.

As we think about the power of the angels, you could think even later, where angels released Peter from prison, like we learned about in Acts that angels, when Assyria had surrounded Jerusalem and they were under siege, and God delivered Israel

through an angel coming through and wiping out much of the Assyrian army. When we think about the heavenly beings, about the incredible huge moon and sun and stars, especially what we know now, as we see our galaxy and universe for everything that it

is, for the size it is, for how long it would take us to even get to these locations of the incredible power that it has, what are we? Like, we are specks on a small speck of land, in a small planet, in a small galaxy, in an enormous universe.

And we are just a minute part, and why would God care about us? And he says, you have made him a little lower than the gods, the spiritual beings, the angels. He says, you've made him just a little bit lower than them.

He says, you crown him with glory and majesty, that God cares about you. He made you in his image. God did not make, in one sense, God didn't make the universe in his image, but he made you in his image.

So you have value, and you have purpose, and he thinks much of you. He didn't die for the mountains. He didn't die for the valleys.

He didn't die for Jupiter. He didn't die for the Milky Way. He died for you.

He cares about you. He says, you have him rule over the works of your hands. Maybe today you would say, well, I'm not really ruling over everything right now.

No, I am supposed to have dominion and supposed to have things that I'm doing in this world. But maybe I'm a little bit older now and I can't do what I want to. Don't worry.

This life is not the end. There will be another life in which you get to fully experience all of the life that God has planned for you because He loves you. Because when you die, it's not the end.

But there is another day coming. So all of this thought that God cares about us, He cares about us so much.

And the next life is one in which we will not just be able to see other people do great things, but where we get to be involved and we get to participate in God's dominion over the earth, that we will rule over spiritual beings, we will rule over

physical land, that as Revelation says, we will become kings and priests to our God. What a wonderful, amazing, incredible thought that we are known and loved and cared for by God more than anything in this world or in space or in the spiritual

realm. He loves us most of all. That makes us respond with verse 9. Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

He cares about you. He loves you. He sent Jesus to die for you.

And our response ought to be gratitude. It ought to be God, help me to care. Help me to care about my relationship with you, because if you love me and you have a plan for my life, I want to know what it is.

I want to embody it. I don't want it to just be a plan that doesn't result in action. I want to get involved.

And the other thing I'll mention is I'll link in the platforms that let me link. I'll link to the song Psalm 8. I forget what the title is.

It's Psalm 8 by the musical group Shane and Shane, and they have just an awesome, awesome rendition of this particular song. And I want to link it so that you can hear it. It is a great encouragement.

I have been singing it on and on for a very, very long time. I'm pulling up the lyrics right here. They said this, When I look at your heavens, The moon and stars you set in motion, O God, I sing all glory and honor.

What is man that you are mindful, The son of man that you would care for him? We sing all glory and honor. O Lord, our Lord, O how awesome are your ways, How majestic is your name in all the earth.

O Lord, our Lord, May we see your kingdom come. Father, may your will be done in all the earth. In all the earth you gave dominion to your children, And you crowned them, O God, with glory and honor.

So we'll sing of your name. Live our lives for your greatness, O God, And your glory and honor. And then I'll skip down to the bridge.

The earth is full of the glory of God. Come make much of the name above all names. Creation cries out and every knee bows.

Jesus, we crown you, O Lord, our Lord. And I would really encourage you. Listen to the song.

Wonderful, amazing musicianship. Obviously the lyrics, many of them taken directly from this psalm, some from the Lord's Prayer, some from the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord's Prayer. Just a great thing that will help you remember this psalm.

I don't know all of the psalms. If someone said, hey, here's this one, I know the ones that I have either known for all of my life, like Psalm 23, I know the ones that I've written songs from because it ministered to me.

And I know the ones that I know songs from. And this is one of those ones of Shannon Shane, Psalm 8. How majestic is your name?

So it's wrong. I encourage you to listen to that. And it would be a great help to you as you think about and memorize and meditate on this particular portion of scripture.

God loves you. He has a plan for your life. Lean into it.

Spend time with him. Begin pursuing him now so that one day in eternity, it's not, oh yeah, for the first time, I'm really getting to know God and learn about God. Like, let's take advantage of now.

He cares about us. He's mindful of us. He has loved us even from when we were babies.

I think of the Prophet Jeremiah, that God loved him and called him even from the womb, that he said, this one's going to be for me. I'm calling him to be my prophet.

I think of Paul, where he writes in Galatians that, hey, from all of my life, God was calling, and eventually I heard the call and I answered, that we would have that heart of going, OK, God, you've been pursuing me, and I'm going to respond, and I'm

going to love you. Thanks for tuning in today. Tomorrow is Psalm 9.