Majesty

 

The amount of time we spend with Jesus--meditating on His Word and His majesty, seeking His face--establishes our fruitfulness in the kingdom.  --Charles Stanley

A pastor and his wife went camping in the mountains.  In the middle of the night the woman whispers, "Honey, are you awake?"  The young man says, "Yes. I am just lying here staring at the stars, feeling the cool breeze, and enjoying the mountain air."  His wife asks, "What do you think it all means?"  The young pastor says, "I can't help but think of the words of Psalm 8: 'When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and 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?' What doe is mean to you?"  His wife replies, "I think it means somebody stole our tent."

We are in a series of studies surround Jesus in the Old Testament, particularly in the Psalms.  Today we will look at Psalm 8 specifically.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth!  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 an enemy and the avenger.  When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars, which You have set in place, what is man that your are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?  Yet You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.  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 a long the paths of the seas.  O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth!

 One of the most beautiful, and succinct, poems in all of Scripture.  Yet in these 9 verses there lies a great deal of theology.  Let's begin to unpack it here.  

C.S. Lewis wrote, "In its literal sense this short, exquisite lyric is simplicity itself--an expression of wonder at man and man's place in Nature (there is a chorus in Sophocles not unlike it) and therefore at God who appointed it.  God is wonderful both as champion or 'judge' and as Creator.  When one looks up at the sky, and all the stars which are His work, it seems strange that He should be concerned at all with such things a man.  Yet in fact, he has, down here on earth, given us extra-ordinary honour--made us Lord's of all the other creatures." (C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms, pg 155.)

Genesis 1:28 says "And God blessed them.  And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth'."  The psalmist David refers back to creation with wonder and awe.  Why in the world would God place all living things in subjection to man?  It may be because we were made in His image; it may also be due to to the fact that we are called by His name.  We will speak more on this later.

After the Fall, this was not so evident.  When man lost fellowship with God, the balance of nature was upended.  "The Christian writer observes that, in the actual state of the universe, this [nature's subjection to man] is not strictly true.  Man is often killed, and still more often defeated, by beasts, poisonous vegetables, weather, earthquakes, etc." (Lewis, pgs 155-156).  God Himself has had to intervene directly to protect mankind from exposure to the elements (see Genesis 3:21, the first sacrifice: "And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them.")  He also had to intervene personally to cover our sins.

We look a bit deeper into the Psalm, and we see it is not only talking about Adam (and Adam's seed--us), but it speaks directly about Jesus.  What evidence is there to support this interpretation?  We need only to look at Hebrews 2:6-9.

It has been testified somewhere, "What is man, that You are mindful of him, or the Son of Man, that You care for Him?  You made Him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned Him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under His feet."  Now in putting everything in subjection to Him, He left nothing outside of His control.  At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him.  But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

 The writer of Hebrews takes this account of creation and gives it a deeper meaning.  Quoting from Psalm 8 directly, he draws a straight line to Christ Jesus.  "In Psalm 8:5, the phrase 'a little lower,' m'at in Hebrew, can also be translated temporarily as 'a little while.'  This is significant.  It means that the 'little while' of Psalm 8 refers to the earthly life of Jesus, his sufferings and death.  After this 'little while', He was 'crowned with glory and honor,' befitting a King." (Chad Bird, The Christ Key pg 167.

There is another reference to Psalm 8 in the New Testament.  1 Corinthians 15:20-28 makes the case for Christ in the Psalm as well.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For as by a man came death, by a Man has come also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.  But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ.  Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.  For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.  For "God has put all things in subjection under His feet."  But when it says, "all things are put in subjection," it is p lain that He is excepted who put all things in subjection under Him.  When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be all in all.

If nature has the upper hand, defeating man during his lifetime and resulting in man's death, then it is God who has put all things in subjection under the feet of Jesus, who is the second Adam.   Since Jesus defeated death in His resurrection, and God has put all things in subjection under His feet, then we can only look to Jesus as our hope of glory (see Colossians 1:27).

Let's look at one more New Testament reference to Psalm 8, from the words of Jesus Himself.  Matthew 21:15-16 says, "But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple, 'Hosanna to the Son of David!', they were indignant, and they said to Him, 'Do you hear what these are saying?'  And Jesus said to them, 'Yes; have you never read, 'Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise'?"  Jesus quoted Psalm 8:2 back to them, saying this was a fulfillment of prophetic Scripture that children should praise Him.  How it must have burned their hearts when the chief priests and scribes recalled the second part of Psalm 8:2 ("You have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.")

Not only did Jesus use this verse as a fulfillment of prophecy, but he burned the chief priests and scribes, equating them as enemies of God and associates of Satan, the avenger.  Not only did David prophesy that "out of the mouths of babes" should come praise, but that the more they opposed Jesus the stronger He would get.

Finally, let's look at the first and last verses in Psalm 8.  "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your Name."  When we look at the various ways the Son of God appeared to people in the Old Testament, "He also appears as the Son of man, Glory, Power, and Name.  The last one, the 'name of God,' in some OT passages, is distinguished from the Lord Himself.  God's Name dwells with Israel (Deut. 12:11).  His Name is in the temple (1 Kings 8:16).  'Our help is in the Name of the Lord,' the psalmist says (Ps. 124:8).  John is reflecting this OT understanding of the name = the person in his Gospel.  After Jesus says that the 'hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified (John 12:23, my italics), he prays, 'Father, glorify Your Name" (12:28, my italics).  See the parallel? The 'Son of Man' is the 'Name' of God.  Based on this, when Psalm 8 says that the Name of God is majestic, the poet may be suggesting this: 'O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is that One who is Your Name in all the earth!'" (Bird, pg 165).

Philippians 2:10 says, "that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth."  His Majesty, indeed!