"Creator & Created: Divine Majesty and Human Dignity" - A sermon reflection on Psalm 8

1. The Beginning and the End (v.1 & 9)

The psalmist’s worship began where it always should – in praise and thanksgiving for who God is. Yet you wonder if this beginning is at all tentative … wondering if God is really this great! But having reminded himself of all the good reasons that follow, the final clause (v.9) is then flooded with faith and excitement. It’s good to remind ourselves constantly what it is that we like about God – this will have great impact on the way we feel about life.

2. What is God like? (v.1)

God is not only God of the heavens, but also God of the earth. God is not only absolute, but also personal – because God is described as “our sovereign” (in verse 1) – God relates to us, and we can relate to God. God sees the big picture pertaining to all eternity, yet God also seeks to come close to each individual at their point of need.

God’s “name” (referred to in v.1 & 9) represents God’s essence, God’s personality, God reputation, all of who God is. Having claimed God as the kingly ruler of the people of God, the psalmist David describes God’s “name” as “majestic” or “excellent” (throughout all of the earth). What do you think most defines God’s character or personality???
· Unconditional love
· Mercy, grace, forgiveness, reconciliation
· Faithfulness
· Patience, long-suffering
· Peace.

3. In Witness to God (v.2)

What does ‘founding a bulwark’ (v.2) refer to? A “bulwark” is the side of a ship that comes up above the deck … that forms a defence and gives protection to those aboard from the danger of the seas. We might at times doubt God, but God has built into the universe continual evidences of His presence and availability. God’s character is so undeniable, that even when enemies appear, or when human hardheartedness reaches its peak, it will be the children that bear witness to God’s loving creativity. So God’s character will be defended by the natural joy and eagerness of children. God’s good “name” is being upheld by the inborn, natural and innocent responses of children.

Eugene Peterson in “The Message” paraphrases this way: “Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs that drown out enemy talk, and silence atheist babble”.

Such defence needs to be put up against those adults who have come to oppose God’s ways through knowingly offending God’s ethical and moral heart and thereby hurting other people; such opposition typified by those referred to as “avengers” i.e. those who actively seek to exact revenge – the absolute opposite of God’s character and attitudes.

This is the defence of innocence and truth and integrity.

Our own well-being can be protected and defended as well … through sticking to the strength of our primary relationship with God – that has been established on the principle of absolute trust.

4. Reasons to Praise (v.3-8)

Praising this absolute and personal God is based in the following areas:

(a) Creation – for those with the eyes willing to see, according to this psalmist, the creativity and activity of God is everywhere to be seen and experienced. David is overwhelmed by the immensity and the supreme artistry of what he sees in the skies. What a great mind God must be to place all the laws in place to govern all this complexity.

(b) God’s View of Humanity

Having come outside at night and taken note again of the moon and the stars – the handiwork of God’s very fingers, the psalmist’s mind turns to himself (and possibly all the humans he knows), and considers the place of the human person in the midst of all this magnificent creation. David considers the possible insignificance of human beings in comparison to the vastness of all creation and the brilliance of the Creator. These tiny specks of humans couldn’t really mean much to God could they?

On the absolute contrary! God’s ‘complete care package’ for human persons is not an illusion, or a human invented piece of optimism, or just words printed on the pages of the Bible – God’s care for us is real!

The stunning reality is that God is indeed “mindful” of us, meaning that God pays ‘careful and compassionate attention’ to us, and God visits with us. This was clearly and dramatically proven in Jesus’ incarnation. God significantly intervened in the midst of human affairs to open the possibility of a better future – for both individuals and for the world in general. The significance of that intervention carries on today.

God has not designed us to be his play things to be exploited purely for His pleasure; God has not designed us to be puppets to be manipulated at will. God has created us with dignity, and, as we shall see again, given us a distinctive and important role to perform in His creative plan. Human persons have been created in the image of God, with responsibilities to participate in God’s work, and with the capacity to actually be like God. For all our faults, and the times when the negative side of our nature comes to the fore, we have the capacity to reflect the character of God to others. This happens when we are kind, loving, patient or act as a peacemaker. We have minds with the capacity of thinking God’s thoughts, and hearts with the capacity to reflect God’s compassion. This is what it means to be “made a little lower than God” (v.5). This in no way is a negative assessment, but rather a wholly positive and optimistic statement. And so great scientific discoveries are made, and medical miracles occur, and once hardened people have their lives radically transformed.

(c) God’s Gift of Responsibility

God has the highest regard for human persons. God has even, despite all misgivings to the contrary, given us responsibility over everything else that has been created. The psalmist has in mind here the same human ‘dominion’ over God’s creation mentioned in the Genesis chapter 1. We have been given the mental and moral capacities to exercise a duty of care over the earth. How this responsibility has been abused for selfish economic gain! This is because we live in this tension, that while we have the capacity to do so much good, we often do harm. Yet, the responsibility has not been taken away from us – God remains optimistic about our capacities. And God is well aware of His own re-creative powers. Despite appearances to the contrary, God is still dynamically connected to the world He created.

We remain accountable to God for the way in which we carry out our responsibility. Old Testament scholar F R McCurley wrote:
“A [good] ruler does not devastate the land but nurtures it, seeks its
welfare, and enhances its beauty – even while eating from it and
using its resources”.

But I think this responsibility goes even further towards our duty of care to all our human neighbours around the world. This involves taking a role in defeating injustice and seeking a more equitable distribution of resources. This also involves putting a priority on being a part of the action in seeing lives transformed through Jesus.

5. Fully Experiencing God (v.9)

The psalmist David returns to the spirit of praise in which he began, but this time with renewed assurance and understanding of the truth of his words. The psalm concludes with the human person bringing the responsibility he or she carries back into the place and atmosphere of worship, with the acknowledgement of where life and light originates.

But it would be good if we could now feel this way and echo these words every day! How can we live in the utter knowledge of God’s excellence on our daily journey?

All sorts of questions come to mind! How can we experience God more on a daily basis? How can we have our need for spiritual connectedness fulfilled? How can we make more sense of life? How can we better reflect the character of God to others?

It is in allowing Jesus of Nazareth to challenge our thinking. It is in allowing the Jesus of the cross to tear away the barriers that block our progress. It is in allowing the risen Jesus to lead us into new and transformed experiences of life. It is in allowing God’s optimistic Spirit to take away our guilt and shame and rebuild our lives from the inside out. We still can be everything that God intended us to be!