C, Holy Trinity - Psalm 8 "God's Majestic Name"
But greater than the night sky is God in his magnitude, but
also in the minute detail of something so massive and eternal. We hear that God’s glory is still
bigger! We join with King David, the
Psalmist, in contemplating his eternal question, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth? You have
set your glory above the heavens.” (Psalm 8:1 ESV) David literally says, “O
I AM, our ruler!” The Existing One, is
our keeper! His majesty is immeasurably
wide. But, despite this, David realises
we have access to him by simply calling on his name, “Yahweh”, which is “I AM”,
I exist! And furthermore, the glory of
his name is greater the heavens!
As a child, on the farm, there were times when I would look
at the majestic twilight sky and try to imagine the width and length of
eternity. I stared into the orange
light, the cloud tails, and the fading into blue darkness with stars beginning
to appear. No matter what distance I
could imagine. I was in awe that my
imaginings, were just that imaginings, only the beginnings, insignificant,
terribly shortsighted, and childish.
King David reflects, “Out
of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of
your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.” (Psalm 8:2 ESV)
One might think that my childish imaginings are still
greater than the cooing and garbled words of babies and infants. Yet, I am reminded, that before I could
imagine and ponder, while I was still an infant totally dependent on my mother,
God had set in place strength that stops his enemies or haters, his foes or those
who are cramped by him, and the avenger or those who carry a grudge against him.
What is made clear by God to David and us, is that the
Almighty, works completely contrary to our intellect and what we imagine to be
strength.
It’s at this point David and all of us remember that we’re
the babies and infants of Adam. Imbedded
in the way we think, feel, work and reason, is the original sin we’ve inherited
from Adam. This makes me, a child of
Adam, ponder the brokenness of my existence in the face of God. Why would he begin to consider me? If I am the same as Adam, and the rest of
humanity, why shouldn’t his glory write me off and annihilate me?
How often do I regard God as the enemy, when I am
suffering, when I don’t get my way, when my actions work against the truth of
his word? Like Adam, I am tempted to see
God as the enemy, to see him as a deceiver, and thereby, I am deceived by
Satan, the father of lies. So, standing
under the stars, I stand humbly in awe of the privilege of being allowed to
live. My sinful work pales into
insignificance compared to the works of God in creation. I realise how much my sinful being is completely
dwarfed by his being, who has created the heavens and the earth, and still
preserves everything that exists.
Be it the exquisite minute detail of a flower. How animals know to migrate at the right
time? The order of the planets revolving
around the sun without crashing into each other. My smallness and my lack of attention to
detail is highlighted by God’s extraordinary control of creation. I am brought back to standing under the
stars, not to worship them, but to worship he who made them.
“When I look at your
heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the 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?” (Psalm 8:3–4 ESV)
Why is God mindful of me?
A child of Adam! It’s right here
at this point where all seems lost, we hear that God cares for the son of
man. He cares for the son of Adam, in
spite of our weakness, despite our deadly ungodliness. Saint Paul reminds us, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the
ungodly. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6&8 ESV)
The Son of Man is Jesus Christ! We hear from the author of Hebrews, “Now in putting everything in subjection to
him, he left nothing outside 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 honour because of
the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for
everyone.” (Hebrews 2:8b–9 ESV)
Adam’s disorder, our disorder, has been handed over to
Jesus Christ to reorder. Nothing has
been left outside his control. This Son
of Man is the Son of God. King David
says of God, “Yet you have made him a
little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour.”
(Psalm 8:5 ESV)
Indeed, Christ was made low, he was willing to go the
opposite way to Adam. Adam unfaithfully
sought to be God. But Jesus faithfully
submitted to God the Father, and although he is God the Son, he was prepared to put
aside his Godliness, and became human, for you, for me, for King David.
This is the love of God the Father and God the Son for
humanity. Jesus Christ became the Son of
Man. He became lower than the heavenly
beings, lower than the angels. He became
lower than sinful humanity, to serve and save humanity, because God considers
humanity the jewel of his creation.
We were the gold of God’s creation but became fool's gold
against God. But God loves us so much he
gave the gold of his divinity in his only Son, who suffer death and broke the
crucible of hell. So, we might have the
impurities of foolishness removed from us, so we might be the golden children
we were meant to be.
When I stand and look at the stars and know that God is
greater than these works of his. And as I
ponder that Jesus who was with the Father in his work of creation, departed his
dominion to descend below me to the depts of depravity in my place, then my
heart leaps in the knowledge of God’s love for me.
In knowing God’s love in his forgiveness of you and me,
through Jesus’ death, see the greater works of God in his work of
salvation! You and I are his new
creation, through Jesus Christ! You and
I are perfectly restored in him!
But the love of God does not end there! The threefold being of love that God is, is
for us. In Christ we have been grafted
into God’s circle of love. The love of
God the Father and God the Son is continued in us with the Holy Spirit who in
being sent in love from the Father and the Son, now loves to lead us to the
Father and the Son.
With such love, see that we are restored as the golden
pinnacle of God’s creation.
We hear of God, “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 along the paths of the seas.” (Psalm 8:6–8 ESV)
In Jesus Christ our care of creation has been reset, since God has given Jesus’ dominion over the works of his hands. The Holy Spirit now works with us, God’s re-creation, to cover our world with care and prayer in his name. So that the world knows that Yahweh is the Lord, our Lord, through the majesty, the wideness, of his name in all the earth. Amen.
