Psalm 8 - reflection for 9th and 10th Jan

Today's reading is from Psalms 8 (Seeing the glory of God)

A psalm of David.

¹ O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.

² From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.

³ When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,

⁴ what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?

⁵ You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.

⁶ You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:

⁷ all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,

⁸ the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.

⁹ O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

A. The grandeur of God's glory (verse 1-2)

The grandeur of God's glory in relation to Himself.

"how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

How "excellent" (how majestic) is Your name. God's glorious reputation precedes Him.

Two unique calling cards:

a) In heaven above: "You have set Your glory above the heavens."

b) On earth below: "From the lips of children and infants."

What a glory! Even children knows that as seen in Matthew 21:

Jesus at the Temple

¹²Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ¹³"It is written," he said to them, " 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'"

¹⁴The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant.

¹⁶"Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him.
"Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read,
" 'From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise'?"

B) The Grace of God's glory (verse 3-9)

The grace of God's glory in relation to Man.

1. Grace: The Great Surprise

Exodus 33:18 "show me Your glory"

¹⁸ Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory."

¹⁹ And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

God's glory defined in terms of His grace. His compassion and His kindness towards us. What a glory!

³ When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,

⁴ what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?

How many times have I taken pride in what I have accomplished. My pride puffed me up like a blowfish, making me look bigger than I really was.

But the Lord had to get me to see who I really am. I am like an ant standing before the world's ultimate giant: helpless, hopeless, worthless and useless. This verse changed me to look from my all-important self, to seeing myself as so insignificant when compared to God.

Man is precious to God!

a) Mindful of him

b) Care for him.

c) Crown him.

Even King David who wrote this psalm, a fearless warrior, whom God described as "a man after my own heart", also went through the same problem. He also experienced the insignificance of man in the presence of His Creator. But the Lord reminded him as he reminds us that even though we have been made a little lower than the angels, we have been placed in charge of His creation and crowned with glory and honour.

A part of psalm 8 is kind of repeated in Hebrews 2:5-9.

⁵It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. ⁶But there is a place where someone has testified:
"What is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
⁷You made him a little lower than the angels;
you crowned him with glory and honor
⁸ and put everything under his feet."

In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. ⁹But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

I took a part of Ray Stedman's interpretation on this part of Hebrews:

"But Jesus fulfilled the qualifications to realise man's heritage. He became lower than the angels, he took on flesh and blood, he entered into the human race to become part of it, he experienced death. Not on death of the cross, but also that incipient death that marks the way of man through all his days. Thus, "He tasted death for every man" and in doing so he took our place.

The writer of Hebrews reminds us that the suffering of the Son of Man brought glory and honour to all the sons of mankind who believe, for He is not ashamed to call us his brothers. And as He has been elevated above the angels, so are you and I.

Ephesians 2:1-9 says:

Made Alive in Christ

¹As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. ⁴But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Reminder: For God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus (Ephe 2:6-7).

Do we realise the grace of God in our lives? We are frail human beings that God remembers and watches out for. When we realise that we were dead in our trespasses and sin, and that God has saved us by His matchless grace, made us alive in Christ, and raised us up to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that realisation should change the way we live today.

I am indeed the undeserving recipient of grace I have no right to expect and blessings I have no ability to measure. I am humbled to see what God, the Creator of the Universe, has done for me. I should not take pride in what the power of my mind and the strength of my arm have accomplished.

Conclusion: But man is lost without God. He came to seek and save the lost. Everytime we click our fingers, four people have died - and they are precious to God!

Sorry for taking so long with this psalm. I admit I struggle putting this psalm in words which people can understand. After writing this, I don't think I have written it very well + a bit of referencing from other websites.

I cannot really afford 4 hours trying to dissect this psalm in a day because I have got a lot of other commitments (eg. studies, coming interview etc). So I have divided my time into an hour a day for my quiet time. I may be stuck on a psalm for days. So if you see me not blogging my quiet time for a while, it does not mean I am not doing it. It just means I am still working on it. Pray that God will give me some insight during the days when I am stuck with the any particular passage in the bible.