We’ve learned that Psalms is…
- A Collection of songs and poems
- Belongs to the category of “Wisdom Literature”
What Biblical Wisdom Does
1: Gives the capacity to make sound decisions even when you don’t have all the facts
2: Elevates our perspective to a heavenly view.
Psalm 8
1 Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth! You have covered the heavens with your majesty.
2 From the mouths of infants and nursing babies, you have established a stronghold on account of your adversaries in order to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place, 4 what is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him?
5 You made him little less than God 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 the sheep and oxen, as well as the animals in the wild, 8 the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea that pass through the currents of the seas.
9 Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth!
Few things to note:
- Written by David
- Psalm of worship
Worship fits into the WISDOM LITERATURE Genre by telling us..
1 – Who God is
2 – Who We Are
3 – How We Respond
1: Who God Is
Psalm 8
3 When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place…
How Big is God?!
Who placed the moon and stars?
David is saying…
HOW BIG IS GOD
This is an IMPORTANT ASPECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP
- Let me explain…
St. Augustin’s Theology in Sin and the Human Condition
- Believed that Sin started with PRIDE
He once said…
It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels. ~ St. Augustin of Hippo
He coined a saying that said…
Cor Incurvatus In Se = The heart curved in on oneself
- Sinfulness disconnects us from our Almighty Maker and Heavenly Father. It divides us from one another.
Our tendency is to look inward to ourselves, but worship places God where He belongs—in the throne of our hearts.
What should we take from this?
The size of your God will determine the faith you have in Him
The God of the Bible is BIGGER than you can imagine
- Put the universe together with his fingers
This means God is:
- Bigger than your current problems
- Bigger than your past
- Bigger than the world’s problems
- Big enough to hold the future
- Big enough to take care of your kids
So if you are struggling to trust God over doing things yourself…
You need to adjust your thoughts to the size of the God who made you
2: Who We Are
The maker determines the value of a thing by how much they put into it
Psalm 8
3 When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place…
What is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him? 5 You made him little less than God and crowned him with glory and honor.
In comparison to the VASTNESS
- The beauty
- The complexity
What are we?
- So small in comparison
David feels overwhelmed and small
- But not worthless
This is very different than our current secular culture…
That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the débris of a universe in ruins… ~ Bertrand Russell
If the God of the Bible isn’t as David says, then…
- There are no “human rights”
- There is no “human dignity”
- There is no “human Purpose”
But David says, Because God is so Big, Powerful, Etc…
But God chose to lift us up as his creation to bear His Own Image
- “Barley below God…”
What should we take from this?
God defines our worth because he created us, named us, and called us.
- God isn’t just big; he genuinely cares.
Apart from God, our lives are more meaningless than we realize, but in God, our lives matter more than we currently understand.
3: How to respond
Psalm 8
9 Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth!
Overwhelmed, heart poured out worship
This is how we should “Meditate” on a psalm
- Let it sink deep into our hearts and minds