12/26/2011 8:44:29 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 8
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 8
Message of the verses: “1 ¶ «For the choir director; on the Gittith. A Psalm of David.» O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! 2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease. 3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; 4 What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? 5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! 6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, 7 All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, 8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!”
First we will look at the word “Gittith” and see that Dr. Wiersbe says that this word means “winepress” and may identify a vintage tune as are Psalms 81 and 84). He calls this psalm a nature psalm as are psalms 19, 29, 65, and 104, but it is also a Messianic psalm (Matthew 21:16; Hebrews 2:6-8; 1Corinthians 15:27; and Ephesians 1:22). In this Psalm we see that David is amazed at the God of creation who is glorified through great and glorious creation, but the question is, is God glorified through man here on earth. David wonders why God even pays attention to mankind here on earth. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The answer to the question ‘What is man?’ is ultimately answered by Jesus Christ, the ‘Last Adam,’ through who we regain our lost dominion.”
He writes “That God, in His remarkable condescension, should focus attention on us is proof of our dignity as creatures made in the image of God. The grandeur of men and women is found only there. Apart from knowing God, we have no understanding of who we are or what we are to do in this great universe.”
God Created Us (vv. 1-2, 5a): “1 ¶ «For the choir director; on the Gittith. A Psalm of David.» O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! 2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease. 5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God.”
We see the word “splendor” in verse one and in the AV it is translated as “glory.” The first verse speaks of the glory and majesty of God, a subject that could be written about for a very long time, longer than we have here. God’s glory is a very important subject in the Word of God. We see in the 33rd chapter of Exodus that Moses desired to see the glory of the Lord, and God had to put Moses in the cleft of a rock, with his face hidden so that God’s glory would not kill him. I believe that when God’s glory is identified in Scripture that in some way it speaks of light, a very bright light that is brighter than the sun. We remember in Matthew 17 when the Lord Jesus was on the Mt. of transfiguration that His glory was seen by some of His disciples. Jesus Christ had to hide His glory when He came to earth and that is part of what He gave up for the time when He was on earth: “ 4 "I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 "Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:4-5). Man can give glory to the Lord, but there is a part of God’s glory that is perfect and cannot be added too. This is a subject for another time and another SD.
In verse one we see the words “Our Lord” and Dr. Wiersbe writes that this “is a threefold confession of faith: there is but one God, all people were created by God, and the Jewish people in particular are ‘His people and the sheep of His pasture’ (100:3).
We not move to verse two and this verse speaks of God’s immanence {describes God as existing in and extending into all parts of the created universe}. Verse two is quoted by Jesus in Matthew 21:16 which take place right after He cleanses the temple. God is so great that He can entrust His praise to infants and children and He still will not be robbed of His glory. We see this in different parts of the Scripture like when Moses was a baby and even then God showed His purpose for him, as He did when Samuel was a baby, and what about Jesus when He was born as a baby. We know that God did not need us, but He created us and He prepared a wonderful world for us to live in. I like what the Westminster Catechism states that our purpose is “glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” I am afraid that not all of mankind will do this and so it is up to us to tell them how they can glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and that is through a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
God Cares for Us (vv. 3-4): “3 ¶ When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; 4 What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?”
I am part of a Bible Study learning about creation from Genesis chapter one and in verse 16 we read “God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.” We see that it kind of sounds like an afterthought, that is God making the stars also, and we see in verse three of Psalm 8 that this was all done with the “fingers” of God. There are billions of galaxies in the heavens containing billions of stars and Scripture say that they were made with the fingers of God. What does this mean to me when I read about it? First of all I see that in Psalm 19 we see that all of these stars bring glory to God. Next I read about God taking six days to created the earth and all that is on it and as I look at the creation taking six day and the fact that man was created last I see that it took God that amount of time to prepare the earth for man and that makes me feel very special.
David wonders who or what man is that God should think of him. I believe that this surely is speaking of man in his sinfulness that David is writing about, and yet it was through man (actually woman) that God brings His Son into the world in order to save sinful man and that is a wonder all of its own.
God Crowns Us (vv. 5-8): “5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! 6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, 7 All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, 8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!”
Let us first look at the Hebrew word that is used here in verse five that is translated as “God” in the NASB and “angels” in the AV. The word is “elohim” and it can mean angelic creatures (Hebrews 2:7), but in this passage Dr. Wiersbe states that it definitely means “God.”
Now let’s look at what the evolutionists try and tell us compared to what God is telling us in this passage. They say that man is a little higher than animals, when they are actually a little lower than God. Why does God say this? As stated above God took six days to get the earth ready for man to be created and man was the only creature that God made that is created in the image of God, surely not the animals were created like this, only man was created in the image of God and that is why we are so special.
Mankind through Adams’s sin has lost the right to rule over the world, the animal kingdom but when we see Jesus coming to earth He did rule over Adman’s lost rule. We see this in different parts of the Gospels like ruling over beasts in Mark 1:13; 11:1-7; and the fowl in Luke 22:34; and the fish in Luke 5:4-7, and today we know that Jesus Christ is on the throne in heaven and according to 1Cor 15:27 and Eph. 1:22 all things are under His feet, and that phrase according to Dr. Wiersbe means “completely subjected to Him.”
Dr. Wiersbe writes in conclusion to this wonder psalm the following: “To summarize: God the Father created us to be kings, but the disobedience of our first parents robbed us of our crowns. God the Son came to earth and redeemed us to be kings (Rev. 1:5-6), and today the Holy Spirit of God can empower us to ‘reign in life by one, Jesus Christ’ (Rom. 5:17). When you crown Jesus Christ Lord of all, you are a sovereign and not a slave, a victor and not a victim. ‘O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth!’”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Today’s lesson from Psalm 8 give me new purpose in my life as I think of God creating me to bring honor and glory to Him and in doing this it will help me to learn something that I have been trying to learn for many years and that is to say with the Apostle Paul “I have learned to be content.”
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. To continue to learn contentment.
12/26/2011 10:07:41 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment