As of a few days ago, this being October 26, 2015, there is a beautiful sight in the pre-dawn sky, that being the planets Venus and Jupiter being close to each other. The sermon below, fits so beautifully with this beautiful sight. I just don't know how anyone can look at the stars and not be convicted or believe in the Creator.
God's Handiwork
Psalm 8:1-9 "O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth."
This Psalm detaches us from human problems and anxieties and transfers our mind to distant unexplored regions. This Psalm is true elevated thought. If you have ever gone out on a clear starry night, away from those street lights which obliterate 90% of the glory of God, if you stay in the dark until your eyes get adjusted to the dark and then you look at the heavens, the things that God has made, and you see the different colors, and the shooting stars; if you use binoculars and look at the night sky, just the pure size of it, you will feel very, very small. And that is what David saw, and when he saw it, it made him think about God and it made him worship God because creation points to the Creator. The Psalm opens in V1 with admiration of God, "O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens". O Jehovah, our Jehovah. Excellent means how large, how wide is the authority of thy name in all the earth. The word glory means grandeur, majesty or outshining. God's glory, the outshining of God is above all the heavens. It is pre-eminent over the heavens. God you are so great, your glory - your outshining is beyond the heavens. You outshine the heavens in your glory.
When David looked at the creation, the earth and the heavens, it made him think of a big God. It didn't lead to petty thoughts. He didn't go out and see this creation and then have little petty thoughts. He was thinking that God is great and other things receded into the background. It gave him a proper view of God, a proper perspective. Sometimes as Christians we think of a limited God like us, but we need to look at the stars more. So in this Psalm of David firstly we see an admiration of God, and secondly the admiration led to a wonder of God's greatness revealed in his creation.
V2 David wondered at the evidence for God that he sees in children. God chooses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength: boldness, strength, security. Jesus in the temple on Palm Sunday and those Pharisees and priests totally blind to God, critical, plotting murder, trying to trap him in his words, yet the children singing Hosannas to God. Matthew 21:15-16 "And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea, have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?" God has ordained praise, boldness from children. Children know better than most adults. When David saw the witness of children, it was one of the things that caused him to wonder at God's greatness. If you show a child the stars and they immediately think of God, its natural. If you show a learned fool the stars, he won't think at all. So David wondered at God's greatness in creation through children and also through the universe.
V3 "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained" When I considered, when I inspected the heavens, when I looked at them to learn, to observe to watch, that is what it means. The starry expanse above, when I looked at the expanse of heaven it caused me to be in wonder of God. It made him feel less big, it made him humble. The work of his fingers, this is a metaphor from embroiders or those who make tapestry, the heavens are God's tapestry. He made it with his fingers. An observation of God's creation leads to wonder about God's greatness. "When" I considered the heaven, not "if." David is taking for granted that God's people will look at his heavens. It is expected by God that God's children will want to look at his creation. It is normal if you love God to look at what God has made.
The psalmist wonders at God's greatness in the creation. He also wonders at God's great condescension. V4-8
What is man? If you look at the size of the universe, what is man that God would consider him in his mind at all. Why would such a great Creator God spend so much time on little, tiny man. The psalmist is amazed that God would bother with such as we are. That God remembers and visits us even though we are small universally speaking, yet he visits humanity. Sometimes we lose the wonder of God visiting the human race because we see God as small and humans as big and important and deserving of God's visitation.
What is man biblically? Humanity is the pinnacle of creation, a little lower than the angels, given dominion over the works of God's hands, more intelligent than any in the finite creation that God has made, capable of love, reasoned thought, compassion, many wonderful observations, experiments, inventions. Men observed in Genesis 11 that when the sun shines on the plain of Shinar, the sun bakes the clay as hard as stone, and they reasoned to make bricks. Genesis 11:2-3 "And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly." Such a capability over 4000 years ago. A monkey does not make bricks in the oven. God gave man a mind so he can think. Man invented metalwork the third generation from Cain, stone cutting. Hot running water in ancient Crete. The oldest excavated city in the world had hot running water and underground sewage system. What is man? Very intelligent and always was from creation. Man discovered what gravity is, computers, atomic power, brain surgery, time-saving gadgets, instruments of communication. What is man? Look at what man is and can do, marvellous potential. Surely a creature with such potential would make a marvellous world. He would make a perfect society. But No. What is man? A sinner. Instead of a perfect world that shows the glory of man and his capability , he has created a world that can be destroyed by the push of a button.
What went wrong? Not the things that man can make, but the problem is in the human heart, dead in sin. Ephesians 2:5 "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved.)" Disobedience to God's word. Man by nature what is he? what is man that God is mindful of him? He is a rebel. Capable of the greatest atrocities, murderous, thieving. What is man that thou art mindful of him? Lost his dominion to Satan in the garden of Eden. The domain of man which he lost at the fall was regained through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2:6-10 "But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."
Christ in his death was made a little lower than the angels, and all things are subject to Christ. All things are not visible yet, but they will be at his second coming. All lost will be reinstated.
The psalmist when he looks at creation, considers God and worships God. He considers creation and thinks of an awesome God and then he sees God's condescension that he who made all this should visit and remember us as we are. He visited us physically in Christ and daily we who believe by his Holy Spirit. He lives in believers. Do we deserve it? We are unworthy yet the great God remembers unworthy man. That is what the Psalm says.
Do we not take God for granted today? The death of Christ, (some think is) a deserved thing. We deserve it, and forgiveness of sins our rightful thing. But we deserve nothing, we are unworthy of the Creator's coming down to consider us. His condescension is beyond our understanding. It's only the grace and love of God that keeps us from hell.
Our society has a big self-inflated view of man and a minimal minute almost extinct view of God. But David had a big view of God and a small, true view of man and an observation of creation leads to us having the same perspective of God and man.
Our God is great, so look at the Psalm, look at the stars and study God's fingerprints.
____________________
The above are notes taken by myself from the sermon by Rev Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational (Reformed) at Sermon Audio.
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=11281093384
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your thoughts are welcomed..