Psalm 8 How Excellent Is Your Name
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Summary
What does it mean to be human? Are we merely insignificant specks in the universe, or do we hold a special place in creation? Does humanity possess inherent worth from God? These questions have troubled philosophers, theologians, and ordinary people for centuries.
Transcript
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Amen. Praise God for the liturgy that we have. I'm always drawn to deep worship every time
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we go through our Sunday morning liturgy. This morning we will be going through Psalms
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8, and I hope to offer an exegetical understanding of this psalm. As we open this morning, I want
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to ask a few questions to help us get in the right frame of mind as we're studying Psalms
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8 this morning. What does it mean for us to be human? Are we merely insignificant specks
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in the universe or do we hold a special place in creation does humanity possess inherent worth
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from god these questions have troubled philosophers theologians and ordinary people for centuries
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Some claim that we're nothing more than cosmic accidents, the result of blind evolutionary
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processes over millions and millions of years, with no ultimate meaning or purpose.
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In the modern age, where science dominates much of our worldview, many accept the idea
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that we are merely a by-product of millions of years of random evolutionary progress,
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descended from apes with no divine imprint or original design.
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It's impossible to look an ape in the eye and not see oneself.
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Looking back at you is not so much an animal, but a personality as solid and willful as yourself.
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This way of thinking leads naturally to a diminished view of human worth.
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If we are merely highly evolved animals, then our value is not intrinsic, but arbitrary.
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Our value is determined by what we can contribute, how strong we are, or what society decides that we are worth.
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such thinking is fueled eugenics abortion and dehumanization of the weak and the vulnerable
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if man is nothing more than another species in the animal kingdom
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then there is no reason why we should treat one another
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with any regard with any sort of higher value than another animal
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on the other hand humanism exalts man to a position of near divinity
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rejecting god in favor of human potential and self-determination
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it teaches that we are masters of our own fate haven't you heard this over and over
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and that the ultimate measure of truth and goodness lies with you.
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And they fail to recognize true human dignity, which is not found in our own ability or status, but found in something eternal.
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True human dignity, value, and worth is found within God alone.
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Psalms 8 does a good job in challenging both of these errors in our modern day.
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It reminds us that man is both small, yet significant.
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It tells us that our true worth is found not in ourselves, but in God.
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Now, David in this psalm calls us to lift our eyes upward,
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to behold the majesty of God and in delight of the light that he shines in us,
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It begins by declaring God's surpassing glory and majesty.
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it then turns to consider our role in his creation and then it ultimately points forward
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to jesus christ the one who perfectly fulfills the purpose of humanity
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in doing so psalm 8 provides a right view of god a right view of humanity and a clear picture of
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our duty of dominion under God's authority. It reminds us that while we're made in God's image,
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we are still dependent on him for our significance and purpose. And most importantly,
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Psalms 8 directs our attention to Jesus Christ, the perfect man who restores all that was lost
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and Adam. This psalm begins with a declaration of God's greatness, framing everything that
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follows within the context of his supreme majesty. It sets the foundation of our understanding
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of who we are by first revealing who God is. So if you have your Bibles with you,
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O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth,
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This verse clarifies that the central theme of this psalm is that God is a majestic God.
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It acknowledges both his covenantal faithfulness and sovereign rule over his creation.
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The psalmist begins with two distinct names for God right at the very beginning.
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If you notice in your Bibles, the first Lord is all caps.
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Whenever you see this in your Bible, it should give you a little warning sign in your brain.
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It's God's covenantal name that he gave to Moses when he said, I am that I am.
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But Lord, with a capital L but not the other letters capitalized,
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this is important because in hebrew whenever someone is given a name
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that name is significant it matters it's not random in america we name our kids
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after our ancestors or after a cool name that we think sounds good not so in hebrew cultures
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When they named their children, they named them with purpose and significance.
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It tells us something about who he is and what he's like.
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In Exodus 34, starting in verse 5, God tells us what his name means.
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The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, talking to Moses,
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The Lord, the Lord, all caps, both times, meaning Yahweh,
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A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
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keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
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But who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the
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children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.
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It means that he is a God who is slow to anger.
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He's a God who abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness.
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he's a god who forgives sin and iniquity to the 1000th generation
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but who is always just and will visit sin and iniquity to the third and fourth generation
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in our western mind all we hear is that latter part how can god punish sin to the third and
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fourth generation. We totally skip the whole beginning, where he declares that he forgives
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sin and iniquity to the 1,000th generation. We always want to highlight his justice in
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order to find some sort of weakness in God, rather than looking at how merciful he is.
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how gracious he is when david declares in psalms 8
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in all the earth he's reminding himself and all who read this psalm
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about this god yahweh god the god who forgives our sin
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who is gracious, is steadfast in his love for his people.
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He's reminding us that this is the God who created the universe
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is to acknowledge that there is no name that is greater.
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Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Philippians 2.
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and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
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so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
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and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
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Philippians 2, 9-11 expands the truth that God's name is above every name
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by revealing that Jesus' name is highly exalted
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and given that name which is above every other.
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This means that every church, every pulpit, every ministry, and every believer
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has to be centered on exalting Christ and Christ alone.
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the church is built on the lordship of Jesus Christ
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True worship happens when God's people gather together
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but to worship the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
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When we sing, we can't sing songs that worship man, like many worship songs today do.
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Moms, when you cook a great dinner, you should do so for the glory of Jesus Christ and for exalting his name.
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Husbands, when you work hard and get that promotion, you should do so not for your own glory, but for the exaltation of Jesus Christ.
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if every knee will bow one day to christ then we in the church must learn how to joyfully
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bow down before our lord today we are to disciple the world in this
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We proclaim to the world that Christ is Lord, his name is above all, and he alone is worthy of our lives.
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The question is, are we living and worshiping in a way that rightly magnifies the name of Christ?
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it really is a call for you to worship god rightly
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out of the mouth of babes and nurse nursing infants you have ordained strength because of
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your enemies that you may silence the enemy and the avenger
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following this great exaltation that we see in verse one david now highlights a surpassing truth
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That God establishes strength, not through displays of overwhelming power,
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This verse reveals a central theme in Scripture.
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In human thinking, we often associate strength with power or wisdom or status.
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He ordains strength through the praises of the weak and dependent,
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showing that his power is made perfect in weakness, as Paul says.
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Jesus himself quoted this verse in Matthew 21 verse 16
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when the chief priests and the scribes were indignant
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this demonstrates a truth that prideful rebellion is silenced by humble faith
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the phrase that you may silence the enemy and the avenger further reinforces this theme
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that god's enemies are not defeated by human strength or argumentation
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these things are good i love them i love apologetics i love it when a man is strong
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and when we have robust thinking and theological defenses for the truths that we profess in the
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church there's nothing wrong with these things but when you come against pride and arrogance
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and those who want to lift themselves up as arbiters of god's truth the only thing that
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defeats those arguments is childlike faith. God does not require human greatness to accomplish
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his purposes. In fact, he delights in using the weak and overlooked to advance his kingdom.
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God works through the humble, not the powerful.
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What the world often dismisses as insignificant, God chooses as an instrument of glory.
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God exalts the lowly and brings down the proud.
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True spiritual strength is not found in intelligence or status or human might, but in childlike faith.
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You want to know the type of faith that's required in the kingdom of heaven?
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Look to your children in the way that they trust you.
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They don't doubt that you're going to feed them today.
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That you have a warm bed at home waiting for them.
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That when they're hurt, you're going to kiss their boo-boos.
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That as they grow, you will never stop loving them.
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And it's this type of faith that Jesus requires of the church.
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We, in our faith to our Heavenly Father, cannot doubt that He will provide for us.
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And will be there for us as we stumble and as we fall.
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this truth naturally leads to the next section of psalm 8 where david shifts his focus from god's
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power displayed in human weakness to the vastness of creation and man's place within that creation
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You can imagine David standing outside, looking up at this beautiful night sky
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and all the glory of the heavens, and writes down exactly what he sees.
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And then he asks one of the most profound questions in all of Scripture.
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What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
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when i consider your heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have
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ordained what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him
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for you have made him a little lower than the angels and you have crowned him with glory and honor
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it's a reminder of God's power and ultimate majesty
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In comparison to the cosmos, humanity seems small and fragile.
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He visits us, cares for us, and invests in humanity.
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This is not a lament, but a statement of wonder.
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Why would a God who is so great take notice of creatures so small?
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Yet despite our smallness, God has given us incredible dignity.
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For you have made him a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor.
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Humanity occupies a unique position in creation.
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Higher than the animals, yet lower than divine beings.
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Rather, we have been crowned with glory and honor by our Maker.
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We've been entrusted with a role that reflects the very image of God in creation.
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We reflect God in the way that we have dominion over the earth.
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John Calvin, in his Institutes, locates the image of God within the soul of human beings, not in our bodies.
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Your bodies are an extension of the image of God, but the central focus of the image is within your soul.
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this verse finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ,
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This verse finds its ultimate fulfillment in Him.
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The author of Hebrews quotes this verse directly
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he was ultimately exalted above all of creation.
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this passage warns against the two errors of humanity that we discussed
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at the beginning on the one hand we must reject humanism
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and seeks to place him at the center of the universe.
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On the other hand, we must also reject naturalism and materialism,
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which reduce man to nothing more than advanced animals with no intrinsic worth.
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They're just an ape who learned to stand upright.
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Why would you ever care about the weak or the lowly on the earth?
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They're just another part of the animal kingdom.
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Because it's got its basis in this understanding.
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Don't read millions and millions and millions of years
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and undermines the authority of the Scriptures.
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Allow the text to inform what you believe about human beings.
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If you do that, you will come away with a right understanding.
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You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands.
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You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen,
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even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air,
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and the fish of the sea that passes through the paths of the sea.
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Having established humanity's dignity and purpose,
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David now turns to give us the responsibility that was given to mankind.
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This passage echoes the creation narrative in Genesis 1, 26-28.
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and then commissioned him to rule over everything.
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The way of Christ brings restoration to the earth.
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Christians bring restoration to towns and to cities.
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Christians are the one who restore this earth, not destroy it.
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We are not to spend our days exploiting others for gain.
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For you to be a true, godly dominion-taker of the earth,
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It ought to bless your neighbor, and your friend, and your church, and your local community.
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Instead of ruling as faithful stewards, humanity often abuses creation and advocates our responsibility.
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if we are to take our example from Jesus Christ and rule as he does,
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This is not to say that your responsibility as Christians is to waste your life saving the lions in Africa.
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Through faithful gospel preaching and taking over the world for Christ,
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you will save the lions in Africa, but not because you made them the priority.
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the original dominion mandate for the new one
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to tell them all that Jesus taught and to obey it
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caring about the carbon monoxide levels in the atmosphere
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You have to understand that through gospel preaching,
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that gospel preaching is efficacious to change the world.
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you're not going to continue to live the same way we have before.
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and we are to spend our days serving that kingdom.
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I can't imagine standing before God someday and saying,
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and the lost and dying going to hell, and I did nothing.
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we read the same verse that this passage opened up with.
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O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.
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Psalm 8 concludes just as it began, with a declaration of worship.
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This repetition serves as a reminder of everything else that David has reflected on.
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God's majesty, human dignity, and the duty of dominion in the earth.
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All of this ultimately points to the greatness and majestic nature of God.
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the psalmist begins by exalting God's supreme glory above the heavens and then framing the
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entire psalm as a call to worship when you see the heavens you should worship
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when you see the authority and dignity that God has placed in humanity you ought to worship
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when you see how all these things find their fulfillment in christ you ought to worship
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all of creation testifies to god's power and wisdom and our response should be no different
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as we reflect on this psalm we must recognize that both our identity
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The Westminster Confession asks a very good question.
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You all know it because I can hear you whispering it.
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Psalms 8 gives us the right view of God, that he's majestic, that he's sovereign,
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that he's above everything that you can see with your eyes.
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It also gives us the right view of man, that we're small in comparison to the universe.
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yet god has honored us and entrusted us with a role of great significance
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by stewarding and caring for the earth and the creation that he he made
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though sin has distorted this calling christ is the true fulfillment of psalm 8
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he restores us as god's ruler of rulers of the earth
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He is the second Adam, the perfect human, the perfect image of God.
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If you walk away with these three things, I will be happy.
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You must worship God for his greatness, for his majesty, for his glory.
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You ought to see him as this majestic, beautiful God that he is.
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Second, you have to live faithfully in your calling as God's steward.
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You have to honor him in your work, in your family, in your church, in your communities.
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And finally, we have to look to Christ, the perfect man and the king over all creation,
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finding in him both our redemption and our purpose.
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Just as David declared at the beginning of this psalm,
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O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
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Lord, we are thankful this morning for this reminder of your majesty.
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for this reminder that you have placed us in this creation
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not without any regard for you or for the care of the earth,