A few thoughts from Psalm 8 – not an exhaustive exposition!

¹  O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  You have set your glory above the heavens.²  Out of the mouth of babies and infants,  you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
³     When I look at 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, and the son of man that you care for him?
⁵     Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour.⁶  You have given him dominion 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 along the paths of the seas.
⁹ O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
It’s a great psalm – a celebration of God’s creative work.
There’s a symmetry about it in the way it starts and ends with the same refrain.

God’s Glory in Creation

Addressing God as LORD (the “I Am” name), the One who Is; and our Lord , the One who is sovereign over us.
His nature, his character, is seen in everything around us
his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.(Romans 1:20)

And when we look up – to the heavens, the moon and the stars
the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (Psalm 19:1)

We seem to have more opportunity at the moment to contemplate the world around us. It’s been commented on several times that the reduction in traffic means we can hear birdsong.
We’ve even been encouraged to go and look out for Elon Musk’s satellites! I looked a couple of times, but didn’t see them – but I did get to look around the night sky. It never ceases to amaze me – even though we can only see tiny part of it.
The Psalmist describes what we see in the sky as the work of God’s fingers. Not heavy lifting, but an image that would be more related to playing a piano, or finely crafting a piece of pottery. And this is what God does with the universe! He sets the moon and stars in place with his fingers. How great is our God!

Strength in Weakness

The second verse does seem a little strange at first glance. But while thinking about Creation takes us back to Genesis 1 & 2 – the ‘very good’ – there is in this verse a recognition of a fallen world. There are foes and an enemy. But even here God is glorified. For he chooses what is weak on the world to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27). Jesus himself quotes this verse to claim praise for himself when children shout “Hosanna’ when he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey (Matthew 21:16).

But back to the stars.

Certainly, when we look at the night sky – especially if we can get away from man-made light – there is a sense of vastness.
To quote Douglas Adams (!) “Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
(The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)

And that inevitably leads to the question:

What is man?

Who are we? Where do we fit into all this?
I saw a cartoon recently where a student had just come out of a lesson looking slightly bewildered. His friends asked him what was wrong and he replied “Teacher said we’re nothing special; we came from pond scum. We’re just evolved apes.” His friends asked him what his next lesson was. “Self esteem”!
Trouble is, that’s not funny. We’re sat on a time-bomb which is already beginning to go off. If we constantly tell our children (and ourselves) that we just appeared by accident in a purposeless, meaningless universe, it doesn’t take much thought to realise that there’s no basis for self-esteem or self-worth. Those are empty concepts. Made worse by the idea that humanity has arrived late on the scene and all we’re doing is wrecking everything. There are those who reckon the world would be better off without us. Maybe, but who cares? It’s no wonder that we have a crisis in mental health.
But the Bible faces this head-on. It tells us exactly who we are and where we fit.
In the Genesis account God completes his work of creation by making men and women “in the image of God”. No other creature is described like that. The rest of creation was described as ‘good’. After making the man and the woman, it was ‘very good’. It’s as though the rest of creation was made for our benefit.Then we have what’s called the ‘cultural mandate’. Mankind was given to role of dominion over creation – a theme picked up here in Psalm 8. It’s ours to look after and cultivate in a way that reflects the nature of the God in whose image we’re made. That’s massively significant.Not only that – but in the immensity of creation, the Creator – the infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God – thinks about us and cares for us!Now we have a real and solid basis for self-esteem and self-worth.
Of course, we have spoiled it. Our high position and calling gave us the ability to choose our own way. which we did. With catastrophic consequences. The Fall. Sin, death, disease, plagues, and so on. But the mandate still stands – we still have dominion, only now we strive for our glory, our own ends, rather than seeking God’s glory.
A slight aside, maybe, but that means it is right and proper that we seek a means to deal with the current pandemic. That’s fulfilling our God-given nature. It’s also right and proper that we realise that we’re dependant on God for wisdom and understanding – especially in our fallen state. It’s also right and proper – and vital – that we pray to the One who thinks about us and cares for us for that wisdom, and for relief from this virus. And most especially that he would open people’s eyes to him.
Because bad as this outbreak is, we have a much bigger problem. The Fall has not only brought death and disease and the rest, but it also brings guilt. Whether we feel it or not, we stand guilty before our Creator. But – but – our Creator thinks about us (is mindful of us) and cares for us.
And he has solved our problem

The Man

When we read Psalm 8, we rightly apply it to ourselves, but it is incomplete because we don’t see our nature and purpose being fulfilled in the way God intended.In the letter to the Hebrews, the writer uses the psalm to talk about Jesus.Rightly so – as Jesus himself said “the Scriptures bear witness about me” (John 5:39)So the question ‘What is man?’ becomes ‘Who is Jesus?’.
Jesus is the true Man – he is un-fallen Man. He is God stepped into human shoes (as it were) – only possible for a being created in the image of God.He has taken on our form – become one of us – in order to pay for our guilt. He had none of his own because he never sinned. But took ours and paid for it.
And now he has dominion – true dominion from the very right hand of God. True we still don’t see it fully. Only now it’s not because we’ve lost it. it’s because we’re in a period of waiting. Waiting for the ‘many’ to turn to him for that salvation before he brings the age to a close.
We sometimes speak of a person who’s become a Christian as having ‘made Jesus their personal Lord and Saviour’. It’s a poor choice of words, because no-one ‘makes’ Jesus Lord except God himself, who ‘put all things in subjection under his feet’. He already is Lord. When we become Christians we simply acknowledge and submit to what Jesus already is. 
Another aside, maybe. The book of Hebrews refers to this time of waiting as being like the time the Israelites were in the wilderness. They had been freed from their bondage in Egypt (salvation accomplished), but were not yet in the Promised Land (salvation fulfilled). And it uses that analogy as a call to perseverance. Stick with it. Don’t give up. There is a promise of a new heaven and a new earth. Trust him.

God’s Glory in Salvation

So having started with the glory of God in creation, Psalm 8 closes with the same refrain. Only now God’s name in all the earth is majestic (awesome) not only because of the spectacular creation, but even more so because of his work of Salvation. This is the gospel – the Good News.

Someone once said to me that they thought our church should move beyond the gospel. But I disagree. I don’t think we either can or should.
I have an app for prayer (PrayerMate) where lists can be downloaded. One that I use is called ‘Praying for you church family’, and it recently had the topic of ‘Pray for Gospel Growth’. It included this:
“To grow in the gospel is to have one’s identity, mission, security and hopes all built on what Christ has done.”

So let’s take this verse to heart.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Or to paraphrase:
O God who is – you are our (my) Lord and we (I) submit to your authority.
What you have done in Creation and in our (my) salvation is awesome in every sense of that word.
May everyone know that!

Revelation 4:11    “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power,  for ^fyou created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Revelation 5:9   “Worthy are you …  for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,¹⁰  and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”