Just before Christmas, we looked at some of our favourite psalms in the Bible study, and Dave chose to expand on one of his favourites today (Psalm 8). David is the author of this psalm, and whilst we do not know if he wrote this whilst a shepherd boy gazing on the stars at night or later in life as a king sitting out on a balcony, the sense of awe and wonder in the psalm is unmistakeable. David writes of the transcendence of God and the insignificance of mankind in relation to God, but in all of this, he acknowledges the real and personal relationship with can have with God (‘LORD, our Lord’).
Rom 1:20 reminds us that a knowledge of God is available to all through the wonder of creation. David’s knowledge is more personal (thanks to the revelation of who God is given to Moses in Ex 3:14 and an awareness of God as master, ruler and owner of all). He glimpses something of the wide-ranging reach of God’s majesty and power when he talks of ‘in all the earth‘, a commission to be fulfilled by the church as Mark 16:15-16 makes plain. God’s majesty, power and glory are more wonderful than the greatest of created beings. He’s in a class of His own!
God uses the weakest of His creatures to sing His praise (see also 1 Cor 1:18-25) and there should always be room for all of God’s creatures in His kingdom. David meditates on how God has created order and stability in the universe, with even the moon and stars serving mankind (in navigation, for example.) Teh fact that God even bothers with us is amazing, but to give us dominion over the earth is almost more than we can imagine. Gen 1:28 gives us this mandate (repeated after the flood in Genesis 9), but with authority also comes responsibility to care for God’s creation and steward it wisely). Heb 2:6-10 makes it plain that this psalm has a Messianic reference, demonstrating that Jesus has total power and dominion, being greater than the angelic beings through all He suffered.
Ps 8 ends as it began, with praise and awe. We know that the earth has been honoured by the prsence of the Redeemer, living and walking on earth. There can be no greater demonstration of God’s care for us than giving His only Son as a sacrifice for our sins.