Recovering Our Personality Profile (Psalm 8)

Recovering our Personality Profile
Psalm 8

INTRODUCTION:
Simone Biles is one of the greatest, arguably the greatest, gymnast in the United States. According to her website, she is the greatest of all time. She was born March 14, 1997, with a boundless energy, natural strength and fierce determination. Simone believes she has God-given talents, which led her to become the greatest gymnast of all time.

She is a 4’ 8” dynamo and is the most decorated American gymnast in history, with 32 medals (19 of them gold) from the World Championship and seven medals (four gold) from the Olympics. She is also the first American woman to win seven national all-around titles and the first female gymnast to earn three consecutive World All-Around titles.

My mom enjoyed watching the women gymnastics competition in the Olympics. Mary Lou Retton was the female gymnast in the news a lot when I was in junior high school. She was the first American woman to win the gold medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics, and even more than that, she had her picture on the Wheaties box!

Sports is one, among many areas, where we are amazed at what humans can do. The reason we enjoy sports is because we like to see ourselves or others challenged - how fast can they run? How high can they jump?

Humans are amazing creatures. A few years ago, Rachel got me a book for Christmas called The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us From Other Animals, written by a Dr. Thomas Suddendorf.

Thomas Suddendorf teaches psychology at the University of Queensland. Let me share just a few quotations from his book about the nature of humans…

Fundamentally, humans are separate from animals, the author writes “because our extraordinary powers do not derive from our muscles and bones but from our minds. …Our minds have spawned civilizations and technologies that have changed the face of the Earth, while our closest living animal relatives sit unobtrusively in their remaining forests.”

Chapter four is about “Talking Apes.” Human beings speak 6,000 different languages, including a language based on touch (Braille) and hand signals (sign language). It is through language that we transmit knowledge and thoughts from one human to another. When it comes to communication among the animals, apes specifically, research on “communication systems of animals have found them to be restricted to a few types of information exchanges, typically to do with reproduction, territory, food, and alarm” (81). He continues: “They do not regularly teach each other, point out things for others’ benefit, or ask for the names of things” (86).

I have frequently commented at funerals that memory is a great gift from God. Humans have it uniquely among God’s creation, at the level with which we can exercise it. “Although it is safe to conclude that animals have procedural [the “how”, p.h.] and semantic memory [facts, p.h.] systems, there is no obvious demonstration that they have episodic memory [events, p.h.]” (104). He also writes: “Thus evidence that animals can draw on accurate information about the what, where, and when of a particular event does not show that they travel mentally in time” (105).

When I was in elementary school I was introduced to a fictional character named Doc Savage. Doc Savage stories were really popular in the 1930s and 1940s but a movie came out in 1975 when I was four years old. The fictional character Doc Savage was raised by a team of scientists to create the perfect crime fighter. His mind and body were trained to near-superhuman abilities. He had great strength and endurance, an eidetic (perfect) memory. Doc Savage was a master of martial arts and had a vast amount of knowledge of science. He was a master of disguise and could imitate voices perfectly. He was a doctor, a scientist, an adventurer, a detective, an inventor, explorer, and a musician. Doc Savage was actually the influence for a lot of superheroes in the later comic books.

God designed and created human beings in a unique way and when we understand that fundamental point, it should help us to appreciate both who we are as human beings and who we are individually. That we are each designed in a special way to reflect the image and likeness of God. Let us study Psalm 8, our first of 6, psalms we’ll study together this year.

GOD’S SPLENDOR IS DISPLAYED ABOVE THE HEAVENS - 8:1-2:
This first stanza identifies God’s name as majestic as God has displayed His splendor above the heavens. This word “Majestic” is translated as “mighty, magnificent, majestic, and noble.” “Splendor” is translated “splendor, authority, beauty, honor, majestic or majesty, and glory, vigor.”

Notice that the name of God is majestic and His majesty is visible throughout the heavens, even into the outer reaches of space! Listen to this poem; I’ve shared it before…

I stood upon a hill one night / And saw the great Creator write / His autograph across the sky / In lightning strokes, and there was I / to witness this magnificent, / Tumultuous divine event! / I stood one morning by a stream / When night was fading to a dream / The fields were bright as fields may be / At spring, in golden mystery / of buttercups - then God came on / And wrote His autograph in dawn. One night I stood and watched the stars; / The Milky Way and ranging Mars / Where God, in letters tipped with fire, / The story of His tall desire / Had writ in rhyme and signed His name / A stellar signature of flame. / Creation’s dawn was deep in night / When suddenly: “Let there be light!” / Awakened grass, and flower, and tree / Chaotic skies, the earth, and sea; / Then, to complete creation’s span / In His own image, God made man, / And signed His name, with stroke most sure / Man is God’s greatest signature!

As transcendent as the power and nature of God is, He also condescends to us. God has established praise out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes. The most insignificant helpless members of our society testify to the majesty and splendor of God, even as God brings to an end His enemies, His adversaries, those vengeful toward God. Babies here in this text symbolize you and me from the perspective that we might be the most insignificant members of our society, but our very existence and the love we have for God expressed with all of heart, soul, mind, and strength can shut the mouths of the most ardent atheist.

Paul wrote: “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong” (1 Cor. 1:27).

Jesus quotes this text when He enters Jerusalem as the King, in Matthew 21. The Jews were praising Jesus as the Son of David and the Jewish leaders wanted Jesus to tell them to shut up. But Jesus quoted this verse (21:16), in effect telling leaders that you might shut up adults, but then infants and babies will praise God for Who He is. When you have a simple trust in God, then atheists can’t affect your faith. Everything that is created has a Creator. Children accept that and you have to be taught out of that conviction. Atheism is not “default” position for human beings! And a lack of trust in Jesus Christ is not the “default” position either.

God’s splendor is displayed above the heavens. But, despite how vast is the universe, man is at the heart, the center of God’s creation…

MAN IS MADE A LITTLE LOWER THAN GOD - 8:3-8:
God cares for man (ver. 3-4) - Despite how much God cares for the universe and how intricately designed the universe it, when we think of man, when we think of ourselves, we are amazed that God takes thought of us. To suggest that the world is a creation of God’s fingers is to illustrate how much more powerful God is than the size of the universe. It didn’t take much power or strength from God, it did not wear out God, to make this universe. He created it with His fingers. God “ordained the moon and the stars” - The prophet Isaiah said that God created this world, not to be void, but to be inhabited by human beings: Isaiah 45:18.

Before God created Adam and Eve, God created the entire world for our benefit and our enjoyment. Even the sun, moon, and stars were created so they would serve mankind (Gen. 1:14-19). God designed plants so they could take light from the sun and turn it into energy. He designed humans so we could eat plants and get energy from those plants. Animals eat plants and get energy from plants and we eat animals to get more energy. It is all about serving the needs of human beings.

God cares for each of us. First, the word David uses for “man” here is a word that reflects man’s weakness; the idea that man is made of flesh and he is weak. Despite that, God cares for him. The second expression “son of man” uses the Hebrew idiom “son of” which refers to having the characteristics of something and “man” here is different. This word “man” is the word for “earth” or “dirt.” David refers to us as “characterized by dirt.” We are just a sack of chemicals, worth about $160 for our raw components. But as insignificant as we are from a physical perspective, we are extremely significant from a spiritual perspective. Listen to David…

The Hebrew word translated “care for” is often translated, as in the old KJV, “visit.” We studied Genesis 16 last Sunday night, how Abraham’s wife, Sarah, was barren and infertile. When God finally decided to fulfill His promise to Abraham and Sarah, in Genesis 21:1, the Bible says the Lord “took note” of Sarah. That’s this same verb - God “visited” Sarah; God “cared for Sarah.” When God cares for us, God provides for us.

“Are not five sparrows sold for two cents?,” Jesus tells us, “Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you - human beings, disciples of Christ - are more valuable than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7). God cares for man.

Man is crowned with glory and majesty (ver. 5-6) - Man may be made of flesh and blood and man is weak, but God has made him a “little lower than God.” Some translations don’t like the idea that God made man a little lower than He is - and there is a vast difference between humans and God - but here, the word is elohim, the Hebrew word for God. God made man a little lower than Himself! When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, the Greek translators translated elohim as “angels.” The Hebrew writer, which we’ll point out in just a moment, will quote the Greek Bible…

Notice that God has crowned us with glory and majesty! This word “majesty” is different than the word “majestic” in verse 1. But God took of His majesty and He crowned mankind with some of that majesty! We are made, family, each of us, in the image and likeness of God. You have been formed by God in your mom’s womb to reflect God in a special and unique way. That’s the reason we ought to have a healthy view of ourselves. God has crowned us with glory and with majesty!

Man has rule over the works of God’s hands (ver. 7-8) - This verb “to rule” was used with the sun back in Genesis 1:18 - the sun “governs the day and night.” Here, David says that God created us to “rule” or to “govern” His physical creation. We have been created and designed to rule over this world! And David details areas where man is made to rule over this world:

We are made to rule over the works of His hands.
God has put all things under man’s feet, to be used by us for our benefits.
We are made to rule over the sheep and oxen.
We are made to rule over the beasts of the field.
We are made to rule over the birds of the heavens.
We are made to rule over the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

God made man a little lower than Himself and then He gave us power to rule over this world! What an awesome gift, an awesome blessing, and an awesome responsibility. We can debate over strip mining and the use of coal and oil and nature gas. We can debate over what we are doing to leave a good, healthy planet for the next generation. There is room for debate, there is room for disagreement. There is room for compromise. What there is no debate over is the fact that God designed this world for our benefit, the benefit of human beings, and we are to rule wisely over this creation.

MAN REFLECTS THE MAJESTIC NAME OF GOD - 8:9:
David concludes by praising again the name of God. God’s name is majestic because God cares for us. God created us a little lower than Himself. He crowned us with glory and honor and has given this world to us for our use and our stewardship!

Now, one more point we need to make… In Hebrews 2, the Hebrew writer is talking about the nature of Jesus and the Hebrew writer quotes Psalm 8:4-6. He says that God did not make the world subject to angels, but God did make the world subject to the “son of Man,” which after the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, now refers to Jesus Christ Himself. God has set all things under the subjection of Jesus Christ. In the Hebrew writer’s application, he writes that God made Jesus a little lower than the angels and “because of the suffering of death,” God crowned Jesus at the resurrection, “with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9).

What that ultimately means is that the “glory and honor” with which we will ultimately be crowned is the resurrection from the dead, cleansed from our sins by the blood of Christ. If the fact that you are made by God a little lower than Himself does not make you feel special, surely the fact that Jesus died for your sins ought to make you feel special. He also cares for you.

CONCLUSION -
A dad was kneeling in prayer in the front room of their house early in the morning, 6:30 a.m. The man confessed his sins and asked God for a blessing for that day, needing to feel loved by God.
Their little son, who was twenty-two months old, had just gotten up, and the dad noticed out of the corner of his eye that the boy had sneaked quietly into the front room. The son was always quiet in the morning when Dad was praying because his mom told him to be quiet, but this time the boy ambled straight over to Dad, put a hand on Dad’s clasped hands, and said, “Hi, special one. Hi, special one. Hi, special one.”
Never once had he called his dad that before. Six times he called him “special one.” He said it enough for Dad actually to get it. In that way, God was giving him a blessing.

Take home message - Family, each of you are a “special one.” Don’t forget that.

Evangelism conversation starter - “Do you think much about spiritual things?”