May 12, 2022
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8:1 & 9)
John Calvin gets credit for suggesting that the psalms contain both the entire gospel and the entire range of human emotion. Psalm 8 transverses the vast kaleidoscopes of both the gospel and the human soul.
Consider the stanza that brackets the song, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.” God's name is compared to all the grandeurs of the created order. David knew a few of those: the delicate flowers along the creek banks, the roar of the lion, the bond between mother sheep and her lamb, the vastness of the night sky unmarred by modern streetlights, just to name a few.
But among all the majesty of the created order, there is nothing that matches the majesty of God's name. God's name evokes everything from fear of condemnation to outright frolicking. When we know God, its difficult to be indifferent. We either fear his judgement against our self-aggrandizement or we revel in the depths of his love.
Greatness tends to arouse jealousy and enemies. And this majestic God has His enemies. But here are hints of the gospel, the praise of infants will silence the foe and the avenger. It will not be great deeds that bring peace on earth, rather, the small and weak will lead the way. Reminds us of Christmas and Jesus welcoming children!
Having been awed by the glories of the heavens, the psalmist replaces the telescope with the microscope. After marvelling at the stars, he marvels at humanity. "What is...the son of man that you care for him?"
Biblical scholars’ debate who is referenced here. What does the "son of man" mean? It's difficult to know exactly what David meant by this. But this we know: the New Testament writers saw a shadow here pointing towards Jesus. In Hebrews 2 this psalm is used to validate that Jesus is greater than all the angels.
We also know this: that we will be like him. We, those who believe in His name, are being remade to be just like him. We humans were meant to be the rulers of the creation. Today, we are making a mess of things, but some day we will know how to rule just fine.
This psalm takes its cue from the glories of creation. But its thrust is not about creation as a whole. It focuses its lens on the one created to lead all of creation: humanity. “What is man?” it asks, hinting that the honest answer is, "not much; a disaster, mostly."
But God was not satisfied with that. Nor was he willing to abandon us. No, he set out to recreate, to reshape, to restore. At the heart of the restoration is Mary's baby boy. How absurd! Jesus, the Word of God; he flung the stars into space, heaped up the mountains, scooped out the Great Lakes; now he lies in Mary's arms, nursing from her breast.
How undignified! How bewildering! The hope of the world? Indeed.
What can we say except, "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
The creation is awash with the glory of God. David saw it. He composed poems and songs about it. Living in dense urban centres, many of us have few opportunities to really see. But that is the thing isn’t? We must open our eyes and see. Even in concrete jungles there is plenty of evidence of God’s majesty. Look for it.
To really sing, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” we must see what God has made. But then, we must also know the ‘son of man’ of Hebrews 2. When we know him, “O Lord”, becomes, “our Lord” and we join the song.