Please turn with me to Psalm 8 which is our text this morning.  Psalm 8 is  a psalm written by King David.  It's a prayer which comes from David's heart as he considers God and God's relationship with man.  Listen as I read Psalm 8 and then we'll go back and look at this prayer of David together.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth, who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!  From the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have established strength because of Your adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease.  When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?  Yet you have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty!  You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas.  O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

If you've seen Fiddler on the Roof - one of best parts of the movie is Tevye the milkman - especially Tevye’s prayer life.  As Tevye goes along - on the road or in the barnyard - the town - he’s constantly talking with God - complaining - arguing - discussing things - talking about his cow - what’s happening with his daughters - his wealth or lack of wealth.  Everything in his life is a part of that intimate ongoing conversation with God.

That’s where David is coming from in Psalm 8.  David talking with God.  Encouraging us - as we read this Psalm - to understand the tremendous opportunity that God gives to us to speak with Him all the time about everything that’s going on in our lives.  That’s what we want to be encouraged in this morning:  In the struggles and opportunities - whatever we find going on in us and around us - that we will more automatically - more frequently - more deeply - speak to God.

Psalm 8 begins focused on God.  Verse 1:  O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth, who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!

In Scripture, the "name" of God is the description of who He is - God’s reputation - His character - His nature.  So often, when we read in our English or Armenian translations "God" or "Lord" we forget that these are translations of Hebrew words that have great significance.  The Bible contains a number of names for God that God uses to reveal different aspects of His character or how He deals with mankind.

Here in verse 1, notice in your Bibles that the first "Lord" is in all capitals and the second "Lord" is in upper and lower case letters.  It’s written that way to show that two different names for God are being used in the original Hebrew.  Literally verse 1 reads:  "Yahweh, our Adonai, how majestic is Your name."  There’s great significance to the "names" of God that David uses here.

"Yahweh" describes God as the One who always has been - always is - and always will be.  God who is - absolute - unchangeable - holy.  "Yahweh."  is the most frequently used name of God in the Bible and yet the one name the Hebrews would never write or say.  Its just too holy - too sacred to profane by writing it or speaking it.

"Adonai" - the second word used here for God's name - speaks of God's relationship with us.  Imagine back in the Middle Ages a feudal lord ruling from his castle - possessing and ruling over his household and the serfs and lands around him.  That’s the image of what Adonai means. 

Adonai is sovereign.  He is the Lord and owner of man - our Lord and Master.  Adonai alone has the right to demand unquestioned obedience from every one of us.  And, Adonai is also our protector - our support - one who has affection and cares for His people.

David begins: Yahweh - God who exists - holy - absolute, our Adonai - our Lord and loving sovereign Master - who you are is majesty.  In all the earth - there is no one like you.  No other who is worthy of worship and unquestioned obedience.  All of the heavens, that you have created, they declare Your majesty.

Verse 2:  From the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have established strength because of Your adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease.  

On Palm Sunday - the day that Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem - Jesus went to the Temple.  There He began to teach.  Blind and lame people came to Him and He healed them.  In the midst of this powerful scene children were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David!"

The chief priests and scribes - the self-proclaimed theologians and righteous people of the day - the people who knew they knew how God did things - the chief priests and scribes were watching all this and thought that Jesus should be offended by what the children were saying.  "Jesus," they said. "We see the healing power of God being demonstrated.  But, do you hear what the children are saying?  What these children are saying is blasphemous.  We know you’re not the Messiah.  Jesus, silence the children."

Jesus answered them - referring to Psalm 8:2, "Have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself'?"  (Matthew 21:12-16)

I recently read about a liberal Sunday School teacher who was teaching his class the story of the feeding of the five thousand.  The teacher was saying something like, "This really wasn’t a miracle.  Jesus didn’t do miracles.  This little boy brought his lunch to Jesus and Jesus thanked him.  And so, the rest of the crowd got the idea and decided to share their lunches with the people around them so everyone had enough.  So, if there was a miracle it was that everyone shared."

One little boy raised his hand. "Sir, can I ask you a question?"  The teacher said, "Yes."  The boy said, "What did they fill the twelve baskets with afterwards?"

"Out of the mouth of infants and babies" !

Jesus said, "Let the children come to Me.  The Kingdom of God belongs to those who come like children." (Mark 10:13-16)

Its how God does things.  Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:27 that, "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."

God takes a shepherd - David - and defeats the giant Goliath.  Jesus - Yahweh Adonai - is born in the humility of a stable - an infant child - born to save mankind - to bring us back to God - to bring the ultimate defeat of all of God’s enemies.  Only the great - majestic - God would do such a thing.

In Psalm 8, David begins with God.  Then in verses 3 to 8 David focuses on God's relationship with mankind.

Verse 3:  When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained - all that you Yahweh Adonai have done to declare Your awesomeness - what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?

Years ago - when I was working with Mount Hermon - once a week we used to take the campers on an camp out - out under the Redwood trees along the banks of Zayante Creek.  One of my tricks was to always be last person to go to sleep.  That way I figured I had reasonable chance that all the campers would still be there in the morning.

So I'd wait - listening to the campers drop off to sleep one by one.  As they fell asleep there was a stillness that came.  I became alone with God - feeling the cool of the forest floor - hearing the sound of the creek.  Above me these tall - majestic Redwood trees - arching like columns in a great cathedral - forming a canopy way overhead - vaults in a cathedral - and above there was black sky and the stars.  I used love that time.  To just spend time prayerfully alone with God - in awe of God and His creation.

I imagine David, as a shepherd, had similar times with God.  Alone in the fields with his sheep.  Nothing around.  Nothing above but the stars and the moon - the work of God’s fingers.  As David sat there in the stillness of the field - night after night - he would have had the opportunity to contemplate the majesty of God and God's relationship with man.

"What is man?" is one of many questions we ask.  "What is our origin?"  "What purpose is there - what reason - for our existence?"

Some people look up at the cosmos - stretching beyond our ability to see - and believe that man is nothing.  We are an insignificant life form that has evolved out of the primordial ooze and learned to live on this speck of dust we call earth.  The universe is like a large impersonal machine that grinds on and on and there’s nothing beyond the movement of stars and the emptiness between.  Ultimately our existence means very little if anything at all.

Shakespeare wrote in Macbeth, "Life...is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." (1)  That futile emptiness leads many to suicide - to despair - depression - leaving us with no foundation to face the growing problems of our lives.

Have any of you ever been to a Sadie Hawkins dance?  Sadie Hawkins dances are where the girls are suppose to ask the boys to the dance - the reverse of the boys asking the girls.  I remember Sadie Hawkins dances from when I was in school.  I hated them.  Because - along with a number of other not-so-popular boys - I never got asked.  It is a terrible thing to not be asked.  I don’t know how girls put up with this the other 364 days of the year.  Not being asked is rejection - being uncared for - having a sense that we’re not approved - insignificance.

Who is God?  Who are we?  Why should God ever take thought of us?  To care for us?  David declares in Psalm 8 that God has created this world - created us - approved of us - chosen us - cares for us.

 
Beginning in verse 5 - David describes that unique and significant relationship:  Yet you have made him - man - a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty!  You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

Ray Stedman, teaching on Psalm 8, said this, "According to the Bible, God made man to be the expression of God’s life, the human vehicle of the divine life, the means by which the invisible God would be made visible to His creatures.  Man was to be the instrument by which God would do His work in the world and the expression of the character and being of God.  He is the creature nearest to God.  There is none other nearer, for God Himself was to live in man.  Man is such a unique being, such a remarkable being, that God Himself intends to live in him to be the glory of man's life.  Man is the bearer of God." (2)

God gives to us significance - purpose - rulership over the creatures of this world and dominion over the earth on which we live.  God gives to us the uniqueness of an intimate relationship with Him - established by the God who knows us and cares for us.

In verse 9 - David - having contemplated God and God’s relationship with man - David’s joyful expresses:  O Lord, our Lord, - O Yahweh - our Adonai - how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Thinking through Psalm 8 - practically for us today - perhaps the greatest beauty of this psalm is that it is a prayer - an intimate conversation between David and His God - and an example to us.  The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians  5:17:  "Pray without ceasing."  Pray constantly.  This is how David talks with God. 

One of the great truths of Psalm 8 is the encouragement it gives to us to be constantly in conversation with God.  The awesome majestic God of creation has created our relationship with Him for intimacy so that in the struggles and opportunities - whatever we find going on in us and around us - it becomes the constant pattern of our lives to talk with Him.  When we see the created world - when we look at the stars - the moon - when we wonder as to our worth and significance - when we feel overwhelmed - talk with God.  Our Almighty God invites us - has created us - to converse with Him.

What a magnificent God who has created all this and yet is so deeply concerned for us - is compassionate towards us.  O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

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1. Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene V
2. Ray Stedman, "Man And God"