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Experiencing the Psalms 2 – 02/08/26 - Martin Mowat
For those of you who weren’t here last week, we started a new light weight summer series about the 150 God inspired songs that form the Book of Psalms, or about some of them at least, because talking about all of them, even at three psalms a week, would take us a whole year, and might start to get a bit monotonous.
For some good background information about the Psalms, you might find it helpful to go on our site and read last week’s introduction.
So here go with the first one which highlights three absolutely glorious. psalms that all marvel at the wonder of God's Majesty in Creation, namely Psalms 8, 19 (the one that we just heard) & 139. These psalms are full of awe in God's greatness and in his minuteness of care, but which, as they meditate on his creation, go in three quite different directions, as we’ll see.
We’re not going to go into huge detail, because I don’t want us to get bogged down. My aim is to give us a new appetite to enjoy the Psalms for what they are intended to be.
Psalm 8 kicks off like this, O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Remember that psalms are originally meant to be sung, this one in particular. We know that because there’s a note right at the beginning that’s addressed “to the director of music”. It says “According to gittith. A psalm of David." No-one knows what "gittith" meant but we do know that David is the author.
We talked about him last week, and here he begins by talking about praise, both on the earth and in the heavens. He then goes on to wonder at the contrast between the Creator of an infinite universe on the one hand, and finite man on the other, before ending in praise by echoing the first line.
Straight away there’s an interesting detail that adds to the richness of that opening expression of praise, and which if you only listen to it, you would certainly miss. “O LORD, our Lord” he says. These two “lords” are quite different words. The first, printed in small caps, designates the unique name of Israel's God, Yahweh. The "I Am," or "He Is," or "He who brings into existence whatever exists," while the second is the classic name that acknowledges both authority and sovereignty.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Not IN the heavens, but ABOVE the heavens. Here’s the contrast - “In all the earth”, and “above the heavens”. David is declaring that in both of those, His name is majestic, noble, stately, kingly, of impeccable reputation and character, it’s glorious, sublime, and full of splendour and honour.
And that is just the first verse.
From the lips of children and infants it goes on, you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
The point here seems to be that even the weakest of us, children and infants, have abundant strength when they take the name of God on their lips.
Paul picked up this thought when he was writing to the Corinthians. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and even the things that are not—to nullify the things that are. (1 Corinthians 1:27-28)
Now David looks to the night sky, as he must have done countless times while looking after his sheep. You must have done that too on occasions.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honour.
The majesty and wonder of God is that he does care about each one of us!
Now David recounts the responsibility that God gave to Adam and Eve over his creation in Genesis 1:28 saying "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
But David puts it more poetically:
"You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas." (Psalm 8:6-8)
And then as he closes the psalm with the words with which he began it, he almost shouts: "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
The majesty of God is in the greatness of his creation, on earth and extending to, and beyond, the farthest heavens. And yet he wants to know us and include us in his plan. Oh, yes, Lord, how majestic you are!
It almost brings tears to the eyes.
Let’s try another one! It’s number 19, the one that Brigit just read, and it’s just as beautiful. It also is a sung psalm "For the director of music" and it’s also attributed to David. It has several parts.
The first is about the Heavens, the stars and the sun, that wordlessly express God's Word, and about the Creator
In the second part, it talks about the perfection of God's written word, the value and the sweetness of it, and how it both exposes sin and protects us against it.
And then he closes with words that are so familiar because and David, and many other preachers us them to introduce their sermons.
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
C.S. Lewis, an Oxford professor of medieval English and a Christian apologist, wrote of Psalm 19, "I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world."
Nevertheless, even though we’ve barely touched on it I don’t want to dwell on it any longer partly because Brigit read it all to us and partly because there’s another psalm that we need to look at today, and already we’re running out of time.
It’s Psalm 139, also one of David’s, and deeply personal. You have searched me, Lord, and you know me, he declares in the first verse. You know absolutely everything there is to know about me, and there is literally nowhere that I can go to get away from you, Lord.
And then, jumping forward to verse 13 David makes this staggering statement
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; “
Do you think that about yourself? Let me read it again slowly.
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; “
Fearfully and wonderfully made. We can have a tendency to look at ourselves and see only our weaknesses and our faults, our illnesses, our inabilities, our poor skillsets, … and compare them negatively with those of others.
But no, we are, each and every one of us “fearfully and wonderfully made”, and not only that, says the Psalm, all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
If you've ever wondered about the trivial value of human life in general, or your life in particular, this psalm makes it clear that God values each of us with a love and intimacy that is unmatched.
David instinctively knew this and so he finishes this amazing song by saying "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
It is a prayer of surrender to God the Creator, the Searcher. “Search me, know my heart, test me, check out my worries. And God, if you find anything in me that needs your help, and you will, cleanse my heart. Lead me back to the right path so that I might experience your everlasting life.
Can I encourage you to read these three psalms when you have a moment. They are Psalm 8, Psalm 19 and Psalm 139. Read them prayerfully, even several times over, and let God minister to you as you do so.
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