The Work of Your Fingers - Psalm 8

                      

Psalm 8 is one of those psalms where you simply have to take a step back and say “Wow!” Sometimes that’s the only way we can respond to who God is. Can’t you just see David sitting on his throne and realizing just how amazing God is and trying to find the words to express something that can’t quite be expressed with just words. He’s in awe of God and wants everyone to share in this awe of God with him. “Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens.” I can see David remembering those nights in the fields with the sheep, lying on his back when the skies were clear and the stars shining like diamonds against the blackness, and if he was by water, watching the wonderous beauty reflect back as with a mirror.

The Lord setting his glory in the heavens gives us a tiny glimpse of the amazing mind of our creator: an artist extraordinaire, a creator of beauty and wonder, a God who is extravagant in sharing the wonder of his creativity, offering us soul feeding glory. C. S. Lewis called Psalm 8 a “short, exquisite lyric.” The scholar Derek Kidner writes, “This psalm is an unsurpassed example of what a hymn should be, celebrating as it does the glory and grace of God, rehearsing who he is and what he has done, and relating us and our world to him, all with a masterly economy of words, and in a spirit of mingled joy and awe.”

Tim Mackie from the Bible Project helps us understand why Psalm 8 is placed where it is. “Our psalm, Psalm 8, is right in the middle of psalms 3-14. And the fact that it’s in the center is important… First in Psalms 3-7, we’re invited to reflect on David’s story from the past, when he was powerless and had to hide from his enemies. In these poems, David cries out to God to deliver him and restore him to his role as king. Then, after Psalm 8, come Psalms 9-14. David is joined by a group of people called the poor and afflicted ones. Like David, they’re oppressed by powerful rulers. And they too cry out to God, asking him to confront these world empires and vindicate his people. Both David and the afflicted ones are really powerless and weak. And yet they are the ones God has chosen to rule the world. And this is what Psalm 8, in the center, is all about.”

David writes this psalm to marvel at who God is, how he pays attention to us, and how we’re important to him. then comes an unexpected thought, another thing to wonder at, “Through the praise of children and infants you have stablished a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.” The praise of children is a mountain fortress against God’s enemies, a force that is mighty and overpowers the criticisms and lies of God’s foes and enemies. The praise of children and infants silences the voices of the enemies through songs and hymns of praise and trust in the Lord. Children trust more easily; they don’t have their own agendas in following God; they simply accept God’s grace and gifts. Jesus points this out to the chief priests and teachers of the law when they get upset on Palm Sunday at the people celebrating Jesus as king. Matthew 21:14–16, “The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise?” When we see God at work, the proper response is to praise him, not complain, and it helps us understand why Jesus calls us to have the faith of a child.

David turns to the Lord’s relationship with us and he’s overwhelmed with awe again. “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” David’s continuing his first thought here, recognizing not only the beauty of the heavens, but also the intricacy of how every star and planet has their place, that they all dance together in heavens in harmony in a pattern only God can create. Our universe is so vast, that even with all our technology, we still have no real clue at just how big it is, or what wonders it holds, and David is struck by the fact that the God who created all of this still takes the time to pay attention to us, rather insignificant creatures in comparison to the vastness of the rest of creation.

The work of his fingers is so much more than we can imagine, and yet the Lord desires a relationship with us. Of all the creatures he created, he made us in his image, giving us life by breathing his Spirit in us after forming us with his own hands from the dust of the earth. Truly he is the potter and we are the clay, as Isaiah reminds us. Even though we keep turning away from him to follow other voices and gods, the Lord still cares for us, never gives up on us, and even sends his own Son Jesus to wash us clean from our rebelliousness and sin. The immenseness of his love for us is even greater than the immenseness of the rest of creation, greater than anything we can ever imagine.

David recognizes our place in the creation order, but only after helping us see how magnificent God is. David’s praising God, pointing out his power and majesty, reminding us that there is nothing more glorious than our God, nothing and no-one is greater than the creator of all things! We only understand who we are when we understand who God is, our creator and giver of life and soul. We’re not an accident, we’re created to respond to God, and to be responsible to God, to worship him along with all creation. David is amazed at who God has created us to be, “You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour. You made them rulers over the works of your hand; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the sea.” God trusts us with his creation, to develop it according to God’s design and plan. We’re called to reflect God’s glory into the world as carriers of his image as the Shorter Westminster Catechism reminds us, “What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

We see glimpses of God’s glory in a baby held in the arms of loving parents, in the laughter and joy of children, in youth calling out a leader’s name and scattering in shouts of joy as he chases them in a glorious moment of play, as a older couple sit beside each other with arms around each other, in the smile of a senior as they watch their family gather together, in folded hands in prayer, in a young couple offering vows of commitment to each other for life, in empty nesters helping their children build their own home, in a young person serving at a soup kitchen or helping an older member. In so many ways, we see glimpses of God’s glory in relationships as we reflect him in big and small ways.

David reveals humility in this glorious psalm of praise. God created us lower than angels even while we are crowned with glory and honour. We are small and insignificant and yet at the same time we’re wonderful and magnificent, created in the image of God and an important part of God’s plan for caring for his creation. We’re part of God’s plan of redeeming the earth; it’s through David’s family line that Jesus comes to earth to bear the weight of our sin. We’ll escort Jesus back to earth when he returns and we’re part of the plan of restoring the earth. We’ve been made rulers over the works of God’s fingers, an immense privilege.

As we enter into a new church year filled with worship, learning, working, and growing together, my hope is that in all our ministries that we keep reminding each other that we are the work of God’s fingers, created in his image to reveal God’s glory and the majesty of the Lord’s name as we’re shaped by the Holy Spirit more and more into the image of God, redeemed by Jesus to carry on the work of his fingers.