³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
⁴ what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?

⁵ Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings^[b]
    and crowned him with glory and honor.
⁶ You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under his feet,
⁷ all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
⁸ the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹ O Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Transcript:

Pastor Thom Rittichier
So on this Mother’s Day, I am going to present to you a quote. And as I present this quote, I’m just going to give a part of it at first. And then I’m going to see if you can finish it, because that’s what I want to find out. So here’s the expression, the quote, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules…rules the world”. So how many knew that? How many of you, this is the first time that you heard of that? How many have heard it but didn’t really know what it meant? You know, I was thinking about this quote, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”, and I did a little looking in to this quote. So what do you suppose the point of this age old expression is? Is it a matter of encouragement, to encourage a mom? Is that it? Some what? It’s a demanding routine that becomes at times tedious. The same baby to change, the same corrections to bring again. I remember Susanna Wesleyan and being questioned by her husband as to how many times are you going to tell that child? And her response? As many as are needed. So is it that, is it an encouragement? What do you think? Yeah, it kind of has that. I think also, would you say that it kind of emphasizes the importance of what’s being done when it seems kind of insignificant? Or how about this, this was suggested. Do you think it might be a shift of the blame? I mean, the mess that the world is in. Adam was kind of accustomed to doing that, wasn’t he? It’s the woman, who you gave me, when he kind of plunged this thing into the mess. So what do you think? Is this part of the blame shifting? The other day at our group prayer time, a guy who was speaking said, The mess that the world is in…so the hand that rocks the cradle. So, I’ve got another question here. Who do you think wrote this, a man or a woman? Well, I thought that it kind of sounds like a man thing. I don’t know many women who are interested in ruling the world. Actually, it was a man. And his name is William Ross Wallace, at least as far as they can tell. In 1865, he published a poem that is called “What Rules the World?” It really didn’t take off. So in 1898, a musical journal republished it under the title, “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle”, and they brought recognition. Well, it still didn’t take off and the poem has kind of fizzled out. But the one refrain remains, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.

And you know, biblically there is a shaping influence that mom has. That is definitely the case. Here’s a quote from the New Testament. There are others in the Old Testament. But here’s one that says this. “I am reminded of your sincere faith,”…the Apostle Paul talking to his disciple, Timothy, and he’s talking to him about encouragement…”I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.”, 2 Timithoy 1:5. There was an influence. Now there is no guarantee here. There is no guarantee because every individual decides for themselves about trusting Jesus Christ, having faith in God and trusting Jesus Christ. But here was a tremendous benefit, handed down specifically from the shaping influence of grandmother Lois and mother Eunice. And, interestingly, the Apostle Paul also presented this about a shaping influence, “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband otherwise your children would be unclean but as is they are sanctified.”, 1 Corinthians 7:14. Your children would be out of sync with God and His ways and His directions, unproductive. But as it is, they are sanctified. Here is a clear statement from Scripture about the shaping influence of mom and dad, a shaping influence that influences them to go God’s way. That’s what sanctified refers to, to being set apart to go God’s way. It’s the word that’s often used for Holy, which is a word that kinda has bad connotations, but actually conveys a good thing about going God’s way. There’s the shaping influence that is present here, there is no guarantee. But it is obviously an influence for the good. There are Proverbs that talk about this and there are other sections of Scripture, this is sufficient.

And on Mother’s Day, I want to direct your attention to a passage that has motherhood woven into the very heart of it. It’s put right in, it’s a passage that is a jewel, it’s a flower in a collection of many. I’m referring to is Psalm 8. So I’m going to ask you to turn there in your bible. Psalm 8 is very much in accord with a series that we’re doing on the Psalms, “When God is Big in Your Life”. And in this Psalm, there are clear statements that reflects on this thing of motherhood/personhood and God’s intent for us. Now I’m going to make a tremendously remarkable comment. Psalm 8 is obviously a psalm. Okay. And what that means is that it is a work of art. Psalm 8, and the other psalms, were not jotted down on the fly. They are works of art, as a matter of fact, the Psalms, all of them, are poetry. And Psalm 8 in particular is poetry set to music. If you’ve turned to Psalm 8, you can see that at the beginning of it is this heading, which is in the Hebrew Bible, “To the choirmaster, according to”…and this term is kind of unknown but it seems to refer to music…”according to the Gittith”. And it’s entitled, “A Psalm, a poem set to notes by David”. That’s what it’s called. It’s a musical piece. And this morning, as we look at Psalm 8, we’re only going to do two things. First, we’re going to appreciate (note and savor) the art of this, because it is a work of art. We haven’t done that yet with the Psalms, and you can’t properly look at the Psalms and appreciate and gain what the Psalms communicate without recognizing that this is art. And as art, it is presented as art, which we’re going to look at this morning. A lot of the Bible is art. As a matter of fact, all of the Book of Psalms is art. The Book of Proverbs is composed as art. The Psalms are poetry, the Proverbs are statements of compare and contrast, done artistically, to bring hope, the book of Job is written as art, the Song of Solomon, the book of Lamentations is art, large section of the book of Ecclesiastes, even historical books, like Genesis chapter 49, are presented in the form of poetic art. We need to appreciate the art because otherwise we are missing a big part of the Bible. The female is often called the fairer sex. I have, over the years as a pastor, thought that most of men would probably live in army barracks if it weren’t for the wife, the female. They add the touch of art. I knew a guy, he was a single guy, who lived up in Chicago when I was pastoring in that area, and he denied that up and down, because he lived as a single guy. And then I visited at his house. And he thought it was fine. He had a table with a lamp and chairs. And thet was pretty well it. No decoration. No flowers. No pictures. Well, I think there was one picture in the kitchen. So, this Psalm is art and I thought it’d be fitting on Mother’s Day that we look at a piece of art and appreciate it. Then second, appropriate (pick up and use) the content of it, because this content is so needed by mom, by every female, by every male, by every child.

So first of all, we’re going to appreciate the art. Now I need to say, at the start, that poetry in Hebrew is a little bit different than poetry in English. English poetry has a rhyme to it, usually of words, but there is a rhythm, a rhyme to it. And the rhythm of rhyme is intended to have a cadence to it, like some of the songs we sang this morning. “You alone can rescue, you alone can save, you alone can lift us from the grave”. And other example like this piece, which is a poem set to music. “Mary had a little lamb, Its fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go. It followed her to school one day, which was against the rules. It made the children laugh and play, to see a lamb at school.” And there’s your cadence. Bet you never thought you’d hear preaching in this church from Mary Had a Little Lamb. (Congregation laughing) Amen, amen. But it does picture the art. It’s pictured as well in this one. “Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. For purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain.” You see it again in another stanza from this, “Oh, beautiful for patriots dreams, that sees beyond the years. Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears.” In Hebrew, they don’t rhyme words, there’s a rhyming of ideas. There is a rhythm, a cadence, to it in Hebrew poetry. And it’s true throughout the poetry of the Bible. There is a rhyming, a rhythm, to the repeated rhyming expression of ideas. This form of poetry is referred to as parallelism. Parallel ideas are laid together in a cadence, a rithmetic sequence. And that comes out, once you start to read the Psalms, and other pieces of Hebrew poetry that way, you begin to see. Sometimes it just sounds redundant, but you begin to see a further insight into the image and the story that’s being presented. Because that’s also what Hebrew poetry does. It’s speaks in concrete images, pictures. And these pictures tell a story, in a rhyming of ideas kind of rhythm. That’s the nature of Hebrew poetry.

So having said that, I now want to lay out for you the rhyming sequence in Psalm 8. The first and the last line rhyme the idea that is presented. Then the second line rhymes the expression with the second to last line’s expression. Then the two middle lines compare and contrast. Now not every poem in Hebrew is built with this rhythm, but they all have some type of rhythm. And that’s the rhythm of this one. Let me put it here with the verses to give you a better picture: A-v1a-Our majesty. B-v1b,2,3-Our Lord’s strategy with His people. C-v4-Our relative smallness. C-v5-Our relative greatness. B-v6,7,8-Our Lord’s strategy with His people. A-v9-Our Lord’s Majesty. The first idea in verse one rhymes directly with the idea that’s given in verse nine. And then the expression in the second expression rhymes with what is in the second to last expression. And here in the middle, these two correspond and go together.

So having said that, let’s now go through the Psalm 8 together, to appreciate it as a work of art. 1)O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2)Out of the mouth of babies and infants,” (nursing infants specifically,) “you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. 3)When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, and the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,” (that sets a transition to our relative smallness) 4)”what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? (contrast, same idea. Now our relative greatness) 5)”Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings”, Elohim, is the word that used here, it’s the word that’s used for God in His strength. It’s also used at times for the cherubim and the seraphim and the ark angel and the principalities and the powers, the spiritual forces in heavenly places. Elohim sometimes gets all taken up with the expression of angel, as in the angel of the Lord. “you have made him a little lower than then Elohim and crowned him with glory and honor.” (Strategy again, second expression) 6)”You have given him dominion over the works of your hands, you have put all things under his feet, 7)all sheep and oxen, and also the beast of the field, 8)the birds of the heaven, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the path of the sea.” (Final expression of majesty) 9)”O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all of the earth!” Over and over and over, this expression has been committed to music in English. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic…you’ve heard that song? Majesty worship His Majesty….over and over and over in our English songs. These have been committed because of this poetic expression. So that’s the appreciation of this Psalm and what it conveys. And I kind of agree with the commentators here, that once you enter into this, like David did, he did it in an explanation. You can’t be gripped by this, you can’t, unless you allow yourself to enter into what’s going on here. You can’t remain static, without this gripping you, what he’s saying, the imagery and the story that is being told here, which has motherhood, woven into the very heart of it, for the benefit of all humanity, men, women, children, it’s woven there, into the fabric of this poem that God wants us to appreciate.

So having said that, now we’re going to go on to this, we’re going to look at the appropriation or the appropriating, the picking up and the use of the content of this song, the content of this poem, set to notes, so that it would play over and over and over in our mind… O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name… So it would play over and over in our hearts. The strategy, the smallness and the greatness. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in the earth. Now, in order to do this, I want to pull on another piece of art. Do you know what this art is? Oh, excuse me, I’m going to give you the title first, forgot that I need to do that, “My Eyes Have Seen the Glory of God and Me”. Because that’s what this Psalm does. It identifies God in his place. He’s big. He’s big here. He’s big. He needs to be recognized as big. And then our place in what he has done. So now I’m going to pull on another work of art here. Do you recognize this piece of art? What is this? The Last Supper. This is the one of the most recognizable known works of art, it’s the Last Supper. My dad, who was a farmer in Ohio, not much of an art enthusiast at all. He was a businessman and had nine kids and worked the farm. He didn’t really have the time or he could have been. He just wasn’t an art enthusiast. But my dad knew this piece of art. As a matter of fact, he used to say…Yeah, well, you know, in this piece of art, they said, Okay guys, everybody on the same side here, it’s time for the picture…..Because this really wasn’t what the Last Supper looked like. As a matter of fact, it kind of looked more like a group of guys sitting around, with cooked lamb and some unleavened bread and wine, there some bitter herbs. But they didn’t have a table. They did it on the floor, maybe with a just something a bit elevated. Nevertheless, this piece of art, by the way, do you know who the artists of this piece? Leonardo da Vinci. That’s right. He also did the Mona Lisa, which is another well recognized piece of art. And as you look at this, you can appreciate it, you see the architecture. I have another picture where this is actually up on the wall. This is a doorway here. And this is, this is amazing, the the architecture and how this is put together. And it’s an amazing depiction, the people and the faces. As a matter of fact, there is ongoing intrigue about this thing called the Da Vinci Code. You ever heard of that? Because there’s some kind of thing that’s being said here, which runs contrary to the bible and yet, that’s the appreciation of the art. Now, let me put this in. This is that same picture, obviously adopted. And now the content of what this was, because this just wasn’t any scene in the upper room at the Last Supper where the Lord instituted the Lord’s table, which by the way, we’re going to do next Sunday, the Lord’s table. This just wasn’t any scene. But the scene that is conveyed here is expressing the story that has content, because this is at a point where Peter is leaning over to John, contrary to the Da Vinci Code, that is not Mary, Mary Magdalene, that is John, who was known as the beloved apostle. And if you can look here, the way he’s behaving, being youthful, and this is Peter, leading over to John. And when Peter leaned over to John, that was a strategic moment in the upper room. Do you remember what he was asking?…Ask him? Who is it? Who is it?…Because Jesus has just said, One of you is going to betray me? And that’s when Peter leans over, and does this. And here’s Judas. And that is the content of this art. You see the appreciation of it still goes on, but the content of what is being expressed, the picture and the image, telling the story.

And that’s what we’re going to do with this Psalm. We’re going to pick up on the picture that is being presented here, as it’s telling the story about this, first of all, our Lord’s majesty. Oh, Lord, he says, and when he does this, David refers to Yahweh, he says Yahweh, Yahweh, the one who is the I AM that spoke to Moses, I AM now and forever what you need. I AM who I AM. Oh, Yahweh. He said, Yahweh, our Adonai, our controller, our one who’s in charge and who’s calling the shots. How majestic is your name, your name, your name is huge! It is large, it is expansive! It is magnificent! It’s inclusive of all glory! That’s the way he’s talking here. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name. And the name refers to his person. And what he stands for, by what he does and accomplishes. O Yahweh, Adonai, how majestic is who you are and what you stand for in all of the earth! And David does this as an exclamation, he is exclaiming this. His emotions are tied into this. You can’t be idle about this, not when you see, not when you see our Lord’s strategy that is explained here. And that’s what he does. He explains the Lord’s strategy. And this has motherhood woven into the very heart of that. He says this, you have such set your glory, your weightiness, your importance, your prominence, your glory, above the heavens. You know, still today, that rings for people. The “man upstairs” is because God has set his glory in the heavens. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the fingers, the affirmament, his handiwork, the work of his fingers, the heavens are declaring the glory of God. And this drawness to something other, something bigger, something greater, resides in this glory that God has sent in heaven. And the line of this glory, Psalm 19:1, goes out day by day by day, and there’s not one on the planet, Psalm 19:1 says, that doesn’t hear, that doesn’t understand. There’s no words, there’s no expressions, but the glory of God being on display. This is his strategy, to display that glory set above the heavens so it is there, over man, always, day after day after day, His glory declared. That’s the poetic expression that David is giving here, that’s the content of it. That’s what he’s saying, as he explains, it, and I want you to know, quite astonishingly, he takes that another step.

This is the step. Verse number two, “Out of the mouths of babies and infants, you have established, ordained, strength.” And he did it for a reason. Get the reason. This is a strategy. Here’s his reason. Because, he says, because of your enemies, because of the foes, your adversaries that are against you. That is why he set His glory in the heaven, that is why he has ordained strength from babies, nursing babies. How does that work? What is he doing? Jesus, in Matthew chapter 21, verse 16, quotes this very verse. And he does it on Palm Sunday, what we know as Palm Sunday, when he’s entering triumphantly into Jerusalem. And the children are running in the streets with palms. And they’re saying, Hosanna, son of David!, Hosanna, son of David!, which is the expression that means, Save us!, son of David, Save us, son of David!, which is a statement that they understand him to be the Messiah, child of David, who had come to save and Jesus is confronted by the chief priests and the scribes, the religious leaders, who are opposed to that, and they go to Jesus and they say, Do you hear what they’re saying? And Jesus says, yes, and have you never read “out of the mouth of little children and nursing infants I have ordained this strength”. How are these babies doing this? There doing this in their dependent, trusting, loyalty. That’s what a nursing infant is. They’re totally dependent. They’re totally trusting and completely dependent. I remember as a kid, I remember this so well. It’s so vivid in my mind. On those days when I found out that mom was sick and was down, it was like, the world was at an end and life was over!! What are we going to do?! Mom’s not here! Mom’s sick! There’s nothing for us! That dependent, trusting, loyalty is the strength. He established that, he stops. That’s what the word means to still, he stops and he causes to cease, his enemy. And when he’s talking about enemy, he’s not talking about enemy on Earth. He’s talking about the principalities, the powers, the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. That’s what he’s referring to. And that, according to Ephesians, chapter two and verse one, has the impact on people today, who walk according to that course. Listen, my brothers and sisters. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. It is not against them. It is against principalities and powers and spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. That’s our struggle. That’s our fight. That’s where it is. That’s where it is. And Jesus, triumphs over them, Colossians chapter one tells us, in the cross. He triumphed over the principalities, the powers, the rulers of this present, evil. So listen to me. This is a heartfelt appeal to every mom, to every female, to every man, our murmuring, and our complaining, and our clamor, our anger, our malice against people, because of the present mess of this world is out of line. God says, let all murmuring, complaining, be put away from you. Let it all be put away from you. Along with all malice. Philippians chapter two, Let it not be even named among you, verse 19, as is fitting. Let it not even be named. Let’s do this. Let’s appeal to the Lord in his strategy to stop this. And you know, the picture here is that he stops it. He steals the enemy and the avenger. That’s what it says, the word stops/stills/destroys, it means he makes it stop. He destroys it. That’s the image. That is the content of his strategy and now he gives a transition.

Notice the transition, “When I look, consider, the heavens, the work of your fingers, and the moon and the stars which you have set in place.” And then he goes to this, he goes to our place. And he does it with this consideration. “What is man?” And he uses a word for man that is man in his fraility, his temporalness, his temporariness. “What is man that you are mindful of him”, that you think of him. And he does think of you. He does think of us. As a matter of fact, he thinks of us in such a way that every hair on your head is numbered. He thinks of us in such a way that he knows are going out and are coming back. He’s intimately acquainted with all of our ways. There’s not a word on your tongue but which he knows it all together. Even before it’s said. That’s how he’s mindful of us, he’s mindful. “And the son of man”, in his transition from one generation to another to another, their son and their son and their son. I’ve got grandsons now. I don’t have great grandsons yet. Some of us have great grandsons and granddaughters. It transitions because it moves on, “that you care for him”. And he does care for him. He’s got the tears that we’ve shed, captured in a bottle in heaven. He’s got all that takes place in our lives in his experience, because he’s touched by the feelings of our infirmities and our weaknesses so that when we’re weak, he makes us stronger. He cares for us.

Now he presents immediately the greatness. That’s our smallness. But now he presents the greatness. And I want you to know this greatness is talked about, this thing here, when he talks about the Son of Man. The greatness, that is all talked about in the New Testament, relative to Jesus. I want you to see this. Turn with me in your Bible to the book of Hebrews. You can keep your finger here in Psalm 8 because we’re going to come back here shortly. But I want you to see this, the book of Hebrews chapter two, verses five thru nine. This author of Hebrews applies this to an astonishing thing, that this is all realized for us in Jesus. Notice what he says verse five, “For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come.” There’s the world that’s coming, it’s going to be a different world. It’s not a messed up world. It was not the angels that God subjected the world to come, “of which we are speaking. It has been testified to somewhere, (Psalm 8, beginning of verse four) ‘What is man, that you are mindful of him or the son of man, that you care for him?” (Psalm 8, verse four, then verse five) “You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” (Psalm 8, verse six) “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside of his control,” nothing that isn’t put under Christ’s control, not the messed up world, he didn’t leave that out, not the political arrangement, he didn’t leave that out, not the racial tension, he didn’t leave that out, not the gender dispute, he didn’t leave that out. It’s all subject to his control, all of it. “He left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not see everything in subjection to him.” Would you agree with that? Would you agree with not everything is right at this time, now, the way the Lord has a mind for it to be? Would you agree with that? I would agree with that. There’s a whole lot of dissension, contention, strife, hatred, murder, theft, adultery, not everything is under control yet as he wants it to be. “But we see him who was for a little while made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for every man.” And he goes on, and he says, Satan was defeated in this. Our greatness is presented in connection with Jesus.

That is how God has put everything under dominion to us. You have, Psalm 8:6, 7, 8, “put everything under his feet”. You have done that with “all the sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea”, everything. And that explains the Lord strategy here on Earth. It’s in Christ, that this is all going to be brought under his control. We don’t see it yet, but it will be. And therein lies our hope.

“O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth”, verse 9. Yahweh, Adonai, how majestic, how big, expansive, all inclusive, magnificent is your name and what you stand for and who you are in all of the earth, all of the earth. Now it’s coming. Not yet full. But it’s here, not yet completed. And brothers and sisters you and I can resound, we can sing this same poetic song. When you and I carry this God given identity and place, you are more than conquerors. As a mom, as a dad, as an employee, in the present distress, you are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I’m persuaded that neither life nor death nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any other created thing can separate us from this love of God that is in Christ Jesus. You can sing this. You can sing this. It can be the melody of your heart, rather than what does your heart no good murmuring and complaining and wrath and anger and clamor. You can sing this. And this grace strengthens the heart. It does the heart good. We can sing this. Will you? Will you sing this? Stand with me. How majestic is your name Lord.