Preached on Sunday, January 24, 2010
from
Psalm 8
Theme: Human life is sacred because of the high honor God has placed on mankind above all else that He created.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
One night, many centuries ago, a young shepherd boy named David reclined among the sheepfolds and gazed up into a clear evening sky. With his head tilted back in wonder, he looked at the bright moon and upon the innumerable stars. It took his breath away to behold the glory and majesty of the heavens—the handiwork of God.
What’s more, when looking at the majesty of God’s workmanship in the sky, it struck him with how small he felt in the midst of all the greatness of God’s creation. And yet, it overwhelmed him even more that—as small as he was in the midst of it all—God knew him by name and looked upon him in love. When he regained his breath, it’s my belief that young David took up his harp and composed a song of worship to express his thoughts.
This song of the wonder of God’s vast creation—and of the special love with which His favored mankind as the smallest among His works—might have been something that David sang repeatedly to Him throughout his growing-up years. And later on—when he became king; and had the authority to offer songs of worship for the priests to sing in the temple—he was led by the Holy Spirit to make sure this song was among them.
It’s preserved for us in the Scriptures as Psalm 8. And it’s something that I believe the Holy Spirit would have us consider on our commemoration of Sanctity of Life Sunday:
O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!
Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8).
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Those majestic words are far more than just the lyrics to a song. They present a world-view—a foundational perspective of human life—that we could not have had unless God had first revealed it to us. And that makes these ancient words very relevant to our day.
The prevailing philosophy of culture around us doesn’t base itself on the revealed word of God—and particularly on what God has said about His special creation of man. And so, accordingly, it doesn’t view human life as anything particularly special or sacred. Many argue that man is nothing more than an animal—an animal that is lucky enough to have high powers of reason, to be sure; but of no more intrinsic value than any other living thing. Some in our day have even gone so far as to argue that human life is the least valuable—and most expendable—of all forms of life because of the supposed destruction mankind brings upon other living things.
And that means that if we take, as our world-view, what God has said about the honor He has placed on mankind above all other created things, we will have to stand for the cause of human life against the tide of our culture. If we believe what this psalm says, then we will be obligated to defend the immeasurable value and dignity of human life at every stage.
I believe this psalm—composed by King David under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—is the revealed attitude of God our Creator toward mankind. I believe we are to take what it says to be our creed regarding the true value of human life. I ask you to walk with me through it, and see what it is that it tells us about the high honor God has placed on humankind above everything else He has created.
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The first thing I ask you to notice is what it says about . . .
1. WHERE MANKIND’S HONOR ORIGINATES (v. 1).
David begins with worship to God; and says, “O LORD, our Lord . . .” And I believe that unless we start there, we will never value human life as we should. It must begin with reverence toward God our Creator.
David used two words in his prayer to God. The first word he used—translated in most Bible’s as “LORD” in all capital letters—was “Yahweh”. It’s the name that God used of Himself when He met Moses at the burning bush, where He said, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). It’s the name by which God revealed Himself to be the all-sufficient One. And the second word David used—translated “Lord” in lower-case letters—is “Adoni”. It’s the name that speaks of God as Lord and Master.
When David began this psalm, he directed his worship to Yahweh—and then included you and me in his thoughts when he called Him “our Lord” or “our Master”. And that is were we must begin if we’re going to view the dignity of human life rightly. We must first to bow to God as the all-sufficient One who is the Lord and Master of mankind, who has Creator-rights to the worship of every single member of humanity, and whose declaration about mankind is absolute.
The other day, I was reading from a book by an unbelieving philosopher—a radical advocate of ‘animal rights’. He doesn’t simply believe—as I’m sure all of us do—that we should be kind to animals. He believes that the idea that mankind is a special creation of God is a form of ‘speciesism’; and that when the Bible says God made man in His image, it was nothing more than a matter of man making God in man’s image. But the fact is that if you and I don’t first bow in our hearts to God and reverence His word as the truth, then there wouldn’t be a reason to come to any other conclusion than that unbelieving philosopher did.
When we think about human life, it’s so very important how we begin! And we must begin by first bowing to God as Lord and Master, and accepting His testimony about mankind as truth.
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David’s reverence toward God took all of God’s work of Creation into view. He said, “How excellent is Your name in all the earth . . .” God’s “name” was David’s way of expressing the idea of all that God is; and he was saying that God’s character and nature are revealed in His creation. As Paul writes, all people can see something of who God is,
because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse . . . (Romans 1:19-20).
And he also wrote, “. . . who have set Your glory above the heavens!” God’s “glory” tells us more than simply that He is. It tells us that He is wonderful and powerful. And the “heavens” being spoken of here is the visible sky—the very sky that David used to lay on his back and wonder over. In another psalm, David wrote;
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.Day unto day utters speech,And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor languageWhere their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world (Psalm 19:1-4).
Mankind is chief among those works of God’s creation that bring glory to Himself. David was able to look at himself and—with reverence—declare to God, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well” (Psalm 139:13-14).
And so; when it comes to the sanctity of human life, we need to make sure we begin at the right spot. Unless we first honor God, we will never rightly honor human life; because in the Person of God our Creator is where mankind’s honor begins.
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Another thing that this psalm teaches us is . . .
2. WHAT MANKIND’S HONOR INVOLVES (vv. 2-8).
The honor and dignity that God has given to mankind as His creation isn’t simply a mere sentiment. It means something! And in this psalm, David goes on to express—in praise to God—what that honor means.
First, David tells us that it means God’s strength is put on display through that which is weak. There is very few things as weak and frail as man; and yet, God shows the greatness of His power by the fact that He has ordained strength through that which is weak and frail. David writes; “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger” (v. 2).
We have, in the life of our Lord Jesus, a wonderful illustration of what this means. Just before He went to the cross, He made His way to the temple in Jerusalem. And children were in the temple praising Him as the Messiah; and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David”. This greatly upset the priests and scribes in the temple—even though they really were the ones who ought to have been praising Him! They confronted Him and said, “Do You hear what these are saying?” But Jesus said, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?” (Matthew 21:16). Those chief priests and scribes were in opposition to our Lord. They were setting themselves up as His enemies. And yet, it was small children who clearly knew—better than the learned scribes and Pharisees—the truth of who Jesus is.
When I think of that, I think of how often there have been unbelieving people—very hardened in their hearts—who wouldn’t hear a single word from a preacher, or who wouldn’t read a single page from the Bible; but who were nevertheless brought to faith in the Lord Jesus by the simple testimony of faith of their small son or daughter, or their grandson or granddaughter. And that’s just the way that God seems to delight in working. As Paul writes,
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption-that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the LORD'” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31).
So; one way that God has honored humankind is by the fact that, through the weak and frail members of fallen humanity, God has established praise to Himself through the fact that they proclaim a message of redemption that even the angels of heaven glory over! Truly, out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, He has ordained strength!
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Another thing that mankind’s honor means is God’s display of glory through that which is lowly. David writes; “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor” (vv. 3-5).
I don’t know if you have ever played around on the computer with Google Earth; but I think it’s marvelous. It’s a virtual map of the entire surface of the earth. You can go to any spot on earth, and zoom-in on a satellite-photo of the surface of the earth from within just a few hundred feet of elevation. I’ve looked in on the church building many times! Sometimes, I’ll zoom in very closely to the roof of the church; and then, hold my finger on the key and watch as the view zooms out further and further until I can see the whole planet earth. Or sometimes, I’ll look to some particular city in a foreign country; and hold my finger on the key as the view zooms in from the whole planet earth to the top of some famous building somewhere. It’s really quite an addicting toy!
And whenever I do that, I’m impressed with how small we are. You don’t appreciate how small you really are until you zoom-in on yourself from the height of an orbiting satellite in space. You keep zooming in; but it takes so long for the earth to loom larger, and to get past the oceans and continents, down past the mountains and hills and plains, down past the forests and green spots, down past the sprawling cities, down past the towns and districts, down past the patchwork of streets and buildings, down into the neighborhoods and houses and sidewalks and yards, that you’re shocked by how tiny you are in relation to it all. You’re nothing but an indistinguishable ‘speck’—if you show up at all. And that’s only from the view of a satellite orbiting the earth!—to say nothing of the view from the vastness of God’s created universe as a whole! How tiny must we appear to God!
David must have felt something of that. He looked into the starlit sky and “considered” God’s “heavens”—which were only the work of His “fingers”—”the moon and the stars” which He ordained. And in looking at it all, he thought of how small he was. “What is man,” he asked, “that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?”
When David used the word “man” the first time, he used the word “enosh”; which speaks of man in his frail, mortal weakness—nothing more than a “spot” on the screen. And when he used the word “man” the second time, it was the word “adam”; which is not only the name of the first man, but also the name of the stuff that God used to make him—that is, “earth” or “dirt”. In fact, David speaks of “the son of man”—that is, not even the specific man that God created on the sixth day, but the offspring of that man many, many generations later. Why—in the vastness of all of God’s creation—would he give any attention at all to such a tiny, seemingly-infinitesimal creature?
And yet, He does! David affirms, in his question, that God is “mindful” of him; and that God does “visit” Him! In fact, God declares that man—this tiny creature in the scope of the vastness of His created work—is made unique from all of His other creations. He is formed from the dust of the earth by the hand of God, and given the breath of life from God’s own mouth, and declared to be—above all other created things—His “image” and “likeness”. David says, “For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor.”
Some translations have it that God made man “a little lower than the angels”. Some others have it that God mad man “a little lower than God”—or, as some translate it, “gods”. Certainly, all of those possibilities are true; but I believe the best way to understand it is “a little lower than angels”. That, anyway, is how the writer of Hebrews understood it. And we get a sense of the profound significance of this from what he wrote in chapter 2. He made the case that our Lord Jesus stands as supreme even over the angels; and he quoted from this psalm and said,
For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying:
“What is man that You are mindful of him,
Or the son of man that You take care of him?
You have made him a little lower than the angels;
You have crowned him with glory and honor,
And set him over the works of Your hands.
You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”
For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone (Hebrews 2:5-9).
Do you want to know how great an honor it is that God has placed on mankind? It’s that the Son of God left His eternal glory in heaven to become—of all things—man! He didn’t step down to take angelic nature to Himself—even though that would have been much higher in the created order. Instead, the Son of God has forever taken human nature to Himself; so that He could come to this earth for us, die for our sins, be resurrected because of our justification, and thus raise us up to share forever in His glory. That’s not something He did even for the angels! In fact, He has thus raised us up to a glory that is far greater than even the angels! The Son of God has forever dignified humanity by becoming one of us!
So; that’s another way that God has honored humankind—by the fact that He has chosen to display His eternal glory through lowly creatures such as us; and to raise us up to be sharers of His own eternal glory with Him!
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A third thing that mankind’s honor means it that God displays His rule through that which is a creature (vv. 6-8). Man is a mere created being. And yet, God has ordained that man—the mere creature—be the co-ruler with Him over all the whole rest of His creation.
Way back in Genesis, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Genesis 1:26). And David, in his song, simply recognizes that declaration. He writes, “You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen—even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas” (vv. 6-8).
Man has a unique dignity above all other created things in that he has been made by God to be God’s “viceroy” over all the rest of creation. God allowed Adam the privilege of naming all other living things; and whatever Adam named them, that would be their names (Genesis 2:19). That was a way God displayed the authority He had given to mankind; and showed that He had truly put all the works of His hands under the feet of man. And there’s no arrogance or pride in affirming that. That’s not “speciesism”. That’s a humble reverence toward the truth of what God has said. In fact—quite the opposite—it’s wicked arrogance and sinful pride to deny honor to that which God has chosen to so honor so greatly!
Now; man doesn’t experience the honor of all things being under his feet right now. Adam sinned; and all of mankind fell in him. And as a result, creation “groans and labors with birth pangs” because of man’s fall (Romans 8:22). But there is, at the right hand of God—even as we speak—a Man who has been glorified; and humanity’s dominion over all things awaits its full revealing in Him! The apostle Paul wrote of the resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15—even quoting from this psalm; and said,
But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).
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Now; those are the ways that God has honored mankind! He has made weak and frail man the being through which He displays His strength! He has made lowly humanity that through which He displays His glory! And He has made man—the creature—the co-ruler with Him over all the rest of His creation! And if you truly believe these testimonies concerning mankind, you’ll immediately recognize the absolute and immeasurable value of human life!
But there’s one more thing you’ll do. There’s one more thing we learn from this psalm that tells us about the great honor God has placed on mankind; and that’s . . .
3. WHO MANKIND’S HONOR GLORIFIES (v. 9).
David, in worship, closes his psalm in the same words with which he began—”O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!” (v. 9). A true recognition of the honor and dignity that God has placed on humanity doesn’t lead to arrogance or pride. It leads to thankful worship back to God our Creator!
As those who place our worship of Him first, let’s be very sure that we are faithful to express our worship of Him by taking a stand for the dignity of the life of each human being at all stages!
Let’s honor who He has so greatly honored!