David Looks Up

Yesterday we started looking at Psalm 8 and stopped with verse 1….verses one and two show us God’s Glory. Jesus quoted verse 2 in Matthew 21. He entered the city on Psalm Sunday to the praises of man, He entered the Temple and drove out the money changers, He healed the blind, the lame, and 21:16 says the religious leaders saw the “wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’” They were indignant and questioned Jesus and Jesus quoted Psalm 8:2—in doing so He gave validity to the praises of the children, He claimed to be the Son of David, He claimed to be the Majestic One of Psalm 8, and He declared the religious leaders to be the enemies and the avengers. David looks and sees God’s Glory, but he doesn’t stop there.

Second, we find God’s Creation, in verses 3-4.

First, David looks up, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place.” It must be evening, a clear night, where the stars seem just out of reach, and David takes it all in and further glorifies God—he calls it all the “work of your fingers.” He is speaking poetically, but he is doing something amazing—the universe seems larger that our minds can comprehend, but when compared to the glory of God it is small—it’s the work of His fingers. It doesn’t require God to strain, it doesn’t require the flexing of His arm, or even the involvement of His shoulders or legs…He does it all with His fingers…billions and billions of stars and billions and billions of galaxies and He set them all in place and calls them by name.

But then David looks down, “what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” If the moon and stars are small things compared to God…what is man? If the stars and moonseem insignificant when compared to God…what is man? God, if you made all of that…why do you care about us? The first word for man speaks of mortal man in his weakened condition, but “son of man” speaks of being the son of Adam…I think David is looking back to the Fall. “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of Adam that you care for him?” David looks up to God’s majestic creation and His power and then looks down to fallen man, but he doesn’t stop with God’s Creation…come back tomorrow and we will continue!