FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture References: Psalm 8

III. The Lord’s Passion – Continued

What were you intended to be? “Turn your eyes upon Jesus.” He is King of kings and Lord of lords. Revelation exults: He has made us to be “kings and priests [forever with Him]” (Revelation 5:10). So Jesus is the epitome, the description, the example of what we are intended to be.

The word “visit” in verse 4 means to care. What are we that God would care about us? Why would the omnipotent God of the universe care about our hurts, our confusion, our intense pressure? Why should God concern Himself? And then God crowns us. This psalm goes on to indicate that God has made man to be a “little lower than the angels,” slightly less than the angels. God has “crowned us with glory and honor.” God has made us to have “dominion over the works of [His] hands and has put all things under [our] feet.”

How breathtaking! God invested us with the dignity second only to His own, second only to the very nature of Himself. God made us to be rulers over the world that He created. What a high position, what lofty dignity God gives to mankind. It is as though, the psalmist said, God set a regal crown upon man’s head, a scepter in his hand, and a robe of royalty around his shoulders. It is a crown of glory and honor. Nowhere is human dignity more clearly and boldly asserted than in this passage. God intended for us to be regal.

Before the fall in the Garden of Eden, when God created Adam and Eve, that is how He wants us to be. If you want to understand the full impact of this psalm, turn to Hebrews 2. The writer of Hebrews quotes this psalm, from verses 4 and on. Hebrews 2 speaks in detail about this and declares that God has “put all things in subjection under his [man’s] feet.” Nothing was left out, but focus on the last portion of Hebrews 2:8, “But now we do not yet see all things put under him [man].”

Mankind botched it up. Sin entered into human experience, and we have not achieved what God intended for us. The intent of Hebrews 2 is to display before us the high and lofty ideal God had for mankind and to show us that, in Christ, we can indeed reach our full potential. It is all found in our Lord and Savior. We become what God created us to become in Jesus Christ. He restores the dominion, the authority, the dignity that sin snatched away. Jesus Christ makes us to be what God created us to be.

Though we may not seem to be rulers and kings with honor in this life, we discover in Revelation 1:5–6 that God has “loved us and washed us [redeemed] from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.” Our fullest potential and our utmost fulfillment is found through Jesus Christ.

People were meant to have dominion, but by no means do they have dominion. We are creatures frustrated by our circumstances, defeated by our temptations, conscious of our weaknesses. We stagger with an burden around our necks. We should be free, but we are bound. We should be kings, but we are slaves. Now whatever else is true and whatever else may not be true, one crushing reality is certain, people are not what they were meant to be. You and I are not what we were meant to be. How, then, do we realize our potential? How do we fill the longing in our hearts? How do we deal with the inadequacies of our spirits? How do we realize the tremendous possibilities that lie within us? Only in and through Jesus Christ. That is the impact of Hebrews 2 and the intent of the Holy Spirit’s inspiration.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture References: Psalm 8

III. The Lord’s Passion

All of us have our lives guided by some passion, a force which drives us. Maybe it is a passion to achieve, or a passion to experience; but we are pushed by a passion. However, what pushes God? What drives God? What is the motivating force of God? Here it is delineated clearly in three ways. These stanzas tell us that God’s passion, first of all, is expressed in His coming to us. “What is man that you think about him and that you even care to visit him?” It is expressed in His caring for us. The word “visit” means to be concerned for. Who are we that God would care anything about us? So His passion is seen by His concern for us, His caring for us. Finally, it is revealed in His crowning us. “[He] crowned [man] with glory and with honor.” These are the passions that drive God, to come to us, to care for us, to crown us.

First, the psalmist notes as God comes to us, what is man? You’re mindful of him? The son of man that You visit him? Think about it. God is mindful of us. Wonderful. God is more interested in people than planets. God is more concerned about souls than stars. God cares more about us than the universe. The God of the telescope is also the God of the microscope. The God of the vastness of space is also the God of the specific reaches of my spirit.

There was a little girl who prayed, and as she prayed she talked about God “knowing my name.” She didn’t understand how it was phrased, but she prayed to a God in heaven who knows her name. God knows your name and who you are. God is mindful of you. The glory of God is not seen in dynamic, spectacular events, or in the intricate details of the universe. The glory of God is seen in that He comes to us. He wants to live in us, to dwell within our lives, and the intriguing fact we see at this point is found in the words for mankind in verse 4. Two different Hebrew words are used. The first one is the Hebrew word “enosh,” and it simply means mortal man, man in his weakness.

What is mortal man? What is weak, puny, sinful, helpless little man that you would think of him? In our weakness, in our helplessness, God cares for us and loves us. God is interested in us. God comes to us in our weakness, and it is magnified as you reach the second half of that verse. He says, “What is . . . the son of man?” (In the second Hebrew word for “man” is the word “adama,” from which we receive our word “Adam,” meaning dust). There is no definite article there, literally the Hebrew does not ask what is the son of man? but what is son of man? What is son of dust?

This is a phrase used without the definite article over one hundred times in the Old Testament, and it always means, “What is man as a descendant of Adam . . . just plain, puny, nameless man?” Yet God cares about insignificant, helpless, poor, weak you and me. There is the passion of God. He comes to us.

In the New Testament, however, the phrase is changed. The phrase, “the Son of man,” does have the definite article with it, and it always refers to Jesus. The usage is a vivid illustration that we only become the individuals God wants us to be through Jesus Christ.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture References: Psalm 8

II. The Lord’s Power – Continued

From last lesson: The mere fact that we can conceive of God and from our earliest years we can express a desire for God, is convincing evidence of God. God is such a conqueror that the words of children carry far greater weight than all the accusations of mighty men.

In other words, you do not have to defend God, just as you don’t have to defend an African lion against a domesticated tabby cat. You do not have to defend God, You just praise Him. Acclaim God. Embrace, God, even as children do. It is interesting. Do you remember who the hero of the New Testament is? Really? A little child. Jesus stated, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3). He didn’t teach that you had to become like the apostles Paul or Peter or John. He taught here how you make it to heaven; become like a little child. We refer to childlike faith as simple trust. A little child is the prime example of faith. The glory, the strength, the power, and the might of God are declared more clearly through simple, childlike faith than any other way, simply trusting in Him.

Then God is described as the mighty Creator, for the psalmist says in verses 3-4, “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?” (NIV). Here is a word concerning meditation. He testifies: “When I look at the stars and contemplate the heavens I think of how great all of that is and how insignificant we are.” He is absolutely awestricken and smitten. He reflects on God as the mighty Creator.

Since David was a shepherd, I have an idea he was most familiar with the stars. Many a “starry, starry night” he sat on a hillside and stared at the heavens. Perhaps he knew the names of certain stars and galaxies. Maybe he was able to remember the positions of the stars during certain times of the year. Out in the grazing land at night, what else could he do but sing, play the harp, and be star-struck? He was overwhelmed by the majesty and the mystery of God. He was awestricken by it all.

His awe should be totally eclipsed by ours. We know inestimably more about the vastness of the universe and the intricate nature of all there is. As we consider God, the mighty Creator, it is all a tribute to His power. In fact, the psalmist indicates it is God’s finger. Now, you know, that means it is “no big deal” with God. The Bible speaks of the arm of God, the hand of God, and the finger of God. An arm is more powerful than a finger. A hand is more powerful than one finger. All God had to do was speak, and the worlds were flung into existence.

Using an illustration we could all understand, the singer observed, “When I look at all the heavens, when I consider the sun, the moon, the stars, all there is, when I think of it all, I realize it was done by the finger of God.” God just did it. The “Great Creator” is also our Savior. He sings to us of the Lord’s power.

Then, beginning in verse 4 (this is really the heart of the passage) the psalmist speaks of the Lord’s passion.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Where noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.