There are many methods of expounding the Psalms. You can do the verse-by-verse that I have been doing, you can do a three point sermon with application points, or you can allow the literary method within the particular Psalm to structure the message.
In verse 1 we that God’s name is majestic in all the earth. The idea of a name is to describe someone. Often times, parents would name their children according to desired characteristics. The name would represent the person himself. If you were to erase someone’s name it is as if you would erase that person themselves.
Where is His name great? Throughout and in all of the earth. His greatness is displayed in the earth through all of His creation, whether it be the trees, waters, mountains or any moving creation such as animals and people. When you look at the stars at night it is amazing how little pricks of light in the blackness of the sky is beautiful, but consider how beautiful and majestic that view is. God’s majesty is far greater and above the majesty of the heavens.
In verse 2, we move from a declaration of God’s majesty to the foundation and establishing of His majesty. What is significant about the establishing of God’s strength from infants? They are weak and helpless. God establishes His greatness through the weak. (1 Cor. 1:27; 2 Cor. 12:9) From even the very young will God’s strength be established. Why would God choose to work through the weak? He chooses to work through the weak because He will be seen more readily through them. How was God seen through the Israelites? They were weak, without the latest weapons, yet they defeated many great armies because God was fighting for them. God’s strength will be established through the weak vessels of this world.
In verse 3, we see God establishing His creation. All that we see and experience is because God made it and placed it where it is today. All of the planets orbit the sun based on the path that God Himself established. We are where we are because God has placed us here. By God’s decree.
In verse 4, the word for man at the beginning of the verse, “What is man?” This word describes mankind with a connotation to man’s weakness and frailty. What is man that God would give attention to them in their weakness and frailty? Why would God consider us worthy of attention and expense of energy when we have nothing to offer him? Son of man. This is likely a reference to us being the children of Adam. We are all sons of Adam. We are the descendants of the first man created. The son of man that you care for him? We are weak and sinful yet we bear the image of God. We are image bearers. Why would God care for a weak and rebellious people?
Man has been made a little lower than God. Some translations have angels. The Hebrew word could be translated either angels or God. Man is lower than God in the created order of the world. Christ died for us not the angels. We as mankind are crowned with glory for one day we will be glorified and made like Christ. We are crowning piece of the creation account. We will one day reign with God though He will reign over us.
Verses 6-8 we see that God has placed man as having dominion over all of creation. We are to rule over all created beings that move on the ground, in the air or in the waters.
When you go back and look at verses 4-8 we can see that there may be another understanding from these verses. Many people are familiar with this, but we can see these verses referring to Christ. Christ came as a man. God came in the flesh of weak and feeble and frail man. Son of man which is a reference to Christ in the New Testament, but here I do not believe that is quite the reference here. But again son of Adam, Christ is the second Adam. He is the one who reverse the curse that the first Adam began. Christ came as a little lower than God, in that he gave up some of his godly characteristics and abilities in order to be man. Yet he was still fully god. Christ became weak in order to be made great.
The greatness of God is and always will be established through weakness. Salvation was secured through the weakness and frailty of humanity by God being made flesh.
- Determine to live according to the laws of God.
- Determine that the church will only work according to the prescribed will of God.
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