I welcome you to the service of worship. I hearken you to the word of God. This morning—Psalm chapter eight, the eighth Psalm:
“O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”
Oh Lord our Lord, we come before you to confess that we are who you know we are. For you are the creator and you made us. We are the creature you made in your own image. Father you know us and the glory of creation, you know us and the reality of sin. And we are here today because you know us through the blood of your own son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So Father, we come as a blood bought people to hear your inherent, infallible, eternal word. We pray that this word will break forth anew to your glory for our good. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The book came out just a couple of years ago. The title of the book is “Why?”? Alright, so I’ll admit, if you’re going to write a book and ask the question “Why?” I’m going to buy it and read it. It really doesn’t matter who you are. I’m going to read the book because you’re asking the most fundamental question: “Why?” Alright, these days when I see a book with the title why I’m going to buy the book and I’m going to read the book, but my defense mechanisms are already up. Because now in the 21st century when someone writes a book and they ask the question “Why?” I do not expect that they’re going to answer the question why with a biblical answer. As a matter of fact, I’m going to suspect that the book is written because the author sees that answer as available no more. And now we’ve got to find some answer to the question “Why?” on the other side of a secular abyss.
Good luck with that. This particular book is entitled “Why?” the Subtitle, “The Purpose of the Universe” is by Philip Goff, who’s professor of philosophy at Durham University. Obviously an incredibly intelligent person, someone who has been asking this kind of question for a very long time. By the time I finished the book, I determined he really didn’t offer a satisfying answer to the question, but I have to say good show of it. In other words, if you can try to come up with an answer to the question “Why?” without reference to God, or at least without any, any acknowledgement of the validity of that answer, then what you’re going to have to end up with as some kind of synthetic answer, some kind of, some kind of answer to why that just takes the datum of the world as we know it. And that means especially experience and tries to bring some coherent answer to the, to the question why he does acknowledge there’s a Christian answer.
And so I appreciate that. And, and just in terms of the shape of Western civilization, there’s a sense in which he has to acknowledge there was a Christian answer. And as a matter of fact, that was the answer that held together the civilization and the giant metaphysical questions of life for centuries far more than a millennium. He doesn’t think the Christian answer is available to us now, partly because of what we know now.
Alright, so all my juices are flowing. What do we know now that Moses didn’t know? What do we know now that David didn’t know? What do we know now that Peter and Paul didn’t know? What, what do we know now that Augustine didn’t know? What do we know now that Athanasius didn’t know? What do we know now that Thomas didn’t know? What do we know now that Calvin didn’t know? What do we, what do we know right now that Luther didn’t know, Jonathan Edwards didn’t know, my grandmother didn’t know?
What do we know now? Well, one of the answers is particle physics. It awakened me in the middle of the night last night. The hope that all the particles would keep together. You think about it too much. You know, there there’s a giant force holding all the matter together in the world. And if it just stops, being becomes non-being stuff becomes former stuff—the universe unravels. So, particle physics, that was one. He also cites moral developments. But mostly it’s a scientific argument on the other side of modern physics. On the other side of modern science, we now no longer really find a compelling argument to believe in God. That’s, that’s his argument—professor of philosophy at Durham University in England. And again, this isn’t new. I mean, this isn’t new at all.
The problem is that on the other side of that breakdown, on the other side of that secular cliff, the answers, let’s just be honest, are really flimsy. I mean really, really flimsy. If there is no God and we are not the creature of a Creator, then we have to come up with some explanation of who we are. Some plausible worldview, some way of looking at the world, some metaphysic, some ontology, some systematic way of understanding. But that doesn’t even really solve the problem because the problem turns out overwhelmingly to be moral.
It always does. We’re made in God’s image. The question for the rhinoceros does not always turn out to be moral. You won’t know what you’re talking about. Don’t try to reason morality with a crocodile. You’ll not lose the argument, you’ll just lose your head. The human creature is the creature who understands we have to have a moral argument. So without God, what he calls the omni-God and that’s not a unique term to him. That’s shorthand for the dismissal of the God of the Bible and, and the, all the “omnis” that are in it: omniscience, omnipotence…. And it’s interesting the way he puts it. He, he more or less says, well, let me quote him directly. “The omni-God probably doesn’t exist, time to look for alternatives.”
Okay. I just have to stop a minute and say, it’s kind of like saying, I don’t think that police officer exists. I’m going to ignore him. I don’t think that soldier exists. I’m just going to ignore him. I don’t think that robber exists. I’m just going to ignore him. When you acknowledge that, you can see it and deny it, it’s an amazing thing. And obviously, I not mean with physical sight. See, God, the God of the Bible, the omni-God, actually he’s talking about here. It’s just you. You just have to note that even the people who deny him are haunted by the fact that he’s looking over their shoulder. It’s the human predicament. And I think the fact that God is looking over his shoulder is why the word “probably” works itself into this sentence. You know, it’s just like, okay, hedging my best just in case the omni-God does exist and is watching me at the moment.
“The omni-God probably doesn’t exist.” On the other side of the non-existence of God he has a value problem. And he sees two alternatives. One is value minimalism and the other is value fundamentalism. Alright. I think you can figure that out. Value minimalism is that, that we’re not even sure they’re real, but they are kind of necessary. So let, let’s stick with them. We don’t have any real plausible, metaphysical, ontological, satisfactory grounding of them. Let’s just say the good, the beautiful, the true, you know, right, wrong. So, but, but we need them. So in his, in his book, he says he started out as a value minimalist that didn’t work so well. So now he’s a value fundamentalist. And, and what he means by that is he, he believes that the values are real and they’re fundamental. We can’t do without them. So the very fact that we can’t do without them means they, they have to be, in some sense, real.
Now, I, I didn’t find his book particularly compelling. I guess you can figure that out by our reading together of Psalm eight. But I do appreciate the honesty of a man who says on the other side, a belief in the God of the Bible. This is what we’ve got. It’s just not much. As a matter of fact, the book is shorter than I expected it to be. If I’m looking for a book that’s going to answer the question “Why?” I’m expecting a multi-volume set, unfinished, thin little book. Compare that to Psalm eight. I read it from the King James because I learned it in the King James.
“O LORD our Lord,” So it’s, it’s, it’s a statement. It’s not just oh Lord, but it’s “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.” It’s a declaration of God’s glory and it is the beginning and the end of this psalm. So that very phrase is the opening and the close of this rather concise psalm, it is identified immediately as a psalm of David. It’s a statement of corporate and personal belief. It’s not just about the existence of the God who created the world in all things and created us in His image and rules over the years. It’s not just an acknowledgement of that God in his existence. It is an acknowledgement of that God and His covenant with his people.
“O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” You know, from time to time it’s just good for us to pause as believers and ponder the excellence of the name of the Lord. In thinking about this message, this hour, this text, I was struck by an excellence of God’s name that I really had not considered before. Jehovah. Yahweh, Adonai, God, our Father who art in heaven. When we just think of the Father, we think of his names, we think of the word “God.” Have you reflected before on how that one word operates as such an efficient summary?
Have you considered how impoverished our preaching would be? How awkward our conversation would be, how difficult our devotional lives and our public arguments would be if we did not have a name that we could name. It’s not just a little “g”, it’s capital “G.” In this case, it’s not just a little “l” Again, we’re talking about not just the one who is a Lord, we’re talking about the Lord of all—the author and the finisher. But it’s not just the name by which we invoke God. It’s not just that it’s necessary, it’s also that it’s sufficient.
When we are together as Christians and we read Psalm 8, we do not have to turn to one another askance and ask, who are we talking about here? This is the God of the Bible, the entirety of the Scriptures, the maker of heaven and earth. We, we know of whom we speak. When we say, “O LORD our Lord,” with David, we know of whom we speak that his name invokes all. “How excellent is thy name in all the earth!” And then the words, “who hast set thy glory above the heavens.” So, heaven and earth all together, comprehensively God’s glory fills the earth. God’s glory fills the heavens. And especially in the Old Testament reference to the heavens, here is “everything else.” It’s an expanse we can’t understand. It’s, it’s a massive cosmos, we can’t even comprehend. But your glory fills it all. You made it all. Your glory is all. Oh Lord, our Lord.
“How excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.” I can remember learning this psalm as a little boy. The sweet verse “. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength.” I’m going to wait just a minute. This doesn’t go where you might expect it to go. So listen carefully, “. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained…” what… “strength.” Seriously have you seen a babe? Have you seen a suckling child? Is that the word you think of strength and because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger?
Seriously, when God’s people face our most frightening enemies, when we’re establishing our hope and our trust and our confidence, when we’re looking for rescue…. an infant, a suckling? Let me remind you of 1 Samuel 17 and following beginning of verse one of chapter 17:
“Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.
And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.”
Be careful what you ask for. When you’re facing the people of the one true and living God, be careful what you ask for. You ask for a man who will come and fight you and if he wins you will be the servants of that people if you win, they shall be your servants. You dare God “Send me a man.” God sends you a man… or not.
You know the story. David goes to bring his brother’s provisions. David, little David, minuscule David, little boy David verse 26. “And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” Now I just want to tell you right up front, as a father and as a grandfather—and I dearly love my children, and I’m unspeakably affectionate towards my grandchildren—but they can be irritating at times.
They show up and ask awkward questions. What’s the main awkward question they ask? “Why?” “Why?” They also clarify things. They’ll tell you how you look. There is no pretense. “Papa, you’re old.” They mean it. They say it with wonder. Makes me want to take my pulse. But you know, I’ve never had one of them show up and say, “Who is going to fight this Philistine? Is no one going to take on this uncircumcised Philistine? Is there not a, is there not a man in Israel who will fight this fight?” You know the story David, in verse 29, “is there not a cause?”
Well, you know that it was David who killed the Philistine Goliath. He went out into battle against Goliath. The boy killed the giant verse 50. “So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and smote the Philistine and slew him. But there was no sword in the hand of David.” Verse 54. “And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in the tent.” Verse 58, “And Saul said to him, whose son aren’t thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy servant, Jesse, the Bethlehemite.”
Alright, I have thrilled in that story, in that historical account my entire life from the time that I was David’s size. Turn to Psalm 8. Do you see it? Look at the ascription “To the Chief Musician upon Giddath: a Psalm of David.” Giddath is Gath. It’s hard to imagine this isn’t about Goliath. He cites Gath, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.” Not what we expect out of a babe. Strength is not what we expect out of a nursing child. The strength is what showed up when David asked, “Is there not a cause?” Little David, the babe, slew the avenger, the enemy.
It’s a sweet, sweet psalm. It has this strange turn. That’s not what we expect to come after the mouth of babes and sucklings. “Thou ordained strength because of thine enemies. that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.” And then he looks to the heavens, notice this. He looks to the heavens. “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” You know, it starts out with David’s amazement at how the Lord would use an infant, a child, small to save his people.
And of course, let’s go ahead and skip ahead. We were amazed that the Lord used a baby born in Bethlehem to slay the avenger, to redeem his people from our sin. But then David shifts from looking at the baby to looking at all humanity. And the background here is not Gath. The background here is not a battle. The background here is the entire universe. He says it clearly, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”
Why would you care about creatures like me? Why do we matter to you? Why are you mindful of us? Why do you visit us? The language is just beautiful. “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” My goodness. But then it goes on. Look at verse five: “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.” It’s not just that: “Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.”
Let me just state the obvious when, when and if, let’s just say when and if, so when and if you see a small boy slay a giant, when you, when you see that, let me just say you’re going to focus on that pretty intensely. That that that’s going to appear to have enormous significance. But then at some point you begin, inevitably you have to start shifting back to a larger frame. And the larger frame just gets larger and larger and larger. Eventually it’s a cosmic frame. It’s the frame of the entire universe. If you’re going to ask the question “Why?”, the question, “Why?” asked in the precinct of say your, your home sitting at your table, that’s going to be a very different question than “Why?” when you walk outside and see the entire expanse of the night sky and recognize we are so tiny. I mean even the biggest of us—so tiny. Even the mightiest of us, so powerless over against the expanse of the cosmos. I mean, just go outside and look, why would God care about us?
And I don’t just mean corporate us, I mean each of us—like you and me. It’s an astounding question. Why would God be mindful of us? The only reason we know that he’s mindful of us is because number one, he tells us he is. We don’t know who we are, but for the fact that he has told us who we are, and he has told us that we are the only creature made in his image. You can go out into the countryside and you can see cows eating in the dark under a night sky, an expansive stars. But so far as we know, there are no cow astronomers or cow philosophers. They’re looking at each other, chewing—a beautiful picture of passivity, a pastoral picture. We all recognize that it’s very common, even in Scripture. But you don’t hear a cow ask “What is cow that, that thou art mindful of him or the son of cow that you visiteth him?” No, no, you, you don’t get that there. There’s no great white shark out in the middle of the ocean thinking “What is shark that thou art mindful of him?”
But the issue does come to us, the question does come to us, even that “Why?” question. And then we realize the audacity of claiming that we know the answer to that question “Why?” And it is because the Creator—the omnipotent, sovereign God of the universe—formed this entire cosmos as the theater of his glory. And in this cosmos on this planet, he created one creature made in his image to know him. It should be as natural for two human beings standing in a pasture at night to ask, “What is man that thou art mindful of him?” as it would be unnatural for a cow to ask the same question.
Notice again the beautiful language here: “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels.” Well, it’s very interesting, a little lower than the angels, that’s not as specific as we might like. But in terms of our vocation to display the glory of God, the angels according to this text, have a certain exalted status over us. The Scripture in the New Testament also makes clear that the angels are envious of God’s revelation to us and especially of the atoning work whereby the Son of God purchased our salvation. These are things into which we’re told angels long to look, but it does put us in our place a bit here.
We have an exalted place in creation. And I think the implication here is that we’re just slightly, slightly lower than the angels. And then notice this next text: thou “hast crowned him with glory and honour.” Well, those are words that are most commonly ascribed to God himself, “glory and honour.” When we hear the words “glory and honour,” if we, if we see them in a verse, we do not think they are about human beings. Those words are referring—“glory and honour”—to God.
But he’s actually crowned human beings with glory and honor. And not only that, in verse six, given us dominion. Dominion over what? Dominion over whom? Dominion over all of the things of the creation. All of creation is put under our feet. That’s what it says. Just in case we need some detail: “All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field.” And, and verse eight is precious: “The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.” Because we’re not really sure what passes through the seas. We’ve heard things, we found some evidence. Even now there is the admission in nine tenths of the ocean, we’re not sure what’s in there.
We think of ancient people in their ignorance. Brothers and sisters we’re slightly less ignorant than they are of what is in the depths of the ocean. I will admit, I have very little temptation to go and find out. And that was certainly true of the Jewish people. They had very little temptation to go and find out. And so let’s just put it in summary: If it passes through the sea—don’t you love this?—we have dominion over it. Obviously. Obviously. We don’t even know what exists and we have dominion over it….
But the point is: we do. We do. It’s because when that thing is encountered, we name it—it does not name us. It is the thing, we are the soul. Anthropology is the hardest question. I Just want to say, apologetically, the meaning of human existence is the hardest question. If the omni-God does not exist, that’s our big problem, because honestly explaining the Grand Canyon does not keep me up late at night. Explaining metamorphosis doesn’t keep me up late at night. But “Who am I and what does my life mean?” That would keep me up every night.
It is a pressing question. And, and the answers are just really spare. They’re few. There just aren’t many. If we are not the creature made in the image of God, then all we are is the latest, most intelligent thing yet found. That’s all we are. And, and you may feel very prideful about that designation until you watch yourself in the course of a single day. If we are the most intelligent beings on the planet, we are doomed. I mean, we are doomed. Furthermore, we’re being told we’re going to be exceeded. Alright? How are we going to be exceeded? Well, we’re told artificial intelligence is going to exceed us and it, and soon I is going to have an intelligence far beyond ours. Now let me just say that those who are the proponents of such a statement actually have a very limited intelligence about intelligence.
But if we just feel ourselves somehow superior to other creatures because of our computational power, I don’t doubt for a minute that there will be machines who can exceed us in computational power. That that doesn’t mean that they are smarter than we are. They may demonstrate in fact that we’re not as smart as we think we are. But at the end of the day, we are still the human being made in God’s image and they’re digital. Animal rights activists are doing their very best to confuse this question, suggesting that any designation of particular human dignity is an oppressive, patriarchal, prejudicial imposition to the danger of the planet and all the other species and all the rest. And, and you can think, well, that argument falls on its face so fast that it wouldn’t have any traction. But in court after court, it’s gaining slowly.It is slow, but it is gaining slowly. And the one of the latest aspects of this argument is where they will say, well, if indeed it’s consciousness and self-awareness and the ability to communicate, then there are animals that demonstrate consciousness and awareness and the ability to have some kinda rudimentary communication. And for all we know, dolphins have libraries in the bottom of the seat.
The point is that if there is no biblical grounding of who we are, if we don’t have a biblical answer to why human beings exist and who we are, then we’re going to have to come up with something. And quite honestly, nothing’s going to hold, nothing’s going to hold, nothing’s going to morally hold. Look at the horrors of the 20th century. Look at genocide. Look at, look at all the horrors of, of even the modern age. And, and we, we are not going to be able to survive. If the answer to why is self-referential in its answer, if that’s all we got. I love this psalm. “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.” We didn’t crown ourselves. We were crowned. “Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”
I want to share something with you and I want to tell you that this is something that for some time has grabbed my heart as the father of a daughter and the grandfather of a granddaughter. G.K. Chesterton, back in 1910 or so, he wrote a little essay that’s entitled, “I Begin With A Little Girl’s Hair.” Chesterton, in London, saw a little girl held by the hand by her mother walking in front of her of his house, a little girl with red hair, and he saw a hair fall…. This is how he began his essay:
“I begin with a little girl’s hair. That I know is a good thing at any rate. Whatever else is evil, the pride of a good mother in the beauty of her daughter is good. It is one of those adamantine tendernesses which are the touchstones of every age and race. If other things are against it, other things must go down. If landlords and laws and sciences are against it, landlords and laws and sciences must go down. With the red hair of one she-urchin in the gutter I will set fire to all modern civilization.”
I’m going to end with a little girl’s hair. If you take just one little girl’s hair, Chesterton is right, what do you have? You have a hair. The hair leads you to a girl. The girl leads you to her mother. It leads you to a family, it and lead you outward, outward, outward. It leads you to understand she did not make herself and that mother who holds her hand so tenderly did not make her. Rightly understood, the entire cosmos comes into view with a little girl’s hair. That’s all you actually need. “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.”
You can see it all, if you have eyes to see, in just one little girl’s hair. Let’s pray.
Father, we cannot, but ask the question, why in the world do you care about us? And you only can answer that question and you tell us you care about us because you made every one of us, every part of us, and we are precious to you. Father, we do not understand why, but we declare that truth in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that we will live lives that will demonstrate your glory in the earth for all to see, for all to hear, and for all to know. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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