Speaker 1: 0:06

Good to be in God's house with you and good to be in the Bible together, and I want to invite you to open your Bibles, if you have them, to Psalm 8. If you don't, that's okay, because we'll have it on the overhead. I'm Pastor Corey Colravey and thank you. If you wonder if Paul got a haircut or something and what's different about him, that's not Paul, that's Nathan. Thank you, nathan, for filling in today. We really appreciate it. Some of you long timers know Nathan. He's helped many times, so we're grateful. But I'll read it in just a moment. Let me introduce Psalm 8. It's one of the favorites of God's people throughout the ages.

Speaker 1: 0:46

This is a great, great psalm. It says there it's to the choir master and that little superscription up there, it's something to be sung, and no doubt it's to be sung because I think it's rooted in joy. This song, that little phrase. According to the Giddeth, scholars point out that that word is related to, in Hebrew, the wine press and in the Old Testament there's a connection between wine and joy and, just like with the abundance of wine and grain, you know when God's going to bring the fullness of the kingdom in. So there's this association with joy and I think it's interesting that you only see that phrase in three Psalms this, psalm 8, and then you'll see it down the road in Psalm 81 and Psalm 84. And so they all have this connotation of joy to them and in the Psalter. I love it that you can sing Psalm 8 to joy to the world. I think it's very fitting that you can do that.

Speaker 1: 1:42

But we've been looking at the first several psalms this summer and the first two, you remember, are the introductory Psalms to the whole Psalter. They're like the two pillars at the beginning of the temple as you go into the temple, called the Psalms all 150. And then, after the second Psalm, you get to Psalm three and you just plunge into chaos. Right David's front, he's confronted by the enemies of the kingdom of God and they attack him. And so Psalms three through seven. You have this confrontation between David's own rebellious son, absalom, and also King Saul, who ruled right before David. They're attacking David, attacking David, and then you have conflict, psalms 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and then you come upon Psalm 8, and you can just feel like you can take a breath for a minute. It doesn't seem to be the conflict like there was before, although it alludes to it. It's mainly it's like an oasis amidst all this conflict, and so I want to hope to show you that Psalm 8 is not out of place. They didn't just slap it in there, but I think there's a reason that they put it in there at this point. So as we go along, hopefully that'll become more clear to you, but for now I'd like to ask you to stand. I'd like to read God's infallible word. It's inerrant and it's trustworthy, and it's trustworthy. It comes from our Lord, with love in his heart to you. Let's receive it by faith.

Speaker 1: 3:11

Psalm 8, to the choir master, according to the Giddeth, a Psalm of David. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to steal the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man? That you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him. Yet you have made him a little lower than the all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name. In all the earth, the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

Speaker 1: 4:12

God's people said Amen. You may be seated, father. We desire to grow in spiritual wisdom this morning, and so we need to understand who we are better and to understand who we are better, and we need to understand who we are. We need to have knowledge of you. And, father, I pray that you would help us to see Jesus Christ more clearly, who is our wisdom. It's in his name we pray, amen.

Speaker 1: 4:40

I'm going to look at this Psalm in three parts this morning, and the first part I want you to see. In the first couple of verses here I want you to see God's majesty, and he's alluding David's, alluding to God's majesty in creation. Look at it again, the first verse O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. You may this idea of your name, your your name.

Speaker 1: 5:06

You may remember when the Lord met Moses at Mount Sinai, he revealed his name to Moses Yahweh. In English, all capitals, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, whenever you see that that's, that's the covenant name of God. And so what was happening there is, when it says the name of God, it's not just speaking about God, it's speaking about God revealing himself. He's revealing himself just like he did. He gave Moses his name. So it's a revealing of who God is in all of his fullness. And so the idea is this oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is the revealing of yourself in all of the earth. It's a glorious thing. And so the godly man, like Calvin says, realizes he lives in a glorious theater created by God. We live in a glorious theater of God's handiwork and God's presence, and when David looked around the world, he could see God's fingerprints everywhere. He could see them everywhere, and they were the fingerprints of our covenant Lord and our creator. And it caused David's heart to sing and his heart to worship. You see, the righteous look at creation and it draws them to worship the wicked not. So.

Speaker 1: 6:30

Some of you older saints may remember a PBS series years ago by a man named Carl Sagan, and he also had a book that went with it, called Cosmos, and he says in there the cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. And he capitalized Cosmos. That's a whopper of a lie. The Berenstain Bears Some of you moms may have those books Cute little bears. You know what I'm talking about. In the book, the bear family invites the young reader to join them for a nature walk. And so they start out on this sunny morning after running into a few spider webs. How adorable and how cute is that. And then we read in capital letters sprawled across the sunrise, glazed with light rays, those familiar words nature is all that is or was or ever will be.

Speaker 1: 7:32

The devil's crafty, isn't he? He'll hide behind cuteness. The devil couldn't have said it better himself. And you see, the apostle Paul, in Romans 1, he says that God's existence has been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. But then he goes on to say but the wicked, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth of this knowledge of God. They want that knowledge out of their heart and mind.

Speaker 1: 8:08

And then there are those who don't deny God's existence, but they're not moved to worship God either. And you see, that's the kind of knowledge the devil has. He knows God exists, he knows who Jesus Christ is, but he doesn't worship him. It's just a dead knowledge that flits around in his brain. But look, david knows who he's worshiping. David knows the Lord. Oh Lord, our Lord, that's oh Yahweh, our Adonai. It's oh covenant Lord, the one who comes down and is an intimate relationship with David and makes promises to David of salvation. Our Lord, that's the sovereign Lord, the sovereign one who has might and authority and power over all things. He's the one who has dominion over all things. But David was only moved to praise his creator because he had come to know that God had revealed himself not just through creation, but through his word. And so when David looks at the creation, he has the word of God, which is the right interpretation of all things. God interprets his own works. And so, david, when he looks at the heavens, he's not simply being reminded of God's greatness, although that's part of what he's being reminded of when he's looking at the heavens with all of, he's looking up there and he's remembering the promises of God that the same one who's the creator is his. He's made all these promises and he's going to keep those promises to David. And so he's reminded, when he looks up at the stars of God's goodness he's reminded of. He looks up at the stars of God's goodness. He's reminded of. God's grace.

Speaker 1: 9:48

David, if he was living today, I think he could join in Maltby Babcock's 1901 hymn this Is my Father's World. Anybody know that hymn? If you know that hymn, give me an amen. I knew there were some people in here that knew that hymn. This is my father's world and to my listening ears, all nature sings and around me rings the music of the spheres. This is my father's world. I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas. His hand, the wonders wrought. This is my father's world. The birds, their carols, raise the morning light. The lily white declare their maker's praise. This is my father's world. He shines in all that's fair, in rustling grass. I hear him pass. He speaks to me everywhere. His glory is in all the earth. David knew something of that, and so David here speaks, in verse one, of the majesty of God's name in all the earth. David knew something of that, and so David here speaks, in verse 1, of the majesty of God's name in all the earth.

Speaker 1: 10:49

You may remember back in Psalm 2, when we looked at it, that the Lord had promised the ends of the earth to his Messiah King. He was going to build a worldwide kingdom that's eternal through his Messiah. King David's an old covenant picture of that. And what does James Hamilton say? This is the kind of King the Lord wants, one who loves the Lord's name, and he wants his pervasive glory recognized in all the earth. That's a good King. What if we had rulers today that wanted the Lord's name recognized in all the earth? Boy, that would be a different world, wouldn't it? And see, we see that in sincerity in King David, but we see it in perfection in King Jesus himself.

Speaker 1: 11:35

And at the end of verse one it says David says you have set your glory above the heavens, above the heavens. All of creation cannot contain the greatness of the glory of God. He has an infinite greatness and glory, and so his glory is above the heavens. And then in verse two, out of the mouth of babies and infants you have established strength because of your foes to steal the enemy and the avenger. Now, that's one of the strangest statements. Well, I'm going to beat our enemies. How's that? Listen to these babies cry and speak over here, what? That sounds a little odd, doesn't it? Out of children and babies and little ones. That's how God's going to silence the nonsense of his enemies, those who hate and deny his glory and majesty.

Speaker 1: 12:33

You remember, in the gospels of Matthew 21,. Jesus at the triumphal entry right, he comes into Jerusalem, but during that last week he drives out the merchants from the temple with a whip. And then we read this and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. And when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that Jesus did and the children crying out in the temple, hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant. You see, these leaders hated Jesus, they hated Christ, they hated the Messiah. And then it says they said to Jesus do you hear what these are saying? Do you hear what these children are saying about you? And Jesus said to them yes, have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies? You have prepared praise and leaving them, jesus went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

Speaker 1: 13:33

You see, Jesus' own interpretation of Psalm 8 is he's the Lord of Psalm 8. He's the Lord of Psalm 8. And of course he was quoting there the Greek interpretation of the Hebrew Old Testament. It's called the Septuagint. You see, it quoted quite a bit, but he was telling the chief priests and the Pharisees and the scribes there something about themselves. I think it's very interesting how Jesus does sometimes.

Speaker 1: 13:58

He said the first half of verse two and he let them fill in the blank in the second part.

Speaker 1: 14:02

Listen again. All Jesus said to them was out of the mouth of babies and infants you have established strength or you have prepared praise, and then they would have known their scripture, because what comes next is because of your foes to steal the enemy and the avenger. He was making clear to them you're the enemies of the kingdom of God, and opposing me, you're opposing God's Messiah King, you see, and so that's just what we see in Psalms three through seven. We've seen Absalom and Saul, just like the scribes and Pharisees in the gospel, opposing God's king, chosen king, king David. And you can read about that also in 1 and 2 Samuel. But in verse 2 here notice the foes are plural but then it says the enemy and the avenger. The foes of the kingdom have a band director. The enemy it's Satan himself. Satan has an army, he's got an army of demons and he also inspires people, like he did Judas.

Speaker 1: 15:07

But the word here for enemy is related to a term back in Genesis 3.15, a very important verse. To understand the Psalms, you read in that verse back in Genesis 3.15, enmity, a word related to enemy. It's that hostility between enemies, right, and that same root word we have where Psalms 3, psalm 6, psalm 7. We're going to see it in this Psalm. We're going to see it again in Psalm 9.

Speaker 1: 15:34

And so it's back in Genesis 3.15, after the fall, that the Lord tells Satan that there's going to be enmity between his children and Eve's children, which is a fancy way or a veiled way of saying between the children of God and the children of the devil. There's going to be a certain enmity between them, between the righteous and the wicked. Here you see that played out between King David and the enemies of the kingdom of God that attack God's king and, of course, ultimately between Christ and Satan. And we read about that in Revelation, right? Well, god did not just tell Satan there was going to be enmity between the children, his children, and God's children. He also said something else back in Genesis 3.15. He said that Satan will bruise the seed of the woman's heel. Well, that's a veiled illusion. The seed of the woman ultimately points to Christ. That's what the genealogies and the gospels are getting straight the seed of the woman. So Satan's going to bruise Jesus' heel yes, he died on that cross. But the seed of the woman Jesus is going to bruise or crush Satan's head. It's going to be a death blow to the head. Jesus is going to rise from the dead, but Christ is going to defeat Satan at the cross.

Speaker 1: 17:00

So now, how is God going to crush Satan's head and defeat him Through the weak things of the world? Is the principle, and you see that principle here in verse two. You see that through the cross. Is there anything that looks weaker than someone dying on a cross? But you see that same principle here in verse 2. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you've established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger. So James Hamilton says God answers the roar of Satan with the baby's cry. That's how great he is. What does that mean? Where's that going? Does that mean that God's going to raise up this massive army that's just going to take the world by sword, ultimately, through tanks, atomic weapons? No, by her having a child which would lead to another. Having a child, which would lead to another having a child, which would lead to another, and another, and another, and eventually it's going to lead to this woman named Mary, and she's going to have a child, one called Jesus, the new Adam, the second Adam and the son of David. Jesus is ultimately the seed of the woman who's going to crush Satan's head, and he's going to do it through the death on the cross, and in doing so he's going to save his people from their sins and secure our salvation.

Speaker 1: 18:25

I don't know if any of you saw the Passion of the Christ, but there's this great scene in there, in my opinion, where Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane and what comes into the garden when he's kneeling there? The snake. I hate snakes. Pow, pow, I scared you, didn't I? Out of nowhere, nowhere, that's what he did. He's crushed Satan's head like that. I jumped in the movie. The first time I saw it too, I thought, wow, what is that? And if you were asleep a minute ago, now you're awake, good. So that's why I use that illustration. But what I'm getting at is did that really happen? Do we read in the gospels that a snake came into the garden of Gethsemane? No, but the.

Speaker 1: 19:17

He's making a theological point and it's brilliant. It's through the suffering and death of Christ that he's going to crush Satan's head. Is there anything weaker than a vulnerable baby? In fact, the word for man in this psalm is man in his frailty and vulnerability. That's the word that's used.

Speaker 1: 19:39

God chose what is foolish in the world, paul says, to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing, things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. God is determined to be glorified. He's determined to glorify himself and to be glorified by people. He'll give us his only son, but he won't give his glory to another. And so the godly understand their smallness and God's greatness. But the wicked know they don't understand that. So we see in these first two verses God's majesty in creation. But a second thing we see God's mindfulness in verses three and four, God's mindfulness of man.

Speaker 1: 20:26

When I look at your heavens David says the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you set in place, what is man? Modern man has a hard time understanding his place in the universe, because you see that he has no knowledge of God. Modern man is trying to just live life according to the self and floating along and according to whatever science latest theory happens to be. Modern man has made himself central and large and made god very small and peripheral and, in some cases, completely out of view altogether. But we need to reflect just for a minute. David is sitting here in this psalm and he's thinking I cannot believe. As great as God is as he looks up at the night sky, he is mindful of me and mindful of people and that he cares for me. He cares for me as great as God is. This is why Spurgeon calls this psalm a song of the astronomer.

Speaker 1: 21:41

David didn't have all the modern technology, but I came across once a beautiful picture of deep outer space, a picture taken by NASA. It had the stars, it had planets, perhaps even galaxies and some of those dots. But right in the middle of the NASA picture there was a big nothing, just this nothing dot. You know, and if you were to personally travel I understand through that darkened space in the picture, they said it would take you over 752 million years. Wow, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him.

Speaker 1: 22:26

Philip Yancey in his book on prayer if the Milky Way galaxy was the size of North America, he said our own solar system would fill a coffee cup. And the Milky Way galaxy is just one out of, they think, over 200 billion galaxies. Palmer Robertson says astronomers tell us many of the distant points of light in the sky contain more stars than the millions to be found in our own cluster in the Milky Way. Suppose you could be beamed up on a shaft of light traveling 186,000 miles per second. That's a Star Trek-y's dream, right there. And after a few million years of journeying at 186,000 miles per second, he says you would arrive at Andromeda, one of the galaxies nearest our own. And suppose you took along with one of the newest, latest telescopes with all the gadgets and everything that you could hope for in that and you reach your destination there and you turn that telescope around to see what's going on at earth. And when you go to check it out, what are you going to see? And Palmer Robertson says you see absolutely nothing. This world and the works of mankind, he says, are so small they don't amount to a pinpoint in the vastness of the universe. The universe without the knowledge of God is terrifying. It's a lonely place. It becomes a pointless place without God place. It becomes a pointless place without God.

Speaker 1: 24:06

Francis Bacon once said a little science estranges a man from God. A lot of science brings him back. Well, I believe, david, he understood a lot of science. I think it's in this chain of trust, this persecution in his life. I think David wrote this when he was on the run, in exile, and one night he just was laying down at night, looking up, probably one of those nights where he couldn't sleep and he was weeping, as one of the other Psalms says, and his bed was drenched with tears. And he's looking up into the heavens like he used to do as a young shepherd boy guarding the sheep at night. He was the youngest, it was his job to stay out there with the sheep. And when David looks up in the sky, he sees not only the shining moon but he sees all these stars. And for a Jew, when they think about stars and seeing stars, they would have thought about that. Genesis 1 account for sure.

Speaker 1: 25:01

And I think that David, thinking about his covenant Lord here in the opening verse, all capitals, yahweh. He remembered God's promise to Abraham back in Genesis, chapter 15. You remember when the elderly Abraham, he was given promises by God that through Abraham was going to come the blessing of salvation to all the world. And it was going to come the blessing of salvation to all the world and it was going to come through his descendants. That's going to lead to Jesus, through Abraham, through David, all the way to Jesus. Abraham was struggling to believe it and God says okay, go outside Abraham, and look up at the stars and that's how many descendants you're going to have. That was his promise to Abraham. So when a Jew looks at the stars at night, they don't just look at the stars, they remember that God is a promise maker and a promise keeper Aren't you glad? And so he's looking at the stars and he remembers God is determined to bless Abraham and bless God's people. And indeed he's going to reach the nations of the world that the kingdom is going to go on.

Speaker 1: 26:03

For all this chaos David is experiencing, he's relying on the promise of God. And so David here. He's astonished that God is mindful and that he cares. That word for care can also be translated. The King James, I believe, does this way visits. How mindful is God of us, how much does he care for us? How did he visit us? Ultimately, he did that not just in our daily life, where he takes care of us, but in his son he sent God so loved the world, the rebellious world, that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever should believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life, have present tense forever. And so God's majesty is here in creation, god's mindfulness of man, but then, thirdly and lastly, god's mandate for culture. We see it in verses 5 through 9.

Speaker 1: 27:05

Some of you may remember a guy named Oliver Wendell Holmes from yesterday's, and he once made a statement. He at one time was a very influential person, but he said one time that he didn't think that human beings were any more significant than a baboon or a grain of sand. When you look at your grandchildren, do you believe that? When you look at your children, do you believe that? When you look in the mirror, do you believe that that is a lie, and it's a lie from the pit of hell.

Speaker 1: 27:46

This man had a little science at his fingertips and you see, this is part of the despair that sets in with people when they live in this world and they don't understand God's purposes for them. You could go out on the street and ask many people what's God's purpose for you, and many people could not tell you what that purpose is. It's to glorify and enjoy God forever. That's your purpose, and David knew it, and he wanted all the earth to participate in that. Look at David's vision. Look at David and his understanding of creation through the lens of the word of God, verse five.

Speaker 1: 28:22

Yet you have made him. Yet you have made man a little lower than the heavenly beings or angels and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen, that's, the domesticated animals, and also the beasts of the field, that's the wild animals, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. Lord, you not only put us at the top of the food chain, but you crowned us with glory and honor. You made us in your image, as Genesis says. Do you realize that when Genesis says you're made in the image of God, and then you run it through the grid here too of Psalm 8, he's crowned you with glory and honor. Do you realize that you're a little king and queen? You see, the world might want to tell you you're no more significant than a baboon or a grain of sand. God says, oh no, you have a stamp of heavenly royalty upon you. You have a certain inherent dignity to you because you're made in the image of the living God.

Speaker 1: 29:35

Remember in Genesis 1, and God blessed Adam and Eve and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. I'm putting you in charge. I'm going to help you, but you're in charge, so rule well to my glory. You see, we're little kings and queens who answer to the king of kings, and God's given us our little, if you want to think of it this way, our little kingdoms I think I may have mentioned.

Speaker 1: 30:05

One of my seminary professors used to say men, tend your garden. You see, he gave Adam the garden to work and to rule and to bring out the full potential of creation, to build culture. In other words, that's our, it's the cultural mandate it's sometimes called. So what's Christian education for? It's to prepare students, not to simply get a job. It's to prepare them to rule well, to have dominion over God's creation in such a way that God gets the glory. That's the point of education At least it should be for Christians.

Speaker 1: 30:47

And so we have this kingly status, this queenly status God's given us at creation. He's crowned us. That's an amazing thing. God has crowned you and, you see, that's why our sin is so heinous. Remember, at the end of the Chronicles of Narnia, queen Lucy the crowner, queen Susan, and they crown her Queen Susan. And they crown her King Edmund, and they crown him High King Peter, and they crown him. That's what CS Lewis is getting at, you might think. Well, god's given mankind the responsibility to rule things well on earth, of course dependent upon God, but nevertheless to rule things, to have dominion over them, to subdue things, to build cultures and love their neighbors. But we don't seem to do a very good job of it. So where's our hope for the future?

Speaker 1: 32:06

O Palmer Robertson said he read a book years ago called the Ascent of man, and in that book there's a chapter said lesser than the angels. Well, that's Psalm 8.5, lesser than the angels. And that book was by Jacob Bernowski and it was a 400-pager and it's about the cultural evolution of man through arts and science and all this stuff. And he starts to get to the end of the 400 pages and Robertson says that Bernowski reproduces this letter from Albert Einstein to President FDR in 1939. And Einstein was informing FDR about this very powerful bomb that they've just discovered, right, the atomic bomb. And then in the next couple of pages you see vivid pictures of Hiroshima after the first atomic bomb dropped, after the first atomic bomb dropped. And then he moves on to talk about Auschwitz, where millions of Jews were killed in the gas chambers. And then here's what he says Bernowski, this is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of God.

Speaker 1: 33:16

Now, why am I saying that? Because verse 1 and verse 9 are very important. David understands man's role is to rule and have dominion over the earth and to build culture and so forth and develop God's creation to its full potential. But if we're not worshipers of God, as verse 1 and verse 9 point out, what comes in the middle is going to cause a lot of destruction. The 20th century people's own governments killed over 100 million of their own people. Power unhinged, rule and dominion unhinged from worshiping God and submitting to His will, produces chaos, death and destruction and pain. And so where's our hope for the future? Yes, we're crowned with glory and honor.

Speaker 1: 34:08

Hebrews 2, verse 5, and following answers that I'm not going to read it to you. Hebrews is a little bit, I think it's one of the most difficult. But basically what he does is he quotes Psalm 8, and then he points to Christ. See him who for a little while, was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that, by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. That's how mindful God is of you, for everyone. That's how mindful God is of you and me. That's how much he cares for you and me. And it's through Christ that, where man has messed up rule and dominion on earth, christ is going to come back. See, he's died, raised from the dead, ascended into heaven. He's sitting at the right hand of God right now as we speak, and one day he's going to come back and he's going to make all things new and right.

Speaker 1: 35:06

And here's the really good news we will never, ever have to listen to another presidential debate. Ever we won't have to look at the political party picture of a donkey or an elephant ever again, because the king is going to get it right forever. Aren't you glad for that? At the political party picture of a donkey or an elephant ever again, because the king is going to get it right forever. Aren't you glad for that? You see, that's our hope for the future. He's sovereign one.

Speaker 1: 35:32

You see, the fundamental confession of the New Testament is Jesus is what Lord. He's the Lord of this psalm. David didn't know his name yet, but he knew he was Lord. He's the Lord of this psalm. David didn't know his name yet, but he knew he was Lord and he knew a Messiah was coming. And so our hope is not in sinful mankind.

Speaker 1: 35:49

Our hope is in the man, jesus Christ, the divine son of God, the king of kings, who rules over creation and all things, even as we speak. And one day he's going to bring things into full subjection to him, things even as we speak. And one day he's going to bring things into full subjection to him. And in the meantime, you and I have work to do for the king. He's given us our little kingdoms. Maybe you don't think of your life as that right. But God has blessed you. You have a family, you have a workplace, you have a community, you have a nation. He's given us things to do in all those different spheres of life and we're to do them all to the glory of God.

Speaker 1: 36:24

Jesus Christ. Colossians says everything is by him, all things were created and all things were created through him and for him. Speaking of Jesus Christ, and then it says this and he is the head of the body of the church, he's the beginning, the firstborn of the dead, that in everything Jesus might be preeminent. Preeminent, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross. History for God's people, when all is said and done, is going to be a glorious thing. It'll be a happy ending for us. Yes, there'll be suffering between now and then, but Jesus is going to get it right. Didn't we just say we know how the story ends? Didn't we just sing something about that?

Speaker 1: 37:17

And you know what preeminence means right? And you know what preeminence means right? It's not just Jesus is our priority. Priority means he's the first on the list, the most important on the list, and he is certainly first on the list and most important. If you're a believer, that's what God expects us to do is to honor his son. But to be preeminent means Jesus is the point of everything on our list. He's the point of everything, and so, just from an education standpoint, for example, he's the point of math and science and art and music and language arts and history and sports administration. He's the point of your family life, your work life, your recreation, your friendships, everything. Jesus is to be preeminent in everything. That's the will of God. That's why because by him and through him and to him are all things that's God's design, and so I want to end this way this morning that it's the Holy Spirit who puts this joy that David sings about in his heart. We don't naturally sing praise to the Lord, but when we put our trust and faith in Christ, god's Spirit fills us and he puts a heart of praise in us. We become thankful to God, we want to praise him.

Speaker 1: 38:36

And when you look up at the night sky I know when you look at the news it's so depressing, isn't it? Don't you get sick of the news? Sometimes you just got to shut it off. But when you look up at the stars, you remember that God is mindful of you, that he cares for you, that he's a promise maker and a promise keeper, and he showed that through Jesus Christ. He demonstrated it most supremely in the death. Resurrection of Jesus Christ and our salvation comes through trusting him. And as we look out upon the troubled world and when you look up at the stars, why don't you remember these words? This is my father's world. Oh, let me never forget that, though the wrong seems off so strong, god is the ruler. Yet this is my father's world. The battle is not done. Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and heaven be one. If you believe that, say amen.