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Psalm 8 - God of all Creation

Psalm 8

 God of all Creation

 Introduction:
This Psalm is written by David as a testimonial to God's Creation and God's Creation Plan, as well as a worship to God the King.

Summary:
v1a, 9 - Praise to God
v1b-2 - Glory of God
v3-4 - Insignificance of man
v5-8 - God's Creation Plan for man

Praise to God
David starts and ends his Psalm with the phrase "O LORD, our LORD, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
- Declares God as LORD. (Adonai)
- Declares God as OUR LORD. (Adonai again). David makes it personal here, and uses a Hebrew way of emphasizing his point that God is LORD - master of his life.
- Declares the majesty of God's name in all the earth, nothing is greater than God's name.

Glory of God & Creation
Psalm 8 tells us a few things about God
v1b - His glory is above the heavens. We must be reminded that the heavens were also part of creation (brought up later in Psalm 8), and the source of glory in the heavens is God Himself.
v2 - Ordained praise from lips of children and infants. I think it means that God is deserving of all praise, and children and infants, despite having no formal knowledge of God, do not limit God's greatness, but in their hearts worship Him even without the formal knowledge of God.
v2 - Silence foe and avenger - That no one can speak against God, for He is worthy of all glory and honor and power.

Insignificance of man
v3 - When David considers the Creation of God - heavens, moon and stars created by God's fingers and set into place by God
v4 - he wonders why God would care for something as insignificant as man. Science tells us that we make up but 0.00000000001% of the galaxy (okay I just threw a number there, but you get the idea!), but yet God chose to care, not for mankind as a whole generic thing, but for each and every one of us individually.

 God's Creation Plan for man
David goes on to describe our original purpose in Creation. We were made lower than the "heavenly beings" - meaning God, not the stars and moon like how we often refer to things floating in the sky as "heavenly bodies". He crowned us with glory and honor - not that we may be prideful in it, but as the rightful ruler of Creation under God.
God has placed man as ruler over all the works of His hands; He has placed all of Creation under our feet.
Genesis 1:28 - God blessed them (Adam & Eve) and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
This is our duty - to rule the earth that God has given to us, and at the same time to worship God as Lord and Master of our lives. This is the creation plan for man.

Question:
Have we fulfilled God's Creation Plan for us? In what ways have we
1. Worshiped God as Lord and Master of our lives?
2. Subdued the earth and ruled over it?

A slight thought into this question will show a shocking truth - man, in our depravity, have reversed this order. The original order of authority went like this:
God --> Adam --> Eve --> Creation
(I shall not elaborate on Biblical manhood and womanhood, why Adam is placed over Eve here)
but, in the very first instance of sin, it was reversed! Creation tricked Eve, who then offered the fruit to Adam, who then rejected God's command not to eat of the fruit. The order of creation was broken.

Today, are we the same? We continue to reject God's command, and we fail to subdue all of Creation. Our world was created Good (with a capital G because it is God-pronounced and God-created Good). But as we sin, we lose track of God's Good Creation and its' purpose, allowing for the environment around us to rule our lives, instead of the original design. Many people live their lives in fear of earthquakes and tsunamis (to name the extreme), and yet on a more subtle level, we sometimes fear things we should have dominion over.. Insects and Lizards?



 Of course, importantly, the most important relationship here is between God and man. Through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Mediator, we can come to worship God as Master again. Only then, through Him, is our given task applicable, and I have full confidence that through Him all things are possible - perhaps not in this life, but in our next.
Step 1 in fulfilling God's intended purpose for us:
To let all glory and honor and power be to the God of all creation.
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