Because this is Thanksgiving season, and you might say, Thanksgiving weekend, I've decided to move away from our verse-by-verse study of Zechariah, and I would like to speak to you about rendering praise to the Lord. And in a few minutes, we're going to look specifically at Psalm eight. We have so much to be thankful for, do we not? Absolutely astounding when you think about it; and certainly, a thankful heart is one of the primary characteristics of a true believer. We are told in Psalm 30, verse four, "Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones and give thanks to His holy name." Psalm, 92, one, "It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High." Psalm 107, beginning in verse 21, "Let them give thanks to the Lord for His loving kindness and for His wonders to the sons of men. Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell of His works with joyful singing." In Colossians three and verse 17, the apostle Paul tells us, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father." And the writer of Hebrews tells us, in Hebrews 13, beginning in verse 15, "Through Him, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips, and give thanks to His name." We also read in First Thessalonians 5:18, "In everything, give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 

I always appreciate the words of Charles Spurgeon. He said this in regard to Thanksgiving, quote, "Let us daily praise God for common mercies, common as we frequently call them, and yet so priceless that when deprived of them, we are ready to perish. Let us bless God for the eyes with which we behold the Son, for the health and strength to walk abroad, for the bread we eat, for the raiment we wear, let us praise Him that we are not cast out among the hopeless or confined amongst the guilty. Let us thank Him for liberty, for friends, for family, associations and comforts. Let us praise Him, in fact, for everything which we receive from His bounteous hand. We deserve little and yet most yet are most plenteously endowed. But beloved, the sweetest and the loudest note in our songs of praise should be of redeeming love. God's redeeming acts towards his chosen are forever the favorite themes of their praise. If we know what redemption means, let us not withhold our sonnets of thanksgiving." 

Indeed, thankfulness to God will always adorn the speech of the humble, but frankly it will seldom be heard from the lips of the proud. The bitter heart of the proud will spew forth the venom of complaints and criticisms, but the contrite of heart will be the wellspring of gratitude and rejoicing. In fact, I must say that I think there's few things that are more revolting than being around a person who claims to know and love Christ and yet all they do is complain and criticize, etc, etc. When I'm around those kinds of people, I have kind of the same attitude as when I'm walking barefoot and I see a mound of fire ants. I want to avoid them. But, O what a joy it is to be around a person that loves Christ; that's filled with the Spirit because of his saving grace, filled with joy and thanksgiving. And at this time of year, we all will think back about the original Thanksgiving and the pilgrims and so forth. And I thought I would rehearse just a little bit of that history to set up what I want to talk with you about out of Psalm 18.  The pilgrims were basically people that came out of the Reformation. They would have believed essentially the same as we do; and you will recall that they had to flee from the persecution of the church of England. And because of its heresies that they were being forced to somehow believe, and they fled to Holland and other regions, but because they did not have the economic opportunities in those places to survive well, they decided to risk everything and to move to America, this land called America. 

And having gained financial backing, and joined by other colonists, they boarded the Mayflower and made their way to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 where they founded Plymouth colony. And in the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, there are four Bibles on display, each being brought over on the Mayflower. And one belonged to the first governor of that group, William Bradford. And the museum display reads as follows, "The 1592 Geneva Bible belonged to William Bradford. It journeyed with him from England to Holland and eventually to Plymouth. The pilgrim separatists used the quote 'Geneva Bible.' This was a translation with many commentary notes in the margin made by English Calvinist refugees living in Switzerland. the official English church strongly disagreed with the Geneva Bible's commentary, and concerning the faith of those that he governed. Bradford wrote this quote, 'They as the Lord's free people joined themselves in the fellowship of the gospel to walk in all His ways, made known or to be made known unto them.'" End Quote. 

Well, as you will recall from your history, the early pilgrims struggled to survive. In fact, about half of them died the very first year. Nevertheless, in November of 1621, they celebrated God's mercy and grace on their life with a Thanksgiving feast, and one of the men that attended that first feast was Edward Winslow, and he is quoted to have said this, quote, "Our harvest, being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling that so we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we gathered the fruit of our labors. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want." End quote. 

A generation after the first Thanksgiving on June of 1676, another day of Thanksgiving was commissioned by the Governing Council of Charleston, Massachusetts, and by unanimous vote, they instructed Edward Rawson, the clerk, to proclaim June 29 as a day of Thanksgiving. And the following is a part of the proclamation of that day. Quote, "The council has thought meet to appoint and set apart the 29th day of this instant June as a day of solemn thanksgiving and praise to God for such His goodness and favor, many particulars of which mercy might be instanced. But we doubt not those who are sensible of God's afflictions have been as diligent to aspire Him returning to us and that the Lord may behold us as a people offering praise and thereby glorifying Him. The council doth commend it to the respective ministers, elders and people of this jurisdiction, solidly and seriously to keep the same beseeching that being persuaded by the mercies of God, we may all, even this whole people, offer up our bodies and souls as a living and acceptable service unto God by Christ Jesus." End Quote. 

However, on December 18 of 1777, we have the very first time when all 13 of the original colonies joined together in a Thanksgiving celebration. And it commemorated the patriotic victory over the British at Saratoga. And I want to read to you a little excerpt from the official Annals of the Continental Congress of that day. Quote. "For as much as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God, to acknowledge with gratitude their obligations to him for benefits received, and to implore such further blessings as they stand in need of, and it having pleased him in his abundant mercy, to continue to us the innumerable bounties of his common providence. It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States to set apart Thursday, the 18th day of December, for solemn thanksgiving and praise that with one heart and one voice, the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor. And that together with their sincere acknowledgements of kind offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins whereby they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God through the merits of Jesus Christ mercifully to forgive and block them out of remembrance, that it may please him graciously." He went on to say, "To take schools and seminaries of education so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety under his nurturing hand and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." End Quote. 

Of course, this is Old English, but isn't it a little bit different than what we hear from our government today? Well, as the years rolled on, Americans continued to celebrate feasts of Thanksgiving, but they did it more and more in the fall, and some presidents issued proclamations, but Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation for a perpetual national holiday to be set aside for Thanksgiving, and in 1863 with the nation torn apart by the Civil War, here's what he declared. Quote, "I do, therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens." End Quote. 

Well again, a thankful heart will always be the sure mark of the redeemed, because we have so much to be thankful for and to be thankful regardless of the circumstances, like those people who founded this once great nation. And I find it amazing to see how God used those early saints to begin to really forge this nation to become the greatest nation on Earth. And the values of Christianity are woven through the tapestry of the Constitution, and therefore, it should be no surprise why so many people hate the Constitution and hate our country. In fact, I was listening to Charlie Kirk. Maybe you've heard of him, young man with Turning Point USA, and he recounted the Christian's origin of our nation that the historical revisionists are trying to erase and here's what he said, "13 out of 13 of the original states required a declaration of faith. Nine out of 13 required that you be a Protestant, except Maryland, which was Catholic, but still required a declaration of faith. Every single one of those original constitutions Pennsylvania included stated, quote, 'I profess faith in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.'" He went on to say, "55 out of 56 of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence were Bible believing Christians. In fact, the last paragraph of the Declaration of Independence reads as a prayer. Quote, 'We appeal to the Supreme Judge of the universe, Jesus Christ, etc, etc.'" But finally, he said, "Look at what the actual founder said." And then he quotes John Adams. Quote, "'The Constitution was only written for a moral, religious people. It was wholly inadequate for the people of any other the body politic of America was so Christian that our form and structure of government was built for people that believed in Christ our Lord.'" End quote. Kirk went on to say, "One of the reasons we are living through a constitutional crisis is that we no longer have a Christian nation, but we have a Christian form of government, and the two are incompatible. You cannot have liberty if you do not have a Christian population." End quote. 

Well, technically, we've really never been a Christian nation. There were a lot of people that were deists; they believed in God, but that's far different than truly believing in the gospel and so forth. But originally, the country's values were far more aligned with the Bible than they are today, and as a result, most people today do not give thanks to God in the way that you heard me just read. They do not see God as the Creator, the Sustainer, the Redeemer, the consummator of all human history; most people scoff at the idea that man is a sinner in desperate need of salvation. They scoff at God's verdict on man; that man stands guilty before a holy God, condemned before an infinitely holy and righteous God. And for this reason, the apostle Paul said in Romans one and verse 18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven." In other words, his wrath emanates from his throne, and it does so against, "...all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." A warning concerning three things there. First of all, the nature of divine wrath. There's this settled, determined, righteous indignation that has been provoked by man's sin. And he says it is constantly being revealed. In other words, it's perpetually being manifested. And we see this in God's moral order, for example, through the law of sowing and reaping. We see it in, as well, in his personal intervention in judging the wicked with all the things that can happen in the world. We see it through the wrath of his divine abandonment, where he gives people over to a depraved mind to think and do things that are absolutely, utterly absurd. And we see here that the origin of his wrath, as I said, is revealed from heaven. Heaven being synonymous with God's throne. And the object of divine wrath, he says, it is, "...revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." So in other words, those whose nature and whose lifestyle are constantly suppressing - that is restraining - trying to keep a lid on having to deal with the truth, they're doing this in unrighteousness. And the basis for his wrath is really twofold in that text; it's because of them denying their conscience and denying God as creator. 

And I want you to think about this for a moment, because this was really why so many people today do not thank God in the way they should, especially at Thanksgiving. First of all, man has rejected the divine revelation of God that is revealed in his conscience. I mean, you think about it, you cannot suppress suppress the truth, as we read in verse 18, if it is not within you, so the truth is there. The truth is there, people just can't stand it. They can't stand the fact that there is a holy God, that he is the Creator, that he is the judge; that God has made it clear in each person that he himself is God, and that we are his image bearers. Man can understand this in his conscience, and man can understand this in his conscience because he is made in the image of God. In verse 19 of Romans, one we read because "...that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them."

But man also experiences God's wrath because he rejects, not only what's in his conscience about God and his relationship to him, but because of creation. I mean, he can look at the theinconceivable vastness and complexity and order of the physical universe. It's utterly mind boggling. And then to say there's no God? Verse 20 went on to say this, "For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." 

Verse 21, "For even though they knew God..." there again, they knew God in their conscience, the "law is written in their hearts, their conscience bears witness of that." Romans 2:15. "Even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened." Despite all of the blessings that man experiences from our Creator God, the unregenerate, the proud, will be ungrateful to him, and therefore the text goes on to say that he concocts futile speculations. In other words, foolish, useless, godless reasonings about life and about who God is. Great example is the theory of evolution, that order comes out of chaos, that nobody times nothing equals everything. Every time I think of DNA, I'm overwhelmed by it. I'm certainly not a biologist. I don't understand these things, like a lot of you medical people would, but I understand enough to know that DNA is a molecule that contains the genetic information of an organisms development and function and growth and reproduction. And you've all seen little pictures of DNA. It's made of two linked strands that are wound around each other that resemble kind of a twisted ladder. It's it's a shape known as a double helix, and I read that 3.16 billion, catch that, 3.16 billion base pairs are in each human cell. And the DNA is spread across a total of 46 chromosomes in a single human cell. And of course, all of that's a result of random selection, all of these things just kind of evolved. And for people that think that, the wrath of God abides upon them because they are suppressing the truth that they know is there because of their conscience and because of creation. No wonder, human beings do not honor God, as we read in the text, or give thanks, but they pursue futile speculations. Their foolish heart is darkened, which is the result of divine judgment. 

And no wonder, people worship the most ridiculous things, reincarnation. People worshiping trees, worshiping some little, little fat guy with a pot belly over in the corner, you know, blow themselves up so that they can go to heaven and be with 70 virgins. I mean, just goes on and on and on, and the insanity that we see in our country is just every bit as mind boggling that men can become women if they want to, and so forth. 

Well, my earnest desire this morning is for us to obviously be different from all of that, and by God's grace we are because of the work that he's done within us. But I want us to honor God this morning and to give thanks. And I thought that we would do that by looking at Psalm eight for a few minutes, a very short Psalm. 

Notice it says, "For the choir director on the Gittith, A Psalm of David." Gittith, we're not real sure. It's perhaps a way of saying Gath, but it was they believe an instrument from that area, or it could be a joyous song that was sung over Goliath, because the theme here is overthrowing the mighty and so forth. And I want you to notice that Psalm seven ends with praise. It says, "I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High." And so Psalm eight now picks up that theme, and it is indeed a magnificent hymn of praise that those early saints would have sung, exalting the name of of God and his glorious attributes, his his power, especially as we are going to see, his attributes, his glory, his power, his Majesty, as they are revealed in his works of creation. This is one of the favorite psalms of New Testament writers, especially the writer of Hebrews, who quoted from it to describe just the incomparability, if you will, of the Lord Jesus. In Hebrews two beginning in verse six, There we read, "But one has testified somewhere.." and he's referring to Psalm eight, "...saying, what is man that you remember Him, or the Son of Man that you are concerned about Him? You have made Him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned Him with glory and honor and have appointed Him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under His feet. For in subjecting all things to Him, He left nothing that is not subject to Him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to Him." 

I might also add as a footnote, before we look more closely at the text, that Psalm eight is really a commentary on Genesis, chapter one, verses 26 through 28 explaining the importance and role of humanity in God's creation. In Genesis 1:26, we read, "Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." And then we read in verse 27, "God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him, male and female He created them." Verse 28, "God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" 

Now let's look more closely at Psalm eight here. Verse 1, "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Thy name in all the earth. Who have displayed Thy splendor above the heavens!" Would you notice there are twin nouns, both using the names of God in his address. The first one is LORD with the capital letters - that his Yahweh - emphasizing his revealed name; that he is the pre-existent, self-existent, eternal God of the universe. And then you have Lord with the small letters, emphasizing his sovereign rule over all things. And he says, "How majestic is Thy name..." In Hebrew, the term majestic expresses just a display of power that is absolutely awe inspiring; a display of power that is frankly intimidating. It is overwhelming. So this is an expression of overwhelming wonder. 

Over the years, I've had the privilege of spending time in in the Great North, where you can see the Great Northern Lights, and the further north you get, the more awesome they are. But I can tell you, if you haven't seen them, it will absolutely frighten you. It is so majestic. That's the idea here. Some of this also call this Psalm "The song of the astronomer”; It would be good if you are gazing at the stars - you can't see many of the stars here, if you get out west, where you don't have light pollution, or other places, you think you're in a different you're a different planet. But you need to read this while you gaze at the stars, and you see just the vastness of the skies and and the wonder of it all. The planets, my what a humbling effect they have upon us. If you've never been to the Creation Museum, I would encourage you to go and visit the Planetarium at the Creation Museum. And there, I think the heading is the "Created Cosmos,” and it's by Dr Jason Lyle. And your mind, as you kind of recline in these chairs, you see this huge dome, and they take you through a pictorial, actual journey through the universe, so to speak, because of all the pictures that they made. It is an experience like nothing else I've ever experienced. It's worth it, and you want to bring your kids there. But, but what you will find is your mind will quickly get lost in the wonder and the glory of God. 

I also find it interesting that it's good for our minds to be stirred and our imaginations to be stirred, especially our children as they contemplate the glory of God, and as you marvel at the vastness of creation; you marvel as well at the condescension of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator, to do what he has done for the redeemed. To think that the God of the amoeba and the God of the worm is also the God of the planets and the stars. To think that from the molten depths of the earth to the farthest galaxy in the universe, He is there. He is holding it all together by the word of his power. And he created all of those things. And everywhere you look into the skies, you see the ineffable brightness, the dazzling glory of God blazing forth. No one can miss it. Therefore, no one has an excuse. We are all without excuse. I want to expand on the display of this splendor by quoting Dr Lyle. And this is a bit of a long quote, but I thought I would do it anyway, because it really expresses it so well. Here's what he said regarding the splendor of God's creation. Quote, "The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of His hands." There he's quoting Psalm 19, verse one. "This beautiful statement indicates one of the purposes of the created universe. The universe reveals the majesty of its creator. Of course, God's glory can be seen in many different aspects of creation, not just the heavens. Considering the magnificent intricacy of a living cell, the complexity and the amazing diversity of life on earth, and the mathematical precision of the laws of physics and chemistry, these are all indicative of the incomprehensible creativity, intelligence and Power of the Creator. Why then, does the Bible single out the heavens as declaring his glory? Perhaps the heavens declare God's glory in a special way, or to a greater extent. It may even be that the starry universe was specially designed for the purpose of declaring God's glory to us. The range of scales in the universe is truly staggering. The universe contains objects of incredible size and mass at distances which the human mind cannot fully grasp." And by the way, I'mskipping around, taking certain things that he said, alright? 

"Let's start close to home with a relatively small astronomical object, the moon is the nearest natural celestial body. It is approximately 2100 miles in diameter, roughly the size of the continental United States. And the moon orbits at an average distance of 240,000 miles from the earth. Additionally, the moon," quote, 'the lesser light' created on day four was designed to, quote, 'rule the night,' according to Genesis 1:16. Indeed, the moon does rule the night. It outshines every other nighttime celestial object. Let's move further out into space," he says, "and consider the greater light that God has created on day four, the sun. The sun, like other stars, is a glowing, hot ball of hydrogen gas. It derives energy from the fusion of hydrogen to helium in the core. The sun is effectively a stable hydrogen bomb. It is an extremely efficient source of energy placed at just the right distance to provide the right amount of light and heat of the earth. The sun is about 400 times more distant than the moon. Remarkably, it is also 400 times larger, so it has the same angular size as the moon, meaning it appears the same size and covers the same portion of the sky. It is interesting that God made both of the greatlights the same angular size and far larger in angle than any of the other celestial objects. There is no naturalistic reason why the sun and moon would be as just the right distances to have the same apparent size as seen from the Earth. As far as we know, the Earth is the only planet for which this is the case. The sun is over 100 times the diameter of the Earth. If it were hollow, it would hold over 1 million Earths, and it exists at the incredible distance of 93 million miles. The sun is far from the earth, and yet the earth is much closer to the Sun than many of the other planets. Consider Pluto, a tiny frozen world at the outer edge of the planets of the solar system. Pluto, an average, is about 40 times farther away from the Sun than the Earth is." He goes on to say that, "The solar system is truly vast. If it had been the only thing God made, we should certainly be impressed. Yet God has created on even larger scales. Consider the distances between the stars. Let's start with the nearest star system to the earth, besides the sun - the Alpha Centauri system. Unlike the solar system, Alpha Centauri contains more than one star, two bright stars comparable to the sun in size and color, revolve around each otherevery 80 years, a third faint red dwarf star called Proxima lies farther away. The distance to this system is about 25 trillion miles. Such a number has little meaning to most of us who can comprehend 25 trillion miles. This is about 6800 times farther away from the Earth than Pluto is." "Our galaxy," he went on to say, "is shaped like a disk with a bulge in the center. Earth is located in the disk closer to the edge than the center, and the disk has spiral arms. We cannot directly see the spiral structure because we are within it. To us, the galaxy looks like a faint cloud band stretching across the sky on," parens, "(Northern Hemisphere, summer nights or winter nights for the Southern Hemisphere.) This is how our galaxy gets its name, the Milky Way. Our galaxy contains over 100 billion stars. The Bible says that God calls them all by their names. Psalm 147 four and Isaiah 40 verse 26. How amazing that God has a name for each and every one of those stars. Some of these stars are far separated from their nearest neighbor, much like the sun. Some stars come in binary or multiple star systems, such as Alpha Centauri. Some stars come in large clusters. Consider the M 80-star cluster. This cluster within our galaxy is estimated to contain over 100,000 stars. That means that the Milky Way has roughly a million times as many. Imagine, 1 million stars for every single star in this cluster, the galaxy contains more than stars, it also contains nebulae, the same stuff as stars. But whereas stars are compact spheres, a nebula is spread out over a much larger region of space. When a nebula is heated by nearby stars, it glows often with vivid, beautiful colors. Consider the beauty of the nebulae shown." And he has a picture that I'm not going to show you, but keep in mind, and I'm sure some of you have seen these on the internet, right? If you haven't, you can go on and see it; absolutely astounding. "Keep in mind how enormous these objects are." He said, "The Rosetta nebulae is not only beautiful, it is estimated to be more massive than 10,000 suns. And when we consider the immensity of the Milky Way, with its 100 billion stars, countless nebulae and star clusters, the overwhelming power of the Creator becomes clear. Yet our galaxy is not the only one. God has created innumerable galaxies with a wide range of shapes and sizes. Many galaxies come in clusters. The Milky Way belongs to a cluster of a few dozen galaxies called the local group. Some clusters are much, much larger than this. The Virgo cluster has about 2000 galaxies. Clusters of galaxies are organized into even larger, super clusters, clusters of clusters. And finally," he says, "just think about the quantity of energy involved when God created all this. The sun alone gives off more energy every second than 1 billion major cities would produce in one year. Yet our entire galaxy is 20 billion times more luminous than the sun. It is estimated that there are at least as many galaxies as there are stars in the Milky Way, about 100 billion. Just consider such energy and mass filling of volume of space that is immense beyond our ability to fathom. Truly the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of His hands." Isn't that amazing? 

You know, we marvel at all of this. We're left speechless. And to realize that where God exists is in the third heaven beyond all of that. Go back to the text. Notice now. Only do the heavens above declare His glory, but also the earthlings below, notice verse two, "From the mouth of infants and nursing babes, Thou hast established strength because of Thine adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease." A fascinating statement out of the "mouth of infants and nursing babes." By the way, nowhere else in the Old Testament is this thought expressed. In the New Testament, however, this verse is quoted and applied to praise that is offered to God by children. Matthew 21:16 you may remember that in anger of the children shouting in the temple "Hosanna to the Son of David," the scribes and Pharisees were just apoplectic with rage, and they became indignant, and they said to Jesus, "Do you hear what these children are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes, have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babe babies, you have prepared praise for yourself." My what a contrast right from from the infinite grandeur of outer space to the utterances of helpless infants, God is being glorified. 

And I often also have to think of the contrast here between those weak little babes, little children praising God and these arrogant scribes and Pharisees. Contrast the infant's utter dependence upon God versus the proud self-sufficiency of the infidel. Isn't it interesting, the weak give praise, but the mighty utter folly? And here David contemplates the reality that God uses the weak to conquer the mighty. 

Again, verse two, "From the mouth of infants and nursing babes, Thou hast established strength because of Thine adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease." I'm reminded here of First Corinthians one and verse 26 where Paul said, "...not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong...that no man should boast before God." 

Now obviously, the majesty of the Creator ignites the psalmist introspection, as he contemplates the glory of God, as we all should. And I also find it interesting when you think about it, human beings are the only creatures capable of introspection, capable of contemplating the infinite glory and perfections and wonder of God; not only to be able to think about them, but then to verbalize them in praise to their Creator, and not just speak those things, but sing them and write the lyrics to them. I'll never forget, when I was studying many years ago to be a pianist. I was at Moody Bible Institute. I had the privilege, also, as a director, to be able to help conduct the Messiah there with all of the orchestra and all of that. And I remember just being overwhelmed and  just what I would begin to do with my hands, all of the sound can happen. And to think that God has given us the ability to write these things, to hear these things, to sing these things. And that's what we see here. 

And he says in verse three, "When I consider," in other words, when I think about, when I contemplate, "Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers." Oh, we got to stop here. This is really interesting. This is what we call an anthropomorphism, where it's the attribution of human characteristics to God. And here we see God's fingers. And what he's doing here is, he's emphasizing the infinite power of God who created the vast solar system by just using his fingers. That's the idea. This was no big deal to him. In fact, he spoke things into existence. 

Again, verse three, "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained. Yet, what is man that thou dost take thought of him." In other words, he's contemplating the utter frailty of human beings. And he went on to say, "And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him?" Alluding to the coming Messiah, the Son of Man. But notice verse four, "Yet what is man?" We see this, this phraseology used elsewhere in Scripture. For example, in Psalm 144 three, we read, "O, Lord, what is man that You regard him, or the son of man, that you think of him?" And Job seven, and verse 17, "And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great." So you see the same concept of man's frailty, and yet God is doing great things, even for we frail creatures.

One theologian Conrad Schaeffer said this quote, "In awe of one's immense smallness in this grandiose spectacle, the gaze turns on the self as one becomes aware that the human, small and insignificant, a breath and a shadow, is a marvel of the universe." He went on to say, "The privilege stems from God's creative initiative and rests on incomprehensible grace. As they discover and praise God, they recognize their true dignity, a discovery which confounds God's enemies." And that's what we have here. 

And another theologian, Robert Davidson said this, "We may have left our footprints on the moon, but the further we probe through radio telescope and orbiting satellite, the more awesome becomes the immensity of space and the whirling galaxies." Oh Child of God, one glance at the star filled skies, especially when we can see it through pictures from these telescopes and so forth, and these satellites, all these things that they've put up in the air, as soon as we see these things, we are immediately overwhelmed by our own finiteness; our own frailty, our own insignificance, and frankly, our own ignorance and weakness. That's why I love the Rocky Mountains. If you've ever been on the top of a rocky mountain, some of you are from there. Oh my. You feel like you're about this big, and then you realize you're not even that big. Yet, despite such dramatic, such glaring contrast. Man has the audacity to strut around like a proud peacock? And as Paul says in Romans, one, "...exchange the truth for a lie." Really? You're going to deny the Creator, you're going to exalt yourself? By the way, there is no greater proof of man's utter depravity than to think that somehow he's greater than God and that God's not really all that he says he is, and to ignore him. And what unspeakable blasphemy for people to teach our children the theory of evolution. What a staggering offense to our Creator God to teach Darwin, which, for example, is so thoroughly refuted by DNA. 

But notice the value God has given to man whom he created in verse five. "Yet," even in light of all of this that you've created, "yet Thou hast made him a little lower than God, and dost crown him with glory and majesty." In other words, we have been made in the image of God. You will recall in Genesis 1:26 God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." Literally, the Hebrew grammar there indicates- what he's saying here is - let us make a creature similar to us. "Likeness" - "dᵊmûṯ" in the Hebrew, denotes something that is similar, okay? But not identical to the thing that it represents, or the thing that it's an image of. So an image here is something that represents something else. So God is saying, Let us make man to be like us, the Triune Godhead, and to represent us. And certainly he's done that. He's given us intellectual ability. He's given us emotional feelings; a sense of morality, the pursuit of moral purity, spiritual nature, and so forth. And he's given us dominion over the earth, dominion to rule, to subdue. He's given us the ability to create, to make ethical choices, and he has made us immortal. We are all going to live forever. But where you will spend eternity depends upon what you do with the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

And this is why God calls the hideous sins of things like murder, and abortion, and homosexuality, and bestiality and transgenderism, why he calls those things abominations. Because you see all of those things are sins that absolutely mock and seek to destroy the image of God in man and in woman. Can you think of anything more offensive than that? No wonder Satan is pushing this constantly on our children and on our own, our culture. 

Folks, you must bear in mind, in the fall, God's image is distorted, but it is not lost. But in redemption, we experience a progressive recovering of more and more of God's image, until one day we are made into the likeness of Christ in glory. And at Christ's return, complete restoration of God's image will come to pass. And because we are made in his image, notice verse six, "Thou dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet." An amazing statement, and this phrase was quoted by the apostle Paul in First Corinthians 15:27, while speaking of the universal dominion of Christ when He returns. There we read, "For God has put all things in subjection under His feet." And we see the same phraseology referring to the exalted position of Christ as a result of his resurrection, His resurrection glory. We see this in Ephesians 1:22, there we read, "And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church..." and so forth. S

So back to the text in verse six, "Thou dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet." Then he gives us a little list here in verse seven and eight, "...all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the sea." And how sad to see the pagan environmentalists try to reverse all of this, to allow the animals to reign over us. But we are to exercise dominion over creation. We are commanded to rule as his representatives over all that he has created, because he has made us in a unique way in his image to do those things in his created order. And therefore we are superior, and we are separate from all of the animals, because we're made in his image. And because of the fall, we are incapable of properly fulfilling God's commission to do all of these things as his administrators. But in Christ, because of his redemptive work, he is the supreme representative of man that can do those things, as we read earlier in Hebrews two, five and following. 

Well finally, in verse nine, he says, "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Thy name in all the earth." And frankly, what he's doing there now is he is proving his original assertion that he made in the very first verse, "O LORD our Lord, how majestic is Thy name in all the earth. Who has displayed Thy splendor above the heavens!" And so he concludes it in verse nine by saying, "O LORD, our Lord." Our Lord, our Master. "How majestic is Thy name in all the earth." Colossians one and verse 10, we are given the response that we should have. There we read that we should, "...walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience;  joyously..." mark it, "...giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light." 

I close with a very brief story having been in prison for one year, four months and 18 days in a Nazi cell measuring six feet by nine feet. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote what is certainly a reminder of the meaning of Thanksgiving, one that we can reflect upon over this season in our culture. Here's what he said, quote, "You must never doubt that I am traveling with gratitude and cheerfulness along the road where I am being led. My past life is brim full of God's goodness, and my sins are covered by the forgiving love of Christ crucified. I'm so thankful for the people I have met, and I only hope that they never have to grieve about me, but that they too will always be certain of and thankful for God's mercy and forgiveness." 

Let's pray together. Father, thank you for all you have done for us, and I pray that by the power of your Spirit, you will make our hearts ever more accessible to the realities of who you are and what you would have us do as we endeavor to live out our lives to the praise of your glory. And Father, as always, if there be one within the sound of my voice that has never truly come to a place of genuine brokenness and repentance and faith in the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ, will you bring them to such a point of misery that they will do so quickly and experience the miracle of the new birth for their good and for your glory. I ask all of this in the precious name of Jesus and for his sake. Amen.