Let's be turning to Psalm 8. Psalm 8. David tells us, before the first
verse, he tells us that this is written to the chief musician
upon Gidath, a Psalm of David. When there's words like this,
Neganoth or Giddith, there's oftentimes in the commentaries
quite a discussion between what this means and there's different
thoughts, but what stood out to me was what it says there
to whom this is written, to the chief musician. the chief musician
and this is written in many Psalms to the chief musician and when
we look at this Psalm it becomes more obvious to us who the chief
musician is that this Psalm is written to. It's of praise of
the Lord Jesus Christ and I believe that above any musician our Lord
Jesus Christ himself is the chief musician. He's the one who's
Grace gives the melody of our hearts that believe Him, and
He is the foundation of our joy, the expression of our soul's
joy. He is the chief musician that
gives us that wonderful melody of grace in which we sing and
lift up our voice with the voice, the voice of our Savior, Jesus
Christ. Now, verse one says, oh Lord,
our Lord. And you'll notice if you're looking
at a King James version in the Bible, maybe not online, but
if you're looking in the Bible here, you'll see the first Lord
is a capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. And that means
Jehovah. I would say Lord with all those
capitals, that's Jehovah. And the other Lord with a capital
L and then lowercase O-R-D, that's Adonai. So he's saying, O Jehovah,
our Adonai, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who
has set thy glory above the heavens. And so this word is directing
our spiritual eye. It's taking our attention and
turning it upward to behold our God, our Lord Jesus Christ. We're looking at Him. And you'll
notice that in this psalm, as we go through it, you'll see
it has an eye toward His covenant mercies for us. That is His redemption. This speaks of the redemption
of the Lord Jesus Christ for His people, whereby He gave His
life. He laid down His life for the
salvation of sinners. Sinners given to Him by His Father
before the foundation of the world. And so, David is meditating
upon his Lord and Savior. He's considering what his Lord
purposed to do in saving a sinner like David, and in saving sinners
like us who have no righteousness of our own, who need a Savior,
who need salvation. It's all found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I'm reminded of what Paul wrote.
When we see this, maybe we don't realize that the Old Testament
saints Speaking here, recording these words, they knew Christ.
They saw Christ. Abraham saw my day, Christ said,
and rejoiced. He saw Christ. He understood
that we're looking for the Messiah in whom we would be redeemed,
the one who would restore all things that were lost. They glorified
and rejoiced in Christ. They weren't saved by the law.
They were saved the same way you and I are saved, by grace,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so David saw Christ. He knew who he was praising.
He knew who he was praising. And Paul said it this way regarding
our hope of righteousness in Christ when he was writing to
the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 2, 7, and 8. But
we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom
which God ordained before the world unto our glory. which none of the princes of
this world knew. The princes of God, like Jacob,
they knew, but not the princes of this world. Had they known
it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. And so to
many, this was unknown. It's a mystery to many. It's
a mystery to many still to this day. And we have the writings
of the apostles. We have the New Testament, which
makes this known. And yet it's a mystery to the
dead of this world. But it's not a mystery to you
in Christ. You see and know that this is
speaking of Christ. And so this mystery was revealed
to David by the spirit of prophecy. God revealed Christ to David
and he's glorying in the Savior. He's glorying in Christ. And
Paul explained to us that Christ was in all the scriptures. He
was always spoken of in the scriptures. It's not like he wasn't there. He was there throughout every
word in the Old Testament as well, just as clearly in the
New by the Spirit who makes it known to us, who makes it known
to us. But listen to what he says in
Romans 1, verse 1 through 3. He says, Paul, a servant of Jesus
Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of
God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures. The scriptures write of Christ. They speak of him concerning
his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh. David saw this. David understood
that God had purposed and promised to bless him, that through his
seed, just like we saw with Abraham, and through Isaac, and in Jacob,
and through Judah there, the promised seed would come. And here he is wondering at the
redemption glory of Christ. That is a wonder that God should
take upon him the likeness of our flesh, and should come in
humility and in weakness, that he might suffer for the sins
of his people, to put them away forever, and to give us life
and hope and an expected end in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
did that graciously for sinners, for those given to him by the
Father. Think of this as we move on to
the next verse in Psalm 8. Our Lord was speaking to the
self-righteous Pharisees and they were very content in themselves. They studied the scriptures.
They thought they had a corner on what the scriptures were teaching.
They read the law. They thought they understood
the law and the purpose of the law. And by the law, they tried
to make a righteousness for themselves so that when the righteousness
of God was come in the flesh and stood before them, they didn't
see him. They didn't believe him. They
didn't receive his word because they were making themselves righteous.
And our Lord said to them, they that are whole need not a physician. You that aren't sick, you don't
need to go to a doctor, a great and skilled doctor, because you're
not sick. And he said, I came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And he says this
to the Pharisees who are standing there. And when he says that,
what does that tell you? It speaks of those that are helpless,
who cannot help themselves, and he's revealing to us that that's
who rejoices in Christ. Those that are sick, those that
are sinners, those that are infirmed and have no righteousness of
their own, those that are sinners, those that are poor, those that
are weak, those that are lame and crippled and blind and ruined
by the fall, they rejoice in Christ. And that's who Christ
came for. He didn't come for the rich.
He didn't come for the whole. He didn't come for the righteous.
He came for sinners. So you that are sinners, you
that have problems, you that are infirmed and weak and ruined
by the fall, rejoice. Lift up your hearts. Look to
Christ. Open your ear by the grace of
God. Beg him for mercy. That's who Christ came for, to
save you. to deliver you from death by
his grace and mercy. You that are sinners, that's
who Christ came for. Now, I believe that's what David
is thinking of. That's what he means when he
says in verse 2, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings. That's
the helpless. You that have had babies, you
that have cared for young ones or held babies. or fed a baby,
or changed their diaper, you know babies are helpless. And
toddlers are pretty helpless. They can't do much and they get
into all kinds of trouble that they need saving from. They are
the helpless. Not to Christ came out of the
mouth of babes and sucklings has thou ordained strength because
of thine enemies that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. And so he's speaking of helpless
ones. That's who Christ came for, and
I think Christ gives us the best commentary on this verse, because
he quotes this verse to the Pharisees. Returning in Matthew 21, and
we're going to start in verse 14, this is when our Lord came
to Jerusalem to be crucified. He was coming
there knowing that his time was at hand, and he was coming to
lay down his life willingly for the salvation of his people according
to the will of God. And as he came into Jerusalem
riding on that foal, the colt of Annas, He was received with
the shouts from the people, shouting, Hosanna. They were praising him,
the seed of David, Hosanna. And then he comes into the temple.
He goes into the temple next, and he clears out the money changers. He drives out the money changers
from the temple, because it was big business. They were making
a lot of money selling cattle for the sacrifices and exchanging
the currencies. They made a lot of profit off
of that. they weren't too happy but Christ drove them out and
now having all that space what happened verse 14 the blind and
the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them right and
and so we don't want distractions we don't need all kinds of religious
garb and nonsense let it be plain and empty because let We just
want the blind and the lame to come in and to be healed by Christ. The simplicity of Christ. That's
what we preach and that's what he uses to save his people. The
simplicity in himself. And when the chief priests and
scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children
crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David,
they were sore displeased. And they said unto Christ, Hearest
thou what these say? They're calling you the Messiah.
Don't you hear what they're saying? Yes, it never occurred to them
that he is the Messiah. He is the promised seed that
should come. Here he is. He's healing the
blind and the lame and doing these wonderful works. And Jesus
said unto them, yea, have ye never read, out of the mouth
of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? And he left
them. He left the Pharisees who knew
everything. He departed from them. What a
terrifying thing that Christ should depart from you or me.
We don't want him to depart with his gospel and take away the
hope of our salvation because he is salvation. We need him. He is the Savior of His people.
And so it's the helpless that were held by Christ, and they
rejoiced in Him, but the self-righteous could not see. And it's amazing
that it was the blind and the lame that came to Christ and
were healed. And here's these Pharisees who knew everything,
who knew the scriptures, so they thought, and they weren't healed. They remained in their blindness.
They had no covering for their sin and they continued to be
lame. And it's a picture of what we
are by nature, spiritually blind and spiritually lame. And apart
from the grace of God in Christ, we cannot see, we cannot come
to him. We have nothing. We're dead in
trespasses and sins if Christ is not gracious to us. And so
those that are sick, you that are blind and lame and crippled
and ruined by the fall, Christ is the Savior. He's the physician
who heals his people, who comforts his people, who gives his people
life in himself. He came to save sinners. Now,
in Psalm 8, verse 3 and 4, David goes on and he says, 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? Now there's
a couple of things here. In one sense, this putting our
eyes, when you look up and see the sky and consider the heavens,
You feel your smallness. It is to humble us. And when
you stand before what God has done, it is very humbling. I
remember when I was a young man, we were newly married. in our
twenties and I grew up in New Jersey and it's a pretty congested
area in New Jersey there so there's a lot of light pollution and
I didn't grow up knowing that there were that many stars in
the sky. I didn't see that many stars
but one night we were house sitting, Helen's house there, and I had
to let the dog out. They had a German Shepherd, that's
why they had us there and I let the dog out and they had a big
yard and they were out in the middle of nowhere around horse
farms And I looked up and was stunned to see how many stars
were in the sky, how beautiful it was. And this verse struck
my heart. This is the verse that came into
my heart because it just was amazing that God should think
of me, a little speck of dust on a little speck of dust in
this immense universe. And so there is that sense that
we are made small before Almighty God. who can do all things. He's
not in a box that we put him in. He's greater than our understanding
for sure. But this verse is even more than
that, looking at the redemption of Jesus Christ, that he should
do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, that he should pass
by the angels and lay down his life for the seed of Abraham.
for those in Abraham that he would do this. We know that,
well, the psalmist here is taking us back to creation, the creation
of our Lord. And when we were in Genesis 1,
what did we see? Yes, those things physically
were created by our Lord just as he says, but they pictured,
every one of those days, pictured some aspect of the redemption
of Christ for his people. It was all glorifying Christ
and what he, what God purposed to do before the foundation of
the world to save his people. to save his people. It showed
us the atonement, the redemption, everything that Christ did to
save his people, making them new creatures in himself. And
we know that the moon is likened to what? The church. The moon
reflects the light of the sun. And that's what the Church does.
She's a reflection of the light and salvation of her Savior,
of Christ, who is pictured in the sun. And the stars, they
are the elect, brethren. So many as the stars of the sky
in multitude. It pictures the elect. And it
pictures the people of God there. And so the Son of God took upon
Him the likeness of His people. He did not take on Himself the
likeness of the angels, He took on Him the likeness of His people,
and He redeemed sinners. Helpless, ruined sinners in the
fall. Romans 3.25, Whom God hath set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. And that's
a beautiful picture, how that Christ came, and He turned the
wrath of God which was justly against us for our sins, and
He turned it against Himself. thus setting his people free,
putting away our sin, atoning for the sins of his people, and
giving us life and righteousness and hope in him, a good and sure
and certain hope in him, to declare his righteousness for the remission
or forgiveness of sins that are past. through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness,
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Our hand's not in that. We didn't
justify ourselves, and we're not just, but our God is just
and to justify us because of what Christ has done for his
people. That's what Paul is telling us
concerning these verses. Look over in Hebrews 2. This
also quotes verses from Psalm 8. But one in a certain place testified,
saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? Or the son
of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower
than the angels, thou crownest him with glory and honor, and
didst set him over the works of thy hands. Now, God did this
first in Adam. He gave Adam dominion over his
creation when he created Adam, but Adam fell. And so God is
turning our eyes away from him who failed in his fall under
the covenant of works. One work. One work he was given
and he fell. He sinned and rebelled against
God. And he's putting our eyes on Christ and upon his finished
work. Where Adam failed, Christ succeeded. The last Adam. Thou hast put
all things in subjection under his feet, for in that he put
all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put
under him. But now we see not yet all things
put under him. We are walking by faith. We still
see sin and death in this world. But we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste
death for every man. For it became him, for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons
unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren." And so we rejoice in Christ because
he redeemed us, he redeemed his people that were given to him.
He didn't save the angels that fell, He saved His people who
were given to Him by the Father, and He saved them entirely, completely,
so that we now live in and by our Lord. Now, I think it's important
here to read the next two verses in our text because they were
quoted there in Hebrews 2, 6 and 7. So, Psalm 8, 5 and 6, For
thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels,
and has crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to
have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou has put all
things under his feet. And so we see how, in the beginning,
God gave us a federal head in Adam, and he received dominion
over the creation that God had created. He was our head, and
yet he sinned. When he sinned and rebelled against
God, he plunged himself and all his seed in him, all his posterity
in him, into sin and death. And so he corrupted, he became
defiled and corrupted by sin. He died spiritually that very
day, just as God said. That's why you and me, who are
born of the seed of Adam, by our parents and their parents
before them, all the way back, traced to Adam. And Eve, we are
born of corrupt, defiled, ruined seed. That's why if Adam couldn't
keep the one law and he was innocent in a perfect environment, if
he couldn't do it, you and I can't do it. We're not free to choose
whether we will do good or right and put away sin. We're not free
to stop sinning. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. We might put away a few bad habits,
get rid of some vices, but we cannot change this corrupt, vile,
wicked heart. We cannot put all sin from this
flesh and from our minds and our thoughts and our hearts.
We can't do it. We might put on a good show on
the outside, but we cannot save ourselves, not even by the works
of the law. Just as Adam fell, so we fall,
just like him, all the time. And so we're now in subjection
to the evil one by nature. We're in subjection to the evil
one. Paul wrote to the Ephesians 2.2, we walk according to the
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. That's how we are by nature until
by his grace he sends his gospel and he pours out his spirit that
takes the things of Christ in the gospel and makes them effectual
to your heart. He does that for you and He delivers
you from bondage. He's the one that delivers us
from death. He takes us out of the darkness,
brings us into the light whereby we are shown and see that God
has brought this in me. He did this for me by His grace
and mercy. 1 John 3.8 confirms the same. It says he that commiteth sin
is of the devil. That's just fact. You that sin
are of the devil. You are under his power and control
for the devil sinneth from the beginning. But listen to this.
You that are not under the power of the devil anymore, but under
the power of Christ. Because it says, for this purpose
the Son of God was manifest, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. And that's what he did. So that
death, that wickedness had no more power over you. You are
under the rule and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're His. You're His. He destroyed those
works so that though we still see sin in our members, that
death hath no more power over us. It has no more bearing on
what our inheritance is. Our inheritance is fixed in Christ
alone. We stand complete in Christ alone
and are delivered from that body of sin in Adam. We stand complete
in the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he came and
that's what he accomplished. He came to suffer on the cross
for his people to put away their sins by making an acceptable
sacrifice unto the Father and he delivered us out from under
that covenant of works and brings us in himself under the covenant
of grace. under the covenant of grace so
God looks upon us not in anger but in mercy and he comforts
us and gives us peace in our hearts in the Lord Jesus Christ
in him Isaiah 49 7 through 10 it says thus saith the Lord the
Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One to whom man despiseth to
whom the nation abhorreth to a servant of rulers right that
this is it's declaring Christ and the nation did they despise
Christ they rejected Christ he came unto his own and his own
received him not because that's us by nature that's how we'll
be and but for the grace of God. And God is the one who is gracious
and merciful to deliver his people, to turn our hearts to Christ.
And so he does, so to that nation, kings shall see and arise, princes
also shall worship because of the Lord that is faithful and
the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee. All right,
so the father sent the son to accomplish this redemption. Now
look in verse 8 it says, Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable
time have I heard thee. He's speaking to Christ. I heard
thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee, and I will
preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people.
We're not under that covenant of works to save ourselves. We're
under the covenant of grace in Christ. His people are to establish
the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages that thou
mayest say to the prisoners, go forth. To them that are in
darkness, show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways,
and their pastors shall be in all high places. And so we can't
free ourselves by the power and strength and wisdom of this nature. We cannot do it. Men today boast
of their free will and what they do for God, but they talk as
one who's still under the covenant of works. You've got to repent
and you've got to change your life and do things differently.
That's not salvation. You should stop doing sin. You
should. We ought not to practice sin
and works of wickedness. But that's not our salvation.
That's not our foundation of hope. Our foundation is Christ
alone. And He's the one that comes and
opens the prison door and says, Sinner, show yourselves. Come
into the light. Come out. Come out of that bondage
and darkness. And we're set free in Christ.
and given his spirit who leads us by faith, looking to Christ. We don't walk contrary to moral
things in the law, but that's not our life. Christ is our life.
He's given us his spirit to lead and guide us and to keep us and
to fill our hearts with love for our God and for one another
so that we don't sin against each other. We do care for one
another. We are mindful of one another's
needs. And we do that which is right
for one another because of the love of God shed abroad in our
hearts. Now, our Lord shows us that all
dominion is given to Christ, the last Adam. We saw some of
this in the last hour, but it's the same thing. All dominion
is in Christ's hand. He has all, brethren, all. Listen
to what it says. Well, let me read verses 6 and
8, and then I'm going to read Genesis 1-28, and you'll see
how it's the same thing. In Genesis 6 through 8, this
is the dominion of Christ, our federal and seminal head. Thou
madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou
has put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea,
and the beasts of the field. That's the earth, all the cattle
in the earth. the fowl of the air, and the
fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of
the seas. That's the sovereign rule of
Christ, what he has. Well, that's what Adam had. When that dominion was given
to him back in Genesis 128, it says, God blessed them, and God
said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth,
and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over
the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth
upon the earth. But Adam fell and gave up that
dominion, surrendered it to the evil one. But Christ has come,
and all dominion is his. He is sovereign God, ruler reigning
over all, and all dominion is in his hands. Just as he said
to his disciples after he rose from the dead and before he ascended
to the Father, he said, all power and heaven and earth is given
unto me. He has all power. All dominion
is his. And that's the glory of our Lord
and Savior. And then the psalmist returns
to the opening theme. He comes right back to what he
said in verse one. O Lord, our Lord, O Jehovah, our Adonai,
how excellent is thy name in all the earth. And it's a, it's
a sweet blessing, especially, you know, with this, uh, this,
uh, eclipse coming, you know, and you see those wonderful things
there in the sky, it's all pointing to Christ, Christ, our savior,
our, our, our deliver, our, our all. And I pray that he bless
our hearts continually in him. Amen.