Brethren, if you will, let's
open to Psalm chapter 8. I had a message ready Friday for
Psalm 7. We'll come back to that. I thought
it would be appropriate and right. And for me, it was needful to
be in Psalm 8 this evening. Expositional preaching, when
you go verse by verse, that covers all doctrine. Everything that's
needed is covered. Scripture lays out all the right
proportions of what's needed. Growing up, my pastor said, when
you preach verse by verse, you don't have to worry about dwelling
or spending too much time on one thing and not enough time
on another thing. His words are too perfect. He
said, there's no danger in leaving out any part of the Lord's count. It's right there. I'm thankful
I don't have to decide on the curriculum for the Lord's people. For years we homeschooled, and
it was very profitable. We had good results. We spent
a lot of time and consideration on what curriculum we would buy,
what order it would be in. We spent a whole lot of money
on it every year, and it was profitable. I'm thankful I don't
have to pick that out. Our Lord's curriculum, what He
gives for His people, it came at a great price, and it's exactly
what we need when we need it. My children learned how to read
at a very early age, and they could read better than me, and
I'd ask them how to spell things. And you know, they didn't like
that. There was times I'd say, I don't want to do this. Too
bad. You're going to learn how to
read. Sometimes we go through scriptures we don't want to go
through. That's what the Lord has for us. That's what we'll
do. There's a title added over this psalm that says, How Majestic
is Your Name. That's why we're here. to give
glory and honor to our God and our King. I need to be fed and
I need to be comforted. I desire that. You need to be
fed and you need to be comforted. And believe me, I desire that
for you. I pray that for you. And as I've
told you before, if we come here to honor God, to honor the Lord,
And Christ is exalted, truly, if we worship Him. He's exalted. Not flowerly, extravagant words. Not just ceremony and play in
church. If we truly honor God, if He's
exalted, plainly and earnestly, His people will walk out of here
fed and comforted. That'll happen. I'm going to
begin with a chorus and I'm going to end with a chorus. We used
to sing that chorus medley. I grew up there in Ashland. We've
come into this house and gathered in His name to worship Him. So forget about yourselves and
concentrate on Him and worship Him. Lord will bless us if He
gives us the power to do that. To forget about ourselves and
worship Him. To look to Him. There was a young 19 year old
preacher years ago. Many of you know Him. He started
out and He had very little experience in life. Hadn't lived long. He
hadn't had too many flat tires. It just hadn't happened. He had
very little experience walking with the Lord. He hadn't been
walking with Him for 50 or 80 years or nothing. Very little
experience walking with the Lord. But God raised Him up and He
sustained Him to tell men and women the truth. Wouldn't that
comfort you if you saw that? If the Lord took some 19-year-old
person and raised him up and had him declare the gospel, what
would that tell the heart of a believer? We would be reminded,
wouldn't we? The Lord hasn't forsaken us.
The Lord hadn't left us to ourselves. He's raised up a man after his
own heart, and we see all of God's promises come to pass.
We read His Word. We see it. It's happening. I
believe Him. I see it happening. And our cup
would run over, wouldn't it? That poor young 19-year-old man
that had no experience, hadn't lived through many trials. That's
the Lord's doing. That's His work. We'd be encouraged.
We'd be at rest. And we'd worship. True worship
praises and thanks the Lord. It doesn't selfishly say, well,
I'm going to church because I need something or somebody else needs
something. So-and-so needs to hear this.
but rather for His praise and His honor. That's what worship
is. I pray we can dwell on the majesty of His name. The majesty
of the name of our Lord for just a little bit this evening. And
we can honor His name and thank Him for who He is and what He's
done. Praising for His finished work,
what He accomplished for His elect, and that we'd be comforted
and fed by doing so. It says there in Psalm 8 verse
1, Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth,
who has set thy glory above the heavens. That's capital L, capital
O, capital R, capital D. Oh Lord, Jehovah, the one God,
the Godhead over all men, over all angels, over all beings,
over all creation. The triune God, Lord Jehovah. And it says, O LORD, our Lord,
capital L, lowercase O-R-D. O the triune God, your holy high
command manifested in human flesh. The God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We could read it this way, O Jehovah, our Lord Jesus Christ. What a
thought. That's just a few words. That's who Christ is. If mankind
could enter into that for a moment, if the Lord just give us a drop
of understanding about that, Oh Lord, our Lord. Boy, what
a blessing that would be. That's who He is. He's not the
man upstairs. He's not a good prophet. He's
not just a good example. He's not a golden parachute for
people. If I get real sick, If I'm about to go in the hospital
or something, I'm going to have big surgery, I'm about to die, then
I can just call on Him then. This is O Lord, our Lord. O Jehovah,
our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the eternal, almighty Godhead
in a body. It says, O Lord, our Lord, how
excellent is Thy name in all the earth! Exclamation point. You know what the word excellent
means? I've been more diligent about looking words up because
what men and women use them nowadays ain't what they mean in the scriptures.
We just pervert anything we can get our hands on. We'd break
an anvil if we could. Excellent means wide, large, powerful,
noble, glorious, and worthy. It's worthy. Excellent is His
name. You know His excellent name,
that is His character. That's who the Lord is. It says
in Isaiah 9, 6, so many people know this, and it's the wrong
time of year to be quoting it frequently, but everybody knows
it, don't they? For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and there's a colon there, and it says the government shall
be upon his shoulder. We call our government, government.
That's a term used for what they do, their function. They govern.
They rule things. All government. All ruling of
everything. On one shoulder. Colon. There's
something more that goes with that. And it says, and His name. This excellent name given to
Him. Describes who He is. Shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
That's not just one name, is it? We have to put these things
in words so our puny little brains can understand. We can't enter
into that. David wrote in Psalm 68, singing
to God, saying praises to His name. There in Psalm 29, it says,
given to the Lord, the glory due unto His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. worship Him in holiness. Why
does the Lord's people sing praises to His name? Why do we give glory
to His name? Turn to Psalm 111. Psalm 111, look in verse 9. He sent redemption unto His people. He hath commanded His covenant
forever. Holy and Reverend is His name.
That's a name worth praising, isn't it? That's a worthy name.
He sent redemption to His people. We're redeemed with a price.
And He's commanded His covenant, His covenant of grace, His everlasting
love forever. This isn't temporary. Oh, you
get a decade, you get a 10 year run, better do something good
with it. It's commanded by the Almighty God forever. Holy and
Reverend is His name. There in Acts 4.12 it says, neither
is there salvation in any other for there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. His
name is Holy. Paul wrote to the church at Philippi.
We'll turn over to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter
2 verse 9. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus Call Him Jesus for He shall save His people
from their sins. That's who He is and that's what
He did. That at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and
things under the earth. What does that encompass? Everything. Name something, it covers that.
Molecule, covered. Breath, covered. and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. That is a wide, large, powerful,
worthy name. And He's the only one that has
that name. I think I'm so strong and powerful and I went to turn
a knob a couple weeks ago and I hit the ground. I was turned
off. You can eat some bad food sometimes
and we'll be on our knees crying like a baby won't. His is the
only name that's excellent. David wrote to us in Psalm 148.
Let them praise the name of the Lord for His name alone is excellent. His glory is above earth and
heaven. It's above what we can imagine.
Turn back in our text, sir, in Psalm 8. That's the rest of verse
1. Psalm 8 verse 1, Oh Lord, our
Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. Who has set
thy glory above the heavens? Heavens is plural. His glory
is set above the heavens." What is that? That's the atmosphere
that we have. The Lord said the birds, the fowl fly through the
heavens. That's the atmosphere we have.
And that's the heavens where the stars are, where the moon's
hung, where the sun is. And that's the heavens that we
don't see. Does that mean other galaxies, other solar systems?
Yes, it does. But even the unseen things. I
thought of Elisha. Whenever he prayed, he said,
And the Lord opened His eyes and He saw that that mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire. They didn't just appear. That's where they were. All of
those heavens and heaven to come. Glory to come. His name is exalted. His glory is throughout. What
does the glory of His name encompass? Absolutely everything. Who can
declare that? Who's qualified to tell somebody
about that? Do we need to have a certain
level of understanding or knowledge or experience to sing praises
to the Lord's name? Look here in verse 2. Out of
the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because
of thine enemies, that thou mightest steal the enemy and the adventurer. Out of the mouth of simple, helpless
babies. Still nursing. Totally dependent. Unable. The Lord has ordained
the praises of Christ our strength. That confounds the enemies of
the Lord. The enemies of the Lord's people. It makes them
mad. Can you believe such a thing? It's absolutely true. Because
that's what every child of God confesses. We're babies. I'm a helpless baby cast in a
field, covered in my own blood, no defenses, no ability, just
waiting to die. You have to come to me, Lord.
You have to cover me. You have to have pity on me. We have no wisdom of our own.
We have no strength of our own. We're despised. But God ordained
our salvation and purposed Himself to be our Savior. He said, I'm
going to save a people and I'm going to be their Savior. I'm
going to be the one that does it. It's His will and His performing of
His will. Our brother read there in 1 Corinthians
1, God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound
the wise, the weak things of the world, the base things of
the world. The things that are despised.
The things which are not. To bring to nothing the things
that think they are. What's foolish? What's weak?
What's a base thing? What's a thing that's not? What's
a thing that's despised? You're looking at Him. A sinner. Unable. A baby. Defenseless, helpless baby. Turn
over to Matthew 18. Why would the Lord do something
like that? As you're turning to Matthew 18, I'll read you
another part of Matthew. Christ prayed there in Matthew
11. He said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for it seemed
good in Thy sight. It seemed good in Thy sight.
It pleased God to ordain our strength this way. It pleased
Him, and it was wise. And remember our text said, He
ordained the strength out of the mouth of babes because of
His enemies, that He might steal the enemy and the avenger. We
don't. I'm going to take on all my enemies.
I'm going to lose. That's what's going to happen.
Surely no one would get mad at the Lord for saving sinners,
would they? God saves sinners. That's a bold statement. That's
simple. That's easy, isn't it? That's bold. Somebody get mad
at that. Surely it couldn't be. The Pharisees
and the scribes murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them. That's what he said in Luke 15,
wasn't it? They got mad. They murmured.
Why does the Lord Jehovah, our Lord Jesus Christ, who does he
receive? Who does he receive? Harlots,
drunkards, adulterers, murderers, thieves. If you're a vile, wretched sinner,
boy that's good news. If you're a baby that ain't able,
that's good news. That's good news. He receives
children too. You young people listen to me.
The Lord speaks to you too. Look here in Matthew 18 verse
1. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying,
Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? I thought that caught
my eye this morning, Bob, when you read that about Judas. And
Satan filled him up like a cup. And the Lord said, The one of
you among me who shares bread with me is going to betray me. And they said, oh, I wonder which
one it is. Well, who's the greatest? That was the next verse. How
could we, that fast, in the same breath out, we'd say, Lord, somebody's
going to defile you in this room. Who's the best one then? We're
shameful people, ain't we? At the same time came the disciples
unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the
midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be
converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter
into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble
himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom
of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such
little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one
of these little ones which believeth in me." You offend a small child
that believes in Christ. It were better for him that a
millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned
in the depths of the sea. The Lord reveals himself to babes
that are grown-ups. And it was so kind when Paul
was talking to Timothy, and he said, you know, some of y'all's
babes and your adolescents and fathers and grandfathers, that's
like a baby that's 42 days old arguing with a baby that's 43
days old. And if you span a paternity, if Elihu was that much younger
than Job and them other three fellas talking to him, that ain't
that big a difference, is it? We're all babies. The Lord saves
grown-ups that are babies. And small children, too. Young
people. Turn over a few pages there to
Matthew 21. We looked Wednesday at Christ purging the temple,
His Father's house. But something took place after
that. Matthew 21, there in verse 12. And Jesus went up to the temple
of God and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple,
and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats
of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written,
My house shall be called the house of prayer, but you made
it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came
to him in the temple, and he healed them. He cleaned out his
father's house, and then blind people came, and he healed them. He gave them sight. People that
could not see, that couldn't see Him, couldn't see anything
else. All they saw was a bunch of doves and cages and we didn't
give money and Lord healed some folks. Lord saved some people.
Verses 15. And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful
things that He did, He healed blind folks, didn't He? And the
children crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son
of David. They were sore, displeased. They were very mad about that.
They were very displeased. These children, they were truly
worshiping the Lord. Crying to, Oh Lord, our Lord. Young children saying, Hosanna. What's that mean in our day?
Oh, save us right now. Lord, save me now. Those children
were crying out, Lord, have mercy on me. Save me. to the Son of
David, the Messiah, the Almighty God in the flesh right in front
of them. Those little children, they didn't
know how to file taxes. They didn't know how to drive
a car. At that time in that culture, they probably didn't know how
to read. But they had a need, and they knew the person that
was able to save to the uttermost. You say, well, that's just unheard
of. That's a miracle. What's the difference between
a nine-year-old and a 90-year-old? That takes the power of God to
save somebody, doesn't it? He's able. Young people, look, you
pay attention. There's not a certain age you
have to reach to cry to the Lord, to ask Him for mercy. There's
not a level of understanding you have to have to praise Him,
to thank Him, to know Him. You don't have to wait until
you're grown. He's able. Call on Him now. Me saying that will offend some
people. There's a lot of people in this country that get pretty
mad at me about that, and that's alright. It'll make somebody
with a lot of knowledge, with a lot of experience in trials,
with a lot of understanding, a lot of education, high-minded
religion-y folks. Been to seminaries and stuff.
Earned some degrees. They're going to be sore displeased,
just as these priests and these scribes were. Here's our Lord's
response to that. Look there in verse 16. And they said unto him, and the
priest and the scribe said unto him, Hearest thou what these
say? Did you hear them little kids
in church crying for God to save them? For you to save them? Did
you hear that? They said it out loud. Little
kids running around, what are they talking about? I haven't
taught them nothing. Did you hear them? And Jesus saith unto
them, Yea, yea, I heard them, yes. He did hear it. He says, Have you never read,
out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected
praise? Perfected praise. He's perfected
praise in them, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings. That's
every one of his people, no matter their age. If they're really
young, middle-aged, or really old, on their deathbed, it doesn't
matter. If one of his children Cry unto Him, God has perfected
praise in their mouth, in their heart. That's what's coming out.
It does it in their heart, that's what's coming out of their mouth.
Many people walking around, they've misused this without knowledge.
And worldly, it's true, isn't it? You've been in the company
of a small child for any length of time, especially in a car
ride or something, and they get bored, they will say some of
the boldest, plainest, wisest things. I wish I had that boldness
sometimes. Go up and say stuff. Why'd you
say that? I mean, it's true. But they get away with it. They say
some bold things, don't they? But the Lord calls it here perfected
praise. That's simple and complete praise. Simple and complete. Boy, I'd
like to have that. I've heard perfected praise come
out of the mouth of very young people before. More bold and
more knowledgeable than most adults. The simplicity of Christ is what
comes out. That's it. Years ago, many years
ago, there was a little girl that was riding to church with
her parents, and she said, why don't we go to church? Why don't
we go in there this evening? And they said, well, we're going
to worship the Lord. We're going to hear about how He saved sinners.
That that work of saving sinners is finished. And we're going
to thank Him for it. We're going to hear about the
Lord, we're going to honor Him, and we're going to thank Him
for it. That's what we're going to do. And she asked, she said,
does everybody worship the Lord? And I said, well, no, it's a
sad thing. Most people don't. And I mean
most, there's just a remnant that does. Most people don't,
don't worship the Lord. The little girl said, well, why
don't they? Why don't they worship the Lord? And I said, they don't
know they need to be saved. They don't know they're sinners.
They don't know that Christ is their only hope. They don't know
that he's the only one in whom God the Father is pleased. They
don't know. And she said, well, why don't
we tell them? Amen. So I had her standing
in boldness. I had confidence. A five-year-old
little girl. Tell them? I think I'm big and strong. From
the mouth of babes. A pastor friend of mine was six
years old in the Sunday school class 50 years ago. They were
reading out of John 6 about where the people want to take Christ
and make him their king and he wouldn't let them. The Sunday
school teacher said, why don't you think they'd let him? They
said, well, he already was king. A man's hand can't have nothing
to do with it. That can't be part of that. He
already was before they was born. It's an understanding, isn't
it? That's a strength ordained by God and not man. That's powerful. Psalm 8 verse 1, O LORD, our
Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth! Who has set
Thy glory above the heavens? Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings hast Thou ordained strength, because of Thine enemies,
that Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I
consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and
the stars, which Thou hast ordained, We look up at space, and that's
humbling. The immensity of it. There's a, I never can say it
right, Neil deGrasse Tyson, that real smart guy that's on National
Geographic, he can show you all kinds of diagrams all about it.
You see the Earth. Earth's a pretty good size, isn't
it? Pretty big ball floating around.
But do you see it next to the sun? Boy, you can hardly see
it. And then you see the sun next to other stars. And they
zoom out and you see the whole Milky Way. You can't see the
Earth. It's invisible. And then you
find out there's thousands and millions or however many galaxies
there are, other Milky Ways. How big am I? On this Earth, out in the middle
of that ocean, I'm nothing. I'd be on a thousand foot boat. You
got in the middle of the Pacific, you're this big. And that's out
of the whole universe. I'm a tiny thing on this earth.
It shows me how small and insignificant I am. Isaiah, there in Isaiah
40 wrote, it says the nations, plural, and that's the nations
in our day too. You take China and Pakistan,
all these nuclear powers and all the wisdom that we have,
and it says it's like the small dust on the balance. Everything
man's capable of doing and making and dreaming up, it's a small
dust on the balance. You don't even tear out the balance.
You don't zero the balance. You don't need to. It's nothing.
It's something that's not even worth worrying about. That's
the nations. Feeling that small, what am I?
Feeling that small and that meaningless is a good place to be. But this
speaks to something more than just in comparison to the universe
or the Lord or nations or anything else. This is consideration of
God saving sinners. Says in verse 4, What is man
that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou
visitest him? Son there is lowercase s, lowercase
son. That's the sons of Adam. Why
would the holy infinite God of the universe be mindful of me,
a speck of dust that's just a human, let alone visit him? How would
he do something like that? I debated on where to put this
in, but I was thinking of Abraham. The Lord called to Abraham and
said, Fear not, Abram. I am thy shield. I am thy exceeding
great reward. What more do we need to hear?
And he said, Can't I have some kids? I don't have any children. My inheritance. He said, I'm
your inheritance. I'm your reward. But his child,
Abraham, was sitting there. And he said, I don't have anybody
to leave my inheritance to. And he said, all right, Abraham,
come here. Come outside. And he brought him forth abroad
and said, now look towards heaven and count the stars. Tell them.
You tell them stories. Go outside on a dark night and
count the stars. If thou be able to number them.
And he said unto him, so shall thy seed be. Physically, Abraham's
got a lot of descendants, doesn't he? But spiritually, our father
Abraham, That's what the Lord's declared.
Why would the Lord be mindful of a speck of dust like us? Why
would He visit man, consider us, because of the capital S
son? Why would He come to the lowercase
s son of man, son of Adam? Because of that capital S son
of man. The Lord Jesus Christ, because
He physically visited this earth. And He seeks His sheep. He abounds
towards them. and He sets His affection upon
them. He loves them with an everlasting
love and He puts them on His shoulder and He carries them
home like a helpless sheep, like a small child, like a baby. He
comes and saves them. That's something, isn't it? If
we know the definition that the Lord has for words, our vernacular
would be flipped upside down. All of a sudden, boy, I want
to be a sheep. That's a negative thing in this
day, isn't it? I want to be a baby. Why don't you be a baby? I want
to be a baby. Helpless. I want to be helpless. Liberal. I want to be giving. I want to
be generous. Because my Lord was liberal in
mercy. Liberal in grace to me, wasn't He? David asks there in
verse 4, What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son
of man that thou visiteth him? See how frail we are, how helpless,
how insignificant. Just children of Adam. But those
born of God, they're turned into remembrance. of the capitalist
son of man. We're coming to remember our
Lord, don't we? And that's where you see this change here. Now David sings
of the capitalist son of man, the God-man. Verse 5, For thou
hast made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned
him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under
his feet, all sheep and oxen. Yea, and the beasts of the fields,
the fowls of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passes
through the paths of the sea." That's everything. All things
are under His dominion and they are to praise and glorify His
name. You know how many tunas out there
swimming around right now? I don't know, but it praises
and glorifies the name of the Lord. He controls every one of
them under His dominion. I don't make a good fisherman.
I bait a hook, throw it out there, put a bobber on it. People say,
well, ain't you going to work the bait a little bit? I say,
if I catch a fish, the Lord's preserved that fish from creation
all the way to that hook. He'll put it on there. I ain't
worried about it. Everything is under His dominion. It says
in verse 9, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in
all the earth. We've come into this house to
worship Him. And I thought of that other course. His name is
wonderful. His name is wonderful. Jesus,
my Lord. He is the mighty king, master
of everything. His name is wonderful. Jesus,
my Lord. He is the great shepherd, the
rock of all ages. Almighty God is He. Bow down
before Him. Love and adore Him. His name
is wonderful. Jesus smiled.