We're going to look at Psalm
chapter 8, Psalm chapter 8 tonight. If you want to turn to Psalm
chapter 8, this is a familiar psalm, psalm, psalm, it's the
same thing. A psalm in scripture is a psalm. It says in Psalm chapter 8, the
beginning is, to the chief musician upon Gitteth, a psalm of David. I don't know what Gitteth is.
I looked it up and I didn't get much clarity, so we'll just go
with the fact that it has something to do with this psalm. What's
important here are these words in the next nine verses. Let's
read it together. It opens up with this praise
to God. Oh 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, what is man, that thou art mindful
of him? And the son of man, that thou
visitest him? for thou hast made him a little
lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands, that has put all things under
his feet. All sheep and oxen, yea, and
the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish
of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. I want to go through this with
you verse by verse. and consider here what is being
said. Now this is a Psalm of David
and it says in the third verse, when I consider thy heavens,
the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou
hast made. I imagine, I don't know if it
were the case or not, it seems that when David penned this psalm,
he was considering the moon and the stars, and therefore I expect
that he was recounting or thinking, maybe he was even writing at
that time, of the nighttime view of creation. He didn't mention
the sun here, but he does mention the moon and the stars, and so
since those can only be seen at night, I imagine it was a
nighttime scene. We know he was a shepherd. We
know that he had to care for the sheep day and night, and
at nighttime the shepherds must lie awake, and you can imagine
the stars in the sky in those days with no no lights from earth,
perhaps a warming fire here and there, but very little light
from this earth, and all of the heavens were black and lit up
by the stars that God had made and the moon. And David, perhaps
lying on the grass out in the field where the sheep were gathered,
and thinking about the protection he needed to provide those sheep,
and looks up into the sky, and he sees the stars and the moon,
and he pens this psalm. Honey, would you check? I think
somebody might have come on. In the opening verse here of
this psalm begins this way, O Lord, our Lord. The word that's capitalized,
all the letters in it are capitalized, Lord, means Jehovah. And the
one where it's just the first letter capitalized is the word
Adonai. We'll speak about that in a minute
here. So David in this psalm is referring in his prayer to
Jehovah, our Adonai. Now in Psalm 110, it says, the
Lord said unto my Lord, and there the opening words of Psalm 110
are Jehovah said unto my Adonai. So we know that Jehovah is the
triune God, and it may speak of God the Father or God the
Son in the use of it, or all three, the triune God. And Adonai
refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so David here is referring
in this psalm, he's giving an inscription at the very beginning
and praise and prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ. But he does
so in the context of contemplating the night sky, the moon, and
the stars that God has made. I don't know about you, but when
I walk outside, whether it's daytime or nighttime, but somehow,
nighttime seems to be a time of more quiet meditation. Remember, Isaac was in the field
meditating when Rebekah was brought back from Syria by Abraham's
most trusted servant to bring Rebekah to be his only begotten
son's wife. And when Rebecca saw Isaac, he
was in the field meditating at night, or in the evening. So
here we see another scene in the evening or in the nighttime,
where the psalmist David is doing the same thing, but as he does
so, he considers the grandeur. and the greatness of the sky,
and he speaks of God, his Savior, O Lord our Lord, and he's speaking
about the Lord Jesus Christ here, how excellent is thy name in
all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens. There's
something very endearing about the way David speaks to the Lord. Very respectful, very worshipful. He calls him Jehovah, our Adonai. He doesn't speak about him impersonally
as just God. He speaks about him as our Lord. Not just his Lord, but our Lord. He's talking about all those
who trust Christ. And he says, how excellent is
thy name in all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens. When David viewed the heavens,
there's no doubt it was immense, just like it is when we see the
night sky. You can look and it seems like
there's no end to it. As far as your eyes can see,
which isn't very far, you see the light from distant stars
and planets. As far as the eye can see, it
just seems like it goes on and on. And one thing I notice about
the stars is some stars are moving, or at least it seems like they
are, and some stars are stable. And there's those stars that
never move that remind us about the immutability of God who made
them, the Lord Jesus Christ. After all, all things were made
by Him, and all things were made for Him. And so He's speaking
to the One who created all things. But when He speaks to him this
way, He's going to step back in a holy adoration, and taken
by the surprise of what He's about to disclose to us, because
as He thinks about creation, looking at this night sky, It
comes to his mind who made it and how he has done what he's
done here in the next few verses. Notice in the second verse, out
of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because
of thine enemies that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. Who would be so arrogant and
foolish as to make themselves the enemies of the One who created
everything? That has got to be the height
of foolishness. And yet, this is natural to our
hearts, isn't it? The carnal mind is enmity or
hostility against God. It is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. So that's our natural state.
And yet he says here in verse two, 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. Now right
away, we recognize these words, don't we? These words were quoted
in the New Testament. And in fact, the one who quoted
them was the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to get into that,
but before I do, before I leave this first part, let me bring
some things to your attention about the name Jehovah and the
name Adonai. It turns out that in Exodus chapter
5, let me read this verse to you in Exodus chapter 6, because
this will bring it into focus for us. it will remind you what
God has said. In Exodus chapter six, it says
that God answered Moses and said, I appeared to Abraham unto Isaac
and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty. Now in the original
it says El Shaddai. The name El Shaddai means God
Almighty. Almighty means he has all power,
all strength. There's nothing too hard for
him. He says, I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the name
God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. Now, I want to think about this
verse just a minute because we often read the uppercase letters
L-O-R-D, Lord, in scripture. It's really the name Jehovah.
We're not used to reading it that way. But since God uses
this name in scripture, we want to understand what it means.
Well, from the context here in Exodus chapter 6, where he tells
Moses, I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. excuse me,
by the name God Almighty or El Shaddai, but by my name Jehovah
was I not known to them, a couple of things come to mind. What
does Jehovah mean? And how is it that he did not
reveal himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by that name? So let's
consider the first part. What does Jehovah mean after
all? Well, if you look back also a
few verses before this in Exodus chapter 5, the scene is that
Moses and Aaron had been sent by God to Pharaoh and to tell
Pharaoh, let my people go. And if you don't let them go,
then certain things are going to follow. All these plagues
followed. But when he first sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh, the
first thing he did was, remember, Aaron cast down the rod. It was Aaron's rod, it was Moses'
rod, but he gave it to Aaron because Aaron was the one who
was doing a lot of that activity then, as the priest would. So he was both a high priest
eventually, but he was sent by God to be a priest to Pharaoh,
or a prophet for Moses to Pharaoh. And so Moses was like God to
Pharaoh, and Aaron was his mouthpiece. And so Aaron cast down the rod.
And when he cast it down, it became a serpent. And you know
the story, the magicians of Egypt cast down their rods, they became
serpents, but Moses's rod, or Aaron's rod, ate up them. And then he also turned the water
into blood, and so on. These plagues started happening. But before that, when they went
in to Pharaoh and asked him, told him, God said to let my
people go, what did Pharaoh do? Who is the Lord? I don't know
Jehovah and I'm not going to let you go, basically. And so
what he did instead was he began to afflict the Israelites more.
And he didn't just not let them go. He told them, well, you used
to make so many bricks. You're going to make the same
number, only you're going to take away the straw. He said, let more work
be put upon them. And so the people who did the
work, they had these managers or these officers over them that
were also Israelites appointed by the Egyptians. And so the
Egyptians beat those officers because they weren't producing
the same amount of bricks. And so these officers go to Moses,
and they first go to Pharaoh, and they say, the fault isn't
with us, it's with your people. You told us to make bricks without
straw. And Pharaoh said, you're idle,
get to work. And so you can see in that man's
religion. putting more work on us when
we're afflicted without any remedy. But in the process here, Moses
went to the Lord. In Exodus chapter five and verse
23, he said, since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name,
he hath done evil to this people, neither hast thou delivered thy
people at all. You said you were gonna deliver
them, but ever since I began speaking to Pharaoh, not only
has he not delivered them, it's gotten worse for them. And so
that's the same sentiment that the people brought because Moses
was speaking for the people to God. And that's when God answered
him and he said, now you're gonna see what I'm gonna do to Pharaoh. And he gave him this verse in
verse 3 of chapter 6, Exodus 6, 3. I appeared to Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob by the name God Almighty, or El Shaddai, but
by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. So you see right
away here what Jehovah means. El Shaddai means God who does
everything that he says. But Jehovah means now you're
going to see it happen. What God promised to do by covenant
to Abraham, he's going to fulfill now. And so Jehovah is the one
who you see fulfill his promises. And so he's the covenant God
who fulfills his word, his promises, and of course the covenant he
made with Abraham was a covenant to Christ. to whom those promises
were given and Christ would fulfill the conditions that those promises
could be put to force. And so Jehovah means the one
who is not only able to keep his word but to fulfill his promises. He is the eternal and immutable
and faithful almighty God not that God had not referred to
Himself before as Jehovah. When we read this verse, we naturally
think that He didn't mention this name Jehovah to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. But if you look at it, how it's
used here in Scripture, from the very beginning of Genesis,
Capital L-O-R-D is used, so Jehovah's name is present in the book of
Genesis throughout. In fact, in Genesis 22, remember
when God required Abraham to offer up his son Isaac, and then
it says in verse 14 of Genesis 22 that Abraham called the name
of the Lord that spoke to him Jehovah Jireh, which means Jehovah
sees. He'll see to it. He'll see that
the sacrifice is needed. He'll see that the sacrifice
is provided. And when the sacrifice is offered up, God is going to
be seen in that sacrifice. God who provides. God who is
seen in what He provides. That's Jehovah Jireh. So obviously
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew God Almighty and they knew Him
as Jehovah. So if you look at this then,
what it means is that it's kind of an interrogative question.
to them? Yes, most surely he was known
to them by that name. And so Jehovah carries with it
this meaning that he not only makes a covenant with his people,
not only keeps his promises because he's able to do all that he said,
but that he actually does what he said he performs them. They
will actually see him do, these people will see him be Jehovah
by just delivering them from Egypt. And so that's the first
thing you see here. It means Jehovah, the God in
covenant keeping, and underscore that word keeping, his keeping
character, the one who not only can do, but does all that he
says for his people. And what was it that he promised?
What was it that he said he would do for them? Well, for the Israelites,
it was to deliver them from Egypt, but for us, of course, it's to
deliver us from spiritual Egypt, the bondage of sin and Satan
and this world and death and hell and all that goes with our
sins. And so here in Psalm chapter eight and verse one, when David
uses these words, O Jehovah, our Adonai, He's talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ in the character, in the office of a
mediator, Adonai, who would fulfill all that God promised to his
people. He would actually deliver them.
He would actually redeem them. And so in the contemplation of
this, David is lying on the grass, as it were, looking into the
night sky. He thinks, the one who made all things with the,
it says here in verse three, when I consider the heavens the
work of thy fingers, not his right arm that brings salvation,
but just his fingers. In Isaiah 40, it says he meted
out heaven with a span, just a wave of his hand there. All
of heaven. Psalm 33 says, by the word of
the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the
breath of His mouth. And so you see the infinite power
of God Almighty in our covenant-keeping God, having made a covenant with
His Son, called Adonai, our mediator, who is both God and man. And
David is thinking about this. Wow, the mediator, the one who
made the heavens and the earth. And now he steps back and he
says in verse two, 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. Jehovah had been the one who
delivered them from Egypt by the hands of Moses and Aaron.
And now Jehovah is going to deliver his people from their real enemies
by the covenant he made with his son by his son in our nature. And so that's what he's speaking
of. We know this is true because look at Matthew chapter 21 and Matthew 21 in verse nine. I want to read these words to
you. This was the Lord Jesus Christ himself speaking to his
enemies, the Pharisees, the self-righteous religionists who opposed him
and opposed his people's salvation. They were opposed to Christ and
his people. They were the enemies. And all
of Satan's kingdom is Christ's enemies, and that includes our
sin. Mercifully, God makes our sin
his enemy and destroys it. But here in Matthew 21, look
at verse 9. Well, in verse five, it says
that as Jesus was riding into Jerusalem, this is the scene,
he's riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. In verse five, he's
riding there on a donkey and fulfilling what God said. Now,
what is he riding into Jerusalem to do at this time? Well, it's
going to be the time when he's crucified. He's coming into Jerusalem
in order to do what? To save his people from their
sins. And in verse 5 it says, tell
ye the daughter of Zion, the daughter of Zion means the church
of God, the elect of God, behold thy king cometh unto thee, meek,
and sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass. And
the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded, and brought
the ass and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they
set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread
their garments in the way. Others cut down branches from
the trees and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes,
verse 9, the multitudes that went before and that followed
cried this, saying, Hosanna! to the son of David, blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest."
Now, what does Hosanna mean? We've looked at this before.
Well, look at Psalm 118, because this is where this is, these
words are first spoken in scripture. Psalm 118, another Psalm of David. In verse 25, if I get there,
he says this, This is the same words. It says, Save now, I beseech
thee, O Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed
is he or blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. We have
blessed you out of the house of the Lord. This is a quotation
from Psalm 119 in Matthew 21.9. And the children, and the people who are laying
their clothes down for Christ to come into Jerusalem where
He is going to offer Himself as the Lamb of God and save His
people from their sins, they cry out, Oh, save us! Oh, save! That's what it means.
Hosanna means, Oh, save! Oh, be propitious. Oh, save us
to the son of David. Blessed is he that comes in the
name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And then if you
look down a little bit, when all this was happening in verse
15, when the chief priest 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. Of course they would be. because
they hated Christ, they hated God's salvation. They were opposers
of their own salvation here. Verse 16, and he said to them,
here is thou what these say? And Jesus said to them, yeah,
haven't you read, have you never read, out of the mouth of babes
and sucklings hast thou perfected praise? That's exactly what David
wrote in Psalm chapter eight and verse two. Again, I'm reading
now from Psalm 8, verse 2, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
hast thou ordained strength. In Matthew, it was ordained praise
or has perfected praise, but here it's ordained strength because
of thine enemies that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
What is the strength? What is the praise? Well, when
the children said this, what were they saying? Oh, save us. That's what the people were crying.
The little children were speaking the truth of the gospel that
Christ would come into Jerusalem to save his people from their
sins And David picks this up because he sees this in prophecy
by the Spirit of God. He says, out of the mouth of
babes and sucklings, God has ordained strength because of
the enemy. Or as Jesus put it, has perfected
praise. Is that what he said? I gotta
go back and read it. Matthew 21 and verse 15. He said, Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings thou hast perfected praise." Yeah, I thought I had
that right. So what is this? The children and the people are
speaking what? The truth of salvation by Christ,
who is going to be exalted as king because he's going to defeat
their enemy. And what is that but the gospel?
What is that but the gospel? And so it's praise to God, Their
words are praise to Christ, who is coming as Jehovah, our salvation. That's his name, Jesus. Jehovah
is salvation, who would save his people from their sins. So
out of their mouths, God has perfected praise, but in the
psalm, he says, ordained strength. The two are together. And what
is the power of God here? Why would they be saying this?
Because the gospel itself, as we saw when we talked about the
rod in Egypt, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
It's the rod of His strength. Because when the gospel is declared,
It is attended by the Spirit of God who applies it to us so
that we might see God's salvation." That's what Simeon said in Luke
2.30, "...and mine eyes have seen thy salvation." And now
the children are saying, here is the Lord's salvation, and
here He's coming into Jerusalem. They're telling ahead of time
what Christ would accomplish. They're expressing their own
need for a Savior. And this is the perfection of
praise, the strength of God in Christ who would save his people
from their enemy. And what is the effect of this?
He stills, he silences his enemy and the avenger. Those who oppose
the salvation of his people, who oppose Christ and his glory,
put to silence, put to shame, confounded. The stone of stumbling
falls upon them and crushes them to powder. This is the way the
gospel works. In us, it saves us, but in those
who oppose Christ, who are the enemies of Christ, it becomes
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Okay, Psalm chapter
eight. So I want you to see that not
only is the Lord Jesus explaining this psalm, but we're gonna see
in a minute here how it's explained also by the apostle writing to
the people, the Hebrews, in the epistle to the Hebrews. Psalm
eight, verse three. Psalm 8, verse 3, let me get
to my notes here so I don't get off track. All right, in verse
3 it says, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man?
What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that
thou visitest him? For thou has made him a little
lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory and honor.
Thou has made him to have dominion over the works of thy hands.
Thou has put all things under his feet. All right. I would have no idea what this
was talking about except the spirit of God has revealed it
to us with unmistakable clarity. And this is in Hebrews chapter
two. In Hebrews chapter two, I'm gonna turn there because
this is where the Lord has been pleased to explain it. Hebrews chapter two, in the first
chapter of the book of Hebrews, Christ, A divine person first
is set forth in his office as the prophet, the one in whom
God has spoken. Excuse me, the one God has given
all things as the heir of all things, the one who made the
worlds. I'm looking at Hebrews 1, verses
2 and 3. The one who is the very brightness
of the glory of God. There's no difference between
God's glory and Christ's glory because he is God and he's the
one who made known God's glory in his work as our mediator,
as our savior. And the express image of his
person, whatever God is, Christ is as God. end up holding all
things by the word of his power, not only in creation, not only
in the events of our world in providence, but especially in
salvation. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on
high. Christ took his place with all of the majesty of God, at
the right hand of God, all of his glory, all of his excellency,
all of God's perfection seen through what he did to save his
people from their sins. That's how central, that's how
significant, that's how preeminent Christ and his work as our Savior
is. And so he goes on in the rest
of chapter one to show how the Lord Jesus is better than the
angels. And yet, notice in chapter two
of Hebrews in verse five, For unto the angels hath he not put
in subjection the world to come?" He's talking in Hebrews about
a world to come. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah,
all those saints then, they looked to the promises of God but they
never received the experience of those promises in their lifetimes
because Christ would come in time and all of the church would
be saved by him together. And so then, in the fulfillment
of time, the church as a body would receive the fulfillment
of everything that he did, all together as one. And so we also
walk as strangers and pilgrims in this world. And so in verse
5 it says, unto the angels hath he not put into objection the
world to come, the world we're speaking of here. But, verse
6, Hebrews 2 verse 6, but one in a certain place, meaning in
Psalm chapter 8 and verse 3 and 4 and 5 and so far, so on. Hebrews 2 verse 6, one in a certain
place, speaking of David in Psalm 8, said, what is man that thou
art mindful of him? Or the son of man that thou visitest
him? So we naturally think, and a
lot of theologians would say, that in Psalm 8, What the psalmist
is talking about is the fact that it's so condescending that
God would consider mankind, isn't it? Look at this. He considers
man and his children, the son of man, and he put everything
in the beginning in subjection to Adam, all these sheep and
cattle and the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.
That's quite stupendous, isn't it, that God would be so condescending?
But they missed the entire point of Psalm 8 by just limiting that
to that. Because here in Hebrews 2, we
see that when David, laying there in the grass, as I imagine that
he was, looking into the night sky with the sheep around him,
and there's no light on earth, all he sees is the stars of heaven
and the moon, and he thinks about how Christ, in all of his mighty
word and power, created heaven. with just his fingers and now
he's thinking about this and contemplating the fact that he
would come and infant, I mean little babies and children and
people would cry out to him, oh save us as he went to Jerusalem
and accomplished our salvation and he thought, The Lord has
become my salvation. The one who created everything
has come in the form of a man, the Son of Man. And that's who
he's speaking of here, according to Hebrews chapter 2. He says,
You made him a little lower than the angels, crowned him with
glory and honor, sent him over the works of thy hands. You have
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, and so he naturally says, put. Now we see not yet
all things put under him, under man. We don't see that, do we?
No, of course not. He can't control anything in
his life, it seems like. Yeah, the animals are afraid
of him at times, but even then, some of them break through and
kill him. But notice, verse nine. Here's the interpretation of
Psalm 8. But we see Jesus who was made
a little lower than the angels for a time, for a short time,
not now, but then, in the days of his flesh, he was made lower
than the angels. That's what the word little means.
It doesn't mean little in degree, it means little in time. For
a short time, made lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honor. All right, so here
is the interpretation of Psalm 8. When the psalmist, David,
said, what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of
man that thou visitest him, what is he talking about? The son
of man is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the men, or the man he's
talking about here, are his people. Amazing condescension, incomprehensible
grace that God would condescend to not only look upon and consider
but he would actually fulfill the covenant of our salvation
in Christ and all promises to Christ for his people in the
Lord Jesus Christ himself who would be made, who would become
the Son of Man. He would come as a son of man,
and be made lower than the angels? And why would he be made lower,
according to verse 9? Why was Christ made lower for
a time than the angels? Because he obviously, in the
first chapter of Hebrews, was greater. He was the one angels
were commanded to worship. When God brought the only begotten
Son into the world, he said he commanded all the angels of God
to worship him, verse 6 of chapter 1. But here he says he's made
lower for a time than the angels. What's going on? It's the Son
of God, made in the nature of His people, taking upon Himself
our body and soul, the flesh of those for whom He would die.
His name is Jesus, and He was made Lord for a time in order
that He might suffer death, for the suffering of death. Not only
death, but the suffering of it. And not only suffering, but death
itself. So he was made lower for a while than the angels for
the suffering of death because he couldn't die unless he was
made one of us as a man. Notice in verse 9, crowned with
glory and honor because in his death, this is Hebrews chapter
2 verse 9, he was not only made lower for the suffering of death,
but he was made lower for the suffering of death, now crowned
with glory and honor. Just like 1 Peter chapter 1 verse
10 and 11 say he was The subject of the prophets of old were the
sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. This
is it here. The suffering of death and then
crowned with glory and honor. Jesus told Nicodemus, when he
talks about the Son of Man in John chapter 3, let me read this
verse to you. In John 3, 13, Jesus tells Nicodemus,
he says, No man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came
down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven."
Notice how Jesus tells Nicodemus, the Son of Man did what? He came
down from heaven and he's in heaven. What's he speaking about?
He's looking at history. He's looking at time and he's
seeing the whole fulfillment of our salvation in himself when
he first descends, accomplishes it, and then ascends. As Son
of God, always in heaven, as Son of Man, descending first
and then ascending. That's what John 3.13 is talking
about. He was first lifted up by the
law as Moses lifted up the serpent. He bore our sins, he bore our
curse, and whoever looks to him in faith does not perish but
has eternal life. And so we see Jesus. Chapter
2, verse 9, Hebrews 2, verse 9, we see Jesus made a little
lower for a time than the angels for the suffering of death in
order that God might fulfill His eternal will, which is to
set His Son as man on His throne over his people for their salvation
and against their enemies, to utterly wipe out their enemies,
which you're going to see in verse 14 of Hebrews to include
Satan, it includes our sin, it includes all of our enemies.
Reading on in Hebrews chapter 2, he says, crowned with glory
and honor that he by the grace of God should taste death for
every man. The word man is not in the original, it's just every
or the entirety of who he's speaking about here. And who is he speaking
about here? Look at verse 10. For it became him, God the Father,
for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing
many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation, Christ,
perfect through sufferings." How would Christ save his people?
Through his sufferings. Through his sufferings, he would
be perfected. Remember, he says, though he were a son, yet he
would suffer. And in his sufferings, he would
fulfill The obedience God required for our righteousness and the
satisfaction for our sins. And so it was through suffering
he became perfected as the captain of our salvation. So he's our
captain. Who were those? The every that
he tasted death for? The one who was our captain,
tasted death for us, who would save us. He has to save us to
be our captain. Verse 11, for both he that sanctifyeth,
the sanctifier is Christ, and they who are sanctified, those
who are saved. Remember in the Old Testament,
Jehovah, our sanctifier. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ
fulfilling that name. He is the one who sanctifies
us. They're all one. So the every are the sanctified,
they're the ones one with the sanctifier, and verse 11 still,
for which cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren. They're
also called Christ's brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church. those of thee
every will I sing praise to thee and again I will put my trust
in him and be and again behold I and the children which God
has given me all right so we see that if we go on he says
for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood
he also himself likewise took part of the same that through
death Christ, by his death, might destroy him that had the power
of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Verse 16, for verily he took not on angels, but he took on
the seed of Abraham. He doesn't say Adam, does he?
He didn't take on every man. He took on the children, His
brethren, those many sons He would bring to glory, those sanctified
by Him, the sanctifier, those who were one with Him, not only
in nature, but in covenant, those that were called the seed of
Abraham, because all of Christ are the seed of Abraham. All
the promises of God to Abraham were given to Christ. And so
if we're Abraham's, if we're Christ's, we are Abraham's seed.
Remember Galatians 3 and 4? Here we see it. Now we see the
understanding, the explanation. Why did Christ have to be made
for a while lower than angels so that he might die? Why did
he have to die? So that he might taste death
for every one of God's elect. And why did he taste death for
every one of God's elect? Not only to bring them to be
their high priest and bring them to God, and to sympathize with
them and send them aid, that's what succor means in the last
few verses of this chapter, but also that he might be glorified
in their salvation. We see him crowned with glory
and honor. Now, David is contemplating all
of this in Psalm chapter eight, and that's why it's so astounding.
Imagine what he felt that night looking at that starry night,
and thinking about the Creator, having become, in all of His
glory, laying aside His reputation as God, equal with God, yet laying
it aside, and becoming man, the Son of Man, with whom the infinite
God would have to stoop even to look, but here He stooped
so far as to give His Son, to take our nature and in that nature
suffer for us and put away our sins and conquer our enemies
and then through his people proclaim that praise to himself and silence
his enemies through the gospel. You see it here in Psalm chapter
8. All right, so in the last few verses, in verse seven, it
says, he put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen,
yea, the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, the fish
of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the sea. Everything,
everything is Christ. And if you are Christ, everything
is yours. Isn't that the argument of scripture?
The Lord Jesus Christ did everything he did for the church, because
they are the fullness of him who fills all in all, the churches. All that belongs to him belongs
to his wife, and all of they are one with him in body and
flesh and bones. And so whatever dominion is given
to Christ, they are heirs and joint heirs with him, all the
blessings. And not only that, but they reign
with him. Everything has been put under
their feet because it was put under Christ, their covenant
head, their mediator. That's what Psalm 8 is celebrating,
the covenant relationship God's people have with Him in Christ,
their mediator, who accomplished all the will of God to save them
and is exalted, though he suffered humiliation, in order to accomplish
their salvation. And now they speak of it in praise.
And look at the last verse here. Psalm 8, O Lord, our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth. First he gives the
praise, then he gives the reason for it, and then he closes with
the same praise. O my Jehovah, our Adonai, The
One who saved us from our sins by Himself taking our sins and
owning them as His and paying for them and blotting them out,
confessing them on His own head and sending them out into the
sea of forgetfulness. God could never remember them
anymore. That's the one he's talking about here. And he's
given all things. The father loves the son and
has put all things in his hand. He's the heir of all things.
And he's all of this for his people, the church, and they
speak of him. Oh, save us, save us. The King of glory, the Lord of
glory, how excellent is your name in all the earth. We can
enter into this song, can't we? We can sing this like the little
children did, and I want to sing it. When I read this verse, it
says, Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained
praise. You know what I think? Lord, I don't know how to go
out. I don't know how to come in.
I don't understand the simplest things. but give me Christ that I might
speak in praise of his work, his wisdom, his righteousness,
his sanctification, his redemption. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that
you would perfect praise, you would ordain strength as you
have done, and fulfill your word to us as the covenant-keeping,
covenant-fulfilling God in our Savior, Jesus Christ. and that
we would be enabled thus to speak from our hearts of your greatness. And we would say with David,
oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.
And we would take great comfort and delight in peace in knowing
that the Lord Jesus Christ is our Lord and our God. In his
name we pray, amen.