Good Friday 2023 Psalm 8

Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

The Lord’s name is not a name like yours or mine, nor is it a description as in Father, rather it is a statement of His essential nature, especially as it is revealed in Jesus Christ.

Yet even those who do not know the essential nature of God in Christcan see it in His creation: Paul says in Romans 1:20since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made

And in a deeper wonder God’s nature is celebrated even in the praise of little children. Remember what Mark tells us about Jesus and little children in 10:13-16: People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place His hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

And then he goes on to say that little children have the essential qualities of life in the kingdom of God. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in His arms, placed His hands on them and blessed them. As Paul will tell us in 1Cor 26b that God chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

'what is man that You are mindful of Him, the son of man that You care for him?

You made him a little lower than the angels

and crowned him with glory and honour

You made him ruler over the works of Your hands; You put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field,

the birds of the air and the fish of the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.'

It is very likely that David when he wrote this psalm was not speaking of Jesus. The phrase Son of Man was a way of talking about man-kind. And yet mankind is very special, being made a little lower than angels, and yet above the beasts, the birds, the fish and all things, as rulers of creation, not for exploiting it but to care for it.

Nonetheless Jesus adopted the phrase, and in calling Himself the Son of Man we can see what David could not. As Paul writes in Colossians 1:15f [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God …all things have been created through him and for Him… and in Him all things hold together…. [for] God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him,and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.

Now Jesus is the image of God. Human beings are made in the image of God, that is the image of Jesus. So Jesus the Son of Man is not just a man, He is the true man, the perfect man, the man who shows what all people should be like. He rules creation. See how the wind and waters obeyed Him. How the loaves and fishes multiplied. How the water became wine. How sick people became healed and the dead became alive again.

In the beginning we were created in obedience to God and as God’s appopinted rulers over creation, creation would obey us. But our first parents turned that upside down. They disobeyed God their Creator and instead obeyed the serpent, a creature. Their disobedience threw us into the dominion of darkness, death and the rule of the devil but through Jesus the sinless obedient man God rescued us from al that and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.All who believe in the Him will not perish in death. You belong to the Kingdom of God. You are receiving the goal of your faith the salvation of your life. You will inhabit the new creation where you will be God’s people. God himself will be with you and will be your God. He will wipe every tear from your eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. There we will all praise Him: Declaring Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Silence then Sing: O Lord my God when I in awesome wonder.