Does God Care About Us?
Sermon Notes
Today we’re continuing our series on a book of the bible called Psalms. It’s a series about giving us melodies of encouragement for everyday life. Everyday life is sometimes difficult and discouraging, but Psalms can give us melodies of encouragement for everyday life. The Psalm we’re studying today, is about God’s creative power and personal care for us. It’s about how God didn’t just create us, he also personally cares about us.
Now if God created us and personally cares about us, then it means he has a purpose for us. It means he created us for a purpose, which is a question everybody asks at some point in their lives. Both skeptics and believers at some point in their lives ask the question, “What’s my purpose in life?” We want to know how life began, and what’s our purpose in life. We want to know if God exists, if God cares about us, and if God has a purpose for us. Today’s Psalm can help us with that, so let’s turn to Psalm 8 and get into. You’ll find Psalms in the middle of the bible, and we’ll be in Psalm 8:1-9. Title of the message is Does God care about us? The big idea is we should be in awe over God creating us, but also praise God for personally caring about us... We should be in awe over God creating us, but also praise God for personally caring about us...
Here’s your context. The book of Psalms is an Old Testament biblical hymnbook, and the word Psalms means songs, which is why this series is about giving us melodies of encouragement for everyday life. It’s because Psalms contains various songs and prayers filled with theological truths to encourage us. They’re written by various Old Testament historical leaders expressing their real, raw, honest emotions we can all relate with. Psalm 8 is considered a Psalm of praise, because it's written by King David during a time when he’s reflecting on God’s creation. As he’s reflecting and staring at the sky, he’s filled with awe over God’s creation. He’s filled with awe over God creating us, but he’s also praising God for personally caring about us. So let’s check it out.
Psalm 8:1-9 states, “Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth! You have covered the heavens with your majesty.” David begins this psalm by praising God, by worshiping God. He’s declaring how magnificent the Lord is. He’s saying the Lord’s so magnificent, that his name is known throughout the earth, and his majesty covers the heavens. The Lord’s so magnificent, that his magnificent power is being displayed on earth and heaven.
Again vs. 1, “Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth! You have covered the heavens with your majesty. 2 From the mouths of infants and nursing babies, you have established a stronghold on account of your adversaries, in order to silence the enemy and the avenger.” He’s saying even the birth of a baby, the chatter of an infant, declares that the Lord is magnificent. It’s an illustration of how the Lord’s magnificent power can be displayed through the weakness of others to silence his enemies. But the point is all creation on earth and heaven is declaring the Lord’s magnificent. In the words of Charles Spurgeon, “Descend if you will to the lowest depths of the ocean, where the water sleeps and the sand is motionless in unbroken quiet. But the glory of the Lord is there, revealing its excellence in the silent palace of the sea. Borrow the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, but God is there. Mount to the highest heaven, or dive into the deepest hell, and God is...justified in terrible vengeance. Everywhere, in every place, God dwells, and is manifestly at work.”
Jonathan Edwards who was an 18th century Christian minister and a great philosopher, he said something similar. He loved walking in the woods of Connecticut, and he said it’s because everything in creation is telling us something about God. He’d walk around looking at the trees, looking at all kinds of things in creation, then he’d ponder what it’s teaching him about the God who created those things. Edwards said, “What a calm ecstasy it brings to the soul!..The whole creation, the sun, the fields, the trees...they sing to a sanctified soul!” This is how we’re meant to view God’s creation. We’re meant to enjoy the beauties of God’s creation, but also pause to reflect on what it’s declaring about the God who created it. What David, Spurgeon, and Edwards are saying, is everything in creation on earth and heaven, is declaring the Lord is magnificent.
Vs. 3, “When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place...”As he’s observing creation, observing the moon and the stars, he’s in awe over God’s creative power. He’s in awe over the work of God’s fingers, and it causes him to worship God. In this psalm we’ll see 3 reasons he worships God, and the 1streason is because God’s powerful. David worships because he’s in awe over God’s magnificent creative power. For centuries people have come to believe in the reality that God exists by observing our universe. A lot of skeptics think it’s ignorant, it’s irrational to believe God exists, but it’s irrational to believe God doesn’t exist. It’s irrational to observe the universe with all its complex intricate details, and believe it all created itself. I mean if we were walking in a forest and came across a soccer ball, then after observing the ball I asked, “How do you think the ball got here?” You wouldn’t say “Well it must’ve created itself and put itself there.” You wouldn’t say that, because you know it’s irrational to think a ball can create itself in a forest. Instead the more logical explanation, the more rational explanation, is somebody created the ball, a kid was playing with it, and forgot it in the forest. That’s the more logical, the more rational explanation than a ball creating itself in a forest.
Now if it’s irrational to believe something as simple as a ball can create itself in a forest, then it’s even more infinitely irrational to believe something as complex as life can create itself in our universe...See most people, if they’re intellectually honest, will observe the universe like David’s doing and say, “There has to be a God who created the universe, because the alternate explanation is irrational. There’s no way the universe could’ve created itself.” David’s observing the universe, and he’s in awe over God’s magnificent creative power. He’s in awe over the work of God’s fingers. He doesn’t say God’s hands, he says God’s fingers. The implication is the that Lord’s so powerful, he set creation in motion with a simple snap of his fingers, and his fingerprints are in every intricate detail of creation. His power is displayed in every intricate detail of human genetics, and in every intricate detail of the over 200 billion trillion stars in the universe. We’re only a speck of dust in a universe containing over 200 billion trillion stars, but we’re even smaller in comparison to the God who’s powerful enough to create those stars. We don’t treat a God who’s that powerful, like he’s our butler...You don’t treat a God who can create over 200 billion trillion stars with his pinky finger, like he’s your butler...You don’t snap your fingers at the one who was able to snap you into existence...Instead we’re to be in awe over the work of his fingers, be in awe over his magnificent creative power, and respond by worshiping him like David.
Again vs. 3, “When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place, 4 what is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him?” So after observing God’s magnificent power, after realizing how small he is in comparison to God’s magnificent power, David starts wondering why God would even care about us. He starts wondering why a God who’s that big, that powerful, would remember us and look after us, especially considering how often we fail to remember and care about God. This is the 2nd reason David worships God, it’s because God is personal. It’s because God’s powerful, but he’s also personal, and he personally cares about us. We’re a speck of dust in comparison to the universe, we’re even smaller in comparison to God, but the God who created us also cares about us. He remembers us and looks after us. In John 10 Jesus says he knows each of us by name, and in Matthew 10 he says he knows every hair on our heads. It’s because he cares about us.
But we live in a culture where a lot of skeptical authors and college professors claim there’s no God. They believe you weren’t created, you weren’t intentionally designed, which means your life’s an accident. If that’s true, if there’s no God who intentionally designed you with his fingers, then your life has no meaning or purpose at all. Your very existence is just an accident without any purpose, and everything you do in life is pointless! But David’s saying that pointless accidental view of life isn’t true! He's saying your life isn’t an accident, instead you were intentionally created by God’s fingers with a purpose. He later says in Psalm 139, “You Lord formed my inward parts! You knitted me together in my mother's womb! 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” So no you aren’t a pointless accident, instead you were knitted together in your mother’s womb by God! You were wonderfully made by God! You were created for a purpose by God! He intentionally created you, and he personally cares about you. He intentionally created you with his fingers, and he personally remembers and looks after you.
Again vs. 4, “What is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him? 5 You made him little less than God, and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: 7 all the sheep and oxen, as well as the animals in the wild, 8 the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea that pass through the currents of the seas.” This is the 3rd reason David worships God, it’s because God is purposeful. It’s because God’s powerful, personal, and also purposeful. David says one of the purposes the Lord’s given us, is to be rulers over the works of God’s hands. It’s to care for the Lord’s creation like the Lord cares for us. In vs 5-8 David’s referring to the creation account in Genesis 1-2, to remind us that God made humanity the pinnacle of creation when he created us in his image. When God created us he made us in his image, he made us higher than the animals, giving us minds to think, emotions to feel, a moral conscious to discern. Even Charles Darwin admits humanity’s proven to be the pinnacle of creation, the top of the food chain. Darwin said, “Man has become, even in his rudest state, the most dominant animal that has ever appeared on this earth.” It’s because God created us to be higher than the animals, he created us in his image to be rulers over the works of his hands! So we’re a very important part of God’s creation, the most important part of creation, and we’re given a purpose. God created us for a purpose, and it isn’t to be a pointless accidental speck of dust in the universe. We’re small in comparison to the universe, we’re even smaller in comparison to God, but we aren’t a pointless accidental speck of dust. We’re given a purpose, and it’s to reflect God’s image in creation and to care for his creation.
But we’ve failed miserably at living out that purpose, which is one of the reasons David’s asking why the Lord would even remember us and look after us? He’s asking that because he’s in awe over how much God still cares about us, even though we’ve failed miserably at living out our purpose. He’s in awe over how much God still cares about us, even though we’ve repeatedly sinned against God and failed miserably at living out the reflective image of God. The reality is we’re often living as if we’re our own gods, instead of living as reflective images of God. We’re often living to display how magnificent we are, instead of living to display how magnificent God is. We have a purpose in life, but it isn’t to be our own gods or to be more magnificent than God. It’s to be reflective images of God and to display how magnificent God is. When we aren’t doing this our lives are out of alignment with God’s intended purposes, and we become unsatisfied with life. The reason we aren’t ever satisfied with life, is because we’re trying to make ourselves or something else the center of our lives instead of God. We’re trying to pursue things we think are more magnificent than God, such as money, possessions, relationships, the next big thrill or fun activity. Those things aren’t bad things to pursue, they just aren’t magnificent enough to ever satisfy you. None of it can ever capture your heart long enough to satisfy you, and it’s because none of it was designed to be the center of your heart. There’s nothing in creation that’s designed to fully satisfy you, instead all creation was designed to point us to the God who can. All creation is meant to display how magnificent God is, especially us since we’re the pinnacle of creation.
Vs. 9, “Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth!” David’s ending this psalm the same way he began it. He’s ending it fulfilling his purpose, doing what he was created to do, which is to worship our magnificent God. Now what’s interesting is back in vs 4, the word look after can also be translated as care or visited. So what David’s saying is “Who are we that the Lord would care for us, and come to visit us?” Well who’s the God that cares for us so much, that he came to visit us? It’s Jesus...Psalm 8 is pointing to Jesus...Jesus is the incarnate God who cares for us so much, that he came to visit us, and even died for us. Hebrew 2:9 states, “Jesus was made lower than the angels for a short time, so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone.” Jesus is the magnificent incarnate God of Psalm 8 who came to visit us, he came to die for us, he came to die for his fallen humanity. Why did he come to die for our sins on the cross? It’s because he remembers us, and wants to enjoy eternal life and all creation with us. The cross is the greatest display of God’s loving care for us. When we’re in awe over that, in awe over Jesus loving us enough to die for us, it gives our lives far greater meaning and purpose than being a pointless accidental speck of dust. Nobody would die for a speck of dust, but Jesus dies because you’re more than a speck of dust. He dies because he loves you and wants to restore you as the pinnacle of his creation. He wants you to live your life with meaning, with purpose, with eternal hope, joy, and awe in him. Instead of walking around, like a pointless evolved amoeba.
The big idea is that we should be in awe over God creating us, but also praise God for personally caring about us...Like David we should pause to observe creation, but then praise God for being powerful, personal, and purposeful in remembering us and looking after us. So does God care about you?...Does your life matter?...Does your life have a purpose?...Psalm 8 teaches us the answer to all those questions is yes! God cares about you! Your life matters! Your life has a purpose and is worth living! If that wasn’t true, then Jesus wouldn’t have created you and he wouldn’t have died for you. But he created you and died for you, because he loves you and wants to enjoy his magnificent creation with you. If you put your faith in him and live your life for him, your life will become satisfied by him. The more you fulfill your purpose in living for him, the more your life will become satisfied by him. So take some time this week to enjoy his creation, to be in awe over his creation, but don’t forget to praise him for his creation. Don’t forget to live for him, and to praise him for remembering you, looking after you, being willing to die for you.