The Bible text is Psalm 8.
THE WONDER OF CREATION
When I was young, I’d go into the back garden and look up at the evening sky. It was amazing to see the blackness, punctuated by starlight and the lovely moon. My childlike awe at this sight made me feel so insignificant. I had nowhere to go with this feeling. I believed in a god, but didn’t know Him. Did David look at the night sky and also feel awestruck? David, a grown man with a developed intellect, knew God and responded by praising the creator of all. He seems to throw up his arms and cry out to the majestic, creator God. We shouldn’t praise creation, but the One who made it. Instead of thinking humanity is insignificant, David was amazed this God considered people very significant.
Today, with the help of technology, we see far more than David could have dreamt of. How much more can we marvel that God loves us?
Psalm 8 is like a meditation on Genesis 1. It’s Trinity Sunday, and in Creation we see a God in three persons working - a Father who created, a Spirit who hovered over the waters of the Earth, a Word by which God created all things. John 1:1-3 tells us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” At creation is a Father God, a Word of God and a Spirit of God. The Church came to understand these are not three gods, but one God in three Persons. These Persons work together in unity.
THE WONDER OF GOD’s PERSISTENCE
David marvels that God bothers with human beings. The moon, the stars, the heavens - God could sit back and enjoy these things. They're no trouble, don’t disobey Him, don’t rebel against Him. Why intervene in David’s life, guide him, be his good shepherd, care about him?
God made mankind lower than angels. Yet it was to humans, not angels, that God gave charge over the earth. God said: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over” all other living creatures. Birds, livestock, fish, wild animals - not made in God’s image. Mankind is. God says to humanity: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Mankind is to be like God to the rest of earthly creation; to rule over it. Not brutally exploiting the earth, not killing animals for fun, not draining earth’s resources for greed or the lust for power, denying others a little while hoarding excesses for ourselves. Rather, to work it and take care of it, as God may do with us. Training in order to produce a harvest for all. God isn’t cruel and exploitative, so in representing Him we shouldn’t be. We’re to rule over earth to enable it to produce good fruit, just as the Father prunes us to produce good fruit.
God instructed people to be fruitful, increase in number, rule over the earth and the other living creatures, but not over each other. They were to rule together. But soon humanity’s wickedness spiralled out of control and “the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). Instead of obeying God, they did their own wicked thing. Disobeying God, jealousy, murder, arrogance, pride, sexual immorality, corruption, violence, unbelief. Sound familiar? It was so bad God wiped out virtually everything by flood. Still mankind sinned as if there hadn’t been a worldwide catastrophe. (Let’s not take it for granted that COVID-19 will change people.) Rather than representing God, mankind made itself like God. In time, God took Israel and laid down detailed laws to show how they should live, as a witness to the nations around them. But barely had the ink dried on the agreement, Israel disobeyed over and over. And the nations continued sinning. Whatever God tried to get people to live right, it failed because people are sinful and rebellious in heart. But God didn’t give up.
THE WONDER OF THE INCARNATION
And so, we see the Trinity working together again. The Father sends an angel to Mary with good news - she’ll bear His Son. The Holy Spirit overshadows Mary’s womb so she conceives without a man. The Son born is Jesus, God in flesh, God in action as a human. Again, people were having none of it and killed Him.
Jesus, the God-man, demonstrated the kind of ruler God is. The Son of Man didn’t come to be served, but to serve. The one who is first, became as the one who is least. The king over all washes the disciples’ feet. His joy was to serve His Father and He served Him by serving others.
“Jesus ... made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!”
Jesus, king of angels, who could have summoned angels to rescue Him, became lower than angels. The Creator becomes part of His Creation, tasting the food He created, breathing the air, touching with human hands what He had made. The ruler of all things feels what we suffer, experiences our temptations, dies for our sakes. None of us fully understands what it is to be in someone else’s shoes. God now knows what it’s like to be Adam.
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
His perfect sacrifice leads many to God. Man kills Him, God raises Him to life. He ascends to heaven. He is crowned with glory and honour.
OUR RESPONSE
How should we respond?
By worshipping the Creator, not the creation, which is idolatry. We must not allow ourselves to bow down to other gods, which are just man made nothings. When we see something beautiful, give thanks to God, for it is His handiwork.
By caring for creation in all its forms, obeying God’s purpose for humanity, and in doing so reigning with Him. Maybe we need to consider our consumer choices a bit more, favouring ethical products.
By becoming like little children, shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David”, joyfully praising our Saviour. Rather than suppressing knowledge of God, we should sing it out. We bow the knee and acknowledge that He is Lord. We throw down our crowns and say:
“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honour and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
