*This Advent season of 2023, my family will go through the Psalms. As we are all in different places in this new season of life, we felt the Psalms would lend well to Facetimes, devotionals and reflections as we prepare our hearts for the Christmas season. It is our hope that this Advent series will center around the themes of Longing, Deliverance and Hope. We will see the beauty of Christ and God’s sovereign plan in the birth and salvation of Christ. I invite you to join us this Christmas.
December 3, 2023
When I was a child growing up in Arkansas, I remember staring at the sky for hours at night. I remember I would just walk out our front door and look up at the magnificent sky and marvel in adoration of a majestic God that placed those stars exactly in that moment for me to admire.
The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem must have elicited that same adoration and beauty. We often see the stable portrayed with the bright north star showing the way to the Christ-child. How can we not marvel at the thought of the God of the universe creating this scene to send our savior to this world among the animals and night sky.
Psalm 8 finds us in this place of adoration of a majestic God that can hardly be put into words. As Thomas Chalmers, Scottish minister from the 18th century, describes the Psalm: “There is much in the scenery of a nocturnal sky; to lift the soul to pious contemplation. That moon, and these stars, what are they? They are detached from the world, and they lift us above it. We feel withdrawn from the earth, and rise in lofty abstraction from this little theatre of human passions and human anxieties. The mind abandons itself to reverie, and is transferred in the ecstasy of its thought to distant and unexplored regions. It sees nature in the simplicity of her great elements, and it sees the God of nature invested with the high attributes of wisdom and majesty.”
1O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!-Psalm 8
Meditate on the beauty and truths of Psalm 8. The God of the universe-the maker of heaven and earth-the glorious Father-thought enough about us to not only create this beautiful world, but send His son to this world to save us all.
“You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.” Nehemiah 9:6
Perhaps one of the most beautiful aspects of the Psalm is not just the praise of a majestic God, but the messianic nature of the Psalm. As Paul points out, in verse 5, David switches to writing of the coming Messiah! How providential! I often ponder if he knew the words he was singing were about Jesus and how profound they really are in the entire story of Christ.
And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.-Ephesians 1:22
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. 1 Corinthians 15:25-28
We see this confirmation again in Hebrews 2:
For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere,
“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death or everyone. -Hebrews 2:5-9
The writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 8 in showing the divinity of Jesus Christ. We can’t help but scream, Praise be to God! A God who in his masterful plan sent a baby to taste death for us. And if there was ever any doubt to the divinity of the Christ-child, we see Jesus quote Psalm 8 as well in Matthew 21:16. Isn’t scripture beautiful?
Advent is such a beautiful time to reflect on the majesty of the gospel. May we strive to magnify the glory of the majestic God as we go about this Christmas season.
Prayer
Almighty God, how majestic is your name! We lift up your name and praise you! The work of your hands are indescribable, yet you never falter from our side. I confess I often forget how majestic you are in the busyness of every day life. I forget often that the same God who created this beautiful heaven and earth created me! Please help me to live in your presence daily! God, I lift up all of those who are hurting this season. May they feel your peace and presence! Send your spirit of comfort. Thank you for loving us so much that you came as a baby to show your love for us. In Jesus precious name, Amen
Additional Resources
Parents of little kids: Read Psalm 8 outside under the stars. Consider a family campout.
Please watch/listen to the video. In love with the singer’s voice.
I am creating an Advent playlist on spotify as I publish devotionals. It can be found below as well.
