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Sunday 8 November 2026
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Sermon Notes
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Psalm 8 - How Majestic Is Your Name
A moment of calm - Psalm 8 is the first of 5 nature psalms (Psalms 19, 19, 104, 108) and has been described as a ‘psalm of calm grandeur’ after the frenetic nature of the opening 7 psalms in Book 1 of the Psalter:
● Psalms 1-2 reveal the perfect, godly, Scripture-loving man and King through whom victory and prosperity will come to those who ‘take refuge in him’
● Psalms 3-7 reveals a world of rebels who set out to destroy this King and his peoples
For all readers of this psalm there can be found genuine respite from the broken world around us.
A song of praise - David picks up where he left of in the previous psalm: I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High (7:17)
David bookends this psalm with a song of praise: O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (8:1 & 9) - the structure of Psalm 8 is designed to emphasise the profound reality of this statement:
● 8:1 - is David’s proposition - namely that the very name of God is ‘majestic’ and this will be evident to the whole earth
● 8:2-8 establishes the case that proves David’s proposition
● 8:9 - repeats the original proposition, but now in the sense that because of all that has been said in 8:2-8 there can only be one appropriate response - O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
A majesty visible to all - This proposition certainly applies to the description of the perfect, godly, Scripture-loving man and King in Psalms 1-2, however, the inevitable question that arises from the rebellious threat in Psalms 3-7 is how this majestic name can be seen in all the earth?
Psalm 8 building on Psalms 1-2 makes a profound statement in the context of the threat of those who would seek to rebel against and destroy God and his people - a man - the perfect man and King - will rule the world and his majesty will be seen in all the earth. This man will succeed where Adam failed!
Adam had been told by God: ‘And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. (Gen.1:28) - in creation humanity had been granted a ‘created dignity’ that was not granted to any other part of creation, and through it the majestic name of God was to be visible to all of creation. It was this ‘created dignity’ that was lost in the fall, and it is this ‘created dignity’ that would be restored through the perfect, godly, Scripture-loving man and King of Psalms 1-2.
The answer to this question is that through this man God’s majestic name will be seen. The obvious question, therefore, is:
Who is this man? - Though not by name at this point, the identity of this man is revealed as Jesus!
The NT’s use of this verse clearly identifies that the hope of this psalm is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus:
● Matthew 21 - following Jesus' cleansing of the temple and the children present crying out, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ (v.15) Jesus says to the indignant religious leaders, have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’? (v.16)
● 1 Cor. 15;27 and Eph. 1:22 - both speak of God placing all things in subjection under Jesus’s feet
● Heb. 2:5-9 - is ‘the most significant NT commentary concerning Psalm 8’ (Christopher Ash) - 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 honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone (Heb. 2:8-9) - all that was lost in the fall, through Christ is restored fully, though we do not see it fully yet.
Whilst we wait, we like the psalmist can, in the face of a world in rebellion against God that seeks to destroy him and his people, can offer our Song of praise.
Our Song of Praise - Psalm 8 encourages us to:
● Be in awe of the Christ who as the second Adam has restored the ‘created dignity’ of humanity
● Lament our individual and corporate failure to steward God’s creation as he called created us to
● Celebrate that in union with Christ we are a new creation and can begin to live in the restored ‘created dignity’ that God always intended for us
● Eagerly anticipate the day when we will fully participate in Christ’s rule and reign over the New earth and the new Jerusalem.
The chaotic and dangerous world depicted in Psalms 3-7 are very much like the world around us, but as just like the psalmist our attention is on Christ, the perfect, godly, Scripture-loving man and King of Psalms 1-2, and so are respond by offering this song of praise: O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Saturday 31 October 2026
Jim Harries - End-October News
In his latest news, Jim writes about:
- missionaries being mediators between donors and recipients;
- a lecture on understanding African languages (available on YouTube - NB This is the correct link);
- a trip to Uganda;
- work on his novels;
- his forthcoming furlough (28 February - 21 April);
- controversial practices to lure new members to a church plant;
- a need for an increase in donors (or increased donations from existing donors).