The People of His Majesty: Five Marks of a Marveling Church

0:01 One of the reasons that we still love the Psalms three millennia later is that they are songs. This is Hebrew poetry that was written to be sung. They were written by hearts that had been moved. and they captured those emotions and bottled it up in verse so that other people might read and experience those emotions. That later generations would worship our God together. Even 3,000 years later in Sweden. For Christians today, we have at least three ways that we should read every psalm. These are not options, like pick an option, but we read every psalm in these three ways.

0:57 One is the original reading. The original author, this one tells us it's from David, to an original audience, which would have been 3,000 years ago. The second way is in relation to Jesus. The God who inspired and preserved these psalms sent his own son at the center of history, and every psalm has something to tell us about Jesus. how Jesus fulfills the psalm and, amazingly, how God himself, as man, as Israelite, would have taken these psalms on his lips. So you can imagine Jesus speaking every psalm in the first century. A third way, then, is how these psalms relate to the church, the New Covenant church.

1:50 These psalms are for today. These psalms are for the church. Paul says everything written in former times was written for you that you may have hope. And so the psalms are all written for the church. And we need to have all three of these perspectives in mind this morning. But I want to focus especially on the last one.

2:11 The church. And not just the global church or the universal church. But you. In particular, my dear, new, Swedish friends, brothers and sisters in Jesus. If I might be so bold, I would like to address the Swedish church this morning. Not the state church. By Swedish church, I mean faithful, Bible-believing, born-again Christians in Sweden. so our orienting question this morning as we come to psalm 8 is what would psalm 8 have the true swedish church to be there's a vision here just as we have a vision of our worship together in the new heavens and new earth i had that vision and hearing you sing to Jesus in Swedish.

3:22 There's a vision here for what the church in Sweden should be. Psalm 8 casts a vision of the future. It doesn't only have the past part. It talks about some fundamentals in the past. We'll see that going back to Genesis 1. And it doesn't only marvel at God's grace in the present, as we'll see, but Psalm 8 swells with a hope for a coming future. and that's not only a future for David when he wrote it it doesn't only anticipate Jesus to come that's a future still for us it is a future that still lies ahead of us in 2025 psalm 8 gives us as Christians and gives you as Swedish Christians a vision for corporate life in the church as a people who cherish the majesty of God.

4:18 I love that we sing that song that started with majesty. I love that word majesty. This is what Psalm 8 is about. It celebrates the majesty of God. Majesty is an attribute of God. And sometimes we don't think of it as an attribute. We think of his omni-attributes, his omnipotence, his omnipresence. We think about his power, his holiness, his love, his compassion. But his majesty, that's an attribute, a lesser-known, often-neglected attribute of our God. He is majestic. And this psalm, in particular, celebrates his majesty. the reason I love this attribute of majesty even though it's often overlooked is because majesty celebrates his greatness and his goodness it brings together two things that sometimes you might leave apart but majesty brings them together it brings together his strength but also his beauty it's not just strength not just beauty majesty brings them together he's beautifully strong strongly beautiful majesty is not only a fitting term for mountains and seascapes oceans, waterfalls but it is a particularly fitting descriptor of the one that Isaiah calls the majestic one Isaiah chapter 10 verse 34 Therefore, our God is the majestic one.

6:09 Majesty, different than other attributes, is an emotive or affective word. It indicates a greatness in God that the speaker of the term, the praiser, finds wonderful. There's a bigness that the praiser sees as beautiful. There is imposing size viewed with delight. There is imposing power that is attractive rather than scary.

6:46 Majesty calls attention to the greatness of God's glory and the glory of his greatness. So when God reveals himself at the Red Sea in the cloud of fire that turns on the Egyptians, God's enemies cry terror. and his people praise his majesty as they do in Exodus chapter 15. That's where majesty first appears in the Bible as his friends, his redeemed, those who love him praise his majesty in rescuing them. And God's majesty in Psalm 8 is first glimpsed in the world that he made. This we might call his natural majesty.

7:41 We're going to see two modes of his majesty in Psalm 8. The first is his natural majesty. That's the last part of verse 1. You have set your glory above the heavens. That's interesting. So that is, God's majesty is above the majesty of the heavens. Their majesty, which David sees and writes down in the psalm, and the majesty that we're to see in the heavens, declares a greater majesty than the majesty of the heavens. and so David looks at those heavens in verse 3 and apparently he's looking at night there's no mention of sun here we get a mention of moon and stars so I envision David out at night he must have had to get outside of Gothenburg where you can actually see stars away from city lights and he says in verse 3 when I look at your heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have set in place pause right there don't miss that David looks he observes.

9:10 He stops his busy kingly life. He takes the time to look up at night. He pauses to see glory overhead as the majesty of God. I just can't help but ask do you still pause? do you ever stop and look?

9:33 we carry these devices around with us these distraction devices the pixels pull us in the busyness of 21st century life especially city life pulls us in do you stop? I want to stop I want to have a pace of life That is like Psalm 8 Where there's room for pauses To see majesty in God's world And take it up to the majesty That's above the majesty You can see with your eyes so David stops in his busy kingly life and he observes divine majesty and he unhurriedly meditates on that majesty and he feels deeply about that majesty and he crafts a poem about the majesty of God so that others including us might see it and feel it and express his majesty.

10:35 So I want to be like this. I want to look at the wonders of the world and wonder at the God it reveals. how tragic would it be to look at the wonders of the world and be blind to the majesty of God? Any unbeliever can look at the wonders of this beautiful landscape in Sweden and see majesty and stop right there. Not get to the majesty that's above the majesty of the heavens. I love that David says in verse 3 Your heavens Did you see that? He doesn't just say the heavens Now look at the heavens Like a scientist When I look at, God, your heavens, you made them.

11:37 You own them. You're declaring your glory in them. You're showing yourself in them. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers. What does fingers mean? Fingers can mean detail. The little stars twinkle, twinkle, and little detail. But I think what fingers means here is how easy God did it. The hand represents power. You use something with the hand. You exert your power to do something. Fingers, fingers are so much weaker. If you do a task without lifting a finger, that means you did it really easy.

12:23 That's what the majesty of creation is to our God. He did it so easy with his fingers. It didn't take any heavy lifting from God to make the majesties of this world. Majestic as the great features of his creation are, he's the majestic one. Look from them to him. The majesties of mountains and oceans is as nothing compared to the majesty of the God who made them. and made them with his fingers. He broke no sweat doing it.

13:08 So what would our majestic God through Psalm 8 have our churches be? And have faithful, Bible-believing, born-again, Swedish churches to be in this generation. So I have, as a daring, hopefully humble American, five charges for you from Psalm 8, my dear brothers and sisters in Sweden, and for your churches, hopefully your faithful, Christ-adoring churches. Number one, be a commending people. Be a commending people. And this is from verse 1 and verse 9. And by commending, I just mean praising.

14:06 Be a praising people. This is a psalm of praise. and the great refrain that begins and ends the psalm commends God, praises God. This whole psalm is second person. It's addressed to God. Not all the psalms are like this. Some psalms don't address God in second person. Some do and go back and forth. This one is just all praise to God, second person to God the whole time. You, you, you. So look at verse 1 or 9. We can read verse 1 and 9 at the same time. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. to praise God's name is to praise God himself you cannot praise his name without praising him you might praise someone without knowing their name if somebody does a random act of kindness for you on the street you might praise how wonderful they are I didn't even get their name but praise that person but when you know a person's name you can't praise that name without praising the person. This is praise for God himself. What name emphasizes here, why would David use name? Why not just say praise the majesty of God? How majestic is your name? Why say name?

15:35 Well, name emphasizes that God has revealed himself to his people. He's told us his name. he's revealed himself he told his old covenant people his name through Moses and he has revealed his new covenant name to his church the name that is above every name Jesus and the father of Jesus and the spirit of Jesus to praise God not just as generic God but to praise him by name is to receive and to cherish his self-revelation of himself to us. It's so precious that we have this book. This is no mere book. There's no mere record of what happened.

16:28 This is the living speech of the living God in this book, his self-revelation to us. The God of majesty who we praise is not a God of our imagination or our speculation or our human reason or our best intuition. He is a God who has revealed himself. He began to reveal himself to the world through his old covenant people and he has revealed himself climactically to all nations in Jesus. Last month, before I knew I was coming to Sweden, I had the opportunity to go to my former church, Bethlehem Baptist, and preach. And my assignment was Psalm 8.

17:23 This is the first time I'd been back in 10 years. I'd been at Bethlehem Baptist from 2003 to 2015. And we went out as a plant of Bethlehem Baptist to plant City's Church in St. Paul. So Bethlehem's in Minneapolis, and the Twin City is St. Paul. and our church, our little 10-year-old church is in St. Paul.

17:44 And as Joelle mentioned, Bethlehem Baptist Church, for its first 74 years of church life, from 1871 until 1945, it was first Swedish Baptist church of Minneapolis. 1945 they changed the name to Bethlehem and there's still some Swedes around Bethlehem including some that are on this trip as part of the prayer team and when I preached Psalm 8 at Bethlehem Baptist Church last month I had the privilege of commending them for being a praising people they sing they really sing and because they sing their little 10 year old church plant in st paul sings and so as a pastor i i love this one of my favorite conversations as a pastor pastors have to remember some of their favorite conversations she helped balance out the ones that aren't her favorites one of my favorites is uh from a guest she'll say, wow, your people really sing.

18:58 They really sing. It's like, oh, good, praise the Lord. Yes, they sing. And I tell them, I said, we get that from our mother. First Swedish Baptist of Minneapolis taught us how to sing. We sing like we do because of our mama. And you better not talk bad about our mama. and this is i mentioned earlier this has been i guess a kind of surprise i shouldn't be surprised a kind of surprise the singing that i've gotten to experience here this weekend you are a people who sing to our majestic god and so psalmate the first thing psalmate would say to you, Swedish church, is abound still more. You're doing well. Keep singing like you sing. Don't lose that penchant for praise. Lean into it. Keep loosing reserved Swedish tongues in praise of our God.

20:09 I think that will be the thing I remember most from this weekend Is you're praising jesus And here's an amazing thing When god looses the tongues of christians To praise him He teaches us how our tongues might be loosed To commend each other To praise each other Being a praising people on sunday morning begins to overflow into being a praising people throughout the week. When we learn to praise our God, we find ourselves more ready to praise and to encourage each other. And you know what? Our God is not at all threatened when his children praise each other. He loves it. He delights when his children praise him, and he smiles with joy when his children see evidences of grace in the lives of other children and they say it.

21:12 They praise it. They commend it. so be a commending people keep commending our god as you do and be a commending people of each other with your wonderfully loosed swedish tongues number two be a called people this is verses six to eight a called people and by called here i don't have in mind conversion, though, I guess in Sweden. Yeah, be that. Be converted.

21:51 Be a converted church. Amen. But I have in mind here the call of vocation, of your calling in life, your specific callings in life. Look at verses 6 to 8 again. you have given man dominion over the works of your hands you have put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea now as you hear verses 6 and 8 there what does that sound like does that bring anything to mind beasts birds fish that little triad beast, birds, and fish? Any other passage come to mind?

22:35 He's hearkening back to Genesis 1. So Genesis 1, chapter 1, verse 28, says this. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion. There's that same language. That's where it's coming from in Psalm 8. 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.

23:03 The first sense of call in Psalm 8 is to the original commission that God gave humanity at creation. Sometimes we call this the cultural mandate. Being in God's image, being His representatives in the created world, His vice regents over the created world, our calling as humanity is to grow our number and expand our borders. Or you would say, bring new humans into the world and raise them up and venture out into new territory and bring order to the uncultivated raw wilderness.

23:48 Don't expand your borders to take the borders of other countries. It should probably be said. but expand the civilization to cultivate and do so consciously and carefully, preserving natural beauty and making it accessible for human flourishing.

24:10 As humans increase and spread out across the earth, we learn to work together. We should. Sometimes we do. Hopefully we do. So that we can be more fruitful in this cultural mandate. and as we do that we find specific abilities that we begin to talk about as our particular calling and if you want to want to know about what your calling is sometimes people sense a desire to do something and then very quickly they cut corners and say i'm called to this i had a desire to do this and now i'm called to this hold on just wait a minute that's a part of it your desire your aspiration your holy desire is a part that's a piece that's one of three pieces also you need some ability in that thing. It doesn't matter if you really want to do it and you're terrible at it. We don't need you to do it. We need some ability. Maybe some God-given ability.

25:07 Often some cultivated ability. Sometimes Christians can just talk about giftedness, as if it just falls from heaven. I'm gifted in this. Take an inventory on your spiritual gifts, find out what they are. Most of them are cultivated. Not just received from heaven in a moment. So aspiration of a heart, abilities, and third is a real live opportunity to help people in need. Where somebody says to you, hey, we'll give you a job to do this. Would you do this? We'll pay you. And you go, oh, I got a calling. I want to do it. I'm able to do it. And somebody needs me to do it. I'm meeting a real need. This is a real opportunity in the world. That's a calling when those three pieces come together. so a charge for us this morning from psalm 8 is be good at your god-given callings god set up the world this way it's his cultural mandate trace your calling in life whatever that occupation is that job that role mother father that's part of it trace it back to genesis 1 through psalm 8 under the providence of god your work this week tomorrow Wednesday, Friday it matters, your work matters don't just work for a paycheck but work with divine purpose as one who knows the God who made the world and gave us Psalm 8 see God's sovereign significance in your work and we said that this Psalm has in it an energizing hope for the future.

26:51 As Christians, being called and having dominion doesn't stop at the cultural mandate. It brings us to what we call the Great Commission, where there's far more uncultivated territory to expand into.

27:13 I really believe that a healthy church will be both locally engaged in excellence, in our vocations, and globally mindful, globally prayerful, and sending people to the neediest places around the world. I know you might feel Sweden is one of the neediest places. Send missionaries here. We don't need to dream and pray and think about the nations. And if you do it that way, you're not becoming a fully healthy church. it's a glorious thing as God begins to move among Swedish Christians and send missionaries to the nations not just from countries that have 10% or 20% or 30% evangelicals but may God raise up missionaries from Sweden the church in Sweden will be more healthy if it's raising up and sending missionaries and maybe somewhere in this room this morning.

28:22 so we're a called people third be a candid people this is verse 4 verse 2 by candid i mean honest real straightforward and in psalm 8 that means honest about weakness honest about smallness honest about sin another way to say it is humble be a humble church and that's been so encouraging to see this weekend there is a spirit of humility in the church that I wish was more widespread in the American church be humble like David's astounded question in verse 4.

29:18 So remember, he's marveling at God's majesty, his heavens, his moon, his stars, and then he says, in light of that, in light of the majesties of the world that point to the greater majesty of God, he says, what is man that you're mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him? The answer to David's question is not, man's great. lift your head up David man's great that's not the answer the answer is God is great and God in his greatness is gracious God's great and man is graced grace for man divine favor kindness compassion gentleness for man is the point of Psalm 8 Man is the undeserved recipient of God's kindness.

30:16 God is strong. He is infinitely strong. That means he does not need to gather up strong people, strong churches, to fill in gaps in his strength. Rather, he is so strong that he gathers up the weak So he can show you how strong he is When he defeats seemingly strong foes through weak people you know how weak a leader is when they pretend to be strong then they got to flank all their weakness with all this strength our God is not like that he is so infinitely strong that he takes babies and infants and weak churches and shows himself strong verse 2 out of the mouth of babies and infants you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger it's a glorious thing that god helps the weak because we are that we are the weak so be candid be honest about weakness embrace it embrace smallness embrace weakness confess it cry for help because god loves to hear cries for help It reminds me of King Asa.

31:51 This is 2 Chronicles chapter 16. King Asa started well. And in the 10th year of his reign, Egypt, no, Ethiopia, came up against him and he felt his weakness. He felt his neediness. He cried out for God. He relied on God. He leaned on God. and God rescued him from Ethiopia against this strong foe. And then 25 years later, Asa is stronger.

32:26 And another foe comes. This time it's Syria. And instead of leaning on God, Asa doesn't feel desperate. He doesn't feel small. He didn't feel weak. So he makes arrangements. He's got international connections now. He makes arrangements to get help. against Syria.

32:47 And the prophet comes to him and tells him of his great folly and mistake. And then the prophet ends with these wonderful words. The prophet's name is Hanani. He ends with these amazing words in verse 9 of why you should not lean on your own understanding, your own connections, your own strength. Why rest in God? Verse 9. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro, throughout the whole earth, not just Israel, the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.

33:26 Swedish brothers and sisters, the eyes of King Jesus roam. They look with energy, with attention throughout the whole earth, including Sweden, to look for candid people who would say, hey, we're weak. We're small. Would you help us? Would you show yourself strong through our weakness? we're not going to pretend to be strong. You dare not play big. You dare not pretend with a God like this who helps the weak.

34:12 In doing so, he turns our calculus for strength upside down. We begin to embrace weakness. We rejoice in suffering. We don't despise the day of small things. We cherish God's strength, God's glory, His majesty on display in human weakness, in disability, in suffering. This is what's at the heart of Psalm 8. So we said Psalm 8 was about God's majesty and that there were two modes of His majesty. Natural majesty, which any unbeliever can see in a beautiful landscape. This is about what you'd call peculiar majesty. or special majesty, unexpected majesty. He's not just majestic over the heavens, but he is all the more majestic in defeating strong foes through weak people.

35:10 That's where the majesty of God really shines. So, Swedish church You may not only feel small And weak But feel various waves of opposition There are foes Plural In Psalm 8 Verse 2 And there's a singular enemy An avenger Behind those foes and so the church is often threatened and embattled and that leads to number four be a conquering people this is verse eight this is the strangest part of the psalm i love this see if you can track with me i know english is more difficult for some than others this is probably the hardest part right here the end of verse eight see if you can track with me That last part of verse 8 says, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

36:16 What is that? Why this extra line? He already said fish. Like, close the loop. Beasts and birds and fish. Move on to the next verse. And fish right here is plural.

36:37 And then something singular is lurking at the bottom of verse 8. maybe Swedes get this better as a seafaring people than other nations do can you imagine how scary it was to go out on the open sea before we pretended like we knew what was down there I mean, nowadays, we're not nearly as fearful as we should be because we pretend with our science and our modern knowledge. And we personally don't know anything, but like, oh, yeah, there's people out there somewhere at universities somewhere. There are people who know us down here and we're totally safe. Can you imagine 3,000 years ago as they went out on the Mediterranean and some massive sea creature came up?

37:31 Scared to death. that's very different than a fish I don't know what that was I don't know how many different species qualified for these scary things elsewhere in the Psalms in the book of Job two times Psalm 74 Psalm 104 the book of Job Isaiah 27 verse 1 we hear about a creature called Leviathan Leviathan says Isaiah is the fleeing twisting serpent the dragon that is in the sea Now, remember, Psalm 8 is poetry. This is an image. And Genesis 1 did talk about God making the great sea creatures. We tend to blow over this pretty quick in the modern world.

38:18 We still have this fascination. In the United States, I don't know how global it is, the end of July is Shark Week. I don't know if it's National Geographic, one of the channels, and they just show shark shows. and documentaries all week. And there is something ancient in the human soul that is fearful about the shark. And Megalodon.

38:45 Oh my goodness. Listen to this podcast about Megalodon. And at the end, it's fascinating, they're asking this expert about Megalodon. Did Megalodon have any foes, any natural predators? Well, I mean, yeah, pretty much ate everything. However, there was this ancient creature that some call Leviathan.

39:07 And Megalodon and Leviathan would eat each other's young. That's the only natural foe of Megalodon. Who knows what Leviathan stood for in the ancient world? And included all sorts of shark, big shark, whales, whatever. This is Hebrew poetry. This is a song of David. Songs draw on imagery and don't speak with the precision of epistles. But even though this line may not be clear exactly what is in David's mind, I think the implications for us in 2025 are plenty clear.

39:41 If it hints at Leviathan as the epitome and metaphorical embodiment of evil, then our call today relates to sin and to evil. That's what Leviathan's embodying poetically. This is the call for you. Defeat sin. Defeat your sin first. Tread on it. Put your feet on it. Don't give the serpent leash in your garden. What is that for you right now? When I hear, when you hear a preacher say, don't let sin run free in your life. What's the sin? it might seem intractable I've struggled with this sin for so long I'll never get over this thing Psalm 8 says to you with the help of the Holy Spirit the help of Christian brothers and sisters you can put Leviathan under your feet whatever passes along the pass of the sea let it be a call this morning to be a conquering people over our own sin and now we come to this point in the psalm as we get ready to close and we're missing the most important piece as it stands, Psalm 8 is stuck.

41:14 We're supposed to be a commending people, a called people, a candid people, a conquering people, and there's a glaring problem that that idea of conquering brought up. This is how Hebrews 2.8 summarizes the problem. Now we're jumping to the New Testament, and Psalm 8's in view. Hebrews is reading Psalm 8, and he's talking to us as a Christian and as Christians.

41:41 He comments very simply, reading Psalm 8, we do not yet see everything in subjection to man. so psalm 8 is echoing genesis 1 but something terrible has gone wrong in the world between genesis 1 and psalm 8 our sin.

42:10 Something is not yet complete. When David writes Psalm 8, God in his peculiar majesty has given humble man dominion over the works of his hands. But Hebrews says, we're not seeing that yet. That's not completed yet. And what's the solution? The next verse in Hebrews, Hebrews 2.9. 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 his death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. So the vision of Psalm 8 is locked up from its completion in human sin until Jesus opens it. so we end here with Jesus as the hinge that brings the majesty of Psalm 8 into the weakness and into the hope of our lives so my fifth and final charge to you is actually a promise isn't that sweet to end with a promise and another charge number five it's a promise in Christ you will be a crowned people you will be a crowned people that's verse 5 crowned means you will be honored with final, unending, unchanging honor honor that only grows and sweetens forever so after David asked in verse 4 what's man that you're mindful of him?

43:52 the son of man that you care for him? he says in verse 5 yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. And for Christians, the answer to the ancient riddle of Psalm 8 is that Christ has come and fulfilled the destiny of humanity by going to the cross for us, by rising again to new life, ascending to heaven, and being seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. So now Jesus, as man, the God-man, is crowned with glory and honor. And Jesus is crowned on heaven's throne right now. August 10th, 2025, he is on heaven's throne.

44:47 And he's building his church, including in Sweden, on heaven's throne. And he's beautifying his church. and his church with her groom will one day rise with him and ascend to the throne and will be crowned with glory and honor.

45:08 And so we his church are Christ adoring people. We commend him and we commend each other. We're called to our local vocations and we're commissioned into a global cause. We are candid about our smallness and our weakness and our sin and our need. We seek to fight back and conquer sin and evil, beginning with our own hearts first. And we know that just as surely as Christ has been crowned and sits crowned right now in heaven, so we too, his people, will be crowned and enjoy him as our great reward forever. we will adore his majesty and be luminaries of divine majesty in the name of Jesus let's pray together so father in heaven thank you for the sweet fellowship this weekend with these dear brothers and sisters in Sweden and I know other Nordens as well but particularly these dear Swedish brothers and sisters.

46:24 Father, it is so sweet to hear of your inspired vision for your church and to resonate together as those who love Jesus and adore him, that he is on his throne. He knows exactly what he's doing. He has all authority in heaven and on earth and he is working his plans and showing his power in his perfect timing among every tribe and tongue and nation. We adore the majesty of your son and pray now in his name. Amen.