[0:00] Palm Sunday, beginning of Holy Week as it leads up to Easter, the time where Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem takes place.
[0:13] We're going to talk about that in a few minutes, so I don't want you to think we're leaving Palm Sunday behind. The first verse in our psalm tonight is important because it's what the psalm is about.
[0:26] We kind of can figure that out because it's repeated at the end and the beginning. Everything in the middle pointing back and towards the end of what is being said.
[0:38] O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. The first Lord, all capitals, Yahweh, the covenant name of God.
[0:49] When Moses was talking to God and he says, Who do I tell them is sending me? And God says, I am has sent you. The God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent you.
[1:06] In Exodus 3 he says, This is my name forever and thus I am to be remembered by all generations. That's the first, O Lord.
[1:16] The second, our Lord, is that of a master. So for the child of God, it is the great I am. You are my Lord, my master.
[1:29] You rule my life. So there's this position of God and creator as well as master, slave to the one true God.
[1:45] How majestic is your name. Think of majestic like that of royalty, like a king, but add to that majestic in power.
[1:59] So the first thing that came to my mind was that of the ocean. It's awe-inspiring to look at the ocean.
[2:10] Depending on where you're standing and what you're looking at, it's just huge. It's massive. It can also be relaxing and calming and refreshing to be in the waves.
[2:22] But don't miss its power because the ocean can destroy. So think of majestic like the royalty of a king reigning and ruling with power that is unmatched by anything else.
[2:46] How majestic is his name in all the earth. There is no royalty greater than God. There's no ruler above him. There's no power or strength or wisdom that is greater than he.
[3:00] He alone created all things and controls all things. His name is power in all the earth. His name is power in all the universe.
[3:13] There's no place where God has no power because there's no place that God has not created. Even today, Sunday, across the world, we know that his name is being praised and proclaimed by millions.
[3:31] Now we also know that even though there are many that haven't acknowledged him, his name is proclaimed in all the earth. And it is the only name that will be acknowledged by every man and woman, whether here, now, or after our life ends when we get to heaven.
[3:51] Romans 1.20 says, There is not an excuse for saying that there is no God or I don't believe in a God or I will not submit to a God because God says, You can't miss it in what I've created.
[4:24] So in this psalm, we see David is talking about the majesty of God's name and the power being proclaimed through his creation.
[4:35] But not just on the earth. It says, You have set your glory above the heavens. What does that mean? We have the clouds.
[4:45] We have the sky. We have space. We have the universe. All those are glorious, but God's glory exceeds them all. Next in this chapter, we see verse 2, which is really, it's kind of an odd verse.
[5:02] If you're reading through it, you can almost take the verse out and it still flows. And yet it's still here, so we need to see why. We're going to talk about it now for where it is in this chapter because David has put it here.
[5:20] But we're going to come back to it because this is the verse that actually connects us to Palm Sunday. It says, Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger.
[5:38] Out of the mouths of children, babies, the weak, those who seem to be insignificant, from them will come strength to defeat God's foes.
[5:53] He will silence those who seek to live contrary to his rule and his design. I don't have to tell you that we have a desire to be our own God and that we want to rebel against his commands.
[6:12] We see that all throughout Scripture and we see that in the world today. Starting in the beginning, Lucifer wanted to be like God. Cain killed Abel.
[6:24] He wanted to worship God his own way. The people of Babel ignored God's commands because they wanted to make a name for themselves. And we could go on and on, but I think you understand.
[6:34] 1 Corinthians 1.27 says, But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.
[6:45] God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. He doesn't want to see how strong and great we are. He wants the world to see how majestic he is.
[6:59] It's not about us. God has power over everything. There is nothing created that can stand against the creator. And yet, God has designed power to come from the mouths of those who are weak to defeat God's enemies.
[7:20] It's an odd thing. It's helpful to see in this verse there's this contrast between the dependency of the babies and the self-dependence of God's enemies.
[7:37] God establishes strength through the weak who depend on him, and he silences the enemies that seek to depend on their own strength. Now, David here never says exactly what is coming out of the mouths of babies.
[7:55] Perhaps David is thinking of Moses as a baby, crying in the basket that is hidden in the reeds of the Nile River because his mom is trying to save him from being murdered.
[8:09] And you know the story. Pharaoh's daughter finds him, and in Exodus 2.6 says, as she opened the basket, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying.
[8:21] We know what happens after that, right? She keeps the baby and raises it herself, and the baby grows up to be the one that God uses to stand up in front of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
[8:32] Pharaoh being God's enemy because he's standing in the way of God and his people. God says to Moses in Exodus 3.10, Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.
[8:54] God refers to the people of Israel as children a number of times in the Old Testament. So we can see where that lines up with the mouths of babies and infants and those who are weak.
[9:08] God does this because he wants to remind them of their need and dependence for him. And when they stop depending on him, that's where things start going south. They set up their own God.
[9:20] They don't need him anymore, and they find themselves running after idols. All through the Bible, we see God using weaker things, smaller things, to defeat larger and stronger enemies.
[9:36] Battle of Jericho. If you read that story, how did that battle go? They were told to walk around the city for seven days, and at the end of the seven days, when they were given a cue, they all shouted, what was it that destroyed the walls of Jerusalem?
[9:54] It was the mouths of his people. How about the Battle of Gideon? Starting with 32,000 men, God cut them down to 300, a pretty small group, told them to encamp around the Midianites, and when they were given the sign, they were to shout.
[10:14] And it was the shout that caused the Midianites to basically kill each other out of confusion and all of that. God uses the weak.
[10:24] He uses their mouths to defeat His enemies. Let's move on to verse 3.
[10:36] Still looking at the majesty of God. Verse 3, when I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place.
[10:49] You can get this, just imagine in your mind if you can, we can't because we've never seen Him, but if God is here and He has hands and He's forming and He's forming these planets.
[11:04] Just, that's a good size one. I'm going to put that one here. I'll make this one a little smaller. Let's put that here. No, a little too close. Put it over here. the power and yet the delicate work of a hand creating a universe.
[11:23] The unimaginable greatness of God to form these things, the heavens, the moon, the stars. As I was preparing for this message, of course I got a little sidetracked and being kind of science-minded, I started looking up things like, what if?
[11:44] What if the moon were closer to the earth? What would happen? Well, if the moon were closer to the earth, we would have large chunks of our land that we could not live on anymore because twice a day we would have tides that were ten times what they are now.
[12:03] Or, what if the sun was smaller? Well, if the sun was smaller, then the earth would automatically move further away because of the gravitational pull and we would either die of freezing to death or starvation because the plants couldn't live anymore.
[12:20] So at some point I had to like cut that off because I would just dig in and, but you get the idea. Some people say, well, the earth is inhabitable because all those things lined up and that's how life was able to form.
[12:36] Yes, that's true. But all those things lined up because God lined all those things up and put us here. Johannes Kepler, famous German astronomer of the 17th century who was a mathematician, a teacher, he wrote books, but he's best known for his laws of planetary motion.
[13:00] Johannes was a believer in God and he always tried to find arguments and reasoning to explain what he found out and discovered.
[13:11] He was troubled because he had a friend who denied the existence of God and took the view that the universe came to be by itself. Kepler, in an attempt to convince his friend, constructed a model of the sun and the planets circling around it.
[13:32] Some of you guys might have done something to a smaller scale when you were in elementary school for a science project. So his friend comes into the observatory and he sees this beautiful model and he explained with delight how beautiful that is.
[13:50] Who made it? Kepler carelessly answered, no one made it. It just made itself. His friend looked at him in surprise and said, that's nonsense.
[14:04] Tell me who made it. Kepler then replied, friend, you say that this little toy could not make itself. It is but a very weak imitation of this great universe which I understand you believe did make itself.
[14:23] And so he's left with that truth that we look at so many things that we know man created and we miss the bigger things and think that it created itself.
[14:38] in view of all that God created verse 4 says, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him?
[14:53] Now in this verse, man that you are mindful of him and son of man meaning generations coming from man. so as men exist on the earth is what's being said here.
[15:08] I also know that this verse means more when we're talking about the son of man but for the first pass we're talking about men, mankind as they exist on the earth. Who are we that God would care for us?
[15:23] Have you ever flown in an airplane before and looked out the window? It's kind of cool at first. Things, you can look out and see things maybe your house, cars, buildings but what happens is you get higher, things get smaller, people disappear and suddenly it's hard to see buildings anymore.
[15:44] The world that we know fades. Problems that we can imagine or struggle with seem to kind of fade away and what we're left with is this beautiful earth that God created, the mountains, the rivers, the sky, the lakes.
[16:04] It can be breathtaking unless of course you're up above the clouds and you can't see a thing and then you just have to wait a little bit but you understand what I'm saying. Who are we that God should be mindful of?
[16:21] Or as the King James Version puts it, who are we that thou would visit us? God is mindful of us. He does care for us.
[16:32] He doesn't, like on the plane, He doesn't rule us from 30,000 feet but He comes down to us. He meets us in our struggle and He walks with us.
[16:44] He comforts us. Psalm 23, 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.
[17:03] Not just you are watching me, but you are with me. And your rod and your staff, they comfort me. That's the God who is our creator and our savior.
[17:19] Verse 5, yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. Mankind has been made a little lower than the heavenly beings and we have been crowned with glory and honor.
[17:35] What exactly does that mean? What is that glory, that honor? If we jump back to Genesis 1, we see where God says, let us, speaking of God and his Trinitarian form, in the beginning, let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
[17:54] So he created male and female. Then verse 28 says, and God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens and over everything that moves on the earth.
[18:12] We are made in God's image and given the honor of ruling over his creation. While we're here at this verse, I just want to remind us how God has blessed us and how we have been created special by God, let us not think that we are any better than someone else.
[18:50] And by that I mean let us not think that our education or our wealth, our skin color, or our sex, or anything else separate us or make us like we are better than anyone else.
[19:06] God has made all of us a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned all of humanity with glory and honor.
[19:18] And so let us not for any reason diminish or dishonor that glory that God has placed on us. another thing to point out about this verse is that the book of Hebrews says this verse is about Jesus.
[19:35] Jesus. Paul quotes Psalm 8 at least part of it and then he says this 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 for everyone.
[20:03] It was God's grace for us to make a way of salvation through Jesus who for a time was made a little lower than the angels.
[20:18] In verse 6 we see that God made man dominion over all his works made in the image of God and set to rule over his created world.
[20:30] So live in and use the resources but let's do it wisely as God's representatives.
[20:43] Verses 7 and 8 we see an echo of what God says in Genesis chapter 1 in the beginning summarizing what God has given us dominion over.
[20:55] It's summed up here pretty briefly in verses 7 and 8. The sheep and the oxen the beast of the field that is wild animals the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea and then there's this little interesting add one whatever passes along the paths of the sea why did David add this one he just said the fish so what else passes I think this was David just not wanting to leave out the big boys of creation as we read the Old Testament you run across creatures like Leviathan which are large aquatic creatures I think were probably a type of dinosaur but for us now if you think of like a blue whale which is the biggest animal on the earth it's not a fish but it passes along the paths of the sea all of that created by God and given to us to rule over as his delegates and then we get to the end verse 9 and David ends it the same way he started it oh
[22:08] Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth his glory is above the heavens where he rules over all and mankind given a rule over the earth is down here so let's not forget our position before our heavenly father God being the glory set above the heavens and man given dominion down here on his creation I hope those thoughts as we read over Psalm 8 leave you with a feeling of purpose and hope from a creator who's not only all powerful but who personally cares for you powerful enough to wipe out all who are against him yet he chooses weak things like the mouths of babies to silence his enemies okay that's part one now we got part two don't worry though the second part is not as long but we gotta get to
[23:20] Jesus I don't say that irreverently it's Palm Sunday we need to get to Jesus it's also in the title so we need to get to Jesus but it's hugely important in our lives that we get to Jesus that Satan doesn't want us to get to Jesus let's jump over to Matthew 21 we're going to spend the rest of our time in Matthew 21 it's Palm Sunday Jesus has ridden into Jerusalem on a donkey and people have laid their coats and branches on the ground in front of them and they're shouting Hosanna to the son of David blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord the whole city of Jerusalem is stirred up the number of people in the city is increased because Passover is approaching crowds are saying who is this other people are saying it's the prophet
[24:22] Jesus from Nazareth so there's this wonder there's this mixture of awe and uncertainty in the city and then the next day when we read Matthew it sounds like it happens right after but we know from the gospel of Mark that this next event actually took place on Monday Jesus comes back into the city let's read verses 12 and 13 of chapter 21 Matthew 21 12 and Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple and he overturned the tables of the money changers in the seats of those who sold pigeons he said to them it is written my house shall be called a house of prayer but you make it a den of robbers so Jesus comes back into the temple and drives out these people think about for a moment what that might look like who he might tick off who is this person who would come into the temple and knock over the tables either a crazy person or the son of
[25:49] God who says my house shall be called a house of prayer now Jesus is quoting Isaiah 56 7 here where it says these I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples now I look at this and I see Jesus saying my house God's house my house but I know some people look at this and think well he's not saying he is God he's just defending the temple for God let's keep reading verse 14 and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them so he strips out all the commercialism all of the worldly goods and he opens up the temple for those in need you need prayer you need healing come to the temple where
[26:56] God dwells come to the temple where Jesus is your salvation verse 15 but when the chief priest and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple Hosanna to the son of David they were indignant the chief priest and the scribes were furious I can imagine some self proclaimed man comes into their temple the place where they feel they own and flips over the tables makes a mockery of God's house and then he doesn't just make empty claims he heals people he actually heals people in their presence the sad part is in all of their anger and unbelief the truth is hidden from their view it says they saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying
[28:09] Hosanna to the king of David and yet they were indignant if God ever busts into the scene of your life or makes himself known in a miraculous way in our church may we never get indignant may we never fail to see the working of the Holy Spirit move or a healing take place because of our hardened heart or a judgment that we placed on someone else because of actions that they've done or something that they've said may we not be blinded from what God might be doing may we step back and say wow my God is at work here may
[29:10] I not get in the way the children are seeing people in the temple be healed now just try to imagine what that might look like parents friends who couldn't walk before are now running and jumping or your grandparents a sibling who was once blind can now look you in the eye and see you for the first time this is something that has never happened before so you can imagine the excitement of the children as they are crying Hosanna to the son of David as Jesus performs these miracles the word Hosanna while it is used as expressive and joyful wasn't always the case in the old testament
[30:11] Hosanna was a cry for help to God for salvation and in the new testament the meaning of this word changed to salvation is coming so think of it as a cry to be saved turned to the shout of hope that's the shout of hope that the children are crying out salvation from heaven through the line of David in the gospel market says they shouted Hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord the children and those being healed saw Jesus as the Lord the Messiah once sent from God to save them however the Jewish leaders did not and so in their outrage they turned to Jesus this is when it gets good look at verse 16 and they said to him do you hear what they are saying and
[31:13] Jesus said to them now before Jesus even finishes what he's saying we know that they at this point are full of anger defensiveness at what is being said because they don't agree with it who is this guy who is trying to teach us Jesus says to them yes have you never read so now you know their anger is like 100 percent have we never read are you kidding me you are talking to the elite no one has read or studied the scriptures like we have who are you teaching me Jesus says have you never read out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise
[32:22] Jesus here is acknowledging that not only what the children are saying is true that he is the promised Messiah but also they are saying is the praise to God and power against his enemies right here at this point the enemies being these elite spiritual leaders the scribes the Pharisees now there's an odd translation that I want to address because I don't want to leave too many questions in your mind hopefully I can help clear it up one of the slides good thanks these are the two passages so psalm 8 2 says out of the mouth of babies and infants you have established strength but Jesus in his quotation says out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise
[33:23] Jesus is quoting the Septuagint which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament now obviously we know Jesus is translating it right he's Jesus but I don't want to just leave you with that's the reason why it is the way it is because Jesus quoted it we talked earlier about how God has established strength through the praise of his people we see that in the Old Testament we see that as God works and that makes sense to us so I hope that helps us connect but I want to give you two other things that might help as well one is if we look at this verse as a as a fulfillment scripture and by that I mean when we read Psalm 8 2 it represents unfulfilled words that are incomplete until a future event completes it in this case
[34:30] Jesus completes it the second thing is the idea of strength being tied to kingship particularly here the messianic king the house of David if that's the case it seems very possible then that bringing together the word of strength and praise and in praise given to the son of David this thought would have been quite acceptable to the Jews at this time in any event Jesus points out this translation and there's not another word they're silenced Jesus leaves he exits the city and goes back to Bethany the children are praising me Jesus says the messianic king from the line of
[35:32] David the praises from their mouths this power established by God for his people over his enemies and in the context of Psalm 8 the praise coming out of the children is being given to God given to Jesus so I don't want us to miss the connection that Jesus lays out in saying I am God we are one power in me power from your mouth is power from God don't leave Jesus as the prophet of Nazareth only we have been going through Acts and we just passed through Acts 4 that said let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel this is Peter who was preaching that by the name of
[36:32] Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified whom God raised from the dead by him this man is standing before you well this is when they healed the crippled man this Jesus is the stone that you rejected the builders which has become the cornerstone and there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved there is strength in our praise of the name of Jesus it's not about what we can do it's about what Jesus can do through us so as we think about that as we close up the name of Jesus giving us power and purpose and that being established by our majestic
[37:33] God speaking the name of Jesus praising the name of Jesus spreading the name of Jesus that is power over sin that is power to the lost that is power over depression that is power over our sin our failures our weakness so let us church live in the power and the purpose in the name of Jesus let's close in a word of prayer Lord we thank you for your word we thank you for your connections back and forth from the Old Testament to the New Testament we thank you for you weaving this story of redemption showing us a majestic God who loves and cares for us and then showing us a savior who came and died for us
[38:35] Lord you give us power not because we're special you give us power because we proclaim the name of Jesus Lord we pray that you would help us to stop depending on our own power and live under the power of Jesus Christ looking at Easter looking at what Jesus did and then in the weeks to come as we continue through acts as you show us great works that have happened in your name Lord may we hold on to those things may we practice those things may we seek your name and not our fame so that we can be about what you want us to be about Lord we give you all the glory and all the honor and it's in Jesus name that we pray Amen love heart who it is something
[40:06] Okay to