Psalm 8 - A Christmas Psalm

O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! 

[Thou] hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet!

All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 

O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! 

During the season of Advent Christians meditate and prepare to celebrate the Nativity of Jesus. There are a handful of psalms in the Psalter traditionally and historically used by Christians to meditate on the Nativity, e.g., Psalms 8, 24, 72, 96, 122, 146. Of these Psalm 8, for several reasons, is especially affecting. 

First, Psalm 8 is nothing less than a meditative-song on the greatness and glory of God which is addressed to God, i.e., note the inclusio prelude and postlude, “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” And the psalmist kicks-off his meditative-song with the outrageous claim that “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.” The psalmist is proclaiming that God’s name is made excellent in all the earth by way of babies! Contrast that with the common and hasty conclusion: our first reflex oftentimes is to point to righteous and powerful men and say, “There! Those men are making God’s name excellent throughout this terrestrial ball!” But that isn't what the psalmist does here. Rather, the psalmist is thinking much more linearly; he remembers that before men grow up and do mighty deeds they must first be vulnerable, dependent little babies, and even with the consequences of sin and the marring effects of the fall, the imago Dei in man has not been entirely obliterated—genuine knowledge of God and revelation stills shines through. By way of babies God again and again and every new day creates little men and women who bear the image and likeness of their Creator. Thus, God is the Master and Creator of the Universe who graciously gives the gift of life, creates babies, and daily makes his name excellent in all the earth!

Second, by way of Incarnation God made Jesus lower than the angels, but by doing so God ultimately exalted and gave Jesus dominion over the works of his hands and put all things under the feet of Jesus (see vv. 4-5 and compare with the predictive-description of the Messiah’s rule in Psalm 2). In the beginning, God gave Adam the cultural mandate, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth”(Genesis 1:28). Adam rebelled and abdicated that ethical duty… thus “death reigned by one.” Jesus, however, is the Second Adam who fulfilled the cultural mandate… thus “the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). Righteousness reigns through redemptive history and in the world by one, Jesus Christ! And because Jesus has made a way for his fellow-man to be righteous, we can go out into the world and get dominion for God (the cultural mandate has transmuted into the great commission, see Matthew 28:18-20).

Third, everything above is underscored by the progression from “man” to “son of man” in verse 4. The incarnate and humanization of Jesus, the “babe” through whom God has ordained strength (verse 2), is the front-end revelation of the Salvation of God. And the back-end revelation of the Salvation of God is the fulfillment of the Prophet Daniel’s prediction: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14). The New Testament authors confirm this prediction, that the Father in Heaven has exalted the son of man to be the cosmic Christ… as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:27 and Philippians 2:7-11,

For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.

 

[Jesus] made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The Father exalted Jesus for his obedience. Christ’s obedience first led him to earth to become a man, and once he became a man, the obedience of Christ led him unto death. For his obedience, the Father exalted/raised Jesus from the grave. The Father also exalted/raised Jesus by giving him a “name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Indeed, Jesus has been given a name above every name. Jesus is the “Salvation of Jehovah” who teaches us to give glory to God the Father. In the final analysis, it is because of and only because of the incarnate Jesus that we joyfully proclaim “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”

Psalm 46

 "It is no small joy to be able to sing Psalm 46 in the dark and cloudy day." - John McCheyne

CCRC: Psalm of the Month for July, 2014

At CCRC we are endeavouring to learn/focus on a Psalm or song each month. Psalm 145:15-21 - "The Eyes of All upon Thee Wait" from the Cantus Christi hymnal is July's song of the month. Below is a mediation for this month's Psalm. 

 Meditation on Psalm 145

David's Psalm of Praise

I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.

Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.

I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.

And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.

They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.

The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.

The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.

They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;

To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.

Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.

The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.

The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.

Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.

The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.

The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.

The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.

My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

This is a "Psalm of praise" composed by David, but this Psalm can be prayer-sung everywhere, always, and by all Christians. From the beginning to the end, the inclusio "bless [thy/his holy] name for ever and ever" identifies what is at the heart of Christian living: Doxology - specifically, to give God glory with our mouths/words, e.g. "I will extol thee, my God, O king; . . . Every day will I bless thee" (vv. 1-2); "men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness" (vv. 6-7); "My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever" (v. 21). 

The "song" that David sings about God's righteousness is the exact same tune sang by those with regenerate hearts. The Church has experienced the love of God, therefore, the Church "for ever and ever" sings:

The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy

The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom . . .

Let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever. (vv. 7-8, 13a, 21b)

The Church while living in the Country of Man (Earth), which is being transformed into the Kingdom of God, sings Psalm 145:2, Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever, and this song echoes and harmonizes with the song sang in the Country of God (Heaven) by the four beasts, who, before the throne of God and without ceasing, sing both day and night: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come (Revelation 4:8). Christians are in the world but not of the world, therefore, we sing heavenly songs; Christians sing eternal songs about eternal life in an eternal kingdom, where they serve an eternal King. 

Commenting on Psalm 145, Patrick Henry Reardon, a pastor in the Orthodox Church, notes that: "The Kingdom of Christ is not of this world; it is truly eternal and transcendent and belongs to heaven. Accordingly, the words and sentiments of our psalm [Psalm 145] repeatedly raise the mind above the earthly things to the realm of eternal life." God's greatness is eternal, it is unsearchable (v. 3), therefore, this means that every day is a new day for Doxology and Praise; every day is a new day to sing about the righteousness of God! 

The Holy Ghost gave David these inspired words so believers might bend their lives with word-and-song towards their heavenly home. Don't be dismayed by the fires of life or the vale of tears, but rather lift up your heart to the Lord by singing David's song, for The Lord preserveth all them that love Him (v. 20). Christians call out to the Lord when they sing David's "Psalm of praise", and the Lord has promised that "[He] is nigh unto all them that call upon him . . . and will save them" (vv. 18-19). We sing songs about the God who saves us, for Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised! 

Psalm 145 - David's "Psalm of Praise"

A hymn in acrostic form; every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Acrostic poems usually do not develop ideas but consist rather of loosely connected statements. The singer invites all to praise God (Ps 145:1–3, 21). The “works of God” make God present and invite human praise (Ps 145:4–7); they climax in a confession (Ps 145:8–9). God’s mighty acts show forth divine kingship (Ps 145:10–20), a major theme in the literature of early Judaism and in Christianity. [Source]

Hymn: Christ Shall Have Dominion

Christ Shall Have Dominion

From The Psalter, 1912

Based on Psalm 72

(Tune: 'Onward Christian Soldiers')

Christ shall have dominion 

Over land and sea,

Earth's remotest regions 

Shall His empire be;

They that wilds inhabit 

Shall their worship bring;

Kings shall render tribute, 

Nations serve our King.

When the needy seek Him, 

He will mercy show;

Yea, the weak and helpless 

Shall His pity know.

He will surely save them 

From oppression's might,

For their lives are precious 

In His holy sight.

Ever and forever 

Shall His name endure;

Long as suns continue 

It shall stand secure;

And in him forever 

All men shall be blest,

And all nations hail Him 

King of kings confessed.

Unto God Almighty 

Joyful Zion sings;

He alone is glorious, 

Doing wondrous things.

Evermore, ye people, 

Bless His glorious name,

His eternal glory 

Through the earth proclaim.

China

I've made brief notes before here and here about the growth of Christianity in China. Recently Peter Leithart summarizes an article over at The Telegraph which states China is on course to become 'world's most Christian nation within 15 years.' From the article:

"Mao thought he could eliminate religion. He thought he had accomplished this," Prof Yang said. "It's ironic -- they didn't. They actually failed completely."

Communism writes off (persecutes) religion wholesale. But perhaps in God's providence the evil that is communism is merely a tool that God is using to graze cultural idolatrous woodlots, i.e., a type of pagan clear-cutting; Communism is the "Emerald Ash Borer" of the forest-that-is-paganism. So now the seed of the Gospel can be planted and new Psalm 1- "righteous man" tree farms can be cultivated? Perhaps. What the communists intended for evil the Triune Lord intended for good.

I'm guessing Christian China is singing Psalm 2 with zeal.  

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the 

LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 

Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. 

Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. 

Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. 

I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 

Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. 

Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 

Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Worship

"Jesus' famous statement in John 4:23 that the Father seeks worshippers is unparalleled, for nowhere in the entire corpus of Holy Scripture do we read of God's seeking anything else from a child of God. God desires worship above all else. . . . A look at the massive emphasis in the Old Testament reveals God's mind on worship's priority. Exodus devotes twenty-five chapters to the construction of the Tabernacle, the locus of divine worship. Leviticus amounts to a twenty-seven chapter liturgical manual. And the Psalms are a spectacular 150-chapter worship hymnal. Divine worship has always been the occupation and sustenance, the priority, of the believing soul" (R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man, 111).

Merciful Kindness

Psalm 119:76, Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to thy word unto thy servant.

Read the Psalms

"There is something wrong with a Christianity which rejects the Old Testament, or even with a Christianity which imagines that we are essentially different from the Old Testament saints. If any of you are tempted to feel like that, I would invite you to read the Book of Psalms, and then ask yourself whether you can honestly say from your experience some of the things the Psalmists said. . . . Read the Psalms and the statements made in them, and I think you will agree that these men were children of God with a great and rich spiritual experience" (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Faith on Trial, 11-12).

Aphoristic Commentary: Psalm 120:6-7 and 1 John 4:4-6 & 13

Psalm 120:6-7, My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.

1 John 4:4-6 & 13, Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error....Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

We can have an optimistic/postmillennial eschatology, so long as we allow it to organically flow from and bend before Scripture: even with an optimistic/postmillennial eschatology, we must never forget the antithetical relationship between Christ and his enemies, between the Church and the world. Thus, we must always remember, not in spite of, but because of our optimistic/postmillennial eschatology, that we are separated unto God by the Holy Spirit!

Aphoristic Commentary: Romans 5:19 & Psalm 111:1-3

Romans 5:19,  For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Imputed Righteousness = "By the obedience of one [Jesus Christ] shall many be made righteous."

Psalm 111:1-3, Praise ye the LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation. The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honourable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever.

The doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness is praise-worthy and comforting: a Christian knows their righteousness is Christ's righteousness imputed to them, and, since Christ is Lord, that righteousness will endure for ever. Praise-worthy and comforting, indeed.

Singing-and-Praying the Songs of Jesus

"Why . . . can Christians pray the Psalms? According to the ancient church, it is because it was always the Messiah at the head of his people who prayed them; in Augustine's fine phrase, it was always "the total Christ," the totus Christus, Christ as the head and his folk as the body, who gathered in the temple with these hymns and lamentations" (Robert W. Jenson, Canon and Creed, 23).

Imprecatory Psalms: For our Faith and Worship

Regarding the imprecatory Psalms: "Yes, these kinds of [imprecatory] prayers are uncomfortable (they are supposed to be!), but they are there, given by God and led by Christ, for us to sing. Curses in the Psalms are not provided for us to sing with relish, but even these hard lines are there for our faith and worship" (Michael LeFebvre, Singing the Songs of Jesus: Revisiting the Psalms, 115).

Psalmody: Meditation and Praise

A lengthy excerpt, but much food-for-thought on the function and design of the Psalms.

And it is my thesis, in this chapter, that in the Psalms, praise is the expected outcome, but meditation is the underlying activity which we undertake in Psalm singing. Unlike modern church songs which are primarily about 'getting right to the point' and declaring praise, the Psalms are designed to help people who don't always feel like praising begin by meditating on the mess the world is in, and only through a full and robust process of meditation, to come out with praise.

Praise is so vital an outcome from psalmody that we use the word 'Psalms' (lit., 'Praises') to describe them. In Hebrew, the volume is called Tehilim, meaning 'praises,' and in Greek it is called Psalmoi, which likewise indicates songs of joy and praise. But even a cursory reading of the Psalms reveals that they are not all hymns of declarative praise. There is a lot of moaning and groaning going on in the Psalms. The book is called 'Praises,' not because each individual hymn contained in it is joyful. The book is called 'Praises' because the nature of the whole collection is to carry us from sorrow to praise.

We use a similar method for naming streets in our culture. I live on the edge of Indianapolis, just south of another city called Lafayette. One of the major north-south routes on my side of Indianapolis is a street called, 'Lafayette Rd.' It is called Lafayette, not because I live in the city of Lafayette (I live in Indianapolis), but it is so named because, if you follow that road where it leads, you will end up in the city of Lafayette.

In the same way, the book of Psalms is so named because these are sung meditations, which meet us in the 'city of confusion and trouble' where we live and, if we follow them where they take us, they carry us ultimately to the 'city of praise and rejoicing.' This is true of each Psalm within its own compass on the small scale (each Psalm, generally trends to lift us from questions to answers). This is also true of the Psalmbook as a whole. In fact, the Early Church Father Gregory of Nyssa, wrote a book [Inscriptions of the Psalms] in the fourth century to describe how the Psalter carries us from the sorrow of living in a place of ungodly, sinners, and scorners (in Ps. 1) to the heavenly assembly of joy (in Ps. 150) (Michael LeFebvre, Singing the Songs of Jesus: Revisiting the Psalms, 96-98).

 

The Psalter and Prayer, Again

"Here [in the Psalter] we learn, first, what prayer means. It means praying according to the Word of God, on the basis of promise" (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 47).

An Ideal Curriculum

"God not only gives us inspired teaching in the Bible, but inspired songs too. Songs often do as much as sermons (if not more) to shape our faith. The Scriptures preached and Psalms sung provide an ideal curriculum for shaping the faith of the church" (Michael LeFebvre, Singing the Songs of Jesus: Revisiting the Psalms, 38).

The Psalter and Prayer

"The Psalter is the great school of prayer" (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 47).

Psalmic Transformation

Following excerpt from recent CT interview with N. T. Wright regarding his new book, The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential.

How can the Psalms transform us?

Within the Jewish and Christian traditions, you get your worldview sorted out by worship. The Psalms are provided to guide that worship. When we continually pray and sing the Psalms, our worldview will actually reconfigure according to their values, theology, and modes of expression. It's not that the Psalter gives us "Five Rules for Constructing Your Worldview." But it does embody the worldview that is to shape the people of God. And somebody who is regularly exposed to certain media forms (like a sequence of films, or a radio talk show with a particular bias) will begin seeing the world through those ideas and values.

 

Praying and Reading

What to pray while reading Scripture: "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Psalm 119:18).

The Psalms: Highview Architecture

An excellent summary of the overarching structure -- highview architecture -- of The Psalms.

The Torah is holy history that becomes Law only in the context of Todah, "Praise and Thanksgiving.

... 

The Canticles that were preserved in the Book of Praise [The Psalms] open with the dynamism of obedience (Psalm 1) and the expectation of the ideal King (Psalm 2). They terminate with the Hallelujah of the final apotheosis (Psalm 150) (Samuel Terrien, The Psalms: Strophic Structure and Theological Commentary, 60).

I had to look up the word "apotheosis" -- from the Greek word "to deify" -- elevation to divine status, deification, the perfect example.

Also, what a phrase! -- "dynamism of obedience" -- I love that.