“thinking God’s thoughts after

Him”

Johannes Kepler

Life behind the lyrics of the Psalms

When our view of God is too small

Psalm 8

Aim

To enlarge our vision of who God is in terms of His creation

and in His care for each of us

How BIG is your God?

LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your

glory in the heavens – Psalm 8:1

… the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place

Psalm 8:3a

Creation reflects the glory of God – 8:1-2

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies

proclaim the work of His hands – Psalm 19:1

Creation reflects the glory of God – 8:1-2

Creation reflects the glory of God – 8:1-2

our sun is just one among a billion trillion stars

Creation reflects the glory of God – 8:1-2

The planets in the Milky Way

Creation reflects the glory of God – 8:1-2

The only planet that supports life

Through the praise of children and infants you have established a

stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger

Psalm 8:2

Creation reflects the glory of God – 8:1-2

the children (were) shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” “Do you hear what these children are saying?”

they asked him. “Yes … have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”

Matt 21:15b-16

Creation reflects the glory of God – 8:1-2

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that

you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?

Psalm 8:3-4

Creator God thinks & cares about us 8:3-4

Average human body contains enough iron to make a 3 inch nail, enough sulphur to kill all fleas on an average dog, Enough carbon to make 900 pencils Potassium to fire a toy cannon, fat to make 7 bars of soap

The human body - chemicals

The text of our DNA is 3 billion letters long and

written in a cryptographic 4 letter code

The human body - DNA

"It is humbling for me, and awe-inspiring to realize that we have

caught the first glimpse of our own instruction

book, previously known only to God”

The human body

“The experience of sequencing the human genome was a stunning scientific achievement, but also an occasion of

worship”

The human body - DNA

‘I am fearfully and wonderfully made’ – Psalm 139

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness ... So God created man in his own image, in the

image of God he created him; male and female he created them

Gen 1:26-27

How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them, they would outnumber the

grains of sand Psalm 139:17-18a

for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care

Psalm 95:7

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous

man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates

his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us - Rom 5:6 -8

You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their] feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas

Psalm 8:6-8

God has given you dominion over creation

The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it

Psalm 24:1

“Man is the captain of creation and thus his job is to work with the world,

organizing it and transforming it for God’s glory”

R C Sproul

LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name

in all the earth!

Psalm 8:9