A Word about Our Sovereign Lord from Psalm 8

Today I want to share a word about Our Sovereign Lord as I comment on Psalm 8. 

This Psalm reads:

O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

A PECULIAR PEOPLE:

We know that Peter called the church a “peculiar people” and while he didn’t mean that in a pejorative way, church people do have some funny habits and ideas. As unique as church members can be sometimes, we are not nearly as peculiar as the citizens of these United States can be, particularly when it comes to royalty.

You see, in 1776, we decided that we didn’t want to be ruled by a king, and we declared our independence. George Washington, who was our first president, was so popular he probably could have made himself into a royal figure of some sort, but he declined, and set a pattern for future presidents of only serving a maximum of two terms in office. This pattern lasted for over 150 years until it was broken by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Even then, once FDR was off the scene, we quickly approved an amendment to the Constitution which placed a two-term limit on his successors.

Although, unlike Old Testament Israel we apparently don’t want a king of our own, that doesn’t keep a large portion of our society from fawning over other people’s royalty, particularly the Royal Family of England. How strange is it for the descendants of the king we revolted against to be such objects of fascination and even adoration by many people in the United States today? I can only imagine how Peter would have described American society today! “Peculiar” might be the mildest term he would use!

THE RULE OF EARTHLY KINGS:

In contrast to our bizarre society today, the Psalmist David would have been very comfortable with the idea of a king ruling Israel. Not only was he, himself, anointed as king, David also honored the anointing of King Saul, and repented of even the minor assault that he committed when he cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak instead of killing him in that dark cave.

While David was comfortable with the rule of earthly kings, he was well aware of their limitations. He recognized that they only ruled as the stewards of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. David may have been sovereign over Israel, but God was Sovereign over the entire world.

THE SOVEREIGN LORD:

In our focal passage for today, David proclaimed the greatness of God, and he recognized the Sovereignty of God over everything. He also lauded God for His love for people, and His willingness to relate to the limited, frail, and fickle people of the earth. He reminded Israel that he and they both were merely the servants of God, given charge over what was not theirs, and also given the opportunity to bless the Sovereign Lord by their careful and righteous management of His creation.

In recognizing that only the One True God is the Sovereign, David stands in stark contrast to many other kings, not least of which was Herod. Luke, in Acts 12:21-23 records that, “On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people.  They shouted, ‘This is the voice of a god, not of a man.’ Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.”

OUR FEALTY:

David knew that there is only one Perfect, Holy, Benevolent, Just, and Righteous, Sovereign Lord, and that he was not Him! This brings us to the question for today: who is our Sovereign Lord? Who is on the throne of our lives? Whom do we honor and laud? Whom do we obey?

If it isn’t the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David, then we are in serious trouble!

Every Blessing, 

Dr. Otis Corbitt