1.
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father, and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word this morning we
observe Trinity Sunday is taken from Psalm 8.
Here we see, “The Lord reveals His
glory,” in creation. in salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, and in our confession
of Him as our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Martin
Luther angered his father when he gave up his legal studies to enter the
Augustinian monastery. At Martin’s later ordination, his father, Hans, attended
and even gave a handsome gift of money to the monastery. Nevertheless, Martin
and his father quarreled that night over his chosen vocation when Martin
suggested that his life was so holy and peaceful. Hans responded that God
commanded him also to honor his father and mother, lest he leave them destitute
in their old age. Eventually, their relationship would be restored after Martin
came to understand the Word of God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and Hans
later approved of his son’s course. But for years of Luther’s life, this was a
struggle; the authority of God seemed to supplant the authority of his father
and irreconcilably conflict with it.
When God created man, he put us in authority over all the rest of his
creation. But our rebellion against God destroyed our place over creation and
created instead a painful conflict. Fortunately, through Jesus, God as the
highest authority has restored true authority over creation to His new adam,
His adopted sons and daughters.
3.
Psalm
8:1-2 says, “1O LORD, our Lord, how
majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the
heavens. 2Out of the mouth of babes and
infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy
and the avenger.” The Lord our God
is praised by huge galaxies and by tiny babies. The sun, the moon, and the
stars testify to the majesty, power, and wisdom of God (Psalm 19:1–5; Romans
1:19, 20). But their testimony is a testimony without words, a testimony
without love. More precious than the testimony of huge galaxies are the simple
prayers and songs of a little child. Even infants, who can’t communicate with
us, can praise God in ways we don’t understand.
4.
Jesus
loved children and urged that they be brought to him, it’s why we as Lutherans
are so big on educating our young people in the Word of God and in learning
about Jesus as their Lord and Savior. In Matthew 21:16 Jesus quotes this psalm
as a testimony to the faith little children had in him. After Jesus’ entry into
Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the little children continued to sing their hosannas
to Jesus in the temple. The religious leaders of Israel were outraged and
demanded that Jesus put a stop to these songs. But Jesus refused. When the
leaders of Israel, who should have taken the lead in welcoming Jesus, refused
to honor him, God gave Jesus the glory he deserved through the lips of children. Today, when many of the leaders of
government, religion, and science refuse to give glory to God, God still
receives praise from the lips of his children.
5.
Psalm
8:3-9 says, “3When I look at your
heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set
in place, 4what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you
care for him? 5Yet you have made him a
little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6You have given him dominion over the works
of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7all sheep and oxen, and
also the beasts of the field, 8the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the
sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name
in all the earth!” For God the work
of creating huge galaxies was detailed handiwork, like fine needlepoint. We
might think that the creation of mankind was even more trivial, since the whole
human race is nothing but a speck compared to just one of God’s stars. But, God
created Adam and Eve to have dominion over the universe. He created the sun,
moon, and stars to serve them. He created man and woman in his image so they
could be righteous and holy and live in happy fellowship with him. The hundreds
of millions of people huddled on the earth are only an insignificant speck in
the vast reaches of the universe, but there is more understanding and
comprehension of God in the mind of one child than in millions of stars.
6.
But
through the fall into sin, mankind’s fellowship with God was broken, and his
dominion over the universe was diminished. We can still use the intelligence
God has given us to gain a partial understanding and control over the world in
which we live. But human beings no longer have an uncontested dominion over the
earth. The peace that ruled in Eden is gone.
7.
Now
animals kill human beings. Human beings kill animals. And human beings
slaughter other human beings. We live in a hostile environment. In spite of
modern medicine, our control of diseases is imperfect. Even the tiniest viruses
can kill us. We battle against weeds, pests, and diseases, against floods and
droughts in order to produce our food from the soil of the earth. We are killed
by our own machines and poisoned by our own pollution. Thousands of people
perish in earthquakes and other natural disasters. Inevitably the day comes
when each of us must return to the ground from which we were created.
8.
Through
sin mankind lost the dominion over the earth that God had entrusted to his
highest creatures, but God sent Christ as the second Adam, the Son of Man, in
order to regain the dominion we had lost and to restore it to us. Psalm 8 is
quoted twice in the New Testament as a messianic prophecy that was fulfilled
when Christ came and regained dominion over the world for us. As true God,
Christ already had dominion over the whole universe. But when he was conceived
by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, he took on a human nature like
ours, though without sin. In this state he undertook the work of regaining our
lost dominion for us.
9.
During
his state of humiliation, God “made Jesus
a little lower than the heavenly beings.” This phrase could also be
translated “You made him a little lower
than God” or “You made him lack apart from God for a while.” Actually there is little difference in
meaning among these various translations, since all of them point to the lowly
appearance of Jesus during his humiliation. During his stay on earth Jesus
didn’t look like God or even like an angel, but like an ordinary man. Psalm 8
was fulfilled throughout Jesus’ ministry on earth when he assumed the form of a
humble servant. Jesus was “made a little
lower than the heavenly beings” when he was helped by angels at the time of
his temptation and in Gethsemane (Matthew 4:11; Luke 22:43). Psalm 8 was
fulfilled when Jesus’ enemies refused to recognize him as God and instead
ridiculed him as a lowly carpenter and when they mocked him on the cross. Psalm
8 was also fulfilled at Calvary when Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).
10.
But
Jesus didn’t stay in this humble condition. When he had finished his work of
defeating sin, death, and the devil, he ascended to heaven and was seated at
the right hand of God. He now has all power in heaven and on earth. He is
crowned with honor and glory. Psalm 8:6 is quoted in 1 Corinthians 15:27 as a
statement of Christ’s rule over all things.
11. Just as Adam brought death to all
people, so Christ, the second Adam, won life for all people. Adam lost the
dominion that had been entrusted to him, but Christ is now ruling the world for
the benefit of his people. He will share this dominion with them in the new
heavens and the new earth. There the peace of Eden will exist once again. Sin
made the glorious view of mankind expressed in Psalm 8 untrue, but Christ, the
Son of Man, has made it true once again. When we understand this truth, we can
repeat the refrain of this psalm with greater appreciation: “O Lord,
our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Amen.
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