Bible Readings:
Genesis 1:24 – 31
Psalm 8
Hebrews 1 – 2
Sermon Outline:
To the Chief Musician. 1On the Instrument of Gath. A Psalm of David.
1 O LORD, our Lord, How aexcellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have bset Your glory above the heavens!
I The magnificence of God
II The significance of man
Psalm 8:4 (NKJV)
4 What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
III The wonder of the God-man
Isaiah 9:6 (NKJV)
6 For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
This psalm is an unsurpassed example of what a hymn should be, celebrating as it does the glory and grace of God, rehearsing who he is and what he has done, and relating us and our world to him; all with a masterly economy of words, and in a spirit of mingled joy and awe. It brings to light the unexpectedness of God’s ways in the roles he has assigned to the strong and the weak (2), the spectacular and the obscure (3–5), the multitudinous and the few (6–8); but it begins and ends with God himself, and its overriding theme is ‘How excellent is thy name!’
Kidner, D. (1973). Psalms 1–72: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 15, p. 82). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.