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LESSON 1, SEPTEMBER 6, 2005:
This Psalm is just great!
It is one of the Bible's great "Evening Psalms!"
It talks, among many other things, about the night time sky!
(There's no mention of the sun here, just the moon and stars!)
Three "hints" in the opening "superscript" (information
written above verse one) tells us of the musical nature
of the Passage.
Here they are: "To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A
Psalm of David"
"Chief Musician" is a term indicating the great Choir Leader of
Israel!
And "Psalm" in Hebrew ("mizmor") means a "melody!"
Plus ... even the little word "Gittith," which means a
"winepress," is thought to
here
be a musical instrument that's shaped like a winepress!
These eight verses demand to be set to music and sung with all
one's heart!
It is a Psalm of praise!
Lord willing, tomorrow we shall begin!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 2, SEPTEMBER 7, 2005:
I've just learned that "Gittith" in the superscript of Psalm 8
is a form of the word "Gath!"
That was a Philistine city where giants lived, particularly
Goliath!
That fact alone leads one Bible expositor to suggest that Psalm
8 just might be a Psalm of Victory!
And when read in that "light," it is even more brilliant!
Any portion of Scripture is as scintillating as a beautiful
diamond ... radiating intense flashes of light from some
bright source!
And get this also: Psalm 8 is obviously a "Messianic
Psalm," prophesying the coming Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ.
For proof ... read Hebrews 2:9. "But
we see Jesus, Who was made a little lower than the angels for
the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He
by the grace of God should taste death for every man."
Notice the "quotes" Paul used ... from Psalm 8!
In Psalm 2 (also Messianic) we see Jesus as King over all men!
In Psalm 8 we see Jesus as Ruler over all creation!
I believe we are going to really LOVE this Psalm!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 3, SEPTEMBER 8, 2005:
The 8th Psalms opens and closes with the basically the same
words!
The first verse: "O LORD our Lord,
how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set
thy glory above the heavens."
The last verse: "O LORD our Lord,
how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"
This is a literary device called "inclusio" and is used by th3e
Holy Spirit to place strong emphasis on the Subject at hand!
While the heart, the middle, of the Psalm concerns man ... or at
least it seems so on a first reading ...
"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." ... the true "FOCUS" must be the
Lord!
I suggest to you that the only way to properly view this chapter
of God's Word is through the "Lens" of Jesus Christ!
I do believe He is The Answer to each question this Psalm poses!
So while the able expositors call our Psalm a "nature" Psalm ...
or a "praise" Psalm ... or a "night" Psalm ... or even a
"Davidic" Psalm, I believe I'll just call it a JESUS Psalm!
Amen!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 4, SEPTEMBER 9, 2005:
"O LORD our Lord,
how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"
That's how
Psalm 8 begins ... and ends!
Yes, it says
that God's Name is EXCELLENT!
In our King
James Bibles that word is rendered in a number of different
ways. While it is translated "excellent" four times, it is also
"noble" (or "nobles") eight times!
The Lord's
Name is Noble!
And
"excellent" (in Hebrew = "addiyr") is expressed as "mighty" five
times!
The Lord's
Name is Mighty!
It also is a
Name of "principal" three times!
And "famous"
twice!
Also once each
our word "excellent" is written as "gallant" and "glorious" and
"goodly" and "lordly" and "worthy!"
The word "addiyr"
is only used twenty seven times in the whole Bible!
As an
adjective "excellent" (again just following the Holy Spirit's
use of "addiyr" through some of His Old Testament writings)
describes the powerful or mighty waters that
drowned Pharaoh and his army! Exodus 15:10
It was used to
describe the "saved" people of earth in Psalm 16:3. Hence, God
saves us and begins making us more and more like Himself ... in
character and spirit!
It was once
used to depict the glorious mountains of Israel! See
Psalm 76:5.
Jeremiah uses
our word to focus upon the very best sheep in a
particular flock! See Jeremiah 25:34. Indeed our Lord is The
Very Best!
While Nahum
uses this adjective to modify the very best of the soldiers
in a given army! He literally calls these men "worthies!"
Nahum 2:5
Well, today I
have tried every way I know to Biblically define that key word
"Excellent!"
These thoughts
should give us all some new ways to praise and glorify our dear
Lord! Some "word pictures" to better illuminate His Great
EXCELLENCE!
The living
Lord Whose Name is so Excellent!
Here is our
verse again:
"O LORD our Lord,
how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"
Tell Him
sometime today what you think of His Name!
While this
Friday the world will be taking That Holy Name in vain ... we
should be exalting and honoring It ... and Him!
What a God we
serve!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 5, SEPTEMBER
10, 2005:
The opening words are lovely!
Our great God
is being addressed!
"O LORD, our Lord," it says!
Psalms 8
closes with that Title also!
When examining
those two Names, one discovers that the first is Jehovah, and
the second is Adonai.
Jehovah occurs
6519 times in the Bible!
While Adonai
is found only 339 times!
Now these two
words, when in conjunction, can be viewed a couple of different
ways.
Jehovah is
God's SAVING Name! It is His Name by Which He enters into
relationship with His people! It is Jehovah God Who first shed
the blood of some innocent animal to prepare coats for a fallen
Adam and Eve to wear ... emblematic of a coming Saviour named
Jesus!
Adonai, which
means "ruler," is God's GOVERNING Name! It is His Name by Which
He controlled the fate of cities like Sodom and Gomorrah back in
Genesis chapter eighteen. It also means Master or even Owner!
Put these two
together ... God "saves" us (The Jehovah Emphasis) ... then God
fills us or controls us or directs us (The Adonai Emphasis)!
That's just the way He works! He redeems me ... then He rules
me! He's my Saviour, and my Sovereign! He's my God ... and my
Guide!
Then let's
look at it another way ...
Jehovah God
loves me! He shed His Blood that I might be saved! He enjoys
communion with His Own spiritual children! He is typified and
identified finally with Jesus Christ our dear Saviour!
But then
Adonai God has the authority and position to keep me (once I'm
saved) and provide for me and protect me for all of life here on
earth and eternity to follow!
Do you see
that?
I am saved (in
Jehovah) and secured (in Adonai)!
God has upon
me pity (Jehovah) and exercises over me power (Adonai)!
Jehovah God is
my Father (Jeremiah 31:7-9) ... and Adonai God is my Husband
(Jeremiah 3:8)!
Truly there is
more to God's Name "LORD our Lord"
than we could ever have imagined!
What a God we
serve!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 6, SEPTEMBER
11, 2005:
The statement is just overwhelming!
Yet, being in
the Word of God, it's absolutely true!
"O LORD our Lord, how excellent is
thy name in all the earth!" Psalm 8:1
We are told
that God's Name is excellent (glorious, noble, worthy, mighty)
IN ALL THE EARTH!
In
searching the Scriptures for that
term "in all the earth," I have
found 11 occurrences. Here are some of them:
God Himself
wants to be known as the God Who Alone is unique
"in all the earth!" There is none
other like Him! This particular statement is addressed
particularly to His Own people. (Exodus 9:14)
God has
promised to do for Israel "marvels" such as have not been done
"in all the earth!" I would say
this one has been validated again and again ... not counting the
yet future events mentioned in the Book of Revelation! (Exodus
34:10)
Twice
Scripture tells us that God's "judgments" are manifest
"in all the earth!" He is in
control! (1 Chronicles 16:14 and Psalm 105:7)
Three times
the Bible illustrates God's desire that His Name be known even
unto the heathen, those who have not previously heard of His
great Person! Even Naaman the Syrian leper (who was healed by
the power of God) acknowledged only God
"in all the earth!" See 2 Kings 5:15 (Plus the decrees
of two different Kings in Daniel 4:1 and 6:25)
And three
times God's Name is associated with excellence
"in all the earth!" Twice in Psalm
8 (verses 1 and 9) plus Isaiah 12:5 --- "Sing
unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known
in all the earth."
Now, to
summarize:
"IN ALL THE EARTH" ... to God's
People, His Flock, none is like Him!
"IN ALL THE EARTH" ... no nation
has seen the "marvels" Israel has!
"IN ALL THE EARTH" ... God's
"judgments" are known ... and will continually be so! This
earth faces a rather dramatic future!
"IN ALL THE EARTH" ... God longs
for His Name to be proclaimed!
And
"IN ALL THE EARTH" ... God's Name
is "excellent!"
One of the
accusations hurled at Biblical Christianity is that Jehovah God
was simple a local tribal deity Whom we Believers have elevated
into omnipotence!
They are
wrong!
He is God, not
in a limited local sense, but indeed "IN
ALL THE EARTH!"
We serve a big
God!
And if you
don't believe so ... just wait and see!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 7, SEPTEMBER
12, 2005:
Psalm 8, which is directly quoted by
Jesus in the New Testament, says this to God the Father:
"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
hast thou ordained strength ...." Psalm 8:2
What an
unusual statement!
The noun
"babes" (in Hebrew = "olel") means little ones or infants or
just children.
While "sucklings"
(in Hebrew = "yanaq") means little nursing children.
How can God
"fix, establish or appoint" (meanings of "yasad," our word
"ordained" here) strength ... from infants or children?
Two things
must be observed about this Bible statement.
Firstly, it is
illogical!
This is NOT
man's way of demonstrating strength!
Through
babies?
But this IS
one of God's ways to great Power!
Secondly, it
is observable ... in Scripture.
Yesterday
while driving for several hours, the Lord set my mind on this
verse. I mean our verse for today ...
"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained
strength ...."
I was reminded
of three outstanding babies of Scripture.
Moses was, from his birth, a mighty emblem of
God's strength and power!
When God
wanted to deliver His people (the nation of Israel) from the
grip of the mightiest king on earth (Pharaoh), He sent a baby
into the world!
Little
John the Baptist was, from his birth too, a
forerunner of the very power of God! Don't you remember the
Bible space given to the circumstances around his birth?
When God
wanted to announce the coming of His Son, His only begotten Son,
He sent a baby into the world to be the mouthpiece! John the
Baptist was one of the greatest preachers who ever lived! He
had enough power to frighten sinful Kings in their wickedness!
And then ...
when God wanted to save the world from sin ... He also sent a
Baby into the world, JESUS! His
Virgin-Born Son! And Jesus had the power to live sinlessly and
die vicariously and be resurrected literally ... all that lost
mankind might be redeemed! What POWER!
Yes, I would
say without doubt that God "out of the
mouth of babes and sucklings" has established strength
and power!
From baby
Moses eventually came the Law of God ...
"Thou shalt not ...!"
From baby John
the Baptist eventually came the news of a Saviour ...
"Behold, the Lamb of God Which taketh away
the sin of the world!"
And from Baby
Jesus eventually came the Blood, the sacrificial Blood, that
saves old lost sinners ... "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting
life."
There you have
it!
Three babies
... whose lives eventually show us ...
1. We are all
sinners ... the Law! (Moses)
2. We all
need a Saviour ... and He is Jesus, God's Son! (John the
Baptist)
3. The only
One Who could say it: "He
that
believeth on me,
as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water." (Jesus)
Now that's
ordaining STRENGTH ... from the mouths of little infants!
Glory to God!
I imagine the
devil is frightened every time a little one is born! For the
old deceiver knows what God can do ... even with just a precious
little baby!
Amazing!
And by the
way, thanks be unto God!
Last night the
Lord blessed our daughter and son-in-law with twin babies, both
little boys!
May God from
these little fellows ... ordain even more strength ... to His
Honor and Glory!
Amen!
Pray for them
all please!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 8, SEPTEMBER
13, 2005:
It seems like such a simple
statement.
A worshipper
is adoring his God!
He speaks to
His Lord, remarking ... "Thou
hast set Thy
glory above the heavens."
The noun
"glory" (in Hebrew = "hod,") is only found in Scripture 24
times!
Now the usual
word for "glory" (in Hebrew = "kabod") is used 200 times!
Glory ("hod")
means "grandeur!" It is once in the King James Bible translated
"beauty" and once "comeliness!" A well-known Bible dictionary
says our word contains the idea of "an imposing form or
appearance!"
Also our Bible
renders the word as "honour" or "honourable" seven times! And
as "majesty" four more times!
In the first
Bible use of our word, Numbers 27:20, our God is said to put
"some of His Honor" upon Joshua, the newly appointed leader of
Israel! "And
thou shalt put some of thine HONOUR upon him, that all the
congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient."
That, I
believe, is the idea of Psalm 8:1. God has placed some of His
great Beauty and Majesty and Glory "above the heavens!"
Now to discuss
the preposition "above" (in Hebrew = "al"). God's Glory is set
"above" the heavens.
It usually
means "upon" or "above" in this sense: pre-eminence!
When we look
toward the heavens (the sun, moon or stars) ... God's Glory
(Beauty) has been placed both upon them ... and beyond them, far
superseding them in majesty and splendor!
In fact, Psalm
104:1 tells us that God is even "clothed" with this Glory ("hod")!
Furthermore,
this sense of Majesty and Beauty and Honor, draped across the
heavens is a GIFT from God!
That's exactly
what the verb "hast set" means! The Hebrew action word "nathan"
is (over 1000 times) translated as "give" in the Word of God!
God has
"given" us a bit of His great Glory ... to behold and adore ...
and point us to even more of His great Honour and Essence!
No wonder man
is so amazed at the heavenly bodies!
He has been
studying them constantly since Creation.
Last week I
learned that there are stars in outer space where rain, in the
form of diamonds, falls!
I also was
told (on good authority) that there are sections of the universe
where matter is being "sucked" into vortexes so powerful that
even light cannot escape! These so-called "black holes" are
there, just without any brightness! They truly consist of "outer
darkness!"
There are
multiple solar winds blowing right now that reach speeds in
excess of a million miles per hour!
And there are
billions of galaxies ... each with billions of stars!
How massive!
How awesome!
And, yes, how
beautiful they are to behold!
Yet ... the
GLORY of our God far excels them all!
And such
heavenly displays are just a "sample" of the Beauty of our great
Lord!
Listen to Job
contemplate just what we've been considering today:
"By His Spirit He hath garnished the
heavens; His hand hath formed the crooked serpent.
Lo, these are parts of
his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him?"
Job 26:13-14 (Job says, "And we know nothing yet! This is
just part of it!")
According to
these verses, God created and decorated the heavens ...
including the constellations (like the "serpent") ... but all
these beauties are just PARTS of His mighty Ways!
The universe
is just a "beginning lesson" ... in any study of the Glory of
God!
"How excellent is
His Name!"
After this,
all I know to do is WORSHIP Him!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 9, SEPTEMBER
14, 2005:
Some Psalms were written in the
morning.
In fact, Psalm
63 is known as "The Morning Psalm." The ancient godly Jews used
it before sunrise each day ... to adore and worship Almighty
God!
Here are its
first two verses: "O God, thou art my
God; early
will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth
for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. To see
thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the
sanctuary."
But ... other
Psalms were written at night. They make appropriate prayers and
meditations for the evening hours!
Such is Psalm
8.
The third
verse explains my thought. There David has been thinking
(apparently at night) and says to the Lord:
"When I consider thy heavens, the work of
thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained
...." Psalm 8:3
The fourth
verse completes the sentence, but for today verse three is
plenty!
The opening
verb "consider" translates the Hebrew word "raah" which means
"to see, look or behold." It also can mean "to perceive or to
discern or distinguish."
David is
seeing the stars with his physical eyes ... but far more than
the stars with his spiritual eyes!
When this
godly man sees the creation, he thinks about the Creator!
Notice what he
calls the heavens ... the "work" of God's fingers!
The noun
"work" (in Hebrew = "maaseh") means "a product," especially a
"poem!"
But ... get
this!
Six times in
the Word of God our word here "maaseh" (work) is linked with the
Hebrew noun for "embroidery" and is (King James Version)
rendered as "needlework!"
David just
looked at the night skies and called them the "needlework of
God!"
His
embroidery!
His art work!
His great
canvas!
No wonder
there are groups of stars up there in the night sky that tell
such lovely stories!
Going by their
oldest known Hebrew names, certain star groups picture a Virgin
sitting in the heavens ... holding a Branch in her hand! (One
of Jesus' ancient Titles!)
Another has
her (a Virgin) actually holding a baby boy!
There are
stars that (again, by the meanings of their oldest names) depict
a Cross!
And I believe
there is one group that pictures Resurrection!
And I'm sure
one constellation is an emblem of the Holy Spirit being "poured
out" at Pentecost!
Not to even
mention a giant heroic Personage who is trampling a serpent
under His Feet!
And the Second
Coming is shown in several different ways!
Now lost men
and women who study the heavens WILL not see these things. Many
of them (but not all) are atheists.
Could it be
so?
Could the
Heavens tell such a Story?
Remember that
from Adam to Moses, a period of 2500 years, mankind had no
written Bible.
Yes, God has
created ... engraved ... worked with His Fingers ... embroidered
as with needlework ... all the glorious heavens!
Then ... no
wonder Psalm 19 opens as it does: "The
heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his
handywork.
Day unto day uttereth speech, and
night unto night sheweth knowledge.
There is
no speech nor language, where
their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all
the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath
he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom
coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run
a race."
The "sun" as a
preacher? He "uttereth speech!"
The "moon" and
"stars" as teachers of the Creative Power of God? They "show or
declare knowledge!"
Maybe tonight
we should step outside for a while and (if skies are clear) look
at God's great masterpiece, the star-filled heavens! On a good
clear night you can without the help of a telescope or
binoculars see between 2,000 and 3,000 stars, depending on your
quality of vision! Wow!
And, when you
see them, adore the Creator!
The One Who
sent His Son to die for sinners!
The One who
saved you through Jesus' Blood and by God's Grace!
Like David, we
should all be amazed!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 10, SEPTEMBER
15, 2005:
Have you ever thought about the
"Fingers" of God?
While
theologians would quickly tell us that such terms are just
"anthropomorphisms," I have noticed that collectively the Lord's
"Fingers" keep appearing in the Word of God!
Psalm 8 gives
us a classic example. "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?" Psalm 8:3-4
Did you ever
think of that?
"The work of God's
FINGERS!"
Yes, and in
Psalm 8 they are CREATING!
Daniel 5
mentions, I believe, the Fingers of God too!
During a wild
ungodly party, on the very last night of Babylonian rule, a set
of majestic Fingers appeared and wrote the death notice for
Belshazzar and his court! They were practicing debauchery ...
with the very vessels of gold stolen from the Temple in
Jerusalem!
Suddenly ...
"In the same hour came forth
fingers of a
Man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the
plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the
part of the hand that wrote." Daniel 5:5
Now some would
argue the point, but no doubt this is the work of God too!
What did the
Fingers write?
In simple
words: O wicked King, tonight you will die! Your kingdom has
ended. God is giving it to another!
Now, the
CREATING Fingers of God are the
CULMINATING Fingers of God as well!
He has just judged a whole nation on earth, an idolatrous one!
(To "culminate" means to put the finishing touches on something,
hence to finish it off or bring it to an end.)
Next, in Mark
7:33-35, Jesus is healing a man. He does so in quite an unusual
way! "And he took him aside from the
multitude, and put his
fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his
tongue;
And looking up to
heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be
opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of
his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain."
Here's God's
"Fingers" are CARING for a poor
deaf and dumb man! What "Fingers!"
I'm glad He
"touched" me one day!
And in Exodus
31:8 we are reminded that God's "Finger" wrote the Law on Mount
Sinai! "And
he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with
him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone,
written with the finger
of God." Also see
Deuteronomy 9:10.
Now we have
the COMMANDING Fingers of God!
Furthermore,
on the fifth "plague" of Egypt, according to the Egyptian
"magicians" anyway, the "Finger" of God sent lice upon all the
land of Egypt. And this plague the false priests of Egypt could
NOT duplicate! Read it with me: "Then
the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the
finger of God:
and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto
them; as the LORD had said." Exodus 8:19
Now God's
"Finger" is CRUSHING the pride of a
wicked crowd of old devil worshippers!
(Luke 11:20 is
another great example of the Finger of God, belonging to Jesus,
crushing the old devil! Here are our Lord's very
words! "But if I with the finger of God
cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you."
Sounds like the devil just got "crushed" again!)
Next, let's
look at the CONVICTING "Finger of
God!"
A woman,
"taken" in the very act of adultery, had been dragged to Jesus!
Her accusers, all themselves hypocrites, stood around to hear
the Lord's "verdict!" But Jesus, instead of saying a lot, wrote
on the ground! "This they said, tempting
him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down,
and with his
finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them
not ." John 8:6
Whatever He
wrote, those men "scattered!" (My Uncle, who was a Preacher,
believed that Jesus wrote the names of their latest girlfriends
and immoral conquests! That surely would have caused such
hypocritical men to "move on," wouldn't it?)
And, one last
thing!
I have noticed
as I "word-searched" for both the words "finger" and "fingers"
in Scripture, the priests sure were mentioned a lot! (Over a
dozen references at first glance!) If you remember, a man would
have been disqualified as a priest if he had even broken his
fingers at any time! Priests HAD to have good fingers!
Why?
With them they
sprinkled blood upon altars, sacrifices and the very people of
God!
For example,
on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest had to ...
"Take
of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his
finger upon the
mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle
of the blood with his finger seven times." Leviticus
16:14
Well, I've got
some good news!
Jesus, our
faithful High Priest, already in Heaven at the Right Hand of God
the Father, is interceding for us this very hour! And He has
sprinkled the Blood of the Cross on the great Mercy Seat there
in Glory, with His FINGERS no doubt, by which Act He
"obtained eternal redemption for us!"
Hebrews 9:12 says: "Neither by the
blood of goats and calves, but by His Own Blood he entered in
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us." Amazing!
Yes, Jesus'
FINGERS are still active ... on our behalf!
Now we have
just discussed the COMFORTING
Fingers of God! Or at least I take great consolation in the
fact that my Lord is our Great High Priest! It wouldn't
surprise me if His Fingers are still a bit Blood stained!
Hebrews 10:20 says that in Heaven, right now, Jesus' Blood is
viewed by the Father as "freshly slain!" That's
the exact meaning of the word "new" there! Study it for
yourself!
Glory to His
Name!
(And do
remember: Not a Finger of His was broken ... even on the
Cross! He ascended to Heaven with perfectly good ones!)
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 11, SEPTEMBER
16, 2005:
"The moon and
the stars, which Thou has ordained," so proclaims Psalm
8:3 ... in no uncertain terms!
Upon reading
these great words, I immediately wanted to search the
Scriptures, the whole Bible, and see how many times the "moon"
and "stars" were mentioned together.
Ready for the
answer?
Seventeen
times!
David, with no
telescopes or other scientific equipment, still loved the
heavens!
And one night,
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, he wrote these
precious words!
"The moon and the
stars, which Thou has ordained!"
He was
obviously talking to God.
What does that
word "ordained" mean?
In Hebrew it
is spelled "kun" and means to establish or make firm or fix or
even to stabilize!
Using this
same verb in its exact form, God has also "established" two
other things!
One is His
standard of Judgment! Psalm 99:4 says that! Wrong is still
wrong and right is still right! That is, in God's Eyes! And
this great "standard" of His is carefully recorded in the Word
of God!
Secondly is
the earth our Lord has created! Psalm 119:90 records:
"Thy faithfulness is unto all
generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth."
Therefore,
since God has ORDAINED or established the moon and stars, let's
see what the Bible says about them!
Not only has
God created them ... as Genesis 1:16 says ... He has also given
them a number of practical uses! One of those is to light the
earth at night! "And God said, Let there
be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from
the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for
days, and years: and let
them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give
light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great
lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light
to rule the night: he made the stars also."
This is a fact
that should generate praise in our hearts!
"The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth
for ever." Psalm 136:9
God also gives
us a WARNING about the moon and stars!
"And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou
seest the sun, and the
moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven,
shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the
LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole
heaven." Deuteronomy 4:19
Do NOT worship
them!
Also the
Scriptures say that these heavenly bodies are tainted with sin,
like from the devils rebellion. "Behold
even to the moon,
and it shineth not; yea,
the stars are not pure in his sight."
Job 25:5
The moon and
stars praise the Lord ... and will do so in even greater measure
when Jesus comes again! "Praise ye him,
sun and moon:
praise him, all ye stars
of light." Psalm 148:3
Enjoy them
now, when old age comes you may no longer have sufficient
eyesight to even see them! "Remember now
thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come
not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no
pleasure in them; while the sun, or the light, or the
moon, or the
stars, be not
darkened ...." Ecclesiastes 12:1-2
The moon and
stars vary in brightness and glory! Paul uses this fact in 1st
Corinthians 15 to teach us about our future glorified bodies,
after Jesus comes again! "There
is one glory of
the sun, and another glory of the
moon, and another
glory of the stars:
for one star differeth from another star in
glory."
But,
surprisingly, the MOST OFTEN mentioned facts about the moon and
stars deal with some future day of judgment in which these
heavenly bodies will be dramatically impacted!
Read with me,
noticing that each Passage contains the words "moon and stars."
Isaiah 13:10 ---
"For the
stars of heaven
and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the
sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the
moon shall not
cause her light to shine."
Joel 2:10 ---
"The earth shall quake before them; the
heavens shall tremble:
the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall
withdraw their shining."
Joel 3:15 ---
"The
sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall
withdraw their shining."
Matthew 24:29-30
which say:
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun
be darkened, and the
moon shall not give her light, and the
stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the
Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth
mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory."
Praise the Lord!
Luke 21:25 ---
"And there shall be signs in the sun, and
in the moon, and
in the stars; and
upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and
the waves roaring."
Revelation
8:12 --- "And the fourth angel sounded,
and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of
the moon, and the
third part of the stars;
so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not
for a third part of it, and the night likewise."
Consequently I
today draw this Biblically based conclusion; the moon and stars,
as beautiful as they are, and as efficient as they are, and as
established by God as they are ... still have an even greater
role to play in God's Plan for the Ages!
Look at them
tonight!
Admire them
... then worship the Great God Who spoke them into existence!
Also remember
the time is coming, a future time of great judgment upon sin,
when God will command them to cease their shining and they will
obey Him explicitly!
They will do
so too!
So ... in the
moon and stars above we have three lessons: one being for the
past, another for the present, and the third for the future!
Past: They
say, "God created us!"
Present: They
say, "God controls and maintains us!"
Future: They
say, "God will cut us 'on' or 'off' at His Will ... and we will
obey His every desire while the wicked disobedient rebellious
earth is being judged for her sin!
What lessons
they can teach!
Thank God
today for the moon and the stars!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 12, SEPTEMBER
17, 2005:
"What is man?"
After considering
the heavens, particularly the night sky, David the Psalmist once
asked a question. It’s a very pertinent question. He asked it of
the Lord!
"What is man, that Thou art mindful of
him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" Psalm
8:4
Some of the
innumerable (to man) stars, planets, suns, asteroids, comets,
and moons of the universe are so vast in size! They
"eclipse" man in so many ways! There are stars in space into
which a million of our "suns" could easily fit! That’s big! Our
earth is just a baby planet compared just to other planets in
our solar system!
Conversely, man
is so small!
And in
strength too! The energy produced by some of those stars is
the equivalent of tons and tons of nuclear detonation ... per
minute! Solar winds are clocked at millions of miles per hour!
And man? He
certainly has no such strength!
Why, the Hebrew
word for man ("enosh") means man as a weak and frail mortal!
And the swath,
the girth of their very orbits, astounds us to this day! Earth
circles the sun ... which circles the galaxy ... which circles
yet something else! Take little Pluto, for example. His orbit
takes 247 earth years to complete! What vastness!
While poor
mankind scarcely travels a few thousand miles (at most a few
million) in a whole lifetime!
Yes, according to
size, strength and swath ... what is man when compared to such
creation?
But the same
Psalm that asks the question ("What is man?"), also answers it!
It seems that mankind is the very crown of God’s creative work!
He is in fact,
since now a sinner, the very object of the redeeming Blood of
Jesus! He is, if saved, a future inhabitant of the Heavenly
City!
Man, so "puny" in
comparison to the moon and stars, is yet blessed twofold in our
verse.
"What is man, that thou art mindful of
him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" Psalm
8:4
God
"is mindful" of man!
The verb here, "zakar"
in Hebrew, means to remember or to think upon or to call to
mind! God has not forgotten us! Isaiah 49:15 words it best: "Can
a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet
will I not forget thee."
Remembered of
God! The only thing about saved mankind that God chooses to
forget is ... his sins! Listen to Him in Hebrews 8:12.
"For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more."
That alone makes
man special!
But ... there’s a
"progression" in this verse. We go from "man" ("enosh") to ...
"son of man" (in Hebrew = "ben adam")!
"Enosh" is man as
a weak frail human, subject to failures and eventually death.
While "Adam" is man created by God with special aptitudes and
talents, man as made in God’s image!
And ... here ...
this "son of man" is "visited" of God!
This second verb
(in Hebrew = "paqad") means to count or number! To oversee or
govern! And even at times to punish (31 occurrences in
Scripture)!
God visits us!
He has visited
us!
He is visiting us
now!
And He will
forever do so!
What?
How?
Through His
darling Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Perfect Son Of Man!
God was
"made flesh" and dwelt among us!
See John 1:14!
Yes, I believe
this Psalm’s focus goes from the human man to the God-Man, to
Jesus Christ our Lord!
Where the first
Adam failed ... the Last Adam (Jesus) succeeded!
Where the first
Adam sinned ... the Last Adam did not!
While the first
Adam made us all sinners ... the Last Adam gives sinners hope of
Eternal Life ... through faith in His Name!
Even this one
short verse of Psalm 8 can’t help but point us to ... JESUS!
And I like that!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 13, SEPTEMBER 18, 2005:
"A little lower than
the angels!"
That's where God
placed mankind when he created them!
That puts human
beings on a level higher than the insects ... and the creatures
of the sea ... and the animals at the zoo as well!
Psalm 8 makes the
above statement as it answers the question
"What is man?"
The exact words
are: "For Thou hast made him a little
lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and
honour." Psalm 8:5
Think of the
dignity God bestowed upon mankind!
He (or she) is
just a little lower than ... Michael, the Archangel!
Or Gabriel!
Or perhaps even
the Cherubim or Seraphim!
Man has been
created just "a little lower" than
the "innumerable company of angels"
mentioned in Hebrews 12:22 also!
Man ... in God's
eyes ... is special!
I guess so!
Man, once having
fallen into sin, became the very object of redemption!
Man is why Jesus
came to earth!
Man is why the
Cross of Calvary had to be erected!
Man is why all
Christ's precious Blood had to be shed!
Man, with whom
God longs to fellowship, is the center of a divine plan that
picks us wicked humans out of the miry pit of sin and places us
on the Solid Rock, Jesus Christ the Saviour!
Man is so special
that God (in human flesh) visited him ... and died for him ...
and is willing to save him from his iniquity!
And, folks, these Truths today drive
many people absolutely mad!
I was reading
just the other day where a scientist, an evolutionist and an
atheist, was "mocking" the idea of the universe being
anthropocentric! The term means man-centered.
The article said
that we now know that billions of galaxies exist ... and that
the idea that the earth is unique or man in some way
particularly advanced is ... "silly!"
That's exactly
what the devil wants folks to think!
Evolution itself
suggests that man is nothing more than an animal ... one more
"step" in an ever advancing chain of progressive events!
The writer I
mentioned advanced the notion that some day ... thousand or
perhaps even millions of years from now ... a far advanced
species of mammals will have evolved! Maybe with double brains
and eight arms and stronger backs and longer life spans ... a
species that would look back at human history and just
"chuckle!"
I REJECT ALL THAT
KIND OF THOUGHT!
Man is not just a
"speck" on the Darwinian time chart!
He is not an
"accident," produced by chance or fate through random laws of
"selection!"
He is the
creation of God!
He is the focus
of an overseeing Lord!
He has been
"visited" by the Virgin Born Son of God!
He is on God's
"Mind" constantly!
He is, in
position of glory and honor, just below the very angels
themselves!
And how do I know
all this?
From Psalm 8,
among other places!
However, this
representative "man" of whom we are speaking, due to his own
disobedience ... is a sinner!
And as such, he
is headed straight for judgment ... and a place called Hell!
And that, you
see, is WHY Jesus died!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 14, SEPTEMBER
19, 2005:
In a way the whole thought is
surprising!
The Psalmist says
to God, Who created mankind, "Thou 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." Psalm 8:5
Do you see that?
God has crowned
man with glory and honour!
And "glory and
honour" are qualities that exist most purely in the very
presence of God! "Glory and honour are in
his presence; strength and gladness are in his place."
1st Chronicles 16:27
Daniel once said
to King Belshazzar: "O thou king, the
most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and
majesty, and glory, and honour." Daniel 5:18
Only God can give
real glory and honour!
Yet, again I
observe, He has bestowed it upon mankind.
Then we are told
that God gave man "dominion" over "all things," putting them
under his feet!
"Dominion" (in
Hebrew = "mashal") has the idea of rulership or governorship ...
over the whole earth!
And the little
qualifier "all" (in Hebrew = a noun and spelled "kol") means
just that, the totality of something!
Look what God did
for Adam, the prototypical man, the first man. God placed him
on earth ... just slightly lower than the angels and crowned him
with glory and honour and placed him in a position above all
creation!
Astounding!
THEN
SIN ENTERED!
Adam and Eve
"fell!"
They disobeyed
Almighty God!
And the sin that
tainted them ... also robbed them of much of their glory and
honour!
You know as well
as I do that lost mankind now lives on a level
much lower
than the angels!
Some men live
lower than the very animals they were supposed to control!
Instead of man
having dominion over nature ... nature (again, due to man's
"fall" into sin) has dominion over man in many instances!
Fermented grapes
sure control man now, don't they?
Or rotten grain,
with which man makes beer!
Or poppy seeds,
from which he extracts opium?
Or maybe
marijuana? It is any longer just a plant?
No! Man, bowing
before it, derives euphoria from its chemicals!
Instead of being
a king ... man has become a slave!
On the surface it
looks like God's great Creation Project has gone astray!
Man, sinful man,
has drastically failed in God's design for himself!
And friends, that
is WHY God had to send another Adam! Make that ... Another
Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ! "The Last
Adam," That's Who Paul called our Lord in 1 Corinthians
15:45.
And the Last Adam
(Jesus) victoriously gained what the first Adam lost!
Adam number one
failed. He sinned!
Adam Number Two
succeeded! He was sinless!
What I'm saying
today is this: Jesus is God ...and yet He is God Who came (via
the Virgin Birth) into human flesh and lived sinlessly and
perfectly fulfilled His Father's Plan for mankind ... then died
for us old failures ... known as sinners! He died so that we
might be saved from Hell!
Jesus, The God -
Man!
The PERFECT GOD -
MAN!
Hallelujah!
In fact, I really
believe the Lord Jesus won for mankind, through His shed Blood
on the Cross of Calvary, MORE than the first Adam ever lost!
What a Man!
What a God!
What a Saviour!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 15, SEPTEMBER
20, 2005:
In Psalm 8, when God told newly
created man that he had been given dominion over "all things," a
list immediately follows.
"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."
Psalm 8:7-8
I am suggesting
to you today that in every instance, mankind has failed in God's
stated plan for his life!
Look at the
"sheep."
Their "wool" is
for man's clothing. In fact, Hosea 2:9 records the Lord saying:
"Therefore will I return, and take away my
corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and
will recover my wool and my flax given to cover
her nakedness."
There it is:
"wool" ... for human clothing!
But has man made
proper use of "clothing?"
No!
He (and she) do
quite the opposite!
At least in these
last days they do!
Dressing
immodestly, man refuses to use the "sheep" and his wool (or any
other material for covering the naked body) for God's intended
use!
Everywhere, even
in many churches, various stages of "undress" are seen!
Man has failed
herein to have proper dominion over the flocks of earth!
Let's look at the
next word in our verse: "oxen."
The Bible says
men are to control oxen, but Psalm 106:20 tells us that man was
controlled by oxen! He even worshipped one!
"They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped
the molten image. Thus they changed their glory into the
similitude of an ox that eateth grass." This
happened while Moses was on the Mount, receiving God's very Law!
And
"the beasts of the field?"
Instead of making
them "lower" than mankind, scientists today tell us we have
descended from them! They are not our servants ... they are our
parents! And that's exactly what Darwinian evolutionists are
telling us!
And the
"fowl" of the air?
Jesus used these
little flying creatures to teach spiritual truth!
"Behold the fowls of the air: for they
sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your
heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?"
Matthew 6:26
But today mankind
tells us the birds used to be creeping things ... that millions
of years ago "sprouted" wings and took off!
Instead of man
using the birds to point us toward God and His great love, now
they are being used to point us away from God!
And the
"fish" of the sea?
Little true
"dominion" is found there as well!
Man, in
"controlling" ocean life, has pretty well poisoned it all!
Many kinds of
fish are now declared too tainted with mercury or some other
poison for human consumption!
See what I'm
saying?
In Psalm 8 David
said to God of man: "For Thou (Lord) hast
made him (man) 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."
But mankind
failed!
In a way this is
a sad portion of Scripture!
But what if I
told you that God sent a Man, a Perfect Man, Who did have
dominion over all creation?
In fact, that Man
(Jesus) is coming yet again back to earth!
And for a whole
golden age of time He will exercise that God-prescribed dominion
completely ... as God's perfect Will is demonstrated for the
whole world to see!
Then, and only
then, will Psalm 8 be precisely fulfilled!
"Even so, Come, Lord Jesus!"
You see ... where
man failed, Jesus succeeded!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 16, SEPTEMBER
21, 2005:
Many years ago a man was leaving
Church one Sunday morning after I had preached the Word of God.
He had a
question, a Bible question, to ask his Preacher.
He wanted to know
if Psalm 8 ... "What is man, and the son
of man? Made a little lower than the angels. Crowned with glory
and honour. All things under his feet" ... was
describing earthly man (like you and me), or the Lord Jesus
Christ, the True Son of Man!
The answer to the
question is: BOTH!
God did create
Adam, the first man, to fulfill all the great goals the Psalm
mentions. Notice the words in verse five of our Psalm, which
says that God "made" man!
God made man ...
"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." Psalm 8:6-7
Yet man fell into
sin and has miserably failed in his God-assigned task.
But ... God so
loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son ... to pluck
mankind from the brink of Hell, save his old lost soul and take
him to Heaven some day!
Praise the Lord!
In coming to be
the Saviour, Jesus (Who is God the Son) takes upon Himself human
flesh and becomes the God - Man!
Perfectly God!
And Perfect Man
too!
Paul goes so far
as to call Jesus, when contrasting Him with the first Adam back
in Eden, "The Last Adam!" Speaking of Jesus, 1st Corinthians
15:45 records: "And so it is written, The
first man Adam was made a living soul; the last
Adam was made a quickening spirit."
And Jesus, God
having come to earth in flesh (John 1:14),
did fulfill all
that Adam failed to accomplish! That and a whole lot more!
Let me show you
what I mean!
Apply all these
qualifications (each from Psalm 8) to our Lord ...
"A little lower than the angels!"
The Holy Spirit directly applies these words to Jesus in Hebrews
2:9
"Crowned with glory and honour!"
Again, Hebrews 2:9 --- "But we see Jesus, who was made a
little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,
crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of
God should taste death for every man." Amen!
"All things under His feet!" Yes,
read David's words here: "The LORD (God The Father) said unto
my Lord (God The Son), Sit Thou at my right hand,
until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." (Psalm
110:1) Also see Ephesians 1:22 and 1st Corinthians 15:27, where
God "hath put all things under His
(Jesus') feet!"
"Sheep, oxen, beasts of the field, fowl
and fish!" I suggest to you today that Jesus is both the
Creator and Sustainer of all animal life today!
Do you remember
when he rode a little colt,
on which no man had set,
into Jerusalem one day? With a crowd loudly screaming praises
on either side of Him? And that little untamed unbroken animal
meekly carried the Lord of Life into the city? See Mark 11:2
for the details. That's was dominion over a little donkey!
Do you remember
His control over the fishes of the sea? One had a coin divinely
lodged its mouth one day ... just to pay Peter's overdue taxes!
Once a whole "school" of them went to the right (not the
left) side of the boat (at Jesus' command), to be caught by some
hungry disciples! (John 21:5-6)
Roosters (fowl)
crowed at just the right time too ... when Jesus was near!
And The Last Adam
not only controlled the animal world as mentioned in our Psalm 8
Passage ... He also was Lord of the weather (storms stilled) and
the plants (water into wine) and physics (walking on the sea)
and biology (blinded eyes seeing and deaf ears hearing and lame
legs walking) too!
Truly, Jesus is
THE PERFECT FULFILLMENT of Psalm 8!
No wonder it
begins and ends with these words: "O LORD
our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"
And, furthermore,
when Jesus comes again ... "all things
under His feet" ... will be demonstrated in an even
greater way.
For just a
"sample" of explanation, read Isaiah's description of that
future glad Day when Jesus returns and reigns in glory and
honour: "The mountains and the hills
shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of
the field shall clap their hands." Habakkuk
adds: "The perpetual hills did bow ...
the mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the deep
uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. The
sun and moon stood still in their habitation."
Habakkuk 3 (How's that for "control" over nature?)
And back to
Isaiah, when Jesus reigns ... "The wolf
also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down
with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling
together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and
the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together:
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child
shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall
put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of
the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea."
Isaiah 11:6-9
Amen!
Enough has been
said!
What Adam, the
first man failed to do ... Jesus, The Perfect Man has done!
Talk about being
"successful," Jesus is!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 17, SEPTEMBER
22, 2005:
When various portions of Scripture
begin and end with the same words we should take note!
Many Bible
paragraphs and chapters do this. Some Books of Scripture do so
too.
For example, the
eighth Psalm does!
Here's its first
verse: "O LORD our Lord, how excellent
is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above
the heavens."
Now read its last
verse: "O LORD our Lord, how excellent
is thy name in all the earth!"
This is a
literary device, here used by the Holy Spirit Who inspired all
Scripture, to show the Theme or Topic or Subject (the real
Focus) of a Text!
Sometimes Bible
teachers calls these identical opening and closing words an "inclusio."
We can
immediately observe, then, that the Whole Point of Psalm 8 is
The Lord! I mean particularly the Lord ... and His
Name ... and its Excellence!
Look precisely at
how the Name of the Lord is presented here:
"O LORD, our Lord!"
In Hebrew, that's
"O Jehovah our Adonai."
He is our Saviour
and Redeemer (That's what Jehovah indicates)!
And He is our
Sovereign or Master or Lord (The meaning of Adonai)!
The first Name
"LORD" presents God as a Fact!
The second Name
"Lord" presents God as a Friend!
LORD ... He's The
Powerful God!
Lord ... He's my
personal God ... and Saviour!
Then too, you
will no doubt see that the fact of the "Excellence" of
God's Name is repeated in that ninth verse also.
"How excellent is Thy Name in all the earth!"
The reason this
is done ... to emphasize God's great Name yet again ... is
accompanied by a 7 verse commentary, the whole mid-section of
Psalm 8!
God's Name is
excellent in all the earth ...
... even little babies prove it! Verse 2
... even the moon and the stars prove it!
Verse 3
... even the creation of man proves it!
Verses 4 and 5
... even man's failures prove it! Verse 6
... and certainly Jesus' Victories prove
it! Verses 7-8
It bears
repeating after all that ... "O LORD our
Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"
Then, lastly,
study with me this fact:
There are some
words missing in the last verse of the Psalm ... words that were
included in the first verse!
Again let's look
at the two verses together: "O LORD our
Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
who hast set thy glory
above the heavens."
Psalm 8:1
"O LORD our Lord, how excellent is
thy name in all the earth!" Psalm 8:9
I have
capitalized the words from verse one that the Holy Spirit did
not include in the last verse.
"Who hast set thy glory
above the heavens."
Why the
difference?
I believe this.
By the time we
have really lived all the verses of Psalm 8 ... in a personal
and complete way ... Jesus will have returned to earth the
Second Time!
We will have
already been to Heaven with Him (in the Rapture) and will know
beyond the shadow of a doubt that His Glory is
"SET ABOVE THE HEAVENS!"
And as we then
sing Psalm 8 on earth, a redeemed earth, a purified earth, a
millennial earth ... singing it with the ransomed of all the
ages ... we will no longer need to accent the truth about the
Heavens and God's Glory! We will have experienced that in
person!
Then ... for a
thousand glorious years ... literal years I believe ... we shall
worship Jesus and proclaim again and again that last verse:
"O LORD our Lord, how excellent is
thy name in all the earth!"
Like the
Scripture says, there's coming a day when ...
"The earth shall be full of the knowledge
of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." Isaiah 11:9
and Habakkuk 2:14
Lord, hasten that
glorious day!
According to
Jeremiah 1:12, God can do that, "hasten" His Word! Jeremiah
tells us: "Then said the LORD unto me,
Thou hast well seen: for
I will hasten my word to perform it."
Amen!
If you don't like
Jeremiah's approach, then take John's in Revelation 22:20. This
is the last prayer of the Bible by the way!
"Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 18, SEPTEMBER
23, 2005:
Let's just take one Portion of
Scripture, Psalm 8, and list a few little "nuggets" of gold from
its nine verses.
It begins with
the words "Our Lord." That could
remind you of a New Testament Prayer that begins with the words
"Our Father!"
Why is God's
glory said to be "above the heavens?"
(Psalm 8:1)
Perhaps because
Solomon told us back in 1st Kings 8:27 that the heavens alone
were not big enough to contain our great God!
"But will God indeed dwell on the earth?
behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee;
how much less this house that I have builded?" Therefore
God's Glory must also be "above" the heavens!
Psalm 8 is quoted
three times in the New Testament; Matthew 21:16 and 1st
Corinthians 15:27 and Hebrews 2:5-9. The Hebrews Passage is a
virtual commentary on Psalm 8! There Paul teaches us HOW to
apply the Psalm to Jesus!
Since
"Gittith," in the superscript of
the Psalm, means "winepress" ... could classic "Second Coming"
Passages like Isaiah 63:1-3 and Revelation 14:14-20 further
explain its implications? Is Psalm 8 a Passage that will not be
completely fulfilled until Jesus returns to earth?
"And I looked, and behold a white cloud,
and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man,
having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp
sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a
loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle,
and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest
of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in
his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped."
Here's Jesus at the winepress of God's Wrath!
When Jesus quotes
Psalm 8:2 in Matthew 21:16, He deliberately changes the word
"strength" to
"praise!" HE can do that! Therefore, we can logically
and Biblically assume that there's a "link" between the two,
strength and praise! Scripturally speaking, the more one
"praises" God ... the "stronger" he will be in the faith! Read
Nehemiah 8:10 --- "The joy of the LORD is
your strength."
Psalm 8 gives us
a choice: look down at a fallen man (Adam) ... or look up at an
exalted Man (Jesus God's Son and the Saviour of the world)!
The verb "visitest"
in Psalm 8:2 (in Hebrew = "paqad") ... suggests Jesus' coming to
earth to die for lost mankind. However, the same verb 31 times
is translated (in the King James Bible) "punish" or "punished!"
God the Son will either SAVE a lost soul ... or, if that soul
rejects God's Grace and rebels against the Truth, punish him for
his unrepentant heart. In Psalm 8 ... God loves people more
than planets! He loves souls more than stars!
When Psalm 8
speaks of all the animal world being subjected to the Son of Man
(Jesus), I am reminded of a verse Mark includes in the account
of Jesus' Temptation in the wilderness.
"And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of
Satan; and was with the
wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him."
(Mark 1:13) You can be sure those animals were adoring their
Creator during those special days!
Our Psalm lists
six categories of "nature" which are going to be perfectly
subjected to Jesus when He returns!
"Sheep" ... Jesus is The Good, The Great and The Chief
Shepherd! "Oxen," compared to
preachers throughout the New Testament (1st Corinthians 9:9
being an example) ... are just our Lord's dear "undershepherds,
caring for His flock!" "Beasts of the
field" perhaps represent the lost masses of the world
(the field = the world, Matthew 13) whose
"every knee will bow" to Jesus some day! The
"fowl" of the air, birds, will
assist Jesus in "cleanup" after Armageddon! Birds went "into
the Ark" too! And the "fish" of
the sea are invited into Jesus' net in Matthew 13:47 as well!
And that which "passeth through the paths
of the sea" could be the many ships and merchants who ply
the oceans day after day, making fortunes for financial gain.
They too must some day submit! Even the god called "mammon,"
the love of money ... will bow before our great Lord! Read
about the coming destruction of Babylon (the world's financial
and commercial kingdom) in Revelation 18.
I have one thing
to say: "Jesus is Lord!"
And then the
closing words of the Psalm, "all the
earth," must remind us again of that clause in the
"Lord's Prayer" which requests: "THY
KINGDOM COME!"
Amen!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 19, SEPTEMBER
24, 2005:
The phrase
"all things under His feet" is a key thought in Psalm 8.
Man (Adam, Eve
and all their offspring, including us) failed to fulfill that
mandate! We, instead of living with "all things under our feet,"
have largely perverted "all things" and let them have rule over
us instead!
But Jesus, God's
Son, came to earth!
And what we could
not do ... He both has done during His life on earth ...and will
do in ever greater measure when He comes again!
I mean in
"putting all things under His feet!"
Interestingly, I
found that phrase three other times in the Bible!
"All things under His feet!"
Notice with me
...
1st Corinthians
15:25 and 27 say: "For He (Jesus) must
reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet."
Then ... "For He (Jesus again) hath put
all things under His feet." All enemies placed "under
Jesus' Feet!" That's exactly what God the Father promised Jesus
back in Psalm 110:1. Listen to David:
"The LORD (God the Father) said unto my Lord (Jesus), Sit thou
at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool."
Next Ephesians
1:22 says: "And hath put all things
under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all
things to the Church." God the Father has placed
Jesus as Head of the Church, having also subjugated "all things"
unto God the Son!
Then Hebrews 2:8
says: "Thou (God the Father) hast put all
things in subjection under His feet (Jesus' Feet). For in that
He put all in subjection under Him, he left nothing that is
not put under Him. But now we see not yet all things put
under him." It says ... "Not yet" ... but that Day is
coming! This Text obviously looks into the future, when God's
Will shall be done on earth, as it is in Heaven!
Look what we have
here ...
1st Corinthians
15:25,27 --- Jesus' Determined Power Over
The Devils!
Ephesians 1:22
--- Jesus' Delightful Power Over His
Disciples!
And Hebrews 2:8
--- Jesus' Delayed Power Over The
Dispensations!
I am so glad this
Saturday in late September that our LORD is
Lord of all!
"O LORD our Lord, how excellent is
thy name in all the earth!" Psalm 8:9
And with those
lovely Biblical words this series of Bible studies on Psalm 8
must close.
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
WE HAVE NOW STUDIED THE WHOLE PSALM, VERSE BY VERSE!
GOD HONORS HIS WORD! "HOW EXCELLENT IS HIS DEAR NAME!"
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