Day 8: The Summer of His Face Shining Upon Us- Psalm 8

Day 8 – Join Johnny Enlow for a 67-day walk through Psalms.

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Key Verse: “You have made him ruler over the works of Your hands; You put everything under His feet.” (v.6)

Key Theme: The Parameters of Man’s Dominion on the Earth.

Key Descriptive of God: Majestic in Name

OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES

Psalm 8, is a glorious chapter and despite only 9 verses, it carries several amazing mini-themes. In verse 2, “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you have ordained strength…that you may silence the enemy.” You have a scripture Jesus referred to in Matthew 21:16 where the religious leaders were indignant at the participation of children with Jesus in the temple. The truth to extract is that there is no “Jr.” Holy Spirit no matter the age and even children can “silence the enemy”.

BORN LOWER THAN BUT CALLED TO JUDGE ANGELS

In verses, 3-5 David ponders at the greatness of God as he looks at the “moon and the stars” and considers how remarkable it is that the God of all the night sky would even think or care about man. Verse 5 tells of man being made lower than heavenly beings but being crowned with glory and honor. We are “made lower” by the flesh component of our makeup but the honor of being called to “rule” is something to be amazed at. We have a measure here and now and ultimately a call to “judge angels” (1 Cor. 6:13)

DOMINION IS OVER CREATION—  BUT NOT MAN

For times’ sake, I mainly want to look at our Key Verse 6. “You made him ruler over the works of Your hands.” In some versions, the word “ruler” is “have dominion”. That goes with the original Genesis 1:26 mandate to rule or have dominion. What we want to importantly note both here and in Genesis 1 is that the “dominion mandate” is never over people. That is always exclusively God’s domain. Neither is it a “dominion mandate” over nations. That too is exclusively Gods- who then gives nations as an inheritance. Verses 7 and 8 explain that the dominion and rule are over His creation, as it describes “flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.”

WE CO-LABOR WITH GOD

This is an important clarification because it is where we so often get it wrong. The second half of verse 6 says, “You put EVERYTHING under his feet.” Just how much rule is that? If we under-emphasize this point we become the extreme Calvinist of no real authority or responsibility as “God does what He wants and everything that happens is because God ordained it so.” If we over-emphasize our “rule” we essentially remove God from the equation and become virtual Deists—  as in “He is up there in heaven, but He made a plan where we make all the decisions now, and He from a distance watches.” The weight of that would have us operating in virtual orphan-mindedness instead of co-laboring children and heirs.

KING OF KINGS 

The first parameter clarification is that the “dominion” or “rule” is not over people. The second parameter clarification is that this is a SHARED responsibility and not a “flying solo” responsibility. Just remember every other Psalm of David where he heavily establishes God’s present role and rule in everything. David is always asking for HELP and the word RESCUE is over an over. You only ask that of God if HE is the Greater Ruler of realities on earth with the right to intervene. Remember He is “King of kings”. Elsewhere in scripture, we are called “kings and priests”- to our God. He is King not just over political “kings” but WE are the royalty. But we are not God-replacement “kings”. He continues as “King” and we serve as ruling royalty UNDER Him. Any independence of Him is foolish. Romans 16:20 states “The God of peace will crush Satan UNDER OUR FEET.” This is how we do it together. Yes, it is under OUR FEET- but GOD does the “crushing”. 

GOD ON BOTH SIDES OF THE EQUATION

Perhaps the greatest legal detail to remember as to what falls under man’s rule and what fall’s under God’s rule is that Jesus, the Son of God, came also as the Son of Man, and perfectly paid the price of redemption for everything—  on the cross, through His blood. God in effect is now on both sides of the equation. He is God, who gave authority and rule to man, but Jesus, as a man, was given “all authority in heaven AND EARTH” (Mt. 28:18) and so any way you look at it the Godhead has full ruling authority on earth. He has the original Creator’s rights and then He has Redeemer’s rights. He is never out of the legal equation of rule and dominion on earth. This reality is not to shift us back into hyper-Calvinism but rather give us a comforting perspective to our exercise of “rule” and “dominion”. The Godhead works WITH us.

MAJESTIC IS YOUR NAME!

This is why we can all join in with the twice mentioned description of our God. “Majestic is Your name!” The Hebrew word for MAJESTIC means, “powerful, noble, mighty, glorious, worthy” and more. When, like David, you look at the macro of God in the night stars and the micro of God in infants and you consider the privilege and responsibility of ruling with Him on earth- you can only say “How Majestic is your name!” May this clarity allow us to truly sense the blessing of His face shining upon us today.

 

 

Written by: Johnny Enlow

Featured Image by chris ganser on Unsplash


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The 67 Day Countdown Series is brought to you by Johnny and Elizabeth Enlow, founders of Restore7 ministry, as well as international speakers and best-selling authors. Among Johnny’s books are The Seven Mountain Prophecy, The Seven Mountain Mantle, Rainbow God, The Seven Mountain Renaissance, Becoming A Superhero, and RISE. Elizabeth serves as CEO and penned Rainbow God: The Seven Colors of Love and God in Every Season.

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About the Author

Kingdom Winds Contributors - Johnny and Elizabeth Enlow are social reformers at heart, as well as international speakers and authors of The Seven Mountain Prophecy, The Seven Mountain Mantle, and Rainbow God. As ones focused on the reformation of the 7 primary areas of culture, they are spiritual mentors to many in Media, Arts and Entertainment, Government, Family, Religion, Economy, and Education. Their passion is to awaken our generation to the reality of the God of all of life, Who not only cares for our souls but also has practical solutions to offer through His sons and daughters for every problem that exists in society.