Latest / Reformed Thinking / What Is Man That God Is Mindful of Him? (Psalm 8) | John Calvin

Transcript

What Is Man That God Is Mindful of Him? (Psalm 8) | John Calvin · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Hello and welcome back to the show.
0:01
You are listening to Reformed Thinking.
0:04
I am your host and I am ready to crack open the books again.
0:07
It's good to be back. We are dusting off the archives
0:10
of church history to see if the old guys knew something we have
0:13
forgotten. And today we are tackling a
0:16
heavy. Hitter.
0:17
A very heavy hitter. We are looking at one of the
0:20
most famous songs in the biblical Canon, Psalm 8.
0:23
But we aren't just reading it on its own.
0:25
We are reading it through the spectacles of the Genevan
0:28
Reformer himself, John Calvin. It is good to be here, and you
0:32
are right, Solnate is a text that almost everyone knows, or
0:35
at least they think they know it.
0:36
It is the one that starts, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is
0:40
thy name and all the earth. Right, it's everywhere.
0:43
It shows up on greeting cards, in praise choruses, and on
0:46
inspirational posters with pictures of galaxies.
0:49
Right? But when you sit down with
0:50
Calvin's commentary on it, you realize pretty quickly that he
0:54
is not interested in the greeting card version.
0:56
No, he really isn't. I was struck by that
0:58
immediately. For Calvin, this isn't just a
1:00
pretty nature poem, it is a rigorous theological treatise.
1:04
It is about the tension between a majestic creator and a
1:08
humanity that, quite frankly, is made of dirt and rebellion.
1:12
That is the mission for this deep dive.
1:14
We want to understand how Calvin views that relationship because
1:18
on one hand you have the God who arranges the stars, the sheer
1:22
vastness of the cosmos, and on the other hand you have us.
1:26
And as we will see, Calvin doesn't have a very high view of
1:30
natural humanity. So the question is, why would
1:34
the God of the stars care about the creature of the dust?
1:37
It is the ultimate question of significance.
1:39
Usually we look at the stars and feel small.
1:42
Calvin wants us to look at ourselves and be astonished that
1:44
God makes us significant at all. And his answer is definitely not
1:48
what you'd expect. No, but before we can get to the
1:50
stars of the dust, we have to deal with the title.
1:52
Right, the superscription. I have to admit, in my personal
1:55
reading I usually skim right over these to the chief
1:57
musician, a Psalm of David, and so on.
2:00
Those people do. But this one has a specific
2:02
weird word in it. My Bible says to the chief
2:06
musician upon giddeth. Now I have to ask, what on earth
2:10
is a giddeth? It sounds like a city or maybe a
2:14
skin condition. That is the $1,000,000 question
2:16
in Old Testament studies, and honestly, it is a great place to
2:20
start because it shows us exactly how Calvin thinks as an
2:23
interpreter. OK, So what are the options?
2:25
What do people think it meant back then?
2:27
Well, for centuries before Calvin there were all sorts of
2:30
theories. A very popular one was that get
2:32
if referred to the city of Gath. Gath That's Goliath's hometown,
2:36
right? The Philistine city.
2:38
Correct. So the theory was that maybe
2:40
David wrote this Psalm while he was in exile and Gath, or maybe
2:44
he wrote it after he defeated Goliath who was a Gittite.
2:47
So it gives the this cool biographical back story, David
2:51
in the belly of the beast, writing a song about God's
2:54
glory. It does.
2:55
It sounds plausible and it adds some drama that.
2:57
Sounds pretty good to me. I'd probably preach that.
2:59
And a lot of people did. There were other theories too.
3:01
Some thought it was a musical instrument from Gaff, like a get
3:04
tight guitar or something. A get tight guitar.
3:07
I like that. Others thought it was the title
3:08
of a vintage wine song that had a tune everyone knew.
3:12
Like setting a hymn to the tune of Greensleeves.
3:14
Precisely. You get the idea.
3:16
Yeah, a whole bunch of speculation, but then you get to
3:19
Calvin, and this is where you see his personality come
3:22
through. He looks at all these theories,
3:24
the city of Gath, the instrument, the wine song, and
3:27
he basically rolls his eyes. He's.
3:29
Not a fan. He is not.
3:31
He calls the Gath theory strained.
3:34
He calls other ideas far fetched.
3:37
He essentially says, look, we are guessing and Calvin hates
3:41
guessing. Right, he wants to stick to what
3:43
the text actually says. He has this massive respect for
3:45
the text, and he thinks that when we start inventing
3:48
backstories that aren't there, we are distracting ourselves
3:51
from the main point. So he just dismisses the
3:53
geography theory entirely. He doesn't think it matters that
3:56
David might have been in gaffe. He thinks it is irrelevant.
3:58
He says, look, it does not matter if Geteth is a harp, A
4:01
lute, a tune or a city. We don't know.
4:04
The Holy Spirit didn't think it was critical enough to explain
4:07
to us. And for Calvin, getting bogged
4:09
down in the technicalities of the instrument or the location
4:13
is a massive distraction from the point he wants the reader to
4:16
focus on the design of the Psalm.
4:18
I love that about him. He cuts right through the noise.
4:21
He is like the guy in the meeting who says, OK, that's
4:24
interesting, but what are we actually doing here?
4:27
That's a great analogy for his whole method.
4:29
So if the instrument doesn't matter, what is the design?
4:31
What is David actually trying to do?
4:34
Calvin says David is enraptured. That is the specific word he
4:37
uses. Enraptured.
4:38
Yes, David isn't just dryly listing facts about creation.
4:43
He's in writing a biology textbook.
4:45
He is overwhelmed. He's in a state of wonder.
4:47
And specifically, he is overwhelmed by God's fatherly
4:51
beneficence toward mankind. That seems like a key
4:54
distinction because you can look at a mountain and be overwhelmed
4:57
by the mountain. But Calvin thinks David is
4:59
looking at the mountain and thinking about us.
5:02
In a way, yes. David glances at the physical
5:05
creation, the rocks and trees, But his real focus, his intense
5:09
focus, is on how God treats human beings within that
5:12
creation. OK, so the backdrop is the
5:15
universe, but the subject is God's strangelove for man.
5:19
Exactly. That's the design.
5:20
OK, let's get into the text. Then we start in verse one.
5:23
O Jehovah our Lord, how wonderful is thy name in all the
5:27
earth? Now we need to pause on the word
5:29
name. When we talk about God's name,
5:31
are we talking about the letters YHWH?
5:35
Or does Calvin see something more substantial there?
5:38
This is a classic piece of Calvin's theology, and it
5:41
separates him from a lot of speculative philosophers.
5:44
He makes a very sharp distinction here.
5:46
He says God's name does not refer to God's essence.
5:50
OK, define the difference for US essence versus name.
5:53
God's essence is what He actually is.
5:56
In His internal being is the naked reality of God.
5:59
Calvin argues that this is hidden from us.
6:01
It is incomprehensible. We don't have the hardware to
6:03
process it. So it's like trying to stare at
6:04
the sun. Exactly.
6:05
But a billion times brighter you would just burn out your
6:08
retinas, Calvin says. Any attempt to speculate about
6:10
God's essence is just vanity. So we can't know God as he is in
6:15
himself. That sounds a bit agnostic.
6:17
It would be if God hadn't given us his name.
6:21
For Calvin, the name refers to God's character, His
6:24
perfections, and specifically how he makes himself known to us
6:27
through his works. So it's his public revelation of
6:30
himself. It is.
6:32
It's God's reputation as it is broadcasted through creation and
6:35
scripture. We can't see the sun itself, but
6:38
we can see the light hitting the trees.
6:40
The name is the light. So it's not about trying to
6:43
figure out the, I don't know, the physics of the Trinity or
6:45
something. No.
6:46
Calvin is very critical of what he calls subtle speculations.
6:50
He doesn't want us trying to peer into God's secret being.
6:53
He wants us to look at the works and properties by what God
6:55
introduces himself to us. The name is the public persona
6:59
of God, the Creator, the Judge, the Father.
7:03
That is what fills the earth. That makes sense.
7:05
It keeps us grounded in what God has revealed rather than
7:07
guessing about what He hasn't. It feels very safe in a good
7:10
way. But then David says something
7:12
interesting in that first verse. He says God has set his glory
7:15
above the heavens. Yes, and Calvin reads this as a
7:18
paradox of scale. He says David is amplifying the
7:21
subject. The idea is that the earth is
7:23
full of God's glory. It is everywhere you look, from
7:25
the ants to the oceans, but the earth is too small to contain
7:28
it. It's a capacity.
7:29
Issue Correct. The glory spills over.
7:31
It is so massive, so heavy that it ascends far above the
7:35
heavens. I like that image.
7:36
It is like trying to put the Atlantic Ocean into a coffee
7:39
mug. The mug overflows instantly and
7:41
the water just keeps going up and up.
7:43
Calvin wants us to feel the weight of that the universe is a
7:46
container, and God's glory is bursting out of it.
7:49
So we have this massive, overflowing glory, the name that
7:53
is too big for the universe. And then in verse 2, God chooses
7:58
a defense for this glory. And this is where the Psalm
8:01
takes a really weird turn. It really does.
8:03
If I were God and I wanted to defend my glory against enemies,
8:06
I would choose lightning. I would choose archangels with
8:08
flaming swords. Naturally, that is the human
8:10
response to power. Use more power.
8:13
But God chooses babes and sucklings infants.
8:18
Now I have to push back here. Is this poetry?
8:20
Is this allegory? Is David saying babes when he
8:23
really means humble believers? You know, people who have a
8:27
childlike faith. That is the standard
8:29
interpretation in a lot of circles.
8:30
You spiritualize it, you turn it into a metaphor.
8:33
But Calvin says absolutely not, and he is very firm on this.
8:37
So he rejects the allegorical interpretation completely.
8:40
Completely. He takes it literally.
8:42
When David says babes and sucklings.
8:44
Calvin insists he needs literal physical babies who are
8:47
currently breastfeeding. Wow, he thinks it is foolish to
8:50
try and twist this into meaning spiritual babes or born again
8:54
Christians. He said.
8:55
That ruins the argument David is making.
8:57
The whole force of the contrast is lost if you do that.
9:00
But wait, how does a literal nursing baby prove God's glory?
9:03
They can't talk, they can't argue, they can't write
9:05
theological treatises. If I'm debating A hardened
9:07
atheist, I don't just hand him a baby and say checkmate.
9:10
Calvin would say that is exactly why you are losing the debate.
9:13
You are trying to use rhetoric. God uses biology.
9:16
God uses biology. OK, I'm intrigued.
9:19
Kelvin argues that God does not need rhetoricians.
9:22
He doesn't need eloquent speakers or debaters to prove he
9:25
exists. The mere existence of an infant
9:29
is enough to silence an atheist. OK, walk me through his logic.
9:32
What is the evidence? Kelvin points to two specific
9:35
things in the Physiology of an infant, the provision of food
9:38
and the instinct to eat. Now remember this 16th century
9:42
science. But the observation holds up.
9:44
He talks about the biological process of milk production.
9:47
He says God wonderfully changes blood into milk.
9:50
Blood into milk. That is a vivid image.
9:52
It is, isn't it? He sees the mother's body is
9:55
this divine factory. It takes the life force of the
9:57
mother, her blood essentially, and transmutes it into a
10:00
completely different substance that is perfectly designed for
10:02
the child's needs, right? Calvin looks at that chemical
10:06
change and sees a direct act of Providence, he says.
10:09
You think that just happens by accident?
10:12
That is God at work. OK, so the food supply is
10:14
miraculous. What's the second point?
10:16
The instinct. And this is the stronger
10:18
argument for him. He points out that a newborn
10:21
baby is the most helpless creature on earth.
10:23
You can't walk, can't speak, can't focus.
10:26
Its eyes, really. But it knows how to nurse.
10:28
Right, They don't go to school for it.
10:30
They don't watch a tutorial. Exactly.
10:32
It is immediate, Calvin says. God has fitted their tongues for
10:36
this by a mysterious instinct. So you have a creature that is
10:40
completely helpless, yet fully provided for and fully equipped
10:44
with the knowledge it needs to survive, Calvin says.
10:47
If you look at that, this intricate design of need and
10:50
supply, and you don't see a creator, you are willfully
10:53
blind. So the baby is a witness.
10:55
The baby is a prosecutor, Calvin says.
10:58
The speechless mouth of the infant shouts louder than any
11:00
orator. The fact that they can't speak
11:03
makes their testimony stronger because they can't be accused of
11:06
manipulation. They just exist, and their
11:08
existence screams design. That is powerful.
11:11
It reminds us that the evidence for God isn't just in the
11:14
distant stars. It is right there in the
11:15
nursery. But the text says these babies
11:19
are strength founded against the adversary.
11:22
Who are these adversaries? Calvin uses some very vigid
11:24
language here. He calls them monsters.
11:27
Monsters. Seriously.
11:28
Yes, he is talking about the hardened despisers of God.
11:33
He compares them to the giants of mythology, the Titans, who
11:36
tried to storm the heavens and pull Jupiter down.
11:38
So not just your average skeptic.
11:40
No, these are people who are not just indifferent, they are
11:43
actively hostile. They want to extinguish God's
11:46
name from the earth. They are The Avengers mentioned
11:49
in the Psalm, people burning with a frantic rage to make war
11:52
on God. And the irony is that God
11:54
doesn't send a giant to fight the giants, no.
11:57
He sends a baby. Calvin notes the military
12:00
language here. The text says God has founded
12:02
strength and that he will put to flight the enemy.
12:05
It is a battle scene. It is a route.
12:07
It is total humiliation. God uses the weakest possible
12:10
thing, a nursing infant, to utterly defeat the strongest
12:13
possible enemy. It is a mockery of human pride.
12:16
So the atheist gathers all his arguments, all his rage, all his
12:20
philosophy. So his military might and God
12:22
just points to a cradle and says explain that the enemy is
12:25
routed. They have no answer.
12:27
Put to flight, that is such a great phrase.
12:30
It is not just that they are silenced, they are sent running.
12:33
But and you knew there was a butt coming.
12:35
We do have a technical. Problem.
12:37
Your Testament problem, of course.
12:39
I know our listeners who know their Bibles are probably
12:41
yelling at their speakers right now.
12:44
In Matthew 21, Jesus quotes this verse.
12:46
Yes, Matthew 21.16, the triumphal entry.
12:50
Right. It's Palm Sunday.
12:51
Children are cheering in the temple, shouting Hosanna, and
12:54
the Pharisees get angry. They are The Avengers in this
12:57
scenario, and they tell Jesus to shut them up.
12:59
And Jesus quotes Psalm 8 out of the mouth of babes and
13:02
sucklings. Thou has perfected praise.
13:05
It is a famous moment. But here's the issue.
13:07
Those kids weren't infants. They were running around, they
13:09
were speaking, they were shouting Hosanna.
13:12
Doesn't that contradict Calvin's literal baby theory?
13:15
It. Seems to on the surface.
13:17
If Calvin says David meant speechless infants, why does
13:21
Jesus apply it to loud 10 year olds?
13:23
It is a valid difficulty, and Calvin doesn't ignore it.
13:26
He confronts it head on. He resolves this with a
13:30
hermeneutical principle called reasoning from the greater to
13:33
the lesser. OK, walk us through the logic.
13:35
How does that work? The logic is this.
13:38
If a nursing infant who cannot speak a word vindicates God's
13:42
glory simply by existing and eating, that is the lesser case.
13:45
Then how much more does a child who has the power of speech
13:49
vindicate God's glory when they consciously praise Him?
13:52
I see. So Jesus isn't saying this Psalm
13:55
is exclusively about 10 year olds.
13:57
He is saying the principle of this Psalm applies even more
14:00
here. Precisely.
14:02
Jesus is applying the principle, not redefining the original
14:04
term. If the speechless mouth is a
14:07
champion for God, then the speaking mouth of a child is
14:10
certainly a champion. So it's not a contradiction,
14:12
it's an escalation. That's a great way to put it, an
14:14
escalation, Calvin says. Jesus wasn't defining the
14:17
exclusive meaning of the Psalm, He was showing its full
14:20
application. It resolves the tension without
14:22
forcing us to abandon the literal meaning of the Old
14:25
Testament text. So the logic holds, if the
14:28
silent baby proves God, the praising child proves him
14:31
double. Correct.
14:32
It is an argument of fortiori, as the logicians would say.
14:36
That is helpful. It keeps the original context
14:38
intact while explaining the New Testament usage.
14:41
So we leave the nursery now, and verses 3 and four we step
14:44
outside. This is what we called the
14:46
cosmic paradox in our notes. Right, the camera pans way, way
14:50
out. David writes, when I consider
14:52
thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars
14:56
which thou hast ordained. This is where the visual
14:59
backdrop shifts dramatically and Calvin picks up on a specific
15:03
anthropomorphism. Here David calls the heavens the
15:06
works of thy fingers. Why fingers?
15:08
Why not hands or arms? That sounds more powerful.
15:11
And that's Calvin's point. Hands usually implies strength
15:14
or power. Fingers implies skill, delicacy,
15:17
precision. Like a watchmaker rather than a
15:19
blacksmith. Exactly.
15:21
It suggests that the heavens are a work of intricate embroidery
15:23
or fine art. He's highlighting the
15:25
craftsmanship, not just the raw power.
15:28
I've never noticed that before. And he also notes that God has
15:31
arranged or ordained them. This refers to the regulated
15:35
courses of the stars. Calvin is very big on the order
15:39
of the universe. The stars aren't just thrown out
15:41
there like glitter on a table, no their.
15:42
Place they move in tracks. Yes, there is a precise
15:45
structure that God maintains day by day.
15:48
He's an artist and an engineer. It is the clockwork universe,
15:52
and standing against this massive, orderly, beautiful
15:55
cosmos is US. US.
15:58
And this is where the hammer drops.
15:59
Calvin really drills down on the Hebrew word used for man in
16:03
verse 4. The question is, what is man
16:06
that thou art mindful of him, right?
16:08
But the word for man here isn't Adam, which is generic for
16:11
mankind, and it is an ish which usually means a male individual.
16:15
It is Enosh. Enosh.
16:17
I have heard this preached before.
16:19
What does enosh actually mean? It implies frailty.
16:22
It is related to a root word meaning to be sick or incurable.
16:25
It describes man in his weak, mortal, miserable state.
16:28
So it's not just man, it's miserable, man.
16:31
That's the idea, Calvin says. David uses this word
16:34
intentionally to highlight that we are mixed with the vilest
16:37
creatures of earth. We are dust, we are clay.
16:40
We are breakable. So the contrast isn't just big
16:43
universe versus small man, it is perfect, glorious, orderly
16:47
universe versus broken, sickly, miserable man.
16:50
Precisely. And that makes the question much
16:52
more poignant. God has a multitude of heavens,
16:56
He has angels, He has stars that obey him perfectly.
16:59
He does not need us. He has no reason to look at this
17:02
miserable, sickly Enosh and decide to make it the object of
17:05
his special love. None whatsoever from our
17:07
perspective. But he does.
17:08
The text says he is mindful of him and visits him.
17:11
Calvin draws A distinction between those two words, doesn't
17:14
he? He does.
17:15
He interprets mindful as bearing a fatherly love.
17:18
It refers to the attitude of God's heart.
17:20
He's thinking about us. He cares.
17:22
It is internal to God. And visits.
17:24
Visit, on the other hand, is the action.
17:26
It refers to His continual remembrance and care, His
17:29
Providence in our daily lives. It's an active word.
17:32
It means God coming down to intervene, to help, to provide.
17:35
So he loves us mindful, and he acts on that love.
17:40
Visits. And Calvin sees this as a reason
17:42
for humility, right? Because I think sometimes we
17:44
read this Psalm and get a big head.
17:46
Oh absolutely, we think, wow, look at us, God likes us more
17:49
than the stars. We must be a big, big deal.
17:50
And Calvin is the ultimate buzzkill for human pride.
17:54
He says no, absolutely not. He calls this a miracle of
17:57
grace. He says the fact that God
17:59
regards us at all should astonish us.
18:02
We shouldn't be proud of the position.
18:03
We should be amazed at the giver.
18:05
Exactly. If God wanted to pick a favorite
18:08
creature based on merit or glory, he had plenty of better
18:11
options in the heavens. The stars don't sin, the angels
18:15
don't rebel. We do.
18:16
It is a check on our ego. We aren't the center of the
18:19
universe because we are great. We are the center of God's
18:21
attention because He is gracious.
18:23
Correct. It is pure, unmerited favor, and
18:26
that's the only ground for our standing.
18:28
And that leads us directly into verse 5, because after
18:31
establishing that we are Enoch, sickly and frail, David pivots
18:35
and talks about the dignity that God does bestow on this
18:38
miserable creature. The other side of the coin.
18:41
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and has
18:44
crowned him with glory and honor.
18:47
Now we have to pause here, because there is a translation
18:49
war in the footnotes. Always my translation says
18:53
angels, but I see in the commentary that the Hebrew word
18:56
is Elohim. Yes, Elohim, that is the
19:00
standard word for God. So literally the Hebrew text
19:02
says, Thou hast made him a little lower than God.
19:05
That is a bold statement, little lower than God.
19:08
That sounds almost blasphemous. It is incredibly bold, and
19:12
Calvin acknowledges this. He notes that Elohim can
19:15
sometimes refer to angels or rulers, but its primary meaning
19:19
is God. Calvin actually prefers the
19:21
translation God or Divine State A.
19:24
Divine state. Yes, because it highlights just
19:26
how high man was elevated in his original design.
19:29
We were made to be demigods in a sense, bearing the stamp of the
19:32
divine nature. But he accepts the Angels
19:35
translation too. He does, largely because the
19:38
Septuagint, that's the ancient Greek translation of the Old
19:40
Testament, used the word for angels, and the apostles of the
19:43
New Testament followed that translation when they quoted it.
19:46
So he's not going to pick a fight with the apostles.
19:48
Not a chance. So he accepts angels, but he
19:51
wants us to know the Hebrew implies A proximity to God
19:55
himself that is, well, just staggering.
19:58
Let's talk about that proximity. This is the doctrine of the
20:01
Imago day, the image of God. What does Calvin see as the
20:04
evidence of this high status? If we are a little lower than
20:08
God, what does that actually look like in a human being?
20:10
Calvin is very specific here. He lists several evidences that
20:14
separate us from the animals. 1st is reason and intellect.
20:18
We can think, plan and create. OK, that's obvious enough. 2nd
20:22
is the ability to distinguish good from evil, the moral
20:25
conscience. 3rd is social interaction and the sacred bonds
20:30
that hold society together. Animals have packs, but they
20:33
don't have society in the way Calvin means.
20:35
Right. They don't have law, government,
20:36
or a structured community based on moral obligation.
20:39
And then Calvin mentions the 4th one, which I find fascinating,
20:42
the sense of shame. Shame.
20:43
That is a positive gift. Usually we go to therapy to get
20:46
rid of shame. For Calvin, shame is a mark of
20:49
dignity. It shows we have a regard for
20:52
what is becoming more appropriate.
20:54
Animals don't feel shame. Yeah, a dog doesn't care if it
20:58
is naked. It doesn't care about propriety.
21:00
The fact that humans care about dignity, about covering their
21:03
nakedness, about behaving continually, that is a spark of
21:07
the divine image. That is a really unique insight.
21:10
I hadn't thought of shame as a mark of dignity, but it makes
21:12
sense. It proves we have a standard we
21:14
are trying to uphold. Exactly.
21:16
It shows we were made for something higher than just
21:18
eating and sleeping. We were made for glory.
21:21
So we have this crown of glory. Yes, crowned is a metaphor.
21:26
It means we are adorned with marks of honor that reflect the
21:29
divine majesty in our original condition.
21:32
Adam was like a mirror, reflecting God's rule into the
21:34
world. OK, you used a phrase there,
21:36
original condition, and you mentioned Adam.
21:38
This brings us to the biggest theological hurdle in this
21:41
entire text. The big one.
21:43
We have to talk about the theological problem of Adam
21:46
versus Christ. This is the crux of the matter
21:48
for any Reformed reading of this song.
21:50
If you miss this, you miss Calvin's whole point.
21:53
Here is the problem as I understand it.
21:55
David seems to be saying man is great, man rules the world, man
21:59
is just below God. But when we look at the world,
22:02
man is well, we are Enosh, we are miserable, we die, we get
22:05
eaten by lions, We don't seem to rule over much of anything.
22:08
Right. The reality on the ground
22:10
contradicts the text. It feels like a fantasy.
22:13
And then to make it more complicated, the author of
22:15
Hebrews takes this text and says it applies to Jesus.
22:18
Right in Hebrews chapter 2. It quotes this and says we see
22:21
Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the
22:24
suffering of death. So is the song about Adam?
22:28
Is it about mankind or is it about Jesus?
22:31
And if it is about Jesus, why does David sound like he is
22:35
talking about mankind? It is a hermeneutical knot and
22:38
Calvin spends a lot of time on tying it.
22:40
He proposes what we might call a 2 step solution.
22:43
OK, walk us through the steps. How do we fix this?
22:45
Step 1. Calvin says the Psalm originally
22:47
describes Adam and mankind in a state of unfallen integrity.
22:51
So back in the Garden of Eden. Yes, if you stood in the Garden
22:55
of Eden on day 6, Psalm 8 was literally true.
22:59
Adam was crowned with glory. He had dominion.
23:01
He was God's vice Regent. The animals obeyed him.
23:04
There was no death. It was a perfect description of
23:07
reality. Perfect.
23:08
But then comes Step 2, the fall. Genesis 3 happens.
23:12
Man rebels and everything breaks.
23:15
The image of God is effaced. Calvin says it is not gone, but
23:19
it is ruined. Like a painting that has been
23:21
slashed. That's a great image for it.
23:23
You can see the outline, but the beauty is destroyed, the gifts
23:25
are stripped away. We are now in what Calvin calls
23:29
shameful destitution. So the Psalm became what?
23:32
A lie, not a lie. Think of it as a broken promise
23:36
or a ruin. If you look at a natural human
23:38
being today, Psalm 8 is no longer fully true.
23:41
We are not ruling the world. We are struggling to survive it.
23:43
Right. We aren't crowned with glory, we
23:45
are covered in sin. So the Psalm now hangs in the
23:48
air, unfulfilled for humanity as a whole.
23:51
So if the Psalm isn't true of us anymore, who is it true of?
23:54
This is where Christ enters. Calvin argues that since the
23:57
fall, this Psalm is only true of Christ.
23:59
Because Christ is the second Adam.
24:01
Precisely. Christ is the only human being
24:04
who has ever lived a life of perfect integrity.
24:06
He's the only one who truly possesses this glory and
24:09
dominion. He's the only one who is truly
24:11
crowned with honor. So in a strict sense, the Psalm
24:16
now belongs to Jesus. So David wrote a check that only
24:19
Jesus could cash. That is a great way to put it,
24:23
but here is the beautiful part. Calvin doesn't leave us out of
24:26
it. He says that we, the believers,
24:30
the church, are the body of Christ.
24:32
He is the head. OK, Calvin argues that we
24:34
recover this glory only because we are connected to the head.
24:37
I see, so it is not that we have this glory in ourselves anymore.
24:41
We lost it, but Jesus earned it back, and because we are in Him,
24:45
we get to share in it. That is the gospel according to
24:47
Calvin. We are restored to the position
24:49
of Psalm 8 through Christ. So when the author of Hebrews
24:52
applies it to Jesus, he isn't hijacking the text.
24:55
He's showing us the only way the text can be fulfilled.
24:58
So the glory we see in Psalm 8 is a promise of what we have in
25:00
Christ, not a description of what we have by nature.
25:03
Exactly. It resolves the tension
25:05
beautifully. It explains why we feel so far
25:09
from this glory, but also why we have hope of regaining it.
25:12
That makes a lot of sense, but I want to touch on something else
25:14
regarding how the New Testament uses this.
25:17
You mentioned accommodation earlier.
25:19
Yes, this is a technical term, but it is very useful for
25:23
understanding the New Testament authors.
25:25
What does that mean? Are they misquoting it?
25:27
Not misquoting, but reapplying. Take the phrase made a little
25:31
lower. In the Hebrew of Psalm 8, it
25:33
refers to rank. Humans are lower in rank than
25:36
God or the angels, right? But in Hebrews 2, the author
25:39
applies it to Jesus's humiliation and death.
25:42
He was lowered to the cross. Those are two different
25:44
meanings, rank versus humiliation.
25:46
They are, and a strict grammarian might say, hey, you
25:49
change the meaning. But Calvin says the apostle is
25:52
adapting the words to fit the new context of Christ's work.
25:56
They aren't trying to give a rigid grammatical commentary on
25:59
David. They're taking David's words and
26:02
applying them to the reality of what Jesus did.
26:04
Exactly. Calvin calls it pious deflection
26:08
or accommodation. It is not twisting the
26:11
Scripture. It is applying the spirit of the
26:13
text to its fulfillment in Christ.
26:16
It shows that the apostles felt a freedom to use Scripture
26:19
dynamically because they knew it all pointed to the same Lord.
26:22
That is a helpful guide for reading the Bible.
26:25
We don't have to get hung up if a New Testament quote isn't word
26:27
for word exact. With the Old Testament we look
26:30
for the theological connection. Precisely, we look for the
26:32
trajectory where is the text pointing.
26:34
So we have established that there are dominion is restored
26:37
in Christ. Now let's look at what that
26:39
dominion is supposed to cover. Verses 6 through 8 give us a
26:42
list. Thou hast set him over the works
26:45
of thy hands, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the
26:48
field. This is the practical scope of
26:51
authority. Calvin notes that the original
26:54
intent was for the world to be created for man's happiness and
26:56
convenience. God didn't just make a world.
26:59
He made a home. He filled the larder.
27:01
He stocked the fields. But again, we run into the
27:04
reality check. Do we really rule the Earth?
27:06
I mean, if I walk into a lion's den, I don't feel like the king,
27:10
I feel like lunch. If I try to command a hurricane,
27:12
it doesn't listen. And Calvin is very honest about
27:15
this. He doesn't recode it.
27:16
He admits that the order is thrown into confusion.
27:20
He says if anything opposes man, whether it is a lion, a storm or
27:24
a disease, it is a result of sin.
27:26
So nature is rebelling against us because we rebelled against
27:30
God. Exactly.
27:31
It is a mirror. We threw off God's rule, so
27:33
creation threw off our rule. The chaos in nature mirrors the
27:37
chaos in our souls. That is a profound thought.
27:40
Every time a mosquito bites me, it's a theological reminder of
27:43
the fall. In a way, yes, and Calvin
27:45
connects us to 1st Corinthians 15.
27:47
Paul says that we do not yet see all things put under him.
27:51
The subjection is not complete. Why not?
27:53
Because the final enemy, death, has not yet been abolished.
27:56
As long as we die, our dominion is incomplete.
27:59
So we are kings in waiting. Kings in training, perhaps, or
28:02
kings in exile who are slowly reclaiming territory.
28:05
The full dominion of Psalm 8 won't be seen until the
28:07
resurrection. Now let's talk about the list of
28:09
animals. Sheep, oxen, beasts, birds,
28:12
fish. Why this specific list?
28:14
It seems a bit barnyard. It's not very exotic.
28:17
It's very agrarian, but Calvin loves this, he says.
28:21
David chooses the obvious examples for uncultivated minds.
28:25
Uncultivated minds. He means regular people like us.
28:29
He means us. He implies that if David had
28:32
started listing exotic animals like hippos or metaphysical
28:35
concepts, we might miss the point.
28:38
But everyone knows what a sheep is.
28:40
Everyone knows what an ox is. It is not an exhaustive list.
28:44
It is a mirror. A mirror of what?
28:46
A mirror of God's liberality. And this brings us to what you
28:49
call the theology of dinner in the pre show notes.
28:51
Yes, I loved this part of the commentary.
28:53
Cowan gets very practical about eating.
28:55
He does, he says. Look, when you eat meat, or when
28:58
you put on a wool sweater, or when you drink milk, you are
29:01
seeing the fragments of this original dominion.
29:04
Fragments. That is a good.
29:05
Word. It implies that something was
29:07
broken, but pieces remain. The fact that an ox pulls A plow
29:11
for you, or sheep gives his wool, or a cow gives its milk,
29:15
that is not an accident. That is God forcing creation to
29:18
serve you even in your fallen state.
29:20
So we shouldn't just consume a burger and not think about it,
29:23
right? Calvin says we should be
29:25
affected by God's fatherly love and providing the animal
29:28
service. We are seeing a remnant of the
29:30
Garden of Eden on our dinner plate.
29:32
Even in the ruins of the fall, God's generosity remains
29:36
visible. He hasn't cut us off completely.
29:38
He still commands the earth to feed us.
29:40
That really changes how you say grace before a meal.
29:43
It is not just thanks for the food, it is thanks for
29:47
maintaining a structure where this food serves me even though
29:50
I'm a Sinner who doesn't deserve.
29:51
It it elevates the mundane, It turns a wool coat into a
29:54
theological statement. It makes the barnyard a
29:57
sanctuary of God's grace. As we move to the end of the
30:00
Psalm, verse 9, we see a repetition.
30:03
O Lord our Lord, how wonderful is Thy name in all the earth.
30:05
We end exactly where we started. It is a circular structure.
30:09
Calvin loves this literary device.
30:11
We start with God's glory. Then we look down at our own
30:13
frailty, our enoschness that we see God's grace coming down to
30:17
us. We see the dominion he gives us.
30:20
And where does that lead us? Back to God's glory.
30:22
It is a loop of praise. It is the more we realize our
30:26
smallness, the more we realize God's greatness and caring for
30:29
us. The knowledge of self leads to
30:31
the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of God leads to
30:34
worship. Calvin has a final exhortation
30:36
here, doesn't he? He shifts the focus from the
30:39
barnyard to something higher. He does, and this is the
30:42
reformational shift. He says that David living in the
30:45
Old Testament focused on temporal blessings.
30:47
Sheep, oxen, land, these were the shadows.
30:52
But we living in the New Testament have Christ.
30:55
You have the reality, we have the substance.
30:56
Exactly. So Calvin says we must look
30:58
higher. If David could praise God for
31:00
sheep and oxen, how much more should we praise God for
31:03
spiritual treasures? Like forgiveness, the Holy
31:06
Spirit. Forgiveness, the Holy Spirit,
31:08
eternal life, the restoration of the image of God, all of it.
31:11
So if the fragments, the temporal food are amazing enough
31:15
to write a Psalm about, the spiritual Kingdom is the true
31:18
fulfillment. Precisely.
31:19
The spiritual Kingdom is where the true dominion lies.
31:21
We rule over sin. We rule over despair.
31:24
Eventually we will rule over death.
31:27
That is the true glory of man in Christ.
31:29
That is an incredible place to land.
31:31
It takes us from the stars, down to the dust, through the
31:34
nursery, into the barnyard, and finally up to the throne of
31:37
grace. It is a complete worldview in
31:39
nine verses. It covers creation, fall,
31:43
redemption, and consummation. So just to recap what we have
31:47
covered today for you, our listeners, because we have
31:49
covered a lot of ground. We started with the mission,
31:53
understanding the link between God's majesty and our frailty.
31:56
We looked at the Giddeth and learned to ignore the instrument
31:59
and focus on the design. We learned that Calvin hates
32:02
guessing games. We certainly did.
32:04
We saw the apologetic of infancy, how a nursing baby
32:07
defeats the atheist through biology and instinct.
32:10
We unpacked the paradox of enosh, miserable man being
32:13
visited by the Creator. We tackled the Adam versus
32:16
Christ problem and saw how Jesus restores the lost dominion.
32:20
And finally, we saw how even our dinner tables are mirrors of
32:23
God's fatherly love. It really constitutes a theater
32:26
of God's favor. That is a favorite word of
32:28
Calvin's The world is a theater where God displays his glory.
32:32
I want to leave you with a final thought to chew on something
32:35
provocative that comes out of this study.
32:37
Calvin suggests that the speechless mouth of an infant is
32:41
an invincible champion for God. A baby, simply by existing and
32:46
doing what it was designed to do, silences the enemies of God.
32:50
It is a haunting thought, isn't it?
32:51
It really is because it forces us to ask if a baby can glorify
32:57
God without a single word, what does our silence say?
33:01
We are adults. We have full vocabularies.
33:03
We have the ability to articulate praise, to defend the
33:07
truth, to speak of God's name. And yet, so often we are quiet.
33:11
It's a conviction. If the speechless infant is a
33:14
champion, are we, with all our words, actually the ones who are
33:17
failing to speak? That is a conviction we all need
33:20
to feel. The stones would cry out, the
33:22
babies cry out. We should be the loudest of all.
33:24
Absolutely. Thank you for joining us for
33:26
this deep dive into Psalm 8. It has been a pleasure to watch
33:29
talk through this text with you the.
33:30
Pleasure was mine. And to you, the learner, thank
33:33
you for engaging with Reformed thinking.
33:35
We hope this episode has given you a new set of eyes to see the
33:38
stars, the babies, and the grace of God in your life.
33:42
Until next time.