Latest / Reformed Thinking / What Is Man? Crowned with Glory (Psalm 8) | Matthew Poole

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What Is Man? Crowned with Glory (Psalm 8) | Matthew Poole · Reformed Thinking

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Hello and welcome to Reform Thinking.
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Glad to be here. I am your host and I am really
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glad you have decided to join us for this.
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Absolutely. We are here to do what we always
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try to do on this show. We take distinct theological and
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biblical sources, usually quite dense ones, and we analyze them.
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We really try to appreciate the the depth of scripture rather
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than just skimming the surface. All right, and today we are
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looking at a very specific source.
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We are pulling from Matthew Poole and his annotations on the
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Holy Bible. A fantastic resource it really.
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Is specifically, we are going to focus our attention on his
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commentary regarding Psalm 8. Which is a fascinating choice.
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Now, for those of you listening who might not spend your
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weekends reading 17th century Puritan commentaries, Matthew
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Poole was a contemporary of the men who actually wrote the
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Westminster Confession. He was.
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So he brings a very specific, rigorous, reformed perspective
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to the text. And I will be acting as your
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diet today, sort of breaking down the text, asking the
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questions. And I will do my best to bring
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the theological precision we want to make sure we are
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adhering to that Reformed tradition and the Westminster
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Confessions view on Scripture. That is the goal.
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So let us set the stage here. We are looking at a Psalm of
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David. Yes, a very famous.
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One, but we are looking at it through Poole's Puritan lens.
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We want to understand this, this tension in the text between the
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absolute insignificance of man and the glory of God.
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And how cool bridges that tension, right?
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Through the person of Christ. I think we need to clarify the
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theological stakes right up front before we get into the.
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Verses people. Often read Psalm 8 as a nature
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poem. You know, you look up at the
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stars, you feel small, you think about how big God is.
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I have definitely read it that. Way he has a common reading, but
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Poole argues that if you stop there, you have missed the core
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of it. You have missed what he calls
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the great love and kindness of God.
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Because it is not just about creation.
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Precisely. It encompasses creation, yes,
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but it specifically highlights redemption.
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So it is a much bigger picture. It is a text about the gospel.
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OK, so let us just jump right into the text.
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Then the very first thing we hit before verse one is the
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inscription. The title.
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Right, it says to the chief musician, upon getteth a Psalm
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of David. Most people skip the titles.
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I usually do, they feel like ancient footnotes but pool stops
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right there on the word getteth. He does not believe any word in
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scripture is wasted. He offers 2 possibilities for
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what getteth means. What is the first one?
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The first possibility is that it refers to an instrument or maybe
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a specific tune that was invented or used in GATH.
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Gath, as in the Philistine city. Yes, the hometown of Goliath.
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That is wild David taking an instrument from the Philistines
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to worship Jehovah. It shows that common grace
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extends to the arts. But Poole offers a second
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possibility that is, I think, even more interesting for our
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discussion. What's it that?
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He suggests? It could be a song for the wine
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presses. Like sung during a harvest.
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Yes, sung during the vintage when they were crushing the
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grapes. That is a very specific image.
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And it connects to other psalms, too.
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Poole notes that this same title, Giddeth, appears in Psalm
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81 and Psalm 84. So if it is a harvest song, that
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sounds joyful. It is joyful, but think about
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the imagery of a winepress in Scripture.
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Yes, it brings the joy of harvest, but the crushing of
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grapes is also a frequent symbol for judgement.
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The Winepress of God. 'S wrath, right?
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So right from the title we have a hint that this Psalm deals
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with heavy weighty things, joy and crushing.
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That sets the tone perfectly. Now before we hit verse one,
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Poole addresses what he sees as the central controversy of the
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whole Psalm. The.
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Scope of the Psalm, right? Who is this actually about?
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Because you read it and it talks about man having dominion over
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sheep and oxen. Well, it sounds like Genesis
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chapter 1. Exact, or rather spot on.
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It sounds like Adam. So the question is, is the Psalm
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about Adam representing humanity in general, or is it about Jesus
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Christ? This is where Poole's reformed
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theology really shines. He presents a synthesis.
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It is a both and approach. How does that work?
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Well, he acknowledges that the text clearly speaks of man and
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the honor God gave humanity at creation.
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You cannot ignore that layer. God did give Adam dominion.
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He did, but Poole says it especially speaks of the man
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Christ Jesus. The second Adam.
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Yes, Christ is the principal subject.
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The controversy is resolved when you realize that Christ is the
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one who fulfills what the first Adam lost.
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Because if it is just about Adam, it is kind of depressing.
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We look around and we do not see humanity ruling over everything
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perfectly. We see a broken world, we see
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nature fighting back. So if it's only about Adam, the
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Psalm is just a tragic reminder of our failure.
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But Poole backs us up with Scripture, doesn't he?
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He does. He relies on the New Testament
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to interpret the Old Testament. He points to three specific
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places where the New Testament writers say this Psalm is about
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Jesus. Let us walk through those.
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The first is in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 21.
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Jesus is in the temple, The children are praising him, and
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he quotes Psalm 8 to defend them.
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He applies the praise of babes to himself.
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So Jesus believed it was a messianic Psalm, Yes.
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Then you have Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians,
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chapter 15. The resurrection chapter.
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Right, Paul is talking about Christ's victory over death and
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he quotes Psalm 8 saying God has put all things under his feet.
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Applying the total dominion to Jesus.
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And finally, the author of Hebrews in chapter 2, he quotes
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this Psalm extensively to explain the incarnation.
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So the New Testament consensus is overwhelming.
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It is. The New Testament views this
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Psalm as messianic, so when we read it, we have to keep Christ
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constantly in our peripheral vision or even as the direct
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focal point. OK.
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That is a huge interpretive key. Let us move to verse one.
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O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name and all the earth?
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Notice. The repetition of the word Lord
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there, yeah. In English Bibles, the first one
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is usually all capital letters and the second one just has a
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capital L pool. Breaks down why that matters.
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That first Lord is Jehovah the. Covenant name, right?
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It refers to God's essential being, His self existence.
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He relies on nothing outside of himself and.
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The second Lord. That is that an eye.
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It implies dominion, it implies authority and ownership.
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So. David is saying the self
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existent creator is also our personal ruler.
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Yes. And look at where he his name is
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excellent in all the earth. Which, if you think about it
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historically, was a pretty bold claim for David to make.
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It was. Almost scandalous.
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Because back then the knowledge of God was pretty local.
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Very. Local think about Psalm 76 in
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Judah is God known? His name is great in Israel.
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The rest of the globe was steeped in paganism, so.
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David is projecting something into the future.
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Cool. Interprets this phrase as a
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clear prophecy of the New Testament era, The.
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Gospel going out? Yes.
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The fame and the glory of God's name travels beyond the borders
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of Israel through the work of redemption.
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When? The Great Commission happens
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this verse becomes a reality the.
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Name of God becomes excellent everywhere because the gospel is
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preached everywhere but. Then David looks up the
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second-half of the verse, says, Who has set thy glory above the
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heavens? We.
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Go from a global reality to a cosmic 1 when.
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He says above the heavens. What spatial reality is he
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talking about, Poole? Describes this as the heaven of
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heavens. The.
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Dwelling place of God. Yes, God's throne is established
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there. The angels celebrate him there
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perfectly without sin and. If we are reading this through a
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Christological lens, there is an ascension connection here,
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right? Absolutely.
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Where is the resurrected Christ right now?
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He is seated the right hand of the Father, far above all
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heavens. So.
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The contrast here is beautiful. God's glory is spreading
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horizontally on earth via the gospel, and it is raining
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vertically above the visible sky.
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In His Enthroned Majesty it is. A picture of absolute
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sovereignty which. Makes verse 2 so shocking.
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We go from the highest heavens to an infant out of the mouth of
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babes. Sucklings, has thou ordained
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strength? It is a.
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Massive shift in scale Poole. Tackles this on 2 levels,
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literal and metaphorical. Let us start with the literal,
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OK? On a literal level, Poole says
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that actual physical infants display the glory of God.
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How? So he talks.
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About the details of Providence, the very conception of a child,
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the strange progress of a baby forming from such small
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beginnings, it is. A biological marvel.
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Poole. Uses this very vivid phrase.
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He talks about the preservation of the infant in the dark cell
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of the womb that. Is intense phrasing dark cell
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it? Highlights the vulnerability of
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the child and then he points to the provision of milk.
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God prepares sustenance for a creature that cannot provide for
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itself so. Just the mere fact that helpless
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infants survive and grow is a testimony to God even.
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Without words, they declare his praise, but.
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Poole does not stay in the literal biology, does he?
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No. He argues that the metaphorical
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interpretation is his preferred meaning, and he bases that on
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how Jesus uses the verse in Matthew 21.
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So. Who are the metaphorical babes?
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The. Disciples, the apostles, the
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early ministers of the Gospel, because.
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They were essentially nobodies in the eyes of society, yes.
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They were fishermen, tax collectors.
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They were characterized by being weak, foolish, contemptible.
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In the world's eyes, they were. Harmless they.
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Certainly were not the wise and the mighty of the world.
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Poole references Paul's letter to the Corinthians again here,
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where Paul says God chose the foolish things of the world to
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confound the wise so. Out of the mouth of these
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uneducated fishermen, God has ordained strength.
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What does strength mean in this specific context?
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Poole offers a couple of definitions.
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First, strength can simply mean praise.
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That harmonizes perfectly with how the Gospel of Matthew
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translates it. Perfected.
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Praise, right? But Poole also says strength
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here means the Kingdom of Christ, the gospel itself.
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So. The Kingdom is the strength,
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yes. And here is the paradox.
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You have this invincible Kingdom, the one spoken of in
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Daniel chapter 2, the stone that crushes the statues.
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A Kingdom. That will never be destroyed,
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yes. But how is it established?
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Not by swords, not by warriors or military campaigns.
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It. Is established by mouths by.
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The discourses, the preaching, the simple words of these
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metaphorical babes, that is. Staggering it.
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Defies human logic and. The purpose of this ordained
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strength is clear in the text. It is to still the enemy and the
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Avenger the. Antagonist of the Psalm Let.
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Us identify them Who is the enemy pool?
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Is unequivocal. The enemy is the devil, he is
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the head of the opposition and. Anyone who fights under his
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banner. OK, so then who is the Avenger?
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Is that just another name for the devil?
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Yes. But it highlights a specific
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aspect of his character. Poole says the devil is an
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avenger because he is seeking revenge.
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Revenge. For what?
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Because he has been sentenced to eternal flames, he's been cast
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down so. He is angry.
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He. Is furious, and because he
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cannot strike directly at God, he seeks revenge on the
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professors of the faith. He attacks the church.
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He goes. After the children of the King.
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Exactly. Or to put another way, he
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targets those who bear the image of God.
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And Poole also mentions that the Avenger includes human
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persecutors people. Who think the gospel is injuring
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their society so they try to crush it.
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Right. But look at the victory here.
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How does God conquer these mighty spiritual foes?
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How does he silence them? By the weak preaching of the
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Gospel, yes. The mouths of babes confound the
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devil. It is the ultimate humiliation
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for Satan to be feeded not by angelic armies, but by frail,
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sinful human beings armed only with the Word of God.
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That. Reframes evangelism entirely.
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It is cosmic warfare conducted by the weakest possible soldiers
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and. That guarantees that all the
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glory goes to the commander that.
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Is a brilliant point. All right.
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Moving on to verse 3, David looks back up at the night sky.
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When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon
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and the stars which thou hast ordained.
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This brings us to a beautiful detail.
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Pool draws out the phrase. The work of thy fingers.
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Yeah. Why?
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Fingers. Why not the work of thy hand or
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thy arm? In Scripture, God's hand or arm
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usually denotes raw might deliverance from Egypt with a
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mighty hand. Breaking things, Moving nations?
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Yes. But fingers imply something much
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more delicate. Pool calls it curious and
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exquisite artifice, like a. Master Craftsman.
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It's like. A watchmaker putting together
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tiny, intricate gears. The cosmos is not just massive,
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it is incredibly detailed and precise that.
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Requires A delicate touch. And Poole says fingers also
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imply facility. Facility, meaning it was easy
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for him. Exactly.
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God created these massive celestial bodies with a mere
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touch, just a movement of a finger.
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It was effortless. That is hard to wrap the mind
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around the here scale of the universe and it was just finger
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work for God it. Puts the creator completely
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above the creation I. Noticed something missing from
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David's list of celestial bodies here the.
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Sun, right? He mentions the moon and stars
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but no sun. Poole makes a very logical
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deduction from that omission. He says David most likely
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composed this Psalm at night sitting.
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Out with the sheep, maybe? Contemplating the nocturnal sky
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and the keyword David uses for the stars is ordained which.
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Means established, established, directed.
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And placed in an unalterable order the.
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Divine order, yes. The stars do not just wander
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randomly, they obey their Creator perfectly.
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The stability of the cosmos reflects the wisdom of God and.
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Looking at that perfect, unalterable obedience in the sky
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forces David to look at himself in verse 4, the great.
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Anthropological question What? Is man that thou art mindful of
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him, and the Son of man that thou visitest him the.
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Contrast is sharp, the massive obedient heavens above and tiny
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frail man below. But.
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Poole digs into the Hebrew here to show that the contrast is
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actually much worse than just size.
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Yes, this is crucial for our reformed understanding of the
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text talk. About the word used for man,
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here the. Hebrew word David uses is enosh.
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Enosh. What does that signify it?
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Implies a man who is infirm or miserable.
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So not a pristine, perfect human, no.
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The context here is not man at creation walking in the garden.
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This is man fallen into sin, misery and mortality.
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Post fall humanity, yes. Frail, dying, sinful man and.
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What about the next phrase Son of Man in?
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Hebrew, that is Ben Adam, son of Adam now.
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In our theological framework, being a son of Adam carries a
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lot of baggage. To say the least, Poole
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emphasizes this. He says Adam was the great
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apostate A. Rebel So to be about Adam is to
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be the sinful son of a sinful father.
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We. Inherit his guilt, we inherit
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his corruption. So.
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David is not just asking why God cares about someone so small.
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He was asking why God cares about a miserable rebel.
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Yes. Why would the Holy Creator, who
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has the perfect stars and the sinless angels pay any attention
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to Enosh? The action verbs here are
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mindful and visit us. Let us look at visit it.
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Is a surprising word choice because in Scripture when God
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visits someone, it frequently means judgment.
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He visits their iniquity upon them.
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Right, a divine visitation can be a terrifying thing, but.
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Here Poole explains that it explicitly means grace and
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mercy. He cites Genesis 21 verse one,
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where the Lord visited Sarah and kept His promise to give her a
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child. It is a.
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Visit of favor. So the real shock of Psalm 8 is
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this Given that man is Enosh a miserable rebel, it is
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astounding that God visits him with favor rather than wrath it.
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Is pure grace unmerited? Favor it.
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Is the Reformed doctrine of total depravity meeting
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unconditional election? God's mindfulness of us does not
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stem from our worthiness, but from His own sovereign mercy
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that. Brings us to verse 5, which is
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where things take a major Christological turn.
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Yes. The second Adam steps into the
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picture for. Thou hast made him a little
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lower than the angels, and has crowned him with glory and
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honor. How?
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Do you apply that to the miserable man?
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We just discussed that. Is the question.
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It seems like a contradiction pool.
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Brings back that dual application.
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First, regarding humanity in general, there is a restoration
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that happens through Christ. Believers are restored to a
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dignified state, yes. A state only one step below the
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angels, but the. Primary application is to Jesus
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himself. Specifically, his incarnation
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break. That down how is Jesus made a
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little lower than the angels? Well.
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As God, the eternal Son is far above all angels, He created
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them so. For him to be lower, something
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drastic has to occur. He.
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Had to become Enosh. He had to take on human flesh
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with all its frailties. He had to become mortal, capable
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of suffering and death. Angels do not bleed, they do not
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die, right? So in taking on a human nature,
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he was made lower than them. But Poole also notes that the
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phrase a little lower can be translated As for a little time.
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Referring to the span of his earthly life.
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Exactly. Or rather, yes, during his state
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of humiliation, but. It does not end in humiliation,
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the verse says. And has crowned him with glory
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and honor. This.
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Is the exaltation the? Resurrection and ascension, yes.
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And here is where Poole explains the relationship between Christ
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and his people. The Head and the members
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explain. That concept.
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Christ is crowned first, as we see in the book of Hebrews, but
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he did not receive this dominion for himself alone.
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Because as God, he already had all glory.
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He did not need a promotion, right?
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He received it as the mediator for man's good he.
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Won it back for us the. Glory is communicated from the
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head, which is Christ, down to the members, which are believers
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that. Is a beautiful concept we share
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in his coronation it. Is the only way Enosh gets any
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glory at all by being united to Christ by faith and.
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That leads into the description of this dominion in verses 6
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through 8 total. Dominion thou.
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Made his Tim to have dominion over the works of thy hands.
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Thou has put all things under his feet.
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Let us. Look at that phrase under his
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feet. It.
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Sounds like absolute submission it.
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Is Poole clarifies the extent of this authority.
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He says nothing is accepted. Everything is included, yes.
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Heaven, including the angels, earth, air, and sea.
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Total subjection the. Psalm lists the animal Kingdom,
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specifically all sheep and oxen. Yeah, and the beasts of the
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field. Pool gives us both a literal and
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a figurative meaning. Here Start.
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With the literal. Literally, Christ has authority
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over nature. He demonstrated this during his
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earthly ministry. Calming the storm?
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Yes, the figurative meaning pool.
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Says the sheep and oxen are not just a rigid inventory of
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livestock, they represent all living creatures, including
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human beings and spiritual beings and.
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The beasts of the field, those. Are specifically the wild
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beasts, the animals that are usually beyond human control
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the. Dangerous ones, even.
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The dangerous, untamable elements of creation are subject
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to Christ. They obey His commands then.
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The text goes into the oceans, the fowl of the air and the fish
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of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the
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Seas, the. Paths of the Seas that suggested
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detailed dominion over the marine world A.
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Realm that humanity knew virtually nothing about when
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this was written and. Yet Christ rules every inch of
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it. The depths of the ocean are not
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outside his jurisdiction it. Is a comprehensive picture of a
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restored creation mandate, the second Adam succeeding
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completely where the first Adam failed.
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Which naturally leads David to conclude the Psalm.
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Verse 9 O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the
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earth? It is an exact repeat of verse
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one and. Inclusio, yes.
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Bookending the Psalm, but Pool reflects on why David repeats
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this. Because after everything we just
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talked about, it lands differently it.
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Does it is not just a repetition for the sake of poetry?
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Why? Does he repeat it then?
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Because after reviewing the sweep of creation, the misery of
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the Fall, the grace of the Visitation, the humiliation of
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the Incarnation and the glory of the exultation, that.
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Is a massive theological journey it.
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Is and after tracing all of that, the only appropriate
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response from a human being is a return to absolute praise.
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Doctrine leads to doxology always.
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It reinforces that the excellent name of God is most clearly seen
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in the work of redemption. We.
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Have covered so much ground here pulling from pools annotation.
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Is a dense, rich commentary. Oh.
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Actually, let me rephrase that. It is a highly detailed
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commentary. We went from the night sky to
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the babes preaching the gospel, down to the frailty of Enosh,
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and up to the ascended Christ. I.
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Think the core Reformed insight here is that you simply cannot
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understand your place in the universe without looking through
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the lens of Christ. If.
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You just look at yourself, you will either become arrogant
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about your dominion or crushed by your frailty mostly.
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Crushed If you are honest about your sin, you are the son of the
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great apostate. But.
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The second Adam restores what was broken, he.
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Does so. As we wrap up this deep dive, I
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want to leave you the listener with a final thought derived
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from our discussion of Matthew Poole.
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Go ahead. We talked about verse 2 out of
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the mouth of babes and sucklings, hast thou ordained
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strength to steal the enemy and the avenger, the.
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Defeat of the devil right if the.
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Mounds of babes, meaning weak, foolish, inadequate human
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instruments, are exactly what God uses to silence the devil.
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What does that imply about your own weakness?
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It turns our standard way of thinking upside down, so.
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Often we feel like we are too small, too uneducated, or too
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frail to be used by God in any meaningful way we want.
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To be strong, but. Perhaps your inability is
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actually to the very qualification for being used by
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God. Your weakness is the stage upon
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which His ordained strength is displayed.
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When weak people preach the strong gospel, the enemy is
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confounded. Something for you to Mull over
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this week. Thank you for listening to
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Reformed Thinking It. Has been a pleasure.
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Join. Us next time as we open up
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another historic text. Until then, keep looking to the
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second Adam.