The ‘Big-ness’ of God’ (Psalm 8: 1-9)

 

Ian Ridpath,

Three Cord Ministries

 

Our God is BIG – BIG – BIG. But …

 

Do we limit His size by our own imagination?

 

Do we change the size of God depending on our circumstances?

 

Do we make God fit our world?

 

If the answer to these questions is YES, then we need to re-program our minds – as Paul said in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

 

We need to think about God on a much larger scale than we ever have before. God is looking for people who know how BIG He really is.

 

Let’s read Psalm 8 starting in verse 1.

 

1. O LORD, our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens.

 

Look, even the majesty of his name fills the earth. Think about it. Think about the name GOD – JEHOVAH written over the earth – in lights. Think about it starting in Salluit and stretching all the way around Russia and Alaska and back to here. Can you imaging how big the letters would have to be!? To me, it would be very similar to the Northern Lights!

 

And that is only a small part of the whole surface area of the earth.

 

How high are the heavens? As far as you can see … His glory would be there and indeed it is there!

Look at verse 3.

 

3. When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you have set in place—

 

I have spent many years enjoying looking at the night sky with my small telescope in my backyard. But it is so limiting. In the city there is a lot of light pollution so that only the brightest stars can ever be seen.

 

I used to live in the country and was able to see a lot more but even then, my poor, little telescope could not see everything that God has made in the heavens.

 

Even the largest telescopes in the world cannot see everything in the universe that God has made.

 


Astronomers have recently released some fantastic new photographs taken using the Hubble Space Telescope. They now have the best ever views of thousands of distant galaxies – never before resolved so clearly.

 

They congratulated themselves on achieving such clear views of space.

 

But God knows every Galaxy and sees them all clearly! We can only but glimpse a small portion of the total splendour of the heavens.

 

Think about it this way. Think about the small 4x6 print you get when you take your film in.

 

In itself it may be a wonderful photograph but individually you can’t say that it represents the whole scene that you were trying to capture.

 

It would take hundreds of such small 4x6 prints to make up the whole scene!

 

What we see at any time in our lives is really like this small photo. Our total life is a much bigger picture that God sees and that God has planned out for us.

 

God is looking for people who have a grasp of how BIG He really is – not people who just have a small 4x6 image of Him.

 

When thinking of His BIG-ness, we must also think about our small-ness.

 

Verse 4 says:

 

“…what are men that you should think of us, mere humans that you should care for us?

 

Down in the South I look around at the concrete jungles that we have made, the concrete highways that we have made and the concrete buildings and see that we make pretty big things.

 

We created all these things and we use all these big things that we created. It is easy for us to be “big” in our own eyes. That is until two airplanes smashed into our big concrete buildings and brought them crashing down in only a few moments.

 

Here in the North, you cannot help but think how small you are as you look out into the distance and see land, and land and more land. God’s land! He created the big things here in the North.

 

He created the rocks and the mountains and the rivers and the lakes and the oceans.

 

He created the ice and the snow and the animals and the fish and the birds!

 

We didn’t do that!

 

 

Just look at Verses 6, 7 and 8 –

 

You put us in charge of everything you made, giving us authorityover all things -- the sheep and the cattle and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swimsthe ocean currents.”

 

Here is the truth - as we see and know a bigger God, we must see ourselves become smaller.

 

In the end, since God is infinite – we are nothing!

 

He is the “I AM” we are the “I am not”.

 

 

 

Scripture References for The ‘Big-ness’ of God’

 

     Psalm 8: 1-9

 

1.      O LORD, our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth! Your

glory is higher than  the heavens.

 

2.      You have taught children and nursing infants to give you praise.

They silence your enemies who were seeking revenge.

    

3.      When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the

moon and the stars you have set in place--

    

4.      what are men that you should think of us, mere humans that you

should care for us?

    

5         For you made us only a little lower than God, and you crowned us

with glory and honour.

   

6         You put us in charge of everything you made, giving us authority

over all things--

    

7   the sheep and the cattle and all the wild animals,

    

8         the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims

the ocean currents.

    

9    O LORD, our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth!