The Mindfulness that Matters Most (Psalm 8:3-4)

Children's Lesson (click here)

I. The Benefits of Mindfulness

This is from a somewhat recent article posted online by the National Institute of Health:

Paying attention to what’s going on right this second can be hard. We often spend more time thinking about what’s coming up in the future. Or dwelling on things in the past we can’t change. [As a result] We can miss out on experiencing the present. [But] It’s possible to train yourself to focus on the present moment, [So that] You become aware of what’s going on inside and around you—your thoughts, feelings, sensations, and environment. You observe these moments without judgment. This is called 'mindfulness'... In recent years, mindfulness has become a household term. Mindfulness programs are now commonly found in schools, workplaces, and hospitals... [and] Studies suggest that focusing on the present can have a positive impact on health and well-being. Mindfulness-based treatments have been shown to reduce anxiety and depression. There’s also evidence that mindfulness can lower blood pressure and improve sleep. It may even help people cope with pain.

That article had many other things to say about mindfulness, especially about its benefit. But as positive and as helpful as this kind of practice can be, it simply is not the mindfulness that matters most. That distinction belongs to the mindfulness mentioned in Psalm 8. Let's turn there.

II. The Passage: “That You Care for Him” (8:3-4)

Psalm 8 is a song of David. We don't know exactly when he wrote this song, but as we'll see, it very well could have been inspired by many nights out in the field when he, as a younger man, shepherded his family's flocks.

Our focus this morning will be on verses 3 and 4, but notice first the first and final verses of this short psalm (verses 1 and 9). Notice anything interesting about these verses? Yes! They are exactly the same... “O Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” If David's praise about the majesty of God serves as brackets for the the whole song, then what can we expect to find between these two verses? We should expect to find an earth-wide, a globally relevant, reason that the songwriter is worshiping God in this psalm. So let's consider this by beginning in our main text, Psalm 8, verses 3 and 4. This is what we read there...

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, [4] what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

Remember what I said about David sitting in the fields as a young man... at night? There are so many things in creation that could and should inspire praise to our Creator. But in this psalm, it is the night sky that has stirred the songwriter. If you've ever camped out under the stars, far away from the city light, then you know that unlike an alpine vista or rolling hills of green or an amazing desert canyon or a tropical seascape, there is nothing that can make a human being feel quite as small as a canopy of thousands of stars set against the darkness of the night sky [show image of starry night].

Of course, even though there are anywhere from 5000 to 10,000 stars visible to the naked eye on the clearest of nights, we know there actually 100 to 400 billion stars in our galaxy alone (and it's possible there are as many as 2 trillion galaxies in the universe!). Now add to this the moon, with the light that it reflects, and its size when nearest to the horizon, and the colors it can pick from particles in the atmosphere, and you have a truly humbling reminder each and every night.

And that's exactly what David is responding to here. The immensity and beauty and wonder of the night sky has driven the psalmist to ask, “If our God has created and upholds and reveals his greatness through something so staggering and stunning as the moon and the stars, why would he give thought to creatures as tiny and often helpless as we are?” It's like us making so much of ants or gnats or even microscopic protozoa. But did you notice the word we began with in verse 4? “What is man that you are mindful of him...”. This is a fairly common word in the Hebrew Bible, but is most often translated as “remember”. The basic idea is to 'call to mind' or 'give thought to'. And the second part of verse 4 presents a parallel that simply enhances this idea with the phrase, “that you care for him”.

Now think about that: the same God who ordered the night sky, whose glory is reflected in the glory of the moon and stars, is the same God who is mindful of us; who cares for us. The God who is perfectly mindful of every single time two hydrogen nuclei collide at extremely high speeds, overcoming their electrostatic repulsion and fuse together to form a helium nucleus, releasing energy in the process, the very process that powers every single star (billions of times per second), is perfectly mindful of you... of everything about you... of your heart, and your hurts.

Is that as stunning to you as it was to David? Does that idea inspire praise and worship in your heart even now? Here's a little bit of homework for later: take some time and go out into your backyard tonight and like David, look up at God's heavens. The moon is a 'waning crescent' tonight, so it won't be real bright, but you should still stand in awe of what you see. As you do that, ask God to help you feel your smallness in the face of such an awesome aspect of creation.

But if we go back to David's questions inspired by the night sky, one of the questions we should ask is, “What does it mean that God is mindful of us, or that God cares for us?” Well, as was the case with me, maybe some of these verses come to mind. Consider these from Paul in Acts:

“In past generations [this living God] allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. [17] Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” (Acts 14:16–17)

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, [25] nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. (Acts 17:24–25)

God's mindfulness of mankind, his care for human beings, is evident every single day, in every corner of the world, in innumerable blessings that we simply do not deserve. Even apart from the spiritual benefits you enjoy, you only sit here this morning because God has kept you and blessed you into this point in time and space. That's true for everyone, even for those who will never, at any point in their lives, acknowledge such amazing and divine grace.

But guess what. If you think now that the benefits of this divine mindfulness are impressive are more impressive than today's therapeutic practice of personal mindfulness, then I want you to see that what David has in mind here is, in fact, even bigger than this.

Look at where he goes in the verses that follow, 5–8. What does he tell us here about mankind? Remember, David was writing in light of the expansiveness of the heavens and the teeny tiny-ness of humanity. So even though we might seem to be insignificant in the grand scheme of things, look at what he goes on to tell us, beginning in verse 5...

Yet you have made him [you have made us] a little lower than the heavenly beings [that is, the angels] and crowned him [you've crowned us] with glory and honor. [6] You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, [7] all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, [8] the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, what-ever passes along the paths of the seas.

We are not only the beneficiaries of creation, but by God's grace, we are the vice-regents of creation. That's how we were made. Though the night sky has a truly impressive kind of glory, it has not been “crowned” with glory like we have. In fact, we've been crowned with [v. 5] “glory and honor”. God has “put all things under [our] feet” as divinely-appointed stewards of the earth. So in light of the bigness of the heavens, and in comparison, the smallness of human beings on our tiny planet, in our tiny corner of the universe, in light of this, the bigness of our blessings, of our position, of God's care and compassion and generosity to us is simply remarkable. Truly every human being on our planet, if they could really see this, they would rightly cry out, “O Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

III. “Namely Jesus”

But even though God gave humanity dominion over the planet in Genesis chapter 1, we also know the devastating truth that Genesis chapter 3 altered that relationship. Claiming to be wise, we despised our crowns as vice-regents and sought God's crown instead. Because of our doubt and defiance, because of our sin, we have become a cancer on this very same creation. As the Apostle Paul described in Romans 8:20–22, “the creation was subjected to futility” because of our sin. It suffers in “bondage to corruption” because of our sin. In fact, the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now”... because of our sin.

And so we know that the blessing of mindfulness and care that David describes here is just one part of what is true about humanity. Though we still experience many of these blessings of dominion, of being crowned with glory and honor, we have seriously distorted our mandate and privilege, and all creation suffers as a result. So what can be done? What hope is there?

If you would, turn over to Hebrews 2. In arguing for the Son of God's superiority over the angels, listen to how the author of Hebrews, in Hebrews 2:5–9, makes his case from the Psalms...

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. [6] It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? [7] You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, [8] putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. [9] But we [do] see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Brothers and sisters, what was tarnished and tainted in us, will be restored in Jesus Christ.

He is the human being, the son of man, who will fulfill the mandate and blessing of dominion. He is the one who will bring Psalm 8 to its fullness when, one day, we see all creation subject to him.

Think about this: if you recognize the '10,000' reasons we have to be thankful this week just in light of Psalm 8, then what happens when you add Jesus to the calculation?

The very One who through whom the heavens, the moon and the stars, were made (in all their overwhelming immensity), became for us, like us in our tiny-ness. But He was never truly tiny, was he? Even though He took on flesh, the God-man Jesus Christ (the Son of David!) was and remains the fullness of both Psalm 8, verse 3 and Psalm 8, verse 4.

And so, if modern mindfulness helps with things like anxiety and depression and blood pressure and sleeplessness, even helping people cope with pain, how much more the mindfulness that matters most: the divine mindfulness and care that led, gloriously, to more than our exaltation as those made in the image of God? It led first to the execution of Jesus for our cancerous sin, and then to the exaltation of Jesus, so that he might heal and restore creation; that a new heavens and a new earth, that “world to come” as Hebrews 2 put it, that that might be our forever home with him.

Take a moment even now to thank God that he has been and is mindful of us in this way. Take a moment to praise Him, in all his immensity, for the care he has shown you; teeny-tiny you. Yes, these things are true in regard to all humanity, but see if you can wrap your head around the fact that they are also true for each of us individually; in a profoundly personal way. God is mindful of and cares for you this morning! Whatever you're facing this morning, I pray that's wonderful encouragement to you today. As we've seen this morning from David and the Son of David, the proof for this mindfulness is simply staggering. So... let's thank God together for these truths.