The Foundation for Praise
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The Foundation for Praise

 (ID: 3349)

How do we avoid indifference in our praise? Alistair Begg urges us to begin by acknowledging the majesty of God. While we are naturally fixated on our own glories, celebrating God’s splendor is the only way to see ourselves rightly. He created us in His image and has given us dominion over His world; the glory in us is made visible only as we praise Him. May this truth give us new energy and purpose in our worship!

Series Containing This Sermon

What Is True Worship?

Selected Scriptures Series ID: 21601


Sermon Transcript: Print

As we turn to the Bible, a brief prayer from the Anglican prayer book, the fourth collect after Easter Sunday—I know it isn’t, but it’s a good prayer:

Almighty God, you alone can order the unruly wills and passions of sinful people. Grant that we may love what you command and desire what you promise, so that among the many and varied changes of this world, our hearts may be firmly fixed where true joys are to be found through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

My copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, the two-volume edition, was published in 1993. Four substantial pages are given over to defining self. But interestingly, it contains no mention of the word that was unanimously voted the word of the year in 2013. That’s right: selfie. (Incidentally, I apologize for my back. My wife says it is the best view you can have, but there you are. Also, since most of my sermons go round in circles, it shouldn’t be a problem to anyone in the room.) The selfie is defined as “a picture of oneself taken by a smartphone and shared on social media.” There are suggested little phrases that you can post with your picture. I went through and found my two favorites. You can put your picture out there and underneath simply write, “I was born to stand out,” or “Sending my selfie to NASA because I’m a star.”

Now, that kind of self-absorption is not unique to this decade. In fact, there has been a declining view of God, we might actually say, since about the time of the Reformation, if that is the high point. And that is simply because fallen humanity imprisoned inside its own little ego has a boundless confidence in making sure that its will is established and has at the same time an almost insatiable appetite for the praise of its own glory.

That, then, comes into immediate and violent collision with a God-centered understanding that has been articulated for us so wonderfully by Ligon in the previous address. And here in this Eighth Psalm, it frames all that is said in the psalm. It begins, “O Lord, you are majestic,” and it ends, “O Lord, you are majestic.”

One of the great benefits of being in a church, as many of you will be, where the Bible is consistently taught is that it is the Word of God that sets the agenda. And it is actually the Word of God that sets the agenda for our praise. When, in the book of Deuteronomy, God speaks to Moses, you will remember he says to him, “[Moses,] assemble the people before me to hear my words.”[1] “To hear my words.” The reason that we gather in church is first of all that we might hear and submit to the voice of God in his Word. He assembles us by his command, and he assembles us to listen to his Word.

For example, on the Mount of Transfiguration, the voice from heaven declares, “This is my beloved Son”—and then it doesn’t say, “Sing to him.” It says, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”[2] And when you think about the whole agenda that is framed for us in the Psalms, we realize that in many of our contexts, it is praise that creates the framework for the preaching, when in actual fact, a good case can be made for the preaching providing the foundation for the praise.

The Word of God sets the agenda for our praise.

You say, “You’re crazy. You came here to a thing called Sing! and you’re saying this. That’s typical of a preacher. You’re concerned about job security and everything else.” No, no, no, not at all. Not at all. But it is out of the fullness of the heart that the mouth sings, and it is out of the fullness of God that the heart has a reason to sing. And that’s why here, in this particular psalm, we realize that it begins with God and his glory and not with man and his need. Calvin says, “Man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless [and until] he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself.”[3]

The Majesty of God

Now, the psalm is fairly straightforward, and I want to guide us through it, noticing straightforwardly, in verses 1 and 2, the majesty of God—the majesty of God, the majesty of his name. If you have your Bible open in front of you, you will notice that although the word “Lord” comes twice in your English translation, the first time it is capitalized; in the second word, the L is the only capital. And that is because it’s two different words. Yahweh, “sovereign Lord,” Yahweh, “our Defender,” God—that first word is the word that Moses received when he said to God, “Who will I say to Pharaoh has sent me?”[4] And you remember the answer is “I Am That I Am.”[5] In other words, this is the revelation of God himself. His name is the explication of all that he is: wondrous and magnificent, “creator and sustainer of everyone and everything … eternal, infinite, … unchangeable in his power and in his perfection, [in his] goodness and [in his] glory, [in his] wisdom, [and his] justice, and [his] truth.”[6] And irrespective of people’s reaction, he is everlastingly majestic. He is the majestic one.

Now, I have to tread here gently—which is not something I’m known for, particularly, but nevertheless, I can always make a try at it. But Americans do not do well with majesty. I speak to you as an American—not a very good one, but nevertheless, I am one. But I wonder if there is more than a handful of people in this room right now who have ever had occasion to say to anyone, “Your Majesty.” Queen Elizabeth is the longest-serving British monarch. She has been on the throne for over sixty-six years now, since February of 1952. I would love to go to church with Queen Elizabeth. I would love to be present as we were led together in the reading of the Psalms. I would love to sit beside her and hear her say, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Because that is what you have in this psalm. This is a king who bows before the majesty of God. This is a king who points forward to the King who is the King above all kings and is revealed here in this psalm.

Now, that is a reminder to us, and I hope a help to us, of something fundamentally important to the reason for our gathering. Because we need to consider how such a straightforward observation informs and frames the way in which we assemble with one another on the Lord’s Day, the way in which we are brought into the presence of God on the Lord’s Day, the way in which we realize that we come first to bow down.

Again, Calvin says of this psalm, “The Holy Spirit through the psalmist intended to awaken people from their inaction and indifference.”[7] It is a sad thing, is it not, when those who lead the praise feel that somehow or another, they’re going to have to try harder, they’re going to have to stir emotion more, they’re going to have to cajole and exhort and say, “Come on, come on!” as if somehow or another that’s the foundation of it? The Psalms save us from that, because here God speaks to us, and here we in turn speak to God.

Now, this majestic name of God, you will notice, is opposed. It is opposed. It doesn’t go unopposed. And it is responded to—it is, if you like (the opposition is), silenced—by frailty. Silenced by frailty:

You have set your glory above the heavens.
 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength,

or “you have ordained praise”—“because of your foes, to still the enemy,” to silence “the avenger.” How does this happen? In frailty.

This is how God works, is it not? The armies of Israel are ranged against the Philistines, and this big, gigantic fellow comes out every morning and beats on his chest and says, “You’re a bunch of wimps, you know. There’s nobody there that will come and fight me.” And, of course, he’s perfectly right—until who shows up? The most unlikely of characters—a little fellow, a shepherd boy: “I’ll fight him.”

“You can’t fight him! If you’re going to fight him,” says Saul, “you’ll have to wear the proper equipment.”

And what an amazing picture that must have been, of him clomping around the family room in the stuff, like this, and saying to the king, “He won’t need to kill me. I’ll kill myself inside of this stuff! There’s no way for me to do this.”

“Well, what are you planning on doing?”

“Well, I’ll do what I always did.”

“But you’re so small! You’re so ineffective! You’re telling me you’re going against the giant with five stones and that ridiculous little sling of yours?”

“Yes!” What an amazing thing, as he steps forward and takes the sword out of the scabbard of Goliath of Gath and cuts off his own head![8] Why? Because God ordains his praise out of frailty.

To the Corinthians: “Think about yourselves,” he says. “Not many of you were particularly smart. Not many of you were particularly handsome. In fact, you’re a rough-looking group. You look like the average church choir, if I might say so. How could you ever hope to launch a revolution with this?”[9] It’s not the faces. It’s the praise.

Now, we know this because, you remember, when the Pharisees, the scribes, challenge Jesus after he has been manifesting the fact that he is the King, they say to him, “Do you hear what these children are saying?” And what does Jesus say to them? He says, “Yes. Have you never read your Bibles? Have you never read Psalm 8, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and babies…’?”[10] Let’s just pause and acknowledge what has been said and reinforce it. Disney gets this. Disney understands this. That’s why the average little child, you can go up to them and say, “Frozen,” and they will say, “Let it go! Let it go!” Because Disney gets what we must not fail to get: to sing into their tiny lives.

And I’ll tell you something else: How often a cynical uncle has been silenced by the simple song of a toddling niece or nephew! How humbling for the preacher, who has done his great attempt at explicating the entire story, done all of his apologetic best, and it goes right over Uncle Freddie’s head, but when he goes home at night, he can’t understand why it is that that wee girl sings that with such profound empathy! Why? Because “out of the mouth[s] of babies and infants” he has silenced the enemy. Every baby that is born in our nation—in a nation that aborts children left, right, and center—every baby that is born and grows to infancy stands as a testimony against all of the forces of the avenger and the foe and says, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” That is the majesty that is mentioned in verses 1 and 2.

The Creator Cares

And then, in verses 3 and 4: The Creator cares. You know, I was listening to my brother here, Ligon. He got 150 psalms. Why does he have to choose Psalm 8 in most of his talk? So since he did such a good job, let’s just have the benediction. Because remember what a benediction is? It’s not like a doxology.

So if verses 1 and 2 depict a king bowing down before majesty, verses 3 and 4 describe the shepherd boy lying on his back, looking up at the night sky and pondering the vastness of it all. “The heavens,” he writes in one of his other poems, “declare the glory of God, … the sky [declares] his handiwork.”[11] David only knew a fraction of what we know. David didn’t know about the Milky Way. David didn’t know about Andromeda, didn’t know about light years, didn’t know about galaxies and billions of stars. But as he lay there and looked, he realized: each star retaining its appointed place, the alternation between nighttime and sunrise remaining constant, not as a result of some coincidental moving of the spheres. He’s lying there, and he’s realizing what the hymn writer says: “Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above join with all nature in manifold witness.”[12] And he realizes this.

God has given to man this amazing environment in which to live. And man is created for God. The rest of the world is created for us. You think about fruit. “Why?” ’Cause I’m just suggesting it. Can you imagine? I mean, God could have decided that fruit was a banana. That was it: “You want a fruit? Banana!” Which would be okay if you like bananas, but if you don’t, it’d be a poor deal. But think of all the fruits! Think of all the flowers! Think of all the bugs! Think of all the butterflies! Think of all the creatures in creation, given to us—for our good, for our benefit!

What a difference that is from the words of the late Stephen Hawking, a genius of a man and yet so sad in many ways. Think of the contrast between what we’re discovering here in Psalm 8 and what Stephen had to say: If there is no God and we’ve evolved by chance through millions of years, then everything that happens, either good or bad, must be viewed as simply the result of random, pitiless indifference. In other words, from that perspective, humanity is just a combination of “cosmic chemical accidents”[13]—that you are just a collection of molecules held in suspension.

Pause. Consider, then, how crucial is the doctrine of creation when the people of God lift their voices in praise. Consider how significant it is when a generation grows up, as the millennials have grown up, believing—if they are prepared to—that they were born haphazardly, that they prolong their lives by chance, and that they die and go into oblivion, with no knowledge of creation, no knowledge of an end point, and no arc through their lives. Where is that addressed? Not just in the preaching of the Word but in the singing of God’s praise—when the people come in, when that generation comes in amongst the people of God, and they realize that this is the declaration from the hearts of these folks.

The Bible is not impressed with the vastness of the universe. “This,” he says, “is the work of your fingers.” Fingers! Course, God has no fingers. That is an anthropomorphism.

I was with somebody about ten days or two weeks ago now, and I was asking, “How did you put this thing together? How did you sculpt this? Tell me how it happened.” I wanted to know and realize the tenderness, the genius, the intricacy of it all. This is what God has done: vast creation, small humanity.

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

Now, notice carefully where the question mark comes. The question mark does not come as it is often preached, after the word “man” in verse 4. And that’s a good sermon: “‘What is man?’ I want to talk to you today about ‘What is man?’” That’s not what he’s saying here. The question mark comes after “him,” at the end of verse 4. What is he asking? He’s not marveling about the fact that he is simply a spark in the cosmos. He is marveling at the wonder that God, who created this entire deal, is mindful of him, cares for him.

And again, in children’s songs:

God, who made the earth,
The air, the sky, the sea,
Who gave the light its birth,
… Cares for me.[14]

We put our children to bed at night and say—before we go to sleep, before we close the curtains, we look outside and see all of this—say, “You know, honey, God, he fashioned all this. And he knows you. He made you. There’s nobody else like you in the entire world. Your DNA is according to God.” And they always go, “What’s your DNA?” And you say, “Ask your mother.”

But you get the point, don’t you? “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all”—Romans 8:32—“how will he not also, … with him, [freely] give us all things?”[15]

Humanity’s Dignity and Dominion

Verses 5–8: humanity’s dignity and dominion—1 and 2, the majesty of God’s name; verses 3 and 4, whatever it was I said; and verses 5–8, humanity’s dignity and dominion. “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings,” or “a little lower than God,” or “for a time,” or “from the angels,” translated variously.

Here is man, you see, now as the central character in the work of creation. He’s distinguished from the animals, over which he has dominion. He alone is made in the image of God. That’s the significance of “crowned … with glory and honor.” God has created this immense setting in which man is then given a place and is appointed to rule it.

This is a dangerous one as well: The Bible does not have a category for animal rights. I just came from Ireland. I stayed in a hotel where they put me. There were almost as many dogs as there were people. And on one occasion, there was a giant German shepherd, not on the floor but sitting up in the booth with the rest of the people, staring me at eye level. And I said, “My, what a wonderful place this is, Ireland! How amazing! This is the place to be a dog! Other places, you have to stay on the floor, but here, no, you can sit up.” How does this happen? It happens because you don’t have a doctrine of man, because you don’t have a doctrine of creation, because we don’t have a God who has actually fashioned things, put man in place, and given humanity dominion.

The world in which we live is not the world as was made in its pristine beauty by God but is the world as it has been defaced and dismantled on account of the rebellion of man.

Again, contrast this with Darwin. What does Darwin say? Man has become, even in his “rudest state … the most dominant animal that has ever appeared on … earth.”[16] There you have it! So here I am: On my best day, I am the most dominant animal that has ever appeared on earth. If you like, I’m a turbo-charged ape! It’s not true. Nor is the other extreme true, when you’re in CVS, and you come across a beleaguered mother with one of those little monsters called children, and they’re tyrannizing the place, dismantling the pharmacy as you’re observing, and you hear these amazing words coming from the mouth of the mother: “Oh, come on now, my little angel.” I want to say, “This is not an angel. I am not saying it’s an ape, but I’m saying it is not an angel.” Now, why do we know that? Because God said so. That’s why.

Now, this psalm is giving this, you see. Man is given the responsibility of ruling over God’s world only as he lives under the authority of God’s Word. In other words, it is doxology that provides the basis for dominion. It is because we are saying this of God that we’re able then to consider the thisness of ourselves and then—although I’m being somewhat facetious—to put the animals in their place, the place God said they should be. That’s why Adam was given the privilege of giving them their names.[17]

Now, here we have it—and there’s a little sticking point with a word here that you’ll find in verse 6: “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.” Well, of course what we have here is a description. It’s really a commentary on Genesis chapter 1. But as we look around our world today, we realize that that is not exactly true of humanity, is it? It doesn’t look like this. Why is that? Because of Genesis chapter 3. Because the world in which we live is not the world as was made in its pristine beauty by God but is the world as it has been defaced and dismantled on account of the rebellion of man. This means that we possess still a dignity, made in the image of God[18]—that God’s image has not been extinguished in us, but it has been defaced in us, and it is obscured in us. If you like, what the Bible is saying to us in all of its pages is that we are by nature ruined. We’re ruined.

When you travel in Scotland, in order to complete your education, as you must, you will find that there are castles everywhere. Every one of you who has gone has come back to tell me that your family, actually, has a castle. This comes back to that majesty thing I was mentioning about earlier, but that’s by the way. There aren’t enough castles to fit the expectations. Let that stand. When you drive in the bus or in the car and you look over at some of those castles, they’re ruined, aren’t they? The lights are not on. The roof has gone. The tapestries are no longer there. The beauty of it in its excellence is not obliterated, but it is spoiled. It is a ruin, but it is a glorious ruin. That’s what we are: glorious ruins. “Change and decay in all around I see.”[19]

Husband, if you don’t know that you’re a ruin, ask your wife to come in and watch you while you’re shaving, and she will have a chance to see the ravages—the way in which your chest has dropped down into your drawers. It’s pretty clear! It’s pretty clear! You only need a mirror. You’re a ruin—a glorious ruin!

Now, here we must finish. When man steps out from underneath the authority of God, the inevitable result in the world—in our own personal, private worlds and beyond—is ultimately chaos and disorder. Therefore, when we read this psalm, we find ourselves saying, “This psalm awaits a greater fulfillment. There has to be someone who fits verses 5–8 perfectly.” And of course, the answer to that we all know.

And this, again, is where it is so crucial to read our Bibles backwards. Because when you read, for example, in Hebrews, you discover that the writer of Hebrews says in verse 6, “It has been testified somewhere”—which is fascinating that he couldn’t remember where it was, which should be an encouragement to most of us. “It has been testified somewhere,” and then he goes through it: “‘What is man, that you are mindful of him,’” and so on. And what does he say? He says, “We do not yet see everything in subjection to him.” “We do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see [Jesus].”[20] “But we see [Jesus].”

For Jesus is the second Adam. Jesus is the perfect man. Jesus is the one who fulfills all that is represented here—he, in all of his majesty and in all of his magnificence; he who is raised, seated far above all authority and power and dominion, above every name that has been named in this age and in the ages to come;[21] he who has borne the curse that has fallen us in our ruin. And he now has even now begun to remove the effects of man’s sin.

That’s, you see, why the Pharisees were so annoyed: because the blind began to see, the lame began to walk, the seas began to respond. The King had come. He is the King. And he must reign until finally the last enemy will be destroyed, when he puts all of his enemies under his feet—and death too.[22]

So what? So where is this supposed to be seen in microcosm? Where is somebody supposed to come walking in off the street and get any of this? In your church! In the singing!

Think about how your singing was yesterday. Do you think anyone got converted by your singing yesterday? Singing like this… Do you expect anyone to come in off the street and say, “Oh, this guy’s life must have been turned upside down by Jesus or something”? How will it be seen? When the children’s voices are heard, the infant voices proclaiming; when we realize that eye has not seen (it’s invisible), nor ear heard (it’s inaudible), nor has it entered into the heart of man (it’s inconceivable) the things that God has prepared for them that love him.[23] But he has explained this to us by the Holy Spirit—the Holy Spirit that gives to us Psalm 8 to awaken us out of our inaction and indifference so that we will stand together and say,

O Lord, our Lord,
 how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.

Thank you very much.


[1] Deuteronomy 4:10 (NIV).

[2] Mark 9:7 (ESV). See also Matthew 17:5; Luke 9:35.

[3] John Calvin,Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), 1:37.

[4] Exodus 3:13 (paraphrased).

[5] Exodus 3:14 (KJV).

[6] The New City Catechism, Q. 2.

[7] John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms, Psalm 8:1. Paraphrased.

[8] See 1 Samuel 17:1–11, 23–54.

[9] 1 Corinthians 1:26–28 (paraphrased).

[10] Matthew 21:16 (paraphrased).

[11] Psalm 19:1 (ESV).

[12] Thomas Obadiah Chisholm, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” (1923).

[13] George Weigel, foreword toLight of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times; A Conversation with Peter Seewald, by Benedict XVI (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2010), x.

[14] Sarah Betts Rhodes, “God, Who Made the Earth” (1870).

[15] Romans 8:32 (NIV).

[16] Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), pt. 1, chap. 2.

[17] See Genesis 2:19–20.

[18] See Genesis 1:27.

[19] Henry Francis Lyte, “Abide with Me” (1847).

[20] Hebrews 2:6, 8–9 (ESV).

[21] See Ephesians 1:20–21.

[22] See 1 Corinthians 15:25–26.

[23] See 1 Corinthians 2:9.

Copyright © 2025, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations for sermons preached on or after November 6, 2011 are taken from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

For sermons preached before November 6, 2011, unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® (NIV®), copyright © 1973 1978 1984 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Alistair Begg
Alistair Begg is Senior Pastor at Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Bible teacher on Truth For Life, which is heard on the radio and online around the world.