Suggestions for leading a study:
Knowing Our Place
1 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the
earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children
and infants
you have ordained praise
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider 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,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little
lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over
the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the
earth!
Discussion Questions
-Look at the first and
the last verses of this Psalm. In a
discussion about the place of mankind in the Universe, what did the Psalmist
want to make sure he affirmed?
-In a world that is
constantly affirming man to be at “the top of the heap,” what can we do to
always keep this attitude in mind?
-In verse 2, what
sort of people are able to defeat God’s enemies and how do they do it?
- What weapons does God’s enemy use to
attack us? What does this Psalm suggest
would be a useful response and how do you think that works?
-Does this say
something about the authority we have as children of God to overcome his
enemies?
-Re-read verses 3
and 4. Have you ever felt this way as
just one person in God’s vast universe?
-What does God
affirm about our place in the universe in verses 5-8?
-What do you think
are the privileges and responsibilities involved in what these verses affirm
about us?
-What is your
overall impression about our place in this world from this Psalm?
-Can you devise a
“simple expression of praise” such as the Psalmist uses to begin and end this
poem that would help to keep a good perspective regarding your place?
Leaders' Guide
Knowing Our Place
Studying this Psalm helps to give us a proper perspective about mankind’s place in the universe. First of all, that God is God and we are not. Nevertheless, we have a privileged position in His universe with authority over both the spiritual enemies of God as well as the natural created order.
-Look at the first and the last verses of
this Psalm. In a discussion about the
place of mankind in the Universe, what did the Psalmist want to make sure he
affirmed?
This Psalm is “bookmarked” with a phrase that
exalts the name of God. A discussion of
how this contrasts with modern thinking is what the follow up question is all
about:
-In a world that is constantly affirming man
to be at “the top of the heap,” what can we do to always keep this attitude in
mind?
The prevailing attitude in our world is
naturalistic and humanistic. In other
words, what occurs naturally (as opposed to supernaturally) is all there is,
and it is humans that are at the top of the natural order. This worldview both devalues man as well as
exalts him. It devalues him because it
assumes that that we are just a more advanced form of life, but still without
any particular significance. But it also
exalts him and puts him at the top of the food chain, so to speak. Both of these lead to moral breakdown and the
abuse of each other and our world. This
Psalm affirms God’s point of view: that we have special and eternal
significance, but God is still supreme. Ways
to affirm this can be many, and the one which this lesson suggests actually
comes at the end, so just have a little discussion about it at this point and
note some ideas.
-In verse 2, what sort of people are able to
defeat God’s enemies and how do they do it?
Infants and children can silence the foe and
the avenger. This lesson assumes that
foe to be a spiritual one: the enemy of God who is out to seek revenge on him
for those he has lost from his “camp” when they choose to follow after
God. The Psalmist affirms the authority
that mankind has over enemies who think themselves powerful enough to even challenge
the creator of the universe. Even small
children can shut them up. The original
Hebrew notes that they “establish strength”, and the Greek translation turns
that into the notion of giving God praise.
The underlying idea appears to be one of worship. Not fancy or advanced, just simple such as a
child would do. Again, this affirms how
weak God’s enemies really are when God’s people simply choose to acknowledge
him. A discussion of the relationship
between worship and spiritual warfare would be appropriate.
-What weapons does God’s enemy use to attack
us? What does this Psalm suggest would
be a useful response and how do you think that works?
This question simply follows up and expands
on the previous. Since the issue here is
“silencing” the enemy, it is assumed that the attacks here are verbal, as well
as our response: a simple, child-like expression of praise. Temptation would probably be the first and
most obvious answer offered in regards to the weapons used by the enemy. Here again, Scripture always underscores the
usefulness of focusing on God rather than on the temptation itself as a way to
combat it. Instead of trying hard not to
do bad things, put those energies into worshipping God to draw on his power and
win the spiritual battle. Lies are the
other weapon of the enemy. One of the
most common is the lie that we aren’t really significant, God doesn’t really
love us, or hasn’t completely forgiven us.
Claiming the power of truth by giving thanks to God for what he really
says about us is key to being victorious.
Perhaps the lies may be regarding the reality of our faith or who God
is. When the enemy attacks our faith,
especially if we feel ill-equipped to defend it or don’t feel like we have all
of the answers or adequate responses, we can feel threatened and
intimidated. While the bible affirms
that we should be able to defend our faith, at the level of spiritual warfare,
simply acknowledging God is seen as sufficient weaponry. Nobody has to be a bible scholar to do that:
even an infant or a child can. We may
not always be able to win deep and complex arguments, but the spiritual forces
which lie behind disbelief can be disarmed by a simple faith that is willing to
express itself.
-Does this say something about the authority
we have as children of God to overcome his enemies?
This returns to the notion of knowing our
place. It is just an opportunity to wrap
up and affirm the first point regarding our spiritual authority in this world.
God is supreme, but we as his children have ultimate authority over every other
spiritual power that sets itself up as his enemies. Even if we are spiritual “newborns,” we enjoy
a spiritual status that is significant.
-Re-read verses 3 and 4. Have you ever felt this way as just one
person in God’s vast universe?
Besides feeling intimidated by spiritual
powers and their attacks, sometimes we can feel small just because we are only
one person in the vastness of humanity which exists in a very big
universe. Looking up at the sky made the
Psalmist feel this way. That, among many
other things, can make us feel insignificant in this world. If your group isn’t into “star-gazing”, you
can re-phrase the question along the lines of “what makes you feel
insignificant in this world?” We may
wonder at times, out of all the billions of people who have lived or are living
on the planet, whether we are really that big of a deal.
-What does God affirm about our place in the
universe in verses 5-8?
God’s answer is that we were made to “rule”
over his creation. It draws from the
original creation account when we were put in charge in the garden. The word translated “heavenly beings” in the
NIV is the plural form of elohim, the
name for God, so we are just below the godhead in regards to our status in the
created order. This is the response to
how naturalism de-values human beings.
We are not just a more complex animal, we were created to be in charge. The
implications of this are explored in the following question.
-What do you think are the privileges and
responsibilities involved in what these verses affirm about us?
This could, of course, be a long and involved
discussion with a variety of aspects, ranging from how we treat each other, to civic
or charitable involvement, to environmentalism.
The point of this lesson (and this Psalm) is more to get a broad
perspective of our place: important, but not divine. This kind of attitude has a very practical
side as well, however. When you’re in
charge of something, you can’t just shrug off all the problems as not your
responsibility. We are here to make this
place work well and we need to take that seriously. At the same time, it is acknowledging God as
the supreme ruler that gives us the values and goals for doing so. We are here on his behalf, not our own.
-What is your overall impression about our
place in this world from this Psalm?
This question gives a chance to do what we
should always do with Psalms: get a sense of the big picture, especially as it
is expressed at an emotional level. Hopefully
people will have got the idea: we are significant, and have great authority and
responsibility, but we are not the ultimate ruler.
-Can you devise a “simple expression of
praise” such as the Psalmist uses to begin and end this poem that would help to
keep a good perspective regarding your place?
Perhaps one thing this Psalm reveals is the way in which
the Psalmist reminded himself to always keep God first to achieve a proper
perspective on his place in God’s world.
It is easy to imagine him repeating the phrase “O Lord, our Lord, how
majestic is your name in all the earth” whenever he was tempted to either feel
too small or too full of himself. It may
be a useful tool for people to devise a similar expression of their own that
they can carry with them to turn their hearts toward God when they see a sunset
or a night sky, or to affirm their authority over the enemy when they feel
under attack and belittled.