Proverbs 8:1-4, Proverbs 8:22-31, Psalm 8:1-9, Romans 5:1-5, John 16:12-15.
A). A TRINITARIAN DELIGHT IN CREATION.
Proverbs 8:1-4; Proverbs 8:22-31.
Proverbs 8:1-4 alerts us to the call of Wisdom: a call which is heard in the highways and byways of life, in the marketplaces and from the tops of the roof. Dame Folly, by way of contrast, lurks around the corner (Proverbs 7:12), seeking whom she may devour (Proverbs 7:25-27). No wonder, then, that the book of Proverbs tells us that “Wisdom is the principal thing,” and instructs us to “get wisdom” (Proverbs 4:7).
In this chapter, Wisdom speaks of herself as having been with the LORD before the beginning of Creation (Proverbs 8:22-23). This elaborates the thought of Proverbs 3:19-20 - and anticipates John 1:1-4. It is clear in both passages that Wisdom/Word was both present and active with God at Creation.
Lady Wisdom (as I like to call her) looks back to the early days of Creation – and before all these, she says, “I was brought forth” (Proverbs 8:24-26). The element of begotten-ness reminds us of the beginning of the Christ hymn (Colossians 1:15-17) – and Wisdom, likewise, has the status of the firstborn, and all that that implies. In the New Testament it is Jesus who is recognized as the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).
Wisdom “was there” (Proverbs 8:27-29) at the marking out of the foundations of Creation, at the separating of the waters, and at the setting of the limits of the sea (cf. Genesis 1:6-10). Here we see this personification of Wisdom as contemporary with God. We also see Wisdom in community with God as architect, builder, and ruler.
Depending how the opening phrase of Proverbs 8:30 is translated, Wisdom was there either as a fellow-worker or as playful companion. She was either the subject of His delight, or filled with delight. Wisdom’s joy in the presence of the LORD is always uninhibited.
Like the LORD, Wisdom’s joy is in the whole world: and especially in the human race (Proverbs 8:31). This causes us to exclaim with the Psalmist: ‘What is man, that he remembered is by thee? Or what the son of man, that thou so kind to him should be?’ (Psalm 8:4).
Of Jesus it was said that ‘the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding…’ (Isaiah 11:2). Jesus grew in wisdom (Luke 2:40; Luke 2:52), taught with wisdom (Matthew 13:54), and worked through wisdom (Mark 6:2). Jesus manfully rose to the defense of the metaphor which I have called Lady Wisdom (Luke 7:35) - which was, in a sense, another way of defending Himself.
It was the wisdom of God that set the Cross at the centre of the plan of salvation. This was foolishness to the world, but not to those who are being saved (1 Corinthians 1:21). The world may think us strange to embrace this strange teaching – but it is our wisdom to do so.
B). A PRAYER OF PRAISE.
Psalm 8:1-9.
This is the only praise Psalm which is addressed entirely to the LORD. No call to worship like Psalm 95:1, ‘O come let us sing unto the LORD’. No asides to the congregation like Psalm 107:2, ‘Let the redeemed of the LORD say so’.
Psalm 8:1. The vocative brings us straight into the presence of the LORD (Yahweh): “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” That presence is maintained throughout the meditation, right down to the repetition of the same line in the final verse (Psalm 8:9). This brackets the whole Psalm with the awareness of the One to whom our address is made. Thus we may ‘boldly approach’ (cf. Hebrews 4:16) the LORD, the Sovereign, the maker of heaven and earth.
Although bold, the very use of the vocative suggests a sense of awe in this approach to the LORD. Yet it is not cold fear, but an approach to One who we can call “our” Adonai, “our” sovereign - ultimately “our” Father! The approach celebrates the excellence, the magnificence of God’s great name “in all the earth!” and reminds us how He has set His “glory”, his ‘weight’, as it were, “above the heavens.”
Psalm 8:2. Jesus quoted “out of the mouth of babes and sucklings” as a challenge to ‘the chief priests and scribes’, who wanted to silence the children from singing ‘Hosanna to the son of David’ (Matthew 21:15-16). The babbling of “babes and sucklings” is better than the bitterness of the unbelief of ‘religious’ people! The “babes and sucklings” represent the ‘babes in Christ’, new disciples (Luke 10:21; Mark 10:15; John 3:3), or maybe even all disciples (1 Corinthians 1:27).
Such babbling “stills the enemy and the avenger”. One faltering lisping prayer from faith-filled trusting lips has more value, more weight before God than all the litanies of unbelief. The Psalm’s “thou hast ordained strength” becomes ‘thou hast ordained praise’ in Matthew 21:16. I would suggest that that is where our ‘strength’ lies - in ‘praise’!
Psalm 8:3. The glory of the LORD has already been recognised as “above the heavens” (Psalm 8:1). Now we turn to the heavens themselves, the visible heavens.
I learned this Psalm by heart, in the Scottish metrical version, under the tutelage of a Free Church Minister, the Chaplain of my High School days. This verse in particular remained with me even in my unbelieving years in my late teens and early twenties. It seemed only apt since the Apollo missions were just getting under way.
“When I look up unto the heavens,
which thine own fingers framed,
Unto the moon, and to the stars,
which were by thee ordained…”
Psalm 8:4-6. At the centre of the Psalm is a meditation on the question, “What is man?” Man in his first estate, in paradise, was given a certain dignity and authority within God’s creation. That dignity and authority, though marred by sin, is not entirely eradicated.
Psalm 8:4. “Man” is a singular noun, although it might indicate a gender inclusive collective (cf. Genesis 1:27). What can “man” be, that the LORD should be “mindful of him?”
“Son of man” - literally “ben Adam” - is also singular, but it cannot refer to the man Adam in his first estate, nor the man Adam after the fall, since the man Adam was no man’s son! We must keep the translation “son of man” in the singular to see what is ultimately meant: not ‘mere mortals’, as some would have it, but Jesus Christ, whose preferred name when referring to Himself was, ‘the Son of man’!
Psalm 8:5-6. Well, everything about “man” is significant because of what God has done: “thou hast made him…”, and “hast crowned him”. “Thou made him to have dominion…; thou hast put all under his feet.”
Psalm 8:5. The New Jewish Publication Society of America translates this verse, ‘For thou hast made him a little less than divine’. The Hebrew word is doubtless, “Elohim” which reads as God, or gods, or even ‘heavenly beings’. ‘Angels’ is the preferred translation of Psalm 8:5 in the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. This appears to be the translation quoted in the Greek New Testament (Hebrews 2:7; and Hebrews 2:9).
Psalm 8:6. There is only one way that mankind has “all things under his feet”, and that is mankind in Christ, mankind in the risen Lord Jesus, ‘the church’ (Ephesians 1:20-22). This is where ‘church’ is: ‘sitting together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus’ (Ephesians 2:6). It can be said of Christ, as it can be said of man, even redeemed man, ‘But we see not yet all things put under him’ (Hebrews 2:8). ‘For He (Jesus) must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death’ (1 Corinthians 15:25-26).
Psalm 8:7-8 lists the earthly limits of man’s original stewardship. Perhaps we should learn to look after life here before we spend our fortunes trying to find life elsewhere in this magnificent universe?
Psalm 8:9. Which brings us back full circle to the repetition of the psalmist’s adoration: “O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”
C). HOPE IN THE TRINITY.
Romans 5:1-5.
This short paragraph gives us an explicit statement of Christian experience wrapped in an implicit statement of the doctrine of the Trinity. The “Therefore” of Romans 5:1 links with the argument in the previous chapter, whereby it is established that ‘to him who does not work (to establish his own salvation) but believes (like Abraham) on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted as righteousness' (Romans 4:5). So, “Therefore, having been justified by faith we have peace” (Romans 5:1a).
Isaiah spoke of this long beforehand: ‘And the work of righteousness (Jesus’ righteousness!) shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever’ (Isaiah 32:17). Now, what peace is this but “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1b)? Peace with the Father, through the ministration, at great cost to Himself, of the Son.
How was this peace accomplished? Well to answer this question, again we do not have to look far beyond the preceding context. Righteousness ‘shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus from the dead, who was delivered up for our offenses, and was raised because of our justification’ (Romans 4:24-25).
“Through Him,” Paul continues, “we have admission by faith into this grace in which we have taken our stand” (Romans 5:2a; cf. Ephesians 2:18; Ephesians 3:12). The boldness of our access to God, far from being presumptuous, is based in our introduction into His presence by Jesus. There we can firmly take our stand without fear of reproach because of what Jesus accomplished at the Cross on our behalf.
Here, too, we “boast in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2b). Christian “hope” does not mean nebulous desire, like a child’s craving for an ice cream which may or may not be given him. It is more certain than that, because it is based in the promises of God (e.g. Titus 2:11-13; 1 John 3:2-3; Romans 8:16-17). And the object of our hope is the glory of God Himself (Habakkuk 2:14).
“Boast” is the same word as in the following verse, where we “boast” in our “tribulations” (Romans 5:3a). This is not worldly boasting, as if we accomplished anything by ourselves, but is rather a part of our testimony as to what God has done for us. When the Lord said, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made manifest in weakness’; Paul’s response was, ‘Most gladly then will I boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me’ (2 Corinthians 12:9).
The “tribulations”, however, spoken of here in Romans 5:3a are a synonym for the hostilities faced by Christian people in every age. Jesus said, ‘In this world you will have tribulation (same word): but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33).
Like it or not, we are called to ‘suffer with Christ’, but not without recompense (Romans 8:17-18; 2 Corinthians 4:17-18). Suffering is not an end in itself: “Suffering produces endurance; endurance produces character; and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4; cf. Romans 15:4). And hope reassures us, because “God’s love is shed abroad in our hearts (as from an ever-flowing fountain) by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5).
So, peace with God is the retrospective fruit of our having been justified by faith in God’s Son. Our being able to make our stand in grace is the present fruit of our justification by faith in God’s Son. And our boast in hope of the glory of God points to the prospective fruit of our justification by faith in God’s Son.
God’s love ‘gave His only begotten Son’ (John 3:16). The Son died for our sins and rose again having accomplished our justification (cf. Romans 4:25). The Holy Spirit opens the hearts of God’s people to receive, from the fountain of God’s love, all the benefits emanating from the Cross of Jesus (Romans 5:5).
To God be the glory: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
D). THE TEACHING MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
John 16:12-15.
Jesus had many things still to teach His disciples, but before His resurrection they were not ready to receive them (John 16:12). We grow up by stages, moving from milk to prepared foods, to fulsome meat. The Holy Spirit came to impart enabling power for the application of the Word of God, to bring glory to Jesus, and to show things yet to come (John 16:13-14).
In the first instance, the Spirit of truth enabled the Apostles for the preaching of the Word of God, empowering them to make their stand before the world. Secondly, He inspired the writing of the New Testament. Thirdly He blesses all His people with understanding of the Word, and with insights into the spiritual truth that they need for their salvation (John 16:13).
The Holy Spirit takes the gifts of God, which Jesus purchased by His death and resurrection (Psalm 68:18), and applies them to our lives. He takes the message of Jesus, and writes it in our hearts (John 16:15). Within the limitations of the incarnation, Jesus could only be in one place at one time: but the Holy Spirit’s ministry on His behalf is worldwide.
