I can about imagine the night that our scripture passage was written. David was walking around on his rooftop, staring into a cloudless sky, in wonder of the number of stars he saw. This powerful king was brought back to times when he sat under that stars as a lowly Shepard boy and although he was now a powerful king, who ruled over many people, he felt as small as he did when he was a Shepard boy. As he stared off into the sky, his heart overflowed and he couldn’t help but write this Psalm. That is why we are here tonight, laying on the ground, looking at the stars. There is nothing else that we can do to help put things into perspective. When we run into times where we don’t know where to turn and we feel like life is caving in around us, we should lay down and look at the stars. Nothing else will put things into perspective and humble us like the vastness of the sky and the multitude of the stars.
Here is what David wrote from the overflow of his heart:

1 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens. 2 You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you. 3 When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—4 what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? 5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.6 You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—7 the flocks and the herds 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, your majestic name fills the earth!

I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but feel extremely small when I look at the sky. I wanted to come to a better understanding of my smallness, so I searched all over the Internet to find some comparisons. What do you think the ratio is between human being and the earth? It is pretty crazy to think about that size difference isn’t it? I found a place online that said we could compare ourselves to the size of a grain of salt on Mount Everest. How crazy is that? Just in relation to the earth that we live on, we are like a grain of salt on Mount Everest. That makes me feel small already, but them I went farther. How would we compare the size of the earth to the sun? Well, it is said that it would take over 1 million Mount Everests to fill the entire earth. That’s a big area! It has also been calculated that the sun is 1.3 million times bigger than the earth. So that would mean that the earth is smaller than the size of Mount Everest on earth, in comparison to the sun. Crazy, right? Now think of this. That all means that in relation to the sun, we are like a grain of salt on the earth. Feel small yet? It gets bigger. Our sun is considered an average star, which means that there are stars bigger than it. The biggest star that we have found so far is 265 times bigger than our sun! Hopefully your brain isn’t completely overloaded yet because I have two more things for you to consider. Our star is an average star in our galaxy. Guess how many stars are in our galaxy? There are over 100 billion stars in our galaxy! That means that there are 100 billion stars like ours, some even bigger, in the sky tonight. Your looking at them right now. Those stars that look so tiny up there, are at least the same size as our sun, which means that all of them when compared with the earth would make us a grain of salt. One more, not only are there over 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone, but there are over 100 billion known galaxies in our universe. Those are the galaxies that are known, I’m sure there are more.
When you here this information, and you begin to realize how small you really are in the grand scheme of things, how does that make you feel? What is going on in your heart right now? What are you thinking about? I can tell you what David was thinking about. He broke our in praise. He cried, “O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens.” He said, “I can’t help but scream your name, God. The sky is so big and the stars so many and yet, you are bigger than all of this. Your glory is higher than the highest star.” Is that how you react when you see this? or does you mind go elsewhere?
When you look at your life in comparison to the sky, the stars, and the universe, what do you think about yourself? David says, “When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?” Is that where your heart goes? That’s where is should go, but many hearts don’t.

There is an ever increasing problem in our culture today. One that is absolutely inconceivable when we look off into the sky. Let me read you the lyrics to one of the Billboard Top Ten songs and see if you catch the problem.

Girl I’ve been all over the world Looking for you I’m known for taking what I think I deserve And you’re overdue And if you listen you can hear me through the radio In that bright white noise What I been missing in my life What I been dreaming of You’ll be that girl You’ll be that girl……….Get a little closer to me girl And you’ll understand ‘Cause if you want a guy that knows what you need Well, then I’m your man

Did you catch it? What do you think makes this song, and so many of the other top 10 songs, so popular among teenagers today? What’s the point of this song? The point of this song is to tell some girl that it’s all about her. The singers whole world revolves around this girl. She’s “what’s missing in” his life. She’s what he’s “been dreaming of”. This song is so popular because we want everything to be about us. We want to be someone’s everything and yet we weren’t created to be anybody’s everything. We were created to make God our everything. The more we forget that, the more we make it all about us, the more we forget about God.

Isn’t it interesting that the night that David made one of the biggest mistakes of his life he was also on his rooftop, but this time it was different. This time David walked onto his rooftop and didn’t look to the sky and offer praise to God but looked at “his kingdom” and thought about himself. David was hardened and had become comfortable with God’s glory, casual with it. So instead of looking to the sky in wonder of who God is and what He has done, David looked to the earth and his own desires. He forgot about God and made it all about him. As a result he made one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

How can we possibly look at the sky and the stars and think that this is all about us? How conceited are we? It is obvious that there is something bigger, something higher than us. This life, this creation, is not about us. It’s about God. It always has been and always will be. That is why we see Paul in 1 Corinthians saying, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (vs 10:31).  It’s all about God and that is why we need to do everything for His glory. We were created for this purpose, to glorify God. The more we try to take God our of the story and make it about us, the farther we fall off track and more miserable we find ourselves. If our purpose is to glorify God in everything we do, and we aren’t fulfilling it, no wonder we are feeling empty and lost. You will never be fully satisfied until you fulfill the purpose behind your creation.

Look at Genesis 2:7-8, “Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made.” What did God do differently when he created man? With everything else He spoke it into being but with man He formed him from the dust and then breathed life into him. Why do you think that is? It shows an intimate relationship between God and man. Like we said last week, God isn’t only a transcendent being, He is also “our God”. He has set us apart from everything else He created. Like David says in this Psalm, “Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority.” Some people look at this passage and say, “Look how important we are.” This shows how fallen we are and how corrupted we have become from our culture. No doubt, God has placed us high up in creation, but it is God who has put us there! God made us what we are and has given us everything we have. How dare we take the credit away from Him and make it all about us! God made us only a little lower than God so that we could glorify Him. He crowned us with glory and honor so that we can glorify Him. He put all things under our authority so that we could glorify Him. Can you see it now? It is all about Him and it always has been. Let’s stop taking credit from Him and give Him the glory that he deserves.

In our catechism question this week we are asked another good question, “Did God create people so wicked and perverse?” The answer gives a great summary to our sole purpose in life. Here it is:

No. God created them good and in his own image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that they might truly know God their creator, love him with all their heart, and live with him in eternal happiness for his praise and glory.

God created us “so that” (that means for the purpose of) we would know him, love him with all our heart, and live with him in eternal happiness. That is our purpose in life. There are so many people searching for their purpose and trying to find it in all the wrong places. All the while their purpose is stated right here. Don’t walk away tonight without realizing your purpose. Know God, Love Him with all your heart, and put your trust in Christ so that you may live with Him in eternal happiness!
If we stopped here we might once again think that it is all about us but the catechism doesn’t leave us there. It answers the why question. Why did god create us to do all these things? Why did God create us in the first place? He created us “for his praise and glory.” God has given us purpose, He has met all of our needs, so that we may glorify Him. That is ultimately our purpose!

Are you doing everything you do, for God’s glory? If not, you are not fulfilling your purpose. You are not doing the work that you were created to do. Live your life to God’s glory! Stop asking the question, “What’s wrong with it?” and start asking the question, “Am I glorifying God through this?” It will change the way you think. It will change the way you live. You will do what you were created to do, all the while noticing a sense of satisfaction creeping into your life. There is nothing more satisfying than knowing your purpose and fulfilling it.

Make the goal of your life to know God, to love him with all your heart, to live with Him forever in heaven and do it all for His glory.