Today’s sermon asks, “How do we know that God cares?” And it asks that, first, because it’s a good and important question. We say God cares. We say God loves us. But, how do we know that? Where’s the evidence of this caring and love?

But, the other reason why we’re asking, “How do we know God cares?” is because that’s the question that lies at the root of today’s psalmody: Psalm 8, which was sung for us today by Charity.

The psalm begins the same way it ends. “O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

Eugene Peterson’s translation of the psalm vividly captures the mood and passion of that opening and closing refrain. All the earth really does marvel at the majesty of God: “Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs That drown out enemy talk, and silence atheist babble.”

(If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll get to hear some of those infant-gurgled choruses or toddler shouts! Honestly: wouldn’t that be great?)

And now, after that short but effusive opening, we arrive at the heart of the psalm. And interestingly, whereas most of this short but intense psalm is about God--line after line begins, “You,” meaning God--when we get to the heart of the psalm (the very middle) the language turns personal.

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”

Pause. While I hope we can agree that the language of the psalm is beautiful, what’s underneath all that beauty? To be blunt, what’s the point of the psalm?

Psalm 8 is like an Oreo cookie. That is, it’s got two matching outer shells and the payoff in the middle. (Now, I know there are people--my wife is one--who like the cookie part of an Oreo as much, if not more so, than the cream filling. But, for purposes of argument, can we all simply agree that the real payoff--the real purpose--of an Oreo cookie is the cream filling?)

The outer shells of Psalm 8 start with the identical beginning and end, which we already discussed. “O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” The rest of that upper and lower cookie consist of a series of direct statements to God, each beginning with “you.”

You have set your glory above the heavens, ... you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, ... you have made [human beings] a little lower than God, ... You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet.

The “cream filling” part of Psalm 8--the whole point of the enterprise--comes when the psalmist talks, not about “you” but about “us:” humanity.

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”

In other words, how do we know that God cares?

I mean, really! Imagine meeting the President of the United States once, in passing. “Hello, sir! I’m Mike Carlson!” Do you seriously expect the President ever to remember your name again, let alone ever think of you?

How much more that must be true of God!

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”

How do we know that God cares? How can we honestly say, to ourselves or anyone, that God knows us, loves us, and cares for us?

These are some of the oldest and most important questions humanity has ever asked, and Psalm 8 gives a simple but profound answer to them!

The answer is the “cookie” on the other side of our “cream filling.” I’ll read the psalmist’s answer to the question he asks. You see if you can decipher his nearly 2,000 year old solution!

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

How do we know that God cares for us? The answer that this nearly 2,000 year old psalm gives is still true today. We know that God cares for us because God has given us work to do! God has entrusted us with critical parts of his creation!

There’s an old poem or proverb that says, For want of a nail the shoe was lost [meaning, because of a single nail missing, a shoe--a horseshoe--was lost. It fell off!] For want of a shoe the horse was lost. [No horseshoe, no horse!] For want of a horse the rider was lost. [No horse, no rider.] For want of a rider the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

We may seem small or inconsequential in comparison to the hugeness of God. (In fact, we are small and inconsequential in comparison to the hugeness of God!) But even smallness counts!

How do we know God cares? How do we know we matter to God? God has given us work and responsibilities to perform! When thinking about God, the psalm moved from the grandiose--the moon and stars--and then moved to the humble--what are human beings that you are mindful of them? When thinking about how God shows he cares for us by the work God has given us, the psalm moves from the near to the far: all sheep and oxen (domesticated animals), to the beasts of the field, to the birds, and, finally, to the creatures in the far-away sea.

God shows he cares for us by giving us work to do in caring for his creation! How does the Herb family know that God cares for them? God has given them baby Braydon to care for!

How do fathers know that God cares for them? How do they know that God has a personal interest and stake in who they are and in what they do?

God shows he cares for us by giving us work to do and responsibilities to carry out! And it essential that we do the work God has given us to do!

“O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” In Jesus’ name. Amen!