Now, God is manifold times greater than David, and He reveals Himself, as He revealed David, in much the same way. In all kinds of eventualities and circumstances, from Genesis all the way through Revelation, we have a revelation of the mind, of the action, of the character of Almighty God. That is, of His nature in any circumstance that might come up in anybody's life, whoever lives, for all of time, on this earth. So God is revealed in His Word in the same way that David is revealed. And God names Himself what He is, even as He names people what they are - such as Jacob (supplanter) and Israel (the prevailer with God).
Or, as the Soncino (commentary) says: You who rehearse Your majesty in the heavens. That is kind of interesting. We will get to that in just a minute.
How majestic, David says, is Your name! The majesty of God is revealed in His creation, and one of His names is Creator.
Now put yourself in the psalmist's place. He is standing out, maybe shepherding a flock of sheep, and the starry heavens are making a beautiful canopy above his head - an awesome and spectacular showcase of the majesty of God! Night after night, this is rehearsed. As Psalm 19:4 says, Their line has gone out through all the earth.
Every night we have the opportunity (except maybe here in Smogville) to look up into those starry heavens and see a spectacular reminder of the greatness of the God that we worship. And it is rehearsed night after night. Day and night - on and on, year after year. And we have to wonder how often we stop to take this into mind, and put it into perspective, the way the psalmist did here.
What is also implied, in this same context, is that the same glory of that same God is equally shown on the earth, as well. So we have, day and night, an awesome display of the power and the majesty of our God. What else do we see there, besides power and majesty? We see order. Awesome beauty that is constantly changing and shifting - so that no two sunsets are ever exactly alike.
We see loving providence, as He provides for His creation every day. Awesome wisdom as everything is balanced and in harmony - except where man has gotten things disharmonious. We see reason and logic, and we see vastness of thinking - of this great God that we worship.
This psalm is intended to direct yours and my thinking toward the vastness of this God and His majesty as compared to the puny insignificance of you and me. And yet that great, awesome God has it in mind - it is His purpose - to glorify Himself in us. Yes, out of the mouths of babes and infants. This is where that principle in I Corinthians 1:26 comes from. God has called the weak of the world - to glorify Himself in. He has chosen that which is weak and foolish (by this world's standards) to come to appreciate and to respect the glory of God - the glory that is in His name.
Here in the first line of this psalm, God reveals Himself in two ways. (1) The first one is L-o-r-d. Adonai in Hebrew. It is roughly equivalent to the English word, owner. So He introduces Himself, in this psalm, as the owner of the heaven and the earth. And then (2) we have L-O-R-D. This is the very famous Yahweh - the YHWH. The one that is translated there in Exodus as I AM that I am. It is interesting to put the emphasis in different places. I am THAT I am. (Just to play with that, once in a while, is kind of interesting.) The I AM - YHWH. He is the one who has made a covenant - an agreement - with man. He is the Eternal One.
