Psalm 8, What Is Man That God Cares For Him? What does it mean to be made in the image of God?

1. Psalm 8
What Is Man That God
Cares For Him?
What does it mean to be made in
the image of God?

2. BIBLE IN FIVE
Pastor Dave Kooyers
Valley Bible Fellowship
Box 433
Boonville CA 95415
http://www.slideshare.net/dkooyers
www.ValleyBibleFellowship.org
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiLVf7Boyjw
(707) 895-2325
God bless you as you examine His Word,
Your servant in Christ, 2Cor. 4:5
2
These Microsoft PowerPoint presentations are provided "for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12-15). To help
Christians to "to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ." So that "we are no longer...tossed here and there...by every wind of doctrine." They may be downloaded
and modified free of charge.
Matthew 10:8 …Freely you received, freely give.

3. Greg Koukl of str.org
• Asked; “Is gender fixed or fluid? Is
homosexuality natural or perverse? Is
there a right to abortion? What about
capital punishment? Or sexual slavery? Or
social justice? The answer to each of
these questions depends upon an answer
to a prior question: What is man?”
• https://www.str.org/SolidGroundSept2018WhatIsMan#.W5v_df6pHq3
• Sat, 09/01/2018 - 01:00
3

4. What is man?
• I start my answer by asking, “If all we are
is highly evolved pond scum, without a
creator, purpose, meaning, or hopeful
destiny, if all we are is “bags of chemicals
dancing to our DNA”, and survival of the
fittest is the only ultimate law, why
restrain ourselves at all, ending in
suicide.”
4

5. Evolution, Naturalism,
Survival Of The Fittest?
• If naturalism is true and survival of the
fittest is the only ultimate law, then there
is no basis for moral responsibility.
• No ought to’s, shouldn’ts, don’ts
• A strictly materialistic process has no
grounding for morality. Pond scum is
obliged to no one and no thing.
5

6. Evolution, Naturalism,
Survival Of The Fittest?
• A soon as a materialist/evolutionist says
should, shouldn’t, ought, must, don’t,
right, wrong, laws, or any other moral
judgment, they are stealing from our
worldview and imposing on us their
preferences.
• Like, “You must eat chocolate”
• “You must abort your baby (as in China)”
6

7. Is Man Only “evolved pond scum”
• Atheist Bertrand Russell defined,
“Nihilism—bleak “nothing-ism.”
• Mac Dictionary;
• nihilism | ˈnīəˌlizəm, ˈnēəˌlizəm |
• the rejection of all religious and moral
principles, in the belief that life is
meaningless…”
7

8. Greg Koukl of str.org
• “According to pop “Science Guy” Bill Nye,
“We are just a speck, on a speck, orbiting a
speck, in the corner of a speck, in the middle
of nowhere. We emerged from microbes and
muck,”
• Carl Sagan declared. “We find ourselves in
bottomless free fall… lost in a great
darkness, and there’s no one to send out a
search party.”[i]…”
• https://www.str.org/SolidGroundSept2018WhatIsMan#.W5v_df6pHq3 8

9. What Does God Say About Us?
• Are they right? Is this all there is?
• Let’s stand and read aloud God’s Holy
Word Psalm 8:4-9;
9

10. • ESV Psalm 8:4 what is man that you are
mindful of him, and the son of man that you
care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little
lower than the heavenly beings and crowned
him with glory and honor. 6 You have given
him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet, 7 all
sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the
field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish
of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of
the seas. 9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is
your name in all the earth!
10

11. What Does Psalm 8 Say About Us?
• Psalm 8:4 God is “mindful of him”
• God cares for him
• 5 Man is a little lower than angels
• 5 He is crowned with glory and honor
• 6 He has dominion over creation
• all created things are under his feet
11

12. What Else Does God Say About Us?
• NAU Psalm 71:6 By You I have been
sustained from my birth; You are He who
took me from my mother's womb…
• NAU Psalm 127:3 Behold, children are a gift
of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a
reward.
• NAU Psalm 139:13 For You formed my
inward parts; You wove me in my mother's
womb. 12

13. • NAU Jeremiah 29:11 'For I know the plans
that I have for you,' declares the LORD,
'plans for welfare and not for calamity to
give you a future and a hope.
• NAU John 3:16 "For God so loved the
world, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him shall
not perish, but have eternal life.
13
What Else Does God Say About Us?

14. Psalm 8:4, “What is man?”
The Cost Analysis
• What did it cost the Lord to create the heavens
and Earth?
• How much did it cost to redeem mankind?
• NAU 1 Peter 1:18 knowing that you were not
redeemed with perishable things like silver or
gold from your futile way of life inherited from
your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood,
as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the
blood of Christ.
14

15. Psalm 8:4, “What is man?”
The Cost Analysis
• If saving humans is that important to
God, how do you think he must feel
about the over 3000 babies we murder in
the womb every day?
• There is an appropriate quote, originally
spoken by Billy Graham, "If God doesn't
judge America, He'll have to apologize to
Sodom and Gomorrah."
15

16. Back To Our Text
• Psalm 8:4 God is “mindful of him”
• God cares for him
• ESV Psalm 8:5 Yet you have made him a little lower
than the heavenly beings and crowned him with
glory and honor.5 He is crowned with glory and honor
• 6 He has dominion over creation
• all created things are under his feet
16

17. Psalm 8:5 “a little lower than”?
• NAU …lower than God…
• NIV NKJ KJV …the angels…
• NIBO NET ESV …the heavenly beings…
• NAS CSB …little less than God…
• YLT …to lack a little of Godhead…
• NETS …a little in comparison with angels…
• NJB …little less than a god…
• BGT …ἀγγέλους δόξῃ… [angels glory] (Heb 2:7)
• WTT …‫ים‬ ִ֑‫ֹלה‬ֱ‫א‬ ֵ‫…מ‬ [‘elohiym], “…out of, by reason
of, because of… God”] 17

18. Job: What Is Man That God
Cares For Him?
• NAU Job 7:17 "What is man that You magnify
him, And that You are concerned about him, 18
That You examine him every morning And try him
every moment?
• Since Job was created in the image of God, just as
we are, his trials and tribulations brought glory to
God.
• NAU Job 29:1 …As in the days when God watched
over me;… 4…the friendship of God was over my
tent; 5 When the Almighty was yet with me…
18

19. What Is “Image Of God”?
• What does the Bible say about it?
• NAU Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make
man in Our image, according to Our likeness;
and let them rule over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and
over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created
man in His own image, in the image of God He
created him; male and female He created
them. 19

20. Likeness/Image = Synonyms
• NAU Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us
make man in Our image, according to Our
likeness…
• God uses “likeness” and “image” as
synonyms
• Let’s look at all the uses;
20

21. What Is “Image Of God”?
• NAU Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the
generations of Adam. In the day when
God created man, He made him in the
likeness of God. 2 He created them male
and female, and He blessed them and
named them Man in the day when they
were created.
21

22. What Is Image Of God?
• NAU Genesis 9:6 "Whoever sheds man's
blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For
in the image of God He made man.
• NAU 2 Corinthians 4:4 …the god of this
world has blinded the minds of the
unbelieving so that they might not see the
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,
who is the image of God.
22

23. What Is Image Of God?
• NAU James 3:9 With it [the tongue] we bless
our Lord and Father, and with it we curse
men, who have been made in the likeness
of God;
• Although we are made in the image of
God, we still “curse men” because of our
brokenness from the fall.
23

24. Psalm 8:4,
“What is man?”
Why do we
place such a
high price on
human life?
24

25. What The Is Image Of God Isn’t?
• It is not a bodily/physical likeness.
• NAU John 4:24 "God is spirit…
• NAU 1 Timothy 1:17 …the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only God…
• NAU 1 Timothy 6:16 who alone possesses
immortality and dwells in
unapproachable light, whom no man has
seen or can see…
25

26. How Are We The Image Of God?
• Personal beings (sentience, language)
• Everlasting existence
• Spiritual
• Moral likeness
• Social beings
• Have authority
• Image will be redeemed
26

27. Image Of God = Personhood
• Personal beings (sentience, language)
• wikipedia.org says;
• “Sentience is the capacity to
feel, perceive or experience
subjectively.[1] Eighteenth-century
philosophers used the concept to
distinguish the ability to think (reason)
from the ability to feel (sentience)…”
27

28. Image Of God = Personhood
• Our “Personhood” gives us the ability to
think about God, reason with God,
communicate with God, be responsible to
God, our very nature as a human beings
depends on our personhood. Or vice versa.
• You will never find your dog or cat
contemplating the purpose of their
existence, or giving thanks to God for their
kibble.
28

29. Image Of God = Personhood
• NAU Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, and let us
reason together," Says the LORD…
• NAU 1 Corinthians 3:20 and again, "THE LORD
KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise…
• NAU Matthew 22:37 And He said to him,
"'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD
WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR
SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’
29

30. Image Of God = Everlasting
• The real you is software, not hardware.
• NAU Daniel 12:2 "Many of those who sleep
in the dust of the ground will awake, these
to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace
and everlasting contempt.
• NAU Jeremiah 25:9 …I will utterly destroy
them and make them a horror and a hissing,
and an everlasting desolation.
30

31. Image Of God = Spiritual
• NAU Job 32:8 "But it is a spirit in man,
And the breath of the Almighty gives
them understanding.
• NAU Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of man is
the lamp of the LORD…
• NAU Zechariah 12:1 …the LORD… forms
the spirit of man within him,
31

32. Image Of God = Moral Likeness
• NAU Romans 2:15 [humans] …show the
work of the Law written in their hearts,
their conscience bearing witness and their
thoughts alternately accusing or else
defending them,
• NAU Titus 1:15 To the pure, all things are
pure; but to those who are defiled and
unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their
mind and their conscience are defiled.
32

33. Image Of God = Social Beings
• NAU John 17:21 that they may all be one; even
as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they
also may be in Us… 22 …that they may be one,
just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me,
that they may be perfected in unity, so that the
world may know that You sent Me, and loved
them, even as You have loved Me. 24 "Father, I
desire that they also, whom You have given Me,
be with Me where I am…, for You loved Me
before the foundation of the world.
33

34. Image Of God = Having Authority
• NAU Genesis 1:26 …in Our image, according to
Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish…
• NAU Genesis 9:2 "The fear of you and the terror
of you will be on every beast of the earth and on
every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps
on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into
your hand they are given.
• NAU Matthew 28:18 “…All authority has been
given to Me in heaven and on earth.
34

35. God’s Image Will Be Redeemed
• NAU Romans 8:29 For those whom He
foreknew, He also predestined to become
conformed to the image of His Son, so
that He would be the firstborn among
many brethren;
• NAU 1 Corinthians 15:49 Just as we have
borne the image of the earthy, we will
also bear the image of the heavenly.
35

36. God’s Image Will Be Redeemed
• NAU 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are
children of God, and it has not appeared
as yet what we will be. We know that
when He appears, we will be like Him,
because we will see Him just as He is.
• NAU 2 Corinthians 3:8 how will the
ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more
with glory?
36

37. Matthew 22:20, Whose Image?
• Jesus said in Matthew 22:19, "Show Me
the coin used for the poll-tax." And they
brought Him a denarius. 20 And He said
to them, "Whose likeness and inscription
is this?” 21 They said to Him, "Caesar's."
Then He said to them, "Then render to
Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and
to God the things that are God’s."
37

38. Matthew 22:20, Whose Image?
• They should have asked Jesus, “What do
we owe to God?”
• I'm convinced Jesus would have asked,
“Whose image is on you?”
• What do we owe to God? Everything!
• The One who created you, placed His
image upon you, for you to reflect His
image, and glorify Him.
38

39. Matthew 22:20, Whose Image?
• Do you reflect God in your daily walk?
• Are you bearing God’s image proudly?
• Are we daily accomplishing our purpose
of bringing glory to God?
• What is man?
• A creation of God to bring glory to Him.
39

40. In
Closing
40

41. In
Closing
41

42. THE
END
42

43. BIBLE IN FIVE
Pastor Dave Kooyers
Valley Bible Fellowship
Box 433
Boonville CA 95415
http://www.slideshare.net/dkooyers
www.ValleyBibleFellowship.org
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiLVf7Boyjw
(707) 895-2325
God bless you as you examine His Word,
Your servant in Christ, 2Cor. 4:5
43
These Microsoft PowerPoint presentations are provided "for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12-15). To help
Christians to "to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ." So that "we are no longer...tossed here and there...by every wind of doctrine." They may be downloaded
and modified free of charge.
Matthew 10:8 …Freely you received, freely give.

44. “What Is Man?”
Nihilism—bleak “nothing-ism.
Stand to Reason <info@str.org>
• https://www.str.org/SolidGroundSept2018WhatIsMan#.W46RE5OpE0p
• Greg Koukl wrote, “Three thousand years ago, an ancient sage gazed at the world and asked the most important
question anyone could ask about our corporate humanity:
•
• When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
• The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
• What is man that You take thought of him…? (Ps. 8:3–4)
• Indeed. What is man? What does it mean to be human? You cannot answer a single question of consequence regarding
human beings without answering that question first. Everything vital, meaningful, and moral about us hangs on its
answer. It is the quintessential query regarding the nature of human existence.
• Is gender fixed or fluid? Is homosexuality natural or perverse? Is there a right to abortion? What about capital
punishment? Or sexual slavery? Or social justice?
• The answer to each of these questions depends upon an answer to a prior question: What is man?
• There are three ways to respond.
• 01
• Here is the first way, the response of naturalism—the religion currently governing science. According to pop “Science
Guy” Bill Nye, “We are just a speck, on a speck, orbiting a speck, in the corner of a speck, in the middle of nowhere.”
“We emerged from microbes and muck,” Carl Sagan declared. “We find ourselves in bottomless free fall…lost in a great
darkness, and there’s no one to send out a search party.”
4
4