Mothers, I’d like to ask you a question. Think about when you first held your son or daughter in your arms for the first time. Now here’s the question:
What kind of moment was that?
It was a moment from God, wasn’t it?
It was a moment delivered from Him to you, from His hands to yours. The moment was full, alive, and indelibly imprinted on your soul. I suppose if you were a militant, hardcore evolutionist, you might be able to muster up the strength to somehow stick to your convictions that your baby was simply the result of an evolutionary accident — some cosmic collusion between tons of time and truckloads of chance. Every time you looked into your baby’s eyes or cooed his or her name, you could dutifully remind yourself that the birth of your child had absolutely nothing to do with a loving heavenly Father, it was all due to blind chance. You could do all of that – but I think it would be difficult! I don’t think we’re designed to believe that such moments are not one’s doing and to do so goes against too much of the way we’re made. (I’m not saying that belief is instinctive, only that it is in harmony with the way we’re hard-wired).
In celebrating God, the Psalmist wrote:
“From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise” (8:2).
Did the psalmist have in mind something like the above scenario when he penned these words? Perhaps. In the psalm, the witness of children and infants stands in contrast to the testimony/glory “above the heavens” (v. 1). In other words, His glory is attested to by things above the earth as well as things on the earth. Children and infants are one example.
And as far as evidence goes, infants and children are powerful witnesses of God’s glory. Forget foxholes; are there any atheists in maternity wards? Yet it’s probably good to remind ourselves that the psalmist really isn’t arguing for God’s existence here (the Scripture always assumes this). Instead, he is making a case for the glory of the God who exists. And it’s a salient point he makes – who can look at a baby and not see the glory of God? Still, we may not be going far enough with this for it’s not just the witness of children and infants – it’s the kind of witness they offer.
If you think about how long it takes a baby to develop in its mother’s womb, or how long it takes a child before it is able to live without the aid of its parents, children and infants are among the most helpless, vulnerable beings on the planet. How can something so fragile bear witness to Someone so powerful? Yet these tiny lives speak mightily and glory is what pours forth.
And when the blind and lame (the helpless and vulnerable), were being healed by Jesus it was the children Matthew tells us (21:15), who began to praise Him, saying “Hosanna, to the Son of David.” This caused quite a commotion and soon a crowd had gathered around Him in the temple area. This was all bad news for the chief priests and teachers of the law — the enforcers of status quo. Such a blasphemous outburst was intolerable — even if it was from ignorant children. They called upon Jesus to renounce it immediately. Hadn’t He heard what they were saying?
Yes, He heard — but had they not heard what God has said in the Scripture?
And what was it the Scriptures said? He quoted Psalm 8:2. The fulfillment of this psalm isn’t simply in the fact that children are praising Him and putting to silence Jesus’ foes; it’s the motif of the weak setting aside the verdict and judgment of the strong. And whether it’s through a crucified Jewish carpenter or a helpless baby, this is the way God operates because it is who He is and what His kingdom is about.
And this is why the psalmist says, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all of the earth!”
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 