Date: 20-09-26
Preacher: Ps Ong Kian Kee
Title: What is Man?

What is Man?

This morning’s biblical reference was taken from Ps 8:1-8 and the message gave an in-depth perspective of the position of man in the scheme of God’s creation. 

In line with the scriptural references to the moon, Ps Ong’s gave many interesting Chinese cultural references to the moon as coincidentally many Chinese would be celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival within the coming week. 

The referent Psalm was written by David before he was king and in the biblical reference, he contemplated on God, His creation, the position of man and then back to God. David referred to God as Yahweh and Lord. Ps Ong elaborated by sharing that God declared Himself as ‘I am who I am’ for He is the creator and no one created Him. While man and the universe have both expiry dates, God has no beginning and end. However, humans do create deities in both physical and mental forms and he reiterated that any gods created by man is not God.

Then he shared that the Hebrew word ‘Adonis’ made in reference to God also means He is one who arranges and orchestrates everything. He has the right and the might. Hence God doesn’t just create earth, man and all the living creatures but is also in control of all. He has thus a plan for all and He can also demonstrate His power when we mortals have no resources to do so. Ps Ong gave the examples of Moses’ staff defeating all the other staffs in the Pharaoh’s court and the boy’s five loaves and two fishes multiplied by Jesus to feed the 5000. 

But how does man see himself and God? Ps Ong said we often used the telescope to see ourselves the wrong way and we are discouraged by what we see as insignificant in the scheme of God’s creation. But this is understandable as even the earth in which we live in is insignificant as compared to the universe. Ps Ong then gave some facts and figures to shore up the mega magnitude of God’s creation.

Man, unfortunately, also has a calculative mentality and often ended up realising that even though we have achieved all that we set out to, the feeling is still one of emptiness at the end of the day. Ps Ong then shared that some stories claim that Alexander the Great wanted his hands dangling out of his coffin to show he left the world empty-handed. 

Hence, when David came full circle in his contemplation and went back to God, he realised that we have a God who not only created us but also looked after us well enough. 

So as we celebrate the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival we must think of the God who not only created us but also thinks of us and goes out of His way to look out for us.