Psa 8:1 To the Chief Musician. On the Instrument of Gath. A Psalm of David. O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens!
Psa 16:3 As for the saints who are on the earth, “They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”
While reading Psalm 8:1, I found something very interesting that King David, one of the most beloved Kings of Israel had to say about the Lord. He said, “Oh LORD, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth! Who has set your glory above the heavens!” As I began to read it, I researched the word excellent in the bible and found that the Bible has much to say about the word excellent. So today I want to share on the excellence of God, and why it is so important that we live excellent lives unto the Lord!
This teaching on excellence is so important for us, because as Kingdom citizens we represent Jesus Christ, who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords in the earth. Now somebody may be asking the question, “Pastor what does excellence that have to do with me as a believer?” Well I’m glad you asked that question, so let’s define excellence.
What is excellence? It is something of valuable quality, anything highly laudable, meritorious or virtuous, It can be in a person or anything valuable and esteemed. It is something of a high rank, distinction and merit. It is distinction in something commendable in honor or virtue or eloquence. It is something or someone who possesses outstanding quality or superior merit, or something or someone who is remarkably good.
So we should do all things in excellence because we serve an excellent God! So in Psalm 8: 1, King David expresses his praise for God, and begins to exclaim how excellent the Lord is. How many of us know that we serve an excellent God, and there is none like him in all the whole earth?
The scripture says in Psalm 8:1 , “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who has set thy glory above the heavens.”
In Psalm 8: 1, David begins with O LORD our Lord. Whenever you see LORD in caps that specifies that he is speaking about Yehovah (Yahweh), the self-existent eternal God. Then he says, “Our Lord” that word Lord rendered in small letters literally means properly master, lord, ruler, or owner. It is a title given to an owner of land or of slaves, to kings, or to rulers, and is applied to God as being the ruler or governor of the universe.
The meaning here is, that David the psalmist acknowledged Yehovah to be the rightful ruler, king, and master of everything. He comes before him with the feeling that Yehovah is the universal ruler – the king and proprietor of all things!
I don’t think many saints know how excellent God really is. The names of God are excellent, his character is excellent, his word is excellent, his ways are excellent, his holiness is excellent, and his thoughts are excellent. The Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 55:9, speaking for the Lord said, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
We serve an excellent God and guess what he made you excellent! And because you are a child of God and you have his character you should be excellent in all your ways. If you have been born again, there ought to be something different about you. Excellent walk, excellent talk, excellent conduct, excellent praise, excellent worship, excellent giving, excellent servitude, and above all excellent love!
We should refuse to be anything less than excellent. I mean on our jobs we practice excellence in delivering a product or whatever we do, right? So we should be even more excellent for the Lord. As a matter of fact, the Lord wants you to be excellent. If God himself is excellent, and he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, does he not deserve the best?
In Psalm 16:3, There is another awesome Psalm that King David wrote that says, “But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.”
David wrote about the excellence of God in Psalm 8, and then points to us in Psalm 16, and says, “To the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.”
Did you get that? Although this Psalm was written many, many years ago, David makes a statement that speaks to us today! Are we not the saints that are in the earth? Should we not be the example of Jesus Christ in the earth?
In the scriptures Jesus said in John 9:5, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Then when he ascended to heaven, he passed the baton to you and me and said, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on the hill cannot be hidden. Matt 5: 14
Then in Matt 5: 16, he says, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Ask yourself this question? Does excellent describe you? Does excellent describe your Christian work ethic? Does excellence describe your service unto the Lord?
The excellence of God must be displayed in the believer’s life because we are representing the King of Glory who is an excellent God. All throughout the bible, we find different names for God that represent his character and his divine attributes. It is only fitting that David wrote this Psalm, who was a man after Gods own heart.
When we read and study the bible we find that Gods character is excellent and everything that he does is excellent. Everything that God has created is excellent. When the father gave us Jesus, he gave us his very best! When he gave us salvation, he gave us his very best.
And so we find that excellence, and being excellent is biblical, and God desires that we be an excellent people, although we are not necessarily a perfect people! Although we are striving to be perfect every day.
If the Lord is excellent, and we are excellent saints, shouldn’t we have an excellent attitude, excellent praise, excellent worship, excellent servitude, and excellent giving unto the Lord. Anything else is unacceptable!
Today and the remainder of the week, despite all that is going on around you, lets reflect on the excellence of God, and let us remember to do everything in excellent as unto the Lord!
God Bless,
Pastor Jamal E. Quinn