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Lyall Johnston––September 28, 2026
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Greetings everyone. This is the third day of the Feast of Tabernacles.
What we’re going to do is we’re going to turn to the 8th Psalm and see what David had to say about God:
about God
about His creation
about how David saw the great God—our Father in Heaven—and Son Jesus Christ
Psa. 8—Don’t we love the way that David praises God, gives Him thanksgiving to the absolute pinnacle, the top of His personality, everything that was in Him. David expresses:
his great joy
his great appreciation
his thankfulness
for knowing God and for the way God had worked with Him throughout His life.
Psalm 8:1: “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!....”
Notice this next phrase because it should give us an indication of just how great God is. We can’t fully know, but at least here’s the language so that we can think in terms of Who and what God is.
“...You have set Your glory above the heavens!” (v 8).
We don’t know whether in David’s day that they had optical objects such as telescopes to view the heavens, but at least when David looked up, even with his naked eyes. The stars that he would see, which are only available with the naked eye, would be those in our own galaxy, and particularly the planets around our sun, our solar system, which is a star, one star of countless billions in our own one little Milky Way galaxy. Some cosmologists say there are even trillions of stars within many of the galaxies.
Isn’t it interesting how today that with the James Webb Space Telescope, as we’re able to look out at a little bit of God’s creation, we can begin to see what David was saying here when he said, “...You have set your glory above the heavens.”
God created the heavenly realm, which consists of trillions and trillions of galaxies. Galaxies which have countless billions, even trillions of stars within them.
As we’ve mentioned before, with some of those shots through the James Webb Space Telescope, when we get to the cosmic horizon, which is as far as we are able to see, as far as man is able to see, what do we see? The galaxies packed together as far as man can see, like sand on the sea.
Now, of course, cosmologists and astrophysicists are beginning to say, well, we thought that once we got behind the what we can actually observe through our optical mechanisms equipment, we thought we were going to see the beginnings of the universe, young star systems.
But what they’ve actually found, they’re realizing that beyond what we can see, even with the most powerful telescope, is that the symmetry of everything that they can see at the edge, they know now for sure that beyond the cosmic horizon, there’s a multitude more galaxies, mature galaxies, and they’re still looking for the immature.
They’re never going to find that, because they are confessing under the belief that the universe is expanding, that as it expands, the edge that we can see now is falling off the edge of the cosmic horizon, so we’re not able to see. We’ll never be able to see, because time is expanding.
Even what they can see at the edge, or we can see at the very edge of the observable universe, the cosmic horizon, is what was visible 46,000.5 billion light years away!
The light we see from the cosmic horizon is what was there 46,000.5 billion light years from planet Earth. From planet Earth, they now have the figure that from horizon to horizon, from east to west, north to south, we’re looking at a distance of 93 billion light-years away. The previous figure for the observable horizon of the universe was about 18.3 billion light-years from planet Earth. Now they have reached 45.6 billion light-years.
We see all the multitude, the countless trillions of galaxies that are observable to man, but we can’t see beyond the cosmic horizon! Yet, God says through Isaiah that He cast the heavens out like casting a curtain before Him, like a tent to dwell in. You can read that in Isaiah. But yet, again, we go back to that one statement: ‘He has set His glory above the heavens,’ everything that we can see and we can’t see!
In one sense, God is so great, so glorious, that it’s like the whole universe is actually sitting in His hands. Let’s continue with David, with that brief introduction of everything God has created.
we are to stand in awe
we are to stand in amazement
At the very core of our own sun, we have hydrogen and helium reacting with a few other elements, that the temperature is actually, as we’re told, 15 million degrees centigrade.
Yes, our sun, 15 million degrees centigrade. It is so hot that nothing physical, any physical object, whether it be rock, stone, iron, steel, it’s so hot that it’s just constantly boiling. Of course, God set the sun and the moon, as it says in Gen. 1, there for a very real purpose!
Our star, our sun, which is just one star is one solar system within the Milky Way galaxy, where there are countless billions, trillions of other universes, and each universe with its trillions of stars like our sun, and many much larger than our sun, with all their planets, and not even to mention the beautiful nebula that we can see so often.
God has created all this, and He sustains it with the power of His own might!
Cosmologists and astrophysicists talk about deep space, but they talk about dark energy and dark matter, which fills the universe, which makes up most of the universe. Could that be the power of God?
Jeremiah 23:24––God says: “...‘Do I not fill the heavens and earth?’....”––the universe?
Is that a reference to the fact that God, through the power of His Holy Spirit, is upholding all things, and the:
the dark matter
the dark energy
the dark space
It’s all what God is doing. It’s actually how, by His power, He upholds everything, including our particular galaxy, with this little planet Earth in it.
Psalm 8:1: “...You have set Your glory above the heavens! Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings You have ordained strength...” (vs 1-2).
Yes, with those babes and sucklings, God has revealed to us, God is able to reveal to us:
because we believe He exists
because we know He exists
because we keep His Laws and Commandments
because we love His Laws and Commandments
we understand His Truth! He willingly shares it with us, because we have been:
called by Him
prepared to submit our lives to Him
prepared to obey Him, every word that comes out of His mouth
with our whole mind
with our whole heart
with our whole body
with our whole being
God gives to us, because He sees us as His little children!
Verse 2: “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings You have ordained strength because of Your adversaries, to silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers” (vs 2-3).
Isn’t that amazing? The heavens, all those countless trillions of galaxies, with everything that is contained within each one. Apparently, I read in one place, where the entirety of the universe that man is able to see, it’s all like a honeycomb. God has structured it all together.
Is that possible?
Isn’t it very interesting?
Because God, in His plans, does often duplicate many things!
Verse 3: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained... [David asks]: ...What is man...?” (vs 3-4). He’s saying, ‘O LORD, What am I?’
Verse 4: “What is man that You...”––God––in all this vast universe, we’re here now on this tiny little planet, which is insignificant when compared to the entirety of the universe.
Verse 4: “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him?”
Yes, God does. He takes care of the righteous and the unrighteous. He provides for everyone. But we know there are special blessings for those few that have actually responded to his call.
What did Jesus say about God’s calling? He said, ‘Many are called, but few are chosen.’ For those of us whom God has brought into submission, and:
we willingly obey Him
we keep His Laws and Commandments
we strive to walk through the narrow gate, which is difficult
we avoid, to the very best of our ability, the wide way, the wide gate:
which leads to destruction
which is the way that man himself took in the beginning
Verse 5: “For you have made him... [that’s all mankind right now at this time, going right back to Adam and Eve] ...a little lower than God...”
In Paul’s reference, it says ‘a little lower than the angels.’ Both are true!
“...and have crowned him with glory and honor. You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet” (vs 5-6).
Paul goes on to say not yet. But what we do see is Jesus, and when Jesus returns, of course, we know we’re going to see Him exactly as He is.
At that time, when Jesus Christ returns, and when the resurrection occurs on the Day of Pentecost, then of course, the beginning of those promises of all things being given to Him, not just the dominion of the earth, but rulership with God, the Father and Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God.
Isa. 46––we find a very interesting statement, which helps us to understand God’s Plan for man on the earth; as David asked the question, ‘What is man that You’re mindful of him.’ There’s an amazing Scripture here:
Isaiah 46:9: “Remember the former things of old; for I am God... [God speaking in the first person directly to us through His servant Isaiah] and there is none else, I am God...”
He repeats it, because He knows that so many people miss that point and keep looking in other directions for Who and what God is.
“...and there is none like Me... [He says for the 2nd time] ...declaring the end from the beginning...” (vs 9-10).
The end of what? The end of His plan for mankind. The beginning and the end of the question David asked, “What is man that you are mindful of him?”
In the entirety of the universe, God’s focus is on planet earth, for all the trillions of other galaxies out there, with all that they contain: stars, suns, planets, and everything else.
God’s focus is on this little planet, which is near the edge of our own galaxy in one of the spiral arms. We’re not anywhere near the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Yet, God is mindful of us.
Verse 10: “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things, which were not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.’”
On that we can rest assured, whatever God has said in His Word, whatever He has declared to us as His Word to mankind, He is going to accomplish it! Whether it be promises for those who are faithful to His Word, or whether it is the consequences for:
those who disobey
those who refused
those who cast His Word away
those who will not follow
those who reject His Word
like mainstream Christianity, because they reject God’s Plan for mankind!
they are blind
they cannot see God’s Plan
they’ve rejected God’s Word for lies, with the pagan holidays that are kept
God appointed His Holy Days, as we read in the book of Leviticus, and they constitute God’s master plan for mankind! You may want to read again, or obtain a copy of two particular publications:
The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah, which covers everything about God’s appointed times, which God appointed right when He refurbished the earth for mankind
God’s Plan for Mankind Revealed by His Sabbath and Holy Days, which answers in great detail the question that David put in his Psalm
His Sabbath and Holy Days have all been rejected by mainstream Christianity, and they cannot even begin to understand Who the real God is or Who the real Jesus Christ is.
Yes, they have a Jesus, but he’s not the Jesus of the Word of God; he’s not the Jesus of the Holy Bible.
Their Jesus is one who they say has obliterated the Sabbath and obliterated all the Holy Days of God, all the festivals, ‘because they are Jewish.’
What does God say in Lev. 23? These are MY appointed Feast days, and the appointment of those Feast days, the timing of those, began right back in Gen. 1, when God set the sun and the moon to govern:
the times
the day
the month
the year
but more importantly, too, is to govern the weeks! That so that we know exactly when God’s appointed Sabbath Day is! Every 7th day is the Sabbath of God!
God appointed it
He hallowed it
He blessed it
And as we keep that, we receive the blessing of:
added knowledge and information
more of His Spirit
as He guides us and directs us toward His Kingdom, which He has called us for.
God declares “...the end from the beginning...” (Isa. 46:10).
So, let’s go back to the beginning. It’s interesting that in the first four or five chapters of Genesis, God has formed the foundation of everything He plans to accomplish with mankind! He lays the foundation, the blueprint. It’s all there if we want to look into it and dig into it.
It’s like God’s Plan is like this very precious diamond, a diamond without price. But that diamond has many facets on it. When we turn and look at each facet, we see this brilliance, this shining brilliance of all the colors of the spectrum, all revealing part of God’s Plan. There are many facets of it.
Back in those first chapters of Genesis, God reveals so much as a foundation, but throughout the Scriptures He continues to lay or to reveal more and more information, more and more knowledge.
Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
John1:1 tell us, and actually gives an insight to what existed prior to Gen. 1:1 where it begins about the creation of the heavens and the earth.
John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word... [the Greek term there is ‘Logos’] ...and the Word was with God...”
Isn’t that interesting? Here we have God and we have the Word, ‘theos’ and ‘logos’—two beings! Very, very interesting. God is One, but God is One in those two beings!
John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
That confirms Genesis 1:26: “...Let US make man in OUR image...”
Now we find already two beings about to recreate the earth, but it takes us back to:
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens... [the next word, that little conjunction is very important]: ...and the earth.”
When we go to Job, we find that when God created the earth, what do we see? All the angels of God were shouting for joy when God created the earth!
Why? Because they were going to be placed on the earth in order to build Holy, righteous, spiritual character as angelic beings!
God gave them His Laws and His Commandments as they pertained to the angelic realm. They were given commandments because they were created, they were perfect and righteous, but they didn’t have character because character is something that is not created by Divine fiat!
IF God had created Them perfect and sealed them right then and there, They would have been robots. God didn’t want robots because He had a very special purpose for them coming up, and we’ll see that eventually.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” We know that after the creation and because of Satan’s rebellion, and that comes out, Satan comes on the scene in Gen. 3, which reveals him as a fallen angel Lucifer, now as Satan the devil. There God reveals the fact of the angelic realm. We go forward to other Scriptures to show that they were so excited at the creation of planet earth.
Was the Milky Way already existed along with all the other universes waiting for planet earth to be planted in the solar system of our sun? We don’t we don’t know, we’re not told! What we are told is that God created the heavens first, then we go into the story of course of Satan’s rebellion, the earth being virtually torn asunder, and God then recreates the earth for man’s habitation!
Something we need to understand is that God gave man dominion over the earth, but He did not give man government over the earth.
John 14:30: “Because the ruler of this world is coming; but he does not have a single thing in Me.” Satan is the ruler of this world!
God reformed the earth and put man on that. There’s a story behind that, because Satan wants to destroy mankind, and that’s what he is about. He’s trying to destroy us one at a time.
It says back in in Ezekiel how that because of his merchandising, the wickedness that he had corrupted, and we understand that to be the face of the earth. God was so displeased with Satan that He destroyed the earth, because as it says: it became ‘tohu’ and ‘bohu’ (Gen. 1:2) in total destruction and waste!
That’s not the way God created it, it became that way. When God recreated it, it says that everything He created back there in Gen. 1 was exceedingly good! So it was when God created the earth originally and the angels were placed on it.
It was that rebellion. Today, do we not see the mind of Satan and the merchandising that he is doing and creating in his human agents?
in the destruction of the earth
in the destruction of mankind
We frequently hear about abortion, but the murder, the sexual perversity, it’s all there.
God re-created the earth, He prepared it for mankind, not for the angels this time. The previous earth, the way it was, was then created by God for the angels. Because Satan rebelled, the earth became destroyed!
Genesis 1:26: “And God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea...’”
God created mankind in His own image. He didn’t create the angels in His own image.
Verse 27: “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him. He created them male and female.”
But again, let’s remember v 26: “And God said, ‘Let Us...”
John 1:1 identifies that the ‘Let Us...” in Gen. 1:26 as the Father and the Son, as we know them today—God the Father, God the Son––‘Let Us...” Working together right now! Their focus is on this little planet Earth, in creating many sons and daughters!
But it’s interesting here that God created a wife for Adam. I want to show something that’s very important about this. Of course, we know how Satan is working so hard to destroy marriage.
Genesis 2:20: “And Adam gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field, but there was not found a helper compatible for Adam. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall over Adam, and he slept. And He took one of his ribs, and afterward closed up the flesh underneath. Then the LORD God made the rib (which He had taken out of the man) into a woman, and He brought her to the man” (vs 20-22)––created a wife for Him!
Verse 23: “And Adam said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man.’ For this reason shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (vs 23-24).
Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth...”
In other words, I want you to have a family. I want you to have many, many, many, many children, as long as mankind is living on the face of the earth. Satan is busily now attempting to destroy all that!
What I’d like to do is to turn back to the New Testament and Eph. 5 and see something very important, indeed. Because that marriage there pictures another marriage that is to take place. Satan is so trying to destroy the marriage state because he knows what God has in plan.
You see, in the beginning, we see that God created man, male and female, which is a picture of what God is doing for His Kingdom.
Paul is giving instructions to husbands and wives regarding the marriage state. Keep in mind, Christ is going to marry His Bride, the Church! Gen. 1 shows God creating man, male and female, marrying and living together as one flesh. When the Church marries Christ, they become husband and wife!
Ephesians 5:21––to everyone, all those in the Body of Christ: “Submit yourselves to one another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord; for the husband is the head of the wife...” (vs 21-23).
Is that being taught today even in the churches, mainstream Christianity?
“...even as Christ is the Head of the Church” (v 23).You see the comparison.
“...the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Church”
I want you to focus on Christ as the Head of the Church. He is the Savior of the Body, which is His Body, which is the Church, the Church of God, that Jesus Christ said He was to build!
Verse 24: “For even as the Church is subject to Christ, in the same way also let wives be subject to their own husbands in everything.”
What we saw in the beginning, we’re now beginning to see what God’s Plan is for that original marriage, of how it pictures what He plans in the end; that is the marriage of Christ to the Church!
Verse 25: “Husbands, love your own wives, in the same way that Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; so that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it with the washing of the water by the Word” (vs 25-26).
study of the Bible
obeying God’s Word
our minds are cleansed
our minds are purified
Verse 28: “In the same way, husbands are duty-bound to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself; for no man has ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord does the Church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones” (vs 28-30).
We’re all flesh and bones, but we are connected by the Spirit to God the Father and Jesus Christ!
Indeed we are members of His Body, of Christ’s body—even as we live today––of His flesh and His bones. He’s the head, we’re the Body, we’re the flesh and bones. He is the One Who wants us to be in obedience to Him, as He guides us down through that narrow gate that leads to salvation.
Verse 32: “This is a great mystery; but I am speaking in respect to Christ and the Church.”
Think about that!
Meditate on that!
Remember that!
We have an incredible story, an incredible record! We’re given incredible understanding, IF we are obeying God’s Laws and keeping His Commandments and doing everything that is pleasing to Him, we find this about Jesus Christ.
Paul prayed for the Ephesian brethren, and that prayer is for us as well, and we could be praying this for each other.
Ephesians 1:16––I, Paul: “Do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (vs 16-17).
Verse 18: “And may the eyes of your mind be enlightened in order that you may comprehend what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the inner working of His mighty power... [think on these things, meditate on them] ...which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, (vs 18-20).
We’re told here where Christ actually is now, and what His position is going to be on throughout eternity.
Verse 21: “Far above every principality and authority and power and lordship, and every name that is named––not only in this age, but also in the age to come––for He [God the Father] has subordinated all things under His [Christ’s] feet, and has given Him to be Head over all things to the Church” (vs 21-22).
Christ marrying the Church, which His Body, including us, God has set all that over all things, and that’s to the Church.
The position that God has placed us in. As David asked, “What is man that God is mindful of him?”
Right now, the very first part of God’s Plan––as it’s brought out in God’s Holy Day Plan—is that the Church is to marry Christ, and eventually to inherit all things. What God has done, and what God is doing, is so incredible that we need to continue:
to look to the Father
to look to Christ
to learn to obey all Their Laws and Commandments
Then we can then look forward to the future that God has for us!
Scriptural References:
Psalm 8:1
Jeremiah 23:24
Psalm 8:1-6
Isaiah 46:9-10
Genesis 1:1
John 1:1
Genesis 1:26
John 14:30
Genesis 1:26-27, 26
John 1:1
Genesis 2:20-24
Genesis 1:28
Ephesians 5:21-26, 28-30, 32
Ephesians 1:16-22
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
Leviticus 23
Genesis 1:2
Genesis 3
Also referenced: Books {truthofgod.org}
The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah
God’s Plan For Mankind Revealed by His Sabbath and Holy Days
LJ:po/bo
Transcribed: 8/16/26
Copyright (2026)––All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.
