Heart Cry for Identity: Who Am I?
Psalm 8
Who am I? This is one of the most asked questions in our world today. But, it’s not a question that’s always been asked a lot. It’s only been in more recent generations that people focused much on personal identity. When I was a boy growing up in the Appalachian Mountains, I don’t think I ever was asked, “Son, who are you? – except to get my name. We didn’t have existential discussions about personal identity. It’s not that people didn’t care about such things – but I don’t think we talked about it. So, if you’re from my generation, maybe you wonder whether our sermon topic about the search for identity is a heart cry that is significant for many people. But, believe me: It is! So, let me help you to see what it’s about:
Take out the “blue sheet” in your Worship Folder and you’ll see a question there: Who am I? I want you to answer that now. The sheet starts you off with, “I am a _________. How would you answer that?
- I don’t want you to put your family name there. That’s too easy.
- I don’t want you to put, “I am a Jesus-follower” or “a Christian” or “child of God” there. You know already that I’ll talk about that in the sermon. I want you to put what comes to mind after that.
How do you identify yourself to others? What is really important to you. It could be that you are a PHS student. It might be your job, e.g., “I am a pastor – an actor.” It might be that you are a husband or wife. It might even be that you are a Dodgers’ fan. Make sure that whatever you write is something very important to you. Write down the way that you identify yourself on your sheet and then put that sheet to the side for now.
Our World and Self-Identity – How Things Have Changed!
Before getting into Psalm 8 today, let’s consider how the world generally has thought about self-identity.
What Once Was -- Throughout most of history and in most of the world, people have not written about identity issues much. The reason is that the question of who a person is was largely fixed by birth. By that, I mean that a person would be born in the family home and would rarely move. There was very little opportunity for upward economic mobility. People married within their community and their class. Your occupation, religion and location were locked into from birth on – and it was almost impossible to break out of those realities. There are countless stories from all over the world of people trying to be set free from those identities: Stories of princes and paupers, princesses and peasants and even conversions to another faith – all stories of people trying to become something different from what their birth family and class determined. But, doing so was very hard.
The American Dream – Some of what fueled people’s immigration to America was the deep longing to break free from some of the limitations that people had experienced in their birthplaces. This was especially true of those who had come to personal faith in Jesus. They had the longing to be able to identify themselves as followers of Jesus and to worship God without government and cultural interference. People who came to America came with the hope of becoming something very different from what they thought was possible in their homelands. They also wanted to have a chance to be educated, to build businesses and to pursue their dreams. With that happening, they had to find different ways to identify themselves. Like what?
For most of my life, I have heard people talk about who they are in terms of what I call “external considerations”: level of education, their good looks, their accomplishments, their possessions, the job title on their business card. I have preached many messages about this to you. I’ve told you over and over what you already knew, i.e., that all those external things will not last.
Do you remember my illustration of a business card? My business card says, “Greg Waybright, PhD. Sr. Pastor of Lake Ave. Church.” It’s a wonderful position in a great church. I am a pastor. But, is that the essence of who I am? Someday, I will no longer be Sr. Pastor of this church. When that happens, who will I be then?
If any external and temporary thing is your identity, when that external thing is lost or taken away, you will feel empty, you will not know who you are.
Self Discovery
Several decades ago, I began to hear people people talk about identity in a different way. Some people saw the futility of have their identities determined by external things like what they possess or what they accomplish. I began hearing people speak of having certain passions inside that they had to pursue in order to be the person they were meant to be. In the church, it became less common for people to say, “I will follow Jesus wherever he calls me to go and become what he made me to be.” Instead, they said, “I have these passions inside. God gave me those passions so I must follow them to be who he made me to be.”
I call this approach to personal identity “self discovery” because it’s driven by the idea that there is a way inside each of us that we were meant to be. If that’s true, then the only way to live well is to discover who that inner person is and live that way. Otherwise, you’ll be untrue to yourself. The one who believes in God says that God has given me those passions and gifts and I must discover them and use them. The unbeliever says, “There is a way I am inside – it’s determined by my genes. I must discover that inner self and live that way or I’ll be miserable.”
The most obvious place this has come out has been in the ongoing debates about sexual practice. The idea that is at the center of many people’s viewpoint is this: “I am a certain way. I must discover who I am. Society has told me I cannot be the way I know that I am. So, I must first discover who I am inside for myself and then freely celebrate that – and live the way that I am – or I will not be who I am.”
For our world, this way of having our identities determined by our internal passions sounds better. But, is it? This is a big and complex discussion. I will simply say that many of our passions contradict one another. For example, you may say, “I have a passion to be a good parent and I also have a passion to have a lucrative career.” Or, “I have a passion to be a good husband but I also feel a passion for that new lady at work.” Or, “I want to eat fattening food but I want to be thin.” Those are conflicting passions. If your identity is established following your passions, you will so find yourself ripped apart. Our passions come and go – and often are misguided. We know that. The need we have as human beings is for need one core identity – one core passion – that directs the whole of our lives.
And, Psalm 8 speaks of that as clearly as any passage in the Bible.
Psalm 8: Who am I? I am a child of God made to glorify my Father.
We could spend many hours going line by line through this magnificent Psalm about the majesty and glory of God. But, what I’ve I’ve chosen to do is to show you the Psalm’s main point and how it speaks to this deep longing we human beings have to know who we are and why we are in this world.
Let me walk you through the Psalm. There are only two main points of this Psalm:
Point 1: God – yes our God – is glorious. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth (8:1,9)!
There are two different Hebrew names for God in those verses: 1) Adonai – the name for the God who rules over everything in all creation. 2) Yahweh – the name for the personal God who knows, cares for, and loves his people. Isn’t that an amazing thought? This God who knows us and loves us (Yahweh) is also the powerful and majestic God who is over “all the earth” (Adonai). Then, David tells us just how majestic the Lord is:
To do so, David takes us back to Genesis 1 and God’s creation. Make note of what the Psalmist tells us. In v.1b, he says that the Lord, our Lord, is not only majestic in all the earth but in everything beyond the earth. “You have set your glory above the heavens.” By this, he suggests that God existed before there was an earth – his glory is both above and before everything else – both on earth and in the heavens. The consequence of this is in v.3, i.e., that all we observe in the sky when we look through telescopes at JPL/NASA – all things we know of in all creation have been created and set in place by God, the one who is our God (v.3).
Point 2: God made us to reflect his glory. What is a human being… (8:4)?
The main question of Psalm 8 is the question I want to make sure you do not miss today: What does God say it means to be human? Does he say our lives matter? The Psalmist was one small speck in all that God has created and that God is lord over. Like scientists looking through at as much as they can through their microscopes and telescopes, he says in v.3, “I look at the heavens that are the word of your fingers. I see the moon and the stars you have set in place. Then I look at myself. Who am I, Lord? Do I matter? Why would you be mindful of me? Why would you ever care for me?”
And God’s answer, discovered in v.5 is this: “I do know you and I do care for you. More than that, I’ve made you to make my glory known to the world. I have made you to be the apex of my creation, to be those directly under me.” That’s what v.5 is saying. Our Bibles sometimes translate the verse, “You made us just lower than the angels.” But the word the Psalmist uses is “Elohim”, the name usually used for God as Creator. In this context, I believe it is referring, in first respect, to the fact that in creation, as Gen 1:27 says, “God created human beings in his own image, male and female he created in his image and likeness.” That means that, as human beings, we are not God. We are not eternal. No, we too are a part of God’s creation. But, like nothing else in all creation, we are made in God’s image. And our core identity, according to this Psalm, is that we are to reflect God’s image – his glory -- in the world.
The rest of the Psalm elaborates on that. God has put all things under our oversight. He’s given us the ability to care for the world he has made. Everything else God made is dependent on our caring for the world as God cares for the world. Did you notice v.6? “Lord, you made human beings rulers over the works of your hands. You put everything under their feet.” That means that just as God is mindful of us and cares for us, so we are to be mindful of and care for everything he has made in his world. As those bearing the image of God, we are God’s image bearers in this world. That’s our intended identity. That’s who you and I are meant to be.
That does not mean that we do not have other secondary identities – we all do. I am a pastor. I am a tennis fan. I am a husband and father. But, my main identity is that I am a child of God created to glory my Father. All those other identities need to be submitted to God. There should be nothing in his place.
But, what does that mean practically? What does it mean for you to be a child of God who lives each day glorifying God? It means at least two things:
#1: The ways and character of God should guide your life – This is only implied in this Psalm but is explicit throughout the rest of the Bible. In contrast to the ways the world might speak about your identity, about who you are at your core, the Bible says that you are to live your life with one main desire, i.e., to please the Lord.
When you live as God has made you to live, your first question should never be, “What does my world expect of me?” And, the first question also dare not be, “What are my own passions?” No, the first question of one who knows he has been created to glorify God is, “Father, what would you have me to be?” And that question will soon be followed by, “How would you have me to live?”
I find that living this way is incredibly freeing. When you come to follow Jesus, you no longer have to be a slave to the fear of displeasing all these different people in your world. There is only one person you have to please. That one person is your Maker.
And, just as important, you don’t have to be a slave to living a life driven by your passions. Those are contradictory and ever-changing. As Eph 2:3 says, “All of us also lived at one time gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.” Jesus came to set us free from living that way.
And, I need to add, when you live with the single ultimate identity as being one who wants to glorify God, then everybody around you will be better off. You’ll treat them better. Why do I say that? – because God’s 2nd greatest command is to love all people as you love yourself. You will see God’s image in each person – including your spouse, family, strangers… everybody -- and you will live wit these thoughts in mind:
- I cannot mistreat or disregard those who are old and glorify the majesty of God.
- I cannot disregard the plight of the unborn child and glorify the majesty of God.
- I cannot disregard the pain and cries of injustice that people of color are voicing about young men being killed all over the nation and glorify the majesty of God.
- I also cannot close my eyes to the fact that members of law enforcement are being viewed as inherently evil and therefore killed in the line of duty and glorify the majesty of God.
- I cannot see the person next to me crying and walk away and glorify the majesty of God.
The next time someone asks you, "Why are you take notice of the homeless families – or mentor students struggling in their schools with no family support (if, indeed, you do those things)?" try answering, "Because no amount of inconvenience could ever justify treating the supreme creation of God as if they don’t matter." And then read them Psalm 8 and show them a vision of God and of what it means to be human – like I’m trying to do for you today. That may lift their thoughts higher than they’ve ever gone before.
And – not only will you treat people better if your identity is to glorify God. You’ll treat everything in God’s world better too. Why to I say that?
#2: You will be mindful of and care for the rest of creation – for it is your Father’s world.
You dare not miss that, in making us, God says, “This is who you are. You are created to ‘have dominion over all the works of my hands.’” For some reason, this divine calling is something that many Christians are afraid to accept because it’s been politicized in our nation. But again, we must be guided by God and his Word – not in fear of the thinking of our world. And God tells us that he made us to be mindful of and care for all that he made.
In preparing this sermon, I decided to get away from the politics of our own culture and to read what The Africa Bible Commentary said about this. Kenyon author, George Kinoti, pointed out that the church in Kenya is beginning to take up this mandate to be God’s caregivers for all creation. He said that, in Kenya, God’s people were beginning to see the loss of forests, the pollution of water, the loss of fish, and the rapid changing of the climate. He said the church must continue to see this as central to glorifying God and must become more committed to joining people like Kenyan Nobel Prize recipient, Wangari Maathai, whose understanding of Gen 1 motivated her to preserve Africa’s environment. I say the same to us – those who know our main identity and calling is to bring glory to the Father whose world this is.
I will take up this matter again next year when we revisit Genesis 1. For now, I want you to see that you will never discover who you were meant to be until you day-by-day surrender your entire being to the Lordship of Christ – and that means that you will be mindful of and care for both the creation over which we have dominion and the people of this world who bear God’s image whose paths cross your own.
Who are you? How do you answer that question? Why are you in this world? What is the purpose of your life? Let me leave you with two testimonies from people of God who found their identities in glorying God. First, let’s listen to the Apostle Paul. Who am I?
I live for God -- for I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal 2:19-20).
And then from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was willing to stand with the persecuted Jewish people and against Nazi tyranny and thereby offered up his life simply because he believed this was God’s call upon his life.
"Who am I? A hypocrite? A contemptible weakling? There's something in me like a beaten army fleeing in disorder. Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. Whoever I am, you know O God, my God ‑‑ I am yours."