Out of the Mouths of Babes

I watch A Charlie Brown Christmas every year for lots of sentimental reasons, but there are also moments of profound truth in the 30-minute tv special. The most important happens when Charlie Brown cries out in despair, “Can’t anyone tell me what Christmas is all about?” That’s when the spotlight falls on his fellow elementary school student, Linus, who recites Luke 2:1–10 from memory. “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown,” he says. You may know the common phrase we use when a child says something unexpectedly wise: “out of the mouths of babes.” What you may not have realized is that it comes straight from the Royal Psalms, here in Psalm 8:2. But what did David mean when he said that, and what does it tell us about Christmas?

As we saw yesterday, David in Psalm 8 is thinking about how he, as Israel’s king, fits into God’s big story. What amazes David is how God loves to use small, weak, unexpected things to accomplish his plan to restore his glory in the world. For example, when all the armies of Israel could not stand against the giant Goliath, God raised up one young shepherd boy with a rock to bring him down and save Israel from slavery and death. Over and over in the Bible, God chooses what the world considers small, weak, and foolish to show how big, strong, and wise he is (see 2 Cor 4:7).

At the very beginning of the Bible, God told us that he would save the world in this unexpected way. When Adam rebelled against God, his sin separated humanity from its Maker, put us at odds with each other, left us at the mercy of their environment, and placed our bodies under a sentence of death. Instead of Adam ruling God’s creation, the serpent now seemed to wear the crown. But into that hopeless moment, God made a glorious promise. He would destroy Satan’s kingdom and make all things new…with a baby: “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring: he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel (Gen 3:15).”

David is thinking of this promise in Psalm 8:2: “Out of the mouths of babies and infants you have established strength, to still the enemy and the avenger.” If you were looking for a hero “strong” enough to destroy a powerful enemy, you would not start in the church nursery! The last person we expect to “establish strength” in a chaotic situation is a tiny, fragile baby! But this is God’s strategy to redeem the world. Isaiah would expand on this unlikely hope: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David… (Isa 9:6–7).”

God launches his strategy at Christmas. Don’t let sweet baby Jesus fool you: he came to “establish strength” and to “still the enemy.” He was born to bring down the forces of evil, abolish death, and regain dominion of his Father’s world. This baby will not rest until he has dominion over every last square inch of the creation. Jesus said so when he rode into Jerusalem, headed for the cross. With children and common people waving palm branches and greeting the Savior-King, Jesus smiled and reminded the flustered Pharisees of Psalm 8:2: “Yes, have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise? (Matt 21:16)’” You know what’s just as unexpected: that this King has let us unto his Kingdom. Why not praise him?

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Article by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church