PSALM 8
For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by a stringed instrument.
O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens.
You have taught children and infants
to tell of your strength,
silencing your enemies
and all who oppose you.
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
the moon and the stars you set in place—
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You gave them charge of everything you made,
putting all things under their authority—
the flocks and the herds
and all the wild animals,
the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
and everything that swims the ocean currents.
O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by a stringed instrument.
O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens.
You have taught children and infants
to tell of your strength,
silencing your enemies
and all who oppose you.
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
the moon and the stars you set in place—
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You gave them charge of everything you made,
putting all things under their authority—
the flocks and the herds
and all the wild animals,
the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
and everything that swims the ocean currents.
O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
Starting with PraiseHow we begin our day often sets the tone for the rest of the day. This is especially true on the days we know we have some tough situations to deal with. Monday is typically a tough day for me. I often still feel drained from Sunday services and any issues or grievances I was made aware of on Sunday need to be dealt with on Monday.
When I read Psalm 8 this morning I was not thinking of praising God. I was slightly depressed, tired, and feeling like there is more I need to do today than I will ever have time to fit in. Why couldn’t it be Psalm 5 or 6 this morning? Praising God is easy when I am energized on Sunday morning with the congregation standing in praise beside me. On Monday morning alone in my office it becomes a sacrifice of praise.
God in His wisdom knows I need to praise Him today! He knows Psalm 8 is exactly what I need. Psalm 8 reminds me of God’s majesty, power, control over all the earth, and His blessings to me on this day. It pushes me beyond my schedule for the day to considering the works of God’s hands. At this point my spirit begins to rise above the stress and experiences the invigorating power of praising God. God is great even on Monday morning.
Thank you Lord for Psalm 8 on this Monday morning. O Lord, my Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You are great and awesome and I want to worship you today. - Dan Jones
A high risk GodGiving away power always involves risk. Creating humans just a smidge beneath himself and then giving them the freedom to use that power against him, that’s high risk. You might say God rolled the dice and us and it came up all sixes!
He placed the planet under our authority and we have filled it with disease and death. We have abused the planet itself and the creatures that roam it. We continue to meet out gross injustice; our morality has remained trapped in dark ages while our technology has catapulted us light years ahead of our ability to manage it.
How could David look out on his world, as full of disease as death as ours, thanks to the humanity his era produced, and declare that the majestic name of God fills the earth?
He could, and so can we, because dotting the corrupt landscape, if you look through eyes of faith, you will find children dancing. They most often dance in their own skin. But every once and a while you’ll find a child dancing with adult skin on.
Least powerful, most vulnerable, and nearly always dismissed, small children bring into the world an openness to those qualities that infuse the world with the majesty of God; faith, hope, and love. And some grown ups break through to experience these child-like qualities. When they do, the kingdom of God comes a little closer to the everyday world. And the majesty of God evidences itself a little more in this human ruled place.
Too often the majesty of God gets tarnished by grown ups acting, not child-like, but childish. They throw tantrums, act selfishly, and fight with the only difference being the scale of the devastation they wreck.
Trusting that we would embrace child-likeness and reject childishness, this is the risk God took in making us just a smidgen lower than himself.
Amazing God, I am reminded today of the power and potential you have given me to either bring your kingdom closer, and make your majesty clearer or to drive it further away and dull any remnants of your majestic creation. Help me to put away childish things and embrace child-like faith, hope, and love. - Mike Leamon
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