Psalm 8

“O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

— Psalm 8

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My Two Cents….

Psalm 8 is my ‘go-to’ creation psalm. When I look at the sun setting into the ocean or gaze upon a snow capped mountain, this is my song. How majestic is your name O Lord in all the earth!

The psalm reminds me that creation is not just mountains and sunsets. It also includes the creatures, big and small, that live on land, sea, and in the air. AND, creation includes people, too!

I can forget this last part when I get caught up in the wonder of the natural world. When I’m on a hike through nature, it doesn’t take much to remind me of God’s splendor. I have a harder time sometimes when I’m in the midst of an argument, or I’m frustrated with someone else. God’s majesty in traffic? Where is God’s glory in those who hate or exclude?

How can it be that people were created just a ‘little lower’ than God? Something is amiss. Somehow we are missing out on our potential.

We can go two ways with this observation. The first is to fall into despair. It doesn’t take much effort to amass evidence that the human creature (ourselves painfully included) is not living as God hoped it would. We have tortured, broken, abused, and destroyed the creation (including its human and non-human creatures) that belongs to God. Our track record is not so good. Based on past performance, the future doesn’t look so bright.

The second is to rise up and the destructive cycles of the past. We begin with being inspired by the beauty and wonder of creation and a recognition that it ALL belongs to God. In our short span of years, we are only stewards/caretakers. Land. Sea. Air. People. What would happen if each of us used the opportunity that our living affords us this week to make a small difference in our small part of creation? What if we saw the glory through new eyes and heart? What if we worked for the good of the whole? What if we sought to live up to our creaturely potential?

In Christ’s Light,

Walt

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 Permission granted to share today's content with family and friends.  Copyrighted 2019. Walt Lichtenberger