Psalm 8 (NRSV)
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Verse 1O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
Verse 2Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
Verse 3When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
Verse 4what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
Verse 5Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
Verse 6You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,
Verse 7all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
Verse 8the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
Verse 9O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Devotion
The psalmist stares into the night sky and feels extremely small. We’ve been there; we’ve looked up; we know this feeling. “When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou are mindful of him?” It is probably good to live with awareness that we are very tiny.
Prayer
O Lord , our Lord, thank you for caring for us in our smallness and insignificance, but never let your care confuse us about our true size and stature. Never let us think we are bigger or more significant than those around us lest we forget your example of caring for the little guys. Amen.