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
Today’s psalm begins and ends with our joining the psalmist in proclaiming the majesty of God’s name throughout the earth. Everything else written and said in this poem is within this sphere of praise, acknowledging God’s place in our lives and our world.
Within that sphere near the middle come two beautiful yet haunting questions: “What are human beings that you are mindful of them? Mortals that you care for them?” Even though the poem goes on to give an answer to these questions, they remain that: questions. A lifetime maybe spent in striving for an answer. And maybe that is the point. All of your life and mine is to be an answer to those questions. But always and everywhere, we are to ask these questions embedded in this praise of God’s majestic name.
Prayer
Creating God, what are we that you are mindful of us? As we live, let our whole lives be praise to you as you are mindful of us, sending those things we need to live and prosper. And where your creatures are lacking, empower us to share our abundance, that all may join in the song. Amen.