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
In 1870, Mark Twain wrote to his beloved, "How insignificant we are, with our pigmy little world! Does one apple in a vast orchard think as much of itself as we do?" Secularist author Susan Jacoby echoes Twain’s opinion by arguing that “the only real explanation for the persistence of religion is our inflated opinion of ourselves.”
Psalm 8 certainly seems to give weight to such pronouncements. In it, human beings are declared to be just a little lower than the angels, charged with dominion over all creation.
Yet the thrust of this psalm isn’t to proclaim humanity as the center of the universe, but to hold up how majestic and powerful God is. It is God who created the infinite stars, the intricate web of plants and animals that inhabit the Earth. It is God who holds all things in his hand. Our proper response should not be, “how great we are,” but “Lord, how great you are.”
Prayer
Lord, we are blessed to be your partners in caring for your creation. Help us to keep our egos in check and to lift our eyes to you as our creator, redeemer and sustainer. Amen.