Psalm 8[a]
For the director of music. According to gittith.[b] A psalm of David.
1 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?[c]
5 You have made them[d] a little lower than the angels[e]
and crowned them[f] with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their[g] feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
To call someone ‘our Lord’ is a powerful thing. Before we even get to the ‘all the earth’ part of the phrase that begins and ends this psalm, we are confronted with the idea of familiarity. This psalmist knows that the Lord is the Lord of them and their people. What comfort that must have been through the joys and sorrows of life. To know God and to know that the God they served and who loved them was not just a minor local deity, but the God of the whole Earth. It’s this God who has made men and women ‘a little lower than the angels’ to rule, or to take care of, the Earth.
Having faith in the God whose name is majestic in all the earth doesn’t by any means give us a free pass to treat people, creation or anything else just as we want to. We are always to do our best to remember that God is, as well as majestic, holy, good and just. Holiness, Goodness, Justice. These are all qualities of a Christian person who is filled with the Spirit of God. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not claiming to be holier than thou or anything. I regularly stumble and slip and fall. What I am saying is that it is one thing to, rightly, recognise God’s goodness and holiness, to worship God and to be thankful. It is quite another to live our lives in response in such a way which we are making it clear that we believe these things.
Something To Do
How can you do good in such a way today as to show people that you love God? Not just with words but with actions.
Something To Pray
Pray that God would help you to understand more of just how good, kind and loving he is today.
