Psalm 8 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 8 on biblegateway.com
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
Low self esteem is in great supply in our culture. Our values are politicized and polarized. Our Facebook comments are challenged. We are certain others are always judging our appearance, our speaking style, our standard of living, our self-worth—and doing so negatively. And, too often, we let those judgments control our thoughts and set the value we place on ourselves.
The writer of this familiar psalm chooses and dares instead to reflect on our identities from God’s perspective. What does God think? Isn’t God’s opinion the one that really matters? And we don’t have to guess about this. It’s been a gift to find the Bible telling me how God values me:
“What are human beings that you are mindful of them?…crowned them with glory and honor [and] given them dominion over the works of your hands. (verses 4-6)
Prayer
Thank you, Creator of the Universe, for this good news, that you value us. Amen.